Startling Statements Activity
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Questions '
1. A dripping faucet with a 1/16 inch hole allows how many gallons of water to be wasted each ,
day? '
2. How many gallons of water flow from a typical garden hose in five minutes time?
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3. How many residential septic tanks are in operation in the United States?
4. According to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, how much water can one gallon of gasoline
contaminate?
5. What percent of the world's total supply, of drinkable water comes from groundwater?
6. How much municipal solid waste is disposed of annually in U. S. landfills? How much
industrial solid waste? ,
7.. In what year was the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments (Public Law 92-500)—
better known as the Clean Water Act—passed? .
8. How many gallons of water does it take to produce 1 gallon of gasoline?
9. How many gallons of water does it take to manufacture 1 automobile (including the tires)?
10. How much water does U. S. industry use annually to cool, wash, circulate, and manufacture its
materials?
11. How many gallons of water does it take to produce one fast food meal of a hamburger, french
fries, and a soft drink? .
12. How much water must a cow drink to produce 1 gallon of milk?
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13. How much water is needed to produce 1 ear of corn?
14. How much water is used in the U. S. each day?
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15. How much water does the average person in the United States use each day?
16. How much water does the human being need each day to digest our food, cool our system,
lubricate our joints, soften tissue, cleanse our eyes, and remove our body's wastes?
17. According to statistics in Home Energy magazine, how much water would be saved daily if
every American home installed low-flow faucet aerators? •
, , . EPA220K-97-001
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18. The process of bleaching paper is responsible for creating a deadly toxin that makes its way
into American waterways? What is the toxin called?
19. At what temperature can your water heater operate efficiently and still be hot enough to kill
bacteria?
20. United States homeowners use how much pesticides and chemicals on their lawns each year?
21. Every year on September 23, the Center for Marine Conservation sponsors a special program.
What is it?
22. How much garbage will you generate in your lifetime?
23. How much of the pure water you use in your home is flushed down the toilet?
24. What is the cause of 40% of the pollution in America's waterways?
25. Glass produced from recycled glass instead of raw material reduces related water pollution by
how much?
26. How many used disposable diapers are thrown away by Americans each year? Why are used
disposable diapers such an environmental problem?
27. By the year 2000 what percent of the world's tropical rainforests will remain standing?
28. What percent of the earth's surface do tropical rainforests occupy?
29. Over 80% of all the Amazonian deforestation has taken place since what year?
30. The Amazonian rainforests produce what percent of the world's supply of oxygen?
31. How many gallons of water does it take to produce enough food to feed one U. S. citizen for a
year?
32. What percentage of plants identified by the National Cancer Institute as being useful in cancer
treatment are found only in rainforests?
33. How are raindrops shaped?
34. According to the EPA, how many different types of pesticides have been found in the
groundwater in the U. S.? . >
35. Which of Santa's reindeer might have been named after a thunderstorm?
36. To produce one steak, how much water is needed?
37. What percent of the total indoor water consumption in the U. S. leaves the average American
home as "graywater"?
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38. For all purposes, what accounts for more than half of all the water consumption in the U. S.?
. 39. What does the word "xeriscape" mean?
40. The tiny droplets of water vapour that make up clouds are too lightweight to fall. About how
many of them would fit into an average-sized raindrop?
41. The color and smell of a stream can tell you a lot about what's happening to it. What do the
following generally mean when you see them in a stream? (a) Green color, (b) muddy appearance;
(c) shiny film on the surface; (d) foam or suds in the water; (e) rotten egg smell; (f) orange or red
coating on the water; (g) lots of fish or bugs in the water. .
42. Acid rain has been defined by scientists as rain with a pH of anything below what number?
43. On May 5,1987, green rain fell on Moscow. What was the probable cause?
44. What is the pH of the most acid rainstorm ever measured? Where was this?
45. In the greater Los Angeles area the pH of the fog has been as acidic as ...
46. During which season are rains the most acidic? Why?
47. What percent of the pollution that causes acid rain comes from the Northern Hemisphere? the
Southern hemisphere? .
48. How big are raindrops? Give measurements for small, medium, large, and extra large drops.
49. Where is the wettest place on earth? What is the average annual rainfall?
50. How many people died during the infamous "Killer Smog" of 1952 in London, England?
51. A dark cloud forms. It looks like rain. But instead of rain, virga falls. What's virgal
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52. WhatisElNino?
53. How big was the.world's largest snowfiake?
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Answers
1. 100 gallons a day. America's Clean Water Foundation
2. 50 gallons. America's Clean Water Foundation
3. 23 million. America's Clean Water Foundation
4. 750,000 gallons. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
5. 90%. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
6. 160 million tons of municipal solid waste and 250 million tons of industrial solid waste are
disposed of in more than 16,000 landfills throughout the country. America's Clean Water
Foundation
7. 1972. America's Clean Water Foundation
8. 70 gallons. America's Clean Water Foundation .
