[PEN-L:27372] Fw: Ecological Footprint Paper Published in Scientific Journal

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

[From the Ecological Society of America listserve]


----- Original Message -----
From: "Karen Claxon" <kclaxon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ECOLOG-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 3:23 PM
Subject: Fw: Ecological Footprint Paper Published in Scientific
Journal


> Ecological Footprint Paper Published in Scientific Journal
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Redefining Progress
> To: kclaxon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 5:45 PM
> Subject: Ecological Footprint Paper Published in Scientific
Journal
>
>
>
> Redefining Progress Media Release
> HUMANITY'S RESOURCE DEMAND EXCEEDS THE EARTH'S CAPACITY
> PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES PAPER PUBLISHED
ON-LINE
> TODAY
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
> DATE: June 27, 2002
> CONTACT:
> Craig Cheslog (Redefining Progress: 510-444-3041, ext. 305)
> communications@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> www.RedefiningProgress.org
>
>
>
> For more information about this paper, including links to media
coverage
> of its release, please click here.
>
>
>
> OAKLAND, Calif.-Humanity's use of natural resources, or
Ecological
> Footprint, has exceeded the regenerative capacity of the Earth
since the
> 1980s. The finding is outlined in a paper published on-line
today for
> the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(PNAS).
> Redefining Progress Sustainability Program Director Mathis
Wackernagel
> is the lead author of the paper, "Tracking the ecological
overshoot of
> the human economy." He and his colleagues reached their
conclusion by
> comparing humanity's demand on the environment to the earth's
supply of
> bioproductive areas over the past 40 years.
> People may click here to purchase and download the paper from
the PNAS
> web site.
> "Sustainability requires living with the regenerative capacity
of the
> biosphere," write Wackernagel and his colleagues. "In an attempt
to
> measure the extent to which humanity satisfies this requirement,
we use
> existing data to translate human demand on the environment into
the area
> required for the production of food and other goods, together
with the
> absorption of wastes."
> The researchers assessed the total area globally available for
growing
> crops, grazing animals, harvesting timber, accommodating
infrastructure,
> marine fishing, and absorbing carbon dioxide produced by burning
fossil
> fuels. They then calculated how much area would be required to
> sustainably meet human demand for these various activities.
> According to this analysis, human demand (or Ecological
Footprint) in
> 1961 was about 70 percent of the Earth's regenerative capacity.
By the
> 1980s demand had risen to match total global supply, and by 1999
demand
> exceeded supply by at least twenty percent. It takes the
biosphere,
> therefore, at least a year and three months to renew what
humanity uses
> in a single year.
> Other authors of the paper include: Niels B. Schulz of the
Institute of
> Interdisciplinary Studies of Austrian Universities; Diana
Deumling and
> Chad Monfreda of Redefining Progress; Alejandro Callejas Linares
of the
> Centro de Estudios para la Sustentablilidad; Martin Jenkins and
Valerie
> Kapos of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre; Jonathan Loh
of WWF
> International; Norman Myers of Green College, Oxford University;
Richard
> Norgaard of the Energy and Resources Group, University of
California,
> Berkeley; and Jorgen Randers of the Norwegian School of
Management.
> Redefining Progress is a nonpartisan public policy organization
that
> creates policies and tools to encourage accurate market prices,
preserve
> our common assets, and foster social and economic
sustainability.
> ###
>
>
>
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