Earth - 

• the third planet from the Sun,
• formed 4.54 billion years ago, 
• the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density,
• home to millions of species,
•  the only place in the universe where life is known to exist,
•  and, the place we call home.    

Planet Earth: Views from Space

Beautiful, large and limitless…………or so it seems from way out there.  

It is very easy forget how many of us live here; how much we eat, heat (or cool), travel, chop, mine, drill, burn, light,  manufacture,… and then toss away when we see the next new shiney object that we want, must have; then having no further use for the old ‘ it’.

 With the pace that we live, it is easy to ignore how fast we are using  the resources that currently exist on this planet.  Since the industrial revolution, when  man left his agrarian lifestyle, and migrate to a more factory centered way of   living,  we have been burning the earth’s resources at a rate which cannot be sustained.   In that process, we have been dramatically  effecting the environment that we and the rest of the species on this planet live in. 

While the state of the environment is a controversial topic to many, there are some statistics that cannot be denied:

• scientists estimate that between 1000, and 1000,000 species of life become extinct every 24 hours,  a rate 100 to 1,000 times faster than the natural rate. *
• more than half of all accessible surface fresh water is used by humanity.**
• human numbers are predicted to reach nine billion by the year 2050 and peak at 11 billion.***
• the world’s wealthiest one billion people alone consume the equivalent of the Earth’s entire sustainable yield.  All six billion + people are consuming at a level that is 20  percent over sustainable yield.****

Disturbing information and they continue to get worse.  Statistics continue to show that our current way of life is unsustainable, and that which is unsustainable does not continue.  We are currently living beyond our ecological means.

If we would like to protect, nurture and preserve this planet and life as we know it, then we must adjust our lifestyles.  

* The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth,2001

**Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems, 1997

***World Bank.2000 World Development Indicators.

****World Wide Fund for Nature. Living Planet Report 2002