if all the world's people nourished themselves with the typical american diet of meat, heavily packaged and processed foods and drinks, and foods transported great distances, we would use more energy for food and drink than we currently do for all purposes.
if today is a typical day
on earth, we will lose a forest the size
of new york city and 186 square
kilometers to encroaching deserts due to
human mis-management.
among the very poor, nutritional deficiencies are handed down from generation to generation like an hereditary disease
more than half the 12 million children who die before their fifth birthday each year are undernourished, while hundreds of millions of the survivors fail to develop to their full physical and mental potential
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for most climate scientists, it's no longer a question of whether global warming will occur, but when. The human race now produces 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, two-thirds of it by burning fossil fuels at a rate four times that of 1950. predicted within the next 100 years is a one to six degree farenheit rise in global temperature. (And you thought this past summer was hot!). changes in the global weather patterns are real and here to stay. this has a direct and profound impact on our lifestyles.
every year an estimated 39 to 49 million acres of forests and woodlands are lost to development or agriculture. an additional 12 to 17 million acres fall victim to erosion and developers' bulldozers
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pollution levels in cities is several times the average required for healthy living. |
some four to eight percent of tropical species will become endangered in the next 25 years. that is because of lessening of habitat, shirinking forests and overgrazing of cattle. carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" that come from burning gas, coal, oil, and wood are over 25% higher than at any time in the last 160,000 years! they are heating the planet in a way that is likely to disrupt our weather and food production. this will trigger food shortages and chaos between the haves and the have nots.
coral reefs, home to over 25% of all marine life, are among the world's most fragile ecosystems. If human destruction continues, 70% of the world's coral reefs will die in the next 40 years.
countries such as mauritius and others in the pacific are under a real danger of getting submerged under the sea due to the unprecedented rise in the sea levels. where would the inhabitants of these places go?
we have to stop the chain of things. otherwise we will be left with a world that is not only poluted but also incapable of sustaining life. millions of years ago the dinosours were killed because of the advent of the ice age where tempretures all over the world dropped. ironically now the problem is the opposite tiny islands in the south pacific and the indian ocean are in danger of drowning due to general rise in temperatures.. world weather paterns are changing. el nino and la nina are the direct result of this. the storms are getting stronger and the damage more extensive.
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| by reducing meat intake by just 10% (2 meat dishes a week), the savings in grain and soybeans used to feed cattle annually could feed 225 million people. about one in every five babies in developing countries starts life at less than 2.5 kg., largely because the mother was poorly nourished. almost four out of every 10 under-five-year-olds in poor communities have stunted growth and reduced learning capacity
when just 1% of car owners get a tune up, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.
31% of all electricity in the united states is used to run commercial buildings. this rate continues to rise as companies add new office equipment. energy use for office equipment is expected to rise by 500% in the next decade.
the world currently uses 4.1 billion pounds (1.86 kgs.) of pesticides a year in agriculture.
60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides are carcinogenic.
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