Environment

Sumgait (Azerbaijan), Linfen and Tianying (China), Sukinda and Vapi (India), La Oroya (Peru), Dzerzhinsk and Norilsk (Russia) as well as Chernobyl (Ukraine) and Kabwe (Zambia) were counted in 2007 amongst the world's most polluted places. The things responsible for this status are first and foremost heavy metals and chemical waste from industrial production and mining, but also dust and emissions from traffic and radioactivity.

Viewed per person, the United Arab Emirates are the country which needs the most land to produce resources and dispose of waste, at 10.7 global hectares (gha) per person. Seen globally the ecological footprint is 2.7 gha per person, although the footprints of industrialised countries are four times as high as those of the developing countries. In China the ecological footprint is 2.2 gha, in the USA 8 gha and in Angola 1 gha.

Six planets would be needed, if everyone had the same consumer habits as those in the industrialised countries.

270,000 trees are felled daily for the global production of tissue paper. Nearly half of all industrially felled trees are made into paper with the majority landing on the European, US American and Chinese markets. In Germany alone three times as much paper is used as on the whole African continent.

Around 25 hectares are destroyed per minute worldwide. That is an area of around 35 football pitches. The majority of these are deforested in order to free up agriculturally useful land.

Global water consumption has tripled since 1950. Around 70% of the water used is accounted for by agriculture. Ever-more arable land has to be watered artificially, in part due to the sinking precipitation levels in many regions. Worldwide around 2.8 billion people live with serious water problems. Without fundamental changes in water use, the number will increase dramatically in the coming years.

When fishing with large fleets an average of 40% of the catch is thrown back into the sea. For some fish species, the bycatch is even greater. Up to 20 kilograms of bycatch can result from catching one kilogram of shrimp.

One animal or plant species dies out around every 15 minutes. Although there is a natural rate of species extinction, the rate of extinction is hugely increased by human activities, particularly through deforestation, environmental pollution, intensive farming and overfishing.

Around 140 liters of water are needed for the production of a cup of tea (planting, harvesting, processing, transport and preparation). The water which is used in the creation of a product is called „virtual water“.

Around 780 million liters of oil flowed into the sea between the explosion of the drilling platform on 20th April 2010 and the sealing of the oil spring 87 days later. Trouble imagining this amount of oil? If you fill the Empire State Building from the ground floor to the roof with oil you would need the building 13 times to contain the whole amount of oil.

The HPI is calculated by multiplying the average life expectancy by the experienced well-being and then dividing by the ecological footprint. This index measures personal wealth as well as the ecological consequences of different ways of life. The results of a global comparison of the HPI show that there is no connection between subjective wellbeing and increasing wealth. For example, life on Vanuatu, a small Southern Ocean state, is the „best“ but not because the people there are happiest and longest living. Rather because they live relatively long and healthily without digging up or harming the earth very much.