Are We Consuming Too Much?

摘要

Is humanity's use of Earth's resources endangering the economic possibilities open to our descendants? There is wide disagreement on the question. Many people worry about the growth in our use of natural resources over the past century. Some of this increase reflects the higher resource demands from a growing world population. But it also reflects the growth of per capita output and consumption. During the twentieth century, world population grew by a factor of four to more than 6 billion, and industrial output increased by a factor of 40.