The lifestyle of the average US'er consumes 27 tractor trailer loads of earth-material a year. (Miller, Environmental Science)

Get Organized: Over-consumption

The facts:

• If the world's productive land was divided up among all the earth's people, we'd each have about 4.5 acres to provide for us (our sustainable "ecological footprint"). Currently, the average US'er requires 23.7 acres of earth-five times our fair share.
• As a whole, the earth's people are using 5.1 acres per person. How do we get away with this kind of overdraft? Taking more from the forests, seas, aquifers, and land than can be replaced. This works for a while, but someday the bill will have to be paid.
• Other consumption stats: annual per person paper use in the US : 760 pounds; world average: 110 pounds. With about 4.5 percent of the world's people, the US uses about 25 percent of the world's petroleum. Compared to Europe or Japan , overall the US uses twice as much energy per capita. We throw away 1800 pounds of trash per person per year. And 95 percent of the trash generated by the US economy happens before an item gets into our hands-waste produced in mining, milling, manufacturing, packaging, shipping, displaying.
• A US'er eats about 100 pounds of beef per year, requiring over 1,000 pounds of grain and a million pounds (over 100,000 gallons) of water. Livestock produce 10 times as much manure every year as all US municipal sewage flow and are a big cause of water pollution
• Did we mention shrimp yet? It's the #1 US seafood choice, but has serious environmental consequences. For every pound of shrimp caught with a bottom net, 10 pounds of by-catch (sea life they didn't mean to catch) is thrown back overboard dead. When raised inland, mangrove swamps are often destroyed to create shrimp farms, seriously damaging coastal ecosystems.
• US'ers buy an average of 48 items of clothes per year; throw away 40 million water bottles a day; and waste 40 percent of the food that is produced
• Advertisers spend $1000 per year on each of us to convince us to spend our money on more things

Take Action:

Lead the way in combating over-consumption with positive actions

• While recycling isn't the whole answer, it is a first step. Is your church/school/house recycling? If not, what can be done to get it going? Are bottled drinks sold on the property? (manufacturing plastic water bottles every year in the US requires 1.5 million barrels of petroleum-enough to fuel 100,000 vehicles) Are there recycling containers easily available? Check out the REwards of REcyling for the energy and material savings.
• We throw away 130 million cell phones in the US every year, most of which are not recycled, releasing toxins into the environment. Set up a cell phone recycling plan.
• The US requires 1 billion trees per year for its paper consumption. What are the library's policies on copying or printing-are there incentives not to use so much paper? Is recycled paper purchased for use in copiers and printers?
• Water use not only drains aquifers, but requires energy to pump, transport, treat and heat. Are flow-restrictor shower heads in place? Aerators on faucets? Lawn care is a biggie. Are lawns watered? (One residential lawn can use 10,000 gallons per year-lawn grass is the no.1 US irrigated crop!) Is cypress mulch (red stuff) used around trees and other border areas? This is one of the leading causes of destruction of cypress swamps (great storm buffers and fish nurseries) along the southeastern US coast. Check it out
• Are there good non-meat options at meals? (If the US cut its meat consumption in half by 2030, it would free up water equal to the flow of 14 Colorado Rivers!-State of the World 2004, World Watch Institute)

Wake up your community or church or campus or club

• Bring in a an environmental speaker for convo or class or church service; use NCP's consumption-related info-blurbs in the campus paper or church newsletter
• Use NCP's footprint analysis to rate consumption patterns of individuals in your church, school or club
• Set up a garbage exhibit with 1800 pounds of trash (one person's annual production) with hand-outs talking about the garbage we throw away as just the tip of the iceberg for material consumption. Scatter plastic water bottles down the sidewalk with signs noting the 40 million bottles US'er throw away every day-and how much energy it takes to produce these bottles every year
• Request copies of NCP's Save the Earth post-it notes to distribute-simple ideas for conservation

Wake up legislators!

• Get together a letter writing campaign or petition drive telling Congress to push corporations to use returnable bottles and other commodities, to make cell phones transferable with new service, and to raise the content of recycled materials in making paper, plastic and other products [House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515; United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510]