In honor of Earth Day, some fascinating facts:

38 – Number of years since the first US nationwide Earth Day rally

20,000,000 – Number of people estimated to have taken part in the first Earth Day

1,000,000,000 – The number of people expected to take part in Earth Day events worldwide

1,500 – Distance in miles the average dinner travels from field to fork

46 – Number of comic strip authors who banded together today to tell the world that climate change is no joke

6,250,000 – Number of websites that are returned from a Google search on “Earth Day”

7 – Number of tons of paper and cardboard recycled by students in the High School Life Skills Class at Erie II BOCES School in Angola, New York.

130 million – Number of cellphones Americans throw out every year (via Dale Basler)

3.4 – Number of metric tons of gold that would be recovered by recycling those cellphones

85 – Percent of kids who say that responsibility for caring for the environment belongs to everyone (according to the Kids Environmental Report Card)

202-224-3121 – The number to call to urge your senator or congressperson to take a stand against climate change

And…though it’s not a number…I do have to give a plug to this broadcast from this morning’s All Things Considered…poking not a little bit of fun at pr people and their green-themed Earth Day pitches. The speculation of NPR’s environmental reporter Liam Moriarty & Robert McClurg, the environmental reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is that Earth Day is now a victim of its own success–everyone wants to be green, and so the message of Earth Day is becoming watered down.

While I appreciate that PR people can often go overboard trying to tie our pitches to news of the day…1 billion people can’t be wrong in thinking Earth Day is important…can we?