- Title Pages
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Related Reading
- Chapter 1 The Third Planet
- Chapter 2 The Home Planet
- Chapter 3 The Rocky Planet
- Chapter 4 The Blue Planet
- Chapter 5 The Veiled Planet
- Chapter 6 The Hazardous Planet
- Chapter 7 The Ancient Planet
- Chapter 8 The Bountiful Planet
- Chapter 9 The Finite Planet
- Chapter 10 The Singular Planet
- Chapter 11 The Uninhabitable Planet
- Chapter 12 The Living Planet
- Chapter 13 The Warming Planet
- Chapter 14 The Polluted Planet
- Chapter 15 The Crowded Planet
- Chapter 16 The Sustainable Planet
- Chapter 17 Water as Sustenance
- Chapter 18 Air as Sustenance
- Chapter 19 Soil as Sustenance
- Chapter 20 Food as Sustenance
- Chapter 21 Energy as Sustenance
- Chapter 22 Materials as Sustenance
- Chapter 23 Prospects for Sustenance
- Chapter 24 Policies for Sustenance
- Epilogue
- Related Reading
- Index
The Finite Planet
The Finite Planet
- Chapter:
- (p.120) Chapter 9 The Finite Planet
- Source:
- Earth
- Author(s):
Frank H. T. Rhodes
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
This chapter examines the Earth's finitude of space and resources, noting that land areas cannot so much be changed or expanded upon as it can be reused or replaced. Although there are the possibilities of colonizing other areas of the solar system, the chapter focuses largely on the planet Earth and its own finite resources. It emphasizes the need for restraint and resourcefulness on a planet with rather daunting limits, especially in the face of the ever-growing human population. Moreover, given their population and their penchant for consumption, the human species has invariably created most of the problems that plague the Earth today. Responsible tenancy on Earth thus becomes a challenge, though not an impossible one—human knowledge is, unlike the Earth's resources, unlimited in scope.
Keywords: Earth, finite resources, consumption, human population, limited resources, human knowledge
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- Title Pages
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Related Reading
- Chapter 1 The Third Planet
- Chapter 2 The Home Planet
- Chapter 3 The Rocky Planet
- Chapter 4 The Blue Planet
- Chapter 5 The Veiled Planet
- Chapter 6 The Hazardous Planet
- Chapter 7 The Ancient Planet
- Chapter 8 The Bountiful Planet
- Chapter 9 The Finite Planet
- Chapter 10 The Singular Planet
- Chapter 11 The Uninhabitable Planet
- Chapter 12 The Living Planet
- Chapter 13 The Warming Planet
- Chapter 14 The Polluted Planet
- Chapter 15 The Crowded Planet
- Chapter 16 The Sustainable Planet
- Chapter 17 Water as Sustenance
- Chapter 18 Air as Sustenance
- Chapter 19 Soil as Sustenance
- Chapter 20 Food as Sustenance
- Chapter 21 Energy as Sustenance
- Chapter 22 Materials as Sustenance
- Chapter 23 Prospects for Sustenance
- Chapter 24 Policies for Sustenance
- Epilogue
- Related Reading
- Index