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Human uses of Earth's Resources
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Today, I read, "
humans
appropriate approximately 20% of the global terrestrial net primary production for food, fiber and
wood
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." That's pretty scary! Let me explain what that means. "Humans use about 20% of everything that grows on the earth, for food and for other stuff." That means if our population increased by only five times, we would use 100% of the earth's land resources. To put it another way, if we keep growing at the rate we did in the last 100 years, we will max out the planet's resources in the next 100 years. Scary!
Yeah, growth rates are declining. But that's like saying the U. S. is importing less oil from overseas. The basic underlying problem still exists. We have too many people for too little planet and we're changing the way the planet looks. I tried, and to some extent, failed to do my part. I intentionally stopped at two children, but should have stopped at one or none. As my mom said of her nine, "I love them all" (bear in mind she was born in 1919), but if I had really wanted to contribute I would have had fewer. The result? Well, "two" is replacement level for a marriage (two people replace themselves with two more people. At the grandparent level, "four" is the replacement level since each person has four grandparents which could be replaced by four grandchildren. Currently (despite the fact I have no control over it at this point), I have four biological grandchildren (all four come from the same child). The problem. It is still certainly possible I could end up with more biological grandchildren (if my children's lives go as they have planned).
If I had chosen to have no children, that would have been better for the planet. That is not a lifestyle for everyone. But if I had life to live over again, I'd seriously consider it. We can't use 200 or 400% of the planet's resources. We'd do best to try to keep the number well under 100% and leave some resources for birds, bears, bugs, and grasshoppers.
Yeah, growth rates are declining. But that's like saying the U. S. is importing less oil from overseas. The basic underlying problem still exists. We have too many people for too little planet and we're changing the way the planet looks. I tried, and to some extent, failed to do my part. I intentionally stopped at two children, but should have stopped at one or none. As my mom said of her nine, "I love them all" (bear in mind she was born in 1919), but if I had really wanted to contribute I would have had fewer. The result? Well, "two" is replacement level for a marriage (two people replace themselves with two more people. At the grandparent level, "four" is the replacement level since each person has four grandparents which could be replaced by four grandchildren. Currently (despite the fact I have no control over it at this point), I have four biological grandchildren (all four come from the same child). The problem. It is still certainly possible I could end up with more biological grandchildren (if my children's lives go as they have planned).
If I had chosen to have no children, that would have been better for the planet. That is not a lifestyle for everyone. But if I had life to live over again, I'd seriously consider it. We can't use 200 or 400% of the planet's resources. We'd do best to try to keep the number well under 100% and leave some resources for birds, bears, bugs, and grasshoppers.
