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Á
MERICA
has more of just about
1""1..
everything that roen and
machines can make.
From computers to can openers and
f rom fertilizer to furniture, America
leads the world in the production and
consumption of goods that make for
what is called by many "the American
way of life."
Straining to catch up to the American
standard are the nations of Western
Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, South
Africa and a few other islands of af–
tluence in a sea of scarcity and want.
But is affiuence only for a select
20
percent of the earth's inhabitants?
What about the other
80
percent? Can
this massive group hope to someday
share a similar affiuence? Is there any
hope that the entire world can attain
the level of American affiuence? Will
the
Pe~vians
sorne day survey the
Añdes fwm their split-level ranch-style
bornes ulled with all the goods and
gadgets of our technological society?
Will
the Pygmies one day drive thei r
Pontiacs ( or at least their Volks–
wagens) to and from work? Does the
earth have sufficient resources to make it
possible?
The
U.
S. has less than six percent of
the world's people. But it spends about
forty percent of the world's resources on
itself.
Affluent America
This includes well over a third of the
world's tin, over a fourth of its steel ,
phosphate, potash and nitrogenous fer–
tilizer, about a fifth of its cotton, and
about half of its newsprint and synthet–
ic rubber.
The
U.
S. yearly steel consumption
amounts to
1400
lbs. per person, that of
Western Europe 712 lbs. , Japan 697,
India
26,
Africa
23. U.
S. per-person
steel consumption is 667 times that of
Indonesia and 133 times that of
Pakistan.
When it comes to copper, the
U.
S.
annual per capita consumption is over
20
lbs., Western Europe
14,
Japan
10,
and Africa and India five ounces. The
story is similar for all other metals.
The average American uses more
electricity than
55
Asians or Africans,
and he consumes about eight times as
much oil per capita as sorne others in
the free world - about
900
gallons per
pe~son
annually.
On a worldwide average, a single
person in developed nations uses about
as many resources as 25 persons in
underdeveloped countries. And, if only
15
percent of the world's tota l popu–
lation - about 500 million people -
were living on the American standard,
they would consume
ALL
current world–
wide production of goods and materials.
Meanwhi le, the remaining masses -
3.1 billion people - would be left
without anything!
If
everyone living today were to have
a supply of materials equal to the
U.
S.
pcr capita leve!, the overaU world pro–
duction would have to be multiplied
7.2
times.
By the year 2000, using a con–
servative estímate, the world's popu–
lation will stand at
5
billion. Then
ten
times
today's total production would
be
needed for everyone to l ive at the
current American leve!. This would
require about 75 times as much iron and
zinc as is now annually extracted,
100
times as much copper, 200 times as
much lead, and
250
times as much
tin.
Our
Finite
Earth
America today is so busy coveri ng
two acres per minute with houses, facto–
ries, stores and roads that little thought
is given to the fact
that
sooner or later
there will be a shortage of raw
materials.
In the hustle and bustle, America