The holidays are a wonderful, cheerful time when most people wait for Santa to bring them presents. But I’m not like most people. I spend my time wondering just what the environmental impacts of Santa Claus and his reindeer are, and more importantly, how I can calculate those impacts.

　　Lately I’ve been particularly curious as to whether Santa’s old sled is a clean green flying machine, or if he should be replacing his 8 reindeer with an environmentally-friendly car.

　　I should mention that, surprisingly, I was unable to find statistics specific to Santa’s magical flying reindeer, so these calculations use numbers from various sources and may not represent actual pollution caused by Santa and his animals. In other words, don’t complain to the government about the damage Santa is causing the environment based on this article.

　　Santa’s yearly trip around the globe is 44,000km long, twice the average of a North American driver. If we assume that the magic provides the altitude for this trip, then reindeer power only needs to push Santa’s sled forward. To complete the trip in 12 hours, I estimate they must travel at a speed of about 3100km/h. To travel at this speed, for this length of time, the reindeer need to eat an incredible 980 million calories each!!

　　So the next question is: how much food is in 980 million calories? Well, if they’re eating corn, they’d need to eat 16,500 lbs each — or 1.6 acres of food. Growing 12.8 acres of corn has its own implications for the environment that we’ll leave for another calculation.

【2017届高考英语一轮复习单元检测练：必修1 Unit1《Friendship》（原卷版）】相关文章：

★ 2014届高考英语一轮复习课时作业(二十四)必修4Module 6《Unexplained Mysteries of the Natural World》（外研版）

★ 湖南省汝城二中2014届高考英语一轮复习阅读训练 (66)

★ 2014年牛津译林版高中英语总复习（第1轮）同步练习 M11《Unit 4　The next step》Word版含解析

★ 北京市2014高考英语一轮复习 练习手册（40）选修8 Unit 5 Meeting your ancestors（含解析）新人教版

★ 【浙江专用】2014届高考英语一轮复习课时作业(十一)必修3Unit 1《Festivals around the world》

★ 2014年牛津译林版高中英语总复习（第1轮）同步练习 M4《Unit 2　Sports events》

★ 【优化方案】2017届高考英语二轮复习全国卷Ⅱ题型重组训练：第11组（含解析）

★ 2017届高考英语二轮复习大题冲关秘籍完形填空之记叙文：创新押题（含解析）

★ 2017高考四川省广安市英语阅读理解一轮系列训练：12（含解析）

★ 【北京专用】2014届高考英语一轮复习方案课时作业：选修8 Unit 4 Pygmalion