Urban Waste Management

The conditions, issues and problems of urban waste management in the industrialized and developing worlds are different. Though the developed countries generate larger amounts of wastes, they have developed adequate facilities, competent government institutions and bureaucracies to manage their wastes. Developing countries are still in the transition towards better waste management but they currently have insufficient collection and improper disposal of wastes. Clear government policies and competent bureaucracies for management of solid wastes are needed urgently especially in countries where there is rapid population growth through urbanization into peri-urban areas. Services and programmes that include proper waste disposal for management of hazardous biological and chemical wastes, minimisation and recycling will be needed. Disposal of wastes is commonly done by dumping (on land or into water bodies), incineration or long term storage in a secured facility. All these methods have varying degrees of negative environmental impacts with adverse environmental and health risks if wastes are improperly disposed or stored.

http://www.gdrc.org/uem/waste/uwm-issues.html

The Clean Air Acts

During the 1950’s and ‘60’s, pollution from smoke had got so bad that the government intervened to try to improve conditions.

The Clean Air Act of 1956 was introduced as an ‘emergency’ response to the great London Smog of 1952. This was a culmination of industrial pollution combined with damp, still weather which meant that coal smoke remained in the air to the extent that people could only see a few feet in front of them.

A subsequent Clean Air Act in 1968 extended the reach of the original bill and continued the work to combat air pollution.

http://www.pollutionissues.co.uk/smoke-pollution.html

The Great Barrier Reef

It’s official; the Great Barrier Reef is dying. It is no longer a looming prediction, it is happening.

This is the message coming from Australian reef scientists. How the rest of the country reacts to this fact will determine whether or not the reef will have a final chance to bounce back.

On the 15th August this year, over a lengthy drink with world-renowned underwater videographer David Hannan, I was introduced to this alarming reality. Over the next few months, I travelled across the country interviewing scientists and reef experts alike. My question; is it really true that the largest coral reef structure in the world is dying?

The perfect scenario would be to stop Global Warming, but this would involve the unlikely scenario of massive and rapid international cooperation to radically reduce CO2 emissions. Even if CO2 levels are stopped today, temperatures will continue to rise as greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere for several hundred years. 

http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/features/greatbarrierreef.htm

Industrial Pollution

In the United States industry is the greatest source of pollution, accounting for more than half the volume of all water pollution and for the most deadly pollutants. Some 370,000 manufacturing facilities use huge quantities of freshwater to carry away wastes of many kinds. The waste-bearing water, or effluent, is discharged into streams, lakes, or oceans, which in turn disperse the polluting substances. In its National Water Quality Inventory, reported to Congress in 1996, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded that approximately 40% of the nation's surveyed lakes, rivers, and estuaries were too polluted for such basic uses as drinking supply, fishing, and swimming. The pollutants include grit, asbestos, phosphates and nitrates, mercury, lead, caustic soda and other sodium compounds, sulfur and sulfuric acid, oils, and petrochemicals.
In addition, numerous manufacturing plants pour off undiluted corrosives, poisons, and other noxious byproducts. The construction industry discharges slurries of gypsum, cement, abrasives, metals, and poisonous solvents. Another pervasive group of contaminants entering food chains is the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds, components of lubricants, plastic wrappers, and adhesives. In yet another instance of pollution, hot water discharged by factories and power plants causes so-called thermal pollution by increasing water temperatures. Such increases change the level of oxygen dissolved in a body of water, thereby disrupting the water's ecological balance, killing off some plant and animal species while encouraging the overgrowth of others.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0861889.html

