November Challenges – Your Consumer Footprint
From 1950 to 2000, Americans consumed as much food and material goods as all the generations of Americans before them. If everyone in the world lived the way the average American does, we would need four more planet Earths to provide all the necessary materials and energy. We know that we should explore new ways to reduce our consumption habits; so why do we consume so much?
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Buy Locally Produced Food
The average meal travels 1,200 miles by truck, ship, and/or plane to reach your dining room table. All that transportation emits CO2 into the environment, that can be reduced by buying food produced closer to home. |
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Buy Organic Food
Organic food isn’t just better for you, organic farming preserves the millions of microorganisms that live in the soil and naturally keep it rich year after year. Chemical pesticides used to kill off "bad" pests, also kill these vital microorganisms which results in a massive release of CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. |
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Eat Less Meat
It turns out that the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius. |
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Reduce
The typical American creates 4.6 pounds of garbage per day, or 1,700 pounds of garbage per year–that’s double what it was thirty years ago. |
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Reuse
From 1950 to 2000, Americans consumed as much food and material goods as all the generations of Americans before them. |
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Recycle
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, Americans will buy, use and throw away 1,245 tons of raw materials. |
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Compost
Over two-thirds of the total waste produced in the United States is compostable, yet we still send 30 million tons of leaves and grass clippings to landfills every year. |
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Buy Less
For many Americans, shopping is a form of recreation. But one with great cost if it’s for stuff we don’t need, wastes precious resources and generates CO2 to produce, transport, and dispose of. |
