So Much Depends On So Little
Use an apple to demonstrate the earth's limited resources
By Jane Karinen
AWSS Newsletter, August 2002

While assembling this newsletter I was sent a hard-copy diagram titled "So much depends on so little." I never did find an electronic copy, however, I feel it is worth presenting. Here goes, in text format:

So much depends on so little!

On planet earth all living things depend on the soil: plants, people, animals - even fish - rely on the soil for food. Only a small portion of our land is capable of producing food.

Try this demonstration:

Imagine the earth as an apple.

1. Cut it into 4 equal parts. Only one part is land-the rest is water.
2. Cut the land section in half. One part is mountains, deserts, or is covered with ice.
3. Cut the other livable area into fourths. Three of these are too rocky, wet, hot, infertile, or covered with roads and cities.
4. There is now only 1/32 of a slice of apple remaining.
5. When this section is peeled it represents the top soil on which the food is grown that must feed the people on the earth.

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Webmaster's Note:
Here are some other resources for the apple-as-earth lesson:

• How Much Soil Is There?
  An interactive demonstation from the Globe Project.
  http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/globe/app_soil/hmsoil.htm
  
  
• Apple Lesson: How much topsoil do we have to use?
  A basic lesson plan with objective, background, materials, procedures, and evaluation. From the North Carolina NRCS. http://www.nc.nrcs.usda.gov/features/Education/appletrick.html
  
  
• The World's Apple: Activity Sheet
  A nice step-by-step description and illustrations of the apple lesson. This is a PDF file from the Texas NRCS. Right click and select Save As to download.
  http://www.tx.nrcs.usda.gov/fact%20sheets/fact_apple.pdf (PDF file)