What we published. The About page stated that the International Resource Panel attributes “roughly half of global greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress, to resource extraction and processing.”
What is correct. Both figures came from the IRP’s 2019 framing, which its Global Resources Outlook 2024 supersedes. The 2024 edition attributes more than 60% of planet-warming emissions to resource extraction and processing. The 90% figure applies only to biomass — agriculture and forestry — and only to land-related biodiversity loss and water stress, not to resource extraction as a whole.
Why it mattered. The emissions figure was merely out of date. The biodiversity figure was a genuine misattribution: applying a biomass-specific statistic to all extraction overstated it substantially. On a site whose stated standard is sourced accuracy, that is the more serious of the two.
How it was caught. While fact-checking figures for a subsequent article, rather than by a reader. The error had been live for several hours.
Corrected on 7 October 2026. The page now cites the 2024 edition and scopes the biomass figure correctly.