Home/Posts Tagged ‘Pollution’
Posts Tagged ‘Pollution’
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
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
Climate Change, Green living, Pollution, Jun 19th, 2012,
Where do you think the world is heading? Are things getting better or going downhill? Obviously, the state of the Earth is no utopian fantasy, but it’s not quite the post-apocalyptic landscape of ‘The Road’ yet either. But The Road not yet traveled is perhaps more likely than some sort of new Eden. Why or why not? Over the past 20 years: World population is growing to unsustainable numbers, though it is expected to stabilize this century. Life expectancy is on the rise, though it’s still around 50 in some very poor countries. This connects with a falling global infant…
Tags: Guardian, Pollution, Rio+20
Nature, Pollution, Weird Stuff, May 28th, 2012,
I first heard about the Salton Sea via a couple of documentaries focusing on pollution and economic collapse. One, VBS TV’s ‘TOXIC Imperial Valley’ shows the Salton Sea and surrounding area as a polluted wasteland populated by a few rugged individualists, stragglers and diehards. The millions of fish in the Salton Sea are dying off and the once playground for California’s rich and famous is now some kind of post-apocalypse Mad Max landscape dotted with abandoned tourist traps as well as a derelict military base. Honestly, it’s just the kind of thing that gets my imagination running. But are things…
Tags: California, fish, park, Pollution, salton sea
Conservation, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 22nd, 2012,
The purpose of World Water Day 2012 is to draw attention to the fact that some 783 million people live without access to clean drinking water. World Water Day – ‘celebrated’ today, March 22nd – also highlights water conservation, wastage and consumption. Water is an increasingly more valuable resource as the Earth’s population grows and water-intensive activities like beef farming stretch world water supplies. Greenpeace is marking World Water Day with a campaign to spread awareness of the pollution of waterways – especially in China – by the global textile industry. The textile industry is the third largest source…
Tags: China, fashion, Greenpeace, Pollution, textiles, water, World Water Day
Climate Change, Health, Politics, Pollution, Mar 16th, 2012,
Just as the UN published figures that global access to clean water has improved, already surpassing their goals set for 2015, a new OECD report predicts that air pollution is set to become the leading environmental cause of premature death. So the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, whose raison d’être is economic growth, is warning that industrialization, which has worked hand in glove with economic growth and market-based economics, is killing more and more people by polluting the air. Previous UN figures showed that as the Global population increases, more urbanization occurs and the proportion of urban inhabitants without…
Tags: clean water, OECD, Pollution, report, sanitation, UN
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Feb 24th, 2012,
Not to Canada bash, but the North American Country – known the world over as much kinder, gentler and more just in comparison to its neighbor, the big bad US of A – has been grabbing a few headlines lately for its deteriorating (or at least more conspicuously poor) environmental record. And let’s be real. Environmental pollution is also a social justice issue. Coal kills people as well as animals and plants. Never mind greenhouse gases. Likewise the tar sands in Alberta. Likewise poisonous emissions from chemical plants on Canada’s Great Lakes. So, without further ado, on to the bashing,…
Tags: Canada, environment, Pollution, tar sands
Green living, Nature, Pollution, Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, 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
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
Green living, Nature, Pollution, Science & Technology, 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
Health, Politics, Pollution, Sep 5th, 2011,
Smog kills. This is a well-established scientific fact. Unhealthy ground ozone levels contribute to and exasperate allergies and asthma. Cities like London, England and Los Angeles, California are particularly bad places to live in terms of air quality. London has the worst air quality in the UK, while Los Angeles – according to the American Lung Association – is the smoggiest region in the US. US President Barack Obama’s administration looked as if they would tighten controls on ozone levels in the country, but another compromise – aka bow to big business interests – seems to have put an end…
Tags: EPA, Los Angeles. London, lung, Obama, Pollution, Smog
Climate Change, Health, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 5th, 2011,
Maps using data on ozone pollution, ragweed and “extreme heat days” in the United States show California to be an especially vulnerable place. The number of unhealthy days in Los Angeles, in particular, is expected to rise in the coming years due to a combination of rising temperatures from climate change, droughts, flooding and pollution. Research shows that rising temperatures can worsen the negative health impacts of pollution and ragweed on respiratory illnesses such as asthma. Los Angeles has smog and ragweed pollen problems and is at risk for at least one unhealthy air quality day per summer, meaning the air…
Tags: California, Climate change, Health, heat, Los Angeles, Pollution, Smog
Health, Politics, Pollution, Jul 25th, 2011,
