Forests and land
Over a third of the world's crop land has been degraded by poor agricultural practices. Of the 15 billion acres of forest that covered the earth 8,000 years ago, 9 billion remain today. Tropical forests are being cut down at the rate of 27,000 square miles a year. While half the wetlands in the entire U.S. have been drained in the past 300 years, the figure for California is 95 percent.

Atmosphere
Americans alone produce 5.5 tons of CO2 per year per person. Altogether, humans produce twice as much of this greenhouse gas as the planet's ecosystem can absorb. The rest? Well, it's forming a cozy blanket around the earth, and global mean temperature has risen about 1 degree since 1900. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 1983. Butterflies have gotten the message–they're shifting their nesting grounds northward. Human response? Average m.p.g. of the U.S. auto fleet has slipped back to 1980 levels.

Consumption
Americans consume their weight in stuff every day as the millennium draws to a close. If the earth's productive land were divided equally among the world's 6 billion people, we'd each get about three acres to provide for us. The average American's consumption patterns demand three times this much–and that's neither fair nor sustainable. In addition, each of us "disposes of" about a ton of trash per year.

Species
Biologists call this the Sixth Great Extinction period in the history of the earth–and the first to be caused by one of the species (give you three guesses). Extinction rates are 1000 times the historic norm.

So, the marks aren't too high. But it's good to know where we stand, so we can take the steps to move to a better place. Need ideas? This April marks the 30th Anniversary of Earth Day. Every congregation and all of The Third Day recipients will receive a resource mailing on stewardship of energy from the Brethren Witness office and the NCCC Eco-Justice Working Group. Make use of it!