May 6 was World Asthma Day. Since car exhaust can lead to asthma as well as global warming, we thought it would be a good day to highlight the importance of not idling your car or truck engine.

What makes idling especially bad for health is that drivers tend to idle in gathering places - by sidewalks, schools, playgrounds, homes, and offices. Breathing in pollution close to the source is more dangerous than farther away.

Take a look at the evidence.

Tailpipe Exhaust May Cause Asthma

Tailpipe exhaust from both gasoline- and diesel-burning vehicles contains the pollutants that produce ozone when combined with sunlight and heat. Ozone occurs mostly during the summer months. A warming planet means more hot days, and thus more ozone.

Breathing in ozone irritates and inflames your lungs, and repeated exposure can reduce lung function. There’s a lot of evidence that ozone makes asthma worse. But the Children’s Health Study in California found evidence that ozone causes asthma. The study also found that children can suffer irreversible lung damage as adults from breathing smog.

On top of that, diesel exhaust contains particulate matter (soot). This has long been known to cause a variety of health problems, including aggravated asthma (see CARB report on health effects [PDF]). But as with ozone, there is evidence that diesel exhaust particles may cause asthma, and not just worsen it.

California kids aren’t the only ones to suffer from tailpipe-induced asthma. A 2005 NYU Medical Center study showed that asthma symptoms among children in the South Bronx doubled on high traffic days.

Conversely, reducing ozone can improve asthma rates. During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the city closed downtown to private cars for 17 days. During this time, daily peak ozone levels dropped more than a quarter and hospitalizations for asthma fell by almost one-fifth.

Fight Global Warming, Save Money

There’s no reason to idle your vehicle engine. As I explained my previous post:

• Today’s engines don’t need a warm-up period.
• If you’re stopped for more than 10 seconds, it uses more gasoline to idle than to restart.

Many cities, including New York, have laws against idling, but they’re rarely enforced. We need better enforcement, but we can make a difference with our own actions and behavior.

So in honor of World Asthma Day, switch off that idling engine. You’ll curb global warming pollution, save money on gasoline, and help everyone to breathe better.

The Amazon is without a doubt one of the planet’s most valuable and important ecological resources; and not for logging. The rainforest contains approximately one tenth of the total carbon stored in land ecosystems, and recycles much of the rain that falls upon its leafy canopy.

Thus, any major change to its vegetation has massive implications for the global climate system.

During the 70’s and 80’s, sulphate aerosol particles being emitted from the burning of coal have contributed to partly reducing global warming in the northern hemisphere, by reflecting sunlight and making clouds brighter. As a result, this pollution has helped to limit the warming in the tropical north Atlantic.

This has kept the Amazon wetter, than had the global warming been allowed to increase the temperature in that part of the world as well. Chris Huntingford of CEH, one of the studies co-authors, explains: “Reduced sulphur emissions in North America and Europe will see tropical rain-bands move northwards as the north Atlantic warms, resulting in a sharp increase in the risk of Amazonian drought”.

A team from the University of Exeter, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Met Office Hadley Centre and Brazilian National Institute for Space Studies used a climate carbon model at the Met Office Hadley Center to simulate the impacts of 21^st century climate change on the Amazon. They then compared data from the 2005 drought – which had caused massive devastation to the Amazon basin – and found that by 2025, a drought on this scale could happen every other year, and by 2060 a drought could occur in nine out of every ten years.

There are a number of factors playing havoc with the Amazon, as co-Author Dr Carlos Nobre of the Brazilian Institute for Space Research explains: “Global warming, deforestation and increased forest fires are all acting in synergy to reduce the resilience of the Amazonian forests”.

While another of the co-authors, Dr Matthew Collins of the Met Office Hadley Centre, summed up the future: “The rainforest is under many pressures. Direct deforestation is the most obvious immediate threat, but climate change is also a big issue for Amazonia. We have to deal with both if we want to safeguard the forest.”

Image Courtesy of markg6 via Flickr

Source - Press Release

It is not about biting food shortages either; you’d still blissfully load your favorite McDonald’s double cheeseburger or quarter pounder but take care where you fling away that annoying packaging on your safari.

Speaking of a safari, you’d definitely want to see the wildlife, and that includes some endangered species too. But you may be stung all the way to a crumpled jail house literally if you dare to “disturb” their natural habitat. And this may include doing business too.

“Protect the Environment. There are Green Scorpions roaming around who will sting you if you don’t.”

In South Africa, environmental management inspectors, otherwise known as Green Scorpions have for 2 years now been nosing around for environmental criminals to protect the country’s natural resources.

Syndicates peddling illegal elephant ivory tusks and forbidden plants have already been stung by these ruthless EMIs, and game ornaments seized in several operations.

Now, if you are shopping for curios on your safari, you wouldn’t want to learn that the curio shop is stocking illegal game ornaments, because possession of these alone gets you to jail too.

