Plastic Pollution
Americans buy about 50 billion of these single-use items a year, roughly 13 per person per month.
What are plastic water bottles?
By 2050, the oceans are projected to hold more plastic than these, by weight.
What are fish?
Worldwide forest cover shrinks by about this many million hectares every year.
What is 4.7 million?
Animal populations have fallen by this percentage over the last 50 years.
What is 70%?
About 1,800 gallons of water go into a single pound of this meat.
What is beef?
Worldwide, this many plastic bottles are purchased every minute.
What is one million?
There is more microplastic in the ocean than there are these in the Milky Way.
What are stars?
Forests are home to about this percentage of the world’s terrestrial species.
What is 80%?
Scientists say we’re losing species at about this multiple of the normal rate.
What is 10,000 times?
Food causes about this percentage of all carbon emissions, according to the fact sheet.
What is 30%?
Cigarette butts make up nearly this percentage of all litter.
What is 20%?
A single fleece jacket can shed up to 250,000 of these tiny strands in one wash.
What are microfibers?
Forests once covered 80% of Western Europe. Today they cover only this percentage.
What is 34%?
Lions have dropped to about 25,000 in the wild, down from this many.
What is 450,000?
On average, it takes about this many pounds of grain to raise one pound of meat.
What is three?
Since the 1950s, humans have produced this many billion metric tons of plastic.
What is 8.3 billion?
This 2015 US law banned plastic microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products.
What is the Microbead-Free Waters Act?
From 2015 to 2020, 10 million hectares of trees were removed each year, but only this many were planted.
What is 5 million hectares?
Fishing gear entanglement, or bycatch, kills an estimated 300,000 of these animals each year, including whales, dolphins and porpoises.
What are cetaceans?
Over 100 years, methane has more than this many times the impact of carbon dioxide.
What is 25?
Researchers in Germany estimate microplastic pollution on land is this many times higher than in the oceans.
What is four to 23 times?
Biologically active slow sand filters remove this percentage of microplastics from drinking water.
What is 99.9%?
Forest plants release these antimicrobial compounds, which can reduce stress and lower blood pressure.
What are phytoncides?
Once numbering in the millions and ranging from Alaska to Mexico, this animal now occupies less than 1% of its original habitat.
What is the American bison?
The UN warned that the world’s remaining topsoil could be gone in this many years if we don’t act.
What is 60?