Stats

Here are some stats to start; the goal with this will be to raise awareness and to present statistics in a way that is not daunting or overbearing, but things we can remember as we are going through our day-to-day lives.  Eventually I will try to move these numbers to simple graphics as a way to help us remember.  The power, however, from these statistics is that each person represent a human life; a life with a story.  Sometimes we lose sight of the human-ness of these stories by losing them in the masses of statistics.  Don’t allow that to happen.  When we say 1 billion people don’t have access to clean water, simply think of one person (perhaps someone you know and love) not having access to clean water; think of the impact of that on the persons health, the time it takes to fetch clean water and that impact on their ability to get an education; think about how that issue impacts their daily life.  And once that settles in, then multiply it by 1 billion of those impacted people.  Don’t get lost in statistics; keep it personal…. because it is.

* One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses 400-600 liters of water each day

* Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age five dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14% of the food we purchase

* More than half of the world lives on less than $2 (US) per day while the average American teenager spends nearly $150/week (over $20/day)

* 40% of the people in the world lack basic sanitation, while 49 million diapers are used and thrown away in America EVERY DAY!

* By far, most people in the world do not own a car while 1/3 of American families own 3 cars

* Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods