2.5 – 5 billion tons of U.S. soil are eroded every year

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2.5 – 5 billion tons of U.S. soil are eroded every year.

U.S. paved land is now the size of Georgia.

U.S. at night.

Proxima Cetauri is 25 trillion miles away!!

Year   1991 2001

U.S. Population 249,439,545 286,345,000

Municipal Waste Generated (tons) 293,613,000 409,029,000

Percentage Recycled 11.5% 32%

Tons Disposed 259,847,000 278,139,720

Tons Disposed Per Person 1.041 0.979

U.S. Municipal Waste and Recycling

WASTE IMPORTERS, 2000 ( TONS)   

1.Pennsylvania 9,764,000 

2. Virginia 3,891,000

3. Michigan 3,124,000

4. Illinois  1,548,000

5. Indiana    1,531,000     

WASTE EXPORTERS, 2000  ( TONS)

1.New York 5,600,000

2.New Jersey 1,800,000

3. Missouri 1 ,793,000

4. Maryland 1,547,000

5.Massachusetts  1,218,000

INTERNATIONAL WASTE TRADE (2001)

Waste Imported into the U.S. 30,567,000 tons

Waste Exported out of the U.S. -18,255,030 tons

Net Import of Waste Into the U.S. 12,311,970 tons

(2005)

Plastic is dissolving faster than expected.

Good news – amount of pieces of plastic not increasing. Bad news – the plastic is very toxic to ocean life.

Cuyahoga River fires: 1952, 1969

“The Lord can make you tumble,

The Lord can make you turn,

The Lord can make you rock and roll,

But the Lord can’t make you burn.

Burn on, big river, burn on.”

(Randy Newman, “Burn on, Big River”)

Percentages of Texas River miles showing pollution (2002)

About 30 million people in the U.S. have impaired hearing.

http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/popclockw

At 10 a.m. today: 6,880,879,910

(U.S. Census Bureau)

Density of the human population 1994

Percentages of biomes impacted by human activity.

Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects, The 1998 Revision; and estimates by the Population Reference Bureau.

The wealthiest 1% of US income earners make more than the lowest 50% of the population.

The richest 400 families in the US have more money ($1.27 trillion) than the poorest 150,000 million people (50% of people) ($1.22 trillion).

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