ETCETERA / Index
Percentage of world population that is literate: 74
Number of illiterates: 1,400,000,000
Estimated years bomb-test polluted Runit Island in the Pacific must remain uninhabited: 25,000
Aircraft operated by world's armed forces: 60,000
By the world's civil airlines: 62,000
Percentage of Earth's fresh water in the Antarctic ice sheet: 90
Cost of America's Landsat satellite lost during launch: dollars 220,000,000
Cost of Aston Martin Vantage car: pounds 177,600
Sales of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park in 24 countries: 7,000,000
Estimated wildcat gold prospectors in the Brazilian Amazon basin: 400,000
Estimated foxhunters in Britain: 200,000
Annual tobacco-related deaths in developing countries: 1,000,000
Predicted by 2025: 7,000,000
Square miles of forest in Malaysia in 1900: 125,000
In 1992: 27,000
Refugees and displaced people in Bosnia: 2,280,000
Daily visitors to Obala art gallery in besieged Sarajevo: 100
Marinas on the mud flats of the Solent: 26
Sources: Vital Signs, Worldwatch Institute/Earthscan; ibid; Joni Seager: Earth Follies; MoD/Aviation Data Inc; ibid; New Scientist 1892; New Scientist 1985; Autocar & Motor; Paris Match 2318; Geographical LXV-11; Cobham Resource Consultants (1990); OU/WHO; ibid; Guinness Book of Answers '93; ibid; UNHCR; Kate Hoey MP/Calum MacDonald MP/Malcolm Wicks MP (New Statesman & Society); New Scientist 1890.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies