Catching Up With The US

I have just watched a great video by Hans Rosling who uses his Gapminder software to show how wealth and health have evolved around the world since the mid 1800s.  Take a look: The World Converging on the US

It is amazing to see how Europe and the US took off with the industrial revolution and how the Far East is now accelerating to catch up.  What is even more interesting is Hans' assumption that we can all comfortably coexist in the "top right hand corner", with the same level of wealth and health.  However, if we all aspire to that level of consumption, then we need another 4 planets!  There just aren't the resources.

All of these trends are converging, resources are running short and yet we are still relentlessly pursuing growth.  Watch Al Bartlett to find out what 2% growth actually means.  2% means we double our consumption every 35 years (divide 70 by the percentage - simples!).  In the next 20 years we will consume the same volume of natural resources as humankind has consumed in its entire history!

This problem is also compounded by population growth, currently standing at: just under 1.2%  Fortunately this rate is declining, but at this rate the population will still double in approximately 58 years.  So, as David Attenborough says, we need to get the population growth rate to 0.  How do we do that?  Education . . . . . . but that is another story.