The other is overconsumption, which has scarcely been addressed. Those who promote population policies for poor nations should also press for them in rich nations, where each person accounts for so much more environmental damage and resource depletion. Further, rich countries should institute strong consumption reduction policies. This would balance poor nations' needed industrial growth while minimizing the environmental impact of additional development. The United States should take the lead in both endeavors, although it currently shows little interest in either.
American fertility is a shocking exception to the very low rates in most industrialized nations.
Although American fertility was below replacement for 20 years, it returned to replacement by 1993 and is still rising. Americans are also the most excessive consumers in the world, and our energy profligacy is exceeded in the developed nations only by the former Soviet bloc. This is shameful in an era when global warming, mainly from burning fossil fuels, poses huge health threats for the next century. The world is too diverse for any one measure to solve the human dilemma. But rich nations perpetuate poverty in the developing world in a million subtle but powerful ways.