One of the central arguments advanced by Colcom Foundation in its environmental work is that standard measures of sustainability carbon emissions, pollution levels, energy efficiency capture only part of the ecological picture. Biocapacity, a more holistic accounting of how much productive land and water humans require relative to what is available, tells a starker story.
In 1970, the United States was already in ecological overshoot, consuming 227 percent of the country’s available biocapacity. By 2020, that figure had grown to approximately 240 percent. Despite considerable reductions in per capita biocapacity use more than 20 percent over that period the overall number moved in the wrong direction because of population growth.
What Biocapacity Overshoot Means
An ecological deficit occurs when a population’s total footprint exceeds the productive capacity of the land and water available to it. Nations running such deficits compensate by drawing down natural assets, importing biocapacity from elsewhere, or releasing waste particularly carbon into the atmosphere at rates the planet cannot process.
The numbers become more sobering when accounting for other species. Biocapacity calculations typically assume that humans have access to all productive land and water. But initiatives like the 30×30 proposal which would protect 30 percent of U.S. land for other species change the baseline significantly. Under that framework, U.S. biocapacity utilization in 2020 rises to approximately 341 percent. The more ambitious Half Earth proposal, which would protect 50 percent of the Earth’s surface for biodiversity, puts American consumption at 478 percent of sustainable levels.
Through their grants, they have supported many organizations, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, which works towards protecting endangered species, and the Sierra Club Foundation, which advocates for clean energy and climate solutions. These grants have helped to advance important causes and support organizations that strive to make a difference.
Wildlife Under Pressure
The practical effects of this overshoot are visible in wildlife data. North American bird populations have dropped from ten billion in 1970 to seven billion today. Wild vertebrate populations broadly have fallen by half while the human population has doubled. The weight of wild land animals now constitutes just one percent of terrestrial vertebrate biomass, compared to 32 percent for humans and 67 percent for livestock.
Colcom Foundation‘s focus on these figures reflects a view that environmental advocacy must grapple directly with the relationship between population size and the limits of what natural systems can sustainably support. Read this article for additional information.
More about Colcom Foundation on https://waterlandlife.org/land-conservation/colcom-revolving-fund-for-local-land-trusts/