joi, 24 februarie 2011

The Dimension of Consumerism

According to World Bank, World Development Indicators Online, in 2006, people around the world spent $30.5 trillion on goods and services (in 2008 dollars). These included basic necessities like food and shelter, but as discretionary incomes rose, people spent more on consumer goods, from richer foods and larger homes to televisions, cars, computers, and air travel. In 2008 alone, people around the world purchased 68 million vehicles, 85 million refrigerators, 297 million computers, and 1.2 billion mobile phones.
Consumption has grown dramatically over the past five decades, up to 28% from the $23.9 trillion spent in 1996 and up sixfold from the $4.9 trillion spent in 1960. Some of this increase comes from the growth in population, but human numbers only grew by a factor of 2.2 between 1960 and 2006. Thus, consumption expenditures per person still almost tripled.
As Gary Gardner and Payal Sampat say in Mind over Matter: Recasting the Role of Materials in our Lives, as consumption has risen, more fossil fuels, minerals and metals have been mined from the earth, more trees have been cut down and more land has been plowed to grow food. Between 1950 and 2005, metals production grew sixfold, oil consumption eightfold, and natural gas consumption 14-fold. 60 billion tons of resources are now extracted anually , about 50% more than just 30 years ago. Today, the average European uses 43 kilograms of resources daily, and the average American uses 88 kilograms.

luni, 14 februarie 2011

Wisdom from nature

But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
   or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
   or let the fish in the sea inform you.

from The Book of Job 12:7-8

joi, 10 februarie 2011

Air pollution

According to EPA, air toxics are the most hazardous air pollutants. In addition to mercury and arsenic, power plants emit lead, dioxin, and acid gases that are known threats to public health. Even in small amounts these extremely harmful air pollutants are linked cancer, mutations, neurological damage and other serious health problems. Millions of tons of air toxics are released into the air annually from manmade sources such as coal-fired In March 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to propose an updated air quality standard for life-threatening hazardous air pollution from power plants, such as mercury and arsenic. This Air Toxics safeguard is also called the “Power Plant MACT (Maximum Available Control Technology).”

This move by EPA to protect public health will save lives, prevent disease and avoid hospitalizations, while creating new jobs installing air pollution control equipment.

What Are Air Toxics?
power plants, cement and brick manufacturing facilities, and other industrial processes.

The Health Effects of Air Toxics
Air toxics can cause both minor and serious health problems, including:
-pre-mature death
-asthma and other respiratory diseases
-cancer
-birth defects
-reproductive problems such as reduced fertility
-damage to the immune system
-eye irritation

Mercury is one example of a particularly harmful air toxic because it builds up in the environment. A potent neurotoxin especially dangerous to small children and pregnant women, mercury exposure affects a child’s ability to walk, talk, read, write and learn. The mercury problem in the U.S. is so widespread that one in six women has mercury levels in her blood high enough to put her baby at risk, according to the EPA. Less than one teaspoon of mercury is sufficient to contaminate a 20-acre lake, yet 48 tons are being pumped into our air each year from coal fired power plants alone, which comprise largest domestic source of unregulated mercury emissions in the United States.

The Cost of the Status Quo
Our communities are paying for the costs of toxic air pollution with these sometimes deadly health problems, as well as unfishable rivers, lakes and streams. Study after study shows that to protect public health, polluters must significantly reduce the amount of toxic air pollution coming out of their smokestacks, and that means cleaning up pollution from dirty coal plants.  

Fortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency exists to develop and enforce much needed safeguards to keep polluters from making us sick.

The forthcoming Air Toxics Rule for power plants will not only save thousands of lives per year, it will help prevent disease, avoid hospitalizations, and create high-paying new jobs installing and operating the much-needed pollution control equipment.


The Need for a Strong Air Toxics Standard for Power Plants
For Decades, the power sector has successfully fought Clean Air Act implementation requirements to reduce the toxic air emissions from their facilities, even though coal plants are among the largest sources of toxic air pollution. It’s past time to stand up to polluters, and defend public health.

As required by the Clean Air Act, EPA will set new air toxics emissions limits based on the pollution reductions already achieved by the cleanest and best-performing power plants and facilities, making the standards achievable and realistic.

This straightforward approach produces standards that are both reasonable and effective in reducing air pollution and protecting public health. It also provides a level economic playing field, ensuring that power plants with good pollution controls are not at a disadvantage to competitors with no controls.

