World Water Day: Iraq wastes 50% of water

Michelle Yazvac

4/16/11

Blog #11

According to the UN, around 6 million Iraqis are without clean water and half of the country’s water resources are wasted.
"Iraq faces difficulties in meeting the target of 91 percent of households using a safe drinking water supply by 2015," due to decades of conflict, sanctions and neglect, theUNICEF children's fund stated.
50% of water is wasted due to waste, seepage and system inefficiencies. One in five Iraqis go without clean water. According to the article more than 500,000 Iraqi children access their water from a river or creek and over 200,000 access their water from an open well. Diseases could be derived from the water because of pollution and the accumulation of people using the same water resource.

Over 360,000 cases of diarrhea was an occurrence as a result of polluted drinking water. There is a lack of an awareness for hygiene among local communities In the first six months of 2010, there were over 360,000 diarrhea cases as a result of polluted drinking water and a lack of hygiene awareness among local communities more so with women and children. UNICEF is supporting Iraq’s water problem by creating an awareness and providing training camps. More investments will be made towards this organization for water infrastructure to try and keep these resources from being polluted.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/world-water-day-iraq-wastes-50-of-water

Environment is at risk as parched Jordan taps water

michelle yazvac

4/10/11

Blog #10

Currently Jordan is among the top 10 driest counties in the world. With their water shortages, they have been planning some unconventional ways of fixing the problem however, it is more so difficult when the desert covers 92% of the territory along with a growing population of 6.3 million. Jordan government plans to retrieve water in the Disi aquifer or even build a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. This project will cost about $900 million which will extract around 3.6 billion cubic feet of water a year from the 300,000 year old Disi aquifer. These planned project are presumably harmful to the environment and this one has been going on since 2008 and will be complete in 2012. It will provide the capital Amman with water for 50 years. Also in 2008, a study done by Duke University shows that Disi's water has ten times more radiation than what is considered safe, and some radiation could trigger cancer. 

There have been arguments of this way of retrieving water if the water in the first place, is so contaminated, then what is the point. Those have said that there is of course the awareness of the radiation however, they would dilute it with enough water from other sources. 

Jordan has also agreed with the Palestinian and Israeli neighbors to build a $4 billion dollar pipeline from the Red Sea to the declining Dead Sea. A plant is supposed to be built to extract the salt so that 200 million metric meters of water could go to Jordan through the pipeline each year. Environmentalist worry that extracting the salt could ruin the ecosystem of the Dead Sea. Over 60% of Jordan's water consumption annually goes to agriculture. This is from the 900 million metric meters of water they have. So in other words, they have water, they just need to manage it better. Around 48% of pumped water supplies are lost due to theft and pipelines, according to Mehyer, the Jordinian-Israeli-Palestinian-non-governmental group. There has also been a loss in rainfall set around 500 million metric tons a year. 

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/environmentis-at-risk-as-parched-jordan-taps-water

Spain Runs Europe's First Commercial Solar Plant

Michelle Yazvac

3/23/11

Blog #9

Household electricity is being made by a company in Seville, Spain. It is called concentrated thermal energy which takes heat from the sun and heats up steam turbine generators. What's nice about this is there are no greenhouse gases from this form of heating. Mirrors take beams from the sun and reflect them to cause this heating. This plant is titled PS-10 and it is an 11-megawatt electric power plant that delivers energy to around 6,000 homes. This plant has been made operating since 2006 and continues to grow and expand. More construction is going on for the growth to operate on 300-megawatt. Fernandez, the engineer to operates the plant says that in 2013 all solar platforms will stand and with creating 300-megawatts, this energy could operate around 230,000 homes, which is about the size of the city Seville. There are a total of 624 solar panels reflecting the sun that powers this plant.
Fernandez's company is already setting up plants in Morocco and Algeria, and is in talking about building some more in California, Nevada and New Mexico. The total cost of this plant when completed is said to total around one and a half billion dollars. The government of Spain and the EU generously helped with this project however, Fernandez claims that the technology is getting cheaper.

It is reassuring to know that projects like this are going on around the world. The initiative to use renewable energy for the benefit of our environment is starting to become well accepted. It is also great to know that the government of Spain and the EU put in a major contribution towards this project. It shows their concern for the environment and how in the long run, their decision will be the best made. Hopefully soon plants such as this will be posted in the U.S. It is time for a new change in the way we use energy. Sooner than later is the ultimate goal.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13826548

Japan in Race to Avert Nuclear Disaster

 Michelle Yazvac
3/13/11
Blog #6

The catastrophic event that happened recently is well known amongst the world. It is truly sad to know that a great number of citizens have passed and there are currently many more that are struggling, awaiting assistance. To know that this is the biggest event to happen to Japan since the war is also mind-boggling. It was an earthquake, and a large one on the Richter scale at that. The next biggest worry is the radiation from the nuclear plants caused by the earthquake. There are levels of cesium and iodine circulating in the air and many engineers have spent these past days figuring out what is going on within the core of these radiators. There is overheating going on and still no exact "evidence" of a potential meltdown but taking extreme precautions is the only thing to do.
Along with the worries of the meltdown, aftershocks from the quake are still hitting areas of Japan. Over 150 have taken place. People are trapped, more and more are found and confirmed dead, and others are missing. Many disaster relief teams have gone over to Japan, and almost all countries of the globe are taking part in helping Japan.
After this event, there will be questions of whether this quake was caused by global warming. I think global warming certainly contributes to it but after some research, the plates always continue to move and have been for the last 100 years. Only thing left to do is help the people of Japan, prevent any meltdowns from happening with the nuclear plants, and overall, hope for the best that another earthquake as bad as this one will not occur again. At least in our lifetime.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/13/134501905/crisis-at-nuclear-plant-adds-to-japans-woes

Without Intervention, Lions heading for extinction

Michelle Yazvac
3/2/11
Blog #5




  Lions are The well known animal of the jungle and from this article it is said that at the rate they are declining, they could become extinct in 10 or 15 years. Back in the 1960s there were 400,000 lions, now there are only around 20,000 left. That is a large decline since long ago. This should be a concern because Lions are one of the top predators of the food chain. Conservationists that have documented these lions have created a documentary titled " The Last Lions." It basically shows the struggle of a feline hunting for food as her young cubs are left alone. Her mate has died in battle against another heard invading territory, and the threat of other animals and other rival prides are a risk towards her and her cubs survival.

