Thursday, December 3, 2009

Consumption & Resourceshttp://www.unfpa.org/6billion/ccmc/consumptionandresources.html

During the 1990s, one U.S. citizen was consuming 30 times what one citizen of India did; developed nations were 20% of the world's population yet used two-thirds of all resources and generated 75% of the world's pollution and waste. (1) World consumption patterns were undermining the environmental resource base. Yet the 1 billion people living in absolute poverty require increased consumption so as to alleviate their malnutrition, disease and illiteracy. Consumption disparities are increasingly stark: With world population at 6 billion and rising, the richest 20% of humanity consumes 86% of all goods and services used, while the poorest fifth consumes just 1.3%. The wealthy consume 45% of all meat and fish, use 58% of all energy produced and own 87% of the vehicles. (2)  Meanwhile, 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation, 1.3 billion have no access to clean water, 1.1 billion lack adequate housing and nearly 900 million have no access to modern health services of any kind. (2)  According to the United Nations, Americans and Europeans together spend $17 billion a year on pet food, $4 billion more than the estimated yearly additional amount needed to provide everyone in the world with basic health and nutrition. (2)

No comments:

Post a Comment