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Part Eleven The Changin

rom the field notes

"It seems to me that governments of wealthy coun

tries all too often assume that people in the global economic

periphery are not really concerned about environmental is

sues: development there should proceed at all costs. But

that is not true. Many leaders, teachers, and others in such

countries as Brazil, Kenya, and India keep environmental

problems in the public eye, and have attracted strong sup

port in so doing. I ran into this demonstration in Mumbai,

India in 1997: a local organization was drawing attention to

the city's air pollution."

numbers have the same meaning in places? is

the role of economic and social developments in the en

vironmental area? where shouldour lation be directed, since the practices of peoples in one

part of the world can affect environments and peoples

thousands of miles away? And how do we confront pop-

ulation growth without treading on deeply held cultural

values? Addressing these questions requires that we look

beyond mere numbers to questions of consumption and

technology.

Patterns of Consumption

Maps of world population tend to underscore the magni

tude of populations in some poorer countries, but they

fail to aspect of societies and their

needs: the relative demands made by different peoples

on the Earth's resources. Humans, like all species, are

consumers, Werely on the Earth's resources for our very

survival. At the most basic level, we consume water,

oxygen, and organic and mineral materials. Over time

we have developed increasingly complex ways of utiliz

ing resources by such means as intensive agriculture and

industrial pròduction. Consequently, many societies