Re: [pf] living within the nation's means - "rich" or "poor"

At 12:30 28/1/2001 -0800, I wrote:
>· I'm thinking about how the USA used to be a rich country, with lots of
resources.
>· But over the last 3 generations, her people ... in their attempt to live
like gods, ... are now taking what they want from other nations. Even now,
I believe Americans would have a very comfortable life if they would only
live within their means ...
>· I see this ... as returning to being "rich", as the country was at the
beginning of the 20th century ...
>

· The table below, selected from the URL just below, shows the USA as
having 5.5 ha/cap (= 13.6 acres per person) of biologically productive
area. That's more than almost all others, and compares with Ireland and
Argentina. /I/ call those _rich_ countries, as seen from the rest of the
world.

· And very easy to live a very comfortable life in. Less than 100 years
ago, within my father's lifetime, Americans started exaggerating their
consumption beyond their nation's means, and started preying on other
nations' resources. _Yes_ they paid money for them, but because the total
around the world is fixed, their predation left less and less for everyone
else (including the tens of millions of non-human species). 
  The measure of this predatory activity is the ecological deficit,
accelerating so that the US eco-footprint is now more than twice its
existing biological capacity.

http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/rprogress_deficittable_text.html#top 

· has (note: the ecol. deficit in /braces/ {} includes leaving 12%
untouched by humans, for all other living things. Also, that provides the
ordering. Conversion factor: 2.47 acres=1 ha or 100m x 100m) :-

              eco-footprint  existing   ecological
     population            biological   deficit      total        total
     (millions)             capacity   (if neg.)  footprint  bio-capacity

       (1996)    [ha/cap]   [ha/cap]    [ha/cap]       [km2]       [km2]

 USA    269.4     12.2         5.5    -6.7 {-8.4}  33,006,000  14,899,000
 UK      58.4      6.2         1.8    -4.4 {-5.3}   3,646,000   1,053,000
Germany  81.9      6.2         2.4    -3.8 {-4.7}   5,112,000   1,998,000
Ireland   3.6      9.5         6.6    -2.9 {-4.2}     345,000     239,000
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 Syria   14.6      2.5         1.1    -1.4 {-1.8}     370,000     159,000
Thailand 59.2      2.7         1.3    -1.4 {-1.7}   1,602,000     788,000
 Jordan   5.9      1.7         0.2    -1.5 {-1.7}     101,000      12,000
Lithuania 3.7      4.7         3.7    -1.0 {-1.7}     176,000     137,000
 Cuba    11.0      2.1         1.1    -1.0 {-1.3}     230,000     122,000
China 1,232.5      1.8         0.9    -1.0 {-1.2}  22,722,000  10,844,000
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
WORLD 5,744.9      2.9         2.2    -0.7 {-1.1} 163,809,000 125,404,000
                         (^ = 5.4 acres)
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ElSalvdor 5.8      1.5         0.7    -0.8 {-1.0}      89,000      41,000
CostaRica 3.7      2.7         2.1    -0.6 {-1.0}     100,000      78,000
Zimbabwe 11.0      1.4         0.7    -0.8 {-1.0}     160,000      75,000
 Norway   4.4      6.1         6.2     0.1 {-0.8}     267,000     269,000
Philppns 69.9      1.4         0.9    -0.5 {-0.7}     989,000     614,000
 Sweden   8.8      7.5         8.0     0.5 {-0.5}     663,000     706,000
 Croatia  4.5      2.3         2.2    -0.1 {-0.5}     105,000      99,000
 India  950.0      1.1         0.7    -0.3 {-0.5}   9,991,000   6,979,000
 Vietnam 75.2      0.9         0.6    -0.3 {-0.4}     713,000     488,000
 Uruguay  3.2      4.8         5.1     0.2 {-0.4}     156,000     164,000
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_

 Malaysia 20.5     3.7         4.0     0.3 {-0.2}     754,000     818,000
 Finland   5.1     8.4         9.8     1.3 { 0.2}     432,000     500,000
 Tanzania 30.7     1.0         1.3     0.3 { 0.2}     311,000     413,000
Guatemala 10.2     1.4         1.8     0.4 { 0.2}     142,000     183,000
Argentina 35.2     3.7         5.1     1.3 { 0.8}   1,314,000   1,779,000
C.D'ivoir 13.8     1.0         1.9     1.0 { 0.8}     131,000     266,000
Indnesia 200.4     1.5         3.2     1.7 { 1.5}   2,959,000   6,399,000
 Ecuador  11.7     2.2         4.1     1.8 { 1.5}     262,000     477,000
 Canada   29.9     7.7        11.2     3.5 { 2.5}   2,296,000   3,345,000
Venezuela 22.3     2.9         5.9     3.0 { 2.6}     637,000   1,305,000
Nicaragua  4.6     1.2         4.2     3.0 { 2.8}      57,000     193,000
NewZealand 3.7     9.5        15.7     6.2 { 4.9}     352,000     583,000
 Laos      4.9     0.9         7.3     6.4 { 6.3}      44,000     358,000
 Peru     23.9     1.3         9.3     7.9 { 7.8}     316,000   2,218,000
 Brazil  161.5     2.5        11.5     9.0 { 8.6}   4,108,000  18,615,000
 Bolivia   7.6     1.3        13.3    12.0 {11.8}      96,000   1,008,000


David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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