26 replies to this topic

[DizeeDee]

I'd like to share some facts about the world's environment & I'd also like to know anything that might be of interest to others, so I am starting this post in hopes that many will contribute. Please don't post things that have nothing to do with the environment.

I will begin by sharing......

The Amazon constitutes about 40% of the remaining rain forests, but it is disappearing at the rate of 7 football fields every day.

It takes 70% LESS energy to produce paper from recycled paper than from trees.

A Boeing 707 uses 4,000 GALLONS of fuel in its take-off climb, & a 747 holds 57,285 gallons of fuel.

Toxic houseplants poison more children than household chemicals.

1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire is strung across the U.S.

A Georgia company will mix a deceased loved one's ashes with cement & drop it into the ocean, where an artificial reef will form, creating a lovely new habitat for sea life.

One gallon of used motor oil can ruin approximately one million gallons of fresh water.

North America gets one inch wider every year & even today, 90% of the continental U.S. is still open space or farmland.

Over 1,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.

Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.

A stroke of lightning discharges from 10 to 100 million volts & 30,000 amperes of electricity.

In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than ALL the world's nuclear weapons combined!

(If only we could find a way to harness some of nature's free energy!)

And one more.........Recycling ONE glass jar saves enough energy to watch TV for 3 hours!

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Always good to hear from dark green greenies.
Knowledge is power.

[sammilynn]

Some cool stuff that I didn't know. :) I like hearing these kinds of facts, it's better when I haven't heard them before, so thanks for that. :)

[mariaandrea]

Knowledge is power!
Environmental trivia isn't trivial!
Power to the people!
oops, got carried away... ;)

Here's a few:

• In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history.
  
• More than 100 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered in the United States each year, which comes out to 848 pieces per household. The production, distribution and disposal of all that junk mail creates over 51 million metric tons of greenhouses gases annually, the equivalent emissions of more than 9.3 million cars.
  
• Nearly 80% of the world’s energy comes from oil, coal, or gas.
  
• Recycling, reuse and remanufacturing account for 3.1 million jobs in the U.S.—one out of every three green jobs.

Source

[Socrates II]

The information is... overwhelming, I suppose. What I felt as I read through these facts was helplessness. Every single piece of information that you've provided affects me as a human residing on this planet. Yet, how many of these facts can I change in any way. Aside from not having toxic houseplants (which I don't) and trying to recycle more than I currently do, what else can I, or anyone do?

Do the people who can make a difference know these facts? When I say people who can make a difference, I mean the ones who are actually harming the environment by their actions. That means the corporations who are chopping down the Amazon Rainforests, distributing the junk mail, using fossil fuels, etc. If, knowing these facts, they continue with their actions, what can we possibly do to change anything?

What I'm trying to get at is the feeling that knowledge is a waste, and only makes you disillusioned, when it leaves you with a sense of helplessness.

"Knowledge is power." This was voiced by a couple of respondents. Tell me what power this knowledge gives you. I'd like to hear some things we can do specifically to address these facts.

[mariaandrea]

There are a lot of things in the world that can make us feel helpless and the truth is we are helpless when it comes to a lot of things. 17,000 children die of starvation every single day.  That's staggering. There is nothing I can do to save them. That's heartbreaking. We can only do what we can do, giving to the limit of our ability, whether that be money, food, time, our careers.

How do we change the politicians? Vote. Educate voters. Run for office. Hound our elected officials with phone calls and emails. Start initiatives, circulate petitions, campaign for new laws. Spend our free time doing these things instead of watching TV. Evangelize among everyone we know.

How do we change corporations? Vote with our wallets. Don't buy. Hound the corporate headquarters with phone calls and emails. Start petitions. Educate people. Walmart started selling organic food only when they realized it made good business sense because people wanted it. Give the people what they want? Change what you want. Evangelize among everyone we know.

In our daily lives, sign up for opt-out lists to stop receiving junk mail. Tell everyone we know how to opt-out. Pay off and cancel our credit cards. Move our money to credit unions. Live as greenly as possible - there are a thousand ways. Evangelize. Be an activist.

In the end what matters is how we live from day to day. Can we look in the mirror and say we've done the best we can, even if it never seems like it's enough? Individually it isn't enough. When enough of us like what we see in the mirror, it begins to be enough.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

mariaandrea, on 29 November 2011 - 12:08 AM, said:

How do we change the politicians? Vote. Educate voters.
Run for office. Hound our elected officials with phone calls and emails.
Start initiatives, circulate petitions, campaign for new laws. Spend our free time doing these things instead of watching TV. Evangelize among everyone we know.

How do we change corporations? Vote with our wallets. Don't buy. Hound the corporate headquarters with phone calls and emails. Start petitions. Educate people. Walmart started selling organic food only when they realized it made good business sense because people wanted it. Give the people what they want? Change what you want. Evangelize among everyone we know.

Live as greenly as possible - there are a thousand ways. Evangelize. Be an activist.

