For example, envision an individual animal of any
species other than our own.  In virtually all of these
cases, the organism's daily pollution of its environment
is limited to its daily production of its bodily wastes. 

Next, however, envision an ordinary human being
living in an industrialized country.  One's daily body
wastes are again a factor, of course, but humanity's
collective biological wastes are natural products that
have little impact on global systems.

        From What Every Citizen Should Know About Our Planet
                                                         Used with permission.

Now, however, envision
this same human being in
an automobile, backed up
in crowded traffic on a
busy eight-lane highway. 


All around in every direction
are hundreds of other cars
and trucks and buses,
each spewing exhaust from
an internal combustion
engine.  


         This already demonstrates ways that each of us are individually 
       contributing much more than our body wastes to our surroundings 

Notice also that these additional wastes do not constitute an
unusual or once-in-a-lifetime contribution by each of us. 

Instead we repeat
these assaults again
and again and again,

day after day,
throughout
our lives. 


Every day, from all of 
those tailpipes on each
and every bumper-to-
bumper interstate,
boulevard,
and highway,


            we spew molecules of carbon dioxide
                       and other noxious fumes. 

We are the only animals on earth that do this

and we do so during each and every
rush hour, on every grocery-run, on
every holiday trip to visit family, and
during every postal delivery. 


And we repeat this behavior every day -
again and again and again - in Beijing,
Los Angeles, Mumbai, Tokyo, Cairo,
Karachi, Jakarta, Peoria, New York
City, Moscow, and Rio de Janiero -

releasing more multiple billions of tons
of waste, without fail, relentlessly into 

        the onion-skin-thin layer of air
                                          that makes up earth's atmosphere

We are the only animals on earth that do this -

                          and we are not even at home or work yet.  (ibid)

Now we switch on our heating and air-
conditioning units, run a dishwasher and
clothes dryer, run our lawnmowers and
weed-trimmers,

our refrigerators and freezers, our
street lights, fluorescent lights, toaster-
ovens, microwaves, hair-dryers,
steel-mills, shopping malls, motor
boats, television studios, and hot-
water heaters. 

     And then we repeat these same activities 
                                        every day, again and again and again,

so that our power plants,
on our behalf, release
still more tons of wastes
and fumes,

without fail,  relentlessly
and endlessly, into the
onion-skin-thin 
                   
                        layer of air that constitutes earth's atmosphere

We are the only
animals that do this

                                      or that have EVER done this

and we still have not
yet added the wastes
generated by unwanted
catalogue mailings,

throw-away containers
and items shipped
halfway around the world. 

No other animals
  on earth do this -

     how can we imagine that endless billions of us can endlessly 
         behave in this way without calamitous repercussions?

If we intend to enjoy such extravagance,
our populations must be smaller.

If world population
did not grow at all,
all of these impacts
would likely double

as the world's poorest
nations industrialize
and seek to emulate
our own standard of living. 

Knowing that earth's
atmosphere is not
responding to our
assaults very well  
right now,


we are nevertheless on-track to add 

                at least a 7th, 8th, and 9th billion to our numbers

                                                   between now and mid-century" (ibid)

     What Every Citizen Should Know About Our Planet (Anson, 2007)

 PART THREE

Finally, another perspective has recently
appeared in Thomas Friedman's new book
Hot, Flat, and Crowded (2008). 

Pulitzer Prize winner Friedman cites
    California Institute of Technology 
       chemist Nate Lewis as follows:

"Imagine you are driving your car and every mile you
drive you throw a pound of trash out your window.

And everyone else on
the freeway in their cars
and trucks are doing
the exact same thing,

and people driving
Hummers are throwing
two bags out at a time –
one out the driver-side
window and one out
the passenger-side
window.....    

Well, that is exactly
what we are doing;
you just can’t see it.