Embracing limits on a finite planet

 This episode is really about setting the scene on what flourishing within planetary boundaries is all about. 

This is the show where we embrace the real physical limits that exist on this planet, and learn how to work with them, to create thriving and flourishing people, communities, and ecosystems. 

All to often when it comes to planetary health, we talk in symptoms for example climate change is a symptom as is biodiversity loss and deforestation. For me they are symptoms that our key human systems and aspirations are not designed for a living finite planet. 

The common mindset in today’s day and age is that we humans can overcome any limits. Many people have this complete faith that there is a magic technology or technological solutions that will solve all our problems. For me this is the same as a superhero flying in and rescuing us from our problems, but this is not going to happen. In fact, these beliefs disempower us from getting stuck in and creating the world we want ourselves. 

Although I believe that we have only scratched the surface of our human potential in so many ways, the fact is that we are bounded by physical limits and universal laws. 

Today, I am going to dive into the calculation and physical limit that really transformed my own thinking and life and that is the space that we have. 

When you get right down to it there is only one Earth and although it is really obvious in some ways, it is also something we forget. We can’t make the Earth any bigger and we can’t just hop off to another planet to get some more room.  

And when you really stop to think about it, this is biggest limit we have, the size of the Earth. We might talk about economic growth. We might talk about energy. This is the absolute limit. This is the space we have. As the human population has, has grown, this means there's less for each one of us. And when I first started thinking about this and did the math, it completely shifted how I operate, how I think about things, how I think about what a good life is, what it really means to me.

Transcript

Welcome to the first episode, I am very excited to be here with you. This episode is really about setting the scene on what flourishing within planetary boundaries is all about. 

As I said in the introduction this is the show where we embrace the real physical limits that exist on this planet, and learn how to work with them, to create thriving and flourishing people, communities, and ecosystems. 

All to often when it comes to planetary health, we talk in symptoms for example climate change is a symptom as is biodiversity loss and deforestation. For me they are symptoms that our key human systems and aspirations are not designed for a living finite planet. 

The common mindset in today’s day and age is that we humans can overcome any limits. Many people have this complete faith that there is a magic technology or technological solutions that will solve all our problems. For me this is the same as a superhero flying in and rescuing us from our problems, but this is not going to happen. In fact, these beliefs disempower us from getting stuck in and creating the world we want ourselves. 

Although I believe that we have only scratched the surface of our human potential in so many ways, the fact is that we are bounded by physical limits and universal laws. 

Today, I am going to dive into the calculation and physical limit that really transformed my own thinking and life and that is the space that we have. 

When you get right down to it there is only one Earth and although it is really obvious in some ways, it is also something we forget. We can’t make the Earth any bigger and we can’t just hop off to another planet to get some more room.  

And when you really stop to think about it, this is the one limit we have. We might talk about economic growth. We might talk about energy. This is the absolute limit. This is the space we have. As the human population has, has grown, this means there's less for each one of us. And when I first started thinking about this and did the math, it completely shifted how I operate, how I think about things, how I think about what a good life is, what it really means to me.

Let’s get started the thought experiment and calculation that has transformed my life. We are going to calculate the fair share of space we each have and then we are going to talk about the implications. This calculation is just basic maths and physics that anyone can do. 

Let’s start off with the total surface area of the planet, which according to Wikipedia is about 510 million square kilometres. 

Then we will subtract the area of the oceans, because although some people do depend on the seas and oceans for some of their food most of our lives and resources are from land. 

Now we will subtract the area of the deserts because deserts are barren areas of landscape where there is little precipitation, and is inhospitable for plant and animal life. The largest desert on Earth is the Antarctic followed by the Arctic and then the Sahara. 

So now we are down to 100 million square kilometres. This still sound like a lot. But remember we there are 8 billion people on this Earth now. So if we divide the area of habitable land by the human population we come out with 1.26 hectares or 3.1 acres. 

But that assumes that the entire Earth belongs to humans. But humans cannot exist on this earth without the intricate network of life and living system that forms our life support system. 

And the general scientific consensus seems to be 50% of our lands and oceans need to be set aside for nature. In some ways even that seems rather skewed that one species takes half and the rest is for everyone else, but certainly in my spaces, nature abounds. 

So drumroll please the area we each have to get everything we need for life, assuming an equitable distribution is 0.63 hectares or in other units 6300 square metres, 1.6 acres or 7500 square yards. 

Now for the thought exercise based on these numbers. Imagine this area, I both looked out one of my windows and went out to a local walking track to visualize this. So imagine that all your food, water, energy, shelter and building materials has to come from this space. How much space do you need to grow all your food, how much space does your home occupy, where are your materials coming from? Really play with this. 

Now this is where you realize that you probably wouldn’t want to dig huge holes in your land for minerals or pollute your water and food supplies. 

What becomes abundantly clear is that we need to get multiple uses from everything. 

