World Carfree Day is an annual celebration of cities and public life, free from the noise, stress and pollution of cars. Each year on September 22, people around the world organize events of all sizes to showcase alternatives to the automobile. The people behind the idea is World Carfree Network.
World Carfree Network brings together organisations and individuals dedicated to promoting alternatives to car dependence and automobile-based planning at the international level and working to reduce the human impact on the natural environment while improving the quality of life for all.
Today is the World Ozone day, on 19th December 1994 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 16 September the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, commemorating the date, in 1987, on which the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed. This commemoration around the world offers an opportunity to focus attention and action at the global, regional and national levels on the protection of the ozone layer. All Member States are invited to devote this special day to promotion, at the national level, of concrete activities in accordance with the objectives and goals of the Montreal Protocol and its Amendment.
If you grew up in the 80’s and 90’s you might have heard about the hole in the Ozone layer. Which incidentally is not actually a hole, but an area in the ozone layer where ozone has been severely depleted; thereby allowing sun rays to pass through without much absorption or reflection. Each year for the past few decades during the Southern Hemisphere spring, chemical reactions involving chlorine and bromine cause ozone in the southern polar region to be destroyed rapidly and severely. The world reacted to this pretty much united by removing chloro-flouro carbons or CFC’s from spray cans, refrigerants etc. And the hole in the Ozone layer has been shrinking since 2006. By the end of 2009, the Montreal Protocol had resulted in the elimination of over 98 per cent of historical levels of ozone-depleting substances.
The 2009 UN Climate Change Conference was held in Copenhagen on 16th September 2009 with the slogan “power Green Growth, Protect the Planet”. Countries agreed to work towards a common, long-term goal to limit global temperature rise to below 2° Celsius.
Climate Change and Actions to slow the Human impact
Climate change and global warming are divisive issues for many people still who remain skeptics in spite of what is happening around them. In some cases the belief is religious while in others it makes it easier to explain away our own reckless behaviors by putting it all on nature. Either way the reality is that there are visible changes happening all over the world from receding glaciers to mistimed monsoons, droughts etc… to stronger hurricane seasons.
Climate change is recognized as a major environmental problem facing our planet. Evidence is building that impacts are being felt in the form of melting icecaps in the polar areas and increased variability of temperature, rainfall and storms in virtually all regions.
Developed countries committed to establish and implement targets for greenhouse gas emissions, and a number of developing countries, including major emerging economies, agreed to implement nationally appropriate mitigation actions and to communicate their efforts every two years.
Countries also agreed on the importance of acting to Reduce emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), and to provide support for the most vulnerable to cope with climate change.
To support these priorities, countries pledged up to $30 billion a year for developing countries between 2010 and 2012, to be disbursed through a Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.
Countries also backed the goal of mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020.
Environmental facts from the UNEP
Forests cover 30 percent of the planet’s total land area. The total forested area in 2005 was just under 4 billion hectares, at least one third less than before the dawn of agriculture, some 10,000 years ago.
The ten most forest-rich countries, which account for two-thirds of the total forested area, are the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States, China, Australia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Peru and India.
Six million hectares of primary forest are lost every year due to deforestation and modification through selective logging and other human interventions. More than one-third of all forests are primary forests, defined as forests where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and where ecological processes are not significantly disturbed.
Primary forests shelter diverse animal and plant species, and culturally diverse indigenous people, with deep connections to their habitat.
Only 20 per cent of the world’s forests remain in large intact areas. These forests consist of tropical rain forests, mangrove, coastal and swamp forests. Monsoon and deciduous forests flourish in the drier and more mountainous regions.
Trees quite literally form the foundations of many natural systems. They help to conserve soil and water, control avalanches, prevent desertification, protect coastal areas and stabilize sand dunes.
Forests are the most important repositories of terrestrial biological biodiversity, housing up to 90 per cent of known terrestrial species.