MURO AMI

“Muro-ami” burst into the national consciousness because of the well-crafted movie that starred Cesar Montano. The film came too late though, since at the time it was shown the government had already banned the practice. During a discussion on the topic sponsored by the Alternative Law Group, one of the resource speakers, Mike Cusi, head of the Marine Biology Section of the University of San Carlos, even used excerpts of the movie to illustrate muro-ami’s destructive method of fishing. Among the participants of the discussion were young men who in the past were involved in muro-ami fishing. They confirmed as accurate the portion of the movie where swimmers, including children, destroyed corral beds using big stones to scare fishes and lead them to the nets. Two strong concerns brought about the controversy on muro-ami fishing. The first was the reported use of child labor. Not only were these children denied their schooling and stripped of their childhood, some of them also died because of the harsh environment in the high seas. The second concern was environmental destruction. The ecological imbalance resulted in ravaged corral beds, growth of parasitic algae and rapid reduction of fish population. While the negative effects of muro-ami fishing may have been drastically reduced due to the ban, as well as the effective monitoring by concerned agencies, a more destructive kind of fishing has emerged with the consent of the government. Generally similar to muro-ami, the alternative method used by the large-scale fishing companies is called “pa-aling.” Instead of using stones to drive fishes out of corral beds, the swimmers use tubes that release high-pressured air. This method is very effective in driving fishes out of their safe havens. Pa-aling has not been banned because children are not anymore required to join it and corrals are no longer destroyed. From the business point of view, the efficiency and effectiveness of pa-aling brings more profits to our big-time fish businessmen. From the government’s point of view, no laws are violated in pa-aling. Yet, environmentalists are up in arms once more against it. Pa-aling is just too efficient a method in catching fish. It catches all kinds of fish and other sea creatures indiscriminately. It is like a holocaust under the sea. Once fertile fishing grounds are identified, the pa-aling fishing expeditions repeatedly raid these areas, thereby, resulting in over-fishing. With too much over-fishing, we may end up with few fishes to catch and to eat in the near future.

Beijing air pollution "as bad as it can get"

BEIJING -- Beijingers were warned to stay indoors on Thursday as pollution levels across the capital hit the top of the scale, despite repeated assurances by the government that air quality was improving.
"This is as bad as it can get," a spokeswoman for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau told Agence France-Presse.
"Level five is the worst level of air pollution. This is as bad as it has been all year."
According to the bureau's website, 15 out of the 16 pollution monitoring stations in urban Beijing registered a "five" for air quality rating.
The main pollutant was suspended particulate matter, which is usually attributed to coal burning and automotive exhaust.
"Old people and young children should reduce outdoor activities and protect their health," the spokeswoman said.
The Beijing Evening News warned residents not to do their morning exercises on Friday as pollution levels were likely to linger over the capital until a cold front moved in and blew some of the bad air away later in the day.
A lack of wind in the capital over recent days has led to a heavy cover of smog trapping in the pollutants, the paper said.
By nightfall, the pollution was still horrendously thick.
In the run up to the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has vowed to clean up its air and this year set a goal of 245 "blue sky days," or days with only light pollution.
As of Thursday, the city needed one more day to reach the annual goal, the bureau said. But official "blue sky days" are often hazy affairs with heavy pollution.
Beijing's air quality is routinely rated among the worst in the world by international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank, with rampant coal burning, regular dust storms and a growing number of cars cited as the main reasons.
The head of the government's information office, Cai Wu, told reporters on Thursday that Beijing's environment was improving and they should have "full confidence" that the Olympics would be pollution free.BEIJING -- Beijingers were warned to stay indoors on Thursday as pollution levels across the capital hit the top of the scale, despite repeated assurances by the government that air quality was improving.
"This is as bad as it can get," a spokeswoman for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau told Agence France-Presse.
"Level five is the worst level of air pollution. This is as bad as it has been all year."
According to the bureau's website, 15 out of the 16 pollution monitoring stations in urban Beijing registered a "five" for air quality rating.
The main pollutant was suspended particulate matter, which is usually attributed to coal burning and automotive exhaust.
"Old people and young children should reduce outdoor activities and protect their health," the spokeswoman said.
The Beijing Evening News warned residents not to do their morning exercises on Friday as pollution levels were likely to linger over the capital until a cold front moved in and blew some of the bad air away later in the day.
A lack of wind in the capital over recent days has led to a heavy cover of smog trapping in the pollutants, the paper said.
By nightfall, the pollution was still horrendously thick.
In the run up to the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has vowed to clean up its air and this year set a goal of 245 "blue sky days," or days with only light pollution.
As of Thursday, the city needed one more day to reach the annual goal, the bureau said. But official "blue sky days" are often hazy affairs with heavy pollution.
Beijing's air quality is routinely rated among the worst in the world by international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank, with rampant coal burning, regular dust storms and a growing number of cars cited as the main reasons.
The head of the government's information office, Cai Wu, told reporters on Thursday that Beijing's environment was improving and they should have "full confidence" that the Olympics would be pollution free.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20071227-109058/Beijing_air_pollution_as_bad_as_it_can_get_official_says

