Suppose Everyone Consumed Like Us?

Suppose every country in the world had the same consumption rates as the United States, how much of this planet's resources would be consumed? The New Economics Foundation think tank in the UK estimated that "if everyone in the world had the same consumption rates as in the United States it would take 5.3 planet earths to support them . . . The figure was 3.1 for France and Britain, 3.0 for Spain, 2.5 for Germany and 2.4 for Japan. —Reuters News Service Britain. What would it take to drastically reduce our consumption of the world's dwindling resources?

Photo: Goldfield Ghost Town, The Apache Trail, Arizona. Photo by Donald Peterson