Forest animals have a vital role in forest ecology such as pollination, seed dispersal and germination.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide and are vital carbon sinks.
It is estimated that the world’s forests store 283 Gigatonnes of carbon in their biomass alone, and that carbon stored in forest biomass, deadwood, litter and soil together is roughly 50 per cent more than the carbon in the atmosphere.
Carbon in forest biomass decreased in Africa, Asia and South America in the period 1990–2005. For the world as a whole, carbon stocks in forest biomass decreased annually by 1.1 Gigatonne of carbon (equivalent to 4 billion 25kg sacks of charcoal).
The loss of natural forests around the world contributes more to global emissions each year than the transport sector.
World population currently stands at 6.5 billion people. It is projected to grow to 9 billion by 2042. The expansion of agricultural and industrial needs, population growth, poverty, landlessness and consumer demand are the major driving forces behind deforestation.
Most deforestation is due to conversion of forests to agricultural land. Global removals of wood for timber and fuel amounted to 3.1 billion cubic metres in 2005.
Worldwide, deforestation continues at an alarming rate, about 13 million hectares per year, an area the size of Greece or Nicaragua.
Africa and South America have the largest net loss of forests. In Africa it is estimated that nearly half of the forest loss was due to removal of wood fuel.
Forests in Europe are expanding. Asia, which had a net loss in the 1990s, reported a net gain of forests in the past five years, primarily due to large-scale forestation in China.
Eighty per cent of the world’s forests are publicly owned, but private ownership is on the rise, especially in North and Central America and in Oceania.
About 11 per cent of the world’s forests are designated for the conservation of biological diversity. These areas are mainly, but not exclusively, in protected areas.
Around 10 million people are employed in conventional forest management and conservation. Formal employment in forestry declined by about 10 per cent from 1990 to 2000.
The theme for the celebration is “Ozone layer protection: governance and compliance at their best”. Governments world over are encouraged to create programs or events to raise public awareness of the importance of protecting the ozone layer for present and future generations. These can include workshops, press conferences, competitions in schools, and university lectures by experts. The list of programs as conducted by different countries will be listed on the UNEP website.
Check out how countries world over are celebrating the World Ozone Day HERE
Mark Your Calendars 10/10/2010 is “Global Work Party”
Place – Where ever You Live
Aim – Do something to alleviate Climate Change in your city or community.
Watch the world come together to take a stand against climate change, do your part every small step counts.
On 10/10/2010 350.org is organizing the Global work Party, the largest ever effort on one day to reduce carbon world wide. The plan is to get people to work towards doing one thing to reduce our carbon foot print be it by installing Solar panels or by fixing up bikes. People have already started responding in large numbers and are creating action plans for their respective, cities and towns.
What is 350.org?
“350 “comes from the 350 parts per million which many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. It is an international campaign organization dedicated to that’s building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that science and justice demand.
The ultimate aim of the organization is to make governments world over to pass strong climate change policies and work to reduce emissions.
Why Global Work Party?
Thousands of people around the world have already registered their plans, including bike repair workshops in San Francisco, school insulating teams in London, waste-land-to-veggies-gardeners in New Zealand, and solar panel installers in Kenya. Check out if your city or neighborhood has something planned? If not plan something and get moving. You can find ideas and existing plans here
So the plan is to pay attention to both “Work” and “Party”, people who care about the earth coming together is a party and when work is being done to reduce our impact on the planet what could be better!
Do your bit, Join the Global Work Party and take a step towards making our world a better place. Live Green!
Mass Extinctions have been part and parcel of millions of years of history of our earth. From the Dinosaurs to the Woolly mammoth have all disappeared as part of mass extinctions in the past. Today morning I read an article by Jeremy Hsu titled “Mass Extinction Threat: Earth on Verge of Huge Reset Button?”
