header

Facts

Scroll the facts ...

  • The U.S. is 5% of the world’s population and uses 25% of the world’s resources.
    • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Over 80% of Americans believe that they buy and consume far more than they need.
    • ‘Making Sustainability Bite; Transforming Global Consumption Patterns’,International Institute for Environment and Development.
  • Rise in per capita consumption in the U.S. in the last 20 years: 45%
  • Decrease in quality of life in the U.S. since 1970, as measured by the index of Social Health: 51%
  • In the last 20 years, working time has increased by 15% and leisure time has decreased by 33%.
  • American parents spend 40% less time with their children today than they did in 1965.
  • The average working person spends less than 2 minutes per day in meaningful communication with their spouse or “significant other”.
  • The average American child sees 2200 commercials per day and will spend approximately 2 whole years of his/her life watching commercials.
  • By the time the average American reaches 70 they will have spent 7-10 years of their lives watching TV.
  • The amount spent globally on advertising aimed at boosting consumption topped $430 billion in 1998.
    • ‘Economics for ever: Building sustainability into economic policy’, Panos Media Briefi ng No 38, March 2000
  • Each year U.S. factories spew 3 million tons of toxic chemicals into the air, land, and water. That compounds the over one-half billion tons of solid hazardous wastes.
  • Percentage of college freshmen who reported thinking it is essential to develop a philosophy of life: 1967: 83% - 1987: 39%
  • Every day 50 to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct as human influences destroy them. This is 1000 times faster than at any time in the past 65 million years.
    • Earth in the Balance
  • The Earth’s limited supply of natural resources will only be able to sustain 2 billion humans by 2100, bad news for a world that already feeds 5.9 billion.
  • The human population of the world is expected to be nearly tripled by the year 2100.
  • Percentage of American workers ages 25 -- 49 who would like to see a return to a simpler society with less emphasis on material wealth: 75%