The Planet

The Sundance Channel had a day that filmed only documentaries. I found this documentary called The Planet and was blown away. It basically discussed man's impact on the planet and what we should be doing to stop it. It presented a lot of incredible facts and stories about damage to the planet that is really eye opening.

Below I have some statistics from the documentary. If you're into global warming and the environment, you should really check it out.

-50% of the land surface of the Planet has been substantially transformed by humankind.

-The number of gorillas in the wild has decreased from 100,000 to 20,000 today.

-Over the last century, the total mass of vertebrates has halved. Meanwhile, the mass of humans has quadrupled.

-Today at least 15% of all plants and animals are threatened by extinction.

-12% of all birds are threatened.

-20% of reptiles are threatened.

-23% of mammals are threatened.

-31% of amphibians are threatened.

-40% are fish are threatened.

-Each year, the planet loses woodland areas the size of Portugal.

-If everybody on the Earth lived developed like the United States, we would need 5 planets to maintain the resources used.

-Today we are 6 billion people and are already overconsuming our resources. By 2050 we will be 9 billion.

-China and India's economies are now growing by 7-10% per year.

-3 out of 4 people in America have cars.

-If China has 3 cars for every 4 people, like Americans, it will have 1.1 billion cars. The world currently has 800 million cars. It will have to pave over an area comparable to the area planted with rice in China today.

-Since 1990, China's CO2 emissions have increased by 67%. The figure for India is 88%.

-One European consumes 50 tons of our planet's resources each year.

-Each month, 2,500 tons of toxic e-waste are shipped from the Western world to be dumped in Nigeria.

-Emissions travel around the world. No place on the planet is unaffected.

-Inuits have among the highest concentration of toxics from e-waste in their blood.

-The level of CO2 in the atmosphere today is the highest in more than 750,000 years.

-The 22 warmest years ever recorded have occurred since 1980.

-96% of all surveyed glaciers around the world are currently diminishing in size.

-Over 1 billion people are already suffering from a shortage of clean water.

-In 2010, 50 million people will be trying to escape the effects of environmental deterioration.

-Natural disasters have increased by more than 4 times over the past 40 years:
-5 times more windstorms
-6 times more flooding
-10 times more wildfires

So, what do you think of The Planet or these facts?