1. So Many Bad Deeds for So Little Time
According to scientific assumptions the Earth exists for 4.6 billion years. Scaling this to 46 years we come to 46 years of existence, which means that humanity have been around for four hours, while the industrial revolution has began only one minute ago. In such short time of environment-predating madness we have managed to destroy great variety of species and endanger a lot of those which have not been extinct yet, just in order to get to raw materials and fuels.
2. Population Growth
In that short time the industrial revolution has also caused an amazing growth of population. In last 50 years it has grown more than the previous four million years. The number of one billion was reached in 19thcentury, while today there are almost seven billion people on Earth. The estimations say that we could reach the number of nine billion until 2050. If food is problem today, it’s not easy to imagine what a problem it would be after 40 years from now.
3. The Wall Street Bailout
The Wall Street bailout reached over $700 billion and still grows. Only 4% of that could end the world hunger. There is a well known old Chinese saying: “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” According to that, this is not the right solution for the problem, but there are indications which show that only $30 billion per year are needed for creating and implementing programs that could help toward solving this issue.
4. Pharmacy Purchases
The next of the most interesting Environmental Facts is related to the pills and other medications in pharmacy stores which have been made from some exotic plants. One in every four purchases comes from the rainforests. With reducing the deforestation of rainforests there will be a lot more plants available for pills producing. Unfortunately, we have lost over a half of them already.
5. Australia’s Geothermal Energy
Only 1% of the untapped geothermal energy potential in Australia could be enough for next 26,000 years, providing optimism for the future. We can not use that energy yet, but the Australian government invests a lot in green technologies recently and announced that this one won’t be excluded. They hope to be able to use up to 40% of that until 2020.
6. Too Much Chemicals in Homes
When we talk about chemicals that “hurt” the soil, we usually point finger to the farmers who use pesticides and other chemicals that destroy the soil. However, it’s good to know that the homeowners use ten times more chemicals per acre than them. It is yet another proves that saving the planet doesn’t mean necessary change of the agriculture politics, among others, but we could do so much more with just a little change in our lifestyle.
7. Cars vs. Public Transport
According to the US Department of Transportation Americans use 140 million cars to travel almost four billion miles everyday, using over 200 million gallons of gasoline for that. However, United States keep promoting and investing in private cars instead of public transportation, despite these numbers.
8. Fake Development Credits
Many banks offer credits to the countries that need it in order to develop their economies. If one see the amounts of money that these countries receive, it would be hard to understand why they’re still undeveloped. The answer is very simple: they have to use their natural resources in order to pay off the debts and the interest that comes from them. Of course, they do that irrationally and cause even bigger problems.
9. Too Little Air in China
Actually, I am not sure if there is air in China’s biggest cities. In fact, only 1% of the 560 million city residents in China breathe air that is considered to be safe according to the standards of the European Union. The cancer have become reason no.1 for deaths, but things become even worse, as clouds of polluted air reach the skies of Japan and Korea as well, causing acid rains.
10. environment Is Reversible
Finally, we can say something positive about these interesting Environmental Facts. All these things could be much better: we can renovate buildings and turn them into greener places, clean rivers, restore habitats and return species there, replant forests, help development countries with the money that we do not need too much; environment is reversible and could be in better condition. However, we still need to do the hardest step forward – changing our awareness.
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