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Can we all live this way?

Can we all live this way?. Population and Consumption: Feast and Famine, Equity and Ecology. Ecological literacy & exponential growth. Population growth DCs: from 2% to 1.4% (1975-2015) ICs: from . 6% to .3% (1975-2015) World: 1.6% to 1.1 % UN projects 8-10 billion by 2050

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Can we all live this way?

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  1. Can we all live this way? Population and Consumption: Feast and Famine, Equity and Ecology

  2. Ecological literacy & exponential growth • Population growth • DCs: from 2% to 1.4% (1975-2015) • ICs: from . 6% to .3% (1975-2015) • World: 1.6% to 1.1 % • UN projects 8-10 billion by 2050 • Consumption • Growing twice rate as fast as population • Directly correlated with energy use

  3. Global class analysis • Global rich (1/5 world population) • Control 90% of world's wealth • Emit 85% of world's greenhouse gases • Global poor (1/5 world population) • World wealth & greenhouse gases: 2% • Global middle class (60% of population) World wealth & greenhouse gases: 10% • Trends?

  4. Food: economic and ecological connections • 1 billion people chronically undernourished • 40,000 people, mostly children, die daily • Affluent countries: obesity a chronic problem • 1 can of diet soda: 2400 cals. to produce for 1 cal. of nutrition • Same energy could produce 7000 cals. of food • Q: Source of the surplus energy ?

  5. The food-energy connection • Fossil-fuel based global food web • Fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, machines • Transportation • U.S.: the agricultural hegemon • 40% of all wheat exports; 50% corn; #1 rice exporter • States subsidize crops central to their citizens' diets: What does U.S. subsidize?

  6. Environmental effects of meat • Cattle outnumber humans 3:1 • Average American consumes over 2 kg/wk (India = 2 kg/year) • Environmental consequences • Waste in rivers & groundwater • Tropical deforestation • Desertification from • Methane: 80 million tons/year • Water for a typical American's meat = daily home water use

  7. Water Facts • “Basic daily need:” 30-50 liters • Africans: 37 liters • U.S.: 420 liters • 5% of world population, 15% of world’s water • 1.1 billion lack safe drinking water • Water use grew twice as fast as pop. in 20th C. • Bottled water: over $100 billion in 2005 • $10 billion/year needed to meet U.N. goal of cutting number of people in half by 2015 • 1.5 million barrels oil > 2.7 million tons of plastic for bottled water

  8. Development & the Global Food Web • Shift from food self-sufficiency to dependency • Export-led growth: cash crops, not food for people • DCs: coffee, sugar, cotton • Heavily dependent on petrochemicals • Ex: Chocolate (transparency) • Monocultures and declining biodiversity

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