The natural environment that we live in consists of all the living as well as the non living things occurring on Earth.
Several factors, natural and man-made are depleting our natural environment and it is our duty as individuals to help save the environment as much as possible. So let’s find out some ways to save the environment and some more environment related information.
1. How The Internet Hurting Our Environment
The UN predicts that by the end of 2020, there will be 2 Billion internet users in the world. At such an increasing rate, the world shall be experiencing several good, bad and ugly consequences as far as the environment is concerned. A single Google search produces 0.2g of CO2 and this means that the monthly search processed by Google produces 260000 kg of CO2.
Source
2. Devastation Facts Of Deforestation
Forests are essential to life on earth however deforestation has continued at an alarming rate since the early 1950s. Globally, around 13 million hectares of forests were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes each year between 2000-2010.
Source
3. Save trees
Recycling your moving boxes can do a lot to save trees. An average move requires 60 boxes which is equal to ½ of a one ton pine tree. So your are likely to make 11 moves in your lifetime if you recycle all 660 moving boxes.
Source
4. The Global Water Crisis
Despite the critical role that water has in our daily lives, few people realize its importance. By 2015, there will be 1 billion more mouths to feed requiring an additional 1 trillion cubic meters of waters for agricultural alone. This will lead to 1.8 billion people living in absolute water scarcity.
Source
5. Renewable Energy
Global energy demand will grow up to 33% from 2010 to 2013 but renewable energy investment has been rising rapidly around the world to $260 Billion last year. The technical potential of geothermal energy is up to 15 times the world’s total electricity potential. Kenya hopes to generate about 27% of the country’s electricity from geothermal sources by 2031.
Source
6. Electronic Waste
Electronic waste or E-Waste is the trash that is generated from broken, obsolete and surplus electronic devices. Some of the devices which produce the most E-waste are phones, TVs, laptops, desktop computers and portable music players.
Source
7. The Cost Of Invoicing
A company sending out 12000 paper invoices per year could save 57.6 trees. 3 online invoicing reduces the cycle time of an invoice from 8 days to 3 days. Online invoicing can also save money on postage and over 50000 companies have shifted to this practice with Trade shift.
Source
8. Say 'No Thanks' To Plastic Bags
1 million bags are used every minute across the globe and less than 1% of these bags are recycled world-wide. One plastic bag takes 1000 years to breakdown! Infact every year, plastic kills more than 100000 marine creatures and 1 million sea birds.
Source
9. Back To School Waste And How Consumers Can Help Fix It
In 2011, 55.5 Million students will be enrolled in the nation’s schools from elementary through high schools. 75% of consumers plan to send their kids to school in new clothes this year. Almost 80% of all the waste generated by a school could be recycled or composted.
Source
10. The Greener Choice
The US publishing industry consumes 16 M tons of paper per year and this leads to a lot of environmental depletion. E-books are thus the way to go and its sales are also growing continually. Infact, for every 100 regular books sold, about 180 e-books are sold.
Source
11. Why Buying Local Is Worth Every Cent
Local business generates 70% more local economic activity per sq. ft than big box retail. Money spent at a local business generates 3.5 times more wealth for the local economy compared to money spent at a chain-owned business. So choosing local, independent makers who cut down on processing, packaging and transportation waste is the wise thing to do.
Source
12. My Environmental Footprint
The average American has a carbon foot print that exceeds 20 tons. He/she also throws away 15 tons of plastic from food packaging during lifetime, throws away 43371 cans during lifetime and creates about 500 pounds of dirty laundry a year.
Source
13. The Environmental Impact Of Cell Phones
There are 6.7 Billion people on the planet and 61% have a cell phone subscription. An unused but plugged in charger still draws about half a watt. It is estimated that 140000000 cell phones will end up in landfills this year and for every 515 cell phones recycled, it saves enough energy to power one home for a year.
Source
14. Never Refuse To Reuse
US is the number 1 trash producing country in the world and every year, this company throws about 1200 pounds of organic garbage. It is important to know that each ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
Source
15. What’s Good For The Environment Can Also Be Good For Business
45% of workers are willing to take a pay cut for a job that makes a social or environmental impact. 93% of the world’s top chief executives see sustainability as important to their company’s future success. So basically sustainability can be equated with profitability.
Source
16. Sustainability: Crucial To Real Estate Business
84% of the occupiers believe that sustainability is crucial to their business. Sustainability is really essential for any real estate business and the real estate industry as whole.
Source
17. Share Responsibility For The Planet
If all the Facebook users shortened their shower for 1 minute, we’ll get enough water to fill 1136364 Olympic size swimming pools! If each one of us dedicated 2 minutes each day watching an environmental video, we’ll set aside 12 hours a year to improve our eco-knowledge.
Source
18. An E-Filing Environment
In the past 8 years, the number of individual tax returns e-filed has been increasing steadily and this is a really good news for our trees. E-filing also helps to reduce waste and it is a fact that one third landfill waste in the US is paper waste!
Source
19. How Higher Learning Impacts The Environment
About 900000 tons of paper is being used by students and 1 ton recycled paper saves 17 trees or 60 lbs of air pollution. If each of the 5.6 million students would use 1 gal less of oil, 280000 barrels of crude oil could be saved by online classes.
Source
20. Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Monoxide can cause loss of consciousness, nausea, headaches, dizziness and even collapse. It is important to install detectors opposite any appliance which has the potential to produce carbon monoxide. Maintenance and inspection of chimneys and flues for cracks is also essential.
Source
