Fun Facts
Planet Earth: 25 Environmental Projects You Can Build Yourself

Lake Baikal (in central Asia) is the largest freshwater lake in the world—containing one fifth of the world’s freshwater.

The Sahara Desert, at about four million square miles, is the largest desert in the world. The entire continental United States could fit inside it.

The Dead Sea has such a high concentration of salt that it’s over eight times saltier than the ocean. It’s so dense you can’t really swim in the Dead Sea. You just bob like a cork.

Scientists believe the Mariana Trench (in the western Pacific Ocean), is the deepest spot in the world at about seven miles. That’s deeper than Mount Everest is high!

Over half of the world’s insect, plant, and animal species live in the rainforests. In the rainforests of Costa Rica alone, for example, there are over 1,300 species of butterflies.

The strongest “regular” surface wind ever recorded was 231 miles per hour at Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

In 2006, almost two million cigarette butts and filters were scooped out of the ocean in a coastal cleanup.

Almost two thousand plant and animal species around the world are threatened or endangered.