1. In 2008, the United States consumed 99 Quadrillion Btus (British thermal units) of energy, mostly in the form of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil. One Btu is equivalent to the energy released by burning one match. So, the United State’s annual energy consumption adds up to a mind boggling 99,000,000,000,000,000 matches. That’s 271 trillion each day, or roughly 1 million matches per person per day.
2. A governmental study calculated that the gasoline equivalent of the lifetime energy savings offered by using a single 24 watt compact fluourescent lamp (CFL) in lieu of a 100 watt incandescent bulb would be sufficient to drive a Toyota Prius from San Francisco to New York. Replacing that 100 Watt bulb with a CFL will prevent the release of 800 pounds of carbon dioxide over the CFL’s operating life.
3. According to the American Solar Energy Society, the amount of sunlight that falls on the Earth’s surface in one minute is sufficient to meet world energy demand for an entire year.
4. Manufacturing cell phones, computers, and other consumer electronics require a lot of energy. In fact, 81% of the life-cycle energy costs associated with a single computer is from its manufacture, only 19% from its operation. In other words, the computer you’re using right now, in all the years you’ll own it, will never consume more energy than was required to create it. The production of a single computer also uses 42,000 gallons of water. Please recycle your used electronics and turn them off when not in use.
5. If the entire population of the United States washed their clothes exclusively with cold water (instead of hot), we would save $3 billion in energy costs annually and cut national CO2 emissions by over a full percent!
6. Did you know that recycling one ton of paper saves 20 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, three cubic yards of landfill space, 60 pounds of air pollutants, and saves enough energy to power the average home for six months?
7. The energy saved by recycling a single aluminum can would run a TV for three hours. Every three months, Americans toss out enough aluminum to completely rebuild the nation’s commercial airline fleet.
8. It takes, on average, 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to grow, process, and deliver 1 calorie of food energy to our tables.
9. Burning one gallon of gasoline creates about 19 pounds of carbon dioxide. The average mature tree can absorb 48 pounds of CO2 per year.
10. An estimated 15% to 30% of a home’s total heating and cooling energy is lost through poorly sealed duct-work, costing consumers about $5 billion dollars annually.
