ABSTRACT
The combination of a growing global population and the spread of mass consumption into rapidly ‘developing’ nations such as China and India is taking us ever deeper into a crisis of unsustainable consumption. According to Worldwatch Institute,1 global private consumption spending increased fourfold between 1960 and 2000 to reach a staggering $US 20 trillion and by 2014 the global ‘consumer class’ had grown to 1.7 billion members. Increases in production and consumption are driven by increasing use of energy, and data from the International Energy Agency reveals the steady global increase in energy use. The Global Footprint Network has rather famously suggested that on current population and consumption trends, we would need the equivalent of three planets to sustain current consumption levels for an anticipated population of 9 billion by 2050.2 The footprint calculator suggests that we have already passed the capacity of the planet to sustain our consumption of energy and raw materials, taking into account the need to dispose of ‘waste’ materials. Ecological footprint calculators lack the sophistication to anticipate changing patterns of consumption use. However, the raw figures serve to remind us that a crisis of overconsumption is already upon us.
