人类对地球自然资源的利用状况反映人类社会的可持续发展状况，要定量反映人类的可持续发展状况，就需要定量评价人类对地球自然资源的利用状况。世界自然基金会（WWF）等机构每2年发布一次的《生命行星报告》是世界上有影响的对人类对地球自然资源利用状况的定量评价分析研究报告。《生命行星报告2004》运用全球足迹网络（Global Footprint Network）提供的新的科学分析方法比较了世界上150个国家的生态足迹；以更加复杂的数据和分析、更加详细的时间趋势，测算了全球生物多样性的状况。报告肯定，地球的生态超载已经成为一个现实，人类目前消费的自然资源超过地球生产能力的20%，即人类目前使用着1.2个地球，导致了生物多样性的快速减少。

The status of the sustainable development of human society can be reflected by the status of humanity’s consumption of the natural resources of the Earth the planet. To describe quantitatively the progress of the sustainable development of human society, we must to measure the status of humanity's consumption of the natural resources of the planet. The Living Planet Report issued by World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF) every two years is one of the very effective reports in the world.The Living Planet Report 2004 uses new scientific analysis, provided by Global Footprint Network, to compare the Ecological Footprint of 150 nations. The 2004 report includes more sophisticated data and analysis, more detailed time trends and more robust results than the former reports. It conforms that ecological overshoot has become a reality: humanity is now consuming over 20% more natural resource than the earth can produce, causing rapid declines in wild animal population.Designed to track humanity's demand on the Earth, the 2004 report illustrates how human consumption and production pressures continue to strain ecosystem health. It also applies Ecological Footprint analysis to highlight ways to reverse these trends and become less depend on liquidating the planet’s resources.