Humanity gobbles a quarter of nature's resources


	Humanity gobbles a quarter of nature's resources

wildcat

7-3-2007 9:14 AM

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tags:

science, humanity, environment, earth, resources, nature

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7-5-2007 1:00 PM

monalisa

How can any such calculation be right what about- uncertainty principle

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/032e146c-18c5-43d8-995c-ab6bb8d29418/75D14775-3C88-4490-AAAB-405B2C03D437/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html" href="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html" style="font-size: 11px;">environment.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html"><P>Almost a quarter of nature’s resources are now being gobbled up by a single species – humans.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html"><P>People appropriate 24% of the Earth’s production capacity that would otherwise have gone to nature, according to figures for the year 2000, the most recent available.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html"><P>The analysis was performed by Helmut Haberl, of Klagenfurt University in Vienna, Austria, and colleagues using UN Food and Agriculture Organisation data on agricultural land use in 161 countries, covering 97.4% of the planet's land surface.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html"><P>The result is a gradual depletion of species and habitats as we take more of their resources for ourselves. And things could get even worse, they say, if we grow more plants like palm oil and rapeseed for biofuels to ease our reliance on fossil fuels.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html"><H5>Up in smoke</H5></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html"><P>By comparing carbon consumption through human activity with the amount of carbon consumed overall, Haberl’s team found that humans use 15.6 trillion kilograms of carbon annually.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html"><H5>Dramatic implications</H5></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/75D14775-3C88-4490-AAAB-405B2C03D437/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>