9. 39,000 gallons of water. America's Clean Water Foundation
10.. 100 cubic miles of water (one cubic mile is over a trillion gallons.) America's Clean Water
Foundation
11. 1,400 gallons of water. America's Clean Water Foundation
12. 3 gallons. America's Clean Water Foundation
13. 26 gallons of water. America's Clean Water Foundation
14. 400 billion gallons of water per day. America's Clean Water Foundation
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15. 1,650 gallons. America's Clean Water Foundation
16. 2 liters. America's Clean Water Foundation
17. 250 million gallons of water every day. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
18. Dioxin. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
19. 130° F. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
20. 25 - 50 million pounds, which is 10 times per acre more than what farmers use. 50 Things You
Can Do to Save the Earth
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21. Every September 23, the Center for Marine Conservation sponsors a 3-hour beach cleanup. In
1987 in Texas alone, volunteers collected: 31,773 plastic bags, 30,295 plastic bottles, 15,631 plastic
six-pack rings, 28,540 plastic lids, and 1,914 disposable diapers. 50 Things You Can Do to Save
the Earth
22. About 600 times your adult weight. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
23. 4Q%. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
24. Used crankcase motor oil. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
25. 5Q%. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth '• ,
26. 18 billion. Disposable diapers consume 1,265,000 metric tons of wood pulp and 75,000 metric
tons of plastic. 95% of the users throw them away soiled. They are then dumped in "sanitary"
landfills, meaning that 3 million tons of untreated feces and urine end up in landfills rather than in
the sewage system every year. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
27. 20%. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
28. 2%. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
29. 1988. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
30. 40%. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
31. 1,630,000 gallons of water. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
32: 70%. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth ^
33. Very small raindrops are perfectly spherical, larger raindrops are like tiny, dimpled hamburger
buns made of jelly that change shape and jiggle as they fall. Looking at Liquids, Delta Ed.
34. 74 different types. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
35. Donner (which means thunder) and Blitzen (which means lightning). WeatherWatch,
Addison-Wesley.
36. 2,607 gallons of water. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
37.60- 65%. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
38. Livestock production. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
39. Xeriscape (from the Greek word Xeros meaning dry) is a modern approach to landscaping that,
has become popular because of water shortages. Xeriscape means to use native plants as opposed *
to imported ones. 50 Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
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40. 15 million. WeatherWatch, Addison-Wesley.
41. (a) Green - algae; (b) muddy - too much dirt, need plants on the banks; (c) shiny film - oil
leaks; (d) foam or suds - soap from home or factories; (e) rotten egg small - sewage; (f) orange or
red coating - pollutants from a factory; (g) fish or bugs - good, there's oxygen! 50 Things You Can
Do to Save the Earth •
42. A pH of 5.6. Lawrence Hall of Science book on Acid Rain
43. Green pollen in the air. WeatherWatch, Addison-Wesley.
44. 2.4 in Scotland in 1970. Lawrence Hall of Science book on Acid Rain
45, 2.0. Lawrence Hall of Science book on Acid Rain
46. Summer. It typically rains less often in the summer. The longer between each rain, the more
air pollutants collect in the atmosphere before they are washed down to earth as acid rain. Less air
circulation in summer so pollutants are not dispersed by wind. Increased automobile us in summer,
leading to increased emissions of NOx and some SOx compounds. Increased use of electricity for
air conditioning and the power plants that produce electricity burn coal or oil, which contributes to
acid rain. Lawrence Hall of Science book on Acid Rain
47. Northern Hemisphere - 93%. Southern Hemisphere - 7%. Lawrence Hall of Science book on
AcidRain
48. Small raindrops (2 mm or 1/13 inch); medium raindrops (3 mm or 1/8 inch); large raindrops (6
mm or 1/4 inch); extra large raindrops (1 cm or 1/3 inch). WeatherWatch, Addison-Wesley.
49. Mount Waialeale in Hawaii; average annual rainfall is 11,684 mm or 38 feet. WeatherWatch,
Addison-Wesley. .
50. 4000 people died in five days. WeatherWatch, Addison-Wesley.
51. Rain that starts to fall but evaporates as it leaves the cloud. WeatherWatch, Addison-Wesley.
52. It's a warming of the ocean's surface that happens around Christmas every year off the coast of
Ecuador and Peru. Some years it's hardly noticeable. But other years, the warm ocean water of El
Nino starts a chain reaction in the atmosphere and shakes up the normal weather patterns of the
world. WeatherWatch, Addison-Wesley.
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53. 38 cm or 15 inches in diameter.' WeatherWatch, Addison-Wesley.
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