Extending a sea ethic would mean recognizing the ocean’s importance to the continued existence of life on our planet and to human futures. From this recognition would flow an appropriate sense of moral imperative, commitment, and urgency—urgency toward ending overfishing and wasteful bycatch and aggressively rebuilding depleted ocean wildlife populations, stabilizing human effects on world climate, slowing habitat destruction, stemming global transport and accidental introduction of "alien" species, curbing the flow of contaminants and trash, developing sustainable seafood farming, cultivating an informed approach to the seafood marketplace, and implementing networks of protected areas in the sea." - Dr. Carl Safina


http://planktonforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4308&sid=20753cb6029b382c4586a4987854ae34

Sustainable Fisheries

Fish currently supply the greatest percentage of the world's protein consumed by humans. This fact may soon change, however, given that most of the world's major fisheries are being fished at levels above their maximum sustainable yield and many regions are severely overfished. More than 70% of the world's fisheries are overexploited, which threatens the health, economy, and livelihoods of communities all over the world. The global fishing fleet is estimated to be 250% larger than needed to catch what the ocean can sustainably produce.

http://marinebio.org/Oceans/Conservation/SustainableFisheries.asp

Marine Biology

The ocean gives us life. It provides the majority of our oxygen, the rain, food, excitement, wonder, and mystery. The ocean buffers the weather and helps regulate global temperature, manages vast amounts of our pollutants, contains all kinds of amazing creatures, and supports all life on our planet. But—the ocean is just now beginning to be understood and with that understanding comes the increasing realization that the ocean is in deep trouble. Marine conservation efforts are simply overwhelmed by the number and scale of the problems the ocean faces.

http://marinebio.org/

Whaling Secrets

“If we can imagine a horse having two or three explosive spears stuck in its stomach and being made to pull a butcher's truck through the streets of London while its blood pours into the gutter, we shall have an idea of the method of killing whales. The gunners themselves admit that if whales could scream, the industry would stop for nobody would be able to stand it.”

Harpoons using the same explosive grenade heads employed fifty years ago are being used right now by Japanese whalers to slaughter whales illegally.
Often, the first blast isn’t enough to kill the poor whale. Japanese whaling ships were recently filmed hoisting live whales up the side of their huge industrial ships by the tail, leaving the whale’s blow hole underwater. The helpless whale can only thrash against the side of the ship, desperate for air, until it slowly drowns.
Perhaps even more shocking, this unsanctioned killing is happening in the protected waters of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean Marine Sanctuary, blatantly defying international law.
Here’s why you don’t have to kill a whalein order to study it…
Japan is able to continue hunting whales in such a sickening fashion because it is abusing a loophole in the international ban that permits killing whales in order to conduct scientific research.
But the painful slaughter of whales does not benefit science, whales or people. Why?
Because non-lethal methods to study whales already exist. In fact, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has clearly stated it does not need the data obtained from killing whales: passing resolutions critical of Japan’s research whaling program forty-one times!

Under IWC rules, any meat that results from research whaling must be used. Japan openly sells the whale meat it obtains from its ‘research’ in markets and restaurants: despite the fact that whale meat is often extremely toxic from pollutants and dangerous to eat.
Japanese whaling isn’t about science at all. It’s simply commercial whaling in disguise.
Whales need your help right now more than ever before.

Japan is killing protected whales in a marine mammal sanctuary, selling illegal whale meat and buying votes in an international decision-making body. Please help the world's whales before there’s no turning back.

Déjà vu: from the green revolution to gene revolution

Genetic engineering has sprouted due to the advanced researched conducted by experts. I am really curious on how this works... But unfortunately, this may entail negative effects for our environment.

The Green Revolution was a massive government and corporate campaign to persuade farmers in the developing world to replace many indigenous crops with a few high yielding varieties, dependent on expensive inputs of chemicals and fertilizers.
While substantially increasing crop yields, farmers were obligated to buy hybrid seeds dependent on chemical inputs and extensive irrigation. But more importantly, the Green Revolution destroyed crop diversity by supplanting local integral crop systems that were based on a wide genetic base and multiple use crops. Green Revolution crops displaced local varieties and forced farmers into a vicious dependency cycle.
The insecticides and herbicides that went along with the use of Green Revolution crops caused the loss of complementary harvests that had previously been provided by the paddy fields, such as fish, shrimp, crabs, edible herbs, frogs and wild plants. The loss of these harvests is seldom taken into account when yields of Green Revolution or GE crops are calculated. Genetic engineering of crops is an extension of this flawed paradigm.

