Recycling & Renewable Energy

US and Canada are the major part of the problem

Here are some of the facts:

The US consumes 20 million barrels of oil each day.
The US has 5% of the world population, but contributes over 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.
The US Has 30% of the world's automobiles.
Canada has more registered cars than people.

When you put some of these figures together it is not hard to see that Canada and the United States are the major problem and source of global warming issues in the world. However, it goes much deeper then that. A few days ago as I was discussing to one of my friends about the global issues we face today, he said, "It is going to be a different world in 50 years" and I replied, "it will be a different world with or with out these issues". However it got me thinking about what it was like 50 years ago and how we got into this global warming and environmental mess today.

We have created a culture of perceived wants and have made them into needs. When I was growing up in Canada, as a child we didn't have cell phones, cameras, ipods, computers, and we didn't have televisions in every room. In fact, if we had one television in the house we were fortunate. Times have certainly changed. I found that a lot of parents from the 1980s and beyond period grew up with the attitude I am going to give my kids everything I have never had. Everything means material items! Now as a result, kids now believe that a cell phone is now a need, a computer and television in the bedroom is now a need, and all the latest technology gadgets are a need as well. I can also remember a time when a family would have 3 or more kids and it was not unlikely for them to be sharing a bedroom with their brother or sister, well we don't do that anymore. So now we build bigger houses with more bedrooms. Now when kids turn 16 they all want a car because their friends have one. The list goes on and on, and you know exactly what I am talking about if you are a parent. We have peer pressure to encourage our children to have everything they want. Furthermore, the media on televisions, the internet and billboards bombard us with the message to consume, consume, and consume more.

We have spoiled our youth to the point that they now believe it is their god given right to have all the toys and wonderful things life has to offer. I often hear them saying that we deserve this or that. I have huge issues with that type of attitude when over a billion people in other parts of the world are starving and don't have adequate drinking water. We have created a culture of greed and have redefined it as what we want and made it a "perceived need". The United States and Canada are consuming more then any other country on the planet, and our hunger for consumer items is forever increasing. In essence we have a generation of spoiled materialistic people running these rich nations, and we are going to destroy ourselves with greed.

I live in Canada and I have to admit we are a major part of the problem. Here in North America we are the major producers of CO2 emissions, and contribute to creating more global warming issues then any other country on the plant. We are creating a culture of consumption and waste and have a huge appetite for fuel, oil and the luxuries of life. Each generation seems to want more and more. We seem to have lost our way in a materialistic society. We need to change our way of life if we want to solve the global warming and climate change issues.