Some scientists have speculated that effects of humans — from hunting to climate change — are fueling another great mass extinction. A few go so far as to say we are entering a new geologic epoch, leaving the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch behind and entering the Anthropocene Epoch, marked by major changes to global temperatures and ocean chemistry, increased sediment erosion, and changes in biology that range from altered flowering times to shifts in migration patterns of birds and mammals and potential die-offs of tiny organisms that support the entire marine food chain.
Imagining that we might be the beginning of a new epoch because of our actions is beyond belief to me. But I can see how it could be, as we are seeing several species disappearing before our very eyes.
The write up is based on an analysis by John Alroy a Paleobiologist from Macquarie University Sydney, Australia. His analysis is detailed in the Sept. 3 issue of the journal Science, is based on almost 100,000 fossil collections in the Paleobiology Database (PaleoDB)
In the past, researchers have typically counted species in the fossil record by randomly drawing a set number of samples from each time period – a method that can leave out less common species. In fact two studies using the PaleoDB used this approach.
Instead, Alroy used a new approach called shareholder sampling, in which he tracked how frequently certain groups appeared in the fossil record, and then counted enough samples until he hit a target number representative of the proportion for each group.
“In some sense the older methods are a little like the American voting system – the first-past-the-post-winner method basically makes minority views invisible,” said Charles Marshall, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who did not take part in the study. “However, with proportional systems, minority views still get seats in parliament.”
One of the few consistent patterns is that growth spurts in diversity can apparently happen at any time, according to Alroy. He added that the background extinction of individual species has also remained consistent – the average species lasts just a few million years.
This means today’s species matter for environments around the world, and so humans can’t simply expect replacements from the diverse species of the future.
“If we lose all the reef builders, we may not get back the physical reefs for millions of years no matter how fast we get back all the species diversity in a simple sense,” Alroy said.
Deep Water Horizon Oil spill has been officially not leaking since July 15th 2010. Now after a month scientists confirm the presence of a 22 mile long oil plume in the bottom of the ocean and the oil had been confirmed to have come from the Deep Water Horizon well.
The Associated Press reported “A 22-mile-long invisible mist of oil is meandering far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, where it will probably loiter for months or more, scientists reported Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume from the BP spill.”
The Christian Science Monitor says the plume is 700 feet thick and 22 miles long. This was found by US and Australian scientists who were on a cruise to study the impact of Deep Water Horizon. Their findings represent the most detailed picture yet of undersea plumes of oil and methane from the Gulf oil spill. The researchers were surprised by the plume’s relative stability as well as by an apparent lack of activity on the part of microbes to break down the oil.
Experts believe the plume will take longer than 4 months to dissipate, government agencies have all but given BP a clean chit.
The oil is at depths of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, far below the environment of the most popular Gulf fish like red snapper, tuna and mackerel. But it is not harmless. These depths are where small fish and crustaceans live. And one of the biggest migrations on Earth involves small fish that go from deep water to more shallow areas, taking nutrients from the ocean depths up to the large fish and mammals.
“This is a highly sensitive ecosystem,” agreed Steve Murawski, chief fisheries scientist for the federal agency NOAA. “The animals down at 3,300 to 3,400 feet grow slowly.” The oil not only has toxic components but could cause genetic problems even at low concentrations, he said.
What will be the effect of the oil spill and the resulting clean up?
Another thing that still worries me is the aftermath of using Corexit – the Toxic Dispersant. Earth Justice says more than 1.8million gallons of dispersants were used in the Gulf of Mexico! Dispersants were used in the Gulf in unprecedented ways and amounts, turning the Gulf into a massive experiment largely keeping the public in the dark as to the risks these dispersants pose.
After Exxon Valdez disaster Congress enacted a new law calling for advance study and approval of dispersants as part of oil spill response planning. No measures if any were taken while using Corexit and for quite sometime the ingredients in Corexit was not even available. The secret ingredients were identified only after congressional demands, media outcry and a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Earthjustice.
