CONSUMERISM and conservation tend not to mix. Minerals, materials and the food we eat have to come from somewhere, and often that place is a pristine forest, ocean or wilderness. As the world’s leader in per capita consumption, the US must shoulder much of the responsibility for the damage that causes to the natural world. But the US can make another claim. Put simply, it leads the world in protecting biodiversity.
True, its record is hardly perfect. The US is one of a handful of countries that have failed to ratify the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. And US negotiators…
