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.Toomany countries with hierarchical social structures have still notbeen able to change them, and remain saddled today with feudalisticinstitutions that inhibit their advance.Those colonies establishedwith good, pro-growth institutions typically but not always intemperate zones have meanwhile reaped the economic benefitsthat have come with them.CAN THE PLANET AFFORD IT?The population of China numbers 1.26 billion and for the lasttwenty years or so it has enjoyed increasing economic growth thathas lifted the great majority of its people out of poverty.The wide-spread introduction of market institutions and incentives hastransformed the former highly inefficient, centrally planned,command economy into the latest, and biggest Asian tiger.Although slower to introduce institutional reforms, India hasalso shaken off some of its more restrictive economic shackles and,with a population of 1.06 billion, it too has now found its way on asteady path of economic growth that is beginning to bringimproved living standards to all.The average annual growth rate for these two giant countries(which together account for 40 per cent of the world s population)over the decade 1990 2000 was, in the case of China, 10.3 per centand, in the case of India, 6.0 per cent.This compares to a worldaverage of 2.6 per cent per year (an average, of course, pushed up bythese two outliers).© 2004 Tony Cleaver These statistics represent a steady improvement in the fortunesof billions of lives and must accordingly be celebrated.The questionto ask, however, is can this trend be sustained?The environmental pressure group, WWF, calculates how much ofthe Earth s resources are consumed to provide for its population.TheECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT measures the total area of productive land orsea necessary to produce the food, materials, energy and living spacecurrently used to provide for one person in each different country.The results are given in Figure 7.4: the vertical axis registering thehectares of land required per capita and the horizontal axis measuringthe relative population sizes for the respective continents.As can be seen, the average North American citizen consumesnearly ten times the resources of the average African or Asian indi-vidual.Note, however, the numbers of those who consume leastgreatly exceed those who consume most.What will happen there-fore, if current Chinese and Indian growth rates are maintained,and every Asian eventually gets to drive around in cars of the sizeand gas-guzzling capacity of the average North American? Thecolumn for Asia/Africa in Figure 7.4 will grow in size to the heightof the others.If this were to happen then the planet will be devoidof resources and polluted with waste!Quite clearly, this brief example shows that future populationscannot enjoy the wasteful lifestyles practised at present by theworld s richest.The heavy ecological footprints left on the earthtoday by Americans and Europeans would devastate the naturalHectares per capitaEcological footprints10 North America8Western Europe64Asia/Africa2PopulationFigure 7.4 Hectares of land needed per capita to support consumption indifferent continents, against population, 2000.Sources: WWF, World Bank.© 2004 Tony Cleaver environment and exhaust the planet if repeated by future billions inthe rest of the world.There seems to be even more injustice for the developing worldimplied in this prediction.Just as soon as these countries seem to beon the way to implement the institutions and policies to producegrowth, so the finite resources of the Earth will hold them back thanks to the profligate behaviour of those who got there first.Is thisreally true? Would the replication of current North Americanconsumption patterns in developing countries impoverish the planet?Fortunately for us all, that is unlikely to happen.The major reasonfor this despite some of the scariest scenarios painted by a few envi-ronmentalists is the operation of the free market.To explain howmarkets can assist in protecting scarce resources we can take oneimportant example as an illustration: the supply of oil reserves [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.Toomany countries with hierarchical social structures have still notbeen able to change them, and remain saddled today with feudalisticinstitutions that inhibit their advance.Those colonies establishedwith good, pro-growth institutions typically but not always intemperate zones have meanwhile reaped the economic benefitsthat have come with them.CAN THE PLANET AFFORD IT?The population of China numbers 1.26 billion and for the lasttwenty years or so it has enjoyed increasing economic growth thathas lifted the great majority of its people out of poverty.The wide-spread introduction of market institutions and incentives hastransformed the former highly inefficient, centrally planned,command economy into the latest, and biggest Asian tiger.Although slower to introduce institutional reforms, India hasalso shaken off some of its more restrictive economic shackles and,with a population of 1.06 billion, it too has now found its way on asteady path of economic growth that is beginning to bringimproved living standards to all.The average annual growth rate for these two giant countries(which together account for 40 per cent of the world s population)over the decade 1990 2000 was, in the case of China, 10.3 per centand, in the case of India, 6.0 per cent.This compares to a worldaverage of 2.6 per cent per year (an average, of course, pushed up bythese two outliers).© 2004 Tony Cleaver These statistics represent a steady improvement in the fortunesof billions of lives and must accordingly be celebrated.The questionto ask, however, is can this trend be sustained?The environmental pressure group, WWF, calculates how much ofthe Earth s resources are consumed to provide for its population.TheECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT measures the total area of productive land orsea necessary to produce the food, materials, energy and living spacecurrently used to provide for one person in each different country.The results are given in Figure 7.4: the vertical axis registering thehectares of land required per capita and the horizontal axis measuringthe relative population sizes for the respective continents.As can be seen, the average North American citizen consumesnearly ten times the resources of the average African or Asian indi-vidual.Note, however, the numbers of those who consume leastgreatly exceed those who consume most.What will happen there-fore, if current Chinese and Indian growth rates are maintained,and every Asian eventually gets to drive around in cars of the sizeand gas-guzzling capacity of the average North American? Thecolumn for Asia/Africa in Figure 7.4 will grow in size to the heightof the others.If this were to happen then the planet will be devoidof resources and polluted with waste!Quite clearly, this brief example shows that future populationscannot enjoy the wasteful lifestyles practised at present by theworld s richest.The heavy ecological footprints left on the earthtoday by Americans and Europeans would devastate the naturalHectares per capitaEcological footprints10 North America8Western Europe64Asia/Africa2PopulationFigure 7.4 Hectares of land needed per capita to support consumption indifferent continents, against population, 2000.Sources: WWF, World Bank.© 2004 Tony Cleaver environment and exhaust the planet if repeated by future billions inthe rest of the world.There seems to be even more injustice for the developing worldimplied in this prediction.Just as soon as these countries seem to beon the way to implement the institutions and policies to producegrowth, so the finite resources of the Earth will hold them back thanks to the profligate behaviour of those who got there first.Is thisreally true? Would the replication of current North Americanconsumption patterns in developing countries impoverish the planet?Fortunately for us all, that is unlikely to happen.The major reasonfor this despite some of the scariest scenarios painted by a few envi-ronmentalists is the operation of the free market.To explain howmarkets can assist in protecting scarce resources we can take oneimportant example as an illustration: the supply of oil reserves [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]