'Footprint': Less Than The Sums Of Its Part

Consumption Tale Awash in Numbers

What's in a life?

National Geographic Channel has a special, "Human Footprint," that says it knows.

The idea goes like this: 43,371 cans of soda, 19,826 eggs, 3,796 diapers. Then 28,433 showers, 10 televisions, three-quarters of a ton of coal to run your hair dryer, 412 books, 31,350 gallons of gas, a dozen or so cars. And: 360 tons of carbon emissions over a lifetime.

The American life: 77 years, nine months.

These are averages of what the average American will go through, use up and spit out, from delivery room to mortuary. This is how this two-hour special, debuting tomorrow at 9 p.m. and hosted by ABC's Elizabeth Vargas, sums us up. It turns out that the most lasting evidence of most of our existences may well be the disposable diapers we wore as tots. They'll go 500 years or more.

Not exactly what most of us would like to leave behind, but there it is.

There is something to this type of mathematical theory of the human cosmos: Arrive at the sum of our lives by adding up what we consume (the materialist idea), or how we spend each minute of each day (the time-space continuum), or what we leave behind (the remnants theory). The idea is that, taken item by item, a general meaning can be tabulated and then displayed by the slow accumulation of otherwise tedious detail. The finished product will be, at least in theory, overwhelming.

"Multiply your actions over a lifetime and the true extent of our footprint becomes apparent," says Vargas.

The show has an idea of how to display this: Round up 1,423 chickens, which is the average number an American will eat over a lifetime. Put them in a barnyard, clucking away. Put Vargas, in brown T-shirt and khakis, in front of them. Have her say something like: "Lookit all them chickens!"

Unfortunately, it doesn't have any other ideas.

Vargas also gets to look at lots of cows, potatoes, milk cartons and cellphones. Actors get to watch 5,067 bananas dropping out of the ceiling or 12,888 oranges come shooting out of a hole in the wall. They seem surprised.

Vargas doesn't get to interview anybody about anything. The show looks only at American habits, which makes one think the title should have been revisited.