Miles wrote this article with Peter D’Auria. Originally published in the Spring 2015 issue of YES! Magazine, and online at http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/together-with-earth/the-page-that-counts
Minimum percentage of women required by law in Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council (an advisory council to the king and his cabinet): 20 (1)
Percentage of women currently serving in the United States Congress: 19.4 (2)
Percentage of speaking roles for women in popular film (based on a study of 120 films from 11 countries released between 2010 and 2013): 31
Percentage of those films with a female protagonist: 23
Percentage of those films with a female director: 7 (3)
Approximate change in Earth’s terrestrial wildlife population, 1970-2010: -39%
Approximate change in Earth’s marine wildlife population, 1970-2010: -39%
Approximate change in Earth’s freshwater wildlife population, 1970-2010: -76%
Approximate change in Earth’s human population, 1970-2010: +185% (4)
Approximate population of New York City (as of 2013): 8,405,837 (5)
Approximate population of Hangzhou, China (as of 2010): 8,700,373 (6)
Approximate number of bikes in New York’s Citibike, the largest bike-sharing program in the United States: 6,000
Number of bikes in Hangzhou Public Bicycle, the largest program in the world: 69,750 (7)
Amount of global new investment in renewable energy in 2004: $40 billion
Amount of global new investment in renewable energy in 2013: $214 billion
Total world capacity for production of solar power in 2004: 3.7 gigawatts
Total world capacity for production of solar power in 2013: 139 gigawatts (8)
Number of known detainees in the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program: 119
Number of detainees determined by the Senate Intelligence Committee to have been wrongfully held: At least 26 (9)
Number of American children who experienced homelessness in 2006: 1,555,369
Number of American children who experienced homelessness in 2013: 2,483,539 (10)
Number of protests worldwide (as defined in a study by the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office) in 2006: 59
Number of protests worldwide in 2012: 159
Number of protests worldwide in the first six months of 2013: 112 (11)
Citations
1. “Saudi king names women to advisory council,” Al-Jazeera, January 12, 2013.
4. “Living Planet Report 2014,” World Wildlife Fund, September 2014.
5. “QuickFacts: New York (city), New York,” United States Census Bureau, July 2013.
7. “The 16 Best Bike Shares in the World,” Mark Lebetkin, The Active Times, June 14, 2013.