Anne Sophie Thomas styles Madisyn Ritland in a growing fashion editorial trend — on the road with all our stuff. The world’s young models are sleeping on bare matresses, with the innuendo of homelessness. Paul Schmidt makes this style capture ‘Nomade Land’ for Jalouse October 2011.

Writing for Policy Shop, Mijin Cha argues that the biggest strain on global resources is not population growth but consumption levels. We reject that argument without a much stronger case being made.

Cha makes a very interesting point, saying that at the current rate of consumption, we would need the resources of two earths to meet our global demands. But if the world consumes the way Americans do, we will need the resources of five earths. Note that many futurists argue that technology and invention will solve this scarcity challenge; we just don’t know how.

A key question is whether America’s pursuit of conspiculous, divine-right consumption pattern gives us a better lifestyle. AOC is committed to saying ‘no’, it does not. Cha explains:

The U.S. consumes almost twice as much energy per capita as the richest countries in the European Union but lags behind in several quality of life indicators, including infant mortality, educational achievement, and longevity. Americans eat 815 billion calories of food per day, 200 billion more than needed. The result is a population where one-third of all adults are considered obese and substantially higher health care costs emerge to deal with the high levels of obesity.

If Americans would decrease our energy consumption levels to that of Europeans, writes Cha, we would become a net exporter of energy, enjoying a more sustainable lifestyle. See the new Foreign Policy article sourced by Cha A Hummer in Every Driveway. It takes up the same argument.