The only studies submitted to EPA for Corexit were acute toxicity studies (which tell you what concentration of the chemical kills 50 percent of the test subjects) for one species of shrimp and one species of fish. EPA requires no other toxicity, environmental or health studies before it makes a dispersant eligible for use.
Corexit is banned in UK, Japan, Australia, Canada and China , but it is okie to use it in the US? Does it make any sense?
Watch the video on Corexit use in the Gulf of Mexico :
It will quite sometime before we understand the real impact of the oil spill on the environment. Is there a long term hazard out there which we can’t envision? Only time will tell. There is not much we can do in the Gulf other than keeping fingers crossed and hoping for the best. But we can make sure this does not repeat itself by reducing our dependence on Fossil fuels. Live Green!
Sources and more information can be found in the below links:
Africa the continent in the 21st century is associated with chaos, War, Atrocities against women and Children, hunger, poverty etc… Africa is also where the early human made their first appearance, where people lived in harmony with nature, where nature still remains natural in many pockets, where wildlife once thrived and many a hunter changed his view on hunting to become conservationists, where many a writer found his mojo, where the largest annual migration on earth still happens – The migrations of the Gnu (not the open source software but that which is its namesake – Commonly called the Wildebeest) antelopes etc… it is the land where every nature lover feels a connection to whether one has been there or not and feels drawn to. It is the one place on earth if given a chance I would love to visit – The Serengeti national park if only just to see the amazing Gnu migration, to hear the millions of hooves as they make the ground tremble, to see the stretch of antelopes as far as eye can see under the blue endless African skies.
Growing up one kind of romanticizes Africa and the endless skies with the abundant wildlife. I had only read about and imagined Africa until I saw it on the Large screen as a kid in The King Elephant which was later known as “the African Elephant” then “God’s Must be Crazy” etc.. to the Blood Diamond and others… My earlier films and the books I read made me fall in love with Africa, which has never wavered in spite of the state much of the continent is. As I grew older that one place where I really wanted to go visit has always been and probably will always be the Serengeti – Where the plains and the skies extend far beyond the eyes can see, where the Wildebeest, zebra, antelopes, elephants and giraffes co-existed with their predators lions, hyenas, cheetahs and leopards.
Serengeti comes from the word Serenget which means “land that goes on forever or Endless plains”.
The Serengeti ecosystem is one of the oldest on earth. The essential features of climate, vegetation and fauna have barely changed in the past million years. Early man himself made an appearance in Olduvai Gorge about two million years ago. Some patterns of life, death, adaptation and migration are as old as the hills themselves.
More than a million Wildebeest traverse the plains of the Serengeti and the Masai mara(Kenya) along with 200,000 Zebras and gazelles following the rains. They are known to travel distances of 1300 miles a year! They move from the northern hills to the southern plains for the short rains every October and November, and then swirl west and north after the long rains in April, May and June. So strong is the ancient instinct to move that no drought, gorge or crocodile infested river can hold them back.
Development?
In the 1960’s the Tanzanian government tried to stop the Gnu from migrating into the Ngorongoro with barbed wire fence, the migrating herds trampled it to the ground as they made their way along routes engraved in their memories for who knows how many generations…
The Serengeti is a UNESCO world heritage site in Tanzania and now the Government of Tanzania plans to build a highway right in the middle of it! The Tanzanian government is moving forward with plans to build a public road through Serengeti National Park, despite conservationists’ concerns that commercial traffic will disrupt the annual wildebeest migration and allow poachers better access into the park.
If you have watched a video of the Wildebeest migration (scroll down if you have not) you will see how breathtaking and awe inspiring it is and just how easily startled they are by any intrusion (normally what we see are the predators creating the stress when they attack one of them en-route). Just imagine what many automobiles could do?
If you live in North America you can kind of understand the number of road kills we see every year as a result of deer being hit by cars on the road… it can be fatal for animal and human. This is when there are a few animals crossing our highways which have been around for decades now. Just imagine it being in the middle of the world’s largest migration every year! The standard procedure to protect wildlife is building of fences along the road sides… imagine having to leap over hurdles to continue their annual migration which is a part of their very being. However one weaves it we know roads are catastrophic for wildlife; we see that in our own backyards… And to think the Tanzanian Government swears it will not be affected at all!!
