OUR CONSUMPTION AND WASTE IS MIND BLOWING

Side by side photos of an average family's household possessions, one family from California, and the other family from Bhutan taken from an amazing book, Material World, by Peter Menzel.

Here an excerpt from Amazons' review:

In honor of the United Nations-sponsored International Year of the Family in 1994, award-winning photojournalist Peter Menzel brought together 16 of the world's leading photographers to create a visual portrait of life in 30 nations. Material World tackles its wide subject by zooming in, allowing one household to represent an entire nation. Photographers spent one week living with a "statistically average" family in each country, learning about their work, their attitudes toward their possessions, and their hopes for the future. Then a "big picture" shot of the family was taken outside the dwelling, surrounded by all their (many or few) material goods.

Also an optimistic take from a blog about US garbage problem called Garbage Land, which gives great advice on what we can all do.