How many planets do we need?
According to the WWF 2006 Living Planet Report we’ll need two if we continue at our current level of resource striping (5 planets if every country’s footprint was as big as America’s–Canada is not far behind so don’t get too smug).
The Living Planet Report started in 1998 and outlines the state of the natural work and the impact of human activity upon the planet.
It’s not good news.
Humans (especially North Americans) are using the planet’s resources faster than they can be renewed. Our total footprint now exceeds the world’s ability to regenerate by about 25 percent.
We are drying the dishes faster than we can wash them.
It’s reports like the Living Planet Report that makes the Conservative Clean Air Act all the more laughable. By 2050, if we continue on our current trajectory with optimistic projections for moderate population increases, food and fibre consumption and CO2 emissions, we will be demanding resources at double the rate at which the Earth can generate them.
We tend to get stuck on the economical “incentives” for carrying on with the current state of affairs, for doing more studies, for basically doing nothing. What is the financial cost of overshooting by 50%, 100%, 150%?
Not up for a big read, take the One Tonne Challenge. Oh wait, the Conservative government scraped that.
Here’s an old site, but still useful for hints: OneLessTonne.ca.
Or read George Monbiot’s book HEAT: How to Stop the Planet From Burning.
I just got this book, but the jacket flap tells me that Monbiot “demonstrates that we can achieve the necessary cut–a 90% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030–without bringing civilizations to an end.”
Who’s up for sustaining life on Earth?
Random House Canada sent me HEAT, along with 10 tips from George.
10 Tips for How to Stop the Planet from Burning:
1. Cut your flights. Nothing else you do causes so much climate change in so short a time.
2. Think hard before you pick up your car keys. On average, 40% of the journeys made by car could be made by other means — on foot, by bicycle or on public transport.
3. Organize a “walking bus” to take children to school.
4. Ask your boss to devise a “workplace travel plan” that rewards people for leaving their cars at home.
5. Switch over to a supplier of renewable electricity. You don’t have to erect your own wind turbine, but you can buy your power from someone who has. (How do you do this????)
6. Ask a builder to give you an estimate for bringing your home up to R2000 standards.
7. Ditch your air conditioner.
8. Turn down your thermostat: 18 degrees is as warm as your house ever needs to be. You just have to get used to it. (It’s true. James has been freezing me for years, but now I’m used to it and often feel too hot in other people’s houses. Although I also prepared for their homes to be Arctic fresh.)
9. Make sure every bulb in your house is a compact fluorescent or LED.
10. Do not buy a plasma TV: they use 5 times as much energy as other models. (Is this plasma computer screens too?)
Want more? Lots of articles on www.monbiot.com.