Prime numbers

Obesity already costs the NHS a hefty £1 billion a year, and hits the UK economy with £2.3-£2.55 billion of indirect costs. 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered yearly worldwide, polluting land and water for anything from two to 25 years before they biodegrade, says www.nobuttsaboutit.net That’s not to mention the 4,000 people a year injured or killed by fires caused by fag ends. There are some 530,000 soldiers (70% of them from the US) currently involved in belligerent military operations abroad, overshadowing the 125,000 peacekeeping troops worldwide. Every hour, the world spends more than $100 million on soldiers, weapons and ammunition. That’s $876 billion a year. Providing clean water and sewage systems would cost about $37 billion a year; eradicating illiteracy, $5 billion; providing immunisation for every child in the developing world, $3 billion – in other words, 30 hours of military expenditure. Bad news: world oil consumption surged by 3.4% in 2004 – the fastest rate of increase in the last 16 years. No surprise that the price rose by 27% over the same period, with production falling in 33 of the 48 largest oil-producing countries. Better news: global wind power capacity rose by 20% in 2004 – enough to provide power to more than 22 million average homes in Europe. World production of solar photovoltaic cells also soared, doubling between 2002 and 2004. It takes a pound of pesticides to produce three t-shirts. Cotton accounts for almost a quarter of all the insecticide used in agriculture.

20 September 2005