[North-NV-Greens] can the planet cope?

[Paul Etxeberri]

3.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE COOKIES
China passes U.S. as reining consumerism champion

America, for years the world's largest, proudest consumer, has been 
dethroned.  Say hello to China, now the world's most consumingest 
nation, according to a recent survey by the Earth Policy Institute. 
China now beats the U.S. in consumption of four out of five basic 
commodities, including grain, meat, steel, and coal.  The fifth, 
however -- oil -- is still no contest (whew!):  The U.S. continues to 
burn triple what China does in order to power, among other things, 
cars, of which Americans have almost 10 times more than the Chinese. 
Unfortunately for consumption patriots out there, the details are 
pretty grim: China leads in coal consumption by some 40 percent.  It 
used more than twice the steel Americans did in 2003.  China noshed 
64 million tons of meat in 2004 to the U.S.'s 38 million.  Add in the 
fact that China's 1.3 billion citizens also go through more 
refrigerators, cell phones, and TVs than do Americans, and this is a 
dark day indeed.

straight to the source:  BBC News, 17 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4351>

straight to the source:  China Daily, 17 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4352>

straight to the source:  Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Associated 
Press, William C. Mann, 17 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4353>


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand