Heal Earth Now

In hopes of helping our environment from poor disposable of electronic equipment, many people from industrialized nations have recycled their equipment at different facilities.  Proper disposal of electronic equipment is important because electronic equipment contain some toxic material, like high levels of lead and mercury. 

The problems lies in the fact that these hazardous materials are not being disposed of properly by many of these recycling facilities, but are being shipped to developing nations and causing a lot of pollution and environmental problems in those areas. 

60 minutes did story on the way that companies that we believe are helping to recycle and stop pollution are causing more problems.  They are shifting where pollution occurs from wealthy nations ,like the United States, to places like China. Pollution caused by e-waste in China and other nations is not a new thing and the environment that these people live in has gotten worse.

How can you stop e-waste?

One way is to reuse.  Instead of getting the latest gadget, try to keep them longer and use them as long as you can.  That will save money in your wallet and help your earth.  

Another way to prevent e-waste  is to reduce the amount of electronic equipment we purchase in the first place.   We don’t need to every new electronic product that comes on the market.  Sometime we purchase an item and it stays in the closet, in the cabinet or the shelf and collects dust. 

 
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In a previous post I mentioned how the United Nations were asking for a ban on disposable shopping bags. These bags are adding to the total waste and are found in many oceans and have a negative affect on the plants and animals that live in the water.

The best way to really get people to abandon the disposable plastic bags and use the reusable totes bags is to make them affordable.  To easiest way make something environmentally good  become mainstream is to have a positive impact on the pocket book. 

Walgreen’s are having something that will have a positive impact on the pocket book.  A coupon in the Walgreen’s’ sales paper allows customers to purchase 3 tote bags for $1.

The United Nations would like to see a ban on the use of plastic bags. 

the United Nations Environment Programme says that growing marine litter is harming oceans and beaches worldwide.  It launched a report that takes stock of the growing garbage in 12 major regional seas.  UNEP’s Executive Director, Achim Steiner, says that “marine litter could be dramatically reduced by improving waste reduction, waste management and recycling initiatives”.  He also calls for a worldwide ban on thin film plastic bags.  In addition to this report, UNEP introduced a new online system which has the most globally comprehensive list of marine and terrestrial protected areas.

It has become fashionable to have reusable cloth bags so instituting a ban on plastic bags will not be a huge shock .  Not everyone uses those bags during their shopping excursion, but with a ban it would become necessary.  Some stores sell the reusable clothe bags for 99 cents.  But if more demand for those reusable bags were occur, I would not be surprised to the prices of those bags fall even lower.

According to KansasCity.com

The ban is already being tested in China, where retailers giving out thin bags can be fined up to $1,464. According to one nationwide survey, 40 billion fewer plastic bags were given out in grocery stores after the law’s enactment. In addition, Ireland managed to cut single-use plastic bag consumption 90 percent by levying a fee on each bag that consumers use.

In the United States, only San Francisco has completely banned plastic bags; Los Angeles will do so in 2010. Also, the city council in Washington, D.C., is set to vote on a five-cent-a-bag tax later this month. On first reading, the bill passed unanimously. Similar proposals have failed in New York and Philadelphia.

We will have to see how many other cities throughout the United States will also ban plastic bags.

Sources:KansasCity.com UN.org

Learning about the environment can never start too early. The best was for children to learn about conservation and maintaining a healthy environment is by the examples of their parents. To help reinforce learning about the environment PBS.org has a fun game called EekoHouse for Children to play. It interactive game that takes children to different places and asks them what is the best environmentally friendly choice that they can make in a particular situation. One example involves the father of the house leaving a glass of water in the living room and the player is asked if the water should be poured down the sink or used to water a potted plant. There are some basic lessons that children may have thought of doing in their own home and are currently doing. There are also other environmentally friendly examples that the child may not have thought of on his or her own.

The Smog and other pollutants affecting the Beijing Olympics have been as news worthy as the games themselves. Pollution really is serious fact that can give direct negative effects on all of us. Olympic officials have said that if the smog is becomes too strong during the Olympics then some outside events will be postponed.

China is working to reduce the smog in the area by reducing the amount of traffic in the area. Chinese officials have said that the smog in the area is much better than it was one year ago.

Olympic athletes have been trickling into Beijing, but are expected to begin arriving in larger numbers this week. Some, though, were headed to training sites in South Korea, Japan and other places to avoid the Beijing air until the last possible minute.

Source: cnn.com

An aquarium in Japan has harvested a new source of alternative energy. The energy released from the eel has been used to power the lights on a Christmas tree.

“Two aluminum panels inside the eel’s tank work as electrodes to catch its power. Cables attached to the panels supply the lights on the nearby tree with electricity.”

The human imagination is definitely a powerful thing . With the inventiveness and application there is no doubt that we can all work together to help create cleaner and cheaper sources of energy.

Source: MSNBC.com

Al Gore traveled to Norway this weekend to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to fight global warming.

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded in October to 59-year-old Gore and to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body of 3,000 scientists, for their work in highlighting global warming.

The film “An Inconvenient Truth”, showed Al Gore as he highlighted many of the dangers of global warming and what damage had already been done by mans disregard for the world in which we live. He also wrote the book by the same name that became a New York Times Bestseller.

Source: Yahoo News

Across the world protesters have been showing their distress and about the way the Earth’s environment is going. Global Warming is becoming less of some “tree hungers” anthem and more of what mainstreamers are seeing as a serious problem. When the environment and climate starts to have some dramatic changes people need to take notice and they have. Protesters on about every continent joined in the world climate protest and are determined to have their voices heard.

In Taipei, Taiwan, about 1,500 people marched through the streets holding banners and placards saying “No to carbon dioxide.” Hundreds marched outside the conference center in Bali. At a Climate Rescue Carnival held in a park in Auckland, New Zealand, more than 350 people lay on the grass to spell out “Climate SOS.”

Source: Yahoo News

A record $37 million pollution fine against a well-known fleet of oil tankers is expected to pump $2 million into marine conservation efforts in the Gulf of Maine.

The company paying the fine, meanwhile, says the employees responsible for the pollution violated its policies and were fired.

Overseas Shipholding Group pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges that several of its tankers dumped oily wastes into the ocean during the past five years instead of going through the time and expense of proper disposal, and that crews tried to cover up the violations by falsifying logbooks. Part of the $37 million penalty is intended to be restitution for the environmental damage, and Maine’s share of that is $2.06 million.

Source:Portland Press Herald 

Rutgers University is searching for a few good men and women interested in helping the environment.

Beginning Jan. 15, Rutgers will hold its environmental steward volunteer training program at the Rutgers EcoComplex on Florence-Columbus Road in Mansfield.

Now in its third year, the 60-hour program features one three-hour lecture per week until May and is designed to provide training and experience to those interested in solving environmental problems in New Jersey.

Source:Burlington County Times