Developed countries use huge amounts of fossil fuel to ensure that their needs are met, even if this means importing resources from poorer countries. One quarter of the world's population accounts for three quarters of all consumption. Many wealthy nations live way beyond the carrying capacity of their own resources and from the point of view of the sustainable stewardship of this planet overpopulation is far more serious in developed nations than in poor countries. The Swiss live very well by providing services to other countries which can be traded to make up their ecological deficit, but the Report recognised that Switzerland was gradually draining the resources of the rest of the planet and that this could be regarded as both immoral and unsustainable. The city state of Singapore has a flourishing service economy but imports most of its food and, despite receiving 2000 mm of rain each year, is not self sufficient in water.
Huge pipelines bring water to the island from Malaysia.
Singapore's wealthy inhabitants, like those of all modern cities, have a large ecological footprint and use natural resources from way beyond their borders. Frequently city dwellers are only faintly aware of the distant hectares of productive land that provide for their needs and they discuss matters like sustainability or overpopulation without reference to their own environmental impact. Over the last few years much consideration has been given to the human carrying capacity of this planet and various regions within it. It also shows to what extent their consumption can be supported by their local ecological capacity and finds that only 14 of the 52 nations are living within their own limits. Australia is shown as having, on a per capita basis, some excess ecological capacity, but a further study in the UK, which takes account of erratic rainfall, unsustainable agricultural practices and per capita greenhouse emissions, concludes that this continent is already living well beyond its environmental income.