The Green Scorpions also run environmental compliance and enforcement campaigns, conducting on-site compliance inspections of plants suspected of violating environmental laws, monitoring for criminal activity along coasts, and educating the public to increase awareness of environmental crimes and the community’s role in protecting the environment.

A special operation targets environmental compliance in the iron, steel, and ferro alloy industries, prioritized because their processes can cause significant pollution if not managed properly.

The Green Scorpions have closed medical waste plants that fall short of the required environmental standards proving they have teeth to bite hard and there are about 1,000 of them roaming around major cities of South Africa.

In Seychelles, officers of the environmental police unit can fine you on the spot for littering under the Environment Protection Act 1994 which was designed to protect the surroundings or public places against anti-social behaviour such as throwing empty plastic bottles, wrappings or polystyrene take-away boxes or pet bottles anywhere after its contents have been consumed.

“Our environment police will help give Seychelles cleaner streets, parks, beaches and public places,” boasted the island’s environment minister.

Environmental law will now be part of course work for all police cadets in Kenya after a succesful campaign by environmentalists and the police will soon have a full-fledged department to arrest environmental pollution.

Last month, 120 police court prosecutors underwent specialized training on pollution and environment for starters.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Your house may not be your biggest contributer to globalwarming. Credit: Jim Gunshinan.

My focus in this blog had been on green homes, but there are other areas of our lives that account for our total carbon footprint–how much carbon we are responsible for adding to the atmosphere–a measure of our contribution to global warming. Our houses and apartments, but also our cars, air travel, and the food we eat all contribute.

Don Fugler, who does research for the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation, estimated the amount each area of our lives contributes to our carbon footprint. He used a hypothetical family of four (two adults, two kids) in Ottawa, with a medium-sized house (2,400 square feet), and two cars (Ford Explorer and Honda Fit) to do the calculations. Both parents work and travel about 20 miles roundtrip to work each weekday. The kids travel a few miles each day back and forth to school. Both parents make a total of five trips to Toronto and five trips to other places each year for business, and the family goes on a yearly ski trip to Whistler by air travel, and back and forth by car to visit relatives in Nova Scotia once a year.

For us Californians, replace Ottawa with Oakland, Whistler with Lake Tahoe, add a trip to Hawaii, and subtract most of the energy used for heating a house, and I think we come close to the Canadian example.

The folks who brought us the movie also gave us a niftycarbon calculator. Use it to measure the size of your carbonfootprint (go to www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction). Credit: www.climatecrisis.net

Our hypothetical family, according to Don’s calculations, emits about 13 tons of CO2 from their house, about 14 tons because of air travel, about 10 tons from their cars, and about 5 tons from the food they eat (including growing, shipping, and waste disposal). Notice that the highest amount is from air travel!

The folks who brought us the movie An Inconvenient Truth also provide an online calculator so that you can more accurately calculate your contribution to global warming–the site also gives good information on how to reduce your carbon footprint. Don recommends that we conduct more and more of our business using the Internet instead of traveling far from our homes, live close to our jobs in dense urban areas with good public transportation, ride our bikes a lot, and all become vegetarians.

Asia

Two “Extinct” Species Discovered

First there was Swinshoe’s softshell turtle, and then the Javan Elephant. Is this more commonplace than we might believe?

Frankly, no. Despite the occasional hubbub over an animal science has lost track of– say, the Coelacanth– we’ve witnessed something extraordinary. Swinshoe’s turtle was previously believed to be extinct in the wild, with only three remaining in captivity, and therefore every one of these 300-pound turtles is a critical find.

Continue reading: Environmental Graffiti. Hot in media: Stumble Upon.

Building Ban for Beijing Olympics

All building sites in Beijing will be shut three weeks before the start of the Olympic Games, as the city tries to clear its skies of pollution.

Digging, pouring of concrete and outdoor spray-painting will also be banned under plans announced by the Environmental Protection Bureau.

The move follows mounting concern that athletes may suffer from Beijing’s noxious atmosphere.

Continue reading: BBC. Hot in media: Care2 News Network.

China ‘Now Top Carbon Polluter’

China has already overtaken the US as the world’s “biggest polluter”, a report to be published next month says.

The research suggests the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

The University of California team will report their work in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management.

Continue reading: BBC. Hot in media: Digg.

South America

Amazon Tribe Enlists Google in Battle with Illegal Loggers

You may know it as Google, but in bamboo-and-thatch roundhouses deep in the Amazon rainforest the iconic brand goes by another name. The Surui people, one of the most remote on Earth, call it ragogmakan – “messenger” – and they’re banking on the search engine to save them and their ancestral lands from extinction.

The tribe – whose first contact with the modern world was less than 40 years ago – are replacing their bows and arrows with hi-tech gadgets in their battle for survival. They have already begun using satnav on their traditional trails through the trees. And Google Earth has just agreed to provide high-resolution satellite images of their forest home.

