Posted on 06/24/2002 5:59:36 PM PDT by gcruse
Humanity's 'footprint' bigger than Earth
Published 6/24/2002 6:48 PM
OAKLAND, Calif., June 24 (UPI) -- Humanity's use of Earth's resources has exceeded the planet's capacity
since the 1980s, researchers conclude in a new study released Monday.
The study, which examines resource use from 1961 to 1999, employed a relatively simple calculation.
Researchers added up the total area globally available for growing crops, grazing animals, harvesting
timber, accommodating infrastructure, absorbing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels and marine
fishing. Then they calculated the human demand for each activity and compared it to the total resource
available.
Mathis Wackernagel, the lead researcher, who also is program director at Redefining Progress, a think-tank
in Oakland, cited the calculation for corn. "You ask, 'How much corn is being consumed in the world?
What's the average yield (per acre) for corn? What is the space requirement to produce the corn (for human
use)?' That's the human footprint for corn," Wackernagel told United Press International.
Wackernagel and his team performed many such calculations, tallying up the results to obtain an overall
human footprint.
In 1961, the footprint totaled about 70 percent of Earth's productive capacity. But as population and demand
for resources increased during the 1980s, he said, humanity's demands began to exceed the planet's ability
to meet them. By 1999, the human footprint grew 25 percent larger than Earth's capacity.
Put another way, Earth would require a year and three months to renew the resources used by humanity in
a single year.
Wackernagel cautioned the model is not a perfect one and probably underestimates human impact. The
research team left out several factors for which there were no reliable data. For example, they could not
calculate how much acid rain might lower environmental productivity because its effect varies greatly with
local conditions, making it difficult to assess accurately.
The intent, Wackernagel said, was to provide a benchmark policymakers can begin to use when assessing
natural resource use. He compared it to a budget for a business. "Just as a business needs accounts to
protect its assets, to assure that they don't spend more than they earn, we need ecological accounts to tell
how much (of our resources) we use compared to how much we have. If we don't do it, we'll go into an
ecological depression. This isn't about humanity going extinct, but it will be a very uncomfortable transition,"
he said.
To be realistic however, such measures need to consider the impact of new technology, John Tobin, adjunct
professor of energy economics at the Colorado School of Mines, in Golden, told UPI. New technology could
change available productivity dramatically, making it difficult to project the relationship between human
demand and Earth's resources very far into the future. "A century ago, who would have ever imagined we
would have nuclear power?" asked Tobin, who is also executive director of the Energy Literacy Project, of
Evergreen, Colo., which seeks to educate the public about energy issues.
The key question, said Michael Glantz, senior social scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colo., is how to reduce the human footprint. In part, he said, the answer lies in
working more closely with local environments.
"A lot of technological development has been an attempt to beat the climactic system. Air conditioning is
an attempt to beat the tropics and replace it with a climate like North America's." Solar energy and local
energy production are also key ingredients to sustainability, Glantz told UPI.
Wackernagel said he hopes his team's estimate will be a jumping off point to further discussions. Many
steps can be taken to move toward sustainability, he said. "I don't say that it will be easy, because if you
look at the budget processes of government, it is ugly. But that is because it is meaningful. It is a
conversation we need to have."
The research was reported in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
(Reported by Jim Kling, UPI Science News, in Washington)
I'm on a waiting list for toilet paper and it's really making me mad. Maybe someone can start a nuclear war or something.
Sorry. Toilet paper is wiped out.
Earth to researchers hello I have these things called humans on top of me and they have this infinite resource called intelligence.Do not underestimate them.
Earth out
It appears the Malthusians are still alive and well. Wonder if they've been hiding out at Flat Earth Society Headquarters?
To avoid a surplus (of democratic votes).
So we are borrowing 25% of the world's food from ... whom? Talk about a trade deficit!
I guess that explains the famine we've been experiencing. But what explains all the news stories about the "epidemic" of obesity we're supposed to be suffering from?
It is like the apocalyptic scenarios that
are continously disproved but never go away.
We want doom and will predict it until we
get it.
If they didn't come from this earth, then where did they come from?
Zimbabwe et al may be doing us a great favor
by altering the demand/supply ratio.
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