"Earths" used by humanity: The ecological overshoot of the economy .

[NNadir]

I came across this online Proceedings of the National Academy of Science paper from today:

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/99/14/9266

"Sustainability requires living within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere. In an attempt to measure the extent to which humanity satisfies this requirement, we use existing data to translate human demand on the environment into the area required for the production of food and other goods, together with the absorption of wastes. Our accounts indicate that human demand may well have exceeded the biosphere's regenerative capacity since the 1980s. According to this preliminary and exploratory assessment, humanity's load corresponded to 70% of the capacity of the global biosphere in 1961, and grew to 120% in 1999...

...In other words, 20% overshoot means that it would require 1.2 earths, or one earth for 1.2 years, to regenerate what humanity used in 1999. (Fig. 1 shows the overall results. Fig. 2 provides a breakdown of the overall increase according to the various land and sea use categories.)"

Not really surprising, but terrifying all the same.

[Lasher]

1. Earth Resources

Everyone wants to enjoy a standard of living equal to that currently enjoyed by the average American. If all humans were to realize this dream, it would require the resources of three earths. I read this in National Geographic a few months ago.

As we continue to pursue globalization of our economies, inhabitants of other countries like China and India are seeing their living standards improve. Correspondingly, ours is destined to plummet. On this course, there is no avoiding it.

NAFTA, CAFTA, etc. are not in the best interests of the vast majority of American citizens. Wide open borders are encouraged by corporate America, so they can get cheap labor. Consequently, we are a dumping ground for illegal immigrants of other nations that provide little hope from their own failed economies, and no controls on their runaway population growth.

[BeFree]

3. Can't argue with you on that, Lasher

But the fact is, America alone would need about ten earths to be sustainable.

Americans have long lived high on the hog, but the bbq pit is heating up. KnowhatImean?

[ochazuke]

2. Make that 2.2 earths

Screw you guys. I want my OWN earth.

[IrateCitizen]

4. I've read that it would take 5 earths for "the American way of life"...

... for everyone on the planet.

But such statistics, while good for helping to highlight the problem don't really get to the heart of the matter.

The recent UN millenial working group report (over 1300 scientists from some 95 countries, compiled over 4 years) determined that we have effectively used up some 60% of our ecological principle (arable soil, fresh water supplies, clean air, healthy forests, etc.). Forget about depleting fossil fuel supplies -- without clean water and arable soil we simply cannot survive. The Great Plains currently have about 1/2 of the topsoil they did when the first European-descended settlers arrived, and more is being lost to erosion every year. Couple that with the fact that underground aquifers are being depleted much, much faster than they can be replenished.

When the topsoil and irrigation water are gone, how in the hell are we going to feed ourselves???

[phantom power]

5. I took that survey, and came up with 5 earths for my lifestyle.

It confirmed my suspicion that the only reason we "support" 6.5 billion people is because most of them live in what I would consider to be abject poverty.

It also confirmed my other guess that the earth could reasonably support about a billion people at something like my standard of living.