Earth
Day 2008
Record
Courier Staff Reports
April 18, 2008
For
Earth Day this year, I'd like to recommend to everyone to pick up trash around
the neighborhood, install some energy-saving light bulbs or make sure to recycle
your cell phones - but I'm sure I'd get some excuses why these tasks couldn't
be done. So instead,
I'll recommend the easy assignment of watching entertaining and informative TV. Check
out "Human Footprint" on the National Geographic Channel. It's been
playing all week since its premiere last Sunday and the next showing is 1 p.m.
Sunday, April 20. The
show's subhead is, "Everything you eat. Everything you drink. Everything
you use. Your entire life's consumption in one place at one time." The
two-hour show illustrates Americans' lifetime consumption of different materials
- food, water, clothes, furniture, appliances, energy use, trash and waste - by
laying representations of these items out on about an acre of land. "Human
Footprint" shows that Americans are the Bigfoot of human global footprints.
The population of the U.S. is 5 percent of the world's population although we
consume a quarter of the world's energy. Rubber
ducks - 28,433 of them - represent the average number of showers taken in a lifetime.
A field is filled with 43,371 cans of soda, and we're told that if all these aluminum
cans were recycled, we could save enough power to run a TV for 14 years. We're
shown that the synthetic materials and leather that go into our sneakers travel
20,000 miles before we put them on our bodies. "A
brand-new pair of sneakers will have traveled farther than we will ever walk in
them," said the show's host, Elizabeth Vargas. Each
American owns an average of 12 cars in a lifetime. We use a quarter of the world's
oil and half of that is fuel for cars. "Cars
are our symbol of freedom - they have transformed our landscape in the United
States," said Vargas. "We have 30 percent of the world's cars." Parts
of a typical Ford vehicle are made from materials manufactured from around the
world. Our footprint is global. The
show is great for someone like me who needs visual aids to get an idea across.
Besides being an eye opener, "Human Footprint" gives suggestions on
how to save resources and conserve energy. More
information is given on National Geographic Channel's Web site. The site gives
links to resources on recycling electronics, cell phones - almost anything. Another
fun way to become enlightened on Earth Day is to grab six to eight of your best
friends, hop in your hybrid Hummer or Expedition and carpool to Idlewild Park
for the Earth Day 2008 celebration in Reno. | 
