Environment
ENVIRONMENT charities work to preserve and protect the environment and to promote environmental research, conservation and appreciation. We defined two Causes for ENVIRONMENT charities.
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Environmental Protection and Conservation (238) Environmental Protection and Conservation charities develop ways to combat pollution; promote conservation and sustainable management of land, water, plant and energy resources; purchase and protect land; and develop more efficient uses of both energy and waste materials. |
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Botanical Gardens, Parks, and Nature Centers (96) Botanical Gardens, Parks, and Nature Centers promote preservation and appreciation of the environment, as well as leading anti-litter, tree planting and other environmental beautification campaigns. |
Did you know?
- Human activities have caused some 500 bird species worldwide to go extinct over the past five millennia. The predominant cause of species loss is habitat destruction.
- Polar bears and hippos have joined the ranks of species threatened with extinction from climate change, unregulated hunting and other man-made dangers. More than 16,000 species of animals and plants are at risk of disappearing.
- Rainforests cover only 7% of the earth's land surface, but they contain more than half of the species on earth.
- Lightning flickers from the clouds to the ground somewhere in the United States 25 million times each year. An average of 67 people is killed by this lightning each year.
- An oak tree produces about 50,000 acorns in a good season. Only a handful actually survive in just the right conditions to grow into trees.
- Six of the 10 warmest years on record for the contiguous U.S. have occurred since 1998, part of a three decade period in which mean temperatures for the contiguous U.S. have risen at a rate near 0.6°F per decade.
- Over the course of 50 years, a single tree can generate $31,250 of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycle $37,500 worth of water, and control $31,500 worth of soil erosion.
- The Amazon River basin contains 20% of the world's fresh water.
- Approximately 100 million people in the U.S. are breathing air that is below the federal air quality standard because of microscopic soot from power plants, diesel-burning trucks, cars and factories.
- Humans take up 83% of the earth's land surface to live on, farm, mine or fish.
