env facts.docx

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Important Quote

" The phrase "conquest of nature" is certainly one of the most

objectionable and misleading expressions of Western languages.

It reflects the illusion that all natural forces can be entirely

controlled, and it expresses the criminal conceit that nature

is to be considered primarily as a source of raw materials and energy for human purposes."

From A God Within by Ren Dubos

Human influenced facts

oIf just 25% of U.S. families used 10 fewerplastic bagsa month, wewould save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year.

o On the average, the 140 million cars in America are estimated totravel almost 4 billion miles in a day, and according to

theDepartment of Transportation, they use over 200 million gallonsof gasoline doing it.

o Every year we throw away 24 million tons of leaves and grass.Leaves alone account for 75% of our solid waste in the fall.
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o Over 100 pesticide ingredients are suspected to cause birth defects,cancer, and gene mutations.

o Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil.o About 1% of U.S. landfill space is full of disposable diapers, which

take 500 years to decompose.

o Energy saved from one recycledaluminum canwill operate a TV setfor 3 hours, and is the equivalent to half a can of gasoline.

o Glass produced fromrecycled glassinstead of raw materials reducesrelated air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%.

o Americans use 50 million tons ofpaperannually -- consuming morethan 850 million trees.

o Homeowners use up to 10 times more toxicchemicalsper acre thanfarmers.

o By turning down your central heating thermostat one degree, fuelconsumption is cut by as much as 10%.

o Insulating your attic reduces the amount of energy loss in mosthouses by up to 20%.

o Enoughglasswas thrown away in 1990 to fill the Twin Towers(1,350 feet high) of New York's World Trade Center every twoweeks.

o One ton of carbon dioxide that is released in the air can be preventedby replacing every 75 watt light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs.

o Many banks lent large sums of money to developing nations. In orderto pay those debts plus interest many nations have turned to themining of their natural resources as a source of financial aid.

o Every day 40,000childrendie from preventable diseases.o The public transportation that we have is a wreck. The U.S. continues

to promote and invest in private car travel rather than public

transportation.

o The human population of the world is expected to be nearly tripled bythe year 2100.
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o A three percent annual growth rate will result in the doubling ofconsumption and production of food and other products in 25 short

years. The amount of motor vehicles that are expected to be operatedwill increase 15 million a year until at least 2010.

o The world's per capita grain production has been on the downfallsince 1985 despite the use of fertilizers and pesticides.

o Already a train system has been developed (back in 1987) which isbased on magnetic levitation and causes minimal pollution. Theseversions of a train are already in use in several countries.

o Fibre optics, made of glass, are being used to replace copper cablesthroughout the world.

o The uncontrolled fishing that is allowed has reduced the amount ofcommercial species. Some species, up to one-tenth of their original

population.

o Every day 50 to 100 species of plants andanimalsbecome extinct astheir habitat and human influences destroy them.

The Earth

o Desertsare advancing and taking over the land. In Mali the desert hastaken over about 220 miles in as few as 20 years. Deserts can be

repelled, by developing tree-planting projects, having better

agriculture and by managing the land better. However, governmentsstill are reluctant to fund anti-desertification, despite horrific droughts

that have occurred in recent years.

o The Earth has been around for 4.6 billion years. Scaling this timedown to 46 years we have been around for 4 hours and our Industrial

Revolution began just 1 minute ago. During this short time period we

have ransacked the planet for ways to get fuels and raw materials,have been the cause of extinction of an unthinkable amount of plants

and animals, and have multiplied our population to that of a plague.

o Despite all of the damage we have caused the environment most of itis reversible. We can restore habitats and return species to them;

clean rivers; renovate buildings; replenish the topsoil, replant forests.

However, these activities do not relieve the worst symptoms of the
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damage. We still have to fix the source of these problems, us and our

vision that we must progress.

The Rainforest

Eco-Joke

Why can't you play cards in the jungle?

