Ideaplants

I feel a bit blown away during my first weeks in Shijiazhuang / China from an environmental point of view. Environmental issues is what we are all aware to a certain extend. But once you get to live in a place where they become so obvious like the air you breathe and the water you drink, it changes your perception on things.

Shijiazhuang is such a place. Pollution and dust are part of the environment we now live in. Many people on the street wear masks and believe this could help them filter the air they breathe. However, most of them are out of cotton which makes me doubtful on how much it actually helps.


I’m not surprised to see that my new city scored highest on air pollution on the world bank index in 2007 and that “Epidemiological research has found consistent and coherent associations between air pollution and various health endpoints, or health effects.” these range from “reduced lung function, respiratory symptoms, chronic bronchitis” all the way down to “premature death”.



The water that comes out of our pipes at home leaves white slick if you cook it. So I even hesitate to wash our dishes tap water. This is what we take showers with and wash our face. Now living a ‘common people & student life’ here, I realise more than during my last stay in China how much luxury we actually have in Europe where in most places tab water has a better reputation than bottled water from supermarkets.


If you go to a restaurant here, you cannot tell whether the oil that is used for cooking has been changed recently … and even whether it was bought in a supermarkets or whether it comes out of the underground pipes where organic rubbish is used to extract the remaining oil and reused as cooking oil. There is very little quality control for restaurants except to some extend in student restaurants.



See here a comparison between oil from the pipes (left) and fresh cooking oil (right):

Safety, health and environmental issues are so clearly linked together here. But what solutions are there that help on one hand to raise awareness for environmental safety and on he other hand secures jobs and a way to get to work for the masses of people that live here?


In a place where skyscrapers have an average lifetime of 10 years which shows that development has a clear priority, the answer does not seem as evident and I understand it will take some time…

All the best,

Mira

PS: to all Facebook users, please note that Facebook is blocked in China, so if you have a comment, please reply via www.ideaplants.org.

Whilst the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Island has impacted the lives of millions of travellers over the last days and cost airlines over 200 billion Euros per day. Non-volcanologists do not spend much time on considering environmental impacts of this event.


Experts confirm that this volcano eruption will not have any sever impact on our climate. However, I wonder if next to the airline crisis there is really no environmental impact of 140 million cubic metres of material spreading in the atmosphere.


About 1,900 volcanoes on Earth are considered active in the world. Something we certainly do not have on our radar in our day to day routine.


This might sound a bit philosophical: Since Vulcanos were there before us – shouldn’t they consider us as a threat rather than the other way around?


More seriously: As David Mc Candless points out in his blog Information is Beautiful, the amount of CO2 emissions that were prevented by the volcano eruption is significantly higher than the CO2 that the Volcano emitted.


As Michael McCarthy and Philip Boucher state in The Independent today, the erruption gave scientists the opportunity to prove the air pollution impact the aviation industry has around UK airports as figures dropped significantly during the last days.


We surely need to keep in mind that the root of climate change is not CO2 emissions but our demands (in this case for means of transport). This event hopefully makes some of us realize this connection > Let’s not forget that it is not a greener aviation industry and well treated passengers that will solve the climate change issue.


BBC News has developed a guide showing some of the world’s key volcanoes:

The ocean is big and can take any kind of abuse!

Ok, now seriously:
“The oceans and seas are a source of life on our planet. They cover almost three quarters of the Earth’s surface and contain some 90% of the biosphere. Their protection is essential to the future of our planet. Pollution of our seas and destructive fishing practices are anathema to that. Our oceans and seas also play a strategic role in sustaining climate and weather patterns, distributing solar energy, and absorbing carbons.” (Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas)

Three quarters of fishing grounds are almost depleted. Rising water levels inflicted by global warming are threatening sensitive corals and low lands. Now I won’t blog more about it as others can do this better. Here a good overview by a member of the Ocean Project and here more on the topic by the following organisations UN, the European Commission or GreenPeace. You can sign a petition with GreenPeace on protecting 40% of the world’s oceans as marine reserves.

The Ocean Project has a list of events around the globe, nothing though for Belgium. However, Sunday June 7th is la Fête de l’Environnement 2009 organised at Parc Cinquantenaire by Bruxelles Environnement, where you can meet actors of the environmental field. The Brussels Aquarium will also have a stand there. In the evening there will be a free concert.

Related links:
World Ocean Day history

Some weeks ago I met Karel from the Webfabriek – a Webagency specialized in NGO web projects. Watch the interview… › Continue reading

The Environment Site – Helping you to Help the Planet

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