The Planet Has Been Taken

5% remains for humans to find a use for

On a 1 km2 grid, the human footprint, excluding Antarctica, now covers 95 percent of the land surface, meaning that as seen from satellite height, only 5 percent (e.g. most of Greenland) appears untouched. Houston: the planet has been taken.

Concerning the Growth’s Mandate of the Industrial Revolution, including the post WWII Great Acceleration on up to the enthusiastic early 21st century growth in India and China who are consuming over half of planetary coal production to stock shelves at the Walmart, etc. near you, “Whatever way you see it, the truth is that humans were merely innocent agents who did not realize that they were catalyzing a strongly positive feedback process that would grow exponentially until much of the easily available fuel had been consumed, and that is were we are now.” — James Lovelock, A Rough Ride to the Future, 2014

“If society does not succeed in changing attitudes and institutions for a harmonious descent, the alternative is to prepare information packages for the contingency of restart after crashing.” — H.T. Odum

“What is the general answer? Eject economic expansionism, stop growth, use available energies for cultural conversion to steady state, seek out the condition now that will come anyway, but by our service be our biosphere’s handmaiden anew.” — Howard T. Odum, Energy, Ecology, & Economics, 1973

Originally published: Existential Concerns for Posterity and the Biosphere