the world in an apple
Oct 10th, 2007 by Laura Reinsborough
- From Green Teacher:
- The World in an Apple
- This exercise using an apple illustrates our dependency on the biosphere. Slice an apple representing the earth into quarters. Set aside three quarters to represent the oceans. Slice the remaining quarter into two pieces and dispose of one of the pieces representing the land that is inhospitable for people. The remaining 1/8 represents the land where people live, but not all of which may grow the foods needed for life. Slice the remaining 1/8 into four sections and set aside three of the sections. These represent areas too rocky, too steep, or too cold to produce food. Carefully peel the remaining 1/32 slice of the earth. This represents the surface, the very thin skin of the earth’s crust, or topsoil upon which humanity depends. It is less than five feet deep and is capable of producing a relatively fixed amount of food. Due to erosion and over farming, we lose 24 billion tons of it per year. It takes 100 years for one inch of topsoil to form.
