The main thrust of these parks would be to heighten environmental awareness while having fun. With attractions featuring examples of per capita consumption of natural resources, the whole family should be astonished, entertained and informed.
An American Green Land might include:
-A 15,000
gallon wading pool representing the average citizen’s yearly water use
-A small grove of 30 year old pine trees, equal to the 200 cubic feet of per capita wood consumption, including simple cable elevators to reach some of the crowns
-Seven trees, equivalent to each person’s paper use for a year, could also be shown as a 680 pound, picture book with pages that can be turned by kids
-The per capita consumption of oil, represented by an oil well that periodically gushes 25 barrels of “oil” onto bathing-suited minors
-A year’s expenditure of natural gas, 60,000 cubic feet, demonstrated by a helium balloon, low hover ride
-A petting zoo of cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, etc. and surrounding fields of wheat, corn, rye and rice, equivalent to a lifetime of food consumption
-Other per capita amounts of coal (1000 lbs.), steel (800 lbs.) and cement (780 lbs.) present as climbing pyramids or as large spheres that could only be lifted with long levers
-Fished and hunted animals, dumped trash and recycled waste, also represented
Of course the whole park would be run as environmentally friendly as possible. An exhausted but thoughtful family returning home, might have a large sack of fertile soil in the trunk, park-produced from one person’s table scraps for a year.