If you really start to imagine this and have some fun with this thought exercise, you can look at the land around you, the climate and start figuring out what grows well and what you need. In a hot climate you may want lots of shade, in a cool climate you many want fuel to keep you warm. Remember this is a thought exercise, have some fun with it. 

But when you really play with this you start to realize what sustainability really means. It is not about being more efficient, or going plastic free. Sustainability is about meeting our own needs today without compromising our ability to meet our needs in the future and when you look at it through the lens of your own space then you can see what it really means. It also shows that when it comes to climate change, we cannot just take our existing infrastructure and flip it over to using solar and wind energy, the infrastructure and mineral requirements are just too high. 

The human global population is still growing and depending on the projection could top out around ten billion, but hopefully it stops growing before that, because, with a population of ten billion the space we each have drops by 20%. Now we are down to 0.5 hectares or 1.3 acres or 6000 square yards. We are just getting tighter for space. 

Now the Global Footprint Network have done a scientific model of this and included the most productive parts of the seas and oceans, so their number is higher. But it is only about 20% different from something we can all do. 

What you may have noticed is that this calculation has equity baked right into it. The assumption is that we all have an equal share of the planet BUT this is clearly not the case. The reason I mention this is that at least for me, with such a high human population and working with such small spaces each, my over consumption of resources directly impacts someone else, either another person or other living systems. 

The big thing that exercise and visual model did for me when I first did it was to completely shift how I think of, and measure a good life. It really made me think of the activities, relationships and things that matter most to me in life, things that bring me joy, enrichment and a high quality of life. What does living to my full potential look like in this reality?

There are many reasons I wanted to do this thought exercise and the biggest one was to shift your thinking. 

Because all too often when it comes to ecological sustainability, we talk about the symptoms for example climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, plastic pollution, and the list goes on and then we try to tackle these issues. 

But what these issues are really telling us is that with the human population on this Earth, the economies, lifestyles and societies we have built, do not fit on this planet. We are completely detached from the physical limits that exist. In my opinion as long as we are trying to convert what we have to something “greener” we will never succeed. 

We need to completely shift how we think and act, while changing how our human systems are structured. This is why we need to talk about thriving and flourishing.

This is where it gets really exciting for me. When you start to look at and understand the limits, then you start to ask the bigger questions about what good life is, and what brings you joy and gives you meaning. Because I think many of us can agree that lives and societies we have built are not working for so many of us. 

That was certainly my story. I used to have relatively well-paid jobs in the heavy construction sector and from the outside my life probably looked quite good with a nice home, a newish vehicle and plenty of disposable income. But the reality of bundling myself and my dogs into my car and only coming home once a month, living in motels, and having almost no social contacts or activities outside of work was not the life I wanted. 

I was good at my jobs and there were some aspects of the projects I enjoyed, between the hours, the conflicts, the discrimination, and the fact that the opportunities were increasingly far from home, I was deeply unhappy and my mental and physical health were suffering. 

It was around about this time I took a graduate course in life cycle assessment and sustainable supply chains and in the last section of the course the professor gave us reading that covered the subjects of wellbeing and simplifying our lives. This has certainly led me on a challenging journey to build my life and work around living a good life on a finite planet. 

But what does it take to thrive and flourish on a finite planet? There is not one definition but there are common themes. These include a sense of belonging and our ability to participate in society, a degree of security, the means to a livelihood, to have meaning and purpose in your life, to be able to pursue your potential as an individual but also to be able to share in a common endeavour. 

We can also look at this from different aspects of health from physical health, to mental, emotional, and spiritual health. But what is clear that once your material needs are met there is diminishing returns on have more. 

When I look at my time in construction, I may have had a means to a livelihood and a degree of security but I was certainly missing out on a feeling of belonging either in my community, or at work, the ability to pursue my potential and my work did not give me meaning and purpose in my life, that has always come from other activities. 

This is where I start feeling very optimistic. In recent years I have participated in many online workshops and events for people building their own business, many of them online. So many of these people from all different parts of the world are leaving their corporate and conventional jobs to create small businesses to serve other people and help them to live higher quality lives. These businesses are not selling stuff, they are about experiences, service, building skills and relationships and connection. 

So many of these people have a higher purpose for their businesses including funding social enterprises and non-profit enterprises, and supporting people in a way that our current economic systems do not.  

For me, when faced with the real constraints and limits we face on this earth, my biggest focus is on food. That is because food is the foundation of our health, our relationships with each other and with Earth’s life and living systems. But food and food systems are currently the biggest cause of both our human and planetary health problems and uses more land space and energy than any other human activity. 

My own vision is that we all have the capacity to thrive, flourish, to be and feel healthy and have the capacity to live to our full potential on a planet with abundant, thriving living systems. In future episodes we are going to keep exploring how to create abundant, healthy, thriving lives on a finite planet. Until next time…