::Welcome to the Festivities Team Earth Day Pages::

Earth Day is celebrated on 22 April.

It is a day for us to reflect on the environmental problems facing our planet.

Are YOU doing everything you can to honour the Earth?

The Earth's natural resources are limited.  Each and every person can make a difference and help relieve the pressure we put on the Earth.  Remember, the Earth sustains our very life, isn't it time we gave the Earth the respect it deserves?

Do you want future generations to inherit a dump?

Here are some facts and figures for you to consider:

Approximate world population in real time:

Each week the population of the world increases by the equivalent of the cities of Birmingham and Liverpool combined.

During the 12 days of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 between 600 and 900 species became extinct, 487,200 acres of arable land turned to desert, 1.31million acres of tropical rainforest was destroyed and the world population increased by 3.3million.

At current rates of consumption the world's oil supplies will last only for the next 50 - 90 years.

By 2065, within the lifetime of children now aged 10, copper, nickel, tin, zinc and lead resources will have been exhausted.

At present it takes 2 hectares of arable farmland to sustain a typical diet in a 'rich' country.  This means that 12 billion hectares are required to sustain the world's population.  This is 8 times the amount currently available.

Worldwide an area of arable farmland the size of the state of Virginia has to be abandoned each year.

Between 13 - 20 billion 'disposable' nappies are buried in the Earth every year.  They never biodegrade.

Every hour Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles and dump 242 million tyres each year.

Within the next 3 minutes, the equivalent of a juggernaut-load of plastics will be dumped in the UK, and over 24 hours 22 million steel cans will be discarded.

In India, the equivalent of 667,000 road tanker loads of industrial effluent annually enters the Yamma River at Delhi.  The Ganges River is so polluted that in some places it has actually caught fire twice in recent years.

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Here are some things you can do around the home to help ease the pressure we are putting on the Earth's resources.

Household Tips

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Here are some links to environment organisations or pages

Links

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Page made for Women With Attitude Festivities Team by Denise