In the Mist of Mass Extinction

My intuition tells me we have to be clear of the damage around the world, not just our backyard but understanding the widespead environmental loss.  This undermines our survival folks!

Its time to get real.  Raise awareness with much love, for many languish in ignorance, I am speaking of those who are creating the problems.  For if wisdom was their guide they would be pre-serving our beautiful planet 🙂

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/20-gut-wrenching-statistics-about-the-destruction-of-the-planet-and-those-living-upon-it.html

 


Photo via: gfpeck

Every so often it is good to remind ourselves why we are working so hard to protect the environment and all its creatures. While many of these statistics are depressing, the good news is that we are currently working towards a solution for each one of these and making some pretty sizable progress.

Did You Know…


Photo via: Woodlywonderworks

    • The United States makes up less than 5 percent of the population on earth, yet we easily consume over 30 percent of its resources. While us humans would appear to be doing well, spreading our population like wild fire across the globe, the diminishing resources and other life forms on the planet tell a different story. “We are in the midst of a mass extinction, an event not seen since the disappearance of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago,” says Worldwatch Institute.

 

    • 110 million Americans live amongst such high levels of air pollution, the federal government considers it to be harmful to their health.

 

    • A one years worth subscription to the New York Times weighs well over 500 pounds. The good and bad news however, is that more and more newspapers are being forced into extinction, many of them becoming online news sources. While newspapers have been a tradition and they will be one day missed, the great part about online news is that is can be up to the minute on breaking news stories.

 

  • Using recycled paper for one days worth of the New York Times Sunday Edition would save approximately 75,000 trees.


Photo via: Zainub

    • Billions of plastic bags are made each year. Of these bags, one hundred billion are thrown away according to Worldwatch Institute, with less than 1 percent finding their way into a recycle bin. The end result of this is around 1 billion birds and mammals dying each year by the ingestion of plastic.

 

    • Americans dump 16 tons of sewage into their waters, every minute.

 

    • If the number of cars keeps increasing at its present rate, there will be over one billion on the road by 2025. There is currently around 700 million cars on the road today producing 900 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. This equals approximately 15 percent of our total output. Sadly, one half of these trips in the U.S. are within 3 miles and could easily be walked in less than an hour.

 

  • A single quart of motor oil dumped on the ground or in the trash, can contaminate up to two million gallons of fresh water.


Photo via: sirmikester

    • A large study has found that up to one half of all plants and animals species on dry land could face extinction by the year 2050 due to global warming. According to the World Resources Institute, 100 species die each day due to tropical deforestation.

 

  • 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. Imagine all the other miracles we may have already lost out on.
  • Some scientists believe that at the current rate of resource depletion, the Earth will become limited to sustaining only about 2 billion humans by the year 2100. Currently there are over 6.7 billion lives on the earth to support, and of these nearly 15 million children die each year of malnutrition and starvation. In the U.S., one third of the population is overweight and spends approximately $35 billion to cure this “disease”. $20 billion is all that would be necessary to feed every single malnourished nation.

Photo via: Domain Barnyard

  • The assets of the world’s three richest men are shockingly much more than the combined GNP of every single one of the least developed countries around the globe.
  • The Clean Air Council tells us that in the United States, we generate millions of tons of municipal waste each year, equaling approximately 4.3 pounds per person per day and 56 tons per person per year. Of that, 95 percent is deposited into overflowing landfills of which one out of two have been deemed in desperate need of repair due to leaks and contamination of ground soil.
  • Eighty-four percent of the typical waste coming out of a U.S. Household (food, yard waste, paper, plastic, cardboard, aluminum cans, etc.) is recyclable.
  • 31 countries around the world today face chronic freshwater shortages. In another 20 years, that number will increase to over 50 countries (2.8 billion people). Meanwhile, the United States continues to import bottled water for its consumers, of which burns about 1.5 million barrels of oil just to get it here, and costs over 10,000 times what a glass of tap water would be. All in all, bottled water per gallon has become more of a costly resource than gasoline itself.

Photo via: IRRI Images

  • The typical U.S. Home uses no less than about 300 gallons of water every single day. Many people around the world have to travel miles just to carry back 5 gallons to use for an entire family.
  • We have just as much water in the world today as we ever did, but only 3 percent of that is in drinkable condition. Two-thirds of the 3 percent is currently locked up in polar ice caps, while the remaining one-third is accessible for organic consumption. Sadly, of the remaining 1 percent of drinkable water in the world, only half of that is considered drinkable by international standards. In the United States alone, an estimated one-third of all its waters are considered unsafe for drinking, bathing, or even fishing.
  • Water is quickly becoming a private commodity. At its current rate of acquisition, 70 percent of all water systems in Europe and North America may soon be owned by private corporations.
  • Just about every single healthy person reading this article has between 70 and 90 industrial chemicals and pollutants flowing through their circulatory system at this very moment. We get these from the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. The United States uses 100 different pesticides each year, equaling 2.2 billion pounds of toxic chemicals (carcinogens, birth defects, gene mutations.

Photo via: Kevin Krejci

  • Only about 10 percent of the billions of pounds of pesticide chemicals (some 35,000 different chemicals total) used on produce since the 1940’s have been tested for their negative effects on humans.

Sources:
Top 15 Shocking Facts You Didn’t Know About Office Paper Waste
Say No to plastic Bags
University of Minnesota
World Resources Institute
The Clean Air Council
Worldwatch Institute
World Resources Institute
Hold Your Water: 68 Things You Need to Know to Keep Our Planet Blue

More on global warming
Global Warming May Become the Instigator of World War IV
Global Warming and Tornado’s
Global Warming: Discovery Channel

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Mohandas Gandhi

“Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong”

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