Page "Consumerism" Paragraph 21

In an opinion segment of New Scientist magazine published in August 2009, reporter Andy Coghlan cited William Rees of the University of British Columbia and epidemiologist Warren Hern of the University of Colorado at Boulder, saying that human beings, despite considering themselves civilized thinkers, are " subconsciously still driven by an impulse for survival, domination and expansion ... an impulse which now finds expression in the idea that inexorable economic growth is the answer to everything, and, given time, will redress all the world's existing inequalities.

" According to figures presented by Rees at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, human society is in a " global overshoot ", consuming 30 % more material than is sustainable from the world's resources.

Rees went on to state that at present, 85 countries are exceeding their domestic " bio-capacities ", and compensate for their lack of local material by depleting the stocks of other countries, which have a material surplus due to their lower consumption.