We all know that Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. From the start, Senator Gaylord Nelson started this day, envisioned the day as a "teach-in" to teach about environmental awareness. Earth day is now observed over in 180 countries. Do we have to be reminded that we have to protect mother Earth. We keep hearing all the time that we should keep our Earth clean and the importance of recycling. I am amazed about some of the fun facts I collected on the web. How many times have we given a thought when we do or not doing these things? Take a look.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch a TV for three hours - it's equivalent to half a gallon of gasoline.
- It takes 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than to make new ones
- 5 billion aluminum cans are used each year
- Never underestimate the importance of recycling: if every newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year. Unfortunately only 27% of all American newspapers are recycled.
- More than 80,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.
- One bus carries as many people as 40 cars!
- More than 1/3 of all energy is used by people at home
- Most families throw away about 88 pounds of plastic every year
- Each gallon of fuel releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.
- Approximately 5 million tons of oil produced in the world each year ends up in the ocean.
- The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours
- For every 2000 pounds of paper (1 ton) recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water free from chemicals.
- Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than making paper from virgin wood pulp, and can save many trees
- Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees
- The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
- Earth is 2/3 water, but all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent.
- 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year
- 84 percent of all household waste can be recycled.
- Computers pose an environmental threat because much of the material that makes them up is hazardous. A typical monitor contains 4-5 pounds of lead.
- Each year billions of used batteries are thrown away in the United States. This constitutes 88% of the mercury and 54% of the cadmium deposited into our landfills
- Approximately only 10 percent of every landfill can be cleaned up.
- One gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of water, so dispose of properly!
- Here is an example of the water we use every day:
- *3-7 gallons for toilet, 25-30 gallons for tub,
50-70 gallons for a 10 minute shower,
1 washing machine load uses 25-40 gallons,
1 dishwasher load uses 9-12 gallons - The garbage in a landfill stays for a for about 30 years.
- Each person throws away approximately four pounds of garbage every day.
- Here is an example of how long it takes some things take to break down:
- *plastics take 500 years,
aluminum cans take 500 years,
organic materials, take 6 months,
cotton, rags, paper take 6 months.
I try to recycle most of the things first by reusing and later placing them into proper recycling bins, for which my family thinks I am crazy. After reading the fun facts, I am sure you would join and reduce waste by reusing and restore by recycling. We need to try to protect the nature, if not, do not destroy it. Earth can be without human beings, but we human beings cannot survive without Earth we are dependent on it. Nature knows how to take care of it if you can’t. Mother Earth rules!
http://www.planetpals.com/fastfacts.html
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
-Cree Indian Proverb
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
-Native American Proverb
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for reading my post.