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Happy 35th Earth Day!

Posted by Cheryl Miller on Apr 22nd, 2005 | Leave a comment home title

Let’s celebrate Earth Day today and every day. Here are a few resources to inspire and educate us:

Earth Day – EPA resources – www.epa.gov/earthday/
Healthy Lawn, Healthy Environment – PDF download
Greenscaping Your Lawn and Garden – PDF download
More Earth Day Resources: http://www.edselect.com/earth_day.htm
Happy Earth Day Coloring and Activities Book – http://www.epa.gov/region5/publications/happy.pdf

A Few Earth Day Facts. . . .

Did you know?

Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees.
The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a light bulb for four hours.
Each person throws away approximately four pounds of garbage every day. One bus carries as many people as 40 cars!
More than 1/3 of all energy is used by people at home. Most families throw away about 88 pounds of plastic every year. We each use about 12,000 gallons of water every year.
1/3 of all water is used to flush the toilet.
The 500 million automobiles on earth burn an average of 2 gallons of fuel a day.
Each gallon of fuel releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.
Approximately 5 million tons of oil produced in the world each ear ends up in the ocean.
By 1995 over 200 of the world landfills will be full.
The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
Earth is 2/3 water. But all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent.
14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year.
It takes 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than to make new ones.
5 billion aluminum cans are used each year.
84 percent of all household waste can be recycled.
For every 2000 pounds of paper (1 ton) recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water free from chemicals.
Approximately only 10 percent of every landfill can be cleaned up.
Ivory comes from dead elephants, its best not to buy it.
Fur coats often come from endangered animals, it’s best not to buy them.
One gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of water, so dispose of it properly!
Here is an example of the water we use every day: 3-7 gallons for toilet 25-30 gallons for tub 50-70 gallons for a 10 minute shower 25-40 gallons for one washing machine load 9-12 gallons for one dishwasher load
Here is an example of how long it takes some things take to break down: plastics take 500 years aluminum cans take 500 years organic materials take 6 months cotton, rags, paper take 6 months. source: http://www.planetpals.com/earthday.html

The take-home message is that each of us can make simple changes that will have a large impact on our environment. It’s kinda like cleaning up your own home so that you can live safely and comfortably.

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