consumerism
Last night, as I was driving to hang out with the Tinnin girls, I was listening to Marketplace on NPR. I caught the last in a 5 part series on consumerism and sustainability. It was fascinating and really made me think about my own consumption habits.It featured a family of 4 in California who make what most Americans would consider drastic efforts at conservation. Yet, if the entire planet's population lived as this family does, it would take 3 earths to sustain the population. However, if the entire planet lived like the average American, it would take 6 earths to sustain the global population. And yet, living the lifestyle of an average American is what much of the third world is aiming for.
The show mentioned a simulator you can play to determine if your lifestyle is sustainable, Consumer Consequences. Turns out, my life is not sustainable. It would take 3.8 earths to sustain everyone if they lived like me.
posted by CP @ 10:58 AM
4 thoughts
4 Comments:
Did you hear them talk about the "Free-gans" - people who try to live for absolutely nothing! Craziness. ekw
there is a neat follow up series on NPR in the mornings (this week) about consuming food that comes from far way. i think it's at this site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16211938 This guy was talking about how he feeds his kids organic food, but his food travels thousands of miles, wasting lots of gas. Pretty interesting.
If you really want to get into the "where in the world does my food come from?" read
Small Wonders - Barbara Kingsolver
How to Pick a Peach - Rick Parsons
Both are excellent!
one of the more interesting things i'd read about the environment and carbon footprints and all that is that big families are, in their own way, bad for the environment. the more kids you have, the more consumers - people who are going to buy things that will eventually be thrown away, require gas to be driven places, etc. think about how much fewer diapers a one-child family will fill up a landfill with than a four-child family.
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