The American Level of Consumption as the Finish Line.

World War Two memorial at Camp O'Donnell. A monument to shared American and Filipino struggle.

 
As Americans, we've heard for decades that we have a massive carbon footprint when measured against the rest of the world. We have listened to it almost as a mantra, yet do little to change. Instead of our carbon footprint being reduced, the rest of the world has been growing theirs with America as a model. Everyone wants to live a level of lifestyle like us, and they should be able to.

On a visit to the Philippines, we stopped by the home where my wife lived when she was a young child. It was a small, cinder block building with a few doors and windows about the size of a one-car garage. It had no water and its only electricity, one light bulb, and an outlet. When she grew up, it lacked even that. There was a hand pump similar to the ones that every North Dakota farm once had for water. These hand pumps are still ubiquitous in a country where electricity can go out for days. In that modest space, she lived with her seven siblings and parents.

Today, each of those brothers and sisters has a home of their own. The houses are small by our out-sized American standards, but spacious by the standards of what preceded them. Each is wired like a modern home with a kitchen, running water, and large-screen television that is still smaller than most American versions. Each one has at least one vehicle along with the smartphones and computers that are the double-edged swords of our modern world. Kitchen appliances are generally smaller; a refrigerator is about half the size, and hot plates are more common than full sizes stoves. There are fewer gadgets and appliances because electricity and devices are expensive. If a home has an air conditioner, it is generally limited to one room and only used during limited times of extreme heat. It is too expensive to cool a whole house all the time. Washing machines are rare, and dryers nonexistent outside of the wealthiest homes.

The carbon footprint is still much smaller than ours, but much larger by massive leaps than forty years ago. While theirs has grown from almost nothing to one approaching the average American, ours has generally stayed the same. Forty years ago, my carbon footprint was little different than it is today. I, like the average American, still have too many things and use too many resources.

The only way to maintain this trajectory is to change the way we consume resources. Limits on consumption and the conservation of resources are vital tools, but I don't see them working any better in the future than they have in the past. The switch to renewable resources is only a partial solution. An electric car still has a massive carbon footprint just by its existence. It is hard to see how we can make a sustainable future without radical sacrifice on the part of individuals, especially in places like the U.S., where our consumption has been legendary for at least a century. If we can forge the path, just as the world has followed us on the road to unsustainable consumption levels, they may follow us to a sustainable future. Getting there is the hard part.