A few stats for Buy Nothing Day. 1. The US and Canada, with 5.2% of the world’s population, are responsible for 31.5% of consumption. South Asia, with 22.4% of the population, is responsible for 2% of consumption. 2. The Western world spends more on luxury products than it would cost to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. 3. Each person in the United States makes 4 1/2 pounds of garbage a day. That is twice what they each made thirty years ago. - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2007. 4. For every one garbage can of waste you put out on the curb, 70 garbage cans of waste were made upstream to make the junk in that one garbage can you put out on the curb. - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2001. 5. Between 1981 and 2012, the top 1% of the population captured about 37% of all overall growth in pretax incomes in Canada. This is second only to the United States, with 47%.The gap between rich and poor Americans is now the widest of any industrial nation. - OECD 6. In 2012, Canadian Internet ad revenue was $3.1 billion, second only to television ad revenue at $3.5 billion. Thats $81 per person for the internet and $92 for TV. Its much higher in the US. (iab industry survey) 7. In the year 2000, the average North American spent on average an hour per day and three years over her or his life-time listening to, reading or watching advertisements. 8. In 2006, people around the world spent $30.5 trillion on goods and services, and in 2008, they purchased 68 million vehicles, 85 million refrigerators, 297 million computers, and 1.2 billion cell phones. - State of the World 2010, Worldwatch Institute 9. $15 billion a year is spent on perfume; it would cost $10 billion to provide clean drinking water for all. 10. The amount of money spent worldwide on makeup ($18 billion) would more than pay for reproductive health care for all women (estimated at $12 billion) and universal literacy ($5 billion). There would be enough left to immunize most children in the world; immunizing all of them would cost $1.3 billion. 11. According to United Nations statistics, the average North American consumes 14 times more than a Mexican and 35 times more than a person living in India. If everybody consumed at US rates, we would need 3 to 5 planets. 12. The average US citizen consumes twice as much as fifty years ago. 13. Americans spend 3 to 4 times more hours shopping than Europeans do.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 04:10:49 +0000
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