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Tracking the ecological overshoot of the human economy.


ABSTRACT: Sustainability requires living within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere. 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. Our accounts indicate that human demand may well have exceeded the biosphere's regenerative capacity since the 1980s. According to this preliminary and exploratory assessment, humanity's load corresponded to 70% of the capacity of the global biosphere in 1961, and grew to 120% in 1999.

SUBMITTER: Wackernagel M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC123129 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tracking the ecological overshoot of the human economy.

Wackernagel Mathis M   Schulz Niels B NB   Deumling Diana D   Linares Alejandro Callejas AC   Jenkins Martin M   Kapos Valerie V   Monfreda Chad C   Loh Jonathan J   Myers Norman N   Norgaard Richard R   Randers Jørgen J  

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20020627 14


Sustainability requires living within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere. 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. Our accounts indicate that human demand may well have exceeded the biosphere's regenerative capacity since the 1980s. According to this preliminary and exploratory  ...[more]

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