Earth Day Facts

Today is International Earth Day, an annual event for people around the world to celebrate the earth and renew our commitment to building a safer, healthier and cleaner world for all. You can find many ways to get involved at www.earthday.net. Take a look at some climate change facts from Earthday.net:

· By 2030 the number of automobiles in the world will increase by 50%.
· According to Chevron, the world consumes two barrels of oil for every barrel discovered.
· It took 125 years to consume the first trillion barrels of oil – the world will consume the next trillion in only 30 years.
· By 2030 the world will consume 47% more oil than it did in 2003.
· The current pace of sea-level rise is 50% faster then in the last century. Scientists estimate the sea level will rise by 3.5-34.6 inches by 2100.
· Much of the United States has already warmed, by as much as 4°F.
· The five warmest years over the last century have been: 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004. The 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1990.
· Over 20 million Americans, 6.3 million of which are children, suffer from asthma. Public health experts are worried that those numbers will rise with continued greenhouse gas emissions.
· Diseases such as malaria and West Nile virus will occur in large numbers in the United States as a result of warmer temperatures.
· The Arctic ice pack has lost an area about twice the size of Texas since the mid-1970’s.
· Automobiles count for almost a third of the America’s Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions – the largest source after power plants.
· Each gallon of gasoline burned creates 20 pounds of CO2.
· Vehicles in the United States release more CO2 than all the energy sources (such as heating, electricity, vehicles, and factories) in all of India.
· As many as 15-37% of all wildlife species in some regions could be “committed to extinction” by 2050 because of global climate change.
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