Earth - a cornucopia?
The Latin "cornu copiae" means a horn-shaped container (cornu) of plenty (copiae), usually referring to lovely food and flowers. Is Earth fundamentally a horn of plenty? Note, I don't go back to creation and paradise, I focus on our times. The question firstly is which areas globally are "less usable" to humankind, thus thwarting a possible cornucopia?
We all know that about 70% of Earth's surface is covered by the oceans. These are on average 1,5km deep. From the oceanic abundance, humankind has reaped uncountable riches, though we are now on the brink of some sea devastation. For the basic argument, only about 30% is left as living and action space for mankind.
Globally, large portions of land rise as high mountains - extremely beautiful, but not prime contributors to overall life sustenance. There are, of course, contributions as with forestry, mining, vast watersheds, etc. Mountainous areas nowadays attract more tourism; but percentage-wise this is still small. The relatively minute lower Nile beats the total of global mountain areas in terms of tourism and food production. Some 8% of Earth's land surface is composed of great mountain chains that girdle the globe and rise to almost 2 000m. (The road of the Outeniqua Pass peaks at 800m.)
Ice and snow regions make up more area than the mountains, though disagreement on classification complicates matters. The growing season here is short - slopes are too steep, soils are shallow or non-existent and vegetation is limited or absent, etc. Some negative interpreters call these areas, as the more impenetrable mountain tops, catastrophic features of Earth, supporting the hard thesis that Earth in itself is a ravaged wreck.
Most northerly and southerly regions of Earth are relatively limited for economic production. Such "tundras", with their low sun angle, are underlain by permanently frozen sub-soils (perma-frost), making them marshy, mucky and water-logged in the short warmer season.
The abundance of the tropics (heavy rainfall as most important factor) is unbelievably complicated by occupancy itself, leached soils, and numerous plagues of insect and disease (though climate change may "export" these widely).
And then there are the true deserts 14% of Earth's surface, and an additional 14% of semi-arid regions.
After all the above, only about a third of the land surface remains for best human use. More than 90% of the population is huddled together on less than 10% of these areas. They are predominantly places of attractive location and climate, lower elevation, mostly in mid-latitudes, near or at the sea, and some originated on the rich soil of broad river plains. Earth's own retribution shows that excessive urban polarisation is challenged by tremendous development and environmental problems.
Some doomsday believers see the excessive spatial concentrations to be people clinging to the flotsam and jetsam of a shipwreck. Earth is no Garden of Eden, no Cornucopia. It cries out for human ingenuity with an increasing understanding of sustainable development and environmental protection.
[Recognition to professor Ronald
Reed Boyce, Seattle Pacific University, appreciated colleague and critical analyst]
Our World /Ons Wêreld appears every second week.