Montague instructs students about caring for and understanding the environment. Those who take his teaching to heart ask troubling questions. If you do a good job, everyone walks away angry and depressed, Montague says. My calling in life is to dispense guilt and despair. Montague estimates that 20 percent of the world's population is using 80 percent of the world's resources with 90 percent of the world's wealth.
More damage is done by a child born in the United States than one born in an undeveloped country.
Pesticides, erosion, deforestation, waste, pollution, extinction of species and diminishing resources are some of the byproducts Montague attributes mostly to the lifestyles of the highly educated, affluent population. While many undeveloped countries look to the United States as a model for success, it would take seven more planets to provide enough material and energy to implement the U.S. model worldwide, he says. Escalating to six billion people, the population growth is increasing annually by 1.4 percent, according to Montague. That means an additional 80 million people per year will inhabit the world, which translates to about 224,000 more people every day, or a million more people every five days, he said. Montague explains that these are net figures, accounting for deaths.