Matters of Scale - Earth Day, Thirty Years Later
Debt of all developing countries in 1971 | $277 billion |
Amount of money required to service the $2,171 billion debt of all developing countries in 1997 | $269 billion |
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Number of "media conglomerates" that dominated U.S. mass media - including newspapers, books, magazines, film, radio, television, and recorded music - in the 1970s | 50 |
Number today | 10 |
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Estimated share of war-related deaths that were civilian in 1970 | 60 percent |
Estimated share of war-related deaths that were civilian in 1990 | 90 percent |
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Renewable energy as share of U.S. consumption in 1972 | 8.4 percent |
Renewable energy as share of U.S. consumption in 1997 | 7.6 percent |
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Number of prison inmates in the United States in 1970 | 200000 |
Number of inmates expected to be reached this year | 2000000 |
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Number of farmers in the United States in 1974 | 1400000 |
Number of farmers in the United States in 1997 | 900000 |
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Sources: Lester Brown et. Al, Vital Signs 1999 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999); Robert McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999); Michael Renner, Fighting for Survival (New York: Norton & Company, 1996); Jay Hakes, "25th Anniversary of the 1973 Oil Embargo," U.S. Department of Energy Report; Michael Fletcher, "The Crime Conundrum," Washington Post, 16 January 2000; U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1997 Census of Agriculture, www.usda.nass.gov.