well, that was short-lived

[mellowtigger]

The sky is falling.

Scientists are working to identify measures that can be used to determine safe (translation: livable) levels of activity in 10 planetary systems that are affected by human industry. Their findings are discussed in a Scientific American article titled, "Grappling with the Anthropocene".

They have announced the safety thresholds for 8 of these 10 systems.

We already fail 3 of them.

Earth System	Threshold Measure	Boundary	Current Level	Preindustrial
Climate Change	CO2 Concentration	350 ppm	387 ppm	280 ppm
Biodiversity Loss	Extinction Rate	10 pm	>100 pm*	0.1-one pm
Nitrogen Cycle	N2 Tonnage	35 mmt**	121 mmt	0
Phosphorous Cycle	Level in Ocean	11 mmt	8.5-9.5 mmt	–1 mmt
Ozone Layer	O3 Concentration	276 DU#	283 DU	290 DU
Ocean Acidification	Aragonite^^ Levels	2.75	2.90	3.44
Freshwater Usage	Consumption	4,000 km3^	2,600 km3	415 km3
Land Use Change	Cropland Conversion	15 km3	11.7 km3	Low
Aerosols	Soot Concentration	TBD	TBD	TBD
Chemical Pollution	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD

*pm=per million
**mmt=millions of metric tons
#DU=dobson unit
^km3=cubic kilometers
^^Aragonite is a form of calcium carbonate. Measurement is in global mean saturation state.

(edit:) this photo from http://www.physorg.com/news172937155.html

Sometimes I read too much when I should instead be spending my time digging in the garden drinking blueberry lager.

I need a boyfriend.

Comments

[otterlover01.livejournal.com]

Ditto. :O/

[dodecadragon.livejournal.com]

hmmm...water consumption is 101,211.81 gallons each based on a world population of 6,786,236,993 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population). Is that consumption per year? That would be 277 gallons/day. I know I only drink about a gallon per day. I wonder if there are any resources to help me figure out how much water I consume second-hand through the foods I eat and products I buy? I would like to know how much of that 277 gallons a day I am actually consuming and what I can do to cut back personally. I doubt it would make any difference though, except I will know the level of my impact.

Assuming same rate of consumption per person, then we will reach 4,000 km3^ with 10,443,864,230 people. The world is expected to reach 7 billion by February 2012, and 9 billion in 2040, so given that rate of increase we will reach the 4000 mark sometime in 2061, and if I'm still alive I will be 97 years old and I probably won't be fit enough to aggressively compete for water by then. :ob

[mellowtigger]

It's the rate of freshwater usage by humans, not just for swallowing it. That would also account for farming, ranching, industrial, and entertainment usage (backyard pools in California and SeaWorld in Texas).

[mellowtigger]

"March 1, 2001 -- To date, probably the most reliable and widely-accepted water estimate to produce a pound of beef is the figure of 2,500 gallons/pound. Newsweek once put it another way: "the water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a destroyer."

Not surprisingly, the beef industry promotes a study that determined, using highly suspect calculations, that only 441 gallons of water are required to produce a pound of beef."

- http://www.vegsource.com/articles/pimentel_water.htm

[vocalista001.livejournal.com]

More of the same from a paper (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7263/full/461472a.html) in Nature (magazine). The charts look almost the same.

[mellowtigger]

Ooh, thanks. I like their table better, and their article is much more detailed too.

[randomcub.livejournal.com]

I do heartily recommend Dark Horse Brewing Company's "Tres Bluberry Stout". Not a lager, I admit, but darn good.