Answer:Because there's too many cheetahs!

o In Peninsular Malaysia, more tree species are found in 125 acres ofTropical Forest than in the entire North America.

o In Peru a single bush may contain more ant species than in the BritishIsles.

o A study has shown that there are possibly over 30 million species ofinsects dwelling in the canopies of tropical forests.

o 63,000 square miles of Rainforests are being destroyed each year.o Rainforests higher than 3,000 feet above sea level are called cloud

forests.

o Already over half of the world's tropical forests have been lost.o Madagascar is the home to a rainforest where 60 percent of it's 12,000

different plant species are unique to that island.
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o When you visit a pharmacist, one in every four purchases will havecome from a tropical forest.

o Medicine produced in tropical forests bring in commercially 30billion dollars a year.

o Large areas of South and Central America are cleared and burned forcattle ranching. This is so that farmers can provide cheap beef to

consumers in the West.

o Every year approximately four billion tons of carbon accumulates inthe air each year, about 30% of this comes directly from thecontinued burning of the rainforests.

oMore than anything else, rainforest is destroyed by peasant farmers.However, the responsibility for this lies largely with the governmentswho fail to promote land reform and sustainable agricultural practicesas an alternative to forest clearance.

o Greater than a quarter of our rainforest is in Brazil

Interesting Animal facts

o Penguins live only in the Southern Hemisphere and never in theNorthern Hemisphere.

o A single porcupine is known to kill 100 trees in one winter. It uses it'ssharp claws to climb a tree, sits on a limb to gnaw away at the bark

and twigs and then stuffs them all into its mouth at once. Because ofit's liking for bark, the porcupine causes much damage to forests.

o A scallop moves by sucking water into its shell and then squirting itout suddenly. It likes to wander around and this gives it enough forceto push it in front in a zig zag manner.

o A male garibaldi damselfish attract females for mating by covering arock with a thick layer of alga. A male which clean off a rock to

allow only algae to live have a higher chance of mating. The algae is

also used to protect the eggs of the fish.


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o To prevent the nest from getting soaked, the rare white-chinned swift,which nests behind the waterfalls of Latin America plant pieces of

moss in the nest which then grow and reinforce the nest.

o A porcupine loves salt so much that it would walk into a camp andgnaw on anything that has been touched by salt or even by perspiringhands.

o Despite having a shell of armour for the body, an armadillo has teeththat do not have enamel and thus have very soft teeth. It can only eatsoft food such as ants, termites, grubs and bugs.

o The tip of an elephant's trunk is so sensitive and flexible that it canpick up a pin.

o If a mole does not find food within 12 hours, it will die. Its chief foodconsists of insects and earthworms.

o A male nightingale stops singing when its eggs have hatched so asnot to attract unnecessary attention to the nest. However he gives

short calls to tell the female that all is well or danger is approaching.

o Bolas spiders snare moths by producing chemicals similar topheromones used by several species of female moths to attract mates.

o The webbed feet of the stormy petrel enable it to 'walk' on water. Itspends almost its entire life over the ocean and only comes to land to

breed. If a storm arises, they can't walk on water and are forced to

remain in the air all day and night.

o Some giant land turtles are able to bellow.o No one knows what happens to the seahorse during winter as it is

only seen during the summertime.

o There is a species in the river Nile in Egypt that avoids its enemies byswimming with its black belly up and its white back down.

o The arctic tern, a migrating bird is able to travel back and forth asmuch as 22000 miles in a course of a year.

o The Amazon army ants raid nests of certain black ants and carry backto cocoons and larvae to their own homes. When the cocoons hatch,they will become the slaves of these army ants and do all their work.


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o The nest that an osprey is a huge and attractive one which is unhiddenfrom sight and the bird adds new material each year to the same old

nest. The nest can weigh up to 450 kilograms.

The Open Range

o TheGrasslandscover one-fifth of the land on Earth.o The majority of grasslands are found around the tropics.yo Natural grasslands are; thesavannahsof Africa, the North American

prairies, and in southern USSR-the dry steppes.

o Semi-natural grasslands are where the forest has been cleared andgrazing, cutting or burning maintains the grass cover. Tending to be

more productive most South and South-East Asian grasslands aresemi-natural grasslands.

o The temperate grassland soil contains a lot of organic material (morethan the tropical)

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