Jim Lobe

If per capita income in China grows at eight percent per year — a reduction from the red-hot pace of 9.5 percent it has grown since 1978 — it will overtake the current per capita U.S. income in just over 25 years, according to the latest analysis by the Earth Policy Institute (EPI).

The Arctic “is now experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth,” according to an eight-nation study on global warming co-sponsored by the United States which is due to be officially released a week after Tuesday’s elections.

Fatter and ever hungrier for the latest physical comforts and social-status symbols, the average U.S. citizen is leading the world in building a global consumer society that is wreaking havoc on the world’s natural resources.