I lived in the U.S. for 2 decades and saw the effects of a highly efficient consumption oriented society first-hand. During that time, I used to visit India, my home country every couple of years. During the eighties, it used to look pretty much the same during every visit. From the nineties onwards, the pace of change has quickened and now the consumption bug has bitten hard. I am sure there are Chinese who will attest to the same pattern in China on an even larger scale. Disposable income is increasing which is fueling the consumption boom. I moved back to India a few years ago and watching the pace of change first-hand is breathtaking.
Until the emergency of China and India we had about a billion (correct me if I'm wrong) living in the U.S., Europe, Japan and a few other countries who had set up highly-developed consumption oriented societies. Now we have another 2.5 billion people coming on stream just in India and China alone. Does the earth stand a chance? I mean pretty much everything has to be dug out of the ground and I know it sounds like the doomsday scenario being painted here so what is the fate of earth?
Here's an example of some of it's effects:
Asia's rainforests vanishing as timber, food demand surge: experts
Until the emergency of China and India we had about a billion (correct me if I'm wrong) living in the U.S., Europe, Japan and a few other countries who had set up highly-developed consumption oriented societies. Now we have another 2.5 billion people coming on stream just in India and China alone. Does the earth stand a chance? I mean pretty much everything has to be dug out of the ground and I know it sounds like the doomsday scenario being painted here so what is the fate of earth?
Here's an example of some of it's effects:
Asia's rainforests vanishing as timber, food demand surge: experts