Assorted Facts 20
Glass produced from recycled glass instead of raw materials reduces related air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%.
Americans use 50 million tons of paper annually - consuming more than 850 million trees.
Homeowners use up to 10 times more toxic chemicals per acre than farmers.
By turning down your central heating thermostat one degree, fuel consumption is cut by as much as 10%.
Insulating your attic reduces the amount of energy loss in most houses by up to 20%.
Enough glass was thrown away in 1990 to fill the Twin Towers (1,350 feet high) of New York's World Trade Center every two weeks.
One ton of carbon dioxide that is released in the air can be prevented by replacing every 75 watt light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs.
Many banks lent large sums of money to developing nations. In order to pay those debts plus interest many nations have turned to the mining of their natural resources as a source of financial aid.
Every day 40,000 children die from preventable diseases.
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.
The human population of the world is expected to be nearly tripled by the year 2100.
A three percent annual growth rate will result in the doubling of consumption and production of food and other products in 25 short years.? The amount of motor vehicles that are expected to be operated will increase 15 million a year until at least 2010.
The world's per capita grain production has been on the downfall since 1985 despite the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
Already a train system has been developed (back in 1987) which is based on magnetic levitation and causes minimal pollution. These versions of a train are already in use in several countries.
Fibre optics, made of glass, are being used to replace copper cables throughout the world.
The uncontrolled fishing that is allowed has reduced the amount of commercial species. Some species, up to one-tenth of their original population.
Every day 50 to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct as their habitat and human influences destroy them.
Drinking too much water too quickly can lead to water intoxication. Water intoxication occurs when water dilutes the sodium level in the bloodstream and causes an imbalance of water in the brain.
The United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.
The average person in the United States uses anywhere from 80-100 gallons of water per day. Flushing the toilet actually takes up the largest amount of this water.
By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.
Approximately 85 percent of U.S. residents receive their water from public water facilities. The remaining 15 percent supply their own water from private wells or other sources.
While the daily recommended amount of water is eight cups per day, not all of this water must be consumed in the liquid form. Nearly every food or drink item provides some water to the body.
Water intoxication is most likely to occur during periods of intense athletic performance.
Soft drinks, coffee, and tea, while made up almost entirely of water, also contain caffeine. Caffeine can act as a mild diuretic, preventing water from traveling to necessary locations in the body.
Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it.
The earth is a closed system, similar to a terrarium, meaning that it rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on the earth millions of years ago is still present today.
The weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from water, not fat.
Roughly 70 percent of an adult's body is made up of water.
Somewhere between 70 and 75 percent of the earth¡¯s surface is covered with water.
Much more fresh water is stored under the ground in aquifers than on the earth's surface.
At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant's body weight.
The United States uses nearly 80 percent of its water for irrigation and thermoelectric power.
A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.
Of all the water on the earth, humans can used only about three tenths of a percent of this water. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.
The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water.
Pure water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic.
Most of the earth's surface consists of water; there is much more water than there is land.
Water can not only be found on the surface, but also in the ground and in the air.
There is the same amount of water on earth as there was when the earth was formed. The water that came from your faucet could contain molecules that Neanderthals drank
The overall amount of water on our planet has remained the same for two billion years.
There are two kinds of water; salt water and freshwater. Salt water contains great amounts of salt, whereas freshwater has a dissolved salt concentration of less than 1%. Only freshwater can be applied as drinking water.
Water consists of three atoms, 2 Hydrogen atoms and an Oxygen atom, that are bond together due to electrical charges.
The weight of a water molecule depends on the number of moles present, as it is 18 grams per mole.
Water moves around the earth in a water cycle. The water cycle has five parts: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration and surface run-off.
In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.
Groundwater can take a human lifetime just to traverse a mile.
Most of the earth's surface water is permanently frozen or salty.
Water regulates the earth's temperature.
Water freezes at zero degrees Celcius.
Water vaporizes at a hundred degrees Celcius.
Water is the only substance that is found naturally on earth in three forms: liquid, gas, solid.
If water changes phase its physical appearance changes due to parting of water molecules. In the solid phase the water molecules are close together and in the gaseous phase they are the furthest apart.
Frozen water is 9% lighter than water, which is why ice floats on water.
A litre of water weighs 1.01 kilograms.
It doesn't take much salt to make water "salty." If one-thousandth (or more) of the weight of water is from salt, then the water is "saline."
Saline water can be desalinated for use as drinking water by going through a process to remove the salt from the water.
When water contains a lot of calcium and magnesium, it is called hard water. Hard water is not suited for all purposes water is normally used for.
To determine water quality certified agencies take samples that are tested in a laboratory. The samples are tested on various factors, to determine if they suffice water quality standards.
Each country has its own water quality standards that determine to which degree water should be purified, depending on the purpose it will be used for.
A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water. If a human does not absorb enough water dehydration is the result.
A person must consume 2 litres of water daily to live healthily. Humans drink an average of 75.000 litres of water throughout their life.
Humans cannot drink salt water.
More than 2 billion people on earth do not have a safe supply of water.
Water regulates the temperature of the human body. If you have caught a fever you should drink lots of water.
Water removes waste from the human body.
You should never drink water straight from a lake or river, as it can be damaging to your health.
If you live in an old house with lead pipelines you could get health problems. Due to weathering of the pipelines lead can end up in your tap water.
Your drinking water may be fluoridated to help prevent dental cavities.
Water leaves the stomach five minutes after consumption.
Centres for Disease Control receive notification of more than 4,000 cases per year of illness due to drinking water contamination.
A quarter of the world's population is without safe drinking water.
Water can cause serious health damage when it is contaminated by bacteria and other microrganisms.
In most cities and towns, drinking water from the tap is treated so that people don't get sick with diseases such as cholera and typhoid, which are caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites found naturally in the water.
Humans largely influence the factors that determine water quality, as they depose off their waste in water and add all kinds of substances and contaminants that are not naturally present. We now know more than 70.000 water pollutants.
About 450 cubic kilometres of wastewater are carried into coastal areas by rivers and streams every year. These pollution loads require an additional 6,000 cubic kilometres of freshwater to dilute the pollution. This amount equals to two-thirds of the world's total stable run-off.
Public water supplies must meet or exceed certain standards. The kind of standards that are used differ for each country. Many public water supplies consistently supply water that is much better than the minimum standards.
Four litres (1 gallon) of gasoline can contaminate approximately 2.8 million litres (750,000 gallons) of water.
Groundwater supplies serve about 80% of the population, whereas up to 4% of usable groundwater is already polluted.
There are 12,000 different toxic chemical compounds in industrial use today, and more than 500 new chemicals are developed each year.
Over 70,000 different water contaminants have been identified.