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12 Biodiversity and Sustainability Communication 133

Table 12.1 Demand for Water use (in l) for production of 1 kg of
water in plant and animal Potatoes 500
production (Source:
Pimentel et al. 1997) Wheat 900
Alfalfa 900
Sorghum 1,100
Corn 1,400
Rice 1,910
Soya beans 2,000
Poultry 3,500
Beef 100,000

by the use of hybrid varieties, even though this is known to increase their vulnerabil-
ity, for example to pathogens. As a result classic plant cultivation involves breeding
disease-resistant varieties. This resistance is however often quickly broken down. A
race against time evolves that leads to a lack of genetic variability both within a
given variety of plant (homogeneity) and between different varieties (relatedness)
(FAO 1996).

Biodiversity and Consumption

The relationship between biodiversity and consumption does not need to be reduced to
food – although this would involve the greatest opportunities to move consumers
towards a more sustainable lifestyle and preserve biodiversity. In industrial countries
production, processing and marketing often use as much as ten times the energy as the
product itself contains (EEA 2009: 34ff.).
Against a background of striving to achieve greater distributive justice, it is
evident that the world population cannot be fed using the current standards of food
production in industrial countries. Especially the production of meat wastes precious
resources, as can be seen in the demand for both energy and water (Table 12.1).

Biodiversity and Climate Change

Such unsustainable production and consumption patterns contribute to climate
change, which is one of the most important factors leading to the loss of biological
diversity (MA 2005: 9). Neither of these global phenomena can be analysed sepa-
rately. The effects of climate change expected to occur in Europe will most probably
take the form of losses in biodiversity. A decrease in the area of agricultural land and
Mediterranean wooded areas is to be feared as is a dramatic reduction in wetlands,
which play a critical role as CO2 sinks (EEA 2010a). Surprisingly, negative impacts
from climate-related increases in temperature on species populations are forecast not
only for temperate zones but also for tropical regions (Wright et al. 2009).