The Biggest Loser

Teaching Environmental Health

The unit number on my family's townhouse is 48. That's coincidentally our Carbon Footprint number of tons of carbon dioxide that our family of 4 produce annually. That's 48 tons of CO2 that is partly responsible for the warming of our planet. That number is just less than half the national average (for a family of 4 of 110 tons) but more than twice the WORLD average of 22 tons. The US have been energy pigs for a long time. It's usually good to be number one but in this case number one is the biggest loser.

I know the right side of the political spectrum might have you believe that global warming is liberal propaganda of democratic tax and spend socialists who just want to run the US into the ground. Yeah, I don't think so. After showing and watching "An Inconvenient Truth" five times in my health classes, I think Gore makes some pretty good points-- but defending him and the movie will probably take another blog in and of itself.

There are many carbon footprint calculators out there. I chose this one http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/ and I encourage you to take the time-- maybe 4 minutes if you do it thoughtfully, and see what your impact on the planet is if you have never done so.

Nineteen years ago a book came out called "50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth". Anyone remember that? At the time it was quite popular and I still have my 95 page copy. Though it's 19 years old, the information in it still holds up pretty well. My 9th graders last week read and discussed #46, Eat Lower on the Food Chain. Then they made some pretty clever posters out of it. Things like "Save Our Planet - Eat Less Meat" and then drew a picture of a half a cow.

If you are not familiar with the idea of eating lower on the food chain it goes something like this. It takes an unbelievable amount of water to support a cow. And we aren't talking about cows drinking water or bathing. Cows tend to eat all day. The food they eat has to be grown and watered. That water runs easily into the tens of thousands of gallons before the cow is led to the slaughterhouse. Moreover, forests worldwide are cut down or burned for grazing or for the cultivation of crops, crops to feed livestock. As of 19 years ago, it stated that one-third of the land of North America is devoted either for grazing or to support food for livestock. That's one third of Mexico, the US and Canada. Holy Big Mac-Attack Batman! Additionally, the worlds 1.3 billion cows (1989 figure) produce 100 million tons of methane gas annually, a molecule that traps 25x more heat than carbon dioxide.

So the phrase "eating lower on the food chain" means simply eating less meat-- less chicken, steak, beef, pork, etc. Not only will the planet thank you, so will your waistline, your arteries, colon, and so on.

---- personal note ----

My 9th grade students marvel when I tell them that my sons (age 4 and 6) have never been to McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, etc. They look at me like I am a child abuser.