Humans, of course, are very different from bacteria, and the Earth is different from a petri dish. Humans control their rate of reproduction and, to an extent, the quantity of resources they use. The Earth hosts numerous ecosystems capable of providing renewable resources and processing wastes. However, human adaptation to resource scarcity requires taking time to develop new technologies, new institution , and new ways of thinking-perhaps great deal of time. Essentially, the closer it is to noon, the less time we have to develop and implement the necessary changes to show that we actually are stially different from bacteria in a petri dish. (See figure 7.1)