I'm kind of looking for something that says "if we continue to use oil at x barrels per day, we'll be out of all known reserves in y days", or of a similar line, say, "if we continue to cut forests at x and produce CO2 at y, then in z years, the environment will not be able to recover"...

any thoughts?

thanks

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Answers

David,

That'll be a pointed research project. Sounds VERY worthwhile to uncover. I need to get to work today... on a sustainable project... but I'll put that on my "To iResearch List."

Nudge me now and then please, to focus on it.

Thanks.

Diane

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

It's never going to be that simple. Too many interacting variables. Too many unknowns. Too many assumptions needed. The big picture is clear -- if we keep messing up, eventually we won't have a place fit to live in. But the details...!

I found a nice little footnote in an article called "Earth Day Report Card," accessible on Interface Ecology Home:

"A thoughtful study of global human carrying capacity was released in early 1994 by David Pimentel, a professor of biology at Cornell University. The good news, as Professor Pimentel calculates it, is that if the most benign and efficient technologies were universally embraced, the world could permanently support a human population of two billion people at a lifestyle that resembles middle-class life in todays Europe. The bad news is that the worlds population passed the six billion markthree times that carrying capacityin October, 1999."

(Free registration is required to access this .pdf file.)

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2000