Although Lions do not particularly harm humans, I would say it's pretty arrogant of us to have an anthropocentric view on the world. The question that rises from this event is whether or not humans should intervene and help prevent such a thing to happen. Extinction is a natural process and has been going on since the earth came to be. Should we sit back and watch the decline of lions? And what other animals will be affected by this? This is an event that can be looked upon from any individual in the world in consideration to the environment.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/133999157/without-intervention-lions-heading-for-extinction

Small fish, big business: Asia's billion dollar live reef fish trade

Michelle Yazvac

2/11/11

Blog #4

Over fishing is a problem that has been around for quite some time.  There is a high demand for “luxury” fish to be served at hotspot locations especially in the Asian countries.  The demand greatly exceeds supply and supply continues to decrease at the rate fisherman are capturing these fish. Prices will continue to grow if the demand grows because fishes like Leopard Coral Grouper and other reef fish are at the brink of becoming depleted. The harmful fishing methods of using cyanide and/or dynamite have been declined but the warm water temperatures and global warming are affecting the coral. Prices for each individual fish could be up to $100 dollars.

            The concept of sustainability is slowly catching on to the people of such places like Hong Kong but to the suppliers and distributors, this issue remains indifferent. Conservation organizations have set up plans that end the distribution of grouper in southeast Asia but it is still difficult to see if fish are caught sustainably. Innovative aquaculture like OceanEthix's may be part of the solution to keeping the fish like coral grouper on the menu, but some restaurateurs are trying to go fully sustainable and avoid the live fish trade altogether. But with the rate things are going and the demand for these fish, prices will rise by 10 percent each year and it seems that the only way to steer towards preservation of the fish and reef is to stray the ways of lavish dining amongst restaurants across Asia. 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/02/08/reef.fish.trade/index.html

Deep below Antarctic ice, lake may soon see light

Michelle Yazvac
Blog #3


In this article scientists have discovered an area of water that's two miles below ice. What's even crazier is that it's about the size of New Jersey, making it the third largest lake in the world. They've spent a decade trying to devise a plan that would be considered safe of getting to it which is drilling. Now they're left with one-hundred feet. Some thought that went into consideration is what will happen when they've gone past those one-hundred feet. Some scientists say that the water will spew out like a shaken soft drink in a water bottle and cause damage. This is water that has been untouched for millions of years and they've already used fourteen million gallons kerosene and freon to unthaw the ice that sits above it. It's a race for the soviets to get to the lake just as it was when we were competing with them to get to the moon.
What I personally think is interesting about this event is how we have to interrupt a natural area just to research and find out more from this lake. It is certainly interesting that there is a lake the size of Jersey that has been unheard of until now but does drilling have to mean we need to use something environmentally unfriendly such as kerosene to melt the ice. From this article I can extend the fact that we're such curious beings that we can't let anything on this Earth go untouched. From the article scientists also stated that if the water leaked out (which there is about 5,400 cubic kilometers of water in the lake) it would become "degassed" and have entered out atmosphere. Scientists say there shouldn't be a disaster but could "set back plans by US and British scientists from two other Antarctic lakes in the coming years.

Big cities are not always the biggest polluters.

Michelle Yazvac
1/27/11
Blog #2

You would think that larger cities would emit more toxins into the air because of larger populations however, it's just the opposite in this article. Public transportation helps largely with reducing the amount of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. With larger populations in bigger cities, a useful public transportation system helps lower that percentage and we can thank "the urban dwellers." Researchers took 100 cities from 30 nations and analyzed the date of which ones polluted the most and ironically enough it was, for example, Denver that had double the amount of emissions than a larger city like New York where there are 8 million people.  Also higher than the cities of Paris, Athens and Shanghai! How can this be? It’s because these cities don’t depend on the automobile as much as suburban cities do. 

            A rising problem going on around the world is depletion of the ozone and every day people of high-ranking say things must be done about it. Recently Obama in the State of the Union announced that he would like to develop high-speed railway systems within our country. When places such as Africa, Latin America and cities in Asia were researched they too have low carbon emissions and we can conclude that this is because of the lack of industry in places like these as well as the use of vehicles. "’This paper reminds us that it is the world's wealthiest cities and their wealthiest inhabitants that cause unsustainable levels of greenhouse gas emissions, not cities in general, said editor David Satterthwaite.’” What’s thought of as most convenient means of transportation depends on the way a city is laid out. We can’t change the way how sprawled out cities are around the world that don’t have useful public transportation, but new ideas of getting around that do not harm the environment can be thought of. It’s every day choices that people make that should be considered.

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-01-26-big-cities-are-not-always-the-biggest-polluters

Starbucks super-sizes some drinks

Michelle Yazvac
1/17/11

Blog #1

This is an example of how America continues to super-size everything. "Venti" used to be the largest drink size at Starbucks of 24 ounces but now suggestions by customers have bumped this size up to 31 ounces. This new size will be called "Trenta" and will cost 