Our Planet

How Much More Can Earth Take?
By Jill Jäger

For more than thirty years, scientists from various disciplines have warned that the constant increase in world population and exponential world economic growth are seriously threatening our ecosystems.

The vision on which this book is based is of an ongoing, adaptable societal process which leads the world down the path towards sustainability. In this vision, the speed of global environmental changes will be drastically reduced without forgoing the good life; at the same time prosperity will be distributed more fairly.

It rests on two pillars: efficiency and sufficiency. On the one hand, it is possible to produce almost all goods and services that make life pleasant while consuming a great deal less material, energy, and land area; thereby appreciably reducing ecological footprints and rucksacks. This is the pillar of improved ecological efficiency. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly clear that the accumulation of material wealth contributes less and less to the good life for all those people who have reached a certain level of prosperity.

The question must be asked whether it might be possible for us to dispense with a further increase in our supply of goods and still be able to live ever better. This pillar is the sufficiency strategy. These two strategies complement one another and, in the end, merge into one sustainable development.

This book provides a description of the current situation on Earth and delineates the possible action we can take. Profound environmental changes have been observed in recent decades: climate change, desertification, species extinction, etc. The causes of these changes can be found in the increasing number of people and their activities. Particularly disturbing is the fact that the pace at which the environment is being transformed increased dramatically in the second half of the twentieth century. The destruction of nature – the foundation of our existence – endangers the quality of life for the generations of today and tomorrow. 

The Earth can only withstand environmental burdens to a certain extent before the global ecosystems reach tipping point. It is the inhabitants of the rich industrialized countries who, due to their high level of consumption, are the main cause of environmental problems. Only if they reduce their resource consumption can people on other continents get their fair share of environmental space, and can we prevent the world from careering towards an ecological catastrophe. This demands fundamental changes in economic systems and in lifestyles.  

Technological innovations alone are therefore an insufficient means of reducing resource consumption in the industrialized countries. Rather, additional measures are necessary which truly reflect the value of nature. These measures include prices that mirror real costs and a taxation system that supports “eco-efficient” products.

At the time of writing this book, Jill Jäger was Senior researcher at the Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) in Vienna. Co-author of the books Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure (Springer Verlag, 2004) and Learning to Manage Global Environmaental Risks (MIT Press 2001).