The difference between the average American Life, and the average Earth Life is truely horrible. We seem to hunger for more. More food, more clothes, more tech. Everything bigger, faster, easier. There's not any one reason, but some are the media, the way we are raised, and simple lack of exposure to different ways of living.  In 2014 it was recorded that the average U.S. home has more that 300,000 items down to every last rubber band. Even U.S. kids, who make up 3.7% of children worldwide, own 47% of the worlds childrens books and games. But how does this affect the enviornment? Not only do products take energy, primarily fossil fuels, to get the materials, be produced, and be transported, but we eventually throw everything away. After you pick up that new game console or buy a new outfit to keep up with the everchanging fashion trend, you usually have to get rid of something else to make room for it, if not right away, eventually, as you realise you need more space or move or die. This is one of the reasons that, as stated by the Recycling Coalition of Utah, "Americans  waste or cause to be wasted nearly 1 million  pounds of materials per person per year." as well as a total of 3.3 trillion pounds of CO2 released into the atmosphere. It would be great if everyone became a minimalist and donated their stuff, but if you aren't willing to give up that new cute top at Brandy, or the latest and greatest video game, but there are other things we can do to offset this. We can recycle and compost as much as possible, for drivers: make sure your tires are fully inflated as it increases mileage by 3%, turn off lights when unused, buy appliances labeled with ENERGY STAR for efficiency, buy local and in season produce and eat less meat and dairy, don't leave on the thermostat or AC while away or on vacation (or incourage/help your parents to do all these things). This won't work if only one person does it, even if they try as hard as they can, but If everyone cuts down on material purchases and bad habits for the enviornment just a little bit, then we can make a lot of change.
Sources:
https://utahrecycles.org/get-the-facts/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mattias- … 54400.html
https://cotap.org/reduce-carbon-emissions/
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/21 … f-20140322