Unexpected environmental facts that will surprise you -

Did you know that nearly two million trees are cut down daily to meet global toilet paper demand? Or is meat consumption responsible for releasing greenhouse gases? And get this: one recycled aluminum can save enough energy to light a bulb for 20 hours! Indeed, learning more about the environment and the impact our lifestyles are having on the world is an enriching, though somewhat troubling experience. Meanwhile, our beleaguered planet is slowly spinning out of control. So, what are the facts?

Click through and be enlightened—and alarmed—by the reality of life on Earth.

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How old is the Earth? -

Results gleaned from radiometric dating place the Earth as being about 4.5 billion years old.

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Water world -

Roughly 71% of the Earth's surface is water-covered, with the oceans holding about 95% of all the planet's water. Interestingly, thanks to the water cycle, the amount of water is constant and recycled throughout, moving from one place to another and from one form to another.

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Tapping the water supply -

Despite the Earth appearing like it has abundant water, less than 1% is available to humans. The rest is either salt water found in the oceans, fresh water (2%) frozen in the polar ice caps, or too inaccessible for practical use.

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Munching on methane -

Cattle have a detrimental effect on the environment. Ruminant livestock can each expel anywhere between 90 and 180 kg (200 and 400 lb) of methane per day—levels that are 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide gas.

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Wipeout! -

Nearly two million trees are cut down daily to meet global toilet paper demand. This industrial-scale felling to keep the world wiping highlights an often overlooked contributor to deforestation. 

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Through the mill -

There is a limit to how often paper can be recycled—in fact five or six times, on average. To produce each week's Sunday papers in the United States means the felling of 500,000 trees. Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees, for example.

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Can-do attitude -

Aluminum is 100% recyclable. It recycles forever. And get this: one recycled aluminum can could save enough energy to light a bulb for 20 hours, run a computer for three hours, or a TV for two hours.

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Air pollution death toll on par with smoking -

According to a 2019 report published in The Lancet Planetary Health, air pollution is responsible for around nine million premature deaths each year, or one in six globally, and the figure is increasing. That puts its toll on par with smoking.

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Dead as a Dodo -

More than 99% of the four billion species that have evolved on Earth are now gone. Furthermore, at least 900 species have become extinct in the last five centuries.

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The power of earthquakes -

The tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust are moving constantly. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the crust and cause the shaking and vibration that we feel. The 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile is the most powerful quake recorded to date, measuring a frightening 9.4–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale.

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Fungi, the original ecowarriors -

Fungi, of which there are about 100,000 species, play an essential role in managing the environment. Some fungi facilitate organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. In fact, fungi and other plants are ecofriendly champions, performing a process called soil carbon sequestration—capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it into the soil for decades if not hundreds of years.

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Phytoplankton -

Sperm whales do their bit for the environment too, in that their poop acts as a fertilizer that increases phytoplankton growth, leading to a more productive ecosystem and enhanced atmospheric carbon dioxide removal.

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Trunk calls -

So while humans and chimps share a surprising 98.8% of their DNA, it is in fact the elephant that we have so much more in common with. Similar traits include possessing a sense of self, demonstrating empathy, and knowing how important family is. These gentle giants also understand teamwork, will comfort upset friends, and can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Does all this sound familiar?

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Bats are not blind -

Did you know there are over 1,400 species of bats worldwide? And did you also know that none are blind? It's a common misconception, but the reality is that these flying mammals have small eyes with very sensitive vision. When hunting in the dark they rely on what's known as echolocation, meaning they use echoes of self-produced sounds bouncing off objects to help them navigate and home in on prey.

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Heavy toll -

Once upon a time, the combined weight of ants on the planet—all 100 trillion of them—would have made them heavier than all human beings. But population growth, which hit eight billion in November 2022, plus the fact that humans are getting heavier all the time, means we have left the ants behind—and are now placing a heavier toll than ever on the planet.

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The scourge of plastic -

One of the great environmental scourges of the age, plastics can take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose, depending on the material and structure. Discarded into water, styrofoam and plastic bags contribute to the deaths of thousands of marine animals.

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Glass war -

There's one material even less biodegradable than plastic: glass. A glass bottle may take up to one million years to decompose. Proof of the material's durability is found in the numerous glass-made artifacts dating back to antiquity.

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Recycled glass -

Glass, though, is 100% recyclable. It can be recycled constantly without loss in quality or purity. And recycled glass can be substituted for up to 95% of raw materials. Recycling just one glass bottle saves enough energy to power a normal light bulb for about four hours.

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Bottled water -

As much as 64% of bottled water is in fact tap water, according to EcoWatch.

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Greenhouse gases -

The most common greenhouse gases are methane, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide (CO2), for example, is created when people burn fossil fuels such as coal, gasoline, oil, and natural gas. CO2 is a major contributor to global warming and greenhouse effect.

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A load of litter -

As of 2022, the World Bank estimates that waste generation will increase as much as 70%—from 2.01 billion tonnes to 3.40 billion in 2050.

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch -

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world and is located in the North Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California.

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Oil spill stats -

According to Statista, there was an average of 1.8 large oil spills from tanker incidents every year in the decade from 2010 to 2019. Stringent safety measures and advances in technology mean the dark days of the 1970s, when there were often in excess of 20 large oil spills per year, are a distant memory. But when oil does find its way into the ocean, the environmental impact is devastating.

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No beef! -

The climate impact of meat is enormous. Meat consumption is responsible for releasing greenhouse gases such as methane, CO2, and nitrous oxide. Beef especially is harmful to the environment: red meat requires 28 times more land to yield as compared to pork or chicken.

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"Monte Kail" -

"Monte Kali" is the colloquial name given to an enormous spoil heap of sodium chloride (common table salt)—a byproduct of potash mining and processing—located near the town of Heringen in Hesse, Germany. The impact on the surrounding environment is considerable, with the nearby Werra river saltier than the Baltic Sea.

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The oldest trees in the world -

The oldest trees in the world are the bristlecone pines of California's White Mountains. Guinness World Records date some as being 4,800 years old.

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Road to ruin -

According to the 2020 Keep America Beautiful Litter Study, if you walk 1.5 km (1 mi) along an average US highway, you will see, more or less, about 1,457 pieces of trash.

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Out of fashion -

In 2018, the fashion sector was responsible for approximately 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is about 4% of the global total, according to a report published by McKinsey & Company. Emissions, it added, came from what's known as upstream activities like materials production and processing.

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Price of disaster -

Natural disasters across the United States in 2021 cost the country approximately US$152 billion, according to figures released by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Two of California's largest wildfire incidents in 2021 cost fire agencies alone more than US$500 million apiece to suppress.

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Waste not, want not -

Researchers working with the United Nations Environment Programme concluded that the food service industry produced 26% of the 931 million tons of food waste generated in 2019, according to a 2021 study. They also found found that an estimated 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that isn't consumed.  

Sources: (The New York Times) (The Lancet Planetary Health) (BBC) (EcoWatch) (World Bank) (National Geographic) (Statista) (Guinness World Records) (Keep America Beautiful) (McKinsey & Company) (NCEI) (United Nations Environment Programme) 

See also: How to decorate your house with waste materials

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