Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Photographing statistics

If you've read my posting below called "The Value of Numbers," or if you've visited the live global stats counter at the bottom of this page, you'll have noticed my appreciation for numbers. Numbers tell us a lot. But not everyone loves numbers, and in fact, as I wrote in "The Value of Numbers," most of us find what we see with our eyes more compelling than what we can count on our fingers.

I also wrote in my previous posting how troubling I find consumerism (which is often most easily measured by numbers). Part of my trouble with consumerism is my own vulnerability to it. But the other reason is because I see a world pursuing it without reservation and I can see where that will inevitably lead. That's why I believe that economics will be as great a factor in the fulfillment of Biblical end-time prophecies as religion or politics. Just bear in mind that the original meaning of "consume" is to destroy.

So when I discovered the following photographs produced by Chris Jordan as a unique visual and statistical perspective of contemporary American culture, I found them compelling in a completely new way than all the scrolling numbers in the statometer at the bottom of my blog! They gave me visual images of the statistics of consumerism -- images that wowed me. They gave me a visual impression of how much money we spend on so much discretional stuff while so much of the world struggles just to provide for their basic needs. Take a look!

As you view the images below, you can click on any image to see it full-sized.

Photo below: 2 million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every 5 minutes

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Photo below: 426,000 cell phones -- the number of cell phones retired in the US every day

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Photo below: 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds

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Detail at actual size:

Photo below: 410,000 paper cups, the number of disposable hot-beverage paper cups used in the US every fifteen minutes.
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Photo below: 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds
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Photo below: 30,000 reams of office paper, or 15 million sheets, equal to the amount of office paper used in the US every five minutes

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2 comments:

Eric said...

106,000 cans every 30 seconds? Unreal. How will our planet survive us?

Ken said...

It won't.