I think water usage is definitely something that can be improved in th developed world:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,644867,00.html
Calculate your water footprint by looking at the amount of water you use directly and then by looking at the amount of "virtual water" you use -- that is, how much water is used in the production of any goods you consume...
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Mining for money: impact on the environment: interesting article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1203057/Britains-dirty-money-How-loose-change-pockets-costing-earth.html
My thoughts on this article in terms of the impact of mining copper for the Mints of the world are that we don't really need loose change anymore. The problem is that coin machines still exist in many places like parking lots but that can be phased out slowly and be replaced by parking machines that accepts cards.
The technology now is at such a point that we don't need loose change anymore. Buses will also need to adapt since loose change is used there and paying at small local markets. Society itself will have to change but it can be down slowly, one piece at a time.
My thoughts on this article in terms of the impact of mining copper for the Mints of the world are that we don't really need loose change anymore. The problem is that coin machines still exist in many places like parking lots but that can be phased out slowly and be replaced by parking machines that accepts cards.
The technology now is at such a point that we don't need loose change anymore. Buses will also need to adapt since loose change is used there and paying at small local markets. Society itself will have to change but it can be down slowly, one piece at a time.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Global Temperatures - rising or falling?
Rising:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
Rising:
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/
Rising:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090418090255.htm
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
Rising:
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/
Rising:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090418090255.htm
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sea-Level rises: North and South America, Europe
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dgesl/research/other/climate_change_and_sea_level/sea_level_rise/south_america/slr_south_america_a.htm
According to the site above, Guyana and other places in South America are susceptible to a sea level rise of up to 6 meters.
This would be devastating - if we consider that it might no longer be possible to halt global warming as a lot of studies are suggesting, then does this indicate a need to look at whether it is necessary to start to plan to relocate large swaths of the Guyanese population away from the coastline and further inland to higher ground?
Does it also indicate a need to hugely invest in more barriers against the ocean? How serious is this issue?
North America:
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dgesl/research/other/climate_change_and_sea_level/sea_level_rise/north_america/slr_north_america_a.htm
Europe:
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dgesl/research/other/climate_change_and_sea_level/sea_level_rise/europe/slr_europe_a.htm
So, how long do we have?
http://www.cop.noaa.gov/stressors/climatechange/current/slr/climatechange.html
According to the site above, Guyana and other places in South America are susceptible to a sea level rise of up to 6 meters.
This would be devastating - if we consider that it might no longer be possible to halt global warming as a lot of studies are suggesting, then does this indicate a need to look at whether it is necessary to start to plan to relocate large swaths of the Guyanese population away from the coastline and further inland to higher ground?
Does it also indicate a need to hugely invest in more barriers against the ocean? How serious is this issue?
North America:
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dgesl/research/other/climate_change_and_sea_level/sea_level_rise/north_america/slr_north_america_a.htm
Europe:
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dgesl/research/other/climate_change_and_sea_level/sea_level_rise/europe/slr_europe_a.htm
So, how long do we have?
http://www.cop.noaa.gov/stressors/climatechange/current/slr/climatechange.html
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Globalisation - knowledge sharing
We have seen through the swine flu how scientists around the world have been able to share knowledge and quickly map out the genome of this flu. They're not done as yet but they're certainly nearly there.
Globalisation has certainly facilitated knowledge sharing to a remarkable degree. It has also greatly facilitated its dissmenination to reach people even in remote areas through enhanced technology. Largely driven for profit purposes, it has become a tool for the non-profit as well.
Globalisation has certainly facilitated knowledge sharing to a remarkable degree. It has also greatly facilitated its dissmenination to reach people even in remote areas through enhanced technology. Largely driven for profit purposes, it has become a tool for the non-profit as well.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Globalisation and the environment
Globalisation Links to the environment
What is globalisation:
GLOBALIZATION: The generalized expansion of international economic activity which includes increased international trade, growth of international investment (foreign investment) and international migration, and increased proliferation of technology among countries. Globalization is the increasing world-wide integration of markets for goods, services, labor, and capital.
Extract from source: http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=gls&c=dsp&k=globalization
What does globalisation have to do with the environment?
My note: Apparently, a lot! Read on to see.
Globalisation risks and positives for the environment:
Extract from source:
Arthur Lyon DAHL
Coordinator, UN System-wide Earthwatch
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)*
Geneva, Switzerland
Site: http://www.bcca.org/ief/ddahl98b.htm
1) There is human societal impact:
Global warming: We have released enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to have a measurable effect on global climate, while chlorofluorocarbons and other man-made gases have attacked and depleted the stratospheric ozone layer.
