The Green Parent
Raising kids with conscience
Blog
Nov 03 2008
facts about waste
Did you know that in the past 30 years, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed? Or that in the US less than 4% of the original forests remain? These are scary facts, but ones worth remembering if we are to make any positive changes in our attitude to consumption.
• In the past 30 years, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed.
• In the United States, less than 4% of the original forests remain.
• Forty percent of waterways in the US have become undrinkable.
• The US has 5% of the world’s population but consumes 30% of the world’s resources and creates 30% of the world’s waste.
• If everybody consumed at rates, similar to those of the UK we would need 3 to 5 planets to support us all.
• There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals on the market today.
• Only a handful of synthetic chemicals have even been tested for human health impacts and NONE have been tested for synergistic health impacts.
• In the US, industry admits to releasing over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year.
• The average person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago.
• We each see more advertisements in one year than a people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime.
• In the US, national happiness peaked sometime in the 1950s.
• Average house size has doubled since the 1970s.
• For every binfull of waste you put out, 70 binfulls of waste were made upstream to make the waste in that one bin.
Welcome to the new blog from the Green Parent office. Here we'll talk about what's going on in the small and quite leafy headquarters of the UK's leading green lifestyle magazine. We'll share news that interests us and talk about green issues and natural parenting. We'll share advice and information from our own experiences of living a green lifestyle. And we'll even tell you what we are reading, eating, drinking and thinking. Hope you get plenty of food for thought here.
The Green Parent is the UK's leading green lifestyle and natural parenting magazine. A truly inspiring read, TGP is like nothing else on the newsstand, with insightful intelligent journalism covering topics from babywearing and attachment parenting to home-education and alternative medicine. Each issue features regular columns on Organic Gardening, Seasonal Food and Drink, Green Travel, Ethical Fashion and lots more.
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