Random facts 2

The idea of these pages is fairly simple - to build up a collection of 'random' facts - not really random, something to do with sustainability or the need for it, or similar related facts. As the collection builds up they can then be used for something like a 'Fact of the Day' on one of the main pages. (What's New currenlty has a random facts section which is updated approx weekly). Remember of course to include the source. Within the sections please put most recent edits at the top.

Random facts A - M  -   Random facts 2 N - Z

Natural resources

 * Almost 40 million people are involved in fisheries globally and 90 percent of these are employed in small-scale artisanal fishing. Source: FOEI's The Tyranny of Free Trade: wasted natural wealth and lost livelihoods, December 2005, www.foei.org/publications/index.html

Rural issues

 * 79% of (UK) respondents said they visited the countryside for leisure purposes at least a few times a year or more frequently. 19% said they visited once a week, 10% once a fortnight, 16% once a month, 9% once a quarter, 25% said a few times a year. 8% said they never visited the countryside, 8% said less than once a year, 4% only once a year. Source: CPRE

Reduce, reuse, repair & recycle

 * Around one and a half tonnes of packaging is thrown away every second in England alone and makes up over 40% of the waste disposed of by households. The amount of waste being produced is increasing by 3% a year and will cost more than £2.5billion to collect and dispose of this year alone. Source: The Local Government Association (LGA), July 2006

Supermarkets and the environment
Source: Friends of the Earth, September 8 2006
 * Around half of household waste arises from purchases made at supermarkets and convenience stores. A quarter of all rubbish put out by households is retail packaging. Information from WRAP
 * According to estimates by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], transporting food to and around the UK produced 19 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2002 of which 10 million tones were emitted in the UK - 1.8 per cent of total UK carbon dioxide emissions.
 * The DEFRA report also says that the overall social and environmental cost of food transport is £9 billion with impacts on road congestion, accidents, climate change, noise and air pollution.

Trees, woodland and forest

 * Worldwide, some 60 million indigenous people are almost completely reliant on forest resources for their livelihoods - for food and fuel, medicines and materials.
 * Forestry in Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland fares badly with a mere six per cent woodland cover, compared to the UK average of 12 per cent. Source: Woodland Trust



UK Coast

 * Wherever you are in the UK, you’re never more than 70 miles from the sea: Furthest distance from the sea: The Ordnance Survey has calculated that the furthest point from the sea in all of the UK is: Latitude: 52º 43.6'N, Longitude: 1º 37.2'W - which is very close to the village of Coton in the Elms in Derbyshire.


 * The UK’s 17,820 km (11,073 miles) of coastline is host to an array of flora and fauna; in fact more than 40,000 species - around 50% of the UK’s plants and animals - live in our seas - including intricate corals, whales & dolphins, giant (but harmless) basking sharks, seals, puffins and a myriad of fish, crustaceans and molluscs.

Source: Wildlife Trusts news release

Urban focus

 * "80 per cent of the British population living in an urban environment - far higher than the global average" Defra