Wasteful, Polluting Humans....

	CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 4.4 MOBILITY 0.5 SHELTER 3.2 GOODS/SERVICES 3.5 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 12
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.6 PLANETS.

(begin prompt)
On average, people in the United States require more than five times their "share" of world resources in order to maintain the "American Way of Life." In addition, this lifestyle is taking a heavy toll on our environment (e.g., global warming, oil spills, garbage dumps, pesticide/herbicide contamination of waterways, air pollution, destruction of natural environments and ecosystems, etc.). Is it "fair" that Americans (and citizens of other "developed nations") consume more than their "share" of the earth's resources? Does this consumption bring a greater responsibility to redress the environmental consequences of this lifestyle?
(end prompt)

Whether or not it is “fair” or not that Americans, etc. consume more of their “share” of resources is a more academic question than I am prepared to answer. But….

Of course we (the more developed nations) have a greater responsibility for healing the environment after we muck it up! Think back to when you were a little kid, do you ever remember your mother saying, “don’t worry about that mess, it will clean itself up,” I don’t think so. She would say, “you made that mess, now you clean it up.” This applied to your messy room and to the spilled kool-aid on the floor.

This principal (clean up what you mess up) should extend to whatever we do in life. People really have never wrapped their heads around the fact that if we don’t take care of our planet, it will die and take us with it. But, other “more immediate” problems tend to throw conservation to the back burner. Some people would rather research how to move to other planets rather than take care of this one.

Another reason the more developed countries need to take responsibility for fixing the damage our lives have done to the environment is that we can afford it. People throw fits about how much more sustainable ways of life cost, but it doesn’t really cost that much more now, and it would cost less if we researched ways to make things like solar energy more efficient. Plus, if the richest countries in the world aren’t going to do something, then who exactly is supposed to? The lesser developed countries have a lot more they need to spend their money on than we do and they have a lot less money overall.

Putting off planet conservation is stupidly shortsighted. I would be doing things like composting organic wastes and growing a garden like the Earth Day site said, but I live in an apartment at Hilltop and I don’t think they would take kindly to me farming on their well taken care of grass. It would be even harder in a regular dorm. We could probably work to put programs for conservation in place on campus, but it would take a lot of time and effort that is difficult to find in these homework filled days. But we can still try and do what we can, like recycling.