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Articles in: Pollution
Pollution, Feb 1st, 2012,
Rubbish is piling up in Mexico’s capital after the city’s largest waste dump, Bordo Poniente, was closed after the landfill was, for lack of a better word, filled. The landfill, in fact, was meant to close back in 2005, but the city managed to delay closure by 6 years. Now garbage is accumulating in illegal dumps in Mexico City, on street corners and even in front of monuments. The fact that Mexico lags behind in waste reducing measures, such as recycling programs, compounds the problem in the DF. From the Guardian: The demise of the Bordo Poniente exposed how acutely…
Tags: border, Bordo Poniente, garbage, Mexico City, US, waste
Nature, Pollution, Science & Technology, Sustainable living, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, Jan 23rd, 2012,
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis, from Waterstudio.NL, hit on the idea of how to create more green areas in cities, which could become habitats for wildlife and to have a positive affect on improving air quality in a metropolis. He created a “Tree Sea”, which can be placed in a river, lake or at maritime coasts, informs The Dailymail. The construction resembles the design of a drilling rig. In Olthuis’ opinion, their building could be sponsored by large oil companies, so they can express their concern for the environment. “What is beautiful about this project, is that it doesn’t demand expensive…
Tags: floating tree, Pollution, The Netherlands, Tree Sea
Animals, Pollution, Recycling, Videos & Documentaries, Jan 22nd, 2012,
We’ve got two bits of eco-news from Asia this weekend. First we’re off to Vietnam to see how megacity Hanoi is coping with a growing waste problem with the help from scientists in Germany. Enormous amounts of waste, a rising population, over-crowding, and an aging infrastructure: Vietnam’s capital Hanoi is a perfect example of a fast-growing megacity. Scientists at Darmstadt University have developed a pilot project that combines wastewater treatment, waste disposal and energy production in one. Their goal is to design a biogas plant for Hanoi that digests waste to generate electricity and heat. –Deutsche Welle Next we jet…
Tags: bengal, China, Hanoi, megacity, tiger, Vietnam, white
Health, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Jan 18th, 2012,
It may sound like a convenient excuse: it’s not my fault I’m fat, it’s all those common, everyday chemicals I unwittingly ingest through no fault of my own. That and all the burgers, fries and milkshakes I eat on a daily basis. But certain environmental, hormone-altering chemicals, which researchers call ‘obesogens’, may contribute to dramatic weight gain – especially when a fetus is exposed to them in the womb. If obesogens do cause obesity, what about fatty foods? Professor Bruce Blumberg of the University of California believes that both junk food and common environmental chemicals cause obesity, sometimes in tandem….
Tags: chemicals, environmental, fat, obesity, obesogens
Pollution, Jan 8th, 2012,
The cargo ship that ran aground on a coral reef off New Zealand’s coast last October broke in half yesterday. Continuous storms of the past several days created a crack in the hull that turned fatal yesterday when heavy storms and 6-meter high waves caused the ship to break in two. While the bow of the Rena is still firmly stuck on the coral reef, the tail of the ship is now floating some 30 meters away. The 900 containers that were still on the Rena have now fallen into the sea. As a result, experts fear this will further…
Tags: container into sea, container ship stranded, coral reef New Zealand, New Zealand environmental disaster, Rena cargo ship
Climate & Change, Conservation, Pollution, Dec 27th, 2011,
The original Green Revolution was essentially a Cold War tactic of the United States to win over Third World countries by supplying them with agricultural technology, thereby dramatically increasing their food production. The main recipients of Green Revolution techniques were India, Mexico and the Philippines, as well as some African countries (with markedly less success). Although the Green Revolution increased food production, it has its drawbacks and criticisms: unsustainable population growth – leading to mass starvation; genetically weak and less biodiverse monoculture farming – meaning crop failures are more likely, requiring more chemical pesticides to compensate for this risk. Monoculture…
Tags: biodiversity, Brazil, Cerrado, farming, Green Revolution, monoculture
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Dec 19th, 2011,
On Sunday a Russian oil platform capsized between Sakhalin Island and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk off far eastern Russia. The oil rig, which was manned by 67 people subcontracted by Russian oil giant Gazprom, was being towed during a storm when heavy winds toppled it into the sea. So far Russian authorities have confirmed 16 deaths and a rescue raft with 15 people has been spotted, but it is not known how many on the raft – if any – are alive. According to regional emergency services, the accident poses no environmental threat, since the drilling…
