One thing we’ve learned in the last hundred years is that the Planet Earth isn’t all that big really. Especially with all these people now living on it, all of them wanting new homes, cars, fridges and clothes. Which means its resources of things like water, clean air, minerals and all the other things which those people need are truly, terrifyingly finite. It’s time to make a serious, rational estimate of how much there is left, and how long it will last.
Nature explains how a multidisciplinary team called the Earth Commission are doing just that.[1] Who they are and how they’re doing it you will find by clicking our link below. Their own summary is pretty good though
Researchers must help to define science-based targets for water, nutrients, carbon emissions and more to avoid cascading effects and stave off tipping points in Earth’s systems.
About time too, we say. Wise parents send teenagers off to their first summer camp with a limited budget; they soon learn how long money lasts. We have to do the same with things like fish stocks. river systems and forests. (Could someone quickly send Bolsonaro on a summer camp, please?) What these scientists are really saying is that we need planetary budgets: not monetary, but rather based on resources. Which in turn raises an intriguing thought: would not a world budget work better if there were a world government to run it?
PS- Do click on the link- the picture for the article is truly nauseating
#resources #environment #ecology #earth #bolsonaro # finite #conservation
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