Even if nations increased their energy and resource-use efficiency four-fold, there isn’t enough natural capital left intact to continue business as usual says says Eugene Rosa, a professor of natural resources and environmental policy at Washington State University.

(Natural capital are the resources — metals, oil — and services — air, water, etc — that nature provides.)

Improvements in technology and modernisation won’t rescue our planet from the depletion of the Earth’s natural capital, says Rosa.

For more on this topic please see this three-part series from 2007 on natural capital and how future global prosperity and equity CAN be achieved through the preservation of ecosystems:

See Part One: Like Enron, Earth Inc. Sliding Into Bankruptcy

Part Two: Global Warming is Real But I didn’t Do It

Part three: How to Kick-Start the 21st Century Eco-Economy