Astonishingly, Richard Barker wrote: "
I don't know enough about the Kyoto Protocol to comment on whether it
was a good idea or not, but even if you dispute global warming, the
Earth's resources are running out and unless world wide legislation is
brought in to force countries and companies to be more 'green' we are
going to have a global Easter Island.  I saw some statistic once, I have
no idea how true this is, but it was something like if everyone on the
planet consumed resources in same manner as an average European, the
world would run out of all resources in 3 months.  If the same was
applied to the average American then the world would run out in 2 weeks.

The western decadent lifestyle needs to change, whether we like it or
not."

Don't you people even think for one second before posting such tripe?

The population of Europe is about 425 million without counting Eastern
Europe.  The global population is about 6 billion people.  This means
that Europe represents about one fourteenth of the global population.
So if it would take 3 months for a global population of Europeans to
consume all the planetary resources, it would take about 14 times as
long for one fourteenth of the global population to do the same.  That's
42 months, about 3.5 years.

However, the Americans will have consumed all planetary resources on
their own much faster.  The population of America is roughly 300
million; let's add about 30 million Canadians who have about the same
appetite for resources as the average American does.  That's 330 million
or one eighteenth of the Global population.  So if it would take 2 weeks
for a global population of Americans to consume all the planetary
resources, it would take about 18 times as long for one eighteenth of
the global population to do the same.  That's 36 weeks.

Which means that between the Europeans and the Americans, all global
resources will be consumed before Labor Day this year.  Better start
hoarding that petrol.  :)


Denys

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *