Wastefullness

The last couple of weeks I’ve had some time to do some reading that didn’t have anything to do with school. One author I particularly enjoy is Bill Bryson who is a travel writer. Occasionally mixed in with his wonderful wit are nuggets of great insight. Here is a summation of one of them…

The rate at which we Americans consume natural resources is alarming. With just 5% of the world’s population, we consume roughly 20% of its resources. We are a wasteful culture. What is sad is that I think most Americans don’t care. It has been estimated that the nation as a whole wastes about $300 billion of energy a year. We are not talking here about energy that could be saved by investing in new technologies. We are talking about energy that could be saved just by switching things off or turning things down. As a matter of fact, 5% of ALL the energy used in the United States is consumed by computers that have been left on all night.

I can’t say I’m passionate about the environment, but it seems to me that we each have a responsibility to do our part to respect and preserve creation. We ought to be good stewards of what we’ve been given, not wasters.