Fun Facts XV

Though Americans make up just 4% of the world's population, we produce 25% of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning -- more than China, India and Japan combined and by far the largest share of any country.

Source: NRDC

Fun Facts XIV

The polar ice cap is now melting at the alarming rate of 9% per decade. Arctic ice thickness has almost halved since the 1960s.

Source: NASA

Fun Facts XIV

The polar ice cap is now melting at the alarming rate of 9% per decade. Arctic ice thickness has almost halved since the 1960s.

Source: NASA

Fun Facts XIII

Since 1980, the earth has experienced 19 of its 20 hottest years on record, with 2005 and 1998 tied for the hottest and 2002 and 2003 coming in second and third.

Fun Facts XII

Half of the forests that originally covered 48% of the Earth's land surface are gone. Only 1/5th of the Earth's original forests remain pristine and undisturbed.



Source: NRDC

Fun Facts XI

Only 10% of the energy used by an incandescent bulb produces light; the rest is given off as heat.



Source: Energy Information Administration

Fun Facts X

Power plants emit 40% of U.S. carbon dioxide pollution, the primary cause of global warming.



Source: NRDC

Fun Facts IX

Manufacturing just 17 new cars uses enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.



Source: Energy Information Administration

Fun Facts VIII

Over the past 40 years, the total commercial and residential waste produced in the U.S. has nearly tripled.



Source: Energy Information Administration

Fun facts VII

The National Recycling Coalition reports that recycling supports 1.1 million jobs in the U.S.



Source: Energy Information Administration

Fun Facts VI

Across the U.S., 12 million acres of lakes, estuaries and wetlands and 473,000 miles of streams, rivers and coasts are contaminated by mercury, which comes mainly from coal-fired power plants.



Source: NRDC

Fun Facts V

Automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, and buses in the U.S. drove over 2.8 trillion miles in 2002 -- comparable to driving to the sun and back 13,440 times.



Source: Energy Information Administration

Fun Facts IV

The average American generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day, which is almost twice the amount of trash the average American produced daily in 1960.



Source: Energy Information Administration

Fun Facts III

Air pollution from cars, factories and power plants is a major cause of asthma attacks. More than half of the U.S. population lives in areas with poor air conditions, and studies suggest that air pollution contributes to the development of asthma in previously healthy people.



Source: NRDC

Fun Facts II

The U.S. uses nearly $1 million worth of energy every minute.



Source: Energy Information Administration

Fun Facts I

Making a ton of paper from recycled stock saves up to 17 trees and uses 50% less water than making paper from virgin fiber.



Source: Energy Information Administration

You are what you toss

There are about 1.6 billion homes in the world, and about 100 million in the United States alone. Yours is where you spend most of your time. It's also where you use the most energy and water, and create the most waste.

You create 4.5 pounds of trash every day.

Over the course of your life, that will total six hundred times your average adult weight... in garbage.

Put another way, you can visualize your lifetime trash impact as a "monster" weighing 90,000 pounds. Her torso would be paper. One leg would be yard trimmings, the other food scraps. One arm would be plastic with a rubber hand. The other would be metal with a wood hand. Her head would be glass, and her neck would be all the other stuff.

In the end, we will each leave a ninety-thousand-pound legacy of trash for our grandchildren.