Tag Archives: environment

World Water Day

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What does it mean to you? I talked about it at work today and people looked at me with a strange face… No wonder! It’s not like a holiday or even a charitable cause: it’s a day to raise awareness about how we are managing water.

You should know there is a problem when 40% of the world population lack access to basic sanitation, according to the UN World Water Development Report. No wonder, they say that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water!

Earth 911 offers a great reference with ideas on things you can do to conserve water.

Also, WorldChanging (another excellent resource) offers a list of events, projects and resources related to this occasion.

You Are What You Choose

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A while back I was reading The World is Flat. There was a comment made by Thomas Friedman there that stuck with me:

“Every time you as a consumer make a decision, you are supporting a whole set of values.”

That thought stuck with me and today it resurfaced, as I was reading about 18Seconds.org, a green initiative started by Yahoo! to convey the importance of switching to Energy Star CFL light bulbs.

Ironically, about a week ago, 18Seconds.org had surfaced on digg.com (though it had only gotten a handful of diggs as of this writing). A comment below the digg pointed out the environmental issues that CFL bring about:

CFLs contain trace amounts of mercury. The amount is not large enough to pose a hazard to users (it is about 1/5 the amount in a typical digital watch battery), but it does become a concern at landfills and trash incinerators where the mercury from many bulbs can escape and contribute to air and water pollution.

Go figure! You are trying to do good by substituting (like we did) all incandescent bulbs in your house for CFLs… and you realize you may have made the wrong choice.

This happens all the time, so what’s left to do? As long as we have the greater possible good in mind, we can always take corrective actions and do the right thing in the long run. For instance: in this case, learn how to recycle mercury and, like the person who made the comment in digg mentioned, use more natural light (that is the biggest energy saver there is in this case), buy smaller wattage bulbs and consider (for some rooms) using candles. Sounds extreme? I would say no, when you realize that our choices affect the world around us in ways that we may or may not suspect.

So, what choices have you made that you think you could do better at?

Being Educated Doesn't Equate to Being Smart

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A while back, I posted on Amazon.com a review about An Inconvenient Truth, which I followed a few days later with a comment on the topic of global warming, as it hit the Supreme Court.

Little did I know that after I’d posted my review, a discussion instigated by a seemingly well-educated Amazon user had broken out, where he had taken on other users in a way that, to say the least, I found quite disrespectful and demeaning to them. Here’s the link to the discussion and below is the reply that I posted to him (not sure if he will ever read it):

Mr. Keech:
I’ve come back to my review about the movie almost a couple of months after I posted it, to find out that it’s been followed by a string of comments, most of which were posted by you.

As an Electrical Engineer as well (and one with a B.S. and a Masters degree too), I wanted to ask you two things:
1) Why do you think that having a University degree and having read scientific reports on the topic gives you the right to treat others who have a different view on the topic with such disrespect? Your statement in reply to Cale Oosha seems to be pretty disrespectful and sexist to me. I quote from your original post:

“What technical background do you have, ma’am? My guess is absolutely NONE. So, you get all squishy inside in all your emotional, empty-headed feminine “intuition” that Al Gore is the most handsome man in the world and anything he says must be the gospel truth!”

At the end of the day, what basis do you have to assume anything about anybody’s background? And who are you to call anybody “empty-headed”?

2) Even if the arguments in the movie were false (which I am not going to discuss with you here, because it is obvious where you stand on this topic), which of the recommendations made on the movie (fairly intuitive and easy-to-do things, such as recycling, minimizing pollution, etc.) would you consider to be so negative and cause for such outrage, that you find it necessary to engage in such long replies and in insults to other readers who disagree with you, just to prove the movie wrong?

I just don’t see why you are so angry.

Global Warming: The World Is At Stake

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CNN, Washington Post, LA Times, NYTimes. No matter where you went looking for information on the Global Warming hearings at the Supreme Court that started yesterday, it was if it was second-rate news… the news that nobody wants to read about. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, considering that among the Justices who are hearing the case, you could hear Antonin Scalia stating the obvious:

“Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I’m not a scientist… That’s why I don’t want to have to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth.”

Or this:

“You have to show the harm is imminent… I mean, when is the cataclysm?”

One last pearl, this time by Chief Justice Roberts:

Roberts questioned whether regulating American vehicles would be able to remedy any harm by reducing greenhouse gases worldwide. That “assumes there isn’t going to be a greater contribution of greenhouse gases from economic development in China and other places that’s going to displace whatever marginal benefit you get here,” he said.

So here’s the deal, more or less, as framed by Scalia and Roberts. Since there’s a chance that someone else (in this case, the Chinese) may screw things up with the environment, why should Americans bother about doing the right thing? Plus, even if there was some damage being done that we could do something about, what’s the rush, if it’s so far in the future… And ultimately, I don’t want to talk about it, because the whole topic of Global Warming is flat out boring to me and I ain’t a scientist.

