Distributional factors

North-South Divide

Uneven national consumption

• The Global North accounts for less than 20% of the world population, yet consumes:
  • 86% of aluminum produced
  • 76% of timber harvested
  • 68% of energy produced
  • 61% of meat consumed
  • 42% of freshwater used
  • and generates 75% of the world's waste and pollution
• 54% of global income goes to 10% of population (UNDP, 2005)
• 5% of global income is shared by 40% of population
• 1.6% of income of top 10% could eliminate extreme poverty

Uneven intranational consumption Net worth in the United States

Rank	Share	Per-capita GDP
Top 1%	33.4%	$1,155,835
Top 20%	84.4%	$146,037
Second 20%	11.3%	$19,552
Third 20%	3.9%	$6,748
Last 40%	0.3%	$260

After Kapur et al. (2005)

Net worth in the US

Questions of Equity

• Intra-generational equity
• Inter-generational equity
• Inter-specific equity?

The challenge of global sustainability

``At this moment in time, we are all simultaneous and central, complete contemporaries who are entering the new millennium on the same day, walking together. In the globalized world, either we all save each other, or even god will not be saved.''
-Armando Bartra (2004)

[allowframebreaks] References