Hhp (Human Height Print)

Tall people need more resources than short people. That’s why it’s rather alarming that the human species continues to grow taller. In fact our increasing height puts more pressure on the ecosystem services than the total population growth. If people become 20% taller this creates over 70% more pressure whereas a 20% population growth would mean 20% more pressure. Yet we have no measurement unit to take this fact into consideration. We need something that makes the pressure of human height on the environment visible. Therefore The Incredible Shrinking Man introduces Hhp (Human Height Print).

Creating such a unit is a complex process. We need to discuss different ways of measuring human impact, create more transparency around footprint thinking, and walk away with a workable definition of Human Height Pressure. As a point of departure can be Paul Ehrlich‘s famous formula I = P x A x T . Human Impact (I) on the environment equals the product of P= Population, A= Affluence, T= Technology. The formula describes how our population, affluence, and technology contribute toward human’s environmental impact. Since then (1971) there have been numerous sustainability measurements, of which unfortunately not a single one takes human height into consideration. It’s time to change that.