IICPH Newsletter  /  Fall/Winter 2004

Our present life-style is not sustainable. Even in a resource rich country like Canada, there is an end-point at the present rate of consumption. China is now embracing the over-consumption society, along with other great consumers such as the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada. In the not-too-distant future, there will not be enough to go around.

While supplies of oil are now in crisis, water is the next resource to be a contentious issue. Here in North America. In a recent report, the United States was cited as the biggest user of water closely followed by Canada. The great plains of the US will soon have exhausted their groundwater. These states are now looking to tie into the Great Lakes. Formed by the last Ice Age, more water is being taken out of the lakes than run-off, rain and snow are adding most years. The level of the lakes has fallen quite noticeably in the last 50 years while demand for diversion from the lakes has increased.

At present the economies of many of the most prosperous countries are tied to a compounding annual growth rate and aspire to 3 per cent. Our demand for energy and materials will, according to some economists, lead to a doubling of consumption every 24 years. This is obviously unsustainable.