Defining a New Balance Between Humans and the Environment

By Jerry Casagrande and Yasmina Zaidman

Every day, alarming new statistics are emerging on environmental problems: Each year 27,000 species disappear from the planet – approximately one every 20 minutes. The water table below Mexico City is dropping so quickly that the entire city is actually sinking more than five inches (13 cm) per year. Each year, 25 billion tons of fertile topsoil – the equivalent of all of the wheat fields in Australia – is lost globally. 617 square miles (1600 km²) of the Gulf of Mexico is an aquatic "dead zone" – one of 50 areas in the world where runoff from fertilizers and livestock manure have stripped the water of oxygen and killed sea life.¹ If you have seen statistics like these before, consider viewing them now not only as data about environmental degradation, but also as figures that describe real decreases in human wealth.

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