Environmental Issues

All things come with a price. In exchange for the contribution of expeditions carried out in the Himalayan range to Nepal’s economy, the environment has suffered tremendously.
As the number of climbers visiting the country increases, it has become certain that the increase in pollution and other negative environmental repercussions will continue.
Dubbed by American Barry G. Bishop as the “highest junkyard in the world”, Mt. Everest has been the home of lost or thrown climbing equipment, foods, medical waste such as syringes and medicines, plastics, tins, clothes, papers, tents, oxygen bottles and corpses. It is estimated that each team leaves behind an average of 500 kilograms of trash per expedition and the garbage is scattered in different altitudes.
The route that is most notoriously known for its trash is on the Southeast Ridge since it is the most popular route to the summit. Another thing is that not all waste can decompose such as oxygen bottles that are also heavy. Usually this type of garbage is thrown into the crevasses that surprisingly show up at the base of the mountain.
With the rise of environmental problems, the Nepalese government, climbers and environmentalists have created solutions that allow the mountain to recuperate. Traces of progress have shown up paving the way to the road to recovery.

http://www.philippine-everest.com/dangers&issues.html

Environmental Effects of Floods

I'm doing a report on the effects of flooding on the environment. Can you help me? What can people do to help ease flooding? I live in an area where flooding hardly occurs; What could I do to help people that live in those areas?
You asked about the effects of flooding on the environment. This is a pretty broad question, but I'll try to provide some answers to what I think you are asking about. First, floods are part of the natural cycle of things. The benefits of natural floods almost certainly outweigh the negative aspects. The problems start when flooding occurs in areas of large-scale human development of the landscape. In areas largely inhabited by people, there are both positive and negative environmental effects of flooding. Floods can distribute large amounts of water and suspended river sediment over vast areas. In many areas, this sediment helps replenish valuable topsoil components to agricultural lands and can keep the elevation of a land mass above sea level. An example of the latter case is the Mississippi delta. Before the Mississippi and associated rivers were controlled in levees in southern Louisiana, the rivers would frequently spill their banks. This processes made the lands of the Mississippi delta. This area is slowly subsiding with time and without the continued replenishment of sediment from river floods, much of it has dropped to elevations below natural sea level. Thus, one could say that not allowing floods is negative for this area. Our society has chosen instead to create a vast and complex system to keep Mississippi waters from reaching these lands. The lands remain dry but each year they subside more, making it ultimately more and more difficult to keep that way. On the negative side, floods disrupt normal drainage systems in cities and typically overwhelm sewer systems. Thus, raw or partially raw sewage spills are common in flooded area. Additionally, if the flood is severe enough, destruction of buildings that can contain a large array of toxic materials (paints, pesticides, gasoline, etc..) can cause the release of these materials into the local environment, which is not good. I'm sure you could imagine other "negatives" similar to those I've just described. Floods disrupt many people's lives each year and personal tragedies due to flooding occur frequently. A wise society, in my opinion, would reap the benefits of flooding and avoid many of the negatives if they would choose to build cities in ways that can accomodate flooding without trying to avoid it. Attempting to go against nature is almost certainly a loosing prospect in the end. Flood prevention is really something left up to cities and towns. If where you live isn't flood prone, maybe there is some other natural hazard that does affect your area that you could learn about and help with instead. As individuals, if we all keep the minimum amount of toxic substances (paints, solvents, automotive fluids, etc..) around our homes, there will be less of these substances to "spill" when any sort of unfortunate natural dissaster befalls the communities in which we live.

