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SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION
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WASTE AND CONSUMPTION
By Gabrielle Trenbath - Australia

The United States, with less than 5% of the world's population,
consumes 24% of the world's energy, 27% of the world's aluminium, and
21% of the world's beef. U.S. residents own 32% of the world's motor
vehicles. (Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things, John C. Ryan
and Alan Thein Durning) It is easy to forget how our lifestyle
consumes disproportionably more of the world´s recourses than other
nations. And it is more interesting to see how people work harder and
go into debt to support their lifestyles. David Francis brings up a
good point in his book "Money not the root of all happiness" when he
says that levels of happiness has not risen and that high living
standards does not necessarily translate well into well being and
general contentment. A Vital Signs report written by David Spratt
also provides more statistics on over consumption and its effect. One
is `despite a relatively calm U.S. hurricane season in 2006, the
world experienced more weather related disasters than in any of the
previous three years. Nearly 100 million people were affected´.
Another shows America could displace 22 million hectares of tropical
forest and Savanna in the next 20 years´

More statistics on www.worldwatch.org/taxonomy/term/39.


WORLD FOOD DAY: 16 OCTOBER


There´s word going around encouraging writings about this year´s
theme of the World Food Day; the "right to food". Topics could
reflect environmental and social justice issues as they relate to
food, such as the right to food, hunger, urban agriculture, food
miles, water and carbon costs, food security and even issues such as
green roofs and vertical spaces for food production, among many more!
SustainableCitiesNet.com welcomes any posts you may like to
contribute with. Maybe all it will add up to is a handful of op-eds
and blog posts, but that´s how awareness-raising starts. Such a group
effort would represent a statement of solidarity with people and
groups internationally working on these issues. You might check with
some local agencies to see what the level of food insecurity in your
own area to make a connection. Use the day to toot your own horn by
telling readers what you and your group are doing to insure that more
people in your area have access to nutritious food. Write a
futuristic piece about what you´d like your community to look like 13
years from now food-wise, i.e. Your Vision for 2020.

Bread for the World has a good summary of world hunger facts:
http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-
international.html

Information from the FAO´s Right to Food website can also be found
at:
http://www.fao.org/righttofood/


CLIMATE AND POPULATION STRIP FERTILE LAND

Scientists say to keep up with the growth in human population; more
food will have to be produced worldwide over the next 50 years than
has been during the past 10,000 years combined. But in many countries
a combination of poor farming practices and deforestation will be
exacerbated by climate change to steadily degrade soil fertility,
leaving vast areas unsuitable for crops or grazing. Competition over
sparse resources may lead to conflicts and environmental destruction,
the scientists fear. The warnings came as researchers from around the
world convened at a UN-backed forum in Iceland on sustainable
development to address the organisation's millennium development
goals to halve hunger and extreme poverty by 2015. The researchers
used the meeting to call on countries to impose strict farming
guidelines to ensure that soils are not degraded so badly they cannot
recover.

Read more on the following link:
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/31/climatechange.food


TIG PANORAMA ON CONSUMERISM AND POLLUTION

Sometimes we buy new goods without paying attention to whether we
really need them or not. We don't look at how long they might last,
which country they come from or the environmental consequences of
manufacturing these goods and how they are disposed. Creating new
goods means new factories that need to be built whose operations can
create many things that are harmful to our environment.

See how TIG members expressed artistically what Consumerism and
Pollution means to them @
http://en.takingitglobal.org/express/gallery/artwork/index.html?typ
e=tig&collectionID=1073

November 25, 2007 | 8:22 PM Comments  0 comments

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