Continue Reading: The Independent. Hot in media: Digg.

GOING, GOING, GONE? New Satellite Images Reveal a Shrinking Amazon Rainforest

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon may be on the rise, according to high-resolution images released by an agency of the Brazilian government. The images suggest an end to a widely hailed three-year decline in the rate of deforestation and have spurred a public controversy among high-level Brazilian officials, writes Tim Hirsch, author of “The Incredible Shrinking Amazon Rainforest” in the May/June 2008 issue of World Watch magazine.

Deforestation accounts for approximately one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions and is responsible for significant species loss worldwide. Recent anti-deforestation measures under the administration of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have led to a marked drop in the rate of forest loss over the past three years.

Continue reading: ENN. Take action: Petition to save the Amazon.

Africa

Dockers Refuse to Unload China Arms Shipment for Zimbabwe

South African dockers are refusing to unload a Chinese cargo ship carrying 77 tonnes of small arms destined for Zimbabwe.

The arms, including three million rounds of ammunition suitable for AK47s and 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, were ordered by the Zimbabwean military at the time of the March 29 election – which Britain and other Western powers have accused Robert Mugabe of trying to rig.

Continue reading: Times Online. Hot in media: Digg.

Middle East

Bahrain World Trade Center Activates Wind Turbines

You may remember that about a year ago we brought you news of the Bahrain World Trade Center, which was designed to have three giant turbines provide power to the building. Well, this past Tuesday, the project was finally completed, with the final testing and installation of the enormous wind turbines which power the building. This week, Bahrain WTC has, for the first time, activated all three 29m-diameter turbines at the same time!

Continue Reading: Inhabitat. Hot in media: Digg.

North America

Canada Leads Way with Ban on Baby Bottles Containing Bisphenol A

The government announced Friday that Canada will be the first country to ban plastic baby bottles with bisphenol A after concluding the chemical is toxic.

Health Minister Tony Clement unveiled the “precautionary and prudent” move while trying to calm fears with a limited ban of the widely used chemical, also found in hard plastic sports bottles and tin cans of food and infant formula. Most Canadians “need not be concerned” about the health effects of bisphenol A, but Clement said “this is not the case for newborns and infants.”

Continue reading: The Gazette.

Europe

Biofuel Rule Will Do More Harm Than Good, Oxfam Says

U.K. fuels for cars and trucks must contain biofuels starting today, a move that may do more harm than good to the environment and drive food prices higher, charities including Oxfam and Greenpeace said.

Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, suppliers must ensure that 2.5 percent of fuel sold at U.K. pumps consists of biofuels, which are made from crops and grasses. The requirement will rise to 5 percent by 2010. The Department for Transport says the plan will cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 2.5 million metric tons a year.

Continue reading: Bloomberg. Hot in media: Digg.

Global

Millions Of Pounds Of Trash Found On Ocean Beaches

Ocean Conservancy released its annual report on trash in the ocean with new data from the 2007 International Coastal Cleanup the most comprehensive snapshot of the harmful impacts of marine debris. The mission of Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup is to engage people to remove trash from the world’s beaches and waterways, to identify the sources of debris and to change the behaviors that cause pollution.

This year, more than 378,000 volunteers participated in cleanups around every major body of water around the globe. Volunteers record the trash found on land and underwater allowing Ocean Conservancy a global snapshot of the problem.

Continue reading: Science Daily. Hot in media: Care2 News Network.

Over the past week rumors and rumblings about a climate plan underway in the current and fading Whitehouse have emerged. Thankfully, it all seems a bit “disappointing.”

Seventeen nations have come together in Paris for two days in the latest round of climate warming talks, under the heading of the Major Emitters Meeting. The South African delegation was the one to label Bush’s proposals – to halt a rise in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 – as disappointing. “There is no way whatever that we can agree to what the U.S. is proposing,” South African Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said in a statement.

According to Bush’s plan, “the growth in emissions will slow over the next decade, stop by 2025, and begin to reverse thereafter, so long as technology continues to advance.” This is just fantastic, considering that according to the U.N. Climate Panel, emissions will have to peak – worldwide – within 10 to 15 years – and then fall sharply if we are to avoid floods, droughts and rising seas.

Greenpeace also took a swing at Bush, though with their well-known for inaccuracy and fervent ignorance. In response to Bush’s plan, Greenpeace said that “Yes, for another 15 years the country that has spewed more emissions into the atmosphere than any other country on Earth will continue to emit more and more.”

It seems an innocuous statement, but you have to wonder at the timing just days after China was named the world’s biggest emitter. There’s some math to be done there, for sure, but who has released more emissions? Either way, they know how to make a splash.

That being said, when targeting George W. Bush, no one really seems to mind except for the Bush fans (and those on Digg.com).

I’ll finish this article with what the brilliant Noble Peace Prize Laureate, Desmond Tutu, has to say about the rich west and their point of view on climate change.