Climate change and health

What is Ozone?
Ozone is the main component of smog and is one of the most dangerous forms of air pollution. Ozone is not emitted directly into the air, but rather forms when emissions of gases including nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide, and methane “cook” in the sun. Ground-level ozone, or smog, is worse in the summertime because sunlight and hot weather accelerate its formation. This means that during summer break seasonal smog alerts often urge children to restrict their activity or stay inside to avoid respiratory effects like asthma.

Ozone comes from sources such as coal-fired power plants, automobiles, industrial facilities, gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents. Coal-fired power plants are among the largest sources of smog-forming pollution, with more than 500 plants currently operating in our country, many of them lacking modern pollution controls.

Motor vehicles also account for a huge percentage of smog. On-road vehicles are responsible for more than 35% of NOx emissions and nearly 26% of VOC emissions in the U.S.

The Health Effects of Smog
Ozone is harmful to human health even at very low levels. Smog doesn’t just ruin your view; it poses serious health risks, especially to children and senior citizens. Smog can cause:
  • Asthma
  • Reduced lung function
  • Airway irritation and damage
  • Increased susceptibility to respiratory infections
  • Permanent lung damage (Scientists have compared exposure to smog pollution as getting sunburn on the lungs)
  • Shortness of breath and chest pain
  • Wheezing and coughing
  • Increased treatment or hospitalization of people with lung diseases, such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) including emphysema and chronic bronchitis
  • Premature death

Children are at increased risk from exposure to ozone because their lungs are still developing and they are more likely to be active outdoors.

Food prices are going up

Global food prices are at a record high, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) recently released Food Price Index for January. The index measures the average monthly price change for basic food items, including cereals, dairy, meat, oil, and sugar.
The January index shows a 3.4 percent increase above already-high December 2010 levels, and prices are up for the seventh month in a row. The index also tops peak levels reached in 2008, which sparked violent protests and riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Cameroon. And this also marks the highest recorded level since the FAO started its price index in 1990.
In addition, the January index shows a particularly high rise for dairy products – up 6.2 percent since December 2010. It also reflects a steady rise in global wheat and grain prices.
FAO economist Abdolreza Abbassian says, “High food prices are of major concern especially for low-income food deficit countries that may face problems financing food imports, and for poor households which spend a large share of their income on food.” He warned that the new figures clearly show that the upward pressure on world food prices is not abating and that high prices are likely to persist in the months to come.
A combination of factors is responsible for pushing prices to this all-time high. Extreme weather is part of the story. Wildfires in Russia, during the summer of 2010, drove the government to impose an export ban on its wheat stocks. And the recent floods in Australia and dry weather in Argentina are pushing prices even higher. The price of oil is also steadily rising – it recently rose above $100 a barrel. But financial speculation on global markets by large international grain trading companies is also to blame.
High prices were a major factor in the violent protests that forced Tunisia’s president to flee the country in January.  And the ongoing protests in Egypt that are capturing headlines across the world are also tied to price hikes. An article in the Vancouver Sun reports, “Soaring food prices aren’t the only reason that Egyptians took to the streets to try to topple their long-serving president. But they’re a significant factor, and a steady surge in global commodity prices reminiscent of 2008 is sure to bring new battles over food security this year.” Egypt is the world’s leading wheat importer and the price of wheat has risen by 70 percent over the past year.
At the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland last week, leading U.S. economist Nouriel Roubini raised concerns about these events and warned that food prices pose a serious threat to global stability.
Recognizing the urgency of the issue, the FAO recently released a policy guide for countries hit hard by high food prices. According to Richard China, Director of the Policy and Programme Development Support Division at the FAO, only investments in developing countries’ agricultural sectors will result in sustainable increases in productivity, healthy markets, increased resilience to international price spikes, and improved food security in the longer term.
By Janeen Madan

luni, 7 februarie 2011

Reflections on Creation

Thomas Berry, Catholic priest and ecological philosopher: "...we might summarize our present human situation by the simple statement: In the 20th century, the glory of the human has become the desolation of the Earth. And now, the desolation of the Earth is becoming the destiny of the human. From here on, the primary judgement of all human institutions, professions and programs and activities will be determined by the extent to which they inhibit, ignore, or foster a mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship."

James Lovelock, scientist: "Civilization in its present form hasn't got long."

