5.4 Earths!? Environmental footprint calculator results

[Williamsmith]

We will continue to exploit? The Earth will be fine? The development of the human did fine when it lived cooperatively with nature, with no exploitation. The natural world does not have to be collateral damage in the quest for the next "big step for mankind"

I agree with self-development, I agree in development and growth, but not growth for the sake of growth, and not growth that "exploits"--in fact, Williamsmith, I'm so surprised you said this, that I'd like to ask you for some elaboration. With your background and love for nature, I'm sure I'm not reading you correctly.

We did not create the world. We have inherited a world that had already grown to such prolific diversity and beauty before we even got here. It's a true miracle. And what has happened over the past 150 years with our technology--our exploitation? The world has given to us, and it's not wise to just take from it. We are poisoning soils, so that arable land becomes desert, we are poisoning plants and destroying habitats, killing off species at record speeds. The balance of nature is out of whack. This is not our planet to mess up and throw in the recycling basket while we go find another.

I am not against new ideas and creative use of our hearts and brains. Pushing the human race into the future can mean new strides in many things--creative ways to live in peace and prosperity--creative ways to stem the consequences of human greed. It doesn't have to mean exploitation.

The word "exploit" has gotten a bad name. Of course, it is often thought of as abusive. But there is a proper use for it when it means to use to its fullest benefit. Don't worry for the Earth. The Earth has been around a long time and will continue.....perhaps with many more Walmart bags floating in the seas but it will continue. However, Mankind.......is threatened.

Humankind threatens itself. But also has the capacity to right wrongs. I see the future brightly. It is in our dreaming. I am not an animist but I don't have to be to be a good conservationist. What I conserve today is undone by the waste of my neighbor. Yet, it is worthy of me to try.

Peace and and prosperity has always been a football tossed around by the corporate political controlling parties. Always their idea of peace and their prosperity at the cost of the rest of the population.

i do not see the world coming together in one wonderful choreographed hand holding circle. I change only what I can and that is what is in me. The others are ......the others.

[catherine]

Just found this article and it is very much in sync with my beliefs regarding human behavior vs. overpopulation. I realize I'm preaching to the choir here. If they multiplied our group a billion times--as different as we are, with only a desire for simple living to define us--oh, what a wonderful world it would be!

What if we used all of our manpower, creativity and intelligence for the betterment of all life instead of using it solely to empower the few at the top? What if we united forces not for war and destruction, but for peace and creation? What if we instead used this same potential to create sustainable technologies, beneficial products and harmonious systems that would allow humanity and the earth to thrive? Imagine if we united as a people, stopped complying and created a more beautiful world—not because of some piece of paper we would get in return but, because it only makes sense.

[kib]

I have mixed feelings about that article, Catherine. I absolutely love the paragraph you quoted. My skepticism comes from the idea that "what we can do" with the planet starts with humans and then extends to other life forms. As in, "we still have habitat for 150 Bengal tigers even after we take what we need." (I'm not quoting the article, just giving an example of a humans-first mindset.) But who knows whether the interactive life web of earth requires 150 Bengal tigers, or 15000. The living planet is not a zoo, these other creatures, in balance, all have a role in the functioning of the whole. The number isn't totally static, but it's not totally arbitrary, either. I wish we had a better understanding of how everything else fits together before proclaiming that there's plenty, Plenty! for billions and billions and exponentially increasing billions of humans.

[JaneV2.0]

I'm admittedly no expert, but I doubt the population is going to increase substantially. I believe it will peak at a billion or so more than we have now, then decline as nations develop. I would definitely like to see more tigers, fewer people though.