2) The human and animal body: A number of pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants are now distributed globally, and may threaten hormonal balances and the immune system in man and other animals.
3) Pollution of the food chain: Some toxic chemicals used in the tropics evaporate in the heat and are transported in the air to the poles, where they condense out in the cold and accumulate in the food chain, in a global distillation process
4) Depletion of natural resources: The globalization of trade puts pressure on natural resources around the world, helping to drive the rapid depletion of tropical forests, the collapse of many ocean fisheries, and even the global impoverishment of biological diversity
5) Disease: We travel so much that we are becoming more vulnerable to epidemics, helped along by the global spread of antibiotic resistance.
6) Plant life change: Global movements of invasive introduced species have had major biological and economic impacts on the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Great Lakes, grazing lands, forests, and other resources
7) The global movement of people - Refugees: an increasing risk of major flows of environmental refugees e.g. One underlying cause of the Rwandan tragedy was high population growth that overshot the carrying capacity of the limited land area. In many places, water shortage, resource depletion, climate change, or sea level rise could displace large numbers of people.
How can globalisation help with environmental problems?
1) A nested set of environmental information systems from the global to the local levels should be developed that can provide all stakeholders with scientific information on the status and limits of natural resources as a basis for their sustainable management. Global observing systems for climate, the land and the oceans are gradually being put in place, and new technologies are steadily increasing our ability to collect environmental information.
2) A success story?
Extract from source: http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0905-remittances.html
Globalization and other economic trends appear to be helping the degraded forests of El Salvador recover, reports new research that evaluated the impact of global trade, land policy changes, and remittances on forest cover.
The study, by Susanna B. Hecht of University of California at Los Angeles and Sassan S. Saatchi of the California Institute of Technology, used socioeconomic data, land-use surveys, and satellite imagery to document significant increases in the area of El Salvador covered by both light woodlands and forest since peace accords were signed in the warn-torn country in 1992.
"Even where rural population density exceeded 250 people per square kilometer, we documented a 22% increase in the area with more than 30% tree cover, and a 7% increase in the area with more than 60% tree cover," they write. "Woodland resurgence reflected processes including civil war, retraction of the agricultural frontier, and international migration and associated remittances. Agrarian reform, structural adjustment, and emerging environmental ideas also played a role in woodland dynamics."
"Remittances are an element of globalization that is actually producing forest recovery rather than forest destruction," Hecht told mongabay.com. "A real structural change in peasant economies has occurred. They can no longer compete with industrialized farming so their markets have contracted. This means that small-scale farming for export is no longer viable and rural populations are reliant on remittances and other sources of income.
Comparing changes in woody vegetation derived from satellite data in each province in El Salvador with population data, the distribution of average remittances, and the percentage of households receiving them, Hecht and Saatchi developed a model to test the relative impact of population and remittances on forest cover. They found that "for every percentage point increase in remittances, there is a 0.25 increase in the percentage of land with 30% or more tree cover." The correlation was even stronger in areas with higher tree cover. Unexpectedly, the researchers found no correlation between correlation of forest cover and population density.
"Remittances may be especially important for woodland recovery in El Salvador, enabling people in rural areas to buy food without all of them needing to grow and sell it," they [Susanna B. Hecht and Sassan S. Saatchi] write.
The profit problem?
Extract from source Arthur Lyon previously listed: If the productive economic institutions of society are only accountable for making a profit, then it is normal for them to do that well at the expense of everything else. This is a fundamental structural problem related to the values incorporated in our institutions; businesses are only responsible for business, and all the social and environmental problems are left to government. If we do not like the result, then we need to change the values inherent in our institutional structures and frameworks. The problem is aggravated by phenomena of rapid economic globalization, while the counterbalancing political structures have not kept pace and are losing their power over a globalizing world. Mechanisms for social services, for wealth redistribution through taxation, and for environmental regulation, do not now exist at the global level where multinational corporations and institutional investors are most active and an increasing amount of wealth creation is taking place.
What is globalisation:
GLOBALIZATION: The generalized expansion of international economic activity which includes increased international trade, growth of international investment (foreign investment) and international migration, and increased proliferation of technology among countries. Globalization is the increasing world-wide integration of markets for goods, services, labor, and capital.
Extract from source: http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=gls&c=dsp&k=globalization
What does globalisation have to do with the environment?
My note: Apparently, a lot! Read on to see.
Globalisation risks and positives for the environment:
Extract from source:
Arthur Lyon DAHL
Coordinator, UN System-wide Earthwatch
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)*
Geneva, Switzerland
Site: http://www.bcca.org/ief/ddahl98b.htm
1) There is human societal impact:
Global warming: We have released enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to have a measurable effect on global climate, while chlorofluorocarbons and other man-made gases have attacked and depleted the stratospheric ozone layer.
