Did you know:


Sequoia -- from the Cherokee Indian chief Sequoyah
sempervirens -- from the Latin meaning "always living"

Well now you do.

I like Sequoias. Do you? Do you have any idea how long Sequoias live? You might want to find out? And what about us mere mortals?

I came across some notes by William Rees . Definitely worth thinking about. Here's something he's said that got my attention ...


Let us examine this prospect using ecological footprint analysis. If just the present [i.e. January 1996 - ed.] world population of 5.8 billion people were to live at current North American ecological standards (say 4.5 ha/person), a reasonable first approximation of the total productive land requirement would be 26 billion hectares (assuming present technologies). However, there are only just over 13 billion hectares of land on Earth, of which only 8.8 billion are ecologically productive cropland, pasture, or forest (1.5 ha/person). In short, we would need an additional two planet Earths to accommodate the increased ecological load of people alive today. If the population were to stabilise at between 10 and 11 billion sometime in the next century, five additional Earths would be needed, all else being equal - and this just to maintain the present rate of ecological decline (Rees and Weinberger, 1994).

I haven't checked the math yet ... but if its true ... then what will happen to the sequoias?