The world has a finite amount of land and water, and that base has to support all the needs of humanity and all natural ecosystems. It provides the basis for our food, our shelter, the air we breathe, the raw materials needed to support every aspect of our societies. For thousands of years humanity has been able to exploit the landscape and nature’s bounty essentially at will, as we had neither the numbers nor the technology to cause total devastation to the landscape. There were local problems that could cause the downfall of some societies, but these problems were never global. But now we live in a connected society with so many people and such power to modify the world that we are causing irreparable harm to it. We have begun to improve our path, but we need to make changes more quickly. Following are pieces that describe some problems, solutions, and perspectives on how to more sustainably manage our land use.
- 5 acres for every person on earth
- Nature needs half
- Our yards
- Forestry
- Agriculture
- Carbon sequestration in the landscape
- Biofuel production is (generally) a terrible use of the land
