Reducing international disparity in the consumption of resources

Many environmental problems in the industrialized countries are regarded as consequences of affluence. The use of large numbers of private automobiles, many for recreational purposes, results in air pollution; the intensive agriculture required to supply an over-fed and overweight population results in soil and water contamination by high levels of nitrates; the high consumption per capita of manufactured products is associated with huge quantities of industrial waste, some of which ends up polluting the soil, rivers and coastal waters. Environmental damage in affluent societies is a consequence of excessive development and unrestrained demands for ever larger quantities of goods and services. It is thus a consequence of materialism and acquisitiveness.