Importing Our Inflated Amerikan Lifestyles
There is a lot of talk about how Amerika is “exporting jobs” to foreign countries; what is of greater concern is how we are “importing our inflated lifestyles” from foreign countries…
“An ‘ecological footprint’ is the amount of land and water area a person or a human population would need to provide the resources required to sustainably support itself and to absorb its wastes, given prevailing technology. It is a way of determining relative consumption for the purpose of educating people about their resource use and, sometimes, triggering them to change how they consume” (Wikipedia).
For example, in 2005, Iraq had a per capita ecological footprint of 2.5 acres; China 4.0 acres, India 1.7 acres, Nigeria 3.0 acres, Russia 10.9 acres, UK 13.8 acres, Japan 10.6 acres, world average 5.4 acres—Amerika 24.0 acres! (Global Footprint Network)
This means that it requires, on average, approximately 24 acres of planet earth’s surface area to create the goods and services consumed by every Amerikan and to dispose of the waste created by every Amerikan each year.
Interestingly, Amerika’s “bio-capacity”, our domestic surface area available to produce goods and services and to dispose of waste, is only 11.6 acres per capita—leaving an “ecological deficit” of 12.4 acres per capita. This means that at least half of Amerika’s current consumption and waste disposal is being enabled outside of the US; that is, by using resources located in foreign countries.
This scenario is obviously not sustainable...
As developing nations, those who are currently subsidizing our excessive consumption by “exporting” their “surplus” bio-capacity to Amerika, continue to develop, they will want to retain their resources in order to improve their own living standards. The result: “surplus” bio-capacity will no longer be available for export to Amerika.
As the bio-capacity available for Amerikan “import” decreases, we will be faced with some difficult choices: forcibly appropriate resources from foreign countries (Middle East), keep foreign countries poor in order to diminish their demand for their own resources (Africa), or terminate our addiction to excessive consumption and learn to live within our means—at less than half of our current living standard (No way; we’re Amerikans; we’re entitled!!).
As a global reference point, the combined ecological footprint of the entire world’s population is currently 23% greater than the planet can regenerate (Global Footprint Network)—a condition called “overshoot”. We maintain this position—temporarily—by depleting earth’s finite environmental resource reserves. Talk about unsustainable…
(See www.wakeupamerika.com for proposed solutions; I welcome yours as well.)
“An ‘ecological footprint’ is the amount of land and water area a person or a human population would need to provide the resources required to sustainably support itself and to absorb its wastes, given prevailing technology. It is a way of determining relative consumption for the purpose of educating people about their resource use and, sometimes, triggering them to change how they consume” (Wikipedia).
For example, in 2005, Iraq had a per capita ecological footprint of 2.5 acres; China 4.0 acres, India 1.7 acres, Nigeria 3.0 acres, Russia 10.9 acres, UK 13.8 acres, Japan 10.6 acres, world average 5.4 acres—Amerika 24.0 acres! (Global Footprint Network)
This means that it requires, on average, approximately 24 acres of planet earth’s surface area to create the goods and services consumed by every Amerikan and to dispose of the waste created by every Amerikan each year.
Interestingly, Amerika’s “bio-capacity”, our domestic surface area available to produce goods and services and to dispose of waste, is only 11.6 acres per capita—leaving an “ecological deficit” of 12.4 acres per capita. This means that at least half of Amerika’s current consumption and waste disposal is being enabled outside of the US; that is, by using resources located in foreign countries.
This scenario is obviously not sustainable...
As developing nations, those who are currently subsidizing our excessive consumption by “exporting” their “surplus” bio-capacity to Amerika, continue to develop, they will want to retain their resources in order to improve their own living standards. The result: “surplus” bio-capacity will no longer be available for export to Amerika.
As the bio-capacity available for Amerikan “import” decreases, we will be faced with some difficult choices: forcibly appropriate resources from foreign countries (Middle East), keep foreign countries poor in order to diminish their demand for their own resources (Africa), or terminate our addiction to excessive consumption and learn to live within our means—at less than half of our current living standard (No way; we’re Amerikans; we’re entitled!!).
As a global reference point, the combined ecological footprint of the entire world’s population is currently 23% greater than the planet can regenerate (Global Footprint Network)—a condition called “overshoot”. We maintain this position—temporarily—by depleting earth’s finite environmental resource reserves. Talk about unsustainable…
(See www.wakeupamerika.com for proposed solutions; I welcome yours as well.)
posted by Chris Clugston at 10/26/2006 06:35:00 PM
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