Happy Earth day.

Some sobering stats:

The world’s population has nearly doubled since the first earth day in 1970 [Related].

“The richest 225 humans on earth have more wealth than the poorest 2.5 billion people combined, and the richest 20 percent of humans on earth account for 86 percent of consumption and on average make over $25,000/year. Meanwhile, 1.2 billion people make less than $1/day and over half the world makes less than $2/day. Humans produce more than enough food to feed everyone in the world, but at least 800 million people are starving.

In 2004, worldwide military expenditures were $950 billion. (StungEye Note: Canadian defence spending for 2008 is expected to reach $18.9 billion.) In that same year, Worldwatch estimated that it would cost just $12 billion for reproductive health care for all women, $19 billion for the elimination of hunger and malnutrition, $10 billion for clean drinking water for all, and $13 billion to immunize every child in the world from common major diseases.” — From Anti-Teaching an article by Michael Wesch on the crisis of significance in education.

It’s time to shut down the military-industrial complex and focus on education, sustainability, hunger, poverty and peaceful co-existence.

And to balance those stats, a feel-good commercial: