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I imagine the Easter Islanders were similarly convinced as they felled the last tree. We're using resources at an unprecedented and thoroughly unsustainable ra

• semi-extrinsic 10y ago
  The Easter Islanders were not hit just by consequences of deforestation, but simultaneously by invasive rat species and overpopulation, while being one of the most remote islands in the world. Plenty of other island nations have seen similar mass deforestation, like Iceland, Sicily and New Zealand, without disastrous consequences. I'm not saying we should all party on and waste all we can, but this nonsense of "we need five planets" etc. is just that, nonsense. It muddies up the debate, especially when it's based on an arbitrarily weighted sum of different ecological impacts to compute a "total footprint".
  • anexprogrammer 10y ago
    I've seen that theory, and it seems to be just that, rather than the consensus. Regardless environmental destruction and overpopulation are now global so either analogy still applies. As for number of planets anything >1 is a problem, but it seems a reasonable means of helping the public visualise the issue, just as the media use busses or football fields for comparative measure.