"You refuse to acknowledge the effort and resources that are expended to make your lifestyle possible."
You are just wrong. I talk about the resources I use all the time, and understand the footprint I leave pretty well- and work to minimize it. Your are just wrong about other things as well. Our corporations and our country uses huge amounts of raw materials. The US uses far more raw materials than anyone else- we are despoilers, the biggest and the best at using up resources.
We "offshore" some of our worst abuses of the planet now. That is the privilege of a rich developed country- but we're still despoilers for doing it.
"Some issues such as the greenhouse effect, ozone holes, and deforestation have won the attention of the general public. Indeed, carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes have reached troublesome levels of 4.21 metric tons per capita worldwide and 19.53 metric ton per capita in the United States. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has climbed from an estimated level of 280 ppm in preindustrial times to 320 ppm in 1965 and reached 356 ppm in 1992 (WRI, 1994). "
"Regarding the environmental impacts of an affluent standard of living, Hall et al. (1994) have estimated that a baby born today in the United States will generate during her/his lifetime 10,355 tons of waste water, 2.5 tons of waste oil and solvents, 13 tons of waste paper, 3 tons of waste metals, and 3 tons of waste glass, as well as indirect wastes from manufacturing, including 439 tons of waste from agriculture, 419 tons from mining (coal excluded), 197 tons from the industrial sector, 83 tons of hazardous waste, 31 tons of demolition, 1,418 tons of carbon dioxide, and 19 tons of carbon monoxide. The same baby will 'consume' during his/her lifetime, among other things, 1,870 barrels of petroleum and 119 kg of pesticides. "
" Indeed, the large amount of animal products and alcoholic beverages currently consumed in the United States reflects the indirect consumption of large amounts of grains in the form of livestock feed and raw materials, such as hop, for alcoholic beverages and provides some buffer for the projected increased food demand of 520 million Americans. Each American citizen consumes per year, on average, 30 kg of bovine meat, 20 kg of pork, 30 kg of poultry, 260 kg of milk, 16 kg of eggs, and 134 liters of beers. Comparing this level of consumption with that of other developed countries (e.g. Europe or Japan, see Table 5), it is reasonable to assume that the consumption of animal products and alcohol can be significantly reduced without adversely affecting the nutritional quality of the American diet. This change in consumption pattern would encourage the direct consumption of grains and legumes"
"Over the last 200 years of farming, the United States has abandoned an estimated 100 million hectares (about 30%) of farmland because of erosion, salinization, and waterlogging, and the soil degradation problem appears to be worsening (USDA, 1971; 1989). Croplands lose an average of 17 t/ha/yr of soil to water and wind erosion combined, but in some states such as Iowa, erosion rates average 30/t/ha/yr. Pastures lose on average 6 t/ha/yr. About 90% of U.S. cropland is losing soil above the sustainable rate of 1/t/ha/year, and about 54% of U.S. pasture land (including federal land) is overgrazed and subject to accelerated erosion (Pimentel et al., 1994c)
In the United States, soil erosion losses, compounded by degradation caused by salinization and waterlogging, cause the abandonment of nearly 1 million ha of cropland each year. Even the most valuable soils are rapidly being degraded. For instance, Iowa, which has some of the best soils in the world, has lost one-half of its top soil after little more than 150 years of farming and continues to lose topsoil at an alarming rate of about 30 t/ha/yr (30 times faster than the rate of soil formation). A similar situation exists in the rich Palouse soils of the Northwest where about 40% of the soil has been lost in the past century. The majority of soil erosion on U.S. cropland, about 60%, is due to rainfall and water run-off, but for arid states wind erosion is the major cause (Pimentel et al. 1994c).
About 21 million hectares of U.S. cropland are considered highly erodible and the only way to halt erosion would be to convert the land to a. use which allows for permanent vegetative cover, like managed pasture."
"The combined on site and Off site costs of erosion from agriculture in the United States are estimated at $45 billion per year or about $100/ha of cropland and pastureland (Pimentel et al., 1994c). This erosion cost increases production costs in U.S. agriculture by about 25% per year.
To compensate for the on site and Off site damage inflicted by soil erosion and associated rapid water runoff on agricultural production, an additional 1.8 million kcal of fossil energy per hectare are expended each year (Pimentel et al., 1994c), assuming an average erosion rate of 17 t/ha/yr. This means that approximately 10% of all the energy used in U.S. agriculture today is expended just to offset losses of soil nutrients, water and crop productivity caused by erosion (Pimentel et al., 1994c). "
"Each individual requires nearly 3 liter of fresh water per day for drinking, but uses at least 90 1/day for cooking, washing, and other domestic energy-related needs (Brewster, 1987). On average, each American uses about 400 liters/day for all domestic needs (Kendall and Pimentel, 1994). However, when the water consumption related to agricultural production and industrial uses is also included, each American uses a total of more 5,500 1/day of fresh water (Kendall and Pimentel, 1994). " AMAZING water usage!
dieoff.org
Check out the US "global motorization" level- compared to everywhere else:
conocophillips.com
Yeah- the US is rapacious. I'm completely comfortable with that assessment. I've no idea how you can look at our unsustainable resource usage in the US and come to a different conclusion- but there you are. Maybe you are looking at small examples and fail to see the larger picture. Our burn rate of the world's resources is amazing. Our use of water per household is profligate. Our use of gasoline is obscene. Our tendency to overpackage things, and then discard the packaging amazes me. Rapacious. Irresponsible. Despoilers of the Earth. Yup. |
