The Human Cost of Stuff: Solutions We Love
- 6.5 Percent of All Humans Ever Born Are Still Alive Today
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6.5 Percent of All Humans Ever Born Are Still Alive Today
(And 22 other facts you should probably know.)
Why you can trust us
2 MIN READ
Aug 22, 2013
- Estimated number of humans who have been born in the last 50,000 years (when modern humans appeared): 107 billion
- Percentage of humans ever born who are alive today: 6.5
- Percentage of U.S. adults who considered homosexual relations morally acceptable in 2002: 38
- Percentage who considered homosexual relations morally acceptable in 2012: 59
- Year the Mars One program plans to establish a permanent colony on the surface of Mars: 2023
- Number of settlers who will initially populate the Mars colony: 4
- Number who will return to Earth: 0
- Number of sexual assaults estimated to have occurred in the U.S. military in 2012: 26,000
- Number reported: 3,374
- Number of reports that resulted in military court prosecution: 594
- Distance in feet the robot “Vomiting Larry,” designed to study disease transmission, can hurl puke: 10
- Gigatons of carbon dioxide humanity added to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2011: 321
- Maximum additional gigatons we can release between now and 2050 and still have an 80 percent chance of limiting global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius: 565
- Gigatons we would release by burning the world’s remaining proven fossil fuel reserves: 2,795
- Percentage of discretionary spending devoted to defense in President Barack Obama’s proposed 2014 budget: 57
- Percentage devoted to education: 6
- Rank of the United States, out of 29 developed countries, in overall child well-being: 26
- Rank of Greece: 25
- Rank of Lithuania: 27
- Length in miles of the Appalachian Trail, which extends from Georgia to Maine: 2,180
- Percentage of hikers who complete the entire Appalachian Trail out of those who attempt it: 25
- Percentage of climbers who summit Mt. Everest out of those who attempt it: 29
- Number of Mt. Everests, from sea level to summit, equal to the total elevation climbed by hiking the entire Appalachian Trail: 16
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Katrina Rabeler
is an environmental specialist at Ecology and Environment, Inc. and a former editorial assistant for YES!
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