But these people are losing sight of the big picture. This is not just “some” ruling they are supposed to make, or your average lawsuit by a bunch of blue “treehugging” states that should be dismissed as frivolous or a waste of time. Even if they are not scientists, the Supreme Court should consider scientific evidence and not get hung up on semantics discussions like they seem to be at this point.

Greenhouse emissions are serious business and if they weren’t, why would would G.W. Bush have pledged to regulate them back in 2000 when he was campaigning? (though he to sadly reversed his position on this once in power).

This is the world that is at stake and to see such delicate things in the hands of people that in spite of being smart, seem to prefer to look the other way and ignore an imminent problem (hoping that this is the case and not one of conflicting interests…) just breaks my heart.

I wonder if any of them have seen An Inconvenient Truth or if they just discarded it altogether because it was based on an environmental pursuit by Al Gore, a former Democratic VP and Presidential candidate…

An Inconvenient Truth: A Must See DVD

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I just had a chance of watching An Inconvenient Truth, which was released on DVD earlier this week. I tell you: no matter what side of the political fence you are in; no matter what you think about the environment. This is a movie you MUST see. After we saw the movie, which depicts former VP Al Gore doing a slideshow presentation about the current situation and outlook of the global warming crisis, we scratched our heads at how careless we can be about a topic that our very survival as a species depends on.

The movie gives hard data in a visual way, that is compelling and easy to understand, showing how bad the current situation with global warming is, compared to our entire past history. It goes on to elaborate in terms of particular geographical areas, how they are doing today and their outlook in case certain (not too unlikely) environmental events unfold. It presents the US in the context of the world, what we are (not) doing about the problem, and most importantly, it gives lots of tips of things we CAN do, to make a difference, along with directing viewers to the movie’s web site.

There is no way that you can watch this movie and not care about this issue afterwards. All you need to do is get yourself to watch it. Click on the animated banner below, and pledge to see it and do something about global warming afterwards.

Colds, antibiotics and cancer

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Can you count how many times you’ve had a cold this year? Of those, how many times you’ve been prescribed antibiotics? I know I’ve been sick twice this year and of those two times I’ve had antibiotics prescribed… the same two times. Was it inevitable? In spite of what recent findings indicate, I would say not. I had been sick for over 10 days and no over-the-counter treatment would make the sickness go away, and the antibiotic did.

What’s the point, you may be wondering? For quite some time now I’ve been wondering about the waves of endless colds that keep hitting us. I mean, it’s like it never stops. Maybe it’s an overall unhealthier environment and lives we live, combining things like contamination, lack of enough clean air (spending too much time indoors, where air with bacteria gets recirculated), not enough exercise, a bad diet full of preservatives and fast and junk food… then I wonder, how much are these same things affecting the other wave I sense around me: the number of people who have cancer.

Is it just me, or are more people around getting cancer these days? Since my dad died, it just seems to me that more people I know have gotten cancer or had a reocurrence of this nasty disease. I can think of at least five people that have had or currently have cancer that I personally know, and I don’t remember any other moment in my life when I’d known so many people who have it. So, I decided to do a little digging and here’s what I found.

Nowadays cancer is responsible for 25% of all deaths in the US. According to the National Cancer Institute, though the total number of deaths due to the most common types of cancer has been declining, “the incidence of cancers of the breast in women and of prostate and testis in men, as well as leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma, melanoma of skin, and cancers of the thyroid, kidney, and esophagus is rising.” (link to site)

Now, I am curious. Do you think some of the same causes for the number of people getting sick (I mean sick of a cold and other minor comparable things) are also responsible for the increasing numbers of people who get cancer too? Are our unhealthy and sedentary lifestyles responsible for our ailments, both small and large? I think so and some researchers say so too.

Summer "begins"

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As this guy stands on top of Stonehenge, to celebrate the longest day of the year, I think: summer’s here, but the heat has long been around. I can’t imagine it getting any hotter… yet, the math doesn’t fail. It WILL get hotter. The calendar says so (we’re not even in July yet) and Al Gore says so…

Which reminds me, I gotta get to see An Inconvenient Truth. Anyone seen it yet?

Conserve electricity and gas

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A bit reactive of us, since we should be doing this any way, but here it goes, until the gas supply situation is stabilized again:

Businesses and Floridians need to conserve electricity and gas, says Florida’s Department of Management Services.

The Florida Department of Management Services has issued an energy conservation request to businesses around Florida.

According to the department, the damage Hurricane Katrina did to natural gas and gasoline production and distribution facilities will place a strain on electricity providers and gasoline supplies.

The department is requesting that companies and individuals conserve electricity and gas in the following ways:

1. Turn off and unplug all non-essential equipment and appliances.
2. Turn off all lights and computers when leaving from home, and keep lights off when no one is in the room.
3. If applicable and safe, turn off overhead lighting during the day.
4. Adjust air conditioning thermostats slightly upward.
5. Evaluate and adjust travel plans.
6. Conserve gasoline by reducing the number of trips and by carpooling.

Tags: weather, environment