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Articles in: Climate Change
Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Pollution, May 9th, 2013,
The European Union recently voted to ban (or at least limit) three pesticides, which have been linked to large-scale bee die-offs. The three neonicotinoids damage the bees’ neurotransmitters so that they become lost and cannot find their way back to their hives. Neonicotinoids are used directly on seeds rather than sprayed onto foliage or fruit. A recent study by the American Bird Conservancy found that neonicotinoids have a negative impact on “birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.” Birds can die from consuming the seeds directly and agricultural runoff from farms using neonicotinoids can poison groundwater and contaminate lakes,…
Tags: CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder, honeybee die-off, neonicotinoids
Conservation, Natural disasters, Pollution, Science & Technology, May 4th, 2013,
Over the last several decades, there have been a number of headline making oil spills that have left the world with shocking images. We have seen the results of drilling in the ocean floors to find oil. We know that our dependency on fossil fuels drives an industry that requires destroying some of our most precious resources. Seeing pelicans covered in sludge and oil and other birds that can’t spread their wings, many people say that it is time we finally get off of depending on these tainted, dirty resources. These people champion electric vehicles as alternatives to regular oil…
Green living, Pollution, Science & Technology, Apr 18th, 2013,
The debate between digital books and paper books has remained an issue since the introduction of the first e-readers in the mid 2000s. The e-book reader was invented as a way for people to store many books on one device and hopefully reduce many of the costs associated with traditional books. Since e-readers have existed for several years now, it is easier to project their impact on the world today than it was when the readers were first released. It turns out; the issue is not nearly as black and white as first thought. Currently, the use of e-readers and…
Politics, Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 16th, 2013,
Acute and far-reaching effects are still being felt some three years after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Here are some updates on the fallout from the United States’ worst ever environmental disaster: Poisoned wildlife From the Independent: Scientists believe that the 1.8 million gallons of dispersant, sprayed as part of the clean-up, have cemented the disaster’s toxic effect on ocean life and human health. The dispersant, called Corexit, caused what some scientists have described as “a giant black snowstorm” of tiny oil globules, which has been carried around…
Tags: deepwater horizon spill, gulf of mexico pollution, offshore drilling
Conservation, Politics, Pollution, Apr 12th, 2013,
Last month concerns over the Canadian controlled Skouries gold mining project on northern Greece’s Chalkidiki peninsula were brought to the World Social Forum in Tunisia. Though the Hellas Gold/Eldorado Gold Corporation mine promises to bring 5,000 jobs to the region, local opposition has been strong. Previous protests have included the trashing of portacabins and equipment plus several local demonstrations as well as large shows of support in Thessaloniki and Athens. Local residents of believe that their natural riches will be ruined in order for foreign companies and the Greek state to exact a quick profit, leaving their fishing and tourism…
Tags: gold mine greece, Skouries
Politics, Pollution, Apr 4th, 2013,
As the Deepwater Horizon trial progresses in Louisiana, with US District Judge Carl Barbier pruning down the defendants to three (Halliburton, Transocean and BP), another little-known, but related story is resurfacing. Investigative journalist Greg Palast writes on his website about an almost identical blowout on another BP oil platform in the Caspian Sea. The Caspian rig blowout occurred 17 months before the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which resulted in the deaths of 11 crewmembers. Both rigs had the same cement plug malfunction – a nitrogen gas explosion. To prevent blow-outs, drilled wells must be capped with…
Tags: BP, Deepwater Horizon, Greg Palast, Keystone XL
Nature, Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Mar 28th, 2013,
A provider of sanctuary to WikiLeaks founder and champion of transparency Julian Assange and staunch ally of the recently bereaved Venezuela, Ecuador has been punching above its weight of late. In terms of international relations, that is. Ecologically speaking, Ecuador is a bonafide heavyweight. According to Conservation International, it is one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries, with the highest density of biodiversity per km on Earth. The Galápagos Islands alone should cement the nation’s global environmental value, but even without them Ecuador’s natural wealth is invaluable. Half the area of the country is covered by the Amazon rainforest and…
Tags: Ecuador Amazon, oil in Ecuador
Pollution, Mar 11th, 2013,
Last summer I wrote a piece for Travel Wire Asia regarding the phenomenon of disaster tourism. I included a few examples from the continent: a village in Indonesia where a volcano killed 353 people in 2010, a museum commemorating the 2008 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province and even one of India’s most polluted cities. The above are of course all great places for a holiday with the kids, as is Chernobyl and the nearby city of Pripyat, where busloads of tourists can wander around a once bustling community that has remained uninhabited since the infamous 1986 nuclear incident. Though I…
Tags: Abandoned fukushima, Fukushima disaster, fukushima photos
Politics, Pollution, Mar 7th, 2013,
A couple of weeks ago I posted about the ongoing battle to save a local environment and community in Chalkidiki, northern Greece from the ravages of a Canadian-owned gold mining project. This morning (Thursday) police responded violently at a demonstration against the arrest of 5 people suspected of participating in an arson attack at the Hellas Gold site in Skouries village last month. Police used tear gas against demonstrators, reportedly even firing a cannister directly into the head of a 15 year-old high school student. From ekathimerini.com: […] police spokesman Christos Manouras denied allegations police had fired tear gas in…
Tags: anti gold mine protest in Greece, Hellas Gold, police brutality greece, Skouries gold mine
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Feb 25th, 2013,
Back in September 2009 I posted about some of the fascinating and disgusting things to be found in New York Harbor. It was basically a brief commentary on a feature in New York Magazine, a sort of “did you know?” piece cataloguing some interesting trivia about strange creatures, ship and train wrecks, cars, corpses, coal tar and loads of fish and mollusks that are too contaminated by PCPs (toxic pesticides and disinfectants) to be fit for human consumption. Not much of a fishing industry in NYC. Oh, and because of the city’s antiquated sewage treatment system, New York’s waterways are…
