As the clock ticks down to a global summit on climate change in Copenhagen, the prospects of a comprehensive global deal have all but disappeared. A spokesperson for President Obama announced late last week that the United States is unlikely to pass climate change legislation in time for the conference, leaving it with little to bring to the table. Meanwhile, at preparatory negotiations in Bangkok this week, national representatives have argued and admonished each other for “wasting time”, “dancing around the issues” and in one case “putting crap in the text just so you could take it out later”. Yesterday things got even worse as China accused developed nations of trying to “fundamentally sabotage” negotiations.

Rukinga ranch which could benefit from the UN’s Redd scheme. Photograph: wildlifeworks.com

Rukinga ranch in southern Kenya prides itself on the immense herds of elephants, giraffe, lions and and wild dogs that have made a home among its 80,000 acres of acacia trees in the decade since cattle were banned. But the wildlife sanctuary’s guards who risk their lives to defend the animals from poachers now face an even greater danger.

There are some places in the world where there is no word for garbage. The idea that an object could have no purpose, or be brought into being only to be discarded, is so alien that the concept simply does not exist. America is not one of them.

On the contrary, we have become such a disposable society that we are one of the top garbage producers in the world, dumping an estimated 254 million tons a year, less than a third of which is recycled. That’s enough rubbish to fill more than 82,000 football fields packed six feet deep. Needless to say, all this waste is wreaking havoc on the environment and depleting our natural resources. But rather than focusing our efforts on reducing consumption and more effective recycling, billions of dollars are spent each year collecting, crushing, burying, burning and exporting the evidence of our destructive ways.