Environment
Garbage Planet
Garbage. On average, each of us deposits over four pounds of garbage every day in waste baskets around the house. That’s about 30 pounds of garbage per person, per week. If we didn’t take the trash out, it would soon fill up our houses and apartments. If garbage trucks didn’t haul it away, it would [...]
Earth becoming a smoking, glowing, oily mess
“We . . . are turning our planet into a smoking, glowing, oily mess . . . plundering Mother Earth of her treasures . . . refusing to recognize the growing evidence that our reliance on oil, coal and nuclear threatens our health, our security, our economy, our nation and the world,” said Rep. Dennis [...]
Gulf oil spill a reminder of our limits
“There is only one meaningful response to the horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and that is for America to stop messing around when it comes to designing its energy and environmental future. The only meaningful response to this man-made disaster is a man-made energy bill that would finally put in place an [...]
Earth Day(dreaming)
This 40th annual Earth Day — April 22, 2010 — follows last month’s 4th annual Earth Hour and 12th annual World Water Day. Forgive me, but this blitz of environmental days is leaving me dazed. It’s not that I don’t concur with Earth Day’s high-minded objective “to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and [...]
Is Earth past the tipping point?
Once a tipping point is passed, a major change occurs, one that may be difficult or impossible to reverse. If a business crosses the tipping point threshold, the worst that can happen is that it goes bankrupt. But what if Earth passes that point with respect to its environment? The April, 2010, issue of Scientific [...]
It’s World Water Day–and the tap is running dry
“The harsh fact is that we will probably run out of water long before we run out of fuel,” says Nestle Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmanthe on the BBC website. “Agriculture accounts for 70% of global water usage today, and . . . the need to feed the growing population of the world will put an even [...]
Bluefin tuna facing extinction
“Atlantic bluefin tuna could become extinct after an attempt to stop the international buying and selling [of bluefin] was rejected . . . .” CBBC’s Newsround, a website for kids, breaks the bad news to a generation that will inherit oceans devoid of tuna and most other fish. “Numbers of this this type of tuna [...]
U.S. sewer systems leaking hazardous waste
“It was drizzling lightly in late October when . . . untreated feces and industrial waste started spilling from emergency relief valves into the Upper New York Bay and Gowanus Canal,” reports the NY Times. “It happens anytime you get a hard rainfall,” said Bob Connaughton, one the plant’s engineers. “Sometimes all it takes is [...]
Food production limited by worsening environment
“Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into chaos,” reports Scientific American. “Such ‘failed states’ can export disease, terrorism, illicit drugs, weapons and refugees. Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production. Without massive and rapid intervention to address these three [...]
Methane time bomb
Yes, those are actual flames on a frozen Arctic lake in this photo from an article in the Los Angeles Times. The culprits have deliberately set the lake on fire, or more correctly, they have ignited methane gas, escaping from a hole poked in the ice. The amount of methane stored in frozen Arctic lakes [...]
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