Tags: death, France, fuel, oil, okhotsk, platform, rig, Russia, ship
Pollution, Science & Technology, Dec 18th, 2011,
In the pools hiding thousands of old, now defunct radioactive fuel rods, white fibres resembling a spider web have been discovered. They “grow” only on the rods, as reported by “Augusta Chronicle”. The nuclear waste landfill, Savannah River, South Carolina, is under constant observation by the Security Council and the Nuclear Defence Facilities. Sent to investigate the substance, experts are surprised, because the first study has given no results. A sample taken from the pool was too small to determine even if it is a living organism. If it is not, scientists still can not identify the source of the…
Tags: discovery, radioactive waste, spider web, substance
Conservation, Politics, Pollution, Sustainable living, Dec 16th, 2011,
Several dozen men ran naked around the University of Manila. They wanted to draw attention to the need for greater environmental protection. Bare runs have become a tradition at this Filipino University. Every year a group of students meet to fight in defense of the environment. The tradition started over 40 years ago. Then, the students were running around in protest against President Ferdinand Marcos. This year, runners fought for purification of the local rivers. Although the message was not clear for all, this year’s event has been watched by hundreds. “Whatever their advocacy was, I think it will definitely…
Tags: Manila University, naked men, Philippines, rivers pollution
Business, Climate & Change, Politics, Pollution, Dec 15th, 2011,
According to Yale University’s 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) Canada ranked as the 46th greenest country in the world, a shameful and sudden drop from #12 in 2008. Why? Mostly due to Canadian ‘tar sands’ or ‘oil sands’ in the province of Alberta, where huge petroleum reserves lie in the form of bitumen, a heavy black form of crude that is energy intensive, highly polluting and more greenhouse gas intensive than conventional oil extraction. And now Canada has pulled out of the Kyoto Treaty, citing that it would be too expensive. Canadian environment minister Peter Kent claims that it would…
Tags: Africa, Canada, energy, Germany, Solar
Pollution, Dec 13th, 2011,
Natural gas firms that engage in hydraulic fracturing are hiding risks from landowners, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group. Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called ‘fracking’, is the practice of extracting natural gas from shale rock by drilling, planting explosives, and pumping in large amounts of water and chemicals to open up gas deposits. Fracking has been linked to the contamination of water supplies with toxic and cancer causing chemicals and even to earthquakes, making the practice controversial throughout the globe. These landowners who were left in the dark about drilling risks are likely just the tip of the…
Tags: chemicals, contamination, fracking, gas, hydraulic fracturing, water
Climate & Change, Politics, Pollution, Dec 7th, 2011,
In 2009 you heard the trite references to Shakespeare about something being ‘rotten in the state of Denmark’ during the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Well it wasn’t just the pickled herring. Nothing stinks worse than corruption, greed and short sightedness in the face of very real human and environmental threats, but toxic waste comes pretty close. Industrial solvents, benzene, dioxins, bleach and sulphides are just a fragrant after scent wafting through the air and just close enough that they might tickle the nose hairs of those ‘negotiating a binding climate deal’ in Durban, South Africa at this years…
Tags: climate change, COP17, Durban, South Africa
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Nov 25th, 2011,
In December 1970 Republican President Richard Nixon created the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Weeks later came the Clean Air Act and in 1972 the Clean Water Act (the latter vetoed by Nixon, but passed by Congress in a strong majority vote). Regardless, even ‘Tricky Dick’ considered environmental issues, like breathable air and drinkable water, to be above partisanship. In the current US political situation, this is plainly not the case. Republicans would like to dismantle the EPA or do away with it all together. They even go so far as to blame the current economic downturn on environmental regulation…
Tags: clean air, EPA, Rachel Maddow, republican, richard nixon
Health, Pollution, Nov 23rd, 2011,
