Humanity should use planetary resources with care
Can the world continue expanding its use of renewable resources at an increasing rate? Most likely not. Using a data set of over 25 resources researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Yale University and Michigan State University demonstrate that several key resources have recently passed, at around the same time, their “peak-rate year” — the maximum increase year. A potential implication is that as substitution becomes arduous, global society’s expanding needs will be harder to fill. They explain this in an article published in the latest issue of the international journal Ecology and Society, and featured in the journal Nature’s Research Highlights this week.
Landscape ecologists Prof. Dr. Ralf Seppelt, Dr. Ameur M. Manceur and plant ecologist Dr. Stefan Klotz from the UFZ analysed the production and extraction rates of 27 global renewable and non-renewable resources together with economist Dr. Eli Fenichel from Yale University and sustainability scholar Dr. Jianguo Liu from Michigan State University. They examined 20 renewable resources, such as maize, rice, wheat or soya, which represent around 45% of the global calorie intake according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO of the UN), as well as animal products, such as fish, meat, milk and egg. For 18 of these renewable resources the annual growth rate (for example the increase in meat production or in fish catch) reached its peak — the peak-rate year — around 2006 a few years ago.
The term peak in the context of resource use is not new as it was popularized in the discussion about peak oil initiated in the mid-1970s. The peak oil analysis of the mid 1970s alleged that the crude oil extraction rate would significantly decline after a given year. Whether such a decline will happen and what would be the ultimate cause has been hotly debated among scientists. Though oil production has actually continued to expand, other resources have followed such a pattern. UFZ researchers used a dataset of more than 25 resources and made limited assumptions, relying on computer power to extract pattern from the database. “For many resources, but not oil, we indeed observed a peak pattern”, states Dr. Seppelt.
Surprisingly, they discovered not only that 20 resources had a peak-year but also that for 16 of the 20 resources with a peak-year, the peak-year lay between 1988 and 2008 — a very narrow range in the history of humanity! “The key commodities that a person needs for food and must harvest are limited”, summarizes Dr. Seppelt, Head of the Landscape Ecology Department at the UFZ. Renewable resources become scarcer. The authors were able to illustrate this using a various examples: The maximum global growth rate in crop yields for soya beans was in 2009, for milk it was 2004, for eggs it was 1993 and for the fish caught it was 1988. Data from other studies confirm these results. For example, the crop yield per area with maize, wheat, soya and rice on more than a quarter of the farming area around the world is stagnating or decreasing according to the US scientists.
Read more: Renewable resources reach their limits
The Latest on: Reneweable planetary resources
via Google News
The Latest on: Reneweable planetary resources
- WWF, Sofia Vergara and Marc Anthony team up to celebrate the extraordinary biodiversity of Latin America with the animated film “KOATI”on April 21, 2021 at 10:32 pm
Over 25 international celebrities participating in the movie - with a combined reach of over 300M fans on social media - will support WWF’s mission of protecting and restoring nature, by uniting their ...
- NASA Technology Helps in Fight Against Climate Changeon April 19, 2021 at 3:35 pm
NASA technology fights climate change in all kinds of ways. Many of these innovations were pioneered for space travel and planetary exploration before anyone repurposed them for use on Earth. Others ...
- Meet the Canadian entrepreneurs who have figured out how to extract carbon from the atmosphere and store it safelyon April 19, 2021 at 11:54 am
Today, writes the climate journalist David Wallace-Wells, “thanks to the rapid death of coal, the revolution in the price of renewable energy and a global climate politics forged by a ...
- Industry Perspectives Op-Ed: Regulators/government, whose interests are being served?on April 19, 2021 at 6:10 am
In order to support our evolving lifestyles, humans are consuming far too many planetary resources and producing too much carbon. We are in a phase called “Capacity Biodeficit,” where each of us consu ...
- ‘Unpaid and from scratch’: Three unlikely women embarking on environmental missionson April 19, 2021 at 1:03 am
It’s tough to completely upend your professional and personal lives, in search of planetary improvement ... to take an active part in marine resources management. This includes mapping of ...
- Industrial Gearbox Market Segmentation, Application, Trends, Opportunity and Forecast 2021 to 2024on April 16, 2021 at 9:24 am
The planetary segment is expected to grow ... the forecast period due to the increase in power generated from renewable energy resources in the country. The reports also cover country-level ...
- Planet Ocean: Why Is The Blue Economy So Important?on April 15, 2021 at 5:51 am
For centuries, a planetary equilibrium in the ocean’s ... Although the oceans seem an infinite resource, the reality is profoundly different. Growing scientific evidence shows that the health ...
- Engineer a sustainable future at these leading European universitieson April 13, 2021 at 11:32 pm
Environmental engineers combine environmental sciences and engineering principles in order to improve and manage the natural environment. Here are four universities offering engineering courses with a ...
- In climate change noise, India’s role as conductoron April 13, 2021 at 5:02 pm
One thing is clear: Climate action and climate leadership are being increasingly measured against a planetary imperative ... Ambitious renewable energy targets, improvements in energy efficiency ...
- PlantX Announces Sustainability Initiativeson March 29, 2021 at 1:30 am
"With the evolving anthropogenic threats to the climate, today's world has seen increasing environmental awareness and interest in planetary ... managing our planet's resources and this momentum ...
via Bing News