Implications of the Biocultural Ethic for Earth Stewardship - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 118

within a Holocene-like state.” However, current humanity's global ecological foot-
print exceeds Earth's annual biocapacity. Since 2007, humanity is annually consum-
ing one-and-a-half times the biocapacity of the planet (Hoekstra and Wiedman
2014 ). A coupled Earth Stewardship/Biocultural Ethic's approach emphasizes that
to amend this unsustainable path it is necessary to assess the:

(i) biophysical capacity of the planetary habitat to sustain life (Earth's carrying
capacity),
(ii) cultural habits that infl uence human impact, and
(iii) human co-inhabitants that are most responsible for this impact.

In their article “The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship,”
Steffen et al. ( 2011 ) offer an analysis that is useful to assess differential responsibilities
for the initiation of non-sustainable paths that have led to overshooting of the biocapac-
ity of the planet. In terms of the spatial location (or habitat), they show that major
ecological footprints have been generated in the Global North. In terms of the tempo-
rality, they affi rm that ecological footprints have exponentially grown since the 1950s,
at the “beginning of a second stage of the Anthropocene… after the Second World
War - sometimes called the Great Acceleration” (Steffen et al. 2011 , p. 755). They
estimate human impact with reference to population and affl uence (as an indicator for
consumption). Since 1900 the world population has grown 3.9 times, from 1.8 to 7 bil-
lion (Table 9.1 ). During the same period, the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
has grown 30.6 times, from 1.8 to 55 trillion US dollars. This suggests that the incre-
ment in the rate of consumption is the most important factor in having surpassed the
planet's biocapacity. Additionally, Steffen et al. ( 2011 ) state that while “developing”
countries account for most of the population growth during the twentieth century and
today contribute 5.9 billion to the 7 billion of the world population, “developed”
countries (countries belonging to the OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development) are most responsible for the growth in GDP and today account for
more than 75 % of the world's GDP. Based on these trends, they conclude that:
Consumption in the OECD countries, rather than population growth in the rest of the world,
has been the more important driver of change during the Great Acceleration, including the
most recent decade. (Steffen et al. 2011 , p. 757)

Table 9.1 World population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Data provided by Steffen et al.
( 2011 , p. 756) to show the “Great Acceleration” in growth that has taken place since 1950. Below,
I added the rates of growth (GR) for Population and GDP, and the ratio between both)
Year Population (billion) GDP (trillion US $) Population × GDP

1900 1.8 1.8 3.2

1950 2.5 5.3 13.3

2011 7.0 55.0 385.0

Interval Growth rate (GR-Pop) Growth rate (GR-GDP) GR-GDP/GR-Pop

1900-1950 1.4 2.9 2.1

1950-2010 2.8 10.4 3.7

1900-2011 3.9 30.6 7.9