1 minute read
Did You Really Want This?
Compiled by Richard Navas Photo by Taylor Talmage
Americans waste over 8 billion hours each year idling in traffic*
Advertisement
This will increase to 13.6 billion hours by 2011*
Annual consumption of paper and paper board in USA, per person: 725 lbs**
Each American spends $225 annually on packaging (or 56 billion dollars for the the whole country)
Height of hill made of one year’s worth ofAmerican garbage: 1150ft“*“
Annual releases of sulfur dioxide in US: 400,000,000,000 pounds (1990)+
Height of hill made from annual loss of top soil globally: 4,230 ff*"
Cost of air pollution damage to Europe’s forest: $30 billion per year
Amount spent on air pollution control in Europe: $10 billion per year
Height of hill made annual world coal produced: 3,400 ft"*"*"
Percentage of old growth forests gone: 90%^
Acres covered with blacktop each year: 1.3 million^ Years of Resource Remaining:
Oil Reserves at 1989 rate of consumption: 44 years**
Oil remaining if estimates of undiscovered reserves are included: 72 years
Typical time to wash ozone destroying chemicals from the air: 65 to 140 years
Natural gas reserves remaining: 60 years'*""*"
Coal reserves remaining: 320 years ( hard coal) ■*"*"
Barrels of oil consumed by average American: 24 barrels per year
Maximum we can use if we want to avoid global warming: 8 barrels per year** {This assumes no population growth, and EVERY body reduces their consumption proportionally)
Fresh water used to raise one pound of meat: 2,500 gallons'*"
Time until we run out of fresh water globally: 20 to 30 years'*"^
Time until the tropical forests are gone: 47 years at current rates'*"*"
We have less than fifty years worth left of the following minerals: copper, lead, mercury, nickel, tin and zinc.^
