10.  How much CO2 is added to our atmosphere each year?  Where does it come from?

·        200 billion metric tons have been released into atmosphere since start of industrial revolution. 

·         Of all the carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels since the start of industrial revolution, half have been made in the last 20 years.

·        Power plants release carbon dioxide when they produce energy.  In 1998 U.S. electric utilities released about 550 million tons into the atmosphere.

·        In 1998, U.S.  transportation fuels accounted for almost 500 million tons of CO2 emissions

·        Cars account for more than 40 per cent of our oil consumption and transportation as a whole accounts for a huge 70 per cent. America has five per cent of the world's population, and consumes over 25 per cent of the world's oil.

• Tropical deforestation annually accounts for about 8 billion tons of CO2 - as much as the combined fossil fuel emissions of the US and European Union. The environmental value of curbing deforestation therefore exceeds anything deliverable by the Kyoto Treaty.
• In less than 50 years, more than half of the world's tropical rainforests have fallen victim to fire and the chain saw and the rate of destruction is still accelerating. Unbelievably, over 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is over 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres are lost every year!