Live Green & Help Save Our Environment

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Helpful Facts You Should Know About Our Planet

• When you throw away 2 aluminum cans, you waste more energy than 1,000,000,000 (one billion) of the world’s poorest people use a day.
• Making a new aluminum can from scratch uses the energy equal to half a can of gasoline. It requires 3000 degrees to make aluminum.
• About one third of what an average American throws out is packaging.
• More than 1,000,000,000 (that’s a ‘billion’ with a ‘B’) trees are used to make disposable diapers every year and most disposable diapers are NOT biodegradable.
• 50 acres of rainforest are destroyed every minute.
• Some rain has a pH of 3 or 4. (which is very acidic, pH of 7 is neutral, not acidic, and battery acid has a pH of 1). Some fish, such as lake trout and smallmouth bass, have trouble reproducing at a pH of 6, which is only slightly acidic. Some clams and snails cannot survive at all. Most crayfish are dead with a pH of 5. So, the pH of our lakes and rivers is very important.
• On average, a person in the US uses twice as much energy as a person in Japan or West Germany, and 50 times more than a person in India.
• About 90% of the energy used in lighting a standard (incandescent) light bulb is lost as heat.
• Air conditioning uses 10 times more energy than a fan, therefore it creates 10 times the pollutants.
• It takes half the output of the Alaskan pipeline to heat the air that escapes from all the homes in the US during a year.
• Cars and pick-up trucks are responsible for about 20% of the carbon dioxide released into the air.
• There are about 500 million automobiles on the planet, burning an average of 2 gallons of fuel every day. Each gallon releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.
• About 80% of our trash goes into landfills, 10% is incinerated, and 10% is recycled.
• Since there is very little oxygen underground where we bury our garbage, almost nothing happens to it. Scientists have dug into landfills and have found ears of corn still intact after 20 years, and newspapers still readable after 30.
• The average American makes about 3.5 pounds of trash a day.
• In a year, the average American uses as much wood in the form of paper as the average resident of the developing world burns as fuel.

Things We Can Do To Help Save Our Planet 

• Turn off the lights.
• Turn off other electric appliances like TVs, stereos, radios, and chargers when not in use.
• Use rechargeable batteries.
• Do things manually instead of electrically, like opening cans by hand.
• Use fans instead of air conditioners.
• In winter, wear more clothes, instead of turning up your thermostat.
• Insulate your home so you won’t be cold in winter.
• Use less hot water; lower the thermostat of water heater; install a wrap on your water heater.
• Whenever possible, use a bus or subway, or ride your bike or walk.
• Try to buy organic fruits and vegetables if you are concerned about pesticides. (Organic food is grown without man-made fertilizers and/or pesticides).
• Don’t waste products made from forest materials.
• Use recycled paper and/or recycle it. Reuse old papers.
• Don’t buy products that may have been made at the expense of the rainforest.
• Support products that are harvested from the rainforest, but trees were not cut down to get it.
• Plant trees; plant 2, if you have cut one down.
• Get other people to help you in your cause. Make and/or join an organization.
• Avoid products that are used once and then thrown away.
• Buy products with little or no packaging.
• Encourage your grocery store to sell environmentally friendly cloth bags for people to use when they shop, or take your own.
• REDUCE, REUSE, & RECYCLE.
• Compost
• Buy recycled products
• Don’t buy pets taken from the wild
• If you have a good zoo nearby, support it (if the animals are healthy and the zoo takes care of them). Especially, if they help breed endangered animals.
• Don’t buy products if animals were killed to make them.
• Cut up your six-pack plastic rings before throwing them out.