The Quartermaster supervises, stores, and distributes supplies and provisions. The Quartermaster is also the one responsible for making sure equipment, materials, and systems are available and functioning. The purpose of the Quartermaster’s Report is to research and publish the data that describes the status of the ship, in this case “This Spaceship Earth.” The reason for taking a planetary perspective is to realign our individual viewpoints and assumptions about resource quantity, quality and demand with that of TSE’s current operational capability, capacity and actual status. This is not about what is preferred or desired, but what is. Therefore, in the world of the Quartermaster, if a 16 oz. glass has eight ounces of liquid, the glass is neither half full nor half empty – it simply has eight ounces of liquid.
Because climate is such a dynamic, complex and interconnected system, we update the statistics on this page frequently. Our climate is rapidly changing, and the tools and technologies available to monitor and measure the hundreds of different components driving those changes are growing ever more sophisticated and ubiquitous.
Human population reached 8 billion people on 15 November 2022
Human population: 8,036,357,257 (at 13:05 ET, 1 June 2023 )
In 2015 the net population growth rate was 2.5 people per second.
In 2023 the net population growth has slowed to 2 people per second.
In 2015 the world population was 7,426,597,537.
So, the net population change has been 609,759,720 individuals.
To help put that number in perspective, the population increase since 2015 has been more than the current population of the Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Dhaka, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Cairo, Beijing, Mumbai, Osaka, Chongqing, Karachi, Kinshasa, Lagos, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Kolkata, Manila, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Lahore, Rio de Janeiro, Bangalore, Shenzhen, Moscow, Chennai, Bogota, Jakarta, Paris, Lima, Bangkok, Hyderabad, Seoul, Nanjing, Chengdu, London, and Nagoya combined; which are the 37 most populous cities in the world.
Currently 56% of the world’s population lives in cities. To put that into perspective, more people live in cities today than were alive on the planet in 1980.
Status |
Population |
|
|
Illiteracy |
122 million youth crewmembers |
Lacking minimum literacy skills |
775 million adult crewmembers |
Chronically undernourished |
805 million crewmembers |
Overweight |
1.3 billion crewmembers |
Obese |
600 million crewmembers 18 and older |
Overweight or obese |
42 million crewmembers age 5 or younger |
No access to clean water |
783 million crewmembers |
Not enough access to clean water for adequate sanitation |
2.5 billion crewmembers |
No access to safe and affordable surgery |
4.8 billion crewmembers |
Asthma |
334 million crewmembers |
No access to electricity |
1.3 billion crewmembers |
Rely on the use of biomass for cooking |
2.7 billion crewmembers |
We add 800,000,000,000,000 plastic microbeads to the wastewater treatment system everyday in the USA. An estimated 8 trillion of those microbeads are discharged into aquatic environments daily. The remainder of the microbeads are trapped in the solids or sludge of the settling tanks and may re-enter the environment depending upon how the solids and sludge are processed.
Every year, more people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war.
In 1997, Charles Moore discovered a region of the Pacific Ocean with a large amount of plastic debris. This area is commonly referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). While the gyre resulting from ocean currents defines the location of the garbage patch it is land-based plastics and marine debris that constitute the make-up of the GPGP. Plastics do not biodegrade but physically break down into smaller and smaller pieces over an extended period of time. The slow rate of mechanical breakdown of plastics combined with the high volume of use of plastics results in the growing dimension of the GPGP.
Subsequent to the discovery of the GPGP, 4 other garbage patches have been found – one in each ocean. In 2013, UNESCO symbolically recognized the Garbage Patch Nation comprised of the 5 areas of concentrated discarded material – one in each major gyre of the North Pacific, the South Pacific, the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. At the time of recognition, the population of the Garbage Patch Nation consisted of an estimated 36,939 tons of garbage and covered an area of 15, 915,933 square miles. It is estimated that 80% of the population is from land-based sources.
Fish stocks
Livestock population
The 2012 estimate for global anthropogenic CO2 emissions was 34,500,000,000 tonnes,
which is the equivalent of launching 273 elephants/sec into the air for an entire year – assuming an average elephant body weight of 4 tonnes.
Since the industrial revolution:
NASA, NOAA Data Show 2016 Warmest Year on Record Globally
Globally – averaged temperatures in 2016 were 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit (0.99 degrees Celsius) warmer than the mid:20th century mean. This makes 2016 the third year in a row to set a new record for global average surface temperatures.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-noaa-data-show-2016-warmest-year-on-record-globally
Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said. “It’s unprecedented in 1,000 years. There’s no period that has the trend seen in the 20th century in terms of the inclination (of temperatures).”
