I grew up a Baltimore Orioles fan. Cal Ripken Jr is the baseball messiah. Being an Orioles fan, I am required to hate the New York Yankees. Why? Because they are successful. In the last 100 years they have won a full 1/4 of the World Serieseses. The Orioles? Um...3. The Yankees are evil, they cheat, they are bad for baseball. Teams that try to copy the Yankees drain the rest of the league of valuable resources. They buy what they want with little regard for the well being of baseball*.
Looks like the U.S. is the New York Yankees of general well-offedness.
On a global scale the average US citizen uses far more than his or her fair share of the planet's resources - consuming more than four times the worldwide average of energy, almost three times as much water and producing more than twice the average amount of rubbish and five times the amount of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming. The US - with five per cent of the world's population - uses 23 per cent of its energy, 15 per cent of its meat and 28 per cent of its paper. Additional population will mean more people seeking a share of those often-limited resources.
We are gluttons. We are over-consumers. We are evil. We are the Yankees.
The article provides a list of ways the U.S. is "eating the world." Keep in mind, the article seems to view most of these things as bad.
- 300m Expected population of the United States by the end of this week
- 75 Life expectancy for men in the US. Women are expected to live until 80
- 63 Life expectancy for men in the developing world. Women are expected to live until 67
- 395m Projected population of the US by 2050
Living long is a bad thing? I guess because the population is growing and we're living longer we're consuming more of everyone else's stuff?
- 1,682m3 US annual water consumption per capita
- 633m3 The world's annual water consumption per capita
- 545m3 The developing world's annual water withdrawals per capita
Is this proof of inefficiency, or plentiful water in the U.S.? Sure there are distributional problems in the western U.S. but more consumption doesn't equate to overconsumption.
- 5lbs Amount of waste each US resident produces per day. That compares with about 3lbs per person per day in Europe, and about 0.9-1.3lbs per person a day in the developing world
The U.S. also has significantly more open land than most of Europe. That is, cheap disposal. Scarcity drives prices.
- $39,710 US Gross National Income per head, 2004
- $8,540 World's GNI per head
- $4,450 Developing world's GNI per head
Based on this, the U.S. generates 0.000125913 pounds of waste per $ of income. Developing countries generate .000292135 pounds per $. Developing countries generate 2.3 times the waste per dollar of income generated. (See, I too can do all sorts of statistical gymnastics to make the numbers tell any story I want).
- 19.8 US carbon dioxide emissions per capita, in metric tonnes
- 3.9 World's carbon dioxide emissions per head, in tonnes
- 1.8 Developing world's carbon dioxide emissions per head, in tonnes
OK, I'll bite. Shouldn't the most industrialized countries be the largest emitters of industrial by-products? Efficiency is great, but let's focus on getting the price of emissions right and stop worrying about the quantity.
- 58bn Number of burgers consumed by Americans every year
Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. Yummy.
- 54m Number of Americans who are obese
- 300,000 Deaths per year related to obesity
Helps keeps the population down.
- 678lbs US annual paper consumption per head
- 115lbs The corresponding figure for the world
- 44lbs The figure for the developing world
I thought computers were supposed to make us a paperless society 10 years ago. Why do I have stacks of paper all over my office?
- 204m number of vehicles on US roads
- 37% Percentage of the total cars in the world on America's roads
And 37% of the worlds roads are in the U.S**. Coincidence? I think not.
- 1 in 7 Barrels of world oil supply used by US drivers
- 24m Number of Americans who drive SUVs
Hiding my head in shame.
- 7,921 US energy consumption per capita, 2001, expressed in kilograms of oil
- 1,631 World's energy consumption per capita, in kilograms of oil
- 828 Corresponding figure for the developing world
We have to run our cars, cell phones, Playstations, computers, portable DVD players, hair dryers, microwaves, TV's, dishwashers, flat panels, airplanes, ceiling fans and air conditioners somehow. Right?
You don't really expect the Yankees to quit trying just so the rest of baseball can win every once in a while, do you? Let's make a rule. Every team has to win the World Series once every 30 years. Then we would have a bunch of mediocre teams with no incentive to improve. But everyone would be equally miserable.
On the other hand, maybe the Yankees continual efforts to outpace the rest of baseball make everyone else try harder. Maybe their success is evidence of efficient use of their plentiful resources. Maybe they set an example of what the rest of the teams could be. Maybe their success makes everyone else better and everyone is better off as a result. Hmmm...maybe the Yankees are good for baseball.
Damn Yankees! (come-on you had to see that coming at some point, right?)
--------------------------------------------
*This is a myth. I'm currently reading "The Wages of Wins," sort of the Freakonomics of Sports Economics. In it, the authors show that there is little evidence that you can buy a World Series title. Still, I hate the Yankees.
**I made that up. But a good joke, no?
