This site freaked me out a bit at first. Watching the numbers climb - in some cases very rapidly - right in front of your eyes is a bit disconcerting, especially considering you might be watching the death toll rise for a particular day. Even stranger is the dizzying speed with which certain numbers are rising: the topsoil erosion from farmlands this year (metric tons), the carbon dioxide (co2) emissions (metric tons), the number of movie visitors this year and the cumulative hours waited for webpages to download this year.

I suppose maybe it puts into perspective just how many people inhabit this earth and how quicky the environment in which we live is being destroyed. If you live in your own little corner of the universe, it's difficult to appreciate just how many of us there really are out there (enough to make many of those numbers go up very, very quickly). It might also be a tad bit disturbing to see just how many people are spending their time in front of movie or computer screens.

At the very top of the page is the Statistic of the Month. For January, the statistic is "toxic chemicals released by industries worldwide into our air, land, and water this year (tons)." Thankfully that number isn't increasing nearly at the speed of those supposedly entering theatres worldwide, but in the time I've been writing this the number has jumped by the thousands.

Imagine if as many people devoted as much time to working on becoming more eco-conscious in their own personal lives and communities, as the number of people currently buying tickets to I Am Legend or waiting to find out if Britney ever made it to her custody hearing today. Maybe that statistic of the month, as well as the carbon emissions and topsoil erosion figures would be significantly lower and moving at a much slower pace.

» Worldometers