Re: [pf] we took the wrong track, in the '50s and '60s

by Betsy Barnum

07 December 2000 20:44 UTC

Sharon Flesher wrote:

> I remember reading a few years ago that some environmentalist (can't
> remember who) had calculated that the earth's carrying capacity would allow
> everyone on the planet to have the lifestyle of the average middle-class
> European. I wish I could recall the details of this, but I can't. The point
> was that the average European's lifestyle is quite comfortable and allows
> for a basic level of these labor-saving devices we enjoy.

This was Alan Thein Durning in one of his books, I think it was _How Much Is
Enough?_, or maybe it was in an article. He was referring to, and I think
specified, the European lifestyle of about 20 years ago, not today, as Europe
today is looking more like the U.S. than it used to. I believe it was mainly two
things that Durning felt made that lifestyle Earth-friendly and sustainable:
smaller living space per person, and very different transportation choices.
European cities tend to be compact and therefore lend themselves to
non-auto-use; what cars there are tend to be *much* smaller and more
fuel-efficient than the average American car. And houses/dwellings with fewer
square feet are exponentially more efficient to keep warm, lit, etc. than the
mini-mansions that are the upscale standard now in the ex-urban U.S.

So it's very much a matter of design--not just individual lifestyle choice, but
the need to change the way the "hardware" of our society is designed and built.

> For everyone to
> have the average American lifestyle would require 4 (or was it 9?) planets.

It depends on whose "environmental footprint" calculation you use. In Rees and
Wackernagel's book _[The?Our?Your?] Ecological Footprint_, I think they figured
it would take three more Earths, for a total of 4, for all people alive to share
the U.S. way of life. And that was several years ago, maybe four or five--so
it's probably worse now. But, like the nuclear capability to wipe out the enemy
10 times or 20 times, it really doesn't matter, since we only have one Earth
anyway!

Betsy
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