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		Facts We have gathered a very few of a multitude of facts that highlight some of the ideas you will find around the rest of this Raventalk website.
	Number of Americans living below the official poverty line ($19,000 for a family of four) in 2002: 34.6 million (That number has increased by 1.1 million.) Net flow of money every year from the poorest to the richest countries: $48 billion Value of annual aid loans and grants to the poorest countries: $32 billion Percentage of Wal-Mart employees eligible for food stamps: around 50% Combined net worth of the three Waltons who own 38% of Wal-Mart stock: $66 billion Net worth of Afghanistan: $19 billion Percent of Americans who work more than 50 hours a week: 40 Number of weeks of legally required aid vacation in European countries: 4 - 5 In Japan: 2 In the United States: 0 Number of weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq as of July 1, 2003: 0 Percent of americans who believed that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq as of July 1, 2003: 23 Approximate number of traffic fatalities in the US each year: 40,000 Number of air pollution fatalities: 70,000 Number of deaths in the world per day from contaminated water: 15,000 Percent increase in the cost of health insurance premiums for employees between 2001 and 2002: 12.7% Number of people each 1 percent increase in health insurance premiums adds to the 41 million uninsured in the US: 300,000 Amount the US spends on weight loss programs each year: $35 billion Amount that would be needed to eliminate starvation and malnutrition in the world: $19.25 billion Value of the amount of lost fuel and productivity resulting from traffic congestion in the US each year: $69.5 billion Percent of trips taken by bicycle of walking in the US: 6 Percent of trps taken by bicycle or walking in the Netherlands: 28 Between 1990 and 2002, average CEO pay rose 279 percent. Worker pay increased 46 percent, just 8 percent above inflation. The CEO pay gap was 281-1 in 2002. The CEO pay gap was 42–1 in 1982. In 2003 only four of the CEO's of fortune 500 companies were African American. A list of the countries that the U.S. has bombed since the end of World War II, compiled by historian William Blum: China 1945-46 China 1950-53 Guatemala 1954 Indonesia 1958 Cuba 1959-60 Guatemala 1960 Congo 1964 Peru 1965 Laos 1964-73 Vietnam 1961-73 Cambodia 1969-70 Guatemala 1967-69 Grenada 1983 Libya 1986 El Salvador 1980s Nicaragua 1980s Panama 1989 Iraq 1991-99 Sudan 1998 Afghanistan 1998 Consumption of bottled water as more than doubled globally in the last 6 years. The top three bottled water consumers are 1. the US, 2. Mexico, 3. China. Barrels of oil annually required to package water for US demand: 1.5 million, enough to fuel 100,000 US cars for a year. 88% of plastic water bottles in the US end up in landfills, and can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. Packaging of all kinds makes up one-third of the waste in the US. If every US household replaced one roll of virgin-lumber bathroom tissue with a !00% recycled roll, we would save 375,000 trees, 250 lbs. of pollutants, and 155 million gallons of water. The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population and uses 40% of the world’s resources. The wealthiest countries—Europe, the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan—use 65% of the world’s electricity. 2 billion people live on less than $2 per day. 1.3 billion people worldwide struggle to survive on $1 per day or less. Since 2003, 1.1 million more Americans have fallen below the official poverty line. The number of hungry Americans increases by 10% a year, now about 38 million The Union of Concerned Scientists notes that 100 square miles of solar panels in Nevada would provide 100% of US electricity. In 1991, the US Department of Energy published a National Wind Resource Inventory in which it noted that three of our 50 states—Kansas, North Dakota and Texas—could produce enough wind energy to satisfy national electricity needs Jet contrails will increase temperatures in the lower atmosphere over the US by at least one degree every 20 years. If Greenland’s ice were to melt, sea levels would rise 21 feet. Glacier National Park will have no glaciers by 2030. 2005 was the hottest year on record. There’s been a 100% increase in intensity and duration of hurricanes and tropical storms hitting the US since the 1970’s. Estimated damage caused by hurricanes hitting the US in 2005 is $100 billion. The US is responsible for 25% of the world’s carbon emissions.