“Many rich world leaders have not, so far, responded to the climate crisis with the urgency required. Cushioned and cosseted, they have had the luxury of closing their minds to the real impact of what is happening in the fragile and precious atmosphere that surrounds the planet we live on.

“I wonder how much more anxious they might be, if they depended on the cycle of mother nature to feed their families. How much greater would their concerns be if they lived in slums and townships, in mud houses, or shelters made of plastic bags? In large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, this is a reality. The poor, the vulnerable and the hungry are exposed to the harsh edge of climate change every day of their lives. …

“At the Major Economies Meeting in Paris, developed countries must commit to immediate action against climate change. The United Nations need to deliver an action plan to save the planet at the climate change conference in 2009. There is no time to be distracted from the urgent task to deliver this global rescue plan. The world is watching, and those who are feeling the impacts of climate change today, are expecting decisive action - now.”

More from the GO Network

Could Action on Climate Really Be Bush Legacy?

AAMCO, one of the world’s largest chains of automotive service centers, has started an initiative designed to promote environmental sustainability and energy efficiency across the nation.

The Eco-Green Auto Service initiative will certify automotive centers that meet a stringent set of criteria while adding services that cut emissions, improve mileage, and reduce hazardous waste associated with owning a vehicle.

AAMCO is also promoting alternative fuels by installing E85 conversion kits that allow vehicles to run on ethanol blends up to 85%. Their service centers will use kits provided by Flex Fuel US ®, called the FLEX-BOX SMART KIT™, which is the only ethanol conversion kit fleet-certified by the EPA.

The FLEX-BOX is an aftermarket bolt-on kit that continuously monitors the engine’s emissions and delivers supplementary fuel injection as needed, since blending high levels of ethanol into gasoline will make the engine run lean.

As I mentioned yesterday, auto manufacturers tend to make a big fuss out of vehicle conversions like this one. General Motors has done so with their plan to convert half their fleet to run on 85% ethanol by 2012, and there really isn’t an incentive for them to convert older vehicles. I haven’t found out how much these conversions cost yet, but AAMCO’s website indicates that up to 85% (coincidence) of the conversion price can be offset by state tax credits.

Only one problem though: all the ethanol in the US is currently made from food. If you feel like filling your gas tank with corn, the price of a gallon of E85 is only $2.67, although that works out to about the same price as gas when you factor in the lower energy content of ethanol. Converting the nation’s automobile fleet to E85 doesn’t seem to make sense until cellulosic ethanol facilities go online.

AAMCO’s Eco-Green auto service has other important attributes besides ethanol conversions though. They’ll be attempting to create a “closed-loop environment” to recycle materials and eliminate waste streams, such as recycling waste transmission fluid into fuel to power heaters or air conditioners. AAMCO will also be using water-based cleaners to avoid hazardous solvents and will be using biodegradable lubricants (like vegetable oil) in their hydraulic equipment.

“We are creating a closed-loop environment for our centers, where whatever comes in is reused, and whatever goes out has minimal or no environmental impact,” says Todd Leff, AAMCO’s CEO. “Our franchisees are converting their centers into the cleanest car care businesses on the planet. I’ve long believed the automotive aftermarket industry can do more to minimize its impact. Now AAMCO centers are out to make a difference.”

To learn more: AAMCO’s Eco-Green auto service and Flex Fuel US ®.

To find an environmental friendly auto-service center, click here.

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It’s happening through a company called GreenFuel, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass.

GreenFuel has been partnering with Arizona Public Service Company to create biofuels from algae grown using carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from a power plant. The companies successfully grew algae at APS’ Redhawk natural gas power plant in Arizona, and is moving their tests to a coal-fired power plant at Farmington, NM.

According to a release from APS, algae at Redhawk grew at levels 37 times higher than corn and 140 times higher than soybeans, which are now used to create biofuels.

According to GreenFuel,

“A single pass through the GreenFuel system significantly reduces carbon dioxide in the waste gas. Using the sun as a source of energy, algae convert the CO2 into valuable compounds. Growing up to 30 times faster than other terrestrial plants, algae are regularly harvested for conversion into biofuels, feed, or can be recycled back to the host facility. Recycling algae in a closed system reduces the need for fossil fuels”.

Company founder Isaac Berzin believes that,

“at commercial scale, he will cut capital costs enough to beat oil at $60 per barrel. Burning the algae fuel means the carbon has been used twice before being released, displacing greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, and adding to the power company’s profitability when carbon is regulated.”

What a concept, creating biofuels from carbon dioxide and cleaning the air at the same time! There’s no need for potable water or fertile land, and the installation requires no retooling of existing facilities. In addition, operations at the site are not interrupted and there is no exposure to hazardous materials or other risks.

GreenFuel says it has successfully installed its systems at gas, coal and oil burning facilities.

Stay tuned.

