It's the region of the world that leaves the biggest human footprint. It gobbles up 80 percent of the crop and other plant resources it produces each year. If things don't change, its ecological survival looks iffy.
 
Surprisingly, it's not the United States. It's a swath of Asia that sweeps from India to China. And it leads to a startling question: If these areas of the world are nearing an ecological budget deficit, can they sustain their growth much longer?

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The calculation works this way: First, add up all the planet's sun energy converted to organic carbon by plants each year and call it "net primary production" or NPP - about 56 billion tons worth. Now, subtract the portion that human beings use - all the carbon in materials people consume from cotton in clothes to wood in homes to corn flakes and milk in a bowl of cereal.