Category — Pollution

A flotilla of plastic ducks is heading for Britain’s beaches, according to an American oceanographer.

For the past 15 years Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been tracking nearly 30,000 plastic bath toys that were released into the Pacific Ocean when a container was washed off a cargo ship.

[Read more →]

In March 2003, when the world’s attention was focused on  U.S. soldiers heading to Baghdad, twelve senior officials in the Bush  administration gathered around a long oak conference table in the Eisenhower  Executive Office Building, part of the White House complex. They were meeting  to put the final touches on a proposed legislative package that would address  what was perhaps the most dangerous vulnerability the country faced after 9/11:  unprotected chemical plants close to densely populated areas.

The Washington Monthly article continues:

[Read more →]

Boston is going to be the first major city in the US to require large commercial buildings to be constructed in an environmentally friendly way.

It’s all part of the effort curb global warming.

Future additions to Boston’s skyline are going to be friendly to the environment. They’ll be green buildings.

Boston will be the first city to require private developers of larger buildings to meet a series of environmental standards.

Marc Breslow of the Climate Action Network thinks this is a great step in the fight against global warming

Soaring pollution levels in China may be even worse than thought because local governments bent on economic growth are lying about their progress in meeting environmental goals.

Data reported by China’s regional governments indicates a national goal to reduce China’s two main pollutants by two percent in 2006 has been reached, but calculations by the top environment watchdog show they actually grew two percent, Xinhua news agency said, quoting an environment official.

“The figures on pollution control reported by local governments dropped remarkably this year, while the real environmental situation continues to deteriorate,” said the unnamed official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

According to Rolling Stone, America’s top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history.

Welcome to the dark side of the other white meat.

Smithfield Foods, the largest and most profitable pork processor in the world, killed 27 million hogs last year.

That’s a number worth considering.

A slaughter-weight hog is fifty percent heavier than a person.

The logistical challenge of processing that many pigs each year is roughly equivalent to butchering and boxing the entire human populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Columbus, Austin, Memphis, Baltimore, Fort Worth, Charlotte, El Paso, Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston, Denver, Louisville, Washington, D.C., Nashville, Las Vegas, Portland, Oklahoma City and Tucson.

continued …

[Read more →]

The BBC reports that pollution-laden clouds may be partly to blame for India’s dwindling rice harvests, according to research.

A US team found brown clouds, which cloak much of South Asia, have a negative impact on rice output by reducing sunlight and rainfall.

They discovered elevated levels of greenhouse gases also reduced yields.

The study, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, came a day after researchers said new crops adapted to a warmer climate are needed.

Since the 1980s, India has faced ever-declining harvests of its staple food, raising concerns that shortages could occur.

To investigate the cause, researchers looked at the impact of the “brown clouds” or “Asian haze” which cover the region.

South Asia has one of the most widespread atmospheric brown clouds on the planet.

Every schoolchild in Scotland is to be offered the chance to see former US vice-president Al Gore’s film about the dangers of global warming under a scheme by energy company ScottishPower.

The firm, a major windfarm developer which also runs the coal-fired Longannet power station, is prepared to commit “tens of thousands of pounds” to the project and is currently in negotiations with the Scottish Executive to secure its backing.

ScottishPower, which has also given copies of Mr Gore’s book of the same name, An Inconvenient Truth, to hundreds of its staff, plans to pay for cinema screenings for older children in primary schools and all secondary pupils.

The firm is currently discussing with the Executive how pupils could be bussed to cinemas, and to cinema owners about times for screenings.

Looking for that perfect eco-friendly holiday gift?  How about a 2007 EcoBabes calendar?

Supporting the California based Climate Protection Campaign, an organization working to reduce emissions in Sonoma County, the ecobabes calendar “portrays passionate, driven women pursing a vision of sustainability by modifying their daily actions and initiating systemic social change… [and] inspires and educates people of all ages to make changes in their personal and professional lives that help create a more sustainable world.”

Curious about the actual calendar? It was printed on 100% post consumer paper, with vegetable based inks, printed by a California printing company. You can purchase the calendar online and find out more about the women featured in it at the EcoBabes website.

Microsoft has been touting Vista’s new power saving features, saying that upgrading to Vista could easily save consumers and corporations $50 to $75 per computer per year in energy costs.

The question, though, is what marvelous new code makes this miracle possible. The answer? They fixed three stupid mistakes that have cost the world billions of dollars and millions of tons of CO2 in the past five years.
[Read more →]

Two weeks of international talks aimed at avoiding dangerous human influence on the earth’s climate have ended in Nairobi without setting a firm timetable for one of the principal objectives of the talks: establishing long-term targets for reductions in heat-trapping gases that are linked to rising global temperatures.

Except for the United States and Australia, all major industrialized countries are bound by a climate accord known as the Kyoto Protocol that requires them to reduce their combined emissions by 2012 to levels lower than those measured in 1990.

But that commitment has always been seen by climate experts as a baby step that would have to be followed by ever-tightening emissions restrictions, if a dangerous rise in concentrations of the long-lived gases, particularly carbon dioxide, is to be avoided in this century.

Participants and observers from outside the United States expressed growing frustration with American opposition to binding restrictions on the gases, saying that without clear signals from the world’s largest current source of such pollution, it was harder for the rest of the world to move forward.