Tags: hudson river pollution, indian point nuclear power plant, new york city pollution, new york harbor contamination
Politics, Pollution, Feb 21st, 2013,
Earlier this week masked activists vandalized a mining site in northern Greece. As many as 50 people raided the Skouries gold mining project in the Chalkidiki peninsula (Halkidiki) region, burning portacabin offices and damaging equipment. The activist allegedly carried guns and doused two guards with flammable liquid, though they did not set anyone alight. From ekathermini.com: A total of 33 people were detained on Sunday, prompting residents of the nearby village of Ierissos to hold a public rally to protest what the saw as being random detentions by the police. Many locals, environmental groups and Greece’s main opposition political party…
Tags: Greek politics, Halkidiki gold mine
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Feb 14th, 2013,
As hoards are rushing out for flowers and chocolate, a perhaps smaller, more conscientious number are heeding the call to rise up, strike and… er, dance. Oh, what the hell, why not? One Billion Rising, falling on Valentine’s Day, is the 15th anniversary of V-Day, the movement to end violence against women and girls. According to the official website, One Billion Rising is: A global strike An invitation to dance A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of…
Tags: environmental impact of Valentine's Day, One Billion Rising
Climate Change, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 29th, 2012,
Remember climate change? Yeah, it didn’t go away. In fact it’s worse than ever. However, the media (and therefore the public) have largely lost interest. No more Amazon? More extreme floods and droughts? Bo-ring! The Right in the US and Europe have succeeded in sewing enough doubt as to the reality of climate change that many people are just “confused” or “skeptical” so no large countries are really doing anything significant. The more sane elements in the governments of these nations still try to make money out of any “solution” to climate change. The free market will solve everything, apparently….
Tags: amazon, arctic, Climate change, global warming
Pollution, Aug 9th, 2012,
What you read or hear about Hong Kong can be confusing. Recently the semi-autonomous city state of the People’s Republic of China was named the “most liveable city” in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit bi-annual global liveability index. This year’s criteria was designed by an urban planner and judged cities based on their amount of natural and cultural assets; green space; connectivity; absence of sprawl and lack of isolation. ECA International also rated Hong Kong as Asia’s 3rd most liveable city despite rating its air quality as among the poorest. Hong Kong’s recent API (Air Pollution Index) rates…
Tags: air quality, Hong Kong, most liveable city, plastic pellets, Pollution
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jul 31st, 2012,
A new study by scientists at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading attributes the dramatic reduction in Arctic summer sea ice since the 1970s to human activity. The study found that the 40% loss since the 70s is at least 70% man made, with the rest down to natural variability in the Atlantic. And that is only a conservative estimate, with as much as 95% of ice loss estimated to be caused by humans. The study’s leader, Jonny Day, is quoted in the Guardian on one of the accelerating causes of Arctic ice melt, which…
Tags: arctic, greenland, ice melt, oil, Shell, study
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 30th, 2012,
In response to public safety concerns and a general anti-nuclear sentiment in the wake of last year’s Fukushima power plant disaster, Japan was nuke-free for a couple of months. That ended earlier this month with the controversial restart of two nuclear power plants. On Sunday anti-nuke demonstrators were out in full force, forming a human chain around the parliament complex in Tokyo. Some witnesses expressed that they haven’t seen protests on this scale in Japan since the 1960s. From the Associated Press: Similar demonstrations have been held outside the prime minister’s residence every Friday evening. The crowds have not dwindled,…
Tags: anti-nuclear, protest, rally, Tokyo
Climate Change, Politics, Jul 24th, 2012,
In 2008 rising costs of staple foods like rice and wheat sparked riots in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean and stockpiling in other parts of the world. Some 37 countries faced food crises. High fuel prices were blamed, as was an outbreak of disease and pests affecting rice crops in Vietnam. This article convincingly blames monoculture farming and the Green Revolution for creating a ‘perfect storm’ for a global food crisis. Now a persistent drought in the United States, the world’s largest producer of corn, is driving prices of corn and soy to record levels, which can also raise the price…
Tags: corn, food crisis, globalization, prices
Climate Change, Jul 19th, 2012,
Though China has been the largest aggregate emitter of CO2 in the world since 2006, the argument has always been that they emit far less per person than developed countries. Well that argument has now expired with the news that China’s per capita CO2 in 2011 was more or less equal to the European average. The main difference is that China has only recently become a big emitter (both in terms of total and per capita emissions) whereas Europe and the rest of the developed world have been emitting for ages and in a big way. This is according to…
Tags: China, co2, emissions, per-capita
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jul 16th, 2012,
The global shipping industry produces 3 billion metric tons of carbon emissions every year. That’s as much CO2 as the combined output of Japan, Canada, Mexico and Germany. Greenhouse gas emissions from freight are a serious problem, but there are examples of alternative technology. One that is probably more familiar to most of us is the use of overhead electric cables, like the ones used to power tram lines or trolleybuses. Freight trucks could be powered in the same way. In Brandenburg, Germany a project that uses such a method is being field tested. From Deutsche Welle: Freight trucks with…
Tags: co2, freight, shipping, trolleybus
Politics, Pollution, Jul 15th, 2012,
Recent protests against a giant copper plant planned for the town of Shifang in Sichuan Province, China yielded a victory for the local people against what was seen as a ramming through of a major industrial project by the local and national governments. This was just the latest in a series of victories for local communities in China standing up against what they see as industrial projects that put economic concerns above those of the environment and human health. In recent years similar people power protests have been successful in Dalian, Shanghai and Guangzhou. What characterized the success of the…
Tags: Health, Pollution, protests, Shifang
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