This video clip definitely brings to light some major issues occurring now, in the United States, that really aren’t being addressed with the urgency they require. Chris Jordan does a wonderful job of putting some of the hundreds of statistics out there into a format we can visualize and better understand. These problems are “fixable”. It’s like Jordan says, “We have a choice,” a choice to change. If that’s the case, then “How do we change?” Look at it this way: As a society, do we really need to be using 40 million paper cups per day, just for hot beverages? Whatever happened to thermoses or travel mugs? Right now, America– rephrase that –the American PEOPLE (aka. you and me) create over one hundred and forty one million, six hundred thousand (141,600,000+) square feet of trash each year. That’s the equivalent of 82,000 football fields of garbage 30 feet deep. Just think how much we could reduce this number just by cutting back on the 14 billion+ cups we use each year.
Now I know what many of you are thinking. How on earth is anyone going to be able to get all 307+ million people currently living in the United States to cut back so much on their cup consumption? The answer is to not think about those other 306,999,999 people, just worry about YOURSELF. If everyone thinks, “Well I’m just one person, what can I do?”, then of course nothing will get done. However if everyone thinks, “I guess using my own travel mug isn’t much, but it’s at least something,” then we’ll be getting places. Places that lead to less trash, more personal responsibility, and maybe eventually 307 million people no longer using paper cups for their coffee.
This is merely one of the hundreds, if not millions of ways our society can choose to change. As Chris Jordan pointed out there are so many other ways the people of this country can save; save money, time, resources, the environment. So be that obnoxious customer who asks if they can use their own mug or their own grocery bags, recycle, and most of all, be conservative and concious about what you throw away. While one paper cup may not seem that big of a deal at that moment, just think of the other 454 cups being throw out in that same second. That’s right, every second of every day 455 paper cups are being thrown out in the U.S.
THINK ABOUT IT….
I’ve heard criticism of this focus on small, individual efforts at conservation. (I think I heard it first when Obama or someone suggested that everyone should use efficient lightbulbs.) The criticism goes like this: these small changes will make little impact compared to the industrial pollution that is pumped out on a regular basis. We should focus our efforts on the changes that will have a larger impact. What would you say to this?
Maja