Interesting Facts
- Every day 50 to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct as their habitat and human influences destroy them.
- 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.
- 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.
- One ton of carbon dioxide that is released in the air can be prevented by replacing every 75 watt light bulb with energy efficient bulbs.
- In two weeks, Americans throw enough glass bottles and jars out to fill the New York Trade Center's twin towers.
- Americans go through an average of 2.5 million plastic bottles per hour.
- 500,000 trees could be saved from being cut down if every family in the United States recycled their newspaper.
- Ford Motor Company indicates that 75% of every vehicle is recyclable.
- Taking a bath, half full of water, uses around 20 gallons of water. However, an average length shower only uses about 13 gallons of water.
- Every ton of recycled office paper can save the equivalent of 380 gallons of oil.
- By turning down your central heating thermostat one degree, fuel consumption is cut by as much as 10%.
- 60,000 plastic bags are used in the US every 5 seconds!
- 12% of the Earth's plant species could be extinct in the next 20 years.
- Gasoline contains 150 chemicals.
- Each year, plastic waste in water and coastal areas kills up to:
> 100,000 marine mammals
> 1 million sea birds
> countless fish
- In one week, a typical cruise ship generates:
> 210,000 gallons of sewage
> 1,000,000 gallons of "gray water" from showers, sinks, dishwashers, and clothes washers.
- Water that enters an aquifer remains there for an average of 1,400 years.
- 40% of Americans rivers are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.
- Even worse are America's lakes -- 46% are too polluted for fishing, swimming, and aquatic life.
- The EPA has warned that sewage levels in rivers could be back to super-polluted levels of the 1970s by the year 2016.
- In any given year, about 25% of beaches in the US are under advisories or are closed at least one time because of water pollution.
