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Green Facts
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It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.
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You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.
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Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.
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In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.
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Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.
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Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.
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Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.
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Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.
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A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.
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For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.
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A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.
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Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.
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Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.
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Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.
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Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
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Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.
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82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.
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Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
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Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
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Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.
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Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.
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Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.
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If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.
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A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
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In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.
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A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.
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You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.
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American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.
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One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
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Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.
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The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.
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Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months
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You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.
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Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.
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An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!
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States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.
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77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.
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Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.
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Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.


Ever since the 1950s, when suburbanization took off in the United States, we have been lamenting the way in which we’ve “paved paradise to put up parking lots.” And now that we’ve covered an estimated 800 million spaces in the U.S.—an area larger than all of Puerto Rico—urban planners...

Utilizing small electric cars, the Witkar system emerged as one of the first major carsharing programs during the 1970s in the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Witkar system allowed users to check out cars from one location and drop them off elsewhere—all controlled via 1970s...
Hybrid buses are now appearing all over the country, from big city transit systems to college campuses, and they represent a significant advancement in environmentally-conscious transportation. While most of the country’s buses do not use this new technology, the trends are quickly changing—almost 20% of New York City’s fleet of buses are...
Automobile companies, both in the United States and abroad, are finally getting serious about producing consumer-friendly electric cars. The last few years have seen significant progress, as automakers begin to roll out the first versions of electric cars that they hope may soon dominate the automotive industry. As with any new technological...
In recent years, it seems that the lightest of the metals—Lithium (Li)—is getting more attention than the precious metals. Lithium has become increasingly popular due to its ability to store lots of energy in a small lightweight package: the lithium-ion battery. In the 1990’s, lithium started being used commercially...
At the forefront of the cleantech revolution, many residents of Silicon Valley are utilizing technology for sustainable living practices. Many local businesses, including tech companies, hotels, etc. are remodeling their buildings to be LEED certified, installing solar power panels, buying wind/water power, as well as adding charging stations...
Here’s a thought: converting your engine to run on biodiesel or vegetable oil is not a progressive idea; it is regressive. It dates all the way back to 1900, the year when Rudolph Diesel, the French-born son of German immigrants, successfully used peanut oil to run an engine at the World Exhibition in Paris. Sadly, we haven't made...
What exactly are NEVs? Even if you saw one, you might not recognize it. They look and act very similarly to golf carts. They can travel at low speeds, between 20 to 35 mph, up to a range of around 30 to 40 miles in one day. That might sound a little limited, but that's enough of a range for city driving or around the neighborhood, thus the name...
As gas prices continue to rise, more and more American drivers are trading in gas-guzzling SUVs for fuel efficient hybrid and low emission vehicles. While it was not so long ago that a few hybrid car options seemed like a whole new world, there is now a booming market with many different manufacturers offering a variety of makes and models...
Summer is notorious for high gas prices and with the price of this precious commodity already flirting with $4/gallon in the early spring, it seems inevitable that the $4.00/gallon mark will be hit sometime this summer. It is important that drivers learn how to manage this new price pest. However, don't run out and buy a hybrid or an...
With gas prices on the rise, drivers are paying more than ever at the pump. This April, gas prices have pushed to a national average of $3.50 per gallon. In San Francisco, where gas is notoriously expensive, you can expect to pay up to-and sometimes
over-$4.00 per gallon! Now instead of paying an arm and a leg to use our vehicles, it...
When investigating a new car like a hybrid, it is important to thoroughly understand the safety of the vehicle. As hybrids have only been on the road for about 5 years, their reviews are limited. Some of the information below will provide a brief introduction to the safety features on these highly efficient vehicles...