Related Posts:
First Algae Biodiesel Plant Goes Online: April 1, 2008
Canada Unleashes First Carbon Tax in N. America
Algae Could Be Major Hydrogen Fuel Source

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.

3. Antarctica — Huge Arctic Ice Chunk Collapses

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday.

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started February 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years. Read more: CNN.

4. Asia — Third Annual ‘World Renewable Energy Summit’ Held in Kuala Lumpur

The third annual ‘World Renewable Energy Summit (WRES)’ was held at the JW Marriot hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from March 27 to 28.

The surge in energy demand and oil prices combined with the depletion of fossil fuels has the world turning to renewable energy as a solution. Research and insights to the latest developments and trends are vital to the renewable energy market. Read more: Energy Asia.

5. Africa — South Africa Considers Elephant Culling

Elephant population in South Africa has increased to more than 20,000 from 8,000 thirteen years in 1995 when the country was talking tough against culling. With overpopulation, the elephants come into conflict with people as they search for their daily diet of about 300 kilograms of grass, leaves and twigs.

South African environment minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, says: “Our simple reality is that elephant population density has risen so much in some southern African countries that there is concern about impacts on the landscape, the viability of other species and the livelihoods and safety of people living within elephant ranges.” Read more: EcoWorldly, BBC.

6. South America — Continued Pressure on the Amazon Rainforest

A six-year study of Amazonian small farmers and their responses to climate change shows the farmers are vulnerable to natural catastrophes and risky land use practices, say Indiana University Bloomington anthropologists Eduardo Brondizio and Emilio Moran. Read more: ENN.

Several other threats to the Amazon cropped up elsewhere in the news this week. Time Magazine focused on the threat of certain biofuels to forests. In addition, EcoEarth passed around a petition to keep soybean farming out of the Amazon.

7. Europe / Asia — Soviet Pollution

Camels cross the dry bed of the Aral Sea… A gloss of oil and chemicals sheens standing water in an oil field near Baku… Hospital staff cares for an infant plagued by immune deficiencies… Nuclear fallout from the Semey test site has resulted in a plague of birth defects… Homey décor does little to ease young fears at a medical diagnostic center… Area residents suffer nightmarishly high rates of cancer and other diseases linked to fallout from nuclear tests… These children, all from two city neighborhoods, were born with missing forearms. Many scientists suspect their congenital deformities to be caused by Moscow’s bewildering mix of pollutants… In winter, men drill fishing holes in the ice of the Ural River. Knowing that the river is badly polluted by the Steel Works looming behind them, they often sell their catch to markets rather than consume it themselves… Children play in the inky pools of runoff from leaky oil pumps. Read more and see the photos: Gerd Ludwig Photography via Digg.

8. Europe — 1000 Activists Close Down NATO

About 1,000 people from 17 European countries went to the NATO headquarters in Brussels on the 23rd of March to take part in the international non-violent action NATO GAME OVER. 5 years after the start of the Iraq war and 10 days before the Bucharest NATO summit, peace activists from all over Europe demonstrate that preventing war starts in Europe. Read more: Independant Media Center, Sherwood Gazette.

9. Asia — Buy A Tree and Watch it Grow Thanks to Google Earth

Your $5.50 donation will buy a tree, lifelong care and feeding, scientific study of the forest that it becomes a part of, and the exact coordinates of where that tree is on our big beautiful Earth. Linking that data with Google Earth shows the precise location (on the island of Borneo) of the tree, as well as all of its hundreds of neighbors.

You can buy trees that will be planted in Indonesia today at MyBabyTree.org. Read more: EcoGeek.

10. Africa — Local Communities Use Science to Re-green Tanzanian ‘Desert’

Two decades ago former President Julius Nyerere characterized it as the ‘Desert of Tanzania.’ Today much has changed in Shinyanga and Tabora provinces, a dryland region in western Tanzania.

Gradually and steadily, residents are reclaiming large parcels of land through the efforts of their communities and public sector agencies. They are rehabilitating once-thriving dryland ecosystems using science-based agroforestry techniques. Read more: World Agroforestry Center via ENN.

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.

The Bangkok meeting aims to eke out a work program for the next year and a half.

These are the opinions of the main countries involved:

-China: developed countries should live up to a guideline they agreed on in Bali; 2020 cuts of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels.

-Developing countries: insist they should be subject to less stringent targets as G8 countries. Are very skeptical towards Japan’s proposal to tackle the problems industry by industry.

-United States: agreed to take part in the successor to the Kyoto Protocol which it bailed out of. Two environmental advisors to President Bush, James Connaughton and Daniel Price told a recent press conference in Paris that the US is “prepared to enter into binding international obligations to reduce greenhouse gases as part of a global agreement in which all major economies similarly undertake binding international obligations.”

-European Union: Broad binding targets for each nation. In Bali, European negotiators were pushing for a binding target to cut rich nation emissions by between 25 to 40 percent by 2020 compared with their 1990 levels, but American negotiators pressurized them not to include numbers.

