Long criticized for its environmental record, Qatar has now earned a new dubious distinction – as having the world’s largest ecological footprint, a new report issued by the World Wildlife Fund has found.

The country, which will host the UN Climate Summit this year, has put the biggest demand on the earth’s ecological systems per capita, despite its inability to regenerate resources, the Living Planet Report 2012 said.

According to the report, Qatar’s ecological footprint totaled 11.64 gha, representing the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to supply the resources consumed by the population and absorb the waste it produces.

The country was closely followed by Kuwait and the UAE, which had footprints of 9.68 gha and 8.4 gha, respectively.

Arabian Business reports:

“We are living as if we have an extra planet at our disposal,” said Jim Leape, director general of WWF International.

“We are using 50 percent more resources that the earth can sustainably produce and unless we change course, that number will grow fast – by 2030, even two planets will not be enough.”

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Wosom