40 Environmental Facts
In celebration of Earth Day’s 40th anniversary, we’ve list 40 interesting and alarming environmental facts. We’ve posted these facts every day for the past 40 days – thanks for listening and sharing with others!
- Approximately 20 million people across the United States celebrated the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970. Today, more than 1 billion people around the world take part in the event.
- In 1995 over 200 of the world landfills were full.
- Each person throws away approximately 4 pounds of garbage per day.
- Approximately 5 million tons of oil produced in the world each year ends up in the ocean.
- The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours
- In, 1931, Albert Einstein, collected a Nobel Prize for is work in solar and photovoltaic experimentation.
- Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil, 4,100 kilowatts of energy, 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space and 60 pounds of air pollution.
- 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year
- 84% of all household waste can be recycled
- More than 1/3 of all energy is used by people at home
- Most families throw away about 88 pounds of plastic every year
- Everyday in the United States, we produce enough trash to equal the weight of the Empire State Building
- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a swirling vortex of waste and debris in the Pacific Ocean. This area is twice the size of the continental US and is believed to hold almost 100 million tons of garbage.
- The human population has grown more in the last 50 years than it did in the previous 4 million years
- John Herschel, a British astronomer, converted solar power by using a solar collector box to cook food while on an African expedition, in 1830.
- In some elementary schools, after Halloween and Christmas, Earth Day is the third largest celebrated holiday
- One in four mammals is at risk of extinction – 78% of marine mammals are threatened by accidental deaths such as getting caught in fishing nets intended for other species.
- At least 50 million acres of rainforest are lost every year, totaling an area the size of England, Wales and Scotland combined.
- Average temperatures will increase by as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at the current pace.
- If the entire world lived like the average American, we’d need 5 planets to provide enough resources.
- A world record was set in 1990 when a solar powered aircraft flew 4060km across the USA, using no fuel.
- In one hour more sunlight falls on the earth than what is used by the entire population in one year.
- April 22 is the first official day of Spring in the Northern hemisphere and of Fall in the Southern hemisphere and was chosen to be Earth Day for this reason
- More than 20,000,000 Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.
- Only 11% of the earth’s surface is used to grow food.
- If every newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year. Unfortunately only 27% of all American newspapers are recycled.
- A highlight of the annual Earth Day ceremony at the United Nations is the ringing of the Peace Bell that was given to the UN by Japan. It is made from coins given by school children to further peace on our planet.
- By using renewable energy sources to provide your daily energy needs we can decease CO2 emissions with 20,000 pounds less of carbon dioxide each year, including 50 pounds of nitrogen oxide less, and 70 pounds of less sulfur dioxide omitted into our atmosphere.
- Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months.
- The U.S. is 5% of the world’s population but uses 25% of its natural resources. We use one million gallons of oil every two minutes.
- More than 100 million Americans live in urban areas where the air is officially classified by the EPA as unsafe to breathe.
- The US has less than 4% of its forests left.
- 40% of our waterways are undrinkable.
- 200,000 people a day are moving to cities from environments that no longer support them.
- According to the National Academy of Sciences, on average there are 27 oil spills every day somewhere in the waters of the worlds
- Residential lawns and gardens are doused with 80 million pounds of chemical pesticides and 70 million tons of fertilizers annually.
- It would cost about $13 billion annually to satisfy the world’s basic sanitation and food requirements. That’s roughly equivalent to what Americans and Europeans spend on perfume and cologne every year.
- Each year Americans alone throw away 18 billion disposable diapers. In perspective, this is enough to extend from the earth to the moon and back 7 times.
- Ford Motor Company indicates that 75% of every vehicle is recyclable.
- In 1 year, the earth will travel 1.6 million miles in its annual journey around the Sun, the 4.6-billionth such round-trip. It will rotate about its axis exactly once.
Sources: WebEcoist, PlanetPals, History.com, Yumsugar.com, Stumblerz.com, Daily Green, Gree.Autoblog.com
Back to Basics: Is Your House Is Solar Ready?
While it’d be great if everyone was able to install solar panels, not every home is ideal. Several factors go into whether or not your home is ready for a solar panel system.
When we come to your house for a free solar analysis, we consider three things:
- What you want to get out of a solar panel system (reduce your utility bills, reducing future costs of energy, improving the value of your home, etc.)
