“If the consumption aspirations of the wealthiest of nations cannot be satiated, the prospects for corralling consumption everywhere before it strips and degrades our planet beyond recognition would appear to be bleak.”
While there is rising consumption in the developing world, industrial nations remain responsible for the majority of the world's resource consumption and correspondingly the associated global environmental degradation. There is evidence to indicate that things will only get worse, with energy consumption estimated to grow approximately 44% between 2006 and 2030, with 75% growth in developing countries (non-OECD).
The U.S. Consumer
- The United States, with less than 5 % of the global population, uses approximately one quarter of the world's fossil fuel resources - consuming nearly 25 % of the coal, 26 % of the oil, and 27 % of the world’s natural gas.
- Overall cars have outnumbered licensed drivers in the U.S. since 1972 and gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and trucks are among the best-selling vehicles.
- New houses in the U.S. were 38 % bigger in 2002 than in 1975, despite having fewer people per household on average.
8 comments:
This article is very interesting. To think that we are only a little spec in the world and were using a quarter of the worlds resources. This needs to change! We need to change the way of america. All we ever do is consume consume consume. We need to focus on the things that we do have and improve them, rather than producing and importing. But how do we do this? When I was a kid I went to a church play, the play involved Lucifer and Jesus. In a nut shell it showed what happened to Lucifer when he betrayed Jesus. HE WENT TO HELL. The play made hell look so revolting and miserable that since that day I do my best to follow the commandments and do everything to avoid eternal life in hell. A scare tactic is what worked for me, maybe it could work for the rest of the world.
Coal, natural gas, and foreign oil clearly aren't the way to power our nation. These are wasteful technologies that are polluting our Earth and ruining our economy by dependency on foreign imports.
I'm no expert on energy, but from what I've read and understood, global output of solar panels is less than 0.15% of global demand. It seems that for our nation, coal has been our best natural resource thus far. Nuclear power is hotly debated as well.
Clearly, society is not going to stop demanding energy, be it electrical or otherwise. Coal is filthy and destroys our land, and imported fossil fuels create our dependency on foreign nations, lowering our ability to enjoy our own sovereignty and influencing us to interrupt the sovereignty of others.
As I've stated, I'm no expert, but the "least worst" current solution really does seem to be through the creation of nuclear power plants and reduction in usage of foreign oil and gas-guzzling automobiles. That may not be the answer, but to my understanding, it seems to fit. Either way, it's great that more people are working on influencing changes and awareness, and hopefully through debate, discussion, and spreading of awareness, a solution that doesn't compromise our sovereignty and promotes our success arises.
Haley P.
This article is very interesting. We think (as americans) that we do not hurt the environment becuase we can afford to buy anything we want. People have money to spend, so they buy big cars, gas guzzlers, just to drive themselves to and from work. They do not think about what effect on the environment it has. We are selfish in this respect. In other nations, people do not have enough money to buy sport utility vehicles and that is actually a good thing.
I do not think people believe what they do effects the world. They think it is what other people do, not them themselves. Blaming others takes the pressure off themselves, and then they think they are not in the wrong. When people start believing, knowing, they are what effects what happens to this world, maybe they will stop what they are doing.
I think that it is extremely important for consumers to think ahead into the future and change the decisons they make to help create a less polluted environment. If everyone just rode the bus, a bicycle, or walked instead of driving once a week, a small scale improvement could inspire others to take initiative.
Consumerism, though a problem isn't necessarily the largest concern brought up by this article. Rather than attempting to change the fact that people will always have unlimited wants and the world limited resources, the foundation of economics, we instead should focus on promoting consumption of sustainable goods. There is nothing wrong with building a huge house made largely of recycled materials and energy efficient goods. We need to change our type of consumption rather than attemtpting futilely to cease consumption. We need to observe the old adage of quality over quantity. We don't need the "bigger" car we need the "better" car.
I found that this article was interesting. This article is true and i think more people should read this so that they can get a better understanding on how important it is to recycle and not be wasteful. Especially with todays economy, i dont think anybody has money to just be spending. We all need to try our best to be cautious on what we spend our money on and we need to be more resourceful.
This article was both interesting and upsetting. To think that we use that many resources for such a small group in the world is absolutely ridiculous! Above other things, this article made me ask "What's wrong with us?" Why do we need to use a substantial amount of resources to power unnecessary mechanisms? Why do we always feel the need to buy bigger, better and needier equipment and technology? But most importantly, how long will it take for these resources to disappear? It is evident that there is definite over-consumption. But it seems like everyone in this society today blames their neighbor, not themselves, for the problems that over-consumption causes. No one person can fix the problem of over-consumption. It's going to take everyone.
This is an intresting article. It shows the statistics of how much we in the United States use. That we now want and use bigger houses, cars that use higher amounts of fuel to run. The US also uses about 25 percent of coal, oil, and natural gases. Keeping this fuel usage that is projected to increase is not good for our enviroment. Keeping this trend just shows how wasteful we are and we need to try and use our other resources better and cautious with what we use.
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