NORTH AMERICANS can breathe a sigh of relief. By at least one measure, they are not the planet’s environmental pariahs. So concludes a study comparing how much of the planet’s biological resources countries consume with how much their territory produces through photosynthesis.
Marc Imhoff of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, who led the study, says it shows the “uneven footprint of human consumption” on the land (see Map). It places Europeans and Asians in the environmental doghouse, but shows North Americans to be relatively light consumers.
Several recent studies have looked at the ecological “footprint” of nations,…