Global Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions
17,384,818,472 tons as of 15 June 2017
from fossil-fuel combustion and industrial processes
2017: 35,295,474,384 tonnes+
2014: 35,900,000,000 tonnes*
2012: 34,500,000,000 tonnes (data used for 1st QMR)
+ estimate based on current rate of emissions
*http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/15/files/GCP_budget_2015_v1.02.pdf
+http://www.worldometers.info/
Translation Equivalency : global anthropogenic CO2 emissions measured in units of 4 tonne Elephants launched into the air/second /year
2017: 280 elephants/second based on current emission rates
2014: 284 elephants/second
2012: 273 elephants/second
In 2015, the available information was in terms of emissions – emissions as defined by the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) reporting structure. That is to say, the numbers reflected the CO2 emissions that governments were using in their international conversation and reports. Those ONLY included emissions from fossil fuel use related to energy production and the making of cement. These did NOT include CO2 emissions from forest fires and land clearing, etc.
Also in 2015, the focus was on CO2, not all the greenhouse gases that lead to Global Warming and Climate Change.
The current atmospheric CO2 levels are the highest they have been in 800,000 years. Homo sapiens have been on TSE for 350,000 years.
The increase in pollution coupled with the degradation of resources is an indication that TSE is currently being operated outside its margins of safety.
At present, humanity is operating TSE at a level that would require 1.6 TSEs to balance both the consumption of resources and the generation of pollutants with TSE’s bio-capacity to generate useful biological material and absorb waste. Humanity has pushed TSE 60% over the red line, and the overshoot is increasing.
The number of Planet Earths we need to meet our demand for renewable resources and absorption of our waste is measured by ecological footprint.
Year |
Humanity’s Global Footprint |
1961 |
0.75 |
1965 |
0.82 |
1970 |
1.00 |
1975 |
1.10 |
1980 |
1.15 |
1985 |
1.14 |
1990 |
1.22 |
1995 |
1.25 |
2000 |
1.30 |
2005 |
1.46 |
2010 |
1.50 |
2015 |
1.56 |
Humanity’s ecological footprint was first calculated in 1961. At that time, humanity operated in a manner that maintained a surplus of resources. By 1970, humanity was in a break-even model of demand for resources relative to the regeneration of resources. Unfortunately, in the early 1970s, we crossed the line and ever since have been operating with a growing deficit. It now takes the capacity of more than one Planet Earth to meet our demands and neutralize our waste.
Since 1961, Humanity’s ecological footprint has more than doubled, increasing from 0.7 planets/TSEs to 1.6 planets/TSEs. The largest change has been in the carbon footprint, which has increased from 36% of the footprint to 53%. In 2014, Earth Overshoot Day was August 19th. Earth Overshoot Day is the date on which humanity consumption of resources exceeds TSE’s capacity to regenerate those resources in a year.
2017: 2 August
2016: 8 August
1st QMR: 13 August
net change: six days earlier than 2016, 11 days earlier than 2015/QMR
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. Minimum safe date for balancing demand with resources and services is December 31st.
In an effort to reduce CO2 emissions, companies and countries are reducing their use of coal and switching to and increasing their use of natural gas. Given that natural gas is a fossil fuel composed almost entirely of methane, (https://www.aga.org/what-natural-gas), this switch can actually increase Global Warming as methane has 21 times the global warming potential of CO2.
As we examine the viability of alternative fuels and energy sources, we need to make sure that we are reducing the overall global warming potential of the fuels we use, not just looking at the relative reduction of a single component and assuming that means a net-positive improvement in reducing or reversing global warming.
Greenland:
Greenland is losing 350 gigatonnes of ice annually – 50% from ice melt, and 50% from glaciers moving into the ocean and breaking up into icebergs, which then melt.
The loss of Greenland ice is six times the volume of all the glaciers in the Alps.
Greenland has been melting more mass than it accumulates since 2000, putting Greenland in a negative balance.
Antarctica:
Because the planet is warming, the glaciers in the Antarctic are losing an average of 83 gigatonnes of ice per year (91.5 billion US tons). This is the equivalent of losing the water weight of Mount Everest every two years. “The mass loss of these glaciers is increasing at an amazing rate,” said scientist Isabella Velicogna.
Coral reefs, the “rainforests of the sea,” are some of the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems on earth. They occupy only 0.2% of the ocean, yet are home to a quarter of all marine species: crustaceans, reptiles, seaweeds, bacteria, fungi, and over 4000 species of fish make their home in coral reefs. With an annual global economic value of $375 billion, coral reefs provide food and resources for over 500 million people in 94 countries and territories. But tragically, coral reefs are in crisis.
http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/06/13/losing-our-coral-reefs/
The world has lost roughly half its coral reefs in the last 30 years.
https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/soestwp/announce/news/scientists-race-to-save-worlds-coral-reefs/
Over the last 30 to 40 years, 80% of coral in the Caribbean have been destroyed as well as 50% of coral reefs in Indonesia and the Pacific.
https://www.skepticalscience.com/coral-bleaching.htm
24 billion tonnes of fertile or 12 million hectares of topsoil are lost every year. The world population continues to increase while we destroy more and more topsoil. If this is allowed to continue there won’t be enough fertile soil left to feed a growing world population.
http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/events/detail/en/c/338738/
Earth has lost a third of arable land in the past 40 years.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/02/arable-land-soil-food-security-shortage
It takes approximately 500 years to replace 25 millimeters (1 inch) of topsoil lost to erosion. The minimal soil depth for agricultural production is 150 millimeters. From this perspective, productive fertile soil is a nonrenewable, endangered ecosystem.
http://www.fewresources.org/soil-science-and-society-were-running-out-of-dirt.html
“Average (US) soil loss rate is 5.8 tons per acre per year, and increasing.”
“Soil can only rebuild at a rate of 0.24 tons per acre per year.”
Stan Buman, head of Land O’ Lakes Sustain program
http://www.cornandsoybeandigest.com/soil-health/economics-soil-loss
The United States is losing soil 10 times faster – and China and India are losing soil 30 to 40 times faster – than the natural replenishment rate.
http://www.fewresources.org/soil-science-and-society-were-running-out-of-dirt.html
Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans: More than Five Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
Eight million metric tones of plastic pollution enter the oceans each year from the world’s 192 coastal countries based on 2010 data. That is the equivalent of five grocery bags full of plastic trash on every foot (30 cm) of every nation’s coastline around the globe.
Between 15% and 31% of the estimated 9.5 m tonnes (IUCN 2016) of plastic released into the oceans each year could be primary microplastics, almost two-thirds of which come from the washing of synthetic textiles and the abrasion of tires while driving.
Tiny plastic particles washed off products such as synthetic clothes and car tires could contribute up to 30% of the ‘plastic soup’ polluting the world’s oceans and – in many developed countries – are a bigger source of marine plastic pollution than plastic waste.
2010 – 551 lbs/sec
2016 – 664 lbs/sec
Pollution has Worked its Way Down to the World’s Deepest Waters
Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University, England and his team have been able to sample amphipods from the Mariana Trench in the northern Pacific – the deepest part of the world’s oceans.
Examination of the Amphipods showed that they were contaminated with PCBs — polychlorinated biphenyls*. “Every sample we had,” Jamieson says, “had contaminants in it at very high or extraordinarily high levels.” He compared the contamination level in his Mariana amphipods to crabs living in waters fed by one of China’s most polluted rivers, as well as amphipods from other parts of the world. “And what we were finding in the deepest place in the world were (levels) hugely higher, 50 times in some cases,” he says. He thinks the pollutants might get to the trenches by latching on to plastic that’s floating in the ocean. Fish and other marine animals absorb pollutants, as well. Eventually, the plastic and the dead animals fall to the bottom.
and
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-016-0051
*(PCB production was banned by the United States Congress in 1979 and by the Stockholm Convention of Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001.
Porta, M; Zumeta, E (2002).”Implementing the Stockholm Treaty on Persistent Organic Pollutants”. (Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 59:651:2.)
One of the highest concentrations of toxic pollutants ever recorded in a marine mammal has been revealed in a Scottish killer whale that died in 2016. The adult whale, known as Lulu, was a member of the UK’s last resident pod. The level of PCBs found in Lulu’s blubber were 950mg/kg, more than 100 times the 9mg/kg limit above which damage to the health of marine mammals is known to occur. A 2016 analysis showed the average concentration for killer whales in the Northeast Atlantic was about 150mg/kg.
