Last night, I was watching National Geographic's the Human Footprint show where they visually calculate a person's average consumption of food and other products in his or her lifetime.
My first reaction was, "do they really have to use all those materials and products just to prove what a wasteful human being I am?" I was especially appalled that they wasted thousands of nearly expired eggs when there are so many hungry people in other parts of the world.
I did admit to myself afterwards that I do have to conserve a bit on using water and electricity, and the show even made me feel guilty about eating meat when so much energy and resources are being consumed just by raising cows, pigs and chickens.
But in order for humans to progress, increasing consumption of the earth's resources is inevitable. What we need, I think, and what is now being researched on is the cradle-to-cradle approach, how to reuse, recycle and return back to earth all the things and products that we consume - to be reborn as new products.
Will that be possible? Maybe not in my lifetime but one can only hope.
If anybody saw this show, let me know your thoughts.
One of the strangest ideas at the moment is to use food for automotive fuel, especially in large inefficient engines.