Spotless Kitchen

Egalitarian

“Most of the growth over the next two decades is predicted to be in urban centres in what are currently low and middle-income countries.” “So a world with a human population of 11 billion might put comparatively little extra strain on our planet's resources. But the world is changing. Low-income urban centres may not continue on low-carbon development trajectories.”

“The real concern would be if the people living in these areas decided to demand the lifestyles and consumption rates currently considered normal in high-income nations; something many would argue is only fair. If they do, the impact of urban population growth could be much larger.”

“By this reasoning, there needs to be a fundamental change in the core values of developed societies: away from an emphasis on material wealth, and towards a model where individual and societal well-being are considered most important.”

“350 million women in the poorest countries did not want their last child, but did not have the means to prevent the pregnancy. If these women's needs were met, it would have a significant impact on global population trends. According to this reasoning, creating a sustainable population is as much about boosting women's rights as it is about reducing consumption of resources.”

“Predicting how many people the Earth can sustain is nearly impossible because it is entirely dependent on technologies like farming, electricity production and transport – and on how many people we are willing to condemn to a life of poverty or malnutrition.”

“As it stands now, though, the world's population is over 7.3 billion. “ “One billion people are already starving and another one billion people have nutrient deficiencies.”

“The real determinant is how we choose to run our society. If some or all of us consume a lot of resources, the maximum sustainable population will be lower. If we find ways to each consume less, ideally without sacrificing our creature comforts, Earth will be able to support more of us.”

Externalities

“An example is all the energy and materials it takes to get gasoline to an urban consumer, whether for a car or bus, (searching for and drilling wells, pumping the oil to a refinery that converts the oil to gasoline, and transporting the gas to a network of gas stations) and, in fact, almost everything from building materials to artificial lighting to clothing to food that is used in a city is produced elsewhere, often at high energy costs. “

“When economists claim that the US economy as a whole has become less energy intense (defined as energy used per unit of gross domestic product or GDP), part of what they are really saying is that energy-intensive and highly polluting industries such as aluminum- and steel-making have been outsourced to regions and countries where labor is cheaper and environmental regulations are less stringent. However, our need to consume these imported products, often shipped over long distances, only increases, and particularly in densely populated urban areas with the sophisticated (i.e. unique to that locale, incompatible with outer)* infrastructure of ‘The Efficient City.’ ” * my parentheses

“Lower emissions are not necessarily due to the fact that people in New York State, Vermont, or Massachusetts drive less or have smaller houses. And it’s not necessarily because the average West Virginian, Louisianan, or Montanan personally uses huge quantities of energy or drives long distances that they have such high per capita total emissions. At least partially, it has to do with the nature of the economy in the different states and the particular area (central city versus suburbs) that is being considered.”

“Let’s compare two states at different ends of the emissions spectrum, New York and Louisiana. On average, New York annually produces about 10 metric tons of CO2 per capita compared to about 50 tons per year for Louisiana. But here’s the most important difference in energy use between the two states: the industrial sector. Each year, the industrial sector in Louisiana produces 128 million metric tons of CO2, compared to 9.1 million tons in New York. Texas is even higher with 211 million tons. This is because Texas and Louisiana have the highest concentration of refining and petrochemical industries in the nation.”

Merle’d never been on welfare.