Submitted by
Tim Rumage
Co-author, This Spaceship Earth
Co-founder, This Spaceship Earth, Inc.
Chief Science Officer and Quartermaster – This Spaceship Earth
4 September 2016
Comparing data from today with the 1st (2015) Quartermaster’s Report (QMR)
Human Population
2016 – 7,448,116, 815 people
2015 QMR – 7,307,492,161
net increase 140,624,654
(the net increase is approximately the combined populations of the Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Mumbai, Beijing, New York City, and Calcutta metropolitan areas.)
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762524.html
Net population increase
2016 – 159 people/min
2015 QMR – 148 people/min
net increase 11 people/min
Food Waste
2016 1,600,000,000 tons
1st QMR 1,300,000,000 tons
net increase – 300,000,000 tons
It takes 250,000 billion liters (66,043 billion gallons) of water,
1.4 billion hectares (14 million sq. km. or 3.5 billion acres or 5.5 million sq. mi.) of land,
and 3.3 billion metric tonnes (3.6 US tons) of CO2 emissions to generate this food waste which has a global economic value of US$750, 000,000,000.
http://www.foodisforeating.org
Temperature
July 2016 was the hottest July ever recorded globally in 136 years of modern record keeping. July continued a streak of ten consecutive months (since October 2015) that have set new monthly high-temperature records.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=88607
Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said. “It’s unprecedented in 1,000 years. There’s no period that has the trend seen in the 20th century in terms of the inclination (of temperatures).”
Climate
Global Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions
from fossil-fuel combustion and industrial processes
2014 – 35,900,000,000 tonnes*
2012 – 34,500,000,000 tonnes (data used for 1st QMR)
net increase 1,400,000,000 tonnes
*http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/15/files/GCP_budget_2015_v1.02.pdf
Translation Equivalency – global anthropogenic CO2 emissions measured in units of 4 tonne Elephants launched into the air/second /year
2014 – 284 elephants/second
2012 – 273 elephants/second
net increase 11 elephants/second
Annual Average Atmospheric Concentrations of CO2
in parts per million (ppm)
2015 – 400.83 ppm
2014 – 398.61 ppm
2013 – 396.48 ppm
2012 – 393.82 ppm
https://www.co2.earth/annual-co2
preindustrial levels ~ 278 ppm
net increase ~122 ppm, ~ 143% increase in CO2 concentrations
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/history.html
Earth Overshoot Day comes earlier
2016 – 8 August
1st QMR – 13 August
net change – 5 days earlier
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. Minimum safe date for balancing demand with resources and services is December 31st.
World’s Ecological Footprint rises to 1.6 Earths
2016 – 1.6 planets
1st QMR 1.56 planets
net increase .04 planets
Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.6 planets to provide the renewable resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth 19.2 months to regenerate what we use in 12 months
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/world_footprint/
Fish Stocks (overexploited/depleted/fully exploited)
2016 – 89.9%
1st QMR 87.0%
net increase 2.9%
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5555e.pdf
Quartermaster’s Additional Considerations
Changes in Land Surface
In the past 30 years
115,000 sq. km (44,000 sq. miles) of land is now covered in water and
173,000 sq. km (67,000 sq. miles) of water has now become land.
The increase in land covered by water is due to sea level rise, the reservoirs that result from damming rivers, and the melt of glaciers thus turning them into lakes.
The two leading causes of increased land area are the drainage of lakes/inland seas and creation of artificial islands for real estate development and territorial claims.
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n9/full/nclimate3111.html
or
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37187100
Subsidence: The gradual caving in or sinking of an area of land
Due to over pumping of ground water, many coastal cities are subsiding (sinking) faster than sea level is rising.
https://www.deltares.nl/en/topdossiers/subsidence/
Extinction Rate:
Extrapolating from the UN Environment Programme estimate, 54,750 – 73,000 species go extinct per year.
According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours.
https://www.cbd.int/doc/speech/2007/sp-2007-05-22-es-en.pdf
Or
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security
Submitted by
Tim Rumage
Co-author, This Spaceship Earth
Co-founder, thisspaceshipearth.org
Chief Science Officer and Quartermaster – This Spaceship Earth
Crew, There are two questions you might consider as you review this update.
First – how well do your assumptions about each topic match the reality of the data?
Second – does the information reflect an outcome that you wish humanity to achieve?
Your reflection and your response to your answers of those two questions will determine your consciousness and participation in defining and creating our common future.