For Blog Action Day: 26 Pollution Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

This is also the AirZone Blog's 300th post on the environment!





Did you know –

1. One leaf blower used during a one year period produces as much pollution as 80 cars driven 12,500 miles.
   
2. One gallon of gas can create 19 pounds of carbon dioxide.
   
3. 84 percent of the energy produced in the USA is provided by fossil fuels (coal, oil). When fossil fuels are burned to make energy they contribute to smog, acid rain and global climate change.
   
4. The single largest energy consumer in the world is the U.S. residential sector.
   
5. On a global scale, homes worldwide account for 25 percent of total energy use (not including transportation).
   
6. US residential and commercial buildings are responsible for 48 percent of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the U.S.
   
7. According to a new global survey, 53 percent or 1.1 billion people would rather purchase products and services from a company with a strong environmental reputation.
   
8. Employees on a global scale believe that the most effective environmental initiatives for their own workplace are recycling programs (65 percent), water/waste/emissions reduction (60 percent) and the use of eco-friendly business materials (60 percent).
   
9. Approximately 5,000 premature deaths a year in Southern California are being attributed to air pollution, especially from breathing particulate matter. Much of the particulate pollution experienced by Southern California comes from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
   
10. If burned without additives, pure Biodiesel (B100) is estimated to produce about 10% more NOx emissions than regular diesel. Debate continues over NOx, particulates, smog, and greenhouse gas emissions from biodiesel and all other new transportation fuels, biofuels in particular.
    
11. As much as 25% of Los Angles air pollution comes from China. And at certain locations in California, the level increases to 40%.
    
12. Due to the EPA’s refusal to tighten certain US air quality standards to better control soot and particulate matter, as advised by medical professionals, as many as 24,000 Americans could lose their lives every.
    
13. Energy used to produce 19 billion catalogs mailed annually to American consumers - 38 trillion BTUs, enough to power 1.2 million homes per year. Contribution to global warming – 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equal to the annual emissions of two million cars.
    
14. The EPA estimates that this year, due to a combination of cleaner diesel fuel and new engine technology, sulfur oxide emissions (a contributor to acid rain) from heavy-duty trucks will decrease by more than 100,000 tons and carbon monoxide emissions by more than 70,000 tons. The most significant benefits of clean diesel will be realized when new trucks are mostly replaced by 2020. By then, the EPA predicts two million tons of nitrogen oxides (or NOx, a component of smog) and 83,000 tons of fine particulate matter (or soot annually) will NOT be released into the atmosphere thanks to clean diesel.
    
15. A new 2007 diesel truck emits 1/60th the soot exhaust of a diesel truck produced in 1988.
16. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change documented a global average temperature increase of 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit between 1906 and 2005.
17. The world’s seas are rising more than an inch a decade.
18. U.S. government scientists say this summer's shrinkage of the Arctic ice cap was the greatest on record.
19. "Without a technological or economic miracle, it would take a political miracle to reach an international agreement that would mandate the necessary emissions cuts to reverse the momentum behind our evolving global climate system," Paul J. Saunders and Vaughan Turekian wrote in a recent Foreign Policy article titled, "Why Climate Change Can't Be Stopped."
20. A five-nation research team reports that global emissions of carbon dioxide, the biggest greenhouse gas, are increasing at a rate three times faster than in the 1990s.
21. From the EPA: "roughly six percent of all fine particle pollution (PM 2.5) in the United States comes from wood smoke. In some areas where woodstove use is high, wood smoke can account for a greater share of PM 2.5. Replacing older wood stoves with EPA-certified stoves can reduce wood smoke -- by 70 percent on average." And USA Today reports there are 10 million existing wood-burning stoves in the U.S.
22. In a recent British report, it is suggested that projected climate change could shrink the global economy by 20 percent and plunge the world into recession.
23. New coal-burning power plants are reportedly being added in China at the rate of about one per week. Most Chinese facilities are less efficient and pollute more than those used in the west to produce power. According to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, China has already surpassed America in emissions, with China increasing by 9-percent in 2006 and 12-percent in 2005. At the same time, America’s emissions have grown slower, averaging about 1-percent per year. In 2006, according to the Department of Energy, emissions actually declined by 1.3-percent.
24. According to Reuters, London - air pollution has cut the average life expectancy of Europeans by almost a year, contributing to the premature death of thousands of people annually.
25. In Southern California, trains emit about 111 tons per day of diesel particle pollution, or about 6 percent of the pollution from cargo transport in this region.
26. According to Professor David Orr of Oberlin College: Human activities have already raised the global temperature about 8/5 a degree centigrade and the emissions humans have already made into the atmosphere will inevitably raise the temperature another half degree. “The point of safety is now said to be roughly two degrees centigrade. According to James Hanson, two years ago we had roughly ten years to begin the deflection downward [of greenhouse gas emissions]” Orr said that climate change is becoming increasingly nonlinear; that is, it is spiraling out of control, so time to control it is running out.