When you look at the last few lived-like countries in the list, including the US, keep in mind that we use resources like drunken sailors because we can. We have much more land and resources than we need, so we trade long term waste for short term cost.
I think it's reasonable to assume that we could, if we decided, be much better at using, reusing and conserving our resources. And if we did that, it would be possible for the rest of the world to bring their standard of living up to the US or better, and still not use multiples of the world's available resources.
I think it's reasonable to assume that we could, if we decided, be much better at using, reusing and conserving our resources. And if we did that, it would be possible for the rest of the world to bring their standard of living up to the US or better, and still not use multiples of the world's available resources.
If that's what we decided.