The Politics of Promises with Power being the Ultimate Goal
The President of Tanzania came to power with the promise that he would build this road a 33 mile stretch which would connect Lake Victoria to the city of Arusha which is the tourist hot spot (base camp to Mount Kilimanjaro). What is interesting is the fact that a road through the park would “contravene the purpose of Tanzania’s accession to the World Heritage Convention,” according to the World Bank. The road would also “cause massive mortality of migratory species” and diminish the Serengeti’s value as a tourist attraction. The World Bank had in 1980’s rejected a similar proposal because of the negative ecological impact; I would think that should only have become more evident now than it was 3 decades ago.
There have been viability studies for the said road conducted by environmental groups which are independent (e.g. from Norway in 1997) which found it to be detrimental to the environment, and then the Government which stands by the road and the notion that it is “safe” did their own study in 2007 and came up with the response that “the effect on wildlife could be mitigated!” wonder how that will be accomplished when one really does not know how ecologically detrimental the road could be.
What is happening?
“Creating a commercial road through such a natural environment—where millions of wildebeest migrate annually—will be an intrusion in the natural habitat, so much so that the level of stress [among the animals] will be tremendous,” said Steven Kiruswa, the Maasai Steppe Heartland Director at the African Wildlife Foundation.
Poachers in Africa or any place where wild animals still survive and are protected in not news any more, But when Governments which are supposed to be protecting their own heritage turn a blind eye and cop up to vested interests dooming whatever is left protected, it makes me despondent. Why is it that there is still a market out there for animals and animal products? Why it is that man seems so unable to see what he is doing to what is left of the planet?
One thing is for sure like the Serengeti Park Management says “What we must face, all of us – poachers, tourists, farmers, conservationists and pastoralists – is the difficult truth that the land does not go on forever.”
Roads bring people and vehicles, development will encroach into the ecosystem of the Serengeti savannah. It will disrupt nature in ways we can’t imagine.
Hoping that man’s greed and will-full ignorance does not make him blind enough to think that nature and its survival does not matter. Signing off with a quote from the from President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere who said “In accepting the trusteeship of our wildlife we solemnly declare that we will do everything in our power to make sure that our children’s grand-children will be able to enjoy this rich and precious inheritance.”
One reality that can’t be ignored is the fact that like every where else, unless the underlying issues are not taken care of these kind of band aids will appear more often than not. The only solution for environmental survival is not just education it is wiping out of poverty and the issues that come with it.
May be Tanzanians will remember Nyerere’s words, their tradition of conservation and act responsibly.
Possible Solution - A southern Route which won’t hamper the migratory path of the wildlife of the Plains that go on forever… May be the tour operators who bring in the tourists can make the Government listen and take action.
There are suggestions to build underground tunnels for the animals to migrate! This was done in places in India where elephants crossed over to their water sources when the government build rail tracks- problem they forgot to tell the elephants and there are still accidental deaths when an elephant is caught unaware on the track and meets its untimely death… Hopefully that is not where the Gnu and its ilk are headed.
Watch the Largest Migration in the World courtesy of National geographic :
On 16th August 2010 started a race of 4 teams with vehicles running on renewable energy which the organizers are calling Zero Race! The Zero Race Adventure draws inspiration from Jules Verne’s “Around the world in 80 days” by racing around the world in 80 days! The Race will cover 18,650 miles across the continents. The Sponsor’s include United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Sustainable Energy Europe etc…
The cars starting from Geneva Switzerland heading eastward will cross Berlin, Moscow and Shanghai and then travel by ship to Vancouver. From there they will continue along the west coast of North America all the way to Cancun, Mexico. In December, the vehicles will be shipped again to Portugal, and travel over southwest Europe to complete the final leg of the global journey. After 80 days, 30,000 kilometers through 16 countries and 150 city stopovers the race will be completed at the end of January 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Swiss man behind “The Zero race” Louis Palmer is the first man ever to travel around the world in an electric car, he did it in 534 days which he named the Solar Taxi.
