Environmental Facts

If just 25% of U.S. families used 10 fewer plastic bags a month, we would save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year.

On the average, the 140 million cars in America are estimated to travel almost 4 billion miles in a day, and according to the Department of Transportation, they use over 200 million gallons of gasoline doing it.

Every year we throw away 24 million tons of leaves and grass. Leaves alone account for 75% of our solid waste in the fall.

Over 100 pesticide ingredients are suspected to cause birth defects, cancer, and gene mutations.

Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil.

About 1% of U.S. landfill space is full of disposable diapers, which take 500 years to decompose.

Energy saved from one recycled aluminum can will operate a TV set for 3 hours, and is the equivalent to half a can of gasoline.

Glass produced from recycled instead of raw materials reduces related air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%.

Americans use 50 million tons of paper annually -- consuming more than 850 million trees.

Homeowners use up to 10 times more toxic chemicals  per acre than farmers.

By turning down your central heating thermostat one degree, fuel consumption is cut by as much as 10%.

Insulating your attic reduces the amount of energy loss in most houses by up to 20%.

Enough glass was thrown away in 1990 to fill the Twin Towers (1,350 feet high) of New York's World Trade Center every two weeks.One ton of carbon dioxide that is released in the air can be prevented by replacing every 75 watt light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs.

Many banks lent large sums of money to developing nations. In order to pay those debts plus interest many nations have turned to the mining of their natural resources as a source of financial aid.

Every day 40,000 children die from preventable diseases.

The public transportation that we have is a wreck. The U.S. continues to promote and invest in private car travel rather than public transportation.

The human population of the world is expected to be nearly tripled by the year 2100.

A three percent annual growth rate will result in the doubling of consumption and production of food and other products in 25 short years.  The amount of motor vehicles that are expected to be operated will increase 15 million a year until at least 2010.

The world's per capita grain production has been on the downfall since 1985 despite the use of fertilizers and pesticides.

Already a train system has been developed (back in 1987) which is based on magnetic levitation and causes minimal pollution. These versions of a train are already in use in several countries.

Fibre optics, made of glass, are being used to replace copper cables throughout the world.

The uncontrolled fishing that is allowed has reduced the amount of commercial species. Some species, up to one-tenth of their original population.

Every day 50 to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct as their habitat and human influences destroy them.

Taken from http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/facts.htm