The Page That Counts :: Summer 1999

Amount of additional aluminum recycled since the aluminum soda can was redesigned in 1980 to have a ⤜pop-top� structure: 200,000 metric tons

Percentage of energy saved by recycling rather than mining for more aluminum: 95%

Amount of sulfur dioxide the aluminum can redesign prevented from being released into the atmosphere: 42 million pounds (1)

 

Percentage by which box-office receipts at theaters running the Star Wars:The Phantom Menace trailer rose on the first day of the trailer⤙s appearance: 25%

Percentage of the audience at New York⤙s Ziegfield Theater that day who left after the trailer and before the feature film began: 33% (2)

 

Weight of Japanese microcamera surgically implanted in US cockroaches for espionage

and other purposes: 1/10 ounce (3)

 

Number of Black men in California state universities: 8,800

Number of Black men in California state prisons: 44,600

Growth of California corrections spending in the last decade: 60%

Growth of California higher education spending in the last decade: 3% (4)

 

Number of times all the Slinkys ever made could wrap around the Earth: 126 (5)

 

Amount of US trade surplus with Mexico before NAFTA: $2 billion

Amount of US trade deficit with Mexico since NAFTA: $15 billion

Percent increase in Mexican workers⤙ productivity since NAFTA went into effect: 36%

Percent decrease in Mexican wages since NAFTA went into effect: 29%  (6)

 

Percent decrease in Namibia⤙s GNP in 1996 attributed to the AIDS virus: 8%  (7)

Amount of time New Zealand⤙s Michael Morel talked about carpentry to earn a world record for the longest nonstop lecture on a single subject: 25 hours

Amount of time the previous recordholder, US Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, extemporized on a single subject: 24 hours and 19 minutes  (8)

 

Per capita American consumption of soft drinks in 1989: 47 gallons

Per capita American consumption of tap water for drinking in 1989: 37 gallons (9)

 

Number of square feet of retail space for every person in the US: 20

Number of square feet of retail space for every person in Europe: 6 (10)

Number of Earths it would require for everyone on the planet to live

the lifestyle of North Americans: 4 (11)

 

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Sources: 1. The Center for a New American Dream, ⤜Just the Facts,â¤? In Balance, No. 2, November 1998. 2. The Portland Oregonian, cited in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 31 March 1999. 3. Shepherd, Chuck, ⤜The Year in Weird,â¤? Universal Press Syndicate, 1997. 4. Smith, Sam, ⤜Undernews,â¤? The Progressive Review, 9 December 1998. 5. The Portland Oregonian, cited in The St. Paul Pioneer Press, 31 March 1999. 6. Smith, Sam, ⤜Undernews,â¤? The Progressive Review, 29 December 1998. 7. The Economist, ⤜AIDS in the Third World: A Global Disaster,â¤? 2 January 1999. 8. ⤜Etc.â¤? The Christian Science Monitor, 13 April, 1999.  9. Durning, Alan, ⤜Asking How Much is Enough,â¤? State of the World 1991, Eds. Lester Brown et al. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991. 10. ⤜Monday Memo,â¤? The Seattle Times, 14 December 1998. 11. The New Road Map Foundation and the Northwest Environment Watch, ⤜All Consuming Passion,â¤? 1998.