clipped from: www.sciencewa.net.au   
Scientists in a bid to help cure affluenza
ARE you suffering from affluenza? In his book on the subject, Dr Clive Hamilton, former head of the Australia Institute, described it as “people spending money they don’t have to buy goods they don’t need to impress people they don’t like”.

But affluenza is making the planet sick. Burning fossil fuels in a desperate bid for energy to produce stuff is the main driver of carbon emissions that have led to global warming, while land clearing and unprecedented population growth place further stress on Earth.

In a paper published in Nature, American think tank the Worldwatch Institute says the world’s ecological capacity is simply insufficient to satisfy the consuming passions of every nation.