Margaret Mead, anthropologist: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful , committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

joi, 3 februarie 2011

The beautiful nature 5

Global weather events in 2010

China drought

A persistent drought, described as the worst in a century, covered parts of southern, southwestern, and central China from January through April.
Centered in Yunnan Province, the drought destroyed several million hectares of crops and dried up drinking water sources, affecting more than 50 million people, said the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
Rains in late March and April eased the drought in most areas, so by the beginning of May, China declared the drought emergency over.


Shrinking Arctic sea ice

Arctic sea ice, the floating ice sheet that covers most of the Arctic ocean, shrunk to its third-smallest extent ever, measuring only 4.9 million sq. km (1.9 sq. miles). The last four years (2007-2010) are the four smallest on record.
For the first time in modern history, the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route were simultaneously ice-free in September.
Arctic ice shrinks every summer and grows every winter, but this summer, it shrunk at the fastest rate ever measured – more than 50 percent faster than average, and breaking the 1999 record.


Brazilian drought

A severe drought parching northern Brazil shrunk the Rio Negro (Black River) – one of the most important tributaries of the Amazon River – to its lowest level in more than a century. At their point of confluence, the Amazon's depth fell more than 12 feet below its average.
In the jungle city of Manaus, where the Black River merges with the Amazon and it should be at its deepest, its depth fell to 45 feet (13.6 meters) in October, the shallowest it has been since records began in 1902. Local authorities reported that nearly half of Amazonia's 62 municipalities declared a state of emergency. The drought conditions affected more than 60,000 families.


Negative Arctic Oscillation

The Arctic Oscillation influences winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere: when it is negative, arctic air slides south. In February, the index reached -4.27, the lowest value since records began in 1950.
During February's record oscillation, high pressure over the Arctic and low pressure at mid-latitudes drove freezing air into North America and Europe, resulting in heavy snowfall and record low temperatures.


El Niño to La Niña transition

Spring 2010 saw an enormous swing from El Niño to La Niña. Flooding in Indonesia, Colombia, and Australia has all been tied to this phenomenon.
El Niño and La Niña represent opposite extremes in the naturally occurring climate cycle referred to as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). They are associated with opposite extremes in sea-surface temperature across the Pacific, and with opposite extremes in rainfall, surface air pressure, and atmospheric circulation from Indonesia to South America (approximately half the distance around the globe).
Only 1973, 1983, and 1998 have seen larger within-year swings than 2010.


Flooding in Pakistan

Monsoon rains fall in Pakistan every summer, but the rains in June and July 2010 were unusually heavy, bringing more than a foot of rain. By Aug. 1, whole villages had washed away, more than 1,600 people had died, 6 million had lost their homes, and about 20 million people were affected, according to news reports. A shortage of safe drinking water and a possible outbreak of cholera were among the most pressing dangers.
The flooding in northwestern Pakistan was the worst since 1929, officials said. Just in the first week, news reports documented some 30,000 residents stranded on rooftops, and dozens of bridges completely washed away. Some estimates placed total damages from the flooding at US $15 billion.

Warmest year on record (probably)

According to NOAA, the globally-averaged temperature for 2010 will finish among the two warmest, and likely the warmest, in the 130-year-long climate record. (The current record was set in 2005, and so far the two years are in a statistical tie, which may be resolved as data compilation continues.)
Three months in 2010 were the warmest on record for that month.
2001-2010 is the warmest 10-year period since the beginning of weather records in 1850, the UN weather agency announced on Dec. 2.

Russian-European-Asian heat waves

The heat waves of summer 2010 spawned drought, wildfires, and crop failures across western Russia, where more than 15,000 people died. All-time high temperatures occurred in many cities and nations across the Northern Hemisphere. China faced locust swarms during July.
Temperatures hovered 8 to 12 degrees F (4 to 8 degrees C) above average in Russia during June and July. On July 30th, Moscow recorded its highest temperature ever – 102 degrees F (39 degrees C) – breaking the previous record of 99 degrees F (37 degrees C) set just four days earlier. Prior to July 2010, the record hadn't been broken for 90 years.
The worst drought conditions since 1972 destroyed 22 million acres (nine million hectares), an estimated 20 percent of the nation's crops, including grain, vegetable, and fodder, prompting Russia to ban exports. Additionally, a state of emergency was declared as 948 forest fires covering 64,000 acres (26,000 hectares) were burning in 18 provinces.
The heat reached into Europe, too: on July 30th, the temperature in Joensuu, Finland reached 99 degrees F (37 degrees C), breaking Finland's all-time maximum temperature, 95 degrees F (35 degrees C), set in July 1914.
From The Christian Science Monitor