You've heard the concern: As the world’s population grows, we will eventually run out of food and land. It’d be a terrifying scenario … if it were true. Our new video explains how humans have hacked nature and overcome many of the limits of natural resources.
The planet only has so many natural resources. And the more people there are, the thinner those assets get stretched. That’s an intuitive concept — and one that has haunted humans throughout their history. The good news: It’s not necessarily true. In fact, one of the defining features of the past few centuries has been our ability to get more from less. Natural resources are limited, but innovation isn’t.
Take your smartphone, for example. It may be one of the most efficient technologies ever invented, replacing everything from alarm clocks to photo albums to cameras. One study estimated that the rise of smartphones has led to us using 100 times less energy and 300 times less material than we used to for the same tasks.
You can see the same pattern in agriculture. Innovative farming techniques have empowered us to get more food from less land. In the 50 years between 1964 and 2014, the average amount of land needed to provide the same amount of food … fell by 2/3.
We have reason to be optimistic about the future. As long as we preserve the factors that allow us to innovate, it’s likely that our societies will continue to get healthier and more prosperous without running up against the limits of nature.
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