Michael's Consumption Log

To be honest, I wasn't totally surprised when I made my first graph comparing essential vs. non-essential things I consumed throughout the day. Although I thought there would be a greater percentage of non-essential things than essentials, but then I realized that I look at a lot of my activities/property as essential (ie, computer used for work, schoolwork, artwork). Though these things were not necessarily essential for living, I believe they are essential for my overall happiness and well-being.

What really surprised me was the huge difference between manufactured goods I had consumed compared to everything else. About 86% of everything I consumed in one day was manufactured in one way of another and I would not be surprised if that number is actually higher. I then began thinking of how all these things affect me and how they effect my everyday life. I thought about where all this stuff came from and how many other people had/used the same things as me. The very thought of it was almost unbelievable. For instance, how many cigarettes I consumed in that one day was around 10. All ten of those cigarettes ended up on the sidewalk or street somewhere (sorry) and I'm not the only one who does this every day. There are about 5.4 million smokers in Canada... that's roughly 5.4 million Canadian smokers throwing cigarettes on the ground! If each smoker threw only one cigarette on the ground outside just once a day for a year that number would amount to 1.9 billion butts on the ground in Canada alone!

I thought about many other things that I do not need or can live without and it's almost ridiculous. I almost don't know where to go from here....

-Michael