This week for Fun Friday, I thought it would be an interesting idea to share some amazing and interesting fun facts about the environment! Here are 10 of the most notable statistics about humans and our world that you might not know (in no particular order):
- Every day, more than 20 million Hershey’s Kisses are produced using 133 square miles of tin foil, all of which can be recycled.
- Less than 1% of the water supplies found on Earth are usable by people. 97% of water is found in the oceans and 2% exists as frozen water in glaciers, icebergs, permafrost, etc.
- Automatic dishwashers use about 6 gallons of hot water per cycle (over 2,000 gallons per year), which is actually less than the water required to do dishes by hand.
- Of the 1,200 or more known species of bats that exist, not a single species is blind.
- One of the most effective ways to predict an imminent earthquake is to pay attention to animal behavior. Scientists can tell when an earthquake is coming by counting the number of missing cats in local news!
- The combined weight of the 100 trillion ants on Earth is greater than the combined weight of all 7 billion humans.
- Toilet paper requires 27,000 trees to be cut down per day.
- Humans throw away enough paper and wood each year to heat 50 million houses for 20 years.
- Americans use an average of 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour, most of which are thrown away.
- Each day, American businesses generate enough paper to circle the Earth 20 times!
Hopefully, some of these fascinating facts have put the interactions between people and our world somewhat into perspective. The next time you have a couple of spare moments, try researching some more exciting facts about the Earth – a lot of them might surprise you!
Sources:
Corbyn, Jeremy. “Priorities: The Environment.” Jeremy Corbyn. URL: http://jeremycorbyn.org.uk/priorities/the-environment/
Komowski, Liat. (2013). “13 Awe-Inspiring Facts About The Environment.” Huffington Post. URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/23/environment-facts_n_4318799.html
“#DYK? Some interesting facts about the environment.” EarthEcho International. URL: http://earthecho.org/news/did_you_know_some_interesting_facts_about_the_environment