The mission of “The ZERO Race” is to educate, raise public awareness, inspire and help governments and people to take action towards a sustainable future. (1) AWARENESS to prove that electric cars running on renewable energies provide a reliable and ecological solution for human transport and mobility. (2) EDUCATION to raise public awareness worldwide about ZERO-emission technology and involve major government stakeholders. (3) INSPIRATION to create new ways of thinking about mobility, cars and renewable energy. (4) ACTION to show that practical solutions exist towards protecting the future of the planet and its inhabitants.
The ZERO Race will involve many public events, press conferences and spread the following messages on its global tour:
This is a race to save the world; it is a race for clean technology.
This is a race to Cancun to Seal the Deal at the UN Climate Change Conference.
This is a race towards the future and the future is Green.
This race stands for an ecological, economical and efficient lifestyle change: it is possible!Check out the route of the ZERO RACE:
Vectrix Team from GermanyWatch the TED Talk by Louis Palmer in Geneva 2009:
Interesting Facts about the race:
The cars are required to carry two passengers and drive at least 250 kilometers at an average speed of at least 80 kilometers an hour.
This is the longest race of its kind.
The ZERO Race is a 100% carbon neutral event. All unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions generated in its planning and implementation will be compensated by purchasing offsets from a credible organization.
Competition Criteria
Reliability – based on vehicle performance assessed by the number of breakdowns or repairs needed during the Zero Race
Power and Speed – based on acceleration and range capacity to complete the Zero Race track (evaluation by a panel of race car drivers)
Energy efficiency – based on assessments by vehicle manufacturers and various other experts
Popularity of the vehicle, based on the judgment of the general public
Safety – based on evaluations by transport engineers
Design – based on opinion polls by spectators and the general public along the way
Louis Palmer aims to hold this race every two years, watch the website to see if the race passes your city. What a green concept to have a zero emissions race across the world!
The icing on the cake for me was when I read that the teams have also chosen an endangered animal from their respective countries to highlight the threat to biodiversity and raise awareness as 2010 is the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity.
The Korean team picked the Amur Tiger which has disappeared from their wilderness. The Swiss team picked a Dragon fly Sombre Goldenring, The Australians picked the Golden green frog and the Germans have chosen a bird (will have to find out which one and will update that part )
Oil Spill in Mumbai (erst while Bombay) and this time around it is different in the sense the oil is not from a well run amok, but resulting from the collision of the MSC Chitra a Panamanian vessel into the St. Kitts-registered MV Khalijia-III on Saturday the 7th of August 2010. The impact of the collision made the MSC Chitra tilt precariously with containers sliding off into the sea around. The leaking oil has created an oil slick along the Coast of Mumbai which is a major port in Asia.
The NDTV report says “When the MSC Chitra collided with the Khalijia on Saturday, it had a cargo of 1,219 containers holding 2662 tonnes of fuel, 283 tonnes of diesel and 88040 litres of lubricant oil. Thirty-one containers had pesticide in them. The Chitra tilted sharply under the impact of the collision, resulting in the oil spill and now, containers of pesticide bobbing off on the sea.”
The coast guard and The Indian Navy are involved with the clean up and keeping further incidents happening due to the floating containers in the sea. Environmentalists believe the oil clean up might take up to a month.The oil leak has been stopped as per last reports and the cleaning operation is in full swing.
Interesting how Oil spills have become front page news again, after the Deep Horizon Debacle. It is not like we have not had oil spills every year, most of the spills happen in places where the press and the world don’t seem to focus on much and when they do the news gets relegated to the back pages there by giving oil companies and the spills a free pass.
