From the Guardian, via The Taipei Times: If China and other developing nations were to match US levels of consumption, the consequences would be disastrous, but the technology exists for such a scenario to be avoide.

For almost as long as I can remember, the experts have been saying that the US, with 5 percent of the world’s population, consumes a third or more of the Earth’s resources. That is no longer true.

China has now overtaken the US as the world’s leading resource consumer. Among the basic commodities — grain and meat in the food sector, oil and coal in the energy sector, and steel in the industrial sector — China now consumes more of each of these than the US except for oil. It consumes nearly twice as much meat — 67 million tonnes compared with 39 million tonnes in the US; and more than twice as much steel — 258 million tonnes to 104 million.

The important questions now are: what if China’s consumption per person of these resources reaches the current US level, and how long will it take for China’s income per person to reach the US level?

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