Economic Development

In the 1990s, the average person in the U.S. consumed about 30 times as much as the average person in India. We often think of those people in the developing world as poor, but what about the impact of our wealth? As people in India become richer, should their goal be to consume 30 times as much as they do now? Given that the 20% of the world's population in the developed nations generate about 75% of the pollution and waste, more Indians consuming much larger amounts of resources and generating huge amounts of waste doesn't seem like a sustaninable proposition. Here are some other things to think about.

• The U. S. population is 4.6% of the global population, but it produces 24% of the world's carbon dioxide output, largely from the burning of fossil fuels.
• The richest 20% of humanity consumes 86% of all goods and services used, while the poorest fifth consumes just 1.3%.
• The world's wealthy consume 45% of all meat and fish, use 58% of all energy produced and own 87% of the vehicles.
• On average, each U. S. citizen consumes an average of 260 lbs. of meat per year, the world's highest rate. This is about 1.5 times the industrial world average, three times the East Asian average, and 40 times the average in Bangladesh, which is 6.5 lbs. a year.

The list goes on and on, but the real question is for you to answer. How do your actions affect the lives of others? Can you make a difference by reducing the impact of your choices?