Quizzes & Puzzles0 min ago
global warming statistics
Does anyone have any statistics on
how much paper is used by the world in one week
the rate at which icecaps are melting
how trees are felled each week in Brazilain rainforests
how many countries have recylcing schemes
or anything similar to help with school homework.
Thanks
Answers
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/impacts.htm for US figures on paper some slightly older worldwide ones here:
http://pubs.wri.org/pubs_content_print.cfm?ContentID=1422
Greenland's icecap is thinning by about 1.9" per year and reducing in area by 8% per decade pedicting no Northern Icecap by 2060-2080 . http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/water/dramatic_melt_in_arctic_icecape.htm
Amazon deforestation around 10,000 square miles per year:
http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html.
However this is a complex issue. Remember if a tree dies and rots in the Amazon it can release back all the carbon it extracted from the atmosphere. It's only removed semi permanently if it gets buried and petrified etc.
This is the concept of a carbon sink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration
Oceans are probably better carbon sinks. Tiny planktons fix carbon and when they die they sink and become part of the ocean floor and then rock.
If you thought forests were important for the Earth's environment think again they are nothing compared to the oceans
jake-the-peg - many thanks. It doesn't really matter if the numbers are old as these aren't what's really needed. I've done all the hard work of the writing and just thought some statistics would add something extra - I could have made them up or done them from memory but it's betteer to have something which is right, even if it is old.