Re: [GBlist] house thoughts

[Sarah Holland/David Foley <hollandfoley@acadia.net>]

on 01/10/2002 1:34 PM, Mike Falstad at mfalstad@johnmilnerassociates.com
wrote:

> A while back, I saw an email (perhaps it was on this list) that compared
> several global statistics on standards of living.
> Something like:
> If the world's population was represented by one hundred people... the ten
> wealthiest people live in U.S.; out of 12 TV's, 8 are in U.S., 4 in
> Europe... X amount of houses with plumbing... X amount of cars and what
> country they are in... etc.
> Has anyone on this list seen this? It's a staggering view of the
> distribution of wealth and resources around the world.
> -Michael Falstad

Yes, Michael, I've seen it.  It was originally written years ago by a
friend, the late Donella Meadows, although these days it's usually
attributed to "Anonymous".

I think it would help this discussion immensely if more folks were to read
"Beyond the Limits" by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows and Jorgen
Randers.

We might want to distinguish between the capacity of humans to develop and
enrich their lives, and to use resources more efficiently, with exponential
growth of the physical stuff that flows through the human economy, starting
as natural resources and ending as pollution.  There may be no limit to our
imaginations and capacity to innovate, but there are limits to the
through-put of physical stuff we can run through our economy.  That's just
dictated by physics, but for some reason, pointing this out gets all kinds
of people upset.  Why that should e is an interesting question, but probably
off-topic here.

- David Foley
-- 
Holland & Foley Building Design L.L.C.
232 Beech Hill Rd.
Northport, Maine 04849 USA
p: (207) 338-9869 f: (207) 338-9859 e: hollandfoley@acadia.net


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