Planet 'cannot sustain' China, India wealth
12 January 2006
The world lacks the energy, arable land and water for China and India to attain Western levels of resource consumption, Reuters reported, citing a Worldwatch Institute report. "The world's ecological capacity is simply insufficient to satisfy the ambitions of China, India, Japan, Europe and the United States as well as the aspirations of the rest of the world in a sustainable way," the 244-page report said. If China and India, each with more than a billion people, were to match by 2030 the per capita use of resources of Japan, "together they would require a full planet Earth to meet their needs," the report said.