-Japan: lobbies for a sector-based, rather than a country-based approach. Setting energy efficiency goals for each industry.

-South Africa: is strongly against the Japanese industry based approach and voiced this during the last Japanese meeting.

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.

The researchers hypothesize that the effects of diesel exhaust could be caused by nanoparticles slowly penetrating the brain or affecting brain signaling. Oxidative stress has also been linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and long-term exposure to these fumes conceivably could decrease cognitive function, they write.

This is bad news for an especially susceptible population—children—who spend significant amounts of time in diesel buses. According to the EPA, twenty-four million children ride in diesel school buses each day, amounting to about one half-hour per child. Research has also shown that the level of diesel exhaust inside school buses is substantially higher than outside. School districts and municipalities can mitigate this issue by retrofitting buses with newer emissions control devices, avoiding unnecessary idling, replacing the oldest buses, and using biodiesel to reduce particulate emissions.

Luckily for the rest of us, the US has the highest emissions standards in the world for passenger cars, and a comparatively low use of diesel vehicles. The new clean diesels on the market now do not produce the same dirty exhaust as older models.

But until our nation’s fleets get upgraded, it’s going to irritate me even more when a garbage truck rolls by.

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Source: ES&T (Mar. 26, 2008): Your brain on diesel fumes

Photo Credit

But sometimes the Vatican gets it right.

Polluting is a now a recognized social sin, along with another act that tends to wreck havoc on the environment, that is, contributing to the growing social and economic divide between rich and poor. The rich contribute inordinately to pollution and the poor suffer inordinately from it.

The Church has installed photovoltaics (PV) on the roofs of some Vatican buildings, and has recognized the scientific consensus that humans contribute to global warming. One of my teachers in the Divinity program at Notre Dame, Fr. Tim O’Meara, said that the Church responds quite slowly to crisis and change. “It spends twenty-five years denying the problem, twenty-five years quietly addressing it, and twenty-five years claiming that this is the way we’ve always done things.” So by historical standards, the Church is moving with lightning speed.

One of my coworkers at Home Energy told me that she viewed the new sin as another tool in the environmental education toolbox. Through her experience as an environmental organizer, policy analyst, and fundraiser, she has learned that individuals are motivated to take action on behalf of the environment due to personal belief or their own unique life experience. While working with contractors on her own home, she has often found it challenging to explain to people in the trades why she feels that it is her responsibility to go beyond business as usual. Last week’s announcement that “la contaminación ahora es un pecado” (pollution is now a sin) came just at the right time. The contractors she was working with to rebuild a retaining wall made primarily of reused concrete and found objects figured out how to avoid dumping any wastewater into her gutter, which empties directly into the local creek, a home for native rainbow trout. If pollution were not yet a sin, they may not have been as willing to consider the alternatives. Over the course of a week of working with concrete, they produced only one bucket of wastewater.

The new sins do present a challenge to the imagination of poets like myself. In Dante’s Divine Comedy there is no place in hell for unrepentant polluters. Now that the Vatican has named pollution a serious social sin, we may have to invent a punishment, and a metaphorical place in hell for polluters. Let’s see-tyrants, assassins, and warmongers swim in a river of boiling blood, and the wrathful tear each other to pieces with their teeth-maybe polluters will have to tread water in that twice-Texas-sized trash dump floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for all eternity, or at least until we decide how to clean it up.

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.

On Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new 8-hour primary and secondary ozone standards of 75 parts per million. This was down from the previous limit which set it at 80 parts per million, but was still well above limits proposed not only by environmental and advocacy groups, but the members of the EPA itself.

Senator Hillary Clinton said in a statement on her website that “President Bush opened a new front in his administration’s war on science this week. His personal intervention to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency’s new limits on ozone proves that he has abandoned even a pretense of scientific integrity in decision-making. His efforts are directly at odds not only with accepted science, but with his government’s own arguments before the United States Supreme Court.”

“This is only the latest in a long series of examples where the Bush administration’s perversion of science helps special interests at the expense of public health — though it is certainly one of the more brazen. I will work with Senate Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer to investigate the President’s decision and to hold him accountable,” she added.

In response to criticism and by way of explanation, White House spokesman Tony Fratto explained that “What we were trying to do on the smog decision was try to have a decision that was consistent with our interpretation of the statute. This was not a weakening of regulations or standards governing ozone, but it was an effort to make those standards consistent.”

However many groups believe that these new regulations are built around coal-fired power plants and other industries that emit ground-level ozone.

“This is a pattern unfortunately that extends across the Environmental Protection Agency, across pretty much every science based agency in the federal government,” said Tim Donaghy of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

I’ll hold it there for the moment, and come to the polar bears soon. Needless to say, if we continue to see behavior like this from Bush, or even from other world leaders, we’re screwed.

