The Old Farmer’s Almanac, this 25th anniversary of Earth Day, says that environmental advocates, in 1969, one year before Earth Day began, made up just one percent of the U.S. population. In 1971, with Earth Day one year old, that number had jumped to 25% “interested in saving the planet.” A 2000 Gallup Poll found 67% of Americans prefer environmental protections “over economic growth if a choice had to be made.”
Richard Heinberg’s Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World (changes we must see as cheap oil runs out) calculates per capita use of energy. U.S. and Canadian citizens lead the way, using 8, 076 and 7, 930 “kilograms of oil-equivalent energy per year in 1997.” For the Fins it’s 6, 435. In milder Spain it’s 2,729. In lesser developed Bangladesh it’s 197. Americans can help Earth by using less energy.
Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke’s Blue Gold: the Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water explains our water consumption which “doubles every twenty years – more than twice the rate of the increase of the human population.” Conserving fresh water also means realizing its loss to manufacturing as we buy and buy. It takes 105,000 gallons of water to make one car, for example. Powerdown, being printed with 100% post consumer waste, saved 2,870 gallons of water. The vice-president of the World Bank has pronounced, “the wars of the next century will be about water.”
We have wars when we have intelligence and communication? Let us achieve water for all in a cooperative world.
My family grows by one any week now. My fervent grandmotherly wish is that we all cherish every grandparent’s grandchild on this planet. Reducing our energy usage, conserving precious fresh water, and prioritizing peace put such “cherishing” into action.
Sincerely,
Lynn Rudmin Chong