Bears repeating.- RT

[zararina]

Those are amazing and interesting facts and mostly things I do not have enough knowledge about.
The fact about hurricanes energy makes it scarier.

[DizeeDee]

Ok so I wanna quote too much of what I have just read so I will just say this...........mariaandrea, you make some great points on how to make a difference! Thank you for posting some little known facts, the junk-mail situation is so outta control, it's scary & there really should be more than 1 outta 3 green jobs devoted to the three R's, tho' I do think that number WILL rise in the near future & continue to rise, I hope!
Socrates II, please don't think that you can't make a difference, that kind of thinking is how we got in the mess we are in, EVERYONE can make changes & choices that make a difference!! Knowledge IS power & the more you know, the more you can do. Do your research & educate yourself, then share what you know!! ;o)~

[DizeeDee]

Shortpoet-GTD, I didn't forget about you but I am still in hospital & run outta steam very easily. I too, believe that it bears repeating.....over & over &over again!! Knowledge IS power!!

Oh, & exactly what is a "dark green greenie"? ;o)~

[Shortpoet-GTD]

DizeeDee, on 01 December 2011 - 03:15 PM, said:

Shortpoet-GTD, I didn't forget about you but I am still in hospital & run outta steam very easily. I too, believe that it bears repeating.....over & over &over again!! Knowledge IS power!!

Oh, & exactly what is a "dark green greenie"? ;o)~

I'm sending you my healing power of light through my fingertips on the key board, you WILL feel better-healthier.

Dark green greenie is just my sarcasm rearing it's ugly head. Lot's of people recycle but drive a car that
only get low mpg numbers.
Or washes their laundry in cold, maybe even hang dries em' but still uses chemicals all day, every day
in their cleaning or personal products.

Dark green greenie is someone who is totally aware, and totally committed.

But without solar panels on my roof, I remain a lighter shade of green.
But I try every way I can to educate others on how to become greener.

And thanks for the personal mention. Get some rest sweetie.

[DizeeDee]

Ok, well I am now enlightened........I may be a dark green greenie, but I get lighter everyday! I use plants & organic ways to keep pests out of my veggie & flower gardens. I don't drive at all, I ride my bike or the bus, tho' I do count on others to drive me when the weather is bad. I don't use the dishwasher, I often forget it is there, which gives my kids another reason to chuckle at me, but mostly after company leaves & they find me doin several batches of dishes by hand. I have even found a green bug spray made from pyrethrins derived from the chrysanthemum flower that kill the masses of spiders around our front porch (I leave the ones hangin around the back alone cuz I don't go back there thru the porch)!

[MakingCents]

Those are some really interesting facts.   The company in Georgia makes the coral reefs out of ashes, now that's really werid, but kinda cool all at the same time?

[GreenQueen]

Wow those facts are really interesting. Ive always wondered about the telephone lines. To at least have an estimate like that is amazing. Something that i didnt know was the deceased loved one and the cement. I should have done a reasearch project on that. Very interesting facts here. Thanks for sharing!

[Shortpoet-GTD]

SUV's put out 43% more global-warming pollutants (28 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon of gas consumed)
and 47% more air pollution than the average car.

Switching from an average new car to a 13 mpg SUV for a year would  waste
more energy than leaving a refrigerator door open for six years,
a bathroom light burning for 30 years, or a color TV turned on for 28 years.

Bicycling is 117% more efficient than walking.

[MakingCents]

I've never understand why people drive bigger cars than they need.  Of course if you have 4 kids you need a car like an SUV or a van to fit all 4 kids, but what's with the single people driving big SUVs and Trucks?   Put the environmental stuff aside, think how EXPENSIVE that would be.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

MakingCents, on 03 December 2011 - 10:55 AM, said:

I've never understand why people drive bigger cars than they need.  Of course if you have 4 kids you need a car like an SUV or a van to fit all 4 kids, but what's with the single people driving big SUVs and Trucks?   Put the environmental stuff aside, think how EXPENSIVE that would be.

Suv's are pretty much dead, but vans are still out there.
Over this weekend, they're having a farm and ranch show (Texas panhandle) and there wasn't one single
car in the parking lot. All trucks.
Granted, many are working farmers-but all of them? Imo,-macho. Or so they think.

[MakingCents]

Yeah at least pick up trucks can serve a purpose.  I guess I really don't understand those small size SUVs.  Like the Honda CRV and Toyota Rav 4.  You really have no more passenger room, and barely more trunk space.  So you drive a bigger car for what purpose?   Having more than 2 kids- yeah a mini-van is almost a necessity.

[jasserEnv]

The tidbit that just seems way to low is the detail about the number of birds hitting windows. With all the glass towers in so many cities, there has to be more than that. We get a bird hitting our small back window and dying every few years despite attempts to deter them.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

jasserEnv, on 03 December 2011 - 09:24 PM, said:

The tidbit that just seems way to low is the detail about the number of birds hitting windows. With all the glass towers in so many cities, there has to be more than that. We get a bird hitting our small back window and dying every few years despite attempts to deter them.

This is either off topic, or you posted in the wrong thread.