The Art and Science of Thinking Ecologically

Tecate Story

Looking at My Shoes and Seeing Nothing There: The Failure of My

Education

Wes Jackson

http://www.landinstitute.org

Sustainability will result from our becoming better ecological accountants at the community level. We must as a future necessity recycle essentially all materials and run on sunlight; then our future will depend on accounting as the most important and interesting discipline

Sustainability Challenge

• Deserts: 6 million hectares per year• Deforestation: 17 million hectares/yr• Soil Oxidation & Erosion: 26billion tons/yr• Fisheries Collapsing• Ground Water Pollution• Species Extinction: Estimates =

17,000species• Increasing Atmospheric Carbon: Over 30%

Our Ecological Footprint

An Ecological Accounting Tool

Mathis WackernagelWilliam Rees

Phil Testemale

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Summary

• Current consumption of agricultural products, wood fiber & fossil fuel have an ecological footprint which exceeds ecologically productive land by 30%

• We need a 30% larger world, and its shrinking fast

Summary Continued

• 20% of the wealthiest use 80% of the resources

• This is equivalent to 104% of global carrying capacity

The Design Revolution

What is needed is a fundamental revolution, an ecological design

revolution that reduces the human impact on the planet by 90%!

The Course Objective

To show you the pathways and bodies of knowledge that will make the ecological design

revolution happen