RE: [GreenYes] Cars

["Susan Hubbard" <susanh@no.address>]

Thank you Peter for the informative article that you passed along. I've
sent it to colleagues that have already responded regarding how much
they appreciated this information. You are always so kind to share this
information with us.

Sincerely,
Susan

Susan Hubbard
Eureka Recycling
624 Selby Ave.
Saint Paul, MN 55104
651.222.7678
651.221.9831 (fax)
susanh@no.address
www.eurekarecycling.org
 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Anderson [mailto:anderson@no.address] 
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 1:04 PM
To: GreenYes
Subject: [GreenYes] Cars

from 2/7/03 Gallon Environmental Letter

IMPACT OF CARS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

From 1950 to 1970, the U.S. automobile population grew four times faster
than the human population. Today, there are around 200 million cars in
America. Contrary to all those car commercials in which you see the
automobile being marketed as it cruises along all alone on an open road,
Americans spend 8 billion hours per year stuck in traffic. During the
twentieth century, 250 million Americans were maimed or injured in
automobile accidents. The leading cause of death for children aged 5 to
14
in New York City is pedestrian automobile accidents . Every single day
in
the US, an average of 121 people are killed in car accidents.
Automobiles,
SUVs, trucks, and other fossil field-burning vehicles kill a million
wild
animals per week. During the last century, an area equal to all the
arable
land in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania was paved in the US which
requires
maintenance costing over $200 million a day. The surreptitious cost of
the
car culture totals nearly $464 billion a year in the U.S. alone, much of
that going to the sustentation of a military presence in the Persian
Gulf.

Automobiles emit one-quarter of US greenhouse gases. The U.S. spends $60
billion per year on foreign oil....eight million barrels of oil per day
is
combusted in US cars (that's 450 gallons per person per year). Cars
create 7
billion pounds of un-recycled scrap and waste annually. Approximately
one
billion discarded tires litter our paved landscape: every tire loses one
pound of rubber per year, spewing minute grains of rubber into the
stratosphere and then back down to find a new home in our water and/or
our
lungs. During the 40 days of the Gulf War, 146 Americans died keeping
the
world safe for petroleum while at home, 4900 Americans died in motor
vehicle
accidents.  Source, "They Paved Paradise," by Mickey Z., Z Magazine,
January
22, 2003, email  mzx2@no.address See the full article at
http://zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=10&ItemID=2899 .
______________________________
Peter Anderson
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING Corp
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705
Ph:    (608) 231-1100
Fax:   (608) 233-0011
Cell    (608) 438-9062
email: anderson@no.address