Data Shows All of Earth's Systems in Rapid Decline

GliderGuider

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Sun Jul-31-11 04:21 PM
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Data Shows All of Earth's Systems in Rapid Decline

Edited on Sun Jul-31-11 04:24 PM by GliderGuider

Data Shows All of Earth's Systems in Rapid Decline

Protecting bits of nature here and there will not prevent humanity from losing our life support system. Even if areas dedicated to conserving plants, animals, and other species that provide Earth's life support system increased tenfold, it would not be enough without dealing with the big issues of the 21st century: population, overconsumption and inefficient resource use. Without dealing with those big issues, humanity will need 27 planet Earths by 2050, a new study estimates.

"Ongoing biodiversity loss and its consequences for humanity's welfare are of great concern and have prompted strong calls for expanding the use of protected areas as a remedy," said co-author Peter Sale, a marine biologist and assistant director of the United Nations University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health. "Protected areas are a false hope in terms of preventing the loss of biodiversity," Sale told IPS. When asked about the 2010 global biodiversity protection agreement in Nagoya, Japan to put 17 percent of land and 10 percent of oceans on the planet under protection by 2020, Sale said it was "very unlikely those targets will be reached" due to conflicts between growing needs for food and other resources.

The world population, currently at seven billion, is well beyond Earth's ability to sustain. By 2050, with a projected population of 10 billion people and without a change in consumption patterns, the cumulative use of natural resources will amount to the productivity of up to 27 planet Earths, the study found. Sustaining the current seven billion people on the planet requires a major shift in resource use. At present, the average U.S. citizen's ecological footprint is about 10 hectares, while a Haitian's is less than one. The planet could sustain us if everyone's footprint averaged two ha, Mora said.

"The awareness of the public about this is shockingly low," he noted. What is needed is for humanity as a mass to change direction, he said. "But can we find the hook, the lever that's needed to make that happen?" Sale asked.

Our civilization needs to solve one equation with three unknowns in order to stay in business. The unknowns are: our numbers, our material standard of living, and our sustainable coexistance with the natural world.

If we take the third term (sustainable coexistence) as an absolute requirement, we are left with a variety of solutions for the product of (population X standard of living). The product of that multiplication needs to come down by one-third from its current value, and then stay there forever.

Our failure to accomplish that result will mean that the third term in the equation of human civilization (coexistence with the natural world) will eventually drop to zero.