Photo Courtesy of rkimpeljr via Flickr

Researchers at the University of California worked with the data and calculated that China’s emissions by 2010 will equate to at least 600 million metric tons greater than the countries was in 2000. Note the ‘at least’ in there, because according to the majority of the computer models, their emissions will actually be twice that figure.

Even hoping for the best possible scenario, the smallest figure calculated is five times as large as the 115.90 million metric tons in reductions that the US Energy Information Agency estimates will have been achieved by the Kyoto protocol members.

“The emissions growth rate is surpassing our worst expectations, and that means the goal of stabilizing atmospheric CO2 is going to be much, much harder to achieve,” says Maximillian Auffhammer of the University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to now, estimates have been focusing only on national data of pollution. However Auffhammer, and Richard Carson from the University of California, San Diego, used national data on pollution produced by Chinese provinces. The increased detail in the data has allowed them to make a more precise and horrifying calculation.

China, a country that is deemed a developing country under the United Nations, is thus not required to reduce its emissions under the Kyoto protocol. Of course it can agree too, and in the wake of the upcoming Olympic Games there has been some move to do so, but as of yet they have set no firm targets. As such, the UoC pair estimate that CO₂ emissions will rise by 11% per year over the next two years. Previous estimates ranged between 2.5% and 5%.

This most recent finding concerning China’s emissions comes only days after the world’s marathon record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, declared he was an unlikely entrant in the 2008 Olympic marathon. “The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult for me to run 42 kilometres in my current condition,” says Gebrselassie.

And while this only forced the Chinese government to reiterate that they pledge to have clean air for the summer games, it brings to mind a question: what are the Chinese sacrificing so that Games’ venues are clean?

New Scientist - China emissions to swamp Kyoto reductions by 2010

Photo Courtesy of fortes via Flickr

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.

Thus, it’s not a big surprise that the livestock industry has lobbied for years for the rule change. To add insult to iniquity, the EPA posted the proposal in the Federal Register while Congress was on its December holiday recess. The change would take effect in October.

Comment period on this issue ends soon, March 28, make sure to let your representatives know you think this stinks. You can also submit a comment directly to the Federal Register.

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?

But according to the CNS, Archbishop Girotti actually meant that a global culture was to blame for the social effects of sin; and these include “unethical” biotechnology, economics and “blighted” ecology. These, he said, have more widespread social impact and resonance than ever before. Sounds plainly truthful and agreeable?

As the Vatican directs the world towards more green, it is increasingly evident that one cannot be holy without being green, in a sense. This is my take: If we could all apply the seven holy virtues of chastity, abstinence, temperance, diligence, patience, kindness and humility to the environment, the world would have less degradation, minimal deforestation, and less climate change. Above all, there would be more peace as ecological conflicts like those pitting impoverished pastoralists against crop farmers in Africa would be minimized.

The Vatican may actually be following the footprints of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Christian group in the US after the Roman Catholic Church, in to adopting a green declaration to address the environment and climate change issues. There is also the Evangelical Climate Initiative’s Call to Action on Climate Change.

Ecological sins should be the concern of every citizen of the world because they affect us in more ways than one. How then do we explain these scenarios? Logging and land conversion to accommodate human demand has shrunk the world’s forests by half, contributing to increased soil erosion and water scarcity.

The dumping of chemicals into rivers and waterways where it can get into animals and humans and kill them. Wetlands act as highly efficient sewage treatment works, absorbing chemicals and filtering pollutants and sediments. Urban and industrial development has claimed half the world’s wetlands.

Or strip mining on mountains, then leaving the open pits which, during heavy floods, wash down the mountainside and destroy lives and property through mudslides or poisoned water bodies. Or using chemicals (read fertilizer) in agriculture which destroy the land eventually strips all nutrients out of the soil rendering it useless instead of using organic fertilizers like compost manure?

Selfish land use and poor government planning or policy are increasingly to blame for flooding around the world. We are also aware of laboratory tests that go on and on for the endless search of quick-fixes. Can we explain bird flu? Mad Cow Disease, HIV and AIDS?

Ecologists believe water will be the next scarce thing on earth if the current trends that deplete the earth of water will continue. In probably the next 50 years and possibly within 25 years, half the world’s population could have trouble finding enough fresh water for drinking and irrigation.

UN Environment Program estimates that currently, over 80 countries, representing 40 per cent of the world’s people, are subject to serious water shortages. Conditions may get worse in the next 50 years as populations grow and as global warming disrupts rainfall patterns.

Potential water shortages have been identified as one of the two most worrying problems for the new millennium with climate change being the other, with adverse effects as threatened food security, according to World Water Council.

The church is right and Archbishop Girotti should speak his mind, because the church might just be the only sober voice out there that speaks for a cleaner, safer, environmentally-friendly earth. And green bloggers too.

Further reading and resources: A Theological Model for the Environment, Evangelical Environmental Network

Photo credit: Julio Etchart via Flickr

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.

