Wednesday, April 1, 2009
too many people?
Nina Fedoroff (from Penn State) is the Science and Technology advisor to the Secretary of State (previously Condoleeza Rice, now Hilary Clinton). In a recent article on BBC news she discusses her opinions on Genetically Modified foods, as well as the need to better manage natural resources, especially water. She claims there are likely already more people on the planet than it can support. I am curious what the reasons behind this claim are, and hope to hear more during the full interview on the One Planet podcast from the BBC World Service.
The human population makes a huge impact on the Earth. Part of the impact is land put into food production, water tables dropped by wells, landfills for garbage, garbage floating in the oceans, forests cleared, species endangered or eradicated, erosion from human activities, hormones from BC pills affecting water based species. I don't know how to quantify when we've reached the limit of sustainability but it would be interesting to hear her analysis. Just saw an article saying monthly car sales in China have surpassed sales in the US for the first time in history. With over a billion Chinese, the impact from modernization will be huge.
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