Smil describes how man takes what Earth has to offer. The combined people on the planet now weigh 10 times as much as all other mammals combined – and we need food. By deforestation, draining mires and so on, the amount of living plant mass has been reduced by 45%, one third of which happened in the 21st century. There are ways to reduce the pressure on natural resources though. Read the whole paper in Population Development Research.
