At 10:41 AM 7/1/97, "W. T. Haswell" <wthaswell@proaxis.com> [SAF-News] wrote: >Studies of sustainable economies have shown that the consumption >patterns in the US are unequivacably unsustainable as a world goal, >while those in Western Europe may be achievable (about 3x less than the >US). -------- cut ------- Dear Foresters: One thing I like about several European countries is they have achieved a zero population growth (ZPG). If foresters are truly concerned about consumption, then we should first advocate for a stable population for both Europe and the United States. Here is a list of some European countries that have ZPG. http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/forestry/SOFOTOC.htm Portugal Croatia Czech Republic Ireland Hungary Bulgaria Roman ia A few others are real close Poland Italy Only a few Euorpean countries have a population growth rate (%) that exceeds the United States. Iceland Macedonia Yugoslavia Switzerland Liechtenstein If you are a forester and are concerned with the impacts of rapid population growth and wasteful consumption on the management of our forests and tree plantations, then send me an e-mail directly (do not hit the reply button). We now have a chapter of ZPG for foresters and we are looking for a few good charter members. ======================================== On a related consumption matter, you may be interested in the concept of "ecological footprint." Ecological Footprints of Nations How Much Nature Do They Use? -- How Much Nature Do They Have? by: Mathis Wackernagel, Larry Onisto, Alejandro Callejas Linares, Ina Susana López Falfán, Jesus Méndez García, Ana Isabel Suárez Guerrero, Ma. Guadalupe Suárez Guerrero http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/report/english/footprnt.htm A nice thing about this web site is you can download statistical data (Excel 4.0) on 52 nations. http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/report/english/footprnt.zip The authors say the ecological footprint for the United States is currently at 8.4 ha/person. Here are some footprints for selected European countries. Denmark 5.8 ha/person Finland 6.3 ha/person France 5.7 ha/person Germany 4.6 ha/person Hungary 2.5 ha/person Iceland 9.9 ha/person Portugal 5.1 ha/person UK 4.6 ha/person So if we compare footprint size (perhaps a more wholistic approach than comparing one type of building product with another), we see that the US footprint/person is about 70% bigger than some European countries. Some of the lowest footprints are from: Bangladesh 0.7 ha/person India 0.8 ha/person China 1.2 ha/person Ethiopia 1.0 ha/person Peru 1.7 ha/person Nigeria 1.7 ha/person Indonesia 1.6 ha/person According to the authors, the countries with a landbase adequate to support their populations footprint are: Australia Canada Chile China (currently) Finland India (currently) Ireland New Zealand Pakistan (currently) Sweden Of course, some of the countries will drop off the list as their population increases. David South School of Forestry Auburn University, AL 36849-5418 A member of the Forester's Chapter for ZPG dsouth@forestry.auburn.edu 334-844-1022 334-844-1084 (FAX) As always, views expressed here are my own (and I am not speaking on the behalf of others). I use only 100% post-consumer paper in my home printer. (discarded used office paper printed on one side) http://www.forestry.auburn.edu/coops/sfnmc/sfnmc.html ========================================================================= The world population is expected to double by the year 2100. Therefore the annual demand for wood for energy (etc.) will increase and might double (to more than 7 billion m3/yr). To provide plantation wood for people in the future, support the planting of trees on pastureland. Set a goal of converting 8 million ha of pastureland/yr for the next 55 years. This would increase tree plantations to about 5% of the world's landbase. ========================================================================= Support Zero Population Growth for the United States http://www.igc.apc.org/zpg/index.html
Mail converted by
MHonArc 1.1.0