Re: SC7

http://www.theage.com.au/news/ross-gittins/headlong-to-growth-overload/2006/02/07/1139074226595.html

Headlong to growth overload

The rapid growth in the global economy is outstripping the ability of the planet's natural resources to sustain it, writes Ross Gittins.

The greatest economic, geopolitical and environmental event of our times is the rapid economic development of China, closely followed by India's. Its full ramifications are yet to dawn on us.............

Since 1980, China's economy has been growing at a rate averaging about 9.5 per cent a year. That means it doubles in size every eight years. India's economy has been growing by only about 5.5 per cent a year, meaning that it doubles only every 13 years.

What makes this spectacular growth far more significant, however, is that China and India are the two most populous countries in the world, each with populations exceeding a billion. Between them, they account for almost 40 per cent of the world's population. By contrast, the rich countries of North America, Europe, Japan and Australasia account for less that 15 per cent.............

The institute concludes: "Global ecosystems and resources are simply not sufficient to sustain the current economies of the industrial West and at the same time bring more than 2 billion people ( China and India ) into the global middle class through the same resource-intensive development model pioneered by North America and Europe.