惊人的数字

最近在媒体的报导里读到不少惊人的数字，有环保方面的，有政经领域的， 最令我吃惊的是人类自我毁灭的程度与速度。 数字在很多时候是最有说服力的，原想在勃克里搞一个“数字马拉松，” 就是在一个贴子后面追加我们看到或知道的“惊人数字”，越另类越好， 越惊人越欢迎：） 比如人的一生会做多少个梦；敲多少个字；中国每年枪毙多少死刑犯；中 国到底有多少失学儿童；中国贪官转移到国外的赃款究竟有几百个亿；中 国贫困线的生活费每月是几个人民币；美国总统与宾拉登秘密通过几次话； 等等等等。 大家工作在不同的领域，各有专长和专业知识，爱好等，积少成多，加在 一起会很有教育意义的。我先贴第一项令我吃惊的数字： １. 中国人口占全球的２１％，但中国的水资源只占全球的７％。 ２. 被工业废物和化肥严重污染的黄河给1.5亿中国人提供水源。 ３. 3.6亿中国农村人口缺乏安全卫生的引用水。 ４. ２００４年，２６０００平方公里的亚马逊森林被砍伐。 ５. ２００４年，全球因恐怖袭击死伤人数并非如美国国防部宣称的“下降”，而是升高了５０％。 ６. 每天大约３０００儿童死于可预防性疾病和营养不良。 ７. １９９７年，为预防禽流感，香港在三天内消灭了１５００万只［飞］禽。 ８. １９１８－１９１９之间，全球有两千五百万至五千万人因西班牙流感丧生。 ９. 今天，一万多家美国私人保安公司雇佣的保镖约两百万，是美国警察总数的四倍。 10.　６５％的约翰内斯堡［南非］的居民感觉夜里在家中也不安全。 11. 每次射精，四千万名(40，000，000)精子奔赴有去无回的生存竞争。其中至少一千万 名精子是体格健壮的，勇往直前的，英勇顽强的战士，结果是，最多只有一个战士能存 活，长大成人。[from Shui-dee] from Harper's magazine, Feb., 2005 12. Average number of Americans injured every year by air rifles, paintball weapons, and BB guns: 22,000 [Danielle Laraque, Mount Sinai School of Medicine (N.Y.C.) ] 13. Estimated number of different languages spoken at home by Alaskan school- children : 110 [Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (Juneau) ] 14. Chance that a Japanese grade-school student reports never having seen a sunrise or sunset : 1 in 2 [Kawamura Gakuen Women's University (Chiba, Japan) ] 15. Percentage by which British university graduates are less likely than non-graduates to phone their mothers regularly : 20 [Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex (Colchester, U.K.) ] 16. Rank of the United States among the largest world exporters of cigarettes: 1[U.S. Department of Agriculture ] 17. Rank of the United States among nations that consume the most cigarettes per capita: 16[World Health Organization (Washington)] 18. Average total cost for a U.S. eighty-year-old to live out the rest of his or her days on a luxury cruise ship: $230,497[Lee Lindquist, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (Chicago)] 19. Average cost to live them out in an assisted-living facility: $228,075[Lee Lindquist, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (Chicago)] 20. Percentage of children who by age seven have had at least one imaginary friend: 65[Dr. Marjorie Taylor, University of Oregon (Eugene)] 21. Percentage of these friends who are animals: 41[Dr. Marjorie Taylor, University of Oregon (Eugene)] from Harper's magazine, 1998 22. Number of people killed worldwide last year by pirates: 51 [International Maritime Bureau (Essex, England)] 23. Number of cars broken into by bears last year at Yosemite National Park: 889 [Yosemite National Park (Yosemite, Calif.)] from The Harper's Mag. 2005 Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway: $3,870,000,000[United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (N.Y.C.)] ____________________________________________ Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: $4,100,000,000[U.S. Department of Defense] 四百个美国人里，至少有一个是无家可归！ Months before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, volunteer searchers found 6,251 homeless people living in the coastal areas of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. The search was part of an unprecedented count of the nation's homeless population that the federal government asked cities and counties to conduct. That snapshot tally was 727,304 homeless people nationwide, meaning about one in 400 Americans were without a home, according to a USA TODAY survey of all 460 localities that reported results to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in June. (Related story: Search produces wealth of data) ---from alternet.org