[Coral-List] The real problem.

[Szmant, Alina]

And even the average American, who may never had left the USA, consumes 4-5 time more energy than the average Chinese or Indian.  We can complain about the population size/growth issues in China and India, but our much  smaller number of Americans (300+ million) consume as much total energy as the much higher number (1.3 billion) Chinese. So some places there are too many of us, and in others, a smaller number of people consume too much.  And the real kicker:  those of us with high consumption rates are not really ready to abandon our comfortable life style and move into a lifestyle with no running water and electricity, while the many with the at present  lower consumption are working like mad to reach our high level of consumption. 

*************************************************************************
Dr. Alina M. Szmant
Professor of Marine Biology
Center for Marine Science and Dept of Biology and Marine Biology
University of North Carolina Wilmington
5600 Marvin Moss Ln
Wilmington NC 28409 USA
tel:  910-962-2362  fax: 910-962-2410  cell: 910-200-3913
http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
*******************************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of John Ware
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 5:06 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] The real problem.

Dear List,

While it certainly seems important to exploit as many "green" options as 
possible, the fact remains that, in the long run there is very little 
really meaningful that can be done until everyone (that is, everyone on 
the planet) recognizes two things:

1- We really are changing the Earth's climate.
2- The gorilla in the living room (the REAL PROBLEM): There are too many 
of us and each of us consume too many resources.

And, before we all pat ourselves on the back for whatever it is we are 
doing, the chances are that many, perhaps most, coral-reef scientists, 
especially those in the developed countries, consume more resources than 
the average person in their country.  Clearly, the average person did 
not fly to Cairns for a coral reef symposium.  The average person in the 
USA does not fly to some far-off Pacific reef in order to gather data so 
that another paper bemoaning the state of coral reefs can be published.

And I am as guilty as anyone.
John

-- 
    *************************************************************
    *                                                           *
    *                      John R. Ware, PhD                    *
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    *     |\/__       Untainted by Technology            \      *
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If you are a coral-reef scientist and you are not a member
of the International Society for Reef Studies, then
shame on you.
Become a member of the International Society for Reef Studies
http://www.coralreefs.org


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