Mind Boggling Waste

Edward Humes: Total Garbage

We waste 40% of our food.

The Average American is responsible for 1.5 tons of garbage each year.

EPA States on Waste

EPA estimated that each year, U.S. food loss and waste embodies 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (million MTCO2e) GHG emissions (excluding landfill emissions) – equal to the annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants.

Humes also asserts, we waste 60% of our energy.

6 billion gallons

Vehicles idling combine to waste nearly 6 billion gallons of fuel per year, and cost owners more than $20 billion. That's a billion with a B. And idling consumes fuel without moving the vehicle, which means you're wasting both energy and money without doing any work. -gpstracker

Traffic congestion increases vehicle emissions and degrades ambient air quality, and recent studies have shown excess morbidity and mortality for drivers, commuters and individuals living near major roadways. Presently, our understanding of the air pollution impacts from congestion on roads is very limited

- nih.

Plastics

We produce 400 million tons of plastic waste per year attendant to food packaging, disposable bottles and the synthetics woven into our clothing


Headlines from the World Bank

First, rapid urbanization, population growth, and economic development will push global waste generation to increase by 70% over the next 30 years.

Second, in low-income countries, over 90% of waste is mismanaged – it is either openly dumped or burned.

Third, plastics are a profoundly difficult and complex problem.

Word Wildlife Fund points out

Micro-Plastic is in everything. We eat the equivalent of a credit card per week.

There's a solution - Consume less. 

As a part of a society known for it conspicuous consumption, the answer is pretty simple really. Once we are finished with  goods and products, they usually end up in a landfill as waste. The less we consume, the less damage we will do to the environment. Reducing our consumption is a great way to reduce our carbon footprint and take a political stance by rejecting our consumerist culture. (From on-line sources)

COVID Mitigation Worked

 

Without a Plan

The impact of vaccines and behavior on US cumulative deaths from COVID-19

 America’s improvised strategy to fight COVID-19—public and private behavioral changes to slow transmission until vaccines could be deployed—prevented close to 800,000 deaths in the country. The ad hoc effort’s effectiveness is surprising because public health officials could not precisely target mitigation as they lacked precise information on the routes and mechanisms of the disease’s transmission.  -Brookings

What Worked?

Hand Washing

Masking

Social Distancing

Isolating

Testing

Lockdowns

Ad hoc measures to keep us safe were the best things we could do with no plan in place until the vaccine was developed. Research suggests without the ad hoc measures, COVID would have cost over two million lives instead of one million. It is estimated that vaccine hesitancy cost an additional 273 thousand lives.

There were two forces at work. The first group, people who had a a good idea of what needed to be done, forged ahead with solutions. 

The second group, people who were blown away by the enormity of the task, spent an inordinate amount of energy looking for somebody to blame. They looked for conspiracies from the CDC and HIH. They blamed the World Health Organization. They blamed China for deliberately releasing the virus as a form of warfare. Another conspiracy theory claimed it was a plot by the establishment to deny the president in his bid for reelection. None of this was supported by the facts. All of it got in the way, and put all of us at risk.

Thank God the first group persevered.