Abstract
The planet Earth is a sphere with a limited surface of 5 × 1013 m2, of which 71 % is water and only 29 % is land. A total of 27.5 % of the landmass (i.e. 11 % of earth’s surface) is used as arable acreage, 20.8 % as pasture, and 9.4 % is used to grow timber. The remaining surface, which mainly is made up of deserts and mountains, is unused: 10.1 % is a frozen surface and 2.0 % is inland water. Meanwhile, the human population requires not less than 7 % of the land—a number that is constantly growing at the expense of the arable landmass. In fact, the usable area has been diminishing for years.
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Offermanns, H., Plass, L., Bertau, M. (2014). Introduction. In: Bertau, M., Offermanns, H., Plass, L., Schmidt, F., Wernicke, HJ. (eds) Methanol: The Basic Chemical and Energy Feedstock of the Future. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39709-7_1
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