By Gavin Hudson •
March 30, 2008
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The top 10 headlines in international environmental news for the week of March 24 - 30.
1. World — Earth Hour 2008
As the clock struck eight in the evening, people across each time zone turned off their lights on March 29. It’s activism en mass and it’s called Earth Hour. The purpose: to inspire people to take action on climate change and to demonstrate that massive and immediate action is possible.
Earth Hour began as a city-wide voluntary blackout in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. This year, they’ve moved the date ahead two days and invited the world to join in. Even Google’s joined in. People from roughly 35 countries participated in this global event, which has become a yearly call to action. Read more: EcoWorldy, CNN.
2. Asia — Japanese Man Crosses Pacific with Wave-Powered Boat
A Japanese man named Kenichi Horie is attempting to be environmentally friendly by boating across the Pacific without sails and without fossil fuels.
How does he do it? With a wave-powered boat. Wave power has been discussed quite a bit recently, with a lot of applications including traditional grid energy generation. However, Kenichi is taking things to the next level by powering his ocean going vehicle with the very thing it bobs atop. Read more: Gas 2.0.
A climate change summit is taking place March 31st-April 4 in Bangkok. Representatives of over 170 countries are meeting to get a draft accord in place for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. The deadline to reach a new protocol has been set for a December 2009 meeting in Denmark.
An interim summit held in Japan mid March convened representatives of the world’s top 20 greenhouse gas emitting countries responsible for 80% of the world’s pollution. It appeared that little progress was made. But all countries including the US agreed in Bali that they’d participate in the negotiations to the Kyoto’s successor and that promise was upheld two weeks ago. What was termed a “principle of common but differentiated responsibility” was accepted as a framework for negotiations. In other words, the new pact will bind all countries to various actions.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that particulate matter from diesel exhaust causes a range of respiratory problems including 15,000 premature deaths each year, new research shows that even short-term exposure to nanoparticles found in diesel fumes can affect brain function.
Nanoparticles can travel to the brain via the olfactory nerve, where they could cause an oxidative stress response in the region of the brain critical to information processing.
Researchers placed subjects in a room with either clean air or diesel fumes (similar to a busy street), and used a electro- encephalograph (EEG) to measure brain response. Subjects breathing the sooty air showed a stress response in the brain’s cortex within 30 minutes, which continued even after they left the room.
By Jim Gunshinan •
March 25, 2008
Over the course of a week of working with concrete,this landscaping job produced only one bucketof wastewater. Credit: Ann Hutcheson-Wilcox
As a lifelong Catholic and former Catholic priest, I often find myself wishing that the Church would stick to what it knows best: the Sacraments. I wish the Pope would declare a 10-year moratorium on anyone with any authority in the Church saying anything at all about sexuality.
But sometimes the Vatican gets it right.
Polluting is a now
[...]
By Joshua S Hill •
March 16, 2008
George W. Bush has definitely been a polarizing personality in his two terms as leader of the United States of America. From the beginning and his War on Iraq he has seemingly attempted to paint himself as nothing more than a moronic menace. Of late, Bush has turned his sights on becoming the world’s greatest environmental foe.
Some may call my words harsh. Others will praise them. They are however, nothing more than my personal opinion about him.
However his actions against the environment are both unquestionable and unconscionable.
A recent Reuters article stated that ‘In cases this week dealing with polar bears, ozone smog and environmental research, groups that monitor these decisions faulted the Bush administration for slighting science in favor of politics.’ I feel that, in looking at the past few months, this statement fails to explain just how Bush has thrown his weight around.
By Joshua S Hill •
March 13, 2008
The life of someone looking to support the environment is a tough one, especially with news like this. The Kyoto Protocol was supposed to be Earth’s savior; or at least a benefit concert. But new information provided by the Chinese government has shown that by 2010 Chinese greenhouse gas emissions will have managed to eclipse the reductions achieved by all the countries underneath the Kyoto protocol.
Researchers at the [...]
By Beth Bader •
March 12, 2008
Ag industry lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural states have pressured the Environmental Protection Agency to drop requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases — even though the EPA’s findings show the gases pose a health threat.
In a head-spinning move, the EPA complied, citing that the reports are not used by local emergency workers and are thus, unnecessary. Unnecessary to whom? It seems valid that the acknowledged threat to residents living and working nearby would be important information.
Unless, of course, they could be used in a lawsuit against you, which has happened with several industrial farms since 1980 when the EPA was first required to document the emissions of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. These reports are one of the few tools rural communities have for holding large livestock operations accountable for the pollution they produce.
By Sam Aola Ooko •
March 11, 2008
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. - Genesis 2:15
Jim Lackey is not amused that the media - new media bloggers included - keep churning out misleading headlines on what the good old Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti actually said about sinning environmentally.
If you’re wondering who the hell the Lackey fellow is, Jim Lackey is the general news editor of the Catholic News Service and he says there is nothing new about environmental blighting as a sin. He says editors are just having fun and are committing another sin in the process - adulteration of the original ingredient! But the CNS website itself has “NEW SINS” as the sub headline to the big story. Perhaps he means it’s an old sin with a new definition?
By Mark Seall •
March 6, 2008
For centuries, Northern and Southern Europe have been divided by the Alps, a natural mountain barrier which neatly dissects the central part of the continent, running from Austria, across Switzerland and into France. However, all is set to change with the construction of the world’s longest tunnel, allowing direct travel through the alps for the first time since dinosaurs roamed the earth.
In modern times, trade between North and South has seen an increasing volume of trucks making the long, slow journey through narrow valleys, high passes, and long tunnels, many of which twist and spiral their way through the rugged mountain terrain. At the beginning of school holidays, tailbacks at the entrance to the 15 mile Gotthard road tunnel can reach 30 kilometres as droves of Northern Europeans migrate South for the food, wine and sunshine of Italy.
Concerned by the consequent increase in pollution (amplified as the narrow valleys trap particulate emissions from cars and trucks, which threatens the balance of delicate alpine eco-systems), the Swiss voted in 1994 to limit trans-alpine freight transport to 650,000 trucks per year. Achieving this will involve a massive engineering project, with 2,000 people working on the new Gotthard Base Tunnel, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
By Mark Seall •
February 27, 2008
The car is an enduring symbol of personal freedom. Small wonder then, that in many countries attempts to place restrictions around car usage are fiercely resisted.
The City of London has faced stern opposition over its new congestion charges (even being threatened with legal action from Porsche), the Germans refuse to bow to pressure from environmental groups to put speed limits on their unrestricted autobahns, speed cameras are branded as a universal menace and Detroit automakers have been vigorously opposed to a national fleet average fuel consumption figure of 35mpg.
The super environmentally conscious nation of Switzerland puts a healthy environment above the freedom of the highway. This week, motorists in the Italian thinking region of Switzerland may drive no faster than 80kmh to compensate for high levels of air pollution in the region.
By Mark Seall •
February 20, 2008
"It looks like the days of skiing on South facing slopes are numbered" remarked the skier to his companion over an apres ski beer in the Swiss resort of Toggenburg. As the two observed the mixture of mud, grass and snow on the slower ski runs on a February afternoon, they murmured about the regretful advance of climate change, the impacts of which were occurring before their very eyes.
Sitting at the table opposite, and having previously wiped mud from my skis for the first time ever, I observed the pair finish their drinks as they continued to discuss the impending catastrophe, before tottering across the car park and jumping in to a large BMW SUV, apparently oblivious to their own part in the play. Similar scenes are replayed daily the world over. Many people agree that human-kind is having a negative impact on our environment, but few are taking direct action. - more on this later.
