The main issue is this: We need to reduce consumption overall!
It is well known that Americans consume far more natural resources and live much less sustainably than people from any other large country of the world. “A child born in the United States will create thirteen times as much ecological damage over the course of his or her lifetime than a child born in Brazil,” reports the Sierra Club’s Dave Tilford, adding that the average American will drain as many resources as 35 natives of India and consume 53 times more goods and services than someone from China.
Over 50% of the worlds resources are consumed by the USA. A lot of it goes to waste e.g. restaurant food, "ugly" fruits etc
The problem isn't the quantity of those resources, the problem is in distribution. The world is abundant enough to comfortably support twice as many humans, if human inefficiencies, waste, greed and selfishness are factored out.
What is your claim here? That Americans do not consume in absurd quantities as a way of life? Meat, sugar, oil, land, etc.? Is this even a matter of serious debate?
Or maybe people in the US just don't eat that much? - I've heard they are a healthy, sustainability conscious people who only consume as much energy as is needed to live a happy and productive life
Virtually everyone in the US can safely reduce consumption.
I live in India. India is vastly poorer than the US - the upper middle class over here has a standard of living comparable to the bottom 10% of the US [1]. The savings rate is in the neighborhood of 20-30%.
Of course rising population is at the heart of this. But unless you’re planning to Thanos our way out of the situation, the people in the Western world need to consume less. Less beef, which is hugely polluting. Less sugar, which is toxic and useless. Less paper products. Less air conditioning. And yes, fewer objects. The average American child owns between 70 and 100 toys. The average American woman owns 100+ items of clothing. The average American spends $16,000 on retail items per year. It is too much; it is more than we need. It all takes energy to manufacture, and to ship, and it all ends up in the trash.
I wonder if there's any studies out there that calculate if Americans (or the worldwide middle class in general) reduce their overall consumption of...anything by X%, what is the likelihood of it sending a particular industry into chaos from the reduced demand.
Yeah. Even Europeans are shocked at the level of consumption in the US. Driving absolutely everywhere. Air conditioning everywhere keeping the buildings colder than necessary. Heating keeping them warmer than necessary. All plastic packaging is twice as thick and there's twice as much of it. Eating enough food to maintain an overweight/obese body. It's an extremely wasteful society.
If we as a species are going to do anything it has to be all together. We all have to make cuts. Only a tiny number of individuals will voluntarily give up what they have. Why would they? It's just not fair. Many simply can't give it up without losing their jobs etc. We cannot point at Brasil while we are also living far beyond our means.
see: http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_u...
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