Population growth alone doesn’t account for the increasing consumption of natural resources that is largely responsible for biodiversity’s decline. Those of us living in affluent, industrialized nations, such as the United States, consume a disproportionate amount of the Earth’s fossil fuels, forests, and other natural resources.

A few statistics can shed light on the connection between economic status and biodiversity: The United States uses 3 times as much iron ore, 3.6 times as much coal, and 12 times as much petroleum as does India, but it has one-third the population. And a typical Chinese household uses less than 0.03 percent of the energy consumed in the average American home.

While many people point out that resource use helps fuel economic growth, others state that the consumption rates of affluent nations run the risk of depleting resources more rapidly than natural processes can replace them. Consequently, some people argue that affluent nations have a responsibility not only to dramatically reduce their consumption of natural resources, but also to help less-industrialized nations achieve their economic goals without making the same mistakes as the developed nations have made.