Matters of Scale - Biodiversity Factors
Time it takes to grow 1 inch of soil | 1,000 years |
Time it has taken to erode and wash away one-third of the topsoil in the United States | 40 years |
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Number of fish caught by a single Norwegian boat in 1986 | 120 million |
Number of people in Norway | 4 million |
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Kilograms of toxic chemicals that would be removed from the environment each year
if U.S. homeowners reduced their use of pesticides by 10 percent
| 2 million |
Kilograms of toxic chemicals that would be removed from the environment each year
if U.S. manufacturing firms reduced their releases by 10 percent | 700 million |
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Number of black rhinos in Africa in the 1960s | 100,000 |
Number of black rhinos in Africa now | 2,500 |
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Number of pieces of live coral broken off from reefs (which are habitat to 1 million species)
and purchased by Americans each year | 350,000 |
Number of pieces purchased by the rest of the world each year | 90,000 |
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Number of Boeing 747 airplanes that could fit on the ground in New York's Yankee Stadium | 2 |
Number of Boeing 747s that could fit inside the largest size of trawl net used to catch ocean fish by commercial "factory ships" | 12 |
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Sources: "Biodiversity 911: Saving Life on Earth," a traveling exhibit of the World Wildlife Fund, and Worldwatch Institute.