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/floods.html

The Earth's Life-support System is in Peril - a Global Crisis

Our planet is changing and many environmental indicators have moved outside their range of the past half-million years. If we cannot develop policies to cope with this, the consequences may be huge. We have made progress. Life expectancy and standards of living have increased for many, but the population has grown to six billion, and continues to grow. The global economy has increased 15-fold since 1950 and this progress has begun to affect the planet and how it functions. For example, the increase in CO2 is 100 PPM and growing. During the 1990's, the average area of tropical forest cleared each year was equivalent to half the area of England. The impacts of global change are complex, as they combine with regional environmental stresses. Coral reefs, which were under stress from fishing, tourism and pollutants, are now under pressure from carbonate chemistry in ocean surface waters from the increase in CO2. The wildfires that hit the world last year were a result of land management, ignition sources and extreme local weather probably linked to climate change. Poor access to fresh water is expected to nearly double with population growth. Biodiversity losses, will be exacerbated by climate change. Beyond 2050, regional climate change, could have huge consequences. The Earth has entered the Anthropocene Era in which humans are a dominating environmental force. Global environmental change challenges the political decision-making process and will have to be based on risks that events will happen, or scenarios will unfold. Global environmental change is often gradual until critical thresholds are passed. Some rapid changes such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet would be irreversible in any meaningful timescale, while other changes may be unstoppable. We know that there are risks of rapid and irreversible changes to which it would be difficult to adapt. Incremental change will not prevent climate change, water depletion, deforestation or biodiversity loss. Breakthroughs in technologies and resource management that will affect economic sectors and lifestyles are required. International frameworks are essential for addressing global change. Never before has a multilateral system been more necessary. Will we accept the challenge or wait until a catastrophic, irreversible change is upon us? No mention of the success that voluntary family planning has been, and how meeting the unmet need for contraception and reducing maternal and infant mortality is vitally important for reducing population growth fast enough.

http://www.overpopulation.org/

Climate Changes and and reasons why they come about

When an area of rainforest is either cut down or destroyed, there are various climate changes that happen as a result. The following is a list of the various climate changes with a brief description of why they come about.

1.Desication of previously moist forest soil

What happens is because of the exposure to the sun, the soil gets baked and the lack of canopy leaves nothing to prevent the moisture from quickly evaporating into the atmosphere. Thus, previously moist soil becomes dry and cracked.

2.Dramatic Increase in Temperature Extremes

Trees provide shade and the shaded area has a moderated temperature. With shade, the temperature may be 98 degrees Farenheit during the day and 60 degrees at night. With out the shade, temperatures would be much colder during the night and around 130 degrees during the day.

3.Moist Humid Region Changes to Desert

This is related to the desicaiton of previously moist forest soil. Primarily because of the lack of moisture and the inability to keep moisture, soil that is exposed to the sun will dry and turn into desert sand. Even before that happens, when the soil becomes dry, dust storms become more frequent. At that point, the soil becomes usesless.

4.No Recycling of Water

Moisture from the oceans fall as rain on adjacent coastal regions. The moisture is soon sent up to the atmosphere through the transpiration of foliage to fall again on inland forest areas. This cycle repeats several times to rain on all forest regions.

5.Less Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Exchange

The rainforests are important in the carbon dioxide exchange process. They are second only to oceans as the most important "sink" for atmospheric carbon dioxide. The most recent survey on deforestaiton and greenhouse gas emisions reports that deforestation may account for as much as 10% of current greenhouse gas emmisions. Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that literally trap heat. There is a theory that as more greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere, more heat gets trapped. Thus, there is a global warming trend in which the average temperature becomes progressivily higher.

6.More Desertification

According to the United Nations Enviromental Programme (UNEP) in 1977, deforestation is an important factor contributing to desertificaiton. What is unclear is how fast deserts are expanding is controversial. According to UNEP, between 1958 and 1975, the Saharen Desert expanded southward by about 100km. In 1980 UNEP estimated that desertification threatened 35 per cent of the world's land surface and 20 per cent of the world's population. Recently, groups challenged those conclusions. Some scientists claim that the conclusion were based on insufficient data. Nevertheless, desertification still threatens more and more drylands.

7.Soil Erosion

The relationship between deforestation and soil ersion. Deforestation is known to contribute to run-off of rainfall and intensified soil erosion. The seriousness of the problem depends much on soil characteristics and topography.

8.Other Effects

There many rewards such as clean air and clean water, perhaps the two most important, that forests provide. Rainforests also provide many aesthetic, recreational and cultural rewards. If the rainforests are destroyed, then these rewards dissappear. This has major social repercusions for the entire world.

http://www.earlham.edu/~pols/17Fall96/inneske/effects.HTM

Earth from above: Amazing photos by Yann-Arthus Bertrand

Photographer Yann-Arthus Bertrand showed a new kind of photography. The earth from a different perspective. Here are some of his shots:

Waste from the copper mine at Chuquicamata, Chile.

"This giant scallop shell is made of earth. A crane deposits the earth in successive, slightly curved lines giving the appearance of sheets of sand lined up side by side. This earth is extracted with the copper, but it is separated from the ore by sieving."

