Human footprint
Hey Cris,
I was very happy to log in tonight and see that you had made a new post. I am really enjoying this whole experience – are you? I like the look of the ‘empanadas’. Are they big or small? If they are large, I wonder if they are like our English Cornish pasties, which are also pies in a half moon shape, but filled with corned beef and potatoes.
I have to admit that I am multitasking tonight. As I type, I am watching a really interesting programme on TV called Human Footprint.
(image from http://images.google.co.uk/images)
The programme is telling us about the impact of an average person’s life on the planet, and the total amount of different substances that we use, consume or produce in one lifetime. For example, how much milk do you drink from the cradle to the grave (15981 pints, apparently) or how many nappies do we wear from the ages of birth to 2.5 (3800). The figures are based on an average person living in the UK, so for some countries they would differ, but it’s a sobering thought to see how much we consume.
Anyway, I’m typing and Steve is shouting out numbers. How much meat will we all eat (unless of course you’re vegetarian – but I did say this is an average person…)? How does 4 cows, 21 sheep, 15 pigs and 1200 chickens sound? And the number of eggs we will eat is 13345. All the food we eat will generate 8.5 tonnes of packaging, which will go straight into a landfill site. Ana Paula, I know you like apples and you will eat around 5272 of them during your life. And for those of you who like toast and sandwiches, like Eugeny and Carme, you will go through 4283 loaves of bread. We eat 8.2kg of chocolate a year and 845 tins of beans in a lifetime – enough beans to fill a whole bath. Cris – I don’t know how many croissants we will both eat, as they didn’t tell us, but what do you think :-)
To wash all of this food down, the average British person drinks 74802 cups of tea, or an average of 3 cups a day. If you like something a little stronger, your average Brit gets through 10351 pints of beer or 1694 bottles of wine by the age of 60. The average person walks 15468 miles in an average lifetime and drives 453662 miles. That’s from here to the moon and back! (image from www.janedavril.blogspot.com)
And can you guess how many words we speak? We have a vocabulary of around 25,000 words, which sounds impressive until you learn that there are around half a million words in the English language. Over a life time, we will speak 123,205,740 words. That’s a lot of conversations. We will meet 1700 people during our lives (knowing a person is defined as (a) you know the person by name and (b) you have contacted them within the last 2 years)
There are lots of details of bodily functions that I won’t repeat here, but in the bathroom we will use up 656 bars of soap, 198 shampoo bottles, 272 cans of deodorant, 276 tubes of toothpaste, 78 new toothbrushes, 21 lipsticks (girls!) and 5.6 bottles of fake tan lotion (Steve would like to know who is using his quota of fake tan lotion). How many rolls of toilet paper? 4239 is the number. Our hair would grow 9.42m and our nails 2.86m, if we didn’t cut them.
(image from http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&q=eyes)
OK, enough numbers, over to language. Your revised paragraph was much better, Cris. Here is what you wrote, along with my comments.
We have to wait until Wednesday because the wind direction will change and it is expected to rain. The smoke contains high levels of carbon monoxide which causes sore eyes and a sore throat. It’s very unpleasant to breathe. We have to close all the windows and doors and stay inside. However, smoke can be smelled inside the house because it’s difficult to prevent it from filtering in. For a claustrophobic and allergic person as me, this situation is terrible.
Sentence 1 – instead of ‘it is expected to rain’, you can say ‘rain is expected’
Sentence 5 – I asked you to use ‘smoke’ as the subject and this phrase is correct. Another alternative is ‘you can’t escape the smoke because it still filters in’
Sentence 6 – I would say ‘such as myself’ or 'like me'.
I wonder how many homework assignments the average student does in a lifetime? Who knows, but I can tell you this. Tonight you guys have just one. I usually give you the definitions of all new words, but tonight I am going to do what others have done before, and try to get you to guess the words from the context. Answers next time. Have a good night,
Bye for now,
Anne.
Comments
How did u end up wtih all of these numbers???? Is it ur imagination working on it??
Hello Anne, This is a modern live! Everything the human produces have to consume energy and cause impacts in global warm. Everything human consume produce waist and again cause impact in global warm. How could us give up the material life. How could us give up our cell phone, microwave, computers, internet, etc. Is this a check mate? I hope not. For the curiosity: Did you calculate how many time you spend in transport between your home and your job? I calculated this and in 35 years I spent 2,5 years sit into transport. Because of this I try to read, to study or to do anything I can during the travel.
I am so glad to know such a kind of this program that are resented by BBC. It helps me and us for leaning English as the second lunguage, and I can enjoy this blog also, thank you.
