
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 31, 1994                   TAG: 9406020008
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CAIRO '94

ARE YOU comfortable? You probably don't have every thing you imagine you want or every comfort money can buy, but nevertheless, are you reasonably well-fed, clothed, employed and housed? Do you expect your children to be?

Consider this: The U.S. Census Bureau projects that today's population of 260 million could double in our children's lifetimes, if current trends continue. "Could" is a worst-case scenario, of course. The best guess is that U.S. population will grow by a mere 133 million - enough people to fill 38 cities the size of Los Angeles - by the year 2050.

Now consider that, per-capita, people in the United States use up more than their share of the Earth's resources, having 30 times more impact on the environment over a lifetime than a person born in India.

As the U.N. International Conference on Population and Development prepares to meet in Cairo in September, the poverty-producing population growth of underdeveloped nations will not be the only global problem on the agenda. Also slated is the adoption of policies to help change consumption patterns by developed countries that, if they were to spread worldwide, could not be sustained by the Earth's resources.

Something, as they say, will have to give.

The task of creating change will be easier in some ways in countries such as India and Bangladesh, where the overwhelming numbers of people living in crushing poverty provide an urgent impetus for efforts to stabilize population growth and improve education, employment, health and the status of women.

Harder to see is the need for change in countries, such as the United States, where most people are comfortable - at least by world standards. Solving hunger and other such global crises seems to be something that must occur somewhere else.

But the United States is part of the problem. Americans comprise only 5 percent of the world's population, but consume 25 percent of its commercial energy, 27 percent of its aluminum, more than 20 percent of its tin, copper and lead. And all of that consumption leads to a disproportionate output of waste - more than twice as much per person as most Europeans.

The United States must be a player in Cairo, all right. And not just as a deep-pockets benefactor to less-fortunate nations. We've got a job to do right here at home.

by CNB