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Bridging the Clean-Tech Developing-World Divide

Ron Pernick's picture

The late Donella Meadows, a great environmental scientist, educator, and visionary, was one of a number of people to help put into context the state (and plight) of the modern world. She came up with an exercise that asked "what would the world look like if it were a village of 100 people." Her work on this concept is continued today by the folks at the Miniature Earth Project. The results are eye opening. According to the Miniature Earth web site, 74 people would come from Asia and Africa, while just 8 would come from North America. 30 people would live without electricity, 16 would have inadequate access to potable water, and 13 would be hungry or suffer from malnutrition. Equally staggering, more than half of the population would live on less than US $2 per day. The last data point raises a serious conundrum for global clean-tech development