The only way is to lessen and then stop our dependence on Oil, until we find a way to do that these kinds of news will keep popping up, sometimes in our neighborhood sometimes else where. The reality is we all share one earth and what ever one of us does it affects all of us. Until the Next Oil Spill… Live Green!
There is renewed interest in Nuclear Power in today’s world as fossil fuel deposits are getting depleted as each day passes and the consumption increases. The supporters tout the usage of Nuclear energy in France and rest of Europe without major issues, but the reality is that nuclear fallout when it happens can leave an indelible mark on the environment around. We know for a fact that human impact on the environment has been the worst in recorded history in the last 100 years. One way we find out what the impact is on the environment is by learning from the mistakes we make and one of the worst ones was the Chernobyl Incident in 1986.
For the uninitiated Chernobyl is one of the largest nuclear disasters in Human history. 24 years back in 1986 in the early morning hours of April 26th some complications triggered an explosion in the Chernobyl Nuclear plant in the town of Pripyat in the erstwhile Soviet Union (now in Northern Ukraine). The fallout covered a vast area and led to the evacuation of the town of Pripyat.
The abandoned town and surroundings are still not populated and the nuclear plant which was closed down entirely in 2000 still remains, enveloped in a sarcophagus made of reinforced concrete (it is supposed to hold in the radioactive substances for at least 100 years).
I read this article in the BBC about a report in the Journal of Ecology about a study titled “Efficiency of bio-indicators for low-level radiation under field conditions” 2 eminent scientists Professor Timothy Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, US, and Dr Anders Moller from the University of Paris-Sud, France have been researching the fallouts impact on the wildlife in the region around Chernobyl. In their study from 2006-2009, they counted and examined wildlife including insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. In conclusion they have reported that their census of species in the zone – which was carried out for more than three years – provides more evidence that contamination has a “significant impact” on biodiversity.
The research team compared the abundance of species in the exclusion zone with similar types of habitats in the area, which were not contaminated. Ukranian scientists have challenged this study, but the reality according to the team is that this is the first in-depth study done in Chernobyl.
Professor Mousseau says: “If society is ever to learn more about the long term environmental consequences of large scale accidents – and Chernobyl is just one of several – it is important that we all take our responsibilities seriously.”
So before we support building new Nuclear Power Plants in our backyards – I believe most of us would say NIMBY to nuclear power plants, yet some of us would say “Yes” to it as long as it is not where we can see it, or we feel safe enough. Like Prof Mousseau says “We all have to take our responsibilities seriously” and I add “for we are the safe keepers of this earth for the future generations”. Live Green!
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has been the leading international force behind rehabilitation, relieving issues of the people affected by Chernobyl disaster, developing the containment area, and educating the people about the nuclear disasters nationally and internationally. The website run by them has plenty of information about what has happened there past the disaster.Thisyear (2010) the reigns have been handed over to the UNDP (The United Nations Development Programme)Check it out here
Some interesting pictures of the vehicle grave yard in Chernobylhere
Elena Filatova has a blog of pictures and write-ups about her visit to Chernobyl starting 2004 amazing pictures of a dead-city here
Even a fortnight after a fire at an oil depot in Dalian, China is struggling to clean up the crude oil leaked into the sea.
Two weeks ago an explosions at an oil terminal near the northeastern city of Dalian set off a fire that raged for 15 hours and took 2,000 firefighters to extinguish.
BBC reports that , “an army of volunteers and fishermen has been mobilised to help clean up the pollution from the area around the port of Dalian, one of China’s most important strategic oil reserves.
But conditions are grim for those involved.
Photo: AP
The scene at a small harbour where they are collecting the oil is like something out of the 19th Century.”
According to Chinese officials, the oil slick is under control and has not reached international waters.
Dai Yulin, the deputy mayor of Dalian port in northeast China, said Monday that more than 8,000 fishing boats helped to keep the 435-square-kilometer slick from reaching the open sea.
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