Interesting Facts about the Environment

What is the environment? 

The environment is everything around us. All our surroundings including the air, soil, water, plants, and animals make up the environment. 

Earth
Source: NASA

Biomes and Ecosystems 

Plants and animals need a healthy environment to survive. An ecosystem is an area where living organisms interact in a specific way with the local environment to survive. When ecosystems are damaged by man, then some living organisms may not be able to survive. A biome is a large group of similar ecosystems like the desert, savanna, and rainforest. 

• In 2014, the United States produced about 258 million tons of trash. Around 89 million tons of that trash were recycled or composted.
• By recycling 89 million tons of trash, carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by 181 million metric tons.
• In 2015, about 67% of the electricity generated in the United States came from burning fossil fuels including coal, natural gas, and petroleum.
• Around 20% of the electricity generated in the United States comes from nuclear power plants.
• If you could harness the energy from all the sunlight that falls on the Earth in one hour, you would have enough energy to supply the world for a year.
• The city with the worst air pollution in the United States is Los Angeles, California.
• Around 40% of the rivers and lakes in the United States are too polluted for fishing or swimming.
• Water pollution is often a result of land pollution or air pollution that gets transferred to lakes, oceans, and rivers when it rains.
• The ozone layer helps protect us from cancer causing rays from the sun. The ozone layer was damaged by chemicals called Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).