This afternoon I watched a TV programme I taped the other day. It's about the Human Footprint - in other words what we will eat, use, affect in our lifetime. It took an average person in the UK who supposedly lived 78.5 years. Apparently the average person in a lifetime would consume 15,951 pints of milk and each one of us would eat 4 cows, 21 sheep, 15 pigs, 1200 chickens, 13,345 eggs, 4283 loaves of bread, 2327 kilos of potatoes, 10,866 carrots and 5272 apples among other things. 95% of our fruit is imported and we throw away 8 and a half tons of packaging.
Starting from our earliest years we throw away 2 and a half billion nappies (diapers for our friends across the pond) as a nation every year and the plastic contained in them to make them leak free can take up to 500 years to decompose. We are responsible for more CO2 emissions before the age of 2 than someone in Tanzania in a life time.
The programme went on to give other statistics (that I won't bore you with) about what we spend on personal hygiene, clothes and household goods that we simply can't live without. Each person is responsible for 40 tons of waste to landfill sites and there are 60 million of us in the UK! We walk only 15,464 miles in a lifetime but drive 452,662 miles - the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back, using 135,950 litres of fossil fuel in our cars. That is apart from the 737 tons of carbon pumped into the atmosphere per lifetime through air travel.
At the end of the programme they said that memories and dreams are the most enduring part of us and left us with the question, 'What am I leaving behind?' A sobering thought indeed! Although much of what we do is necessary to our modern living and not everything is wrong or negative, the stark facts and figures did make me think about how much difference we can make in simple ways. As Christians we really have to take our stewardship of the planet seriously.
5 comments:
Thanks for posting about this. Being American, I have found that American Christians don't care about the environment, even when given the facts. I'm not sure why, but it is disheartening. Because I think you're right, it's up to us to be good stewards. Shane and I use cloth diapers, drive a small fuel-efficient car, use a manual push-mower on the lawn, and limit the number of times we flush to conserve water. All this in the midst of a neighbourhood full of huge SUVs, gas-powered lawn mowers (and leaf blowers - even though our yards are small in this neighborhood!). Sometimes it feels like your fighting a losing battle. But we love our daughter, and we want to try our best to do right by her. We're trying to invest in her future, and be good stewards of God's creation.
Nice to hear you're doing what you can. But you're right that many people don't seem to think it's a problem. In the UK we are encouraged to recycle - probably because we are running out of space to dump our rubbish. But as soon as people's comfort and convenience are challenged they don't want to know. But I believe that the way we live is noticed and does make a difference. We all need to try to leave the world a better place for generations to come.
Luckily for us, our city has recycle pick-up along with regular garbage pick-up. We try to buy local produce as much as possible too. You're right. When it's inconvenient, you really have to be committed. I know we could probably make less of a footprint than we are now if we got super hard-core about it. I know of people who don't use toilet paper, and stuff like that. I don't think I could give up toilet paper! But, if we all try to at least make progress toward more careful, environmental lifestyles, then that's better than not changing anything about how we are currently doing it. I watched an interesting show on environmentalism in China. Architects there are designing environmentally sound buildings (retain heat in summer, and stay cool in winter) with massive gardens and agricultural areas on the rooftops! What a smart idea! They are also thinking about city planning that is not based around the automobile (like North America) and highways, but around bicycles and pedestrians. Interesting stuff!
this subject keeps being brought to my attention lately. i am starting to recycle and andy and i are talking about our next car purchase (being an environmentally good purchase).....Lord, help us know what to do!
Thanks guys for your comments. Here in the UK we also have recycle pick-up every week. That does make it easier although some people still don't bother. I can manage to recycle most things that are recyclable and I try to use recycled paper whenever possible but I don't think I could do without using toilet paper!
By the way Bek, I love the poetry you're writing. God has given you a real talent and He does want you to use it. So go for it girl!
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