Our world is not environmentally #sustainable: The #EcologicalFootprint, which equals EF per person multiplied by #population, of the current (2016) world population of 7.5 billion uses the biological capacity of 1.7 Earths.
The maximum #sustainable #population at our current EF per person is only 4.4 billion. The maximum that would give everyone the current #QualityOfLife in the US, as measured by the UN’s #HumanDevelopmentIndex, is only 2.6 billion.
Since the start of EF tracking (1961), 83% of our #growth in EF has been caused by #population growth and only 17% by growth in personal #consumption (EF per person).
Projecting the same increases in EF per person and in biological capacity (due to improved #technology) since 1970 forward to 2060, the EF will be even larger, using 1.9 Earths. And 97% of that EF #growth will be caused by #population growth to 10.2 billion.
And that assumes that fertility rates in countries with higher fertility rates will decline; the UN projects world #population to grow to 11.7 billion by 2060 if they don’t.
We could become #sustainable by 2060 if we voluntarily reduce our #population to its 1990 size of 5.3 billion. That means encouraging countries with higher fertility rates to reduce their fertility rates below the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman.
We have an overdue moral obligation to our descendants to stop and ultimately reverse our #population #growth until our world is environmentally #sustainable.
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