2) The human and animal body: A number of pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants are now distributed globally, and may threaten hormonal balances and the immune system in man and other animals.
3) Pollution of the food chain: Some toxic chemicals used in the tropics evaporate in the heat and are transported in the air to the poles, where they condense out in the cold and accumulate in the food chain, in a global distillation process
4) Depletion of natural resources: The globalization of trade puts pressure on natural resources around the world, helping to drive the rapid depletion of tropical forests, the collapse of many ocean fisheries, and even the global impoverishment of biological diversity
5) Disease: We travel so much that we are becoming more vulnerable to epidemics, helped along by the global spread of antibiotic resistance.
6) Plant life change: Global movements of invasive introduced species have had major biological and economic impacts on the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Great Lakes, grazing lands, forests, and other resources
7) The global movement of people - Refugees: an increasing risk of major flows of environmental refugees e.g. One underlying cause of the Rwandan tragedy was high population growth that overshot the carrying capacity of the limited land area. In many places, water shortage, resource depletion, climate change, or sea level rise could displace large numbers of people.
How can globalisation help with environmental problems?
1) A nested set of environmental information systems from the global to the local levels should be developed that can provide all stakeholders with scientific information on the status and limits of natural resources as a basis for their sustainable management. Global observing systems for climate, the land and the oceans are gradually being put in place, and new technologies are steadily increasing our ability to collect environmental information.
2) A success story?
Extract from source: http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0905-remittances.html
Globalization and other economic trends appear to be helping the degraded forests of El Salvador recover, reports new research that evaluated the impact of global trade, land policy changes, and remittances on forest cover.
The study, by Susanna B. Hecht of University of California at Los Angeles and Sassan S. Saatchi of the California Institute of Technology, used socioeconomic data, land-use surveys, and satellite imagery to document significant increases in the area of El Salvador covered by both light woodlands and forest since peace accords were signed in the warn-torn country in 1992.
"Even where rural population density exceeded 250 people per square kilometer, we documented a 22% increase in the area with more than 30% tree cover, and a 7% increase in the area with more than 60% tree cover," they write. "Woodland resurgence reflected processes including civil war, retraction of the agricultural frontier, and international migration and associated remittances. Agrarian reform, structural adjustment, and emerging environmental ideas also played a role in woodland dynamics."
"Remittances are an element of globalization that is actually producing forest recovery rather than forest destruction," Hecht told mongabay.com. "A real structural change in peasant economies has occurred. They can no longer compete with industrialized farming so their markets have contracted. This means that small-scale farming for export is no longer viable and rural populations are reliant on remittances and other sources of income.
Comparing changes in woody vegetation derived from satellite data in each province in El Salvador with population data, the distribution of average remittances, and the percentage of households receiving them, Hecht and Saatchi developed a model to test the relative impact of population and remittances on forest cover. They found that "for every percentage point increase in remittances, there is a 0.25 increase in the percentage of land with 30% or more tree cover." The correlation was even stronger in areas with higher tree cover. Unexpectedly, the researchers found no correlation between correlation of forest cover and population density.
"Remittances may be especially important for woodland recovery in El Salvador, enabling people in rural areas to buy food without all of them needing to grow and sell it," they [Susanna B. Hecht and Sassan S. Saatchi] write.
The profit problem?
Extract from source Arthur Lyon previously listed: If the productive economic institutions of society are only accountable for making a profit, then it is normal for them to do that well at the expense of everything else. This is a fundamental structural problem related to the values incorporated in our institutions; businesses are only responsible for business, and all the social and environmental problems are left to government. If we do not like the result, then we need to change the values inherent in our institutional structures and frameworks. The problem is aggravated by phenomena of rapid economic globalization, while the counterbalancing political structures have not kept pace and are losing their power over a globalizing world. Mechanisms for social services, for wealth redistribution through taxation, and for environmental regulation, do not now exist at the global level where multinational corporations and institutional investors are most active and an increasing amount of wealth creation is taking place.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
El Niño and La Niña
What is the "El Niño" event?
Full name: El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The warm phase of ENSO.
(Source for this inof and that which follows): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENSO
It is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon. El Niño and La Niña are important temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean. The name El Niño, from Spanish for "the little boy", refers to the Christ child, because the phenomenon is usually noticed around Christmas time in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America. La Niña, means "the little girl".
ENSO is associated with floods, droughts, and other disturbances in a range of locations around the world.