Iraqi tank graveyard in the desert near Al Jahrah, Kuwait.

"In 1991, during the first Gulf War, a million depleted uranium shells were fired at Iraqi forces, spreading toxic, radioactive dust for miles around. Such dust is known to have lasting effects on the environment and to cause various forms of cancer and other serious illnesses among humans."

The Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada.

"These oil deposits make up the largest reservoir of crude bitumen in the world, and as recently as 2006, produced over 1 million barrels of crude oil per day."

Confluence of the Rio Uruguay and a tributary, Misiones province, Argentina.

"Drastically cleared to make way for farming, the tropical rainforest of Argentina is now in some areas a less effective defense against erosion than it was in the past. The heavy rains in the province of Misiones (79 inches, per year) wash the soil and carry off significant quantities of iron-rich earth into the Rio Uruguay, turning the waters a dark, reddish color."

Worker resting on bales of cottonTaken in Thonakaha, Korhogo, Ivory Coast. "Cotton crops occupy approximately 335,000 square klilometers worldwide, and use nearly one quarter of all pesticides sold. Read on for more photos."

SMOKE TILL YOU CHOKE

In the United States smoking became increasingly popular from the early 1900s through the mid-1960s, but it then declined substantially. During the 1950s, the link between smoking and respiratory diseases and cancer became known. In 1964, the first Surgeon General's Report on smoking noted the substantial health hazards associated with smoking. Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, of which forty-three are known to cause cancer. Among the more toxic chemicals in tobacco are ammonia, arsenic, carbon monoxide, and benzene. Cigarette smoking is now known to cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, stroke, multiple cancers (including lung cancer), and adverse reproductive outcomes. Smoking causes about 21 percent of all deaths from heart disease, 86 percent of deaths from lung cancer, and 81 percent of all deaths from chronic lung disease.
Nicotine is highly addictive and causes persistent and compulsive smoking behavior. Most users make four to six quit attempts before they are able to remain nicotine-free. Smoking cessation produces major and immediate health benefits by reducing mortality and morbidity from heart disease, stroke, cancer, and various lung diseases.

Secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), causes lung cancer and cardiovascular disease in nonsmoking adults. About 43 percent of U.S. children are exposed to cigarette smoke by household members. Childhood exposure to ETS has been shown to cause asthma and to increase the number of episodes and severity of the disease. ETS exposure of very young children is also causally associated with an increased risk of bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections. For these reasons, the importance of smoking cessation extends beyond the health benefit of the smokers themselves.

http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/smoking-cessation?utm_source=z_smoking_cessation&utm_medium=google&utm_campaign=gale&utm_term=smoking

So you see, smoking does not only affects the people using it but also the people and the environment around them. So please, stop smoking and live a long life.

Top 10 Amazing Earth Facts

Our Earth is constantly changing, shifting, and exposing new secrets for humans to marvel at. With this, new species and creatures are being specified. As a modern man, we should all be aware of these changes. Here are some of the most amazing facts about our Earth that may leave you wondering....

10- The Atmosphere

Many layers of atmosphere coat our planet including the mesosphere, ionosphere, exosphere, and the thermosphere, but it’s the troposphere, closest to the planet itself, that supports our lives and is, in fact, the thinnest at only about 10 miles high.

9- Deserts

Believe it or not, most of the Earth’s deserts are not composed entirely of sand. Much, about 85% of them, are rocks and gravel. The largest, the Sahara, fills about 1/3 of Africa (and it is growing constantly) which would nearly fill the continental United States.

8- The Big Blue Marble

The Earth is, in fact, not really round. It is called an oblate spheroid meaning it’s slightly flattened on the top and bottom poles.

7- Salty Oceans

If you could evaporate all the water out of all the oceans and spread the resulting salt over all the land on Earth, you would have a five hundred-foot layer coating everything.

6- Lakes and Seas

The largest inland sea (or, sometimes called a lake) is the Caspian Sea which is on the border of Iran and Russia.

5- Mountains

The Andes Mountain range in South America is 4,525 miles long and ranks, as the world’s longest. Second Longest: The Rockies; Third: Himalayas; Fourth: The Great Dividing Range in Australia; Fifth: Trans-Antarctic Mountains. For every 980 feet you climb up a mountain, the temperature drops 3-1/2 degrees.

