Earth Systems Science Human Population Overview

1972 Time Magazine Cover Carrying Capacity: the number of individuals that a stable environment can support.

Population and Technology have a global impact. Does our current direction of population growth and growing demands on the planet seem sustainable?

Human Footprint Definition: the anthropogenic (human induced) changes on Earth. Changes to our atmosphere, oceans, forests, rivers and so on.

Human Population Explosion The human population of Earth is growing more rapidly than at any time in Earth’s history. Humans are rapidly destroying many of Earth’s natural resources. Can this population growth rate go on forever without affecting the health of Earth? Click on the link below to view a population growth animation. Click on # 9 in the Table of Contents. Then, scroll down to the real-time population growth map and watch it change over the years.

Feedback Mechanism A process by which a system regulates itself. The end result may be getting back to the original equilibrium or creating a new equilibrium. Example: As the population of a species increases and stresses the food supply, there may be a massive die-off of animals, or females may stop reproducing for awhile until the food supply can support the population again.

The Human Condition From rags to riches: “Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.” The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen. The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods. “The lives of 1.7 million children will be needlessly lost this year [2000] because world governments have failed to reduce poverty levels”

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Who’s Problem?

Expensive? By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The fiscal impact of Hurricane Katrina, the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history, shows no sign of ending. Congress has already approved $122 billion in spending, and is now paving the way for Gulf Coast states to get billions more. As much as $20 billion for coastal restoration could come from offshore-drilling royalties in the next few decades. Louisiana has been seeking $14 billion for that purpose.

Cost: TSUNAMI IMPACT Casualties: Dead: 130,406, missing 36,836, displaced 504,518 Overall Damage: The 26 December earthquake and tsunami caused heavy loss of life and great destruction in Aceh, and were followed by another strong earthquake in March near Nias island. Total damage from the tsunami is estimated at $4.5 billion-$5 billion - almost equal to the entire GDP of Aceh - according to a damage assessment prepared and released by the Indonesian Government, World Bank, ADB, and other development partners in January.

What is our Ecological Footprint? Ecological Footprint: calculates the land needed to provide the resources we consume and to take care of the wastes we create, indefinitely into the future. Our ecological footprint allows us to measure the load we place on the environment.

Ecological Footprint cont. Because the planet only has 12 billion hectares of bio-productive land and there are now more than 6 billion people on Earth, This leaves us with only 2 hectares each. There is nothing left for other species. If we want to avoid depleting the Earth of its natural resources, we need to reduce our Ecological Footprints. hectare - a unit of surface area equal to 100 acres (or 10,000 square meters) Click on the link below to view the human footprint on Earth. This is a pdf put onto your desktop. The redder the area, the higher the human density.

4 Key Principles of Earth Systems Science 1. Our Earth has extremely diverse environments that all go together to make up this unique planet that we call home – likely the only home humans will ever have. 2. The Earth is better understood when it is studied in terms of the systems that make it up. 3. Everything is – in some way connected. 4. The goal of Earth System Science (Global Systems Science) is to find out what we can do to sustain (quality) life on planet Earth (for all species)

A New World View 2 reasons why the title of this section is significant: –1. The world is more interconnected politically, economically (jobs- what happen to the Bates mill & why) and environmentally than ever before. –2. We can monitor the condition of our planet and watch the activity on Earth from space. This is a relatively new ability. Why is it so important environmentally and militarily? –Visit “Google Earth”