EarthTalk Q&A

Paper usage is at an all-time high around the world, and the average office worker prints and copies through some 10,000 pages every year. Hopes that the advent of electronic communications would drastically cut paper consumption

Office buildings are indeed the top energy guzzlers among commercial buildings in the United States, head and shoulders above retail and service establishments and even manufacturing facilities.

Seven to 10 million koalas inhabited Australia at the time of white settlement two centuries ago. Today only about 100,000 remain. Native to the eucalyptus forests of Australia’s eastern seaboard, koalas were hunted extensively by the continent’s first European settlers

Hydropower—electricity generated from turbines churning in dammed rivers—has been part of America’s energy mix since the 1880s when the world’s first hydroelectric plant began operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin. By the 1940s, hydropower accounted for about 40 percent of America’s energy needs.

How can I recycle my unwanted CDs and DVDs?

When Congress passed the Wilderness Act in 1964, it designated 9.1 million acres across the United States permanently off limits to development. Since then, lawmakers have added an additional 96.5 million acres—including more than 50 million acres in Alaska alone—or a total of 105.6 million acres, spread over some 662 different areas and constituting roughly five percent of total U.S. land mass.

Dear EarthTalk: How do hybrid cars get better fuel efficiency than traditional cars?

Dear EarthTalk: How much land has Congress designated as wilderness since passage of the Wilderness Act 40 years ago?                                                                                                              

Recent research does in fact show that the incidence of nut allergies among American and British children has tripled within the last two decades. No one knows for sure why, but because the phenomenon seems to be occurring only in developed countries