Super Eco

Photo credit: Product Policy Institute

Stuff—the downfall of Western civilization? You know we like to get dramatic in order to make a point (cough, cough), but this statement isn't that far of a stretch, really. In fact, stuff—and the manufacturing and packaging that goes along with it—accounts for nearly half of our greenhouse gas emissions. The Daily Green has published a piece on two recent reports from the Environmental Protection Agency's Joshuah Stolaroff that shines a harsh light on efforts to green our lifestyles. It appears that all our Energy Star appliances, hybrid cars and Hundred Mile Diet aren't the saving graces we thought they were. In fact, we're focusing on all the wrong areas.

From The Daily Green:

Powering every AC unit, boiler and hot water heater in the United States adds up to less than half the impact of our stuff–just 21%. Driving our cars, or–why not?–Hummers, as the case may be, accounts for just 13%, and food just 12%. Even all our guilt-ridden globe-trotting vacations and every one of those celebrity private jet trips–"non-local passenger transport" in the parlance of these reports–account for just 9% of all global warming pollution produced by the United States. And, in a note that makes you want to gouge out both eyes with an electric fork, the electricity used to run all our appliances amounts to just 7% of our nation's greenhouse gas emissions.