Interesting Facts about US Consumption

[citizen]

•Americans constitute 5% of the world's population but consume 24% of the world's energy.
•On average, one American consumes as much energy as
o 2 Japanese
o 6 Mexicans
o 13 Chinese
o 31 Indians
o 128 Bangladeshis
o 307 Tanzanians
o 370 Ethiopians
•The population is projected to increase by nearly 130 million people - the equivalent of adding another four states the size of California - by the year 2050.
•Forty percent of births are unintended.
•Americans eat 815 billion calories of food each day - that's roughly 200 billion more than needed - enough to feed 80 million people.
•Americans throw out 200,000 tons of edible food daily.
•The average American generates 52 tons of garbage by age 75.
•The average individual daily consumption of water is 159 gallons, while more than half the world's population lives on 25 gallons.
•Fifty percent of the wetlands, 90% of the northwestern old-growth forests, and 99% of the tall-grass prairie have been destroyed in the last 200 years.
•Eighty percent of the corn grown and 95% of the oats are fed to livestock.
•Fifty-six percent of available farmland is used for beef production.
•Every day an estimated nine square miles of rural land are lost to development.
•There are more shopping malls than high schools.

Reducing consumption without reducing use is a costly delusion. If undeveloped countries consumed at the same rate as the US, four complete planets the size of the Earth would be required. People who think that they have a right to such a life are quite mistaken.

Americans eat 200 billion more calories per day than necessary -- enough to feed 80 million people.

While millions of people around the world starve to death, Americans spend $30 billion a year on diet programs. One-third of the U.S. population is significantly overweight.