Human Footprint #7

Cutting down these trees means that 365,500 tons of carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere each year, rather than be absorbed by them to create oxygen. That's 1000 tons of carbon dioxide a day. Just to read the newspapers. If you're a lifelong New York Times reader, then you'll thumb through 40,040 pounds of newsprint that's 41 rolls like this stretching out for 407 miles. That's a path of newspaper long enough to stretch from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Over our lifetimes, we'll read this many newspapers, 5054 of them. Then there's the magazines we buy, 1 million every day. 

Our love of all things paper doesn't end there, those little greeting cards really add up. Around Valentine's Day, we send 192 million cards. But the big one is the holiday season, when each year we mail 1.9 billion cards. That's enough cards to cover the city of San Francisco. And then there's the wrapping paper on top of that. And while we're on the topic of cutting trees, we chop down more than 20 million Christmas trees each year. Clearing plantations covering an area 30 times larger than Manhattan. The holidays are also a time to eat well. At Thanksgiving, the nation devours the bulk of its annual intake of 265 million turkeys. Consumes a big portion of its 800,000 tons of sweet potatoes and relishes the greater part of 332,000 tons of cranberries. That's almost 800 jumbo jets full. But that's nothing compared to the Super Bowl. 

The NFL championship is the number one party event of the year. It's bigger than New Year's Eve. Almost 15,000 tons of chips and 4000 tons of popcorn get eaten on that single Sunday. If each chip were lined up, the trail would stretch ten times around the lower 48 states or 182,000 miles. And a popcorn string that would circle the earth over 5 times. In America, football may be our driving passion, but it doesn't beat our passion for driving. The car is freed among wheels and we have embraced it more than any other country on earth. But have you ever begun to realize what it's real impact is? We are following the lifespan of an American couple to see all the things we use and consume throughout our lifetimes. 

Now they have reached middle age. While there's no place like home, most of us like to get out and about from time to time, and so we go off on bikes, buses, trains, and planes. But thanks to Henry Ford, we've become an AutoNation, our cars become our pride and joy. And with so many different kinds to choose from from SUVs to convertibles, our car remains a symbol of freedom. The car has transformed the landscape. It has enabled us to work in one place and live someplace else. Although our nation has only 5% of the world's population, we have 30% of the world's cars. We shape our lives around the car, we've built freeways and adapted cities for it. 

Life without it is unimaginable, life with it comes at a cost. Cars are complicated machines requiring natural resources and high technology to manufacture. Take a typical Ford, for example. The expedition is assembled in Wayne, Michigan, the edge in Ontario, Canada, and the Ford fusion in sonora Mexico. But to see the real extent of the environmental footprint, we have to see where all the parts of a typical Ford come from. Consider the body, it is made from iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals. A wide range of synthetic plastics. Fibers and phones. Hates and coatings, glass, and rubber. The materials we can't see include toxic solvents such as toluene, minerals such as nickel and sulfur, and the fuels for electricity and production also come from around the world. And last come the consumable materials, the gasoline, the motor oil, and other lubricants, transmission, brake, and steering fluids. Windshield washer fluid. And all the replacement parts from lightbulbs infuses to break paths and tires. 

Any car American made or foreign is manufactured from raw materials gathered from around the globe. So we took apart a typical Ford to see where all the parts came from. The plastics come from Canada. The driveshaft axle and chassis comes from Toledo, Ohio, the brake steering and suspension systems come from Livonia, Michigan, the battery and interior systems come from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the aluminum wheels come from van nuys, California. The windshield comes from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So far, parts from all over the United States and Canada, and we still have miles to go. And with a modern car made from thousands of components, its footprint is truly global. 

The seat belts and airbags come from Sweden, the zinc metals, chemicals, and catalysts come from Belgium, and the anti lock braking, fuel injection systems, door and seat components, all come from Germany. The tires are from South Korea, the stereo and wiring are from Japan and China, and there are aluminum parts from Thailand. And that's not taking into account all the raw materials like manganese, iron ore, and rubber. All before we've driven a single mile. But that's not the end of it, because in our lives we don't just own one car. We each own an average of 12 cars in our lifetime, and the 200 million cars in the United States will be replaced roughly every 17 years. But its winter cars are fueled that they really make an impact. Americans use a quarter of the world's oil and it takes half of that to fuel all of our cars. That amounts to ten and a half million barrels of oil every day. 

We each drive an average of 11,000 miles a year. That's 627,000 miles over a lifetime, or 25 times around the world. And on that journey, we'll use 31,350 gallons of gasoline, or enough to fill these three fuel tankers. It's difficult to imagine, but the invisible gas pumped out of the family car creates nearly 6 tons of carbon emissions a year. Over a driving lifetime this adds up to 360 tons each. There is good news if everyone drove a hybrid car, it would be possible to cut emissions by a third. For more tips on how we can reduce our emissions, visit our website at WWW dot NatGeo human footprint dot com.