10 Going Green Facts to Make Your Head Spin
Published:
Monday, January 30, 2012 by:
Drew
Heating / Cooling Energy That Costs You Money - 15% - 30% of an average home’s heating and cooling energy cost is lost through the improper installed and sealed duct-work running through out a home. This costs consumers approximately $5 Billion dollars annually. After this research, I’m going to head down into my basement and fix that duct-work that’s been on my to-do list for the last 9 months. Wow!
Gasoline Produces A Lot of Carbon Dioxide – For every gallon of gasoline that you consume, your car produces approximately 19 pounds of Carbon Dioxide. We all know that Carbon Dioxide is not good for human development because we need oxygen to live, but let’s put it into context. For that one gallon of gasoline that you burnt driving to and from work today, it’s going to take the average tree 4-6 months to turn those 19 pounds of Carbon Dioxide back into oxygen.
Fuel for our Food - On average, it will take 10 calories of pure fossil fuels to go through the process of planting, growing, processing and delivering 1 calorie of food energy to our kitchen tables. That’s 10 times more energy used to produce the energy (food) we need to live.
Recycling preserves Energy – Astonishingly, Americans throw away enough aluminum cans over a three month period that could be used to produce the entire commercial airline fleet. In fact, the energy saved by recycling a single aluminum can, could instead be used to run an average TV for over 3 hours.
Recycling Paper – We produce an enormous amount of paper each and every year. Recycling just one ton of that paper could save 20 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollutants. Believe it or not, the savings in energy could instead be used to power the average home for 6 months!
Water & Energy – An estimated $3 billion dollars could be saved in energy costs annually if the population of the United States would wash their cloths in cold water instead of how water. This also would reduce the CO2 emissions by over a full percent.
Electronic Devices – Do you know that the computer that you are using to read this article will never consume more energy in its life compared to the amount of energy it took to create the computer in the first place? In fact, over 80% of the energy consumed by your computer over the lifetime of the device was already consumed in the manufacturing process it took to create it. But don’t get me wrong, it’s still good to turn off your computer when it’s not in use and remember to recycle your computer and other electronic devices instead of just throwing them away. Most electronic devices have chemicals contained within that are not good for the environment, so don’t let them end up in a landfill.
The Sun as an Energy Source – Did you know the sun produces enough energy upon the earth in one minute’s time that could be used to power all the world’s energy demands for the entire year? One would think that we should spend more time trying to harness that energy than relying on fossil fuels that will eventually run out. Things that make you go “hmm” ….. Trust me, it isn’t a mistake why we still rely on oil more than anything else in today’s age. Power and Money corrupts people. You heard it here first!
CFL Light Bulbs - Although debatable on its overall environmental merits, by replacing one 100 watt incandescent bulb with a CFL replacement bulb, you will produce 800 pounds less carbon dioxide and could save enough energy to drive a Toyota Prius from San Francisco to New York. Not bad for one bulb.
Total Energy Use - In 2008, the United States citizens consumed a shocking 99,000,000,000,000,000 Btus (British thermal units) of energy. One regular match to light a fire produces 1 Btus, so in essence that’s like lighting 99,000,000,000,000,000 matches each year. The unfortunate part of this story is that most of this energy is being produced from non-sustainable fuels like coal, natural gas and oil. Too bad we couldn't harness more of the suns energy. Pretty interesting huh?
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