The use of mercury in gold mining and gilding (covering something in a thin layer of gold) has a long history of poisoning in the Western world and a continuing legacy of death and disease in developing countries as the global demand for gold increases. What was commonly known as ‘gilder’s palsy’ occurs due to inhalation or unintentional ingestion when the toxic metal comes in contact with a worker’s hands and later mixes with their food or water. See the following historical example of mercury poisoning in Russia, from the Montreal Gazette: About 100 kilos of gold were mixed with…
Tags: Africa, gold, gold mining, mercury, poisoning, TOXIC
Politics, Pollution, Nov 14th, 2011,
The ‘Greenest government ever’ strikes again. According to official figures pollution contributed to some 200,000 premature deaths in the UK in 2008, a number with disproportionate victims in poor, urban communities. Furthermore, health care costs total £20bn per year for pollution-related ailments. And now the UK’s Conservative-led government wants to relax air quality standards and shift responsibility from national to local authorities. Standard Tory stuff, right? From the Independent: Poor air quality is caused by three main pollutants – nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and ozone. The UK is failing to meet EU limits for both nitrogen dioxide and PM. A…
Tags: air, government, Pollution, UK
Pollution, Nov 13th, 2011,
Sometimes you just don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I must confess I did the latter when reading about the arch eco-criminal, über litter bug a.k.a. audacious tire thug who illegally dumped over a million tires in remote spots of English countryside during the course of a single year. It’s a lousy, shameless crime, but it’s also funny. I mean, was he going for a world record in tire dumping, or as the English say ‘tyre rubbishing’? And he’s been given 15 months for this – I imagine, but honestly have no idea – unprecedented tyre crime. But tire…
Tags: crime, dumping, tire, tyre
Climate & Change, Politics, Pollution, Nov 2nd, 2011,
Growing anti-nuclear sentiment in Europe has reached another milestone. Following Germany’s move to close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, Belgium has decided to shut its own starting in 2015 and completing by 2025, according to a Reuters report. Much like the companies that run Germany’s nuclear stations, Belgium’s energy operator, Electrabel, warned of blackouts, environmental pollution and a decrease in energy independence as a result of the imminent shut down of the country’s 7 atomic power plants. From AFP: Already a net importer of electricity, Belgium could become increasingly dependent on its neighbours, increase its carbon footprint…
Tags: atomic, Belgium, climate change, coal, energy, Europe, Fukushima, Lynas, nuclear, plant, power
Politics, Pollution, Oct 26th, 2011,
Last week representatives from over 170 countries met at a UN environmental conference in Colombia to work towards a ban on the exportation of hazardous waste from rich countries to the developing world. The measure is to ratify an amendment to the Basel Convention, a treaty forged in 1989 with the aim of ensuring that individual states take care of their own waste instead of dumping it in poor countries. The US, which is the top exporter of e-waste, still hasn’t signed on. The US has no rules for exporting its e-waste, most of which ends up in China as…
Tags: China, e-waste, export, japan, Philippines, toxic waste, US
Nature, Pollution, Science & Technology, Sustainable living, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Oct 22nd, 2011,
Abraham Ramonwana, head guide at Tuli Safari Lodge says: “if a mine develops in South Africa, it’s also going to affect Botswana and Zimbabwe”. The authorisation given to an Australian company called Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) to construct an open-cast coal mine, called the Vele Colliery, just outside of the boundaries of the Mapungubwe National Park will affect this fragile natural harmony. To Abraham, “mining and industry is a short term plan, tourism is a long-term plan.” Abraham, like many others, believes that the Mapungubwe region should be preserved and protected from the impacts of infrastructural development, and allowed…
Tags: Abraham Ramonwana, coal, coal mining, Coal of Africa Limited, manungubwe, Pollution, South Africa
Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, Oct 14th, 2011,
Containment and clean up of what has been termed New Zealand’s ‘worst ever environmental disaster’ are on their way in the Bay of Plenty after a Liberian cargo ship ran aground on a coral reef and began leaking fuel oil late last week. So far 350 tons of oil have leaked into the bay, damaging wildlife and washing up on area beaches. A salvage crew has been working aboard the ship, the Rena, making slow progress. Meanwhile, a group of some 2,000 volunteers has been cleaning toxic oil from affected beaches. Read the latest in the New Zealand Herald. For…
Tags: beaches, coral, New Zealand, oil spill, reef, ship, wildlife
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