You asked for it...

Hello young adult friends. Welcome to the April edition of You asked for it…, the NCP email to folks just like you.

Hope you are doing just fine on this Earth Day. Things are good with NCP—lots of invites to talk about our stuff, lots of people like you doing great things for the planet and its people. Take the Bridgewater College NCP chapter—last winter they raised over $2300 for our Give a Girl a Chance girls’ education program with a dance recital. Now they’re at it again, putting on a spring variety show to support our reforestation programs in Sudan—a key to peace there, according to the United Nations. Here’s their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=24621297973

Also want to shout out to folks at Drake U, Elon U, Elizabethtown College, Manchester College, McHenry County College, and Lycoming College for getting me to their schools over the past couple of weeks—thanks!

Now on to the main point of this edition of You asked for it…—an Earth Day report on the state of our fine planet. I've listed below what ONE DAY of consumption amounts to in the USA alone, along with an overview of what all human impacts will be on the planet on this single day, followed by ideas for getting us to a better place.

Keep the faith. Share the love. Stay in touch.

David

Earth Day impacts: USA
-40 million water bottles and 150 million aluminum cans tossed, along with 1.8 billion pounds of other household trash
-9 billion miles driven (as much as the rest of the world combined) creating 9 billion pounds of CO2
-10 million hours in the shower emitting 150 million pounds of CO2 (and that's just the teenagers!)
-18,000 tons of beef consumed, requiring around 180,000 tons of grain and 37 billion gallons of water to produce
-400,000 cell phones tossed
-17 million tons of CO2 put into the atmosphere (from all activities)
-375 million pounds of food spoiled/thrown away
-10 million pounds toxic chemicals released into the ecosystem
-200 people will die from causes related to air pollution

Earth Day: planetary impacts
-50-150 species of plants or animals will go extinct
-86,000 acres of rainforest will be cut down
-100,000 acres of semi-arid land will be lost to desertification
-70 million tons of CO2 will enter the atmosphere from human activities
-the world's glaciers will thin an average of 1/10th of an inch as a result of global warming
-500 people will die as a result of global warming impacts (increased infectious disease, hunger, and floods and heat waves)
-14,000 children will die at least in part due to an unhealthy environment

Earth Day actions for a healthier planet
-Go local. Support local producers, stay away from things made or grown in faraway places.
-Go bike. Make car driving the luxury it is—use one only when you have to.
-Go lower—on the food chain. A typical burger meal at the fast food requires 1400 gallons of water and produces a pound of trash.
-Go greener. Several schools I’ve visited lately have gone tray-free in the cafeteria—cool! A couple have their own gardens going—amazing! Some of you are going vegetarian—and taking heat for it—be strong! My pal Nick just spent his last dime on a bike—great investment, dude! (I know this isn't your natural tendency, but it pays to be as far right as possible... :) )
-Go higher. Let elected officials know you are for preserving nature, taxing harmful behavior (they say gas should cost $12 more per gallon to cover all the environmental and human costs of petroleum production) and not paying corporations to trash the planet (world governments give $900 billion in tax breaks every year to corporations, often in support of actions that harm the planet).
-Go deeper. Some of you are asking the big questions about where all this is headed and about the fundamental changes that need to take place—keep questioning! Good books examining the underlying causes of our ecocidal tendencies—and what we can do to stave off or deal creatively with coming calamities—are The Upside of Down, The Bridge at the End of the World, and Endgame. See our Reading list for summaries of these and other titles: http://newcommunityproject.org/reading-list.shtml
-Go public. Get over your embarrassment at loving the planet--the earth doesn't have time for us to be worried about appearances. Keep things in the system by fishing recyclables out of the trash or scavenging uneaten food off your friend's plate. It won't save the world, but it will make a statement.
-Go Amazon! Help us purchase and preserve 137 of amazing Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. We'll send you a cool eco-friendly Save the Rainforest t-shirt for any donation over $25. http://www.newcommunityproject.org/treefalls.shtml

How about forwarding this message to a couple of your friends--we need all the help we can get taking care of this fine planet!

Happy Earth Day!