- What direction is your roof facing
- What your current annual energy usage is
The biggest factors that determine whether a solar panel system is right for you include the amount of energy you need, how much sunlight your system receives (remember, you roof should be southerly facing for maximum system efficiency), the size of the system your roof can accommodate and the amount of energy that system can produce.
Once we take into account all of these factors, we can determine if your house is solar ready. Plus, we’ll give you a solar cost/benefit analysis that will show you how much you’ll be saving by installing solar panels.
Back to Basics: Solar Tax Rebates and Grants
One of the factors that make solar energy panels affordable today are the widespread availability of solar tax rebates and grants. These financial incentives provide a significant amount of money to people who install solar panels, and can be used to cover a large portion of the costs.
There are basically three sources of solar tax rebates: federal, state and local. The federal government offers a variety of tax credits that you may qualify for when you install solar panels. Programs such as the Residential Renewable Energy Tax Credit can provide a tax credit of up to 30 percent for systems placed into service before December 31, 2016.
Here in Maryland, there are two different types of grants that you can receive based on the type of system you install. If you install a solar thermal system (also known as solar hot water), you can receive a grant for up to 30 percent of the cost up to a maximum of $2,000. If you install a solar photovoltaic system, the size of the grant you can receive is based on the size of the system you install. According to the Maryland Energy Administration, there are three different grant levels:
- $1.25/ watt for the first 2,000 watts of capacity
- $0.75/ watt for watts 2,001 – 8,000
- $0.25/ watt for watts 8,001 – 20,000
Your system must be under 20kW to be eligible; maximum grant amount is $10,000.
(Please note, as of August 23, 2010 the Maryland Grant Program has changed – the grant shown above are the old grant levels. To learn more about the updated grant visit our Incentives & Rebates page)
Locally, tax credits vary widely from county to county. Here in Maryland, only residents of Anne Arundel County, Harford County, Howard County, Montgomery County and Prince Georges County can receive some form of tax credit for installing solar panels. Check out this page on the Maryland Energy Administration’s website for a quick summary of each county’s program as well as links to more specific information.
When you add up all these tax credits and grants, you could install a solar panel system for about half of the initial cost. And that doesn’t even include the money you receive from Solar Renewable Energy Credits (more on those in a later post).
Want to estimate how much you’ll save by installing solar power? Check out our Solar Savings Calculator!
Three Reasons to Eat Locally Grown Food
As we mentioned in our first post, one of the things we want to use this blog for is promoting all the actions—big and small—that each of us can take make the world a greener planet. That’s why we’re introducing this monthly feature called Green Living. Each month, we’ll focus on a single tip you can do to live your life more greenly, and leave a smaller footprint behind.
This month, we’ll focus on buying and eating food that is grown locally. Here are three reasons you should start today:
- The impact on the environment: According to studies conducted at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the average fresh food travels 1,500 miles to reach our dinner tables. Buying local reduces or eliminates the climate-changing carbon emissions that occur as a result of their transport.
- The impact on the local economy: When you eat locally produced food, you support local farmers. When you purchase fresh food at your grocery store, the farmer who grew it (1,500 miles away, mind you), only sees a portion of the financial benefit of your purchase. But when you buy locally grown food, the farmer generally sees 100% of the financial benefit. In turn, the local stays in business, pays local taxes, spends money on other local businesses, etc.
- The impact on your health: There’s really no better reason to eat locally. Think of all the processed foods we eat, day in and day out. It’s no wonder why almost 35 percent of adults in the U.S. are considered obese. Eating locally means eating natural, organic foods that are easier for your body to process and can promote healthier bodies.
Here are some good links to various eating local resources to get you started:
Maryland Department of Agriculture 2010 Farmer’s Market Directory
Where can you put solar panels?
“In the sun!” someone joked at one of our recent solar workshops. Yes, that might be the obvious answer, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
It actually depends on the type of system you want installed. Solar electric systems require light, while solar thermal systems require heat.
Generally, solar panels can be mounted on your roof, as long as the roof is southerly facing and does not have any shade from trees. This will ensure that your panels receive the maximum amount of sunlight throughout the year.
Other places to put solar panels include your garage (if it’s a separate structure), or perhaps a part of your yard that consistently receives sunlight. There are also ground mount and pole mount options.
Here are some photos of recent solar panel installations we’ve done.