Study Shows Humans Learning To Use Natural Resources More Efficiently

Humanity’s influence on the natural world is widespread, but a new study published in the journal Nature Communications finds promising signs that we are slowly learning to live in a more sustainable way. The study found that between 1993 and 2009, the global population grew 23 percent and the global economy grew 153 percent. Meanwhile, the global human footprint grew only 9 percent over the same period. “Seeing that our impacts have expanded at a rate that is slower than the rate of economic and population growth is encouraging,” said lead author Oscar Venter, an ecologist at the University of Northern British Columbia. “It means we are becoming more efficient in how we use natural resources.” The study authors warned, however, that even with the good news, human activity affects 75 percent of the planet’s surface and remains “perversely intense, widespread, and rapidly intensifying in places with high biodiversity.”