Because El Niño's warm pool feeds thunderstorms above, it creates increased rainfall across the east-central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
The effects of El Niño in South America are direct and stronger than in North America. An El Niño is associated with warm and very wet summers (December-February) along the coasts of northern Peru and Ecuador, causing major flooding whenever the event is strong or extreme. The effects during the months of February, March and April may become critical. Southern Brazil and northern Argentina also experience wetter than normal conditions but mainly during the spring and early summer. ... Drier and hotter weather occurs in parts of the Amazon River Basin, Colombia and Central America.
What is the "La Niña" event?
La Niña is the name for the cold phase of ENSO, during which the cold pool in the eastern Pacific intensifies and the trade winds strengthen.
Financial implications:
Economic: Flooding: danger of loss to life and property.
Global warming and ENSO:
ENSO is a natural part of the Earth's climate, an important concern is whether its intensity or frequency may change as a result of global warming.
ANOTHER TAKE ON THIS: Source extracted: http://environment.about.com/od/globalwarming/a/elninolanina.htm
How is Global Warming Related to El Niño and La Niña?
Some scientists believe that the increased intensity and frequency—now every two to three years—of El Niño and La Niña events in recent decades is due to warmer ocean temperatures resulting from global warming. In a 1998 report, scientists from NOAA explained that higher global temperatures might be increasing evaporation from land and adding moisture to the air, thus intensifying the storms and floods associated with El Niño.
Another take on what’s happening is from Kevin Trenberth, a climatologist at the Colorado-based US National Center for Atmospheric Research. Trenberth believes that the Southern Oscillation may be functioning like a pressure release valve for the tropics. With global warming driving temperatures higher, ocean currents and weather systems might not be able to release all the extra heat getting pumped into the tropical seas; as such, an El Niño occurs to help expel the excess heat.
My thoughts on this: I can't see global warming, whatever the cause, not playing a role in the ENSO phenomenon. The climate systems now are all so "globalised" that an imbalance in one aspect may certainly cause a shift in another.
ENSO and Human Security - Here's a "fact sheet" from an event:
Guyana and La Niña in 2005
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/countries/guyana/fy2005/guyana_fl_fs02_02-08-2005.pdf
Full name: El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The warm phase of ENSO.
(Source for this inof and that which follows): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENSO
It is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon. El Niño and La Niña are important temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean. The name El Niño, from Spanish for "the little boy", refers to the Christ child, because the phenomenon is usually noticed around Christmas time in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America. La Niña, means "the little girl".
ENSO is associated with floods, droughts, and other disturbances in a range of locations around the world.
Because El Niño's warm pool feeds thunderstorms above, it creates increased rainfall across the east-central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
The effects of El Niño in South America are direct and stronger than in North America. An El Niño is associated with warm and very wet summers (December-February) along the coasts of northern Peru and Ecuador, causing major flooding whenever the event is strong or extreme. The effects during the months of February, March and April may become critical. Southern Brazil and northern Argentina also experience wetter than normal conditions but mainly during the spring and early summer. ... Drier and hotter weather occurs in parts of the Amazon River Basin, Colombia and Central America.
What is the "La Niña" event?
La Niña is the name for the cold phase of ENSO, during which the cold pool in the eastern Pacific intensifies and the trade winds strengthen.
Financial implications:
Economic: Flooding: danger of loss to life and property.
Global warming and ENSO:
ENSO is a natural part of the Earth's climate, an important concern is whether its intensity or frequency may change as a result of global warming.
ANOTHER TAKE ON THIS: Source extracted: http://environment.about.com/od/globalwarming/a/elninolanina.htm
How is Global Warming Related to El Niño and La Niña?
Some scientists believe that the increased intensity and frequency—now every two to three years—of El Niño and La Niña events in recent decades is due to warmer ocean temperatures resulting from global warming. In a 1998 report, scientists from NOAA explained that higher global temperatures might be increasing evaporation from land and adding moisture to the air, thus intensifying the storms and floods associated with El Niño.
Another take on what’s happening is from Kevin Trenberth, a climatologist at the Colorado-based US National Center for Atmospheric Research. Trenberth believes that the Southern Oscillation may be functioning like a pressure release valve for the tropics. With global warming driving temperatures higher, ocean currents and weather systems might not be able to release all the extra heat getting pumped into the tropical seas; as such, an El Niño occurs to help expel the excess heat.
My thoughts on this: I can't see global warming, whatever the cause, not playing a role in the ENSO phenomenon. The climate systems now are all so "globalised" that an imbalance in one aspect may certainly cause a shift in another.
ENSO and Human Security - Here's a "fact sheet" from an event:
Guyana and La Niña in 2005
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/countries/guyana/fy2005/guyana_fl_fs02_02-08-2005.pdf
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