The limits of the environment

The challenge facing us at the beginning of a new century begins with scale. Human numbers are four times the level of a century ago, and the world economy is 17 times as large. This growth has allowed advances in living standards that our ancestors could not have imagined, but it has also undermined natural systems in ways they could not have feared.

Easter Island 

Water 

Cropland 

Forests 

Oceans 

Biodiversity decline