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US Population to Top 300 Million
An anonymous reader writes "The number of Americans will surpass 300 million this month, a milestone that raises environmental impact questions for the only major industrial nation whose population is increasing substantially. The US census bureau says the 300 million mark will be reached 39 years after US population topped 200 million and 91 years after it exceeded 100 million. That makes US the third most populous country behind china and india. It is noteworthy that sheer number of human beings do not necessarily have the heaviest impact on the environment. Instead environmental impact is a calculation that involves population, affluence and technology. The US consumes nearly 25% of the world's energy though it has only 5% of the world's population and has the highest per capita oil consumption worldwide. Each American produces about 2.3 kg of trash a day, a rate about 5 times that in developing countries."
The population of the US may be increasing, but only in certain desirable areas. The "Rust Belt" - cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh - continues to shrink. Pittsburgh alone has lost over HALF of its population from nearly 700,000 in the 1960s to barely over 300,000 today (and not just due to people leaving for the suburbs). If you're willing to tolerate the winters there's plenty of room up here!
You mean from North Korea?
Uh, if nobody uses the energy then the power companies will simply generate less. Thus less usage of natural resources (fossil fuels, etc) and pollution.
Anyone can "stand up for what they believe", but it takes a very brave individual to change what they believe. - Loundry
Depends how you define "global output". Germany is the world's largest exporter. The USA is the world's largest importer.
Just because we have a large GDP does not mean that the extra energy that we use goes into producing more "stuff". It just means that we're much richer than most other countries so the average US citizen can consume a lot more. (For instance, using dryers rather than hanging out laundry, etc)
It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.
According to Nation Master, who gets there information from the CIA fact book, the USA is 17th in oil consumption per capita.
Interesting to note: Luxembourg is number 7 and most of the largest consumers per capita are Island Nations.
America still has all their natural resources left.
Us in Europe used all of ours rather heavily in the last centuary.
Whereas at the time the Indians in Amnerica at the time were managing a country that would last them an enternity.
Unfortunately for them us Europeans used our natural resources to steal it from them and create the United States as it is today.
I dont read
And with it's roughly 25% usage of the world's energy supplies (including oil) what does the US do with it? Create an even greater percentage of the world's goods
WRONG
World GDP = 60,000 Bn
US GDP = 12,000 Bn
Share of US in World GDP : 20%
Amazingly enough, the US are less energy efficient than the RoW.
If you're looking for an exceptionally efficient economy, try the EU.
It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything.
According to the CIA factbook....$12.36 trillion! Next time either don't use unreliable sources, i.e. http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/Historical_Statistics /horizontal-file_2006.xls, or read/transcribe them correctly.
The general figure for the number of illegal immigrants living in the US is 10 million. Out of a population of 300 million, that's 3.3%. I hardly think that by exploiting that small slice of the population we can reap greater rewards than countries where 100% of the population can be exploited. If US labor were cheap, our jobs wouldn't be hemmoraging overseas.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
Uh, 70% of American debt is held by American citizens.
So stop using the bullshit "other countries buy all their debt" line.
This post struck me as interesting enough to do the research. The numbers were pulled together from various sources (linked) and may be incorrect. The computations did present the image of a HIGHLY efficient US workforce though, which manages to produce 20% of the world's GDP with only 5% of the population.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by
US produces 20% of GDP with 25% of the energy and 5% of the population
EU produces 20% of GDP with 21% of the energy and 7% of the population
China produces 15% of GDP with 15% of the energy and 20% of the population
32% of the global population produces 55% of the wealth using 60% of the energy.
Atanamis