It may be unfair to put everyone in the same basket, but Americans
as a whole are huge consumers. Some say that with our
consumption comes industry and prosperity. However, if everyone
on earth consumed food and material goods at the same rate as
Americans, we would need four earths worth of natural resources
to sustain that consumption. You can personally reduce your dependence
on limited natural resources such as oil, clean water and minerals,
by considering the hierarchy of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. Reducing
what you buy and reusing what you have will ultimately
save more natural resources, create less pollution and consume
less energy than recycling alone.