4- Deep Water

The deepest lake in the world is in the former USSR and it is Lake Baikal. It has a length of 400 miles, a width of roughly 30, but its depth is just over a mile: 5,371 feet down. It is deep enough, so is speculated, that all five of the next largest lakes: The Great Lakes could be emptied into it.

3- Shaky Ground

Earthquakes can be catastrophically destructive and many a year are deadly. However, the Earth releases about 1 million a year, almost all are never even registered.

2- Hot, hot, hot

Most people believe that Death Valley, California, U.S.A. is the hottest place on Earth. Well, occasionally it is, but the hottest recorded temperature was from Azizia in Libya recording a temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on Sept. 13, 1922. In Death Valley, it got up to 134 Fahrenheit on July 10, 1913.

1- Dust in the Wind

Experts from the USGS claim that roughly 1,000 tons of space debris rains down on Earth every year.

Isn't it great how the earth cope up with this changes? It is really up to us on how we will protect it :)

Earth 4 Energy - Save Our Planet from Global Warming

Please watch the short ad below :)

This is an ad about global warming and I find the message to be powerful.



We must act soon. If we will, we will not only save the Earth but we will save the future generations as well.


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsTOy3ZgAcs

Half of the Philippines' endemic wildlife is with extinction

More than half the birds, amphibians and mammals endemic to the Philippines are threatened with extinction, according to a statement released by the country's environment and natural resources department and reported by AFP.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joselito Atienza said that 592 of the 1,137 species of amphibians, birds and mammals found only in the Philippines are considered "threatened or endangered." 227 endemic species of plants are "critically endangered."

Large-scale deforestation is the primary driver of wildlife decline in the archipelago. High population growth and demand for timber and agricultural land contribute to forest loss.

Source: http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0722-philippines.html

U.S. pledges $40M toward coral reef conservation
mongabay.com
October 23, 2008

The U.S. government has pledged almost $40 million to protect biologically-rich coral reefs in Southeast Asia, according to the U.S. embassy in the Philippines.

The U.S. will contribute $39.45 million to the Coral Triangle Initiative, an effort that seeks to protect and promote sustainable fisheries in East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and the Solomon Islands.

The Coral Triangle, a six million square kilometer (2.3 million square mile) expanse of ocean and coastline, is home to 30 percent of the world's coral reefs, 3,000 species of fish, and three-quarters of the planet's reef-building coral species, according to WWF. The region's bounty supports artisanal fisheries and tourism, but is increasingly at risk from unsustainable fishing practices, pollution, and reef degradation. Climate change could further threaten these marine ecosystems by increasing the incidence of coral bleaching, while rising CO2 emissions are leading to ocean acidification, making it more difficult for many marine organisms to build protective shells and skeletons.

Great Barrier Reef in Australia
The U.S. has committed to contributing tens of millions of dollars per year to reef conservation activities via a re-authorization of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act.

Coral reefs — often termed the rainforests of the sea — are among the world's most biodiverse marine ecosystems. Beyond supporting traditional livelihoods and tourism, reefs buffer coastlines from erosion and storm surge.

Source: http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1023-reefs.html

HARIBON

If we want to protect our environment, we must take action. Haribon is an example of an organization that protects environment.


The Haribon Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources is a membership organization dedicated to the conservation of Philippine biodiversity. It aims to build a constituency for environmental issues that will call for prioritizing conservation actions on habitats and sites, based on solid scientific and socio-economic research.

HARIBON'S NICHE

Biodiversity is the wealth of life forms found on earth: the millions of different plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they contain, and the intricate ecosystems that they form.

VISION

Haribon takes the lead in caring for nature with the people – for the people.

MISSION

Haribon is a membership organization committed to nature conservation through community empowerment and scientific excellence.


Simply put, biodiversity IS life. Haribon’s work in biodiversity conservation seeks to protect that life through four core strategies: Saving Sites, Saving Species, Working with People, and Advocacy.

The line “Protecting Nature, Preserving Life” establishes the character of the organization.

Visit their website for more info. and if you're interested to join, copy and paste this url http://www.haribon.org.ph/?q=taxonomy/page/and/9

Source: http://www.haribon.org.ph/?q=

Michael Jackson - Earth Song

Jackson: "I remember writing Earth Song when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is "Earth Song." And that's what inspired it. And it just suddenly dropped into my lap when I was on tour in Austria."

Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Hcd60VoRM&feature=related
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5203