Posted April 7th, 2015
By Kris Powers
There are plenty of reasons to go green—landfill issues, greenhouse gases, concerns about air and water pollution, and damage to the ozone layer are just a few. Take a look at a few of the actual numbers and percentages below to get a feel for how even the smallest of changes can have a large impact on the environment.
- 1.5 acres: the amount of rainforest lost every second to land development and deforestation, with tremendous losses to habitat and biodiversity.
- 137: the number of plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That comes to about 50,000 species a year!
- 3 trillion: the number of gallons of water the U.S. would save each year if every household invested in water-saving appliances.
- 86.6 million tons: the amount of material prevented from going to landfill or incineration thanks to recycling and composting in 2012.
- 17 trees: Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 2 barrels of oil and 4100 kilowatt hours of energy – enough to power the average American home for six months.
- 113,204: the number, on average, of aluminum cans recycled each minute of each day.
- 95 percent: the amount of energy saved by using recycled aluminum scrap to make new aluminum cans.
- 1 pound per hour: the amount of carbon dioxide that is saved from entering the atmosphere for every kilowatt-hour of renewable energy produced.
- 35 percent: the amount of coal's energy that is actually converted to electricity in a coal-burning power plant. The other two-thirds is lost to heat.
Remember, change begins with you. “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” Robert Swan
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Sources: Consumer Reports, Environmental Health Perspectives, Raintree Nutrition,Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and EPA Water and EPA Recycling,Worldwatch Institute, Energy Information Administration, Ready, Set, Green, Earth911.org, The Telegraph, Yahoo! News, TreeHugger