Hi dear Ann , What are you up to ? sorry this week I was busy as a bee and I couldn't put comment on your Blog and Cris 's . Although I was reading all of your Blog eagerly . I thinking what your unusual breakfast would be . There is an unusual and disgusting ( it 's just my opinion and my other half don't think like that not at all ) breakfast whicsh is a soap prepared from different part of a sheep . It can contains , a sheep 's head , brain , tongue , trotters and some times with Viscera and you can choose each part of it to eat depending on your taste . I hope you don't feel vomiting as when I pass their special shop , I feel . I know that it 's common in some other countries specially in mountain areas and it 's very nourishing and good for health .I likes your last Blog too . It remembered me the article I saw in one of my English text book about the same subject ( yours was more complete ) and I liked it . And I think it 's better don't think about how much cosmetic product , we ( women) will use from the cradle to the grave . Here are my homework : Multitasking : doing a few works at the same time ( as you were typing and watching TV show at the same time ) . From the cradle to the grave : from the birth time to death time , or all of someone 's life time . Sobering : some thing that make you to think seriously . Generate : produce . Average Brit : ? . Fake tan lotion : I guess you mean any lotion for changing your skin color for instance for be ing more bright or dark . Have a nice weekdays and kiss your angles for me . Bye
Good morning Anne!thank you for all informations which you offer for us about the live in thai and its culture,plus the knowledge about English. When i read your last blog i am surprised a bit by the quantities of food which people have being cnsumed in the rich countries as UK and USA .At the same time i remembered a study which said that a third of the food puying by brich people ends at rubbish dump without te be eaten.But we must think about neccessitous who are suffering from famine and lacking from vital needs through the poor countries.best wishes.
Hi Anne, You know what I did, I started by looking at the images and tried to figure out what you'd written about this time. It was a complete failure. With a hell of a mind I couldn't find a connection between the three images. Anyway, I stopped gussing and started to read and then I found myself fascinated by the subject. I especially liked the figures about the growth of our hair or our nails. I just imagined myself being tangled in all those hair and nails. It looks like a nightmare though! By the way, thank you for the exercise, I managed to guess the meaning of all except the "lanfill sight", which I'll presume can find in your next blog. All the best, H.
Hi Anne, It is very interesting figures that how much we are consuming. Do you think we are consuming too much for everything. Do you think everyone in the world consume equally. On Other side, the figures may be very pathetic. Especially in the developing countries and under developed countries some people go to the bed with out food. Do you know some people never use shampoo, lipsticks in their whole life? Bars of soap and cans of deodorant are luxurious for them. Some people have never touched the telephone in their life. The children in the affluent society use the cell phone hours and hours in every day. Why this disparity.
Dear Anne, It is a good time passing activity to give time to read and watch such data. One economist presented data when a qualified person leaves his country after completion of Master Degree. He presented how much food he consumed, how much medical as well as educational facilities he utilised from his nation before migrating to other country. In my opinion, for general people it useless to consider such information and bother about that. I want to tell you about a discussion which was held almost 25 years ago. My grandfather (maternal) visited us and we were talking about how long a person can survive without food. My grandmother (paternal) told us that my grandfather (paternal) survived for 15 days without food and he had devoted his food to worship god. Story was going on and we were all spellbound. All of sudden my grandfather (maternal) told us that he survived for six months without any food except milk. All of sudden my mother and maternal uncle ask their father (grandfather), when he had such a fasting and they didn’t know and anybody didn’t tell about that. It was a good enigma to all of us. After 5 minutes, he answered that it was the first six months after birth. When we got his answer, we realised how in a fascinating way he made us foolish.
Hi Anne. It's sound incredible that we use or make all this things during our life! Maybe in Italy we drink more cups of coffee then cups of tea. I really love coffee even though i can't drink more then 4 cups a day. I like tea too,especially "strange tea". I mean rose tea, almond tea, chocolate tea, caramel tea...everything "sweet". Bye for now.
Hi, everyone. What an interesting article! what about the hundreds liters of water we use while having a shower or doing the washing-up, what about the hundred kilograms of cotton we use simply by getting dressed..... And so on... It is not astonishing that the natural resources will soon be depleted. I am deeply concerned by the state of our earth, by the way everyone behaves as if he/she were alone. I was born on the land and I could not contemplate being deprived from our wonderful landscape, from everything we consider as granted. "We" stand for the so-called developed countries which I belong to, but of which I am not very proud of. Goed bye for now
Ans B) 40,000
B)4000
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