Anecdotal evidence that the world is flattening
In his blockbuster best seller of 2008, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” Tom Friedman describes “the astonishing expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization” which challenges our planet’s capacity to provide for the basic elements of food, air and water. Simply, the rest of the world wants what we have and they want it now.
Less walking:
China is now the number one car market in the world. First time buyers account for 70% of purchases in China. On the other hand, the auto fleet in the United States is shrinking. For the first time since World War II, more used cars were scrapped than new cars sold in 2009.
More talking:
The number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide is projected to reach 5 billion this year. Ten years ago only 10% of Russians had a cell phone. Today there are more Russian cell phone accounts than there are Russians.
Looking and feeling marvelous:
In five years toothpaste consumption in India has increased by over 40%. Cosmetics maker Avon Products saw Latin American sales rise 29 percent while North American sales fell 7 percent during the most recent quarter. South Korea is the leading consumer of Spam outside to the United States. Over 40 percent of the Spam sold in South Korea is in the form of gifts and it is the only country in the world that sells Spam in boxed gift sets.
OK. The Spam item is silly, but the point is that there are significant changes in global consumption which are happening at an alarming rate. The politicized arguments about global warming have become distractions to the indisputable fact that a larger global population is consuming at an ever expanding rate. On this we all agree. The solutions which address this all consuming consumption are the same as those put forth to address global warming. Let us focus on those truths we all support and acknowledge that this planet is not too big to be permanently ruined by man.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Books . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
