I just finished listening to the God is Green series from Mars Hill Bible Church and Rob Bell. It was pretty fascinating and informative and I found myself agreeing with alot of it. While I am not into the scaremongering Chicken-Little-sky-is-falling-techniques that are often used by many, Rob offered some factual information and practical, practicable ways that each of us can change the way we live to positively change our environment. I believe the earth is much “tougher” than we think it is, but at the same time, I also understand and believe that we have a responsibility to love and care for the earth. In Genesis it was man’s primary responsibility – to tend and keep it. Sadly, in our culture of entitlements and instant gratification, we sacrifice the resources of the earth for our convenience. For example, the new ethanol craze is actually something that will negatively affect the poor of the earth by driving up corn prices. Something we are working on at Voice is using french fry oil to fuel our truck. This biofuel is cleaner for the environment and uses what would have otherwise been a waste product. We have a long way to go, I know. Personally, there are many things that I need to do to reduce my waste – from paper recycling to living simpler. So I was challenged this week. Here are a few thoughts and facts from Mr. Bell’s message that might surprise you.
- If we all used EnergyStar appliances, it would be the equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road.
- If every household in America would take one regular lightbulb and replace it with one compact fluorescent lightbulb, it would reduce energy consumption as much as taking a million cars off the road.
- A ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 7,000 gallons of water, 4,200 kw hours of electricity (enough to heat a home for 6 months) 390 gallons of oil, and prevents 60lbs of air pollutants.
- If our recycling rate increased to 30 to 60%, we would save 315 million barrels of oil in a year.
- If every American’s car tires were properly inflated, it would save more than 4 million gallons of gas a day!
Some scary statistics:
- Right now, we are destroying or losing an acre and a half of rainforest every second.
- More than 70% of the rivers in China are polluted (unfit for human contact).
- Last year, 4.6 million people died from air pollution diseases.
- In any given year, we lose 50,000 different distinct species of animal, plant or insects.
- In any given day in America, we produce enough trash to fill 63,000 dump trucks. If you were to line those trucks up, it would stretch half way to the moon in any given year.
- During holiday season, we produce an extra 5 million tons of trash, 4 million of it is shopping bags and wrapping paper.
- Last year, we dumped 14 billion pounds of waste into the oceans.
- We produce 80% more trash than we did 15 years ago and we have 80% fewer landfills.
- Diapers: We use 570 a second, 49 million a day, 18 billion a year. It takes 100,000 tons of plastic and 800,000 tons of tree pulp to produce them. We spent $350 million last year disposing of them. They don’t decompose and 300 years from now it will still be in our landfills.
I thought about all of this and then came across this interesting illustration. Many who know me have heard my rant on urban sprawl and the way developers are so fond of chopping out trees rather than plan sites around them. Even here at Voice, our development is terrible the way people have not even bothered to examine their home site before clearing it. Chop it all out and live in a field, seems to be the mentality. They have sacrificed beautiful oaks, maples and other trees for the convenience of getting their house built quicker. These trees took 20+ years to grow, and in moments are destroyed for no reason other than for the sake of “progress.” I feel it is so irresponsible and it goes along with the entitlement mentality of the culture. Maybe it is because I grew up with a father who had a respect for the woods and things living. But when I saw this illustration, it brought back the reality to me of how our amazing land is disappearing into paved roads, power poles, and strip malls. We, as a culture, need to rethink the way we build cities and suburbs and understand that our land is not limitless. As Christians, I believe we should be leading in that area.
Greetings Friend!
For a moment I thought you were going “Global Warming” on me.
I do agree though that “we’ve paved paradise and put up a parking lot”.
Have a great day!
I’ve only heard of Robs teaching but really want to hear it. It is our job to tend to the earth but yet we all fall so short. I believe it’s more about breaking bad habits and replacing them with new ones. And if you come up with a diaper sollution rather than throwing a crappy cloth one in the washer, let me know 🙂
Hi Josh, I know I had three kids in cloth diapers and did not have a dryer. It can be done. The cloth diapers were soaked and then washed and then hung on a line over the wood stove or outside on the clothesline to dry. That was only 28 years ago. Yes it was hard. I didn’t realize I was helping the environment; it was just what we did. For my last child, (your sister) I did have Pampers for when we went out. I often thought about that wet soggy plastic diaper and knew that it did not decompose and would remain in the dump for many many years. I think we are all examining what we can do to help. I too am examining myself and what I can do now.
eric – read my mom’s comment above 🙂
Not that I disagree, but you should really cite your primary sources when giving statistics. Not the first time I’ve told you. 🙂
Personal blog or not, statistics without a source make any point moot. Statistics are ultimately judged by the quality of the source and study. Unfortunately, nobody seems to care anymore and misinformation abounds.
Plus, sources allow readers to continue digging. Which is what you want, with a thoughtful, provocative entry like this, no? 🙂
Best to you, friend.
Just read my own comment — I was not implying that your statistics are misinformation.
Ok Josh so your a cloth diaper baby, that explains it 🙂
brad – yeah, usually i would have… i was just quoting mr. bell, but i should have given some links. i was being lazy. i will get some more information and even link some of those when i have the time. i am very much with you though on the source thing. it always irritates me when the source is not given. so then here i go and do the very thing that annoys me. fie on me!!!
On the diaper note… check out http://www.gdiaper.com. I didn’t have a lot of time read all their info, but what I read sounds good. They are flushable and will decompose quickly.
Check it out!
ok, updated some of those links to stats. the more you dig, the worse you realize it is… i know we as a culture can do better than this! the problem is that we are too lazy.
liz – i did read about those this morning as i was getting the info. sounds like a good idea.
Josh, well done! Good man. I’ll give them a good read now.
See, this is what sources are good for.
I just realized that I know an engineer who developed tire monitoring systems, for Goodyear I believe, a few years back. I have no idea where he is now.
The device he was working on is similar to that mentioned in the article: tire-valve mounted sensor that communicates pressure, heat, and other variables back to the car’s computer. Each sensor is equipped with a wireless transmitter for this purpose.
He was adamant about the fact that his team used a Panasonic cell battery exclusively, because Panasonic’s are rated 220mA/hour instead of 200mA/hour, giving their sensors 10% longer battery life.
Anyway, it may be technical but it was always cool to hear him talk about such things, he is very bright. Not the discussion most people would expect during the social time before our Bible study got moving. 😉
I was in Wild Oats today and saw the gdiapers… They were $9 for two! I could be wrong, but I can’t imagine diapers costing that much to produce, unless they clean your babies buns for you! Crazy! It’s too bad something that could do so much good could actually cost that child their college tution (money spent instead in the first two years of their life).
All i have to say is PRAISE THE LORD IN HEAVEN!!!!
I’m proud of you.