Member since December 2009

I believe that right now, every human being is environmentally indebted to this planet.  Sadly, this ever-increasing debt is also growing in tandem with population.  Every second that goes by, the earth endures a population net growth of 2.37 people.  Our population is climbing high on a ramp commonly referred to as the “J curve”, the graph depicting the exponential incline of human population growth.  We are growing exponentially as is our appetites for material, wasteful and limited resources.  This growth on all fronts unfortunately works as a multiplier to a laundry list of environmental grievances.

Nine hundred million trees are cut down around the world annually.  As one side affect in conjunction with profound waste, over 8,300 plant species and 7,200 animal species around the globe are threatened with extinction.
The average person in America creates 4.39 pounds of trash per day.  This can add up to 56 tons of trash per year.  Only about one-tenth of all solid garbage in the United States gets recycled.  Each day the United States throws away enough trash to fill 63,000 garbage trucks which, in a years time, if placed end to end, would stretch from the earth halfway to the moon.  The worst part about all of this is that a large portion of what we throw away could easily be recycled.  Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.  Plastic bottles and plastic products are one of the more easily recyclable units of this waste because of the easy access to recycle bins and drop-offs.  A desire for convenience plays a huge role here, as people buy what they want and need, and quickly get rid of what they don’t.  Americans lifestyle and traditions contributes to this waste as well.  During the holidays, the US contributes and additional five million tons of waste and four of those five million tons is wrapping paper and shopping bags.  On top of all this, an average of one landfill is being closed every day in America because they are all filling up.  There is no sign of the amount of trash slowing down and very little effort to stop the rate at which Americans waste things.  This extreme waste produces profound levels of pollution that not only affect us as humans, but everything else living on the earth as well. 

Some day, our planet will be destroyed.  Five billion years ago, our sun gave birth to our planet, and five billion years from now, our sun will become a red giant, engulf our home in space and wipe out all life on this earth.  As stars are born and die, humans must find a way to explore the heavens and live on after our planet is gone.  In order to evolve this dream to reality, to live on after our planet is no more, we must first learn to sustain the environment we are currently living in.  If we fail… we go the way of the dodo.

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