The Human Footprint.

Posted by Alex in Everything Else, Pictures on July 7, 2007 at 12:27 pm


The documentary Human Footprint compiled hundreds of statistics of what an average human being in the Western world will consume/do in his lifetime:

The array of statistics, which includes how much the average person will eat, spend, love, shop, travel and waste, was the brainchild of Nick Watts, the programme’s producer, who came up with the idea three years ago while having a pint of beer in a pub.

He said: "I was thinking to myself how full a swimming pool would become if I tipped into it all the beer I drank in a lifetime."

Mr Watts and his team spent the next two years compiling hundreds of statistics and then came up with ways of visualising them, including a Hansel and Gretel house built with 10,000 bars of chocolate and more than 15,000 pints of "milk" (water and powder paint) left on a doorstep. [...]

He said the statistic that surprised him the most was that each person smokes, on average, 77,000 cigarettes.

The show takes viewers on a journey from babyhood, when we get through 3,796 nappies and produce 254 litres of urine, through to old age and death, by which time we will have eaten 10,866 carrots, taken 7,163 baths and passed wind an average of 15 times a day.

To promote the show, Watts laid out 74,802 cups of tea, the amount an average person drinks in a lifetime, in Traflagar square:

Link: The Human Footprint | Story from Telegraph | Cups of tea from the Daily Mail


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COMMENT

11 comments to "The Human Footprint."

  1. Anthony Martin
    July 7th, 2007 at 12:41 pm

    Babies aborted each day: between 3000-4000, depending on the day of the week.

  2. Siduri
    July 7th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    Actually, that "words spoken by a women vs. words spoken by a man" statistic is completely false, based on cultural stereotypes. There is no study that confirms the numbers. Unfortunately, a lot of otherwise intelligent people bought the phony statistic hook, line and sinker.

    A recent study performed on college students showed that there really isn't much of a difference between how much men and women talk; both use about 16000 words per day. There's a link to the article here: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/705/1

  3. Nora
    July 7th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

    I think i liked Trafalgar square better when they covered it with grass that one time. This, is just depressing.

  4. jael
    July 7th, 2007 at 5:38 pm

    These numbers are very much in doubt. Depending on diet choices, exercise and transportation, these can vary enormously.

  5. Mr Pudifoot
    July 7th, 2007 at 9:11 pm

    That is why America won the revolutionary war, we don't drink that sissy 'tea' stuff. We drink COFFEE!!!!

  6. Adam Stanhope
    July 7th, 2007 at 11:54 pm

    These must be stats explicitly for the UK. 21 sheep consumed? We Americans don't eat much lamb or mutton at all.

    59 foreign holidays taken? Wow - that's an amazing statistic. I wonder what that number would be for Americans.

    Bottles of fake tan? Huh?

  7. john
    July 8th, 2007 at 12:48 am

    it was for Channel 4 in the UK, it's about the average brit...
    i didnt watch the programme, but thinking the stats have to be absolute accurates is slightly naive, i think people watching would have taken them as rough estimates. they've done a bit of market research and then multiplied it. it's round about right so dont let yourself worry about it too much.
    brit women will definitely talk more than the men and definitely faster too, on average.

  8. Jimmy
    July 8th, 2007 at 6:30 am

    I've just worked out that ive drank about 30,000 cups of tea already and iam only 22!

  9. Ron
    July 9th, 2007 at 9:23 am

    Siduri
    A recent study performed on college students showed that there really isn’t much of a difference between how much men and women talk; both use about 16000 words per day. There’s a link to the article here:

    Not sure about the new talking study study. It was done on college students only, and they were aware they were being taped.

    College students dont really represent society very well.

    Also, every woman i have ever known talks way more than any man I have ever known.

    Interesting challenge to the accepted knowledge though.

  10. Me
    July 10th, 2007 at 6:45 am

    Mr. Pudifoot - no, Americans don't drink coffee - you drink some awful brown water you keep trying to pass off as coffee.
    Tea is great, though the British people's obsession with it is a bit bizarre...

    On the 'Human Footprint' - these are obviously average numbers but the fact that they are an average doesn't allow me to identify with it. Nice try, though...

  11. snowshoe
    December 21st, 2008 at 11:57 pm

    60% of all statistics are incorrect...


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