"The year 1978" says author Jim Merkel, "was a special year in both Earth's history and human history, and it passed without notice. It was the year humans claimed the entire sustainable yield of Earth." Since that time, the stakes have only risen. Humanity now gobbles up some 20 percent more than of the earth's bioproductivity. "Why, then, hasn't the system begun to collapse?" you ask.
The short answer is that it is, although the word collapse is a bit misleading. Over the last century, wars have claimed 175 million lives; and most, if not all, of those wars were fought to eliminate other humans, gain control land and resources, or maintain geopolitical and economic security. A third of the world's children suffer from malnutrition, of which tens of thousands die everyday, while, in the same amount of time, an estimated 100 to 1000 species vanish from the face of the planet. These are just a few symptoms of ecological collapse.
In order to talk about sustainability, says Merkel, we have to talk about ecological footprints. Your ecological footprint is the amount of bioproductive land and sea area in continuous production to supply all you use and to absorb all you waste. Global sustainability, then, is a combined ecological footprint of humanity that does not tax earth faster than it can regenerate. When humanity takes from the earth faster than it can replenish, things breakdown: fisheries collapse, soils erode, species vanish, aquifers run dry, etc. - things you might read about on page A-14 of the newspaper everyday.
"But how would I know if I am taking too much?" you ask. Ecological foot printing, says Merkel, is the best way to take the guesswork out of sustainability. "It allows us to measure our progress." But then, what is progress? To some, paving over the entire world and covering it with skyscrapers, channeling every brook and stream to flow through culverts, and relying on large multinational corporations to synthesize our food from genetically-modified seeds sounds appealing, perhaps even sustainable. To others, sustainability entails reverting to something like the Stone Age and hunting in the forest with blunt instruments for wild game.
Acknowledging a diversity of perspectives, Merkel merely asks us discover and then live according to our personal values. "What is your worldview?" he asks. The bottom line is that "there are 28.2 billion acres of bioproductive land on Earth - the total surface area minus the deep oceans, deserts, icecaps and built-up land. When divided between six billion people, each person gets a 4.7-acre share" - and no more. But this figure assumes humanity utilizes all of the earth for itself. So a better question would be, 'How much of my 4.7-acre share do I want to use for myself and how much do I want to leave for other life forms?'
After quizzing you about your preferred tax on the planet, desired world population, and level of equity with other human and nonhuman inhabitants, he then shows you how many acres of land you can utilize while keeping in line with your values. This is your "sustainability goal." For example, my desired sustainability goal was based on a two-child family and absolute equity among humans, leaving 90% of the earth as untouched wilderness, and leaving me personally with a mere 1.45794 acres. Radical simplicity, indeed! It looks like I'll have to ditch a kid or two.
The point, which should not be lost in the math, is to gain an objective picture of our individual impact on the biosphere. Once we have that, we can start simplifying our life - and, as it turns out, living 'closer to the bone' is a lot more carefree and fun than, say, the daily corporate grind. Merkel himself is an example of this. Although he has managed to live on an budget of merely 5,000 dollars a year - to avoid supporting the military industrial complex via taxation - for the last 20 years, his life has been full of adventure, relaxation, and a certain joy de vivre many of us have never known.
Along with the charts, mathematical formulas and statistics, this book is peppered with interesting anecdotes about those twenty years spent visiting indigenous cultures, biking foreign countries and backpacking in the woods. An amazing man, with a radical vision of environmental responsibility, Merkel is also living proof of just how enjoyable and fulfilling `simple living' can be.
j.w.k.
