Waste reduction fast facts: Climate change
Garbage and recycling › Resources for schools › Fast facts about waste reduction › Climate change
This resource is not exhaustive nor is it all-inclusive, but can be cited and dated from primary and secondary sources. To find out more about the methodology or accuracy, contact the referenced source.
Metro does not validate nor endorse any of these facts.
- The financial and economic crisis has had a considerable impact on the energy sector worldwide. Investment in polluting technologies has been deferred and CO2 emissions could fall in 2009 by as much as 3 percent - steeper than at any time in the last 40 years. -International Energy Agency, 2009
http://www.iea.org/press/pressdetail.asp?PRESS_REL_ID=290 - Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased nearly 30 percent, methane concentrations have more than doubled, and nitrous oxide concentrations have risen by about 15 percent. –Environmental Protection Agency, 2002
yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/climate.html - Carbon dioxide concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere are 34 percent higher today than they were at the onset of the industrial revolution in 1750 – higher than at any time in the last 400,000 years. –Worldwatch Institute, 2004
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/climate/questionsanswers/ - Carbon emissions from fossil fuels are believed to be the main factor behind increasing carbon dioxide concentrations and rising global temperatures. Nearly three times as much carbon was released in 2004 as in 1960. –Worldwatch Institute, “Vital Signs 2005”
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/vsow/2005/06/15/ - Methane is 20 times more potent when compared to CO2 and accounted for 9 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in 1999. Landfills, livestock operations and natural gas systems were the source of 75 percent of total methane emissions. –Environmental Protection Agency, Last update, June 30 2004
http://www.epa.gov/methane/scientific.html - According to the National Academy of Sciences, the Earth’s surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century, with accelerated warming during the past two decades. –Environmental Protection Agency, 2002
yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/climate.html - The global average temperature in 2003 was the third hottest since record keeping began in the late 1800s (1998 was the first, 2002 was second), and the ten warmest years on record have occurred since 1990. –Worldwatch Institute, 2004
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/climate/questionsanswers/ - Rising water temperatures have caused sea levels to rise 4 to 10 inches in the past 100 years, and it is predicted to rise another 20 inches over the next century (with some estimates as high as 35 inches). –Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute, Rob L. Evans, “Rising Sea Levels and Moving Shorelines,” 2004
http://oceanusmag.whoi.edu/v43n1/evans.html - Small island nations are at risk of inundation due to climate induced rising sea-levels. The Maldives, an island country in the Indian Ocean where 65 percent of the land is less than 1 meter above sea level, has already evacuated residents from four of the lowest lying islands over the past few years. –Worldwatch Institute, “Fact Sheet: The Impacts of Weather and Climate Change,”September 15, 2003
http://www.worldwatch.org/press/news/2003/09/15/ - Fifty-three percent of the U.S. population resides in coastal counties. –Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute, Rob L. Evans, “Rising Sea Levels and Moving Shorelines,” 2004
http://oceanusmag.whoi.edu/v43n1/evans.html - With less than five percent of world population, the United States is the single-largest source of carbon from fossil fuels, emitting 24 percent of the world’s total. –Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2003
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/climate/questionsanswers/ - With roughly 15 percent of the world's current population, Europe, Japan, and North America are estimated to account for two-thirds of the carbon dioxide now in the atmosphere. –Worldwatch Institute, 2004
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/climate/questionsanswers/ - The average person in China produces less than one-eighth as much carbon dioxide as the average American. –Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2003
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/climate/questionsanswers/ - With a quarter of the world’s cars, US automobiles alone emit roughly as much carbon as the entire Japanese economy, the world’s fourth-largest carbon emitter in 2000. –Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2003
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/climate/questionsanswers/ - Thirty-seven percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from electric power production, mainly through the burning of coal. –World Wildlife Federation, “Climate Change Threatens One Million Species,” January 7, 2004
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/news/news.cfm?uNewsID=10481 - The generation of electricity is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. (nearly 38 percent, followed by transportation’s 32 percent). –Pew Center on Global Climate Change, “The U.S. Electric Power Sector and Climate Change Mitigation,” Granger Morgan, Jay Apt and Lester Lave, June 2005
- Fossil fuels burned to run cars and trucks, heat homes and businesses, and power factories are responsible for about 98 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, 24 percent of methane emissions, and 18 percent of nitrous oxide emissions. –Environmental Protection Agency, 2002
yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/climate.html - The paper industry is, after chemical and steel manufacturing, the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing sector in the United States. Each year, paper factories send 420 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrogen oxides, and other heat-trapping gases up their smokestacks. –Garbage Land, On the Secret Trail of Trash, Elizabeth Royte, 2005; Natural Resource Defense Council, “OnEarth,” Winter 2004
http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/04win/cumberland_popup.htm - Asthma among pre-school children is at epidemic levels, increasing 160 percent between 1980-1994, more than twice the national average. Higher levels of pollen and changes in the types of molds spurred by global warming, and pollution from vehicles causes damage to the respiratory systems, particularly for growing children. –The Center for Health and Global Environment Harvard Medical School, Paul R Epstein and Christine Rodgers, “INSIDE THE GREENHOUSE: The impacts of CO2 and climate change on public health on the inner city,” May 2004
- Major home appliances account for approximately one third of residential electrical consumption, a principal source of greenhouse gases. Some 13 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions are generated from washers and dryers in the United States each year. –Pew Center on Global Climate Change; “Appliances and Global Climate Change;” Shorey, Everett and Tom Eckman, October 2000
- By recycling all of its office paper waste for one year rather than putting it in the landfill, an office building of 7,000 workers could reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking about 370 cars off the road that year. –Environmental Protection Agency, “Climate Change and Waste Reducing Waste Can Make a Difference,” EPA 530-E-03-002, 2002
http://www.epa.gov/mswclimate/climfold.pdf - Recycling efforts in the Portland metro area reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 612,000 metric tons of carbon in 2002. This is equivalent to taking 467,000 cars off the road for one year. –Metro, internal report, 2003