New York City’s long-serving mayor Michael Bloomberg has a history of highlighting the “public health” aspects of political issues: tobacco, trans-fats, handguns and now coal. Far from a leftist, the pro-business, social liberal, mega-rich philanthropist and media tycoon is neither George Soros nor Silvio Berlusconi, but he’s got a few things in common with both. Bloomberg, once a Democrat, then a Republican and now an Independent, has come out hard against coal. But his latest move is not a political power play – it’s a charitable donation to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. A cool $50 million (€35m) charitable…
Tags: Bloomberg, coal, Health, Mayor, New York, NY, Pollution
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 19th, 2011,
From London fog to LA smog, citizens groups are up in arms over air quality in the big city. In the 80s Los Angeles was famous for its smog, caused by endless highways choked with the exhaust of millions of cars. Like the Missing Persons song says, “nobody walks in LA”. Apparently everyone has asthma instead. Things have gotten better since the heady 80s and emissions standards have become stricter, but LA is still really smoggy. One study even found that air pollution kills more people in the region than even auto accidents. Los Angeles is the smoggiest region in…
Tags: LA, london, Los Angeles, Pollution, Smog
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 13th, 2011,
Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, Puma, Calvin Klein, Converse, Cortefiel, H&M and Lacoste are among the global megabrands named in a new Greenpeace report on hazardous river pollution by the garment industry in China. Since 1995 China has been the world’s largest exporter of textiles, attracting Western and Japanese brands to manufacture there due to cheap labor and lax regulations. Even when major international brands have self-imposed regulations on how their garments are produced, such rules are harder to monitor when outsourced to firms in other countries. Youngor Group, the Chinese company linked to the international firms, uses chemical dyes…
Tags: Adidas, brands, China, Converse, garment, Greenpeace, H&M, Nike, Pollution, Puma, river, textiles
Pollution, Jul 11th, 2011,
The world’s beaches are covered in filth. Not to sound alarmist – or heaven forbid, put someone off their well-deserved beach holiday – but reports from around the globe (or glob) show that beaches everywhere are in an increasingly dire state. We’ve already found out that our oceans are facing ‘catastrophic’ conditions, but that shouldn’t spoil a bit of fun, sun, surf and sand, should it? Problem is, many of those beaches we associate with a nice day out in Mother Nature’s splendor are awash with chemicals and human waste (shit). Look what the LA Times has to say about…
Tags: beaches, California, filth, Guernsey, Pollution, staph, waste
Climate Change, Wildlife & Flora, Jun 13th, 2011,
I have seen the future and it stings. Climate change, overfishing and agricultural runoff are all possible factors in the rise of jellyfish populations in seas around the globe. Jellyfish invasions such as those experienced by Spain last summer are actually population booms and/or mass migrations attributed to warmer waters, a reduction of predators and an increase of oceanic pollution from organic fertilizers. Besides wreaking havoc on Spain’s beaches, jellyfish have been blamed for wiping out salmon stocks in Northern Ireland and disrupting the running of coastal power and desalination plants in Africa, the Middle East and Japan. New research,…
Tags: acidic, carbon, carbon dioxide, Climate change, jellyfish, laser, oceans, Pollution, population
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, May 20th, 2011,
As the Philippines moves forward in cleaner energy production and away from power sourced from oil and coal, the streets of its capital city, Manila, are choked with emissions from diesel and petrol-burning vehicles. According to the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI) recent years have seen the Philippines experience a sharp rise in the production of energy from hydro and natural gas, and especially from geothermal and other renewable sources. At the same time, power generated from coal and oil peaked and began a somewhat steady decline during the last decade (though figures are only shown up to 2005). What’s…
Tags: coal, electric, energy, jeepney, Manilla, oil, Philippines, Pollution, power
Health, Pollution, Mar 9th, 2011,
Diesel engines and heating systems produce fine particle pollution, which shortens life expectancy in European cities, according to a study by the Aphekom project. The study measured air pollution and human health in 25 cities in Europe, with Bucharest, Romania scoring worst and Stockholm Sweden as cleanest, the latter’s pollution measuring just below targets set by the World Health Organization. The air in Bucharest, on the other hand, is so bad that it is estimated to reduce life expectancy by two years. The study then focused on 10 cities including Barcelona, Brussels and Rome, and, for the first time, took…
Tags: Bucharest, Europe, european cities, Pollution, Romania, Stockholm, study, Sweden
Pollution, Feb 15th, 2011,
An Ecuadoran court has found oil giant Chevron guilty of contaminating the South American country’s Amazon basin. A judge in an Ecuadoran court levied a fine of $8bn (€6bn) against Chevron for deaths, illnesses and monetary losses sustained by the local inhabitants of the rainforest from spills of toxic waste and crude oil. The spills are estimated by a Swedish University study to total 30bn gallons (113bn liters). This amount dwarfs the 205m gallons spilt by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. Though the suit is being touted as a hard fought victory for the indigenous people of Ecuador, the…
Tags: amazon, Chevron, court, Ecuador, Ecuadoran, oil, Pollution, rainforest, spill, TOXIC
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