More than a billion people in 20 developing and transitional nations have recently become wealthy enough to begin consuming like Americans (Makower/Norman Myers)
The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population but uses 30% of the world’s resources and creates 30% of the world’s waste (Story of Stuff)
In the past 3 decades alone, 1/3 of the planet’s natural resource space has been consumed (Story of Stuff)
For every 1 garbage can of waste you put out on the curb, 70 garbage cans of waste were produced upstream (Story of Stuff)
Americans create 4.5 lbs of garbage per day on average – that's twice the level we created 30 years ago (Story of Stuff)
Only 1% of products purchased in North America are still in use 6 months after their date of sale (Story of Stuff)
Natural resource consumption by humans has increased to 125% of global carrying capacity, and could rise to 170% by 2040 (WBCSD/WWF)
The global population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 (WBCSD)
The global middle class is expected to triple by 2030 (WBCSD)
60% of the Earth’s ecosystem services have been degraded in the past 50 years (WBCSD)
5 planets would be required were everyone to adopt the consumption patterns and lifestyles of the average North American (WBCSD/WWF)
Almost 1/3 of the Earth’s planets and animals have been lost since 1970; extinction rates are approximately 100 times higher than the fossil record (WBCSD)
The sum of all substances required to support one American for a year totals nearly 1 million pounds (Makower)
