TV TO TUNE INTO
Compelling documentary illustrates the astounding truth about human consumption
One American lifetime. 77 years and 9 months on the earth. 2,837,875,000 heartbeats. 13,056 pints of milk. 39,146 cups of coffee. 5,067 bananas. And
64 tons of waste. Imagine all the toothbrushes you will ever use, all the potatoes you will ever eat and all the sodas you will ever drink. Then think of it
encircling your home, or filling the streets of your neighborhood!
Premiering on Wednesday September 17 at 10 am AEST / 12pm NZ National Geographic Channel (NGC) presents Human Footprint, a
groundbreaking special anchored by ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas, which follows the cradle-to-grave consumption of an average American boy and girl.
In association with National Geographic Mission Programs and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), for the first time on television NGC presents
what an average American consumes — and discards — in a lifetime, all in one place at one time via a series of dramatic, revealing and informative
visual demonstrations.
"On any given day it's easy to think that our individual impact on the world is relatively small, but multiply your actions over a lifetime and the true
extent of our footprint becomes apparent," explains Vargas. "I think people will be surprised and fascinated when they actually see for the first time the
extraordinary amounts of resources each of us will eat, produce and consume simply through our daily lives."
Your individual footprint is determined not only by the food you eat and the oil used to power your car, but also includes the resources needed to
produce, package and transport everything you consume. The special goes beyond the sheer magnitude of what we consume, following the chain of
production back to find out what goes into the making of what we use every day, from T-shirts to soda cans to laptop computers.
Human Footprint literally displays what we each consume in our lifetime, using a typical American home as the backdrop. The dramatic visual
demonstrations include the following:
-A river of 28,433 rubber ducks flowing down the stairs of a home, over the front porch and into the neighborhood, each
representing one of the showers each of us will take in our lifetime.
-13,056 pints of milk — stretching from the front porch all the way down the street.
-4376 loaves of bread (or 87,520 slices) and 12,129 hamburger buns shaped into an American flag.
-43,371 soda cans laid out in the shape of the number 43,371.
-All of the appliances we will use in a lifetime suspended on a 50-foot wall — 10 televisions, 15 computers, eight microwaves, seven
washing machines, five refrigerators.
The film also traces the entire footprint of one of the items Americans love most: their cars. With just 5 percent of the global population, Americans
drive 30 percent of the world's automobiles and will each own 12 cars in their life. Americans use a quarter of the world's oil, and it takes half of that to
fuel all of our cars — amounting to 10.5 million barrels of oil every day. And their more than 200 million vehicles pump half of the world's carbon
dioxide fumes into the air each year.
The film continues beyond the fuel impact of a car and deconstructs the sum of its parts, literally across a map of the world. The seat belts and airbags
come from Sweden; the zinc metals, chemicals and catalysts from Belgium; the antilock braking, fuel injection systems, door and seat components from
Germany; the tires from South Korea; the aluminum parts from Thailand; and the stereo and wiring from Japan and China. And that's not taking into
account all the raw materials like manganese, iron ore and rubber — all before we've driven a single mile. In fact, when added together, it is likely that
the pieces of a car will travel farther during the production cycle than the complete automobile will ever be driven once it is purchased.
In the end, much of what we consume finds its way to landfills. Each of us will send 64 tons of waste to landfills in our lifetime, and together we
generate 246 million tons of waste each year.
The average American also creates 22 tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year — almost four times the world average of 6 tons. And we are now
consuming resources faster than the Earth can replace them. In fact, if everyone in the world lived like they do in America, we would need at least four
planets to meet our demand for natural resources and absorb our waste and pollution.
Finally, Human Footprint looks at some of the small changes that can make a big difference in our footprint on the planet. For instance, if we just lower
the thermostat 2 degrees in wintertime and raise it 2 degrees in summertime, we can each save up to 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year. Or by
replacing one conventional light bulb with an energy-efficient one, we can save half a ton of carbon dioxide over the bulb's lifetime.
Charting the journey from infant to senior citizen, the Human Footprint will surprise and enlighten viewers on how each of us changes the world and
how we can make that change for the better.
Human Footprint is part of NGC's Preserve Our Planet initiative — developed in collaboration with the
National Geographic Society — dedicated to providing relevant conservation information and practical
everyday tips across all platforms of the organization. The theme for this year — "What You Do Counts" —
aims to help people understand their individual impact on the planet and provides environmentally conscious
alternatives. The initiative includes a robust Web site —
www.preserveourplanet.com — with additional
solutions for reducing your carbon footprint, as well as a portal for relevant conservation material across all
platforms of the National Geographic Society, including content from National Geographic's "The Green
Guide," environmental news and magazine articles.
The Human Footprint is also a major initiative of WCS and helps the organization target conservation efforts.
To conserve wildlife and wild places, we must find ways to mitigate the negative impacts of human influence
while enhancing the positive impacts. The most important step is for human beings, as individuals, institutions
and governments, to choose to moderate their influence in return for a healthier relationship with the natural
world. Learn more at
www.wcs.org/humanfootprint.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97