2 Comments

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  Alessandra

  Aug 8, 2012

  It’s more a matter of cuntitg down over-consumption and waste in the G8 / developed nations and making sure India, China, Indonesia, Brazil et al don’t make the same mistakes we’ve made in their rush to have the same standard of living as we do. That means designing cities with public transport and efficiency in mind, not flattening farmland to build suburban tinkertoy boxes accessible only by carbon-spewing devices. The world can indeed hold a lot more people than it does now, but not if we all live like North Americans.

  Reply
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    Dave Gardner

    Aug 8, 2012

    Thanks for posting, Alessandra. I agree we should encourage developing nations not to get hooked on the destructive drug of overconsumption and economic growth for economic growth's sake. But I'm afraid designing cities more efficiently will not allow even 7 billion to live sustainably. We are depleting fertile soil today to feed 6 billion. And we're using up finite resources to increase farm output. High density living and mass transit will not remedy this.