Green Facts
- Every day in the U.S., we produce enough trash to equal the weight of the Empire State Building.
- Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil, 4,100 kilowatts of energy, 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space and 60 pounds of air pollution.
- The human population on earth has grown more in the last 50 years than it did in the previous 4 million years.
- At least 50 million acres of rainforest are lost every year, totaling an area the size of England, Wales and Scotland combined.
- Average temperatures will increase by as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at the current pace.
- The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
- A plant called the rosy periwinkle, which grows in the rainforests of Madagascar, has been used to make a drug that can cure some kinds of cancer
- Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year, and 2.5 million plastic beverage bottles every hour.
- Americans throw away about 40 billion soft drink cans and bottles every year. Placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and back nearly 20 times.
- Eighty-four percent of a typical household's waste--including food scraps, yard waste, paper, cardboard, cans, and bottles--can be recycled
- If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25 million trees a year.
- Each year, 40 million acres of tropical rainforests--an area larger than the state of California--are destroyed through logging or burning.
- A 1/32" leak in a faucet can waste up to 6,000 gallons of water a month, or 72,000 gallons a year.
- By turning the heat down, Americans could save more than 500,000 barrels of oil each day--that's over 21,000,000 gallons.
- If all the cars on U.S. roads had properly inflated tires, it would save nearly 2 billion gallons of gasoline a year.
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Green/ECO by Brian Brawdy (60 seconds) Play All Videos: (Approximately 9 minutes) |