A Massive Engineering Project

Deep beneath the Alps, the new tunnel will be the world’s longest at 35 miles. Built at an altitude of 1,540ft above sea level, the tunnel will be buried by up to 2 kilometres of rock in places and has the unique feature of remaining level throughout it’s length. This will allow trains to reach speeds of 145mph through the tunnel, reducing journey time from Zürich to Milan to a mere 2.5 hours and significantly reducing road freight pollution by allowing trucks to be driven directly onto special rail cars.

Building the tunnel, which is expected to cost at least $8 billion, has required the use of the world’s largest tunnel boring machines, which will excavate over 24 million tons of rock - enough to build 5 Gizeh-pyramids. Other world firsts have been achieved, such as a vertical 1 kilometre elevator shaft which provides workers with access to parts of the tunnel.

Unfortunately, not everybody is happy with the rate of progress. The original act of parliament called for reductions in road freight to be achieved by 2009, but with the tunnel not due for completion until 2015 these targets will be missed - “We have to accept that the government is far behind schedule,” said Kaspar Schuler, director of Greenpeace Switzerland.

Until then, trans-alpine travelers can continue to enjoy the magnificent views afforded whilst driving across the Swiss Alps, knowing that grand designs below will assure the long term future of the local environment.

Further Reading: BBC, Wikipedia, Swissinfo

Photos Courtesy of Wikipedia and Flickr

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.

Typically, air pollution levels increases during dry weather, or during cold spells as heating units work overtime. A nationwide network of measurement stations constantly monitors air pollution, and motorists are instructed to slow down as necessary in order to offset pollution levels. The Swiss Federal Office for the Environment provide constant pollution updates via their website - see inset, and note the high pollution levels in the South - which is also available in English for the benefit of EcoWorldly readers.

Remarkably, nobody complains at these measures which would have the potential to topple governments in other countries. Even more unusually, people actually comply with the lower limits!

See also:

Fine-particle pollution worries authorities, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment

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.

The cleanest, tidiest and most pollution free nation in the world?

The Swiss, as a nation, are almost obsessive about their environment. Home to some of the most stunning natural scenery in the world, they are keen to keep it that way. They are diligent recyclers, with strict fines for environmental crimes such as sneaking a glass bottle into the trash, drivers are obliged to switch off their engines whilst waiting at traffic lights (only the first three cars in the queue may keep engines running) and factories are subject to strict laws on pollutants, together with a whole myriad of additional regulations aimed at keeping the country neat, tidy and pollution free.

Switzerland’s crowning achievement for environmental concern came during a particularly cold spell in 2006. So concerned were the Swiss by the impact on air quality as heating systems worked overtime, they instantly imposed a nationwide speed limit of 50mph in order to compensate until things warmed up.

Personal responsibility?

So am I not picking on an unfortunate example with my SUV driving climate change commentators of earlier? Perhaps, although they serve as a perfect example of the continuous trade-off between standard of living, consumption of resources, and environmental stewardship. Whilst wealthy nations tend to take better care of their environment, having the financial resources to do so and the luxury of prioritising the environment against other short term needs, the flip-side is that citizens of wealthy nations tend to consume more than their share of the world’s resources.

Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Switzerland, which is home to more Porsches, Ferraris and general luxury than anywhere else in the world. Like anyone else, the Swiss have little hesitation in voting for environmentally friendly initiatives, and they are more than happy to comply with environmental regulations. However, the majority of people take limited personal responsibility beyond this, and make few personal compromises to manage environmental impacts. This dilemma for wealthy nations is likely to get worse as global population grows and resource consumption becomes an even more significant issue.

Over time, many behaviours - such as smoking in public spaces - have slowly become accepted as anti-social. We are some way from SUV driving being classed in the same category, but a few more muddy ski runs and a bit more public awareness might slowly bring this message across.

A new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finds that humans have had a heavy impact on more than 40 percent of the world’s oceans. That’s an area of more than 55 million square miles, or more than 144 million square kilometers.

NOAA researchers combined data from about 17 different human activities — including fishing, fertilizer runoff, shipping and pollution — to generate a global map on how those factors are affecting the oceans.

The marine regions suffering the most include the East Coast of North America, the North Sea, the South and East China seas, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Bering Sea and parts of the western Pacific. So far, the polar seas remain the least impacted (give climate change a little more time, though, and that could soon no longer be the case).

“The extent of human influence was probably more than any of us expected,” said Kenneth Casey, a co-author of the study, which will be published in tomorrow’s (Feb. 15) issue of Science.

In those areas, the ecosytems facing the greatest threats are coral reefs and seagrass beds, both of which are critical habitats or nursey grounds for fish, as well as coastal mangroves.

Maybe this latest study will help further weaken one of the arguments used by climate change deniers, the one that says humans are too puny to wreak large-scale damage to a planet the size of Earth. Puny, yes, but damaging? Without a doubt.