Earth Day is April 22nd.
90+
Percentage of printing and writing paper that still comes from virgin tree fiber.
37,000
Number of empty soft drink bottles thrown away in the United States every minute.
1/2
Amount of the world’s gasoline used by the U.S.
43; 47
Percentage increase of global-warming pollutants and air pollution that SUVs emit in comparison to the average car.
10 times
Amount climbing stairs burns calories when compared to standing in an elevator.
7
Number of homes that could be powered by an average elevator’s yearly energy usage.
200,000
Tons of non-biodegradable cat litter made from strip-mined clay that ends up in landfills every year.
90
Number of pesticides the EPA allows on potatoes.
1,281
Pounds of CO2 saved annually from entering the air by doing laundry with cold-water.
$80,000; 40
Amount of money and tons of C02 saved by a 10-story office building in Los Angeles could save if it had a green roof and four green walls.
1
Number of times that most of the more than 25 billion cartons manufactured in the U.S. are used.
70
Percent of all hazardous waste made up by electronics
544,000
Number of trees saved if every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels with 100% recycled ones.
12.5
Average per-person daily consumption of water in Africa, in gallons.
400
Average per-person daily consumption of water in the U.S., in gallons.
95
Percent decrease in plastic bag usage when Ikea instituted a plastic-bag surcharge in Great Britain
Sources for the Earth Day Index
- Virgin Paper: Union of Concerned Scientists
- Empty Soft-Drink Bottles: North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources
- Gasoline: World Resources Institute. 1998-99 World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998
- SUVs: changingtheclimate.com
- Climbing Stairs: Ideal Bite, “Stairway to Heaven”
- Elevator Power: Ideal Bite, “Stairway to Heaven”
- Kitty Litter: Ideal Bite: “Kitty Litter Bug”
- Potatoes: Ideal Bite: The Chip Tip
- Cold-water Laundry: Ideal Bite: “Hot or Not”
- Green Roof, Green Walls: Business 2.0
- Cartons: Treehugger
- E-Waste: Worldchanging.com
- Recylced Paper Towels: Treehugger
- U.S. & World Water Stats: United States Environmental Protection Agency
- Plastic Bags: Newsweek
