10 energy facts
- Canadians are among the heaviest users of energy in the world, on a per capita basis.
- Fossil fuels are being consumed 100,000 times faster than they are being formed.
- World-wide, more electricity is generated from coal than any other source.
- The top six miles of the Earth's crust contains 50,000 times more thermal energy than all the oil and natural gas resources in the world.
- Just 10 seconds of idling your vehicle consumes more energy than is used to restart the vehicle.
- Since World War II, total world energy use has quadrupled.
- Canada is the world's largest producer of hydroelectric power and the third-largest producer of electricity overall.
- It takes Earth one hour to receive the same amount of energy from the sun as humans consume in a year.
- A single dripping hot water faucet can waste 212 gallons of water a month. That not only increases water bills, but also increases the gas or electric bill for heating the water.
- Laptop computers consume up to 90 percent less energy than standard desktop computers.
Source: Centre For Energy, for more energy facts see www.centreforenergy.com
10 waste facts
- By the age of only six months, each Canadian has consumed as many resources as the average person in the developing world consumes in his or her lifetime.
- For each full garbage bag we take to the curb, the primary resource industry creates the equivalent of 71 full bags of waste.
- Twenty-seven percent of all food produced in North America is wasted.
- Currently, Canadians take home over 55 million plastic shopping bags every week.
- Canadians use approximately 54,000 tonnes of household cleaners annually.
- Researchers estimate that 14 to 20 million computers are put out to pasture each year. Only about 30% of those units are resold - the remaining are usually thrown away if not recycled.
- One litre of oil can contaminate a million litres of ground water.
- Every year 16.5 million litres of used oil ends up in municipal landfills in Canada and another 4 million litres are poured directly into storm drains (this is almost half the volume of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez.)
- Each Canadian throws away approximately ½ kilogram of packaging daily. In fact, ½ of our cities' solid waste by volume and 1/3 of our waste by weight is made up of packaging.
- For each tonne of newspaper recycled, 17 trees are saved.
Source: Recycling Council of Ontario, for more waste facts visit www.rco.on.ca/factsheet
How long things take to rot
| Cotton rags |
1-5 months |
| Paper |
2-5 months |
| Orange peel |
up to 6 months |
| Wool socks |
1-5 years |
| Cigarette butts |
1-12 years |
| Plastic bags |
10-20 years |
| Photo film |
20-30 years |
| Leather shoes |
25-50 years |
| Nylon clothing |
30-40 years |
| Tin cans |
50-100 years |
Source: Whitakers World of Facts, by Russell Ash
How good is Canada's environmental record?
Based on the 2001 study Canada vs The OECD: An Environmental Comparison, by David Richard Boyd, Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy, University of Victoria, "Canada has one of the poorest environmental records of the industrialized countries." For 25 environmental indicators examined, Canada ranked a dismal 28th out of 29.
Overall Ranking of OECD Nations on 25 Environmental Indicators
- Switzerland 9.20
- Mexico 10.72
- Turkey 10.74
- Austria 11.18
- Netherlands 11.24
- Germany 11.30
- Korea 11.62
- Denmark 11.84
- Hungary 12.07
- Sweden 12.25
- Czech Republic 12.32
- Portugal 12.82
- United Kingdom 13.19
- Poland 13.25
- Ireland 13.31
- Greece 13.38
- Norway 13.40
- Italy 14.01
- Spain 14.25
- Finland 14.32
- Japan 14.67
- Luxembourg 15.45
- France 15.56
- New Zealand 15.80
- Belgium 15.89
- Iceland 16.52
- Australia 20.58
- Canada 21.87
- United States 22.14
The number represents each country's average ranking, out of 29 OECD nations, on 25 environmental indicators. Each of the 25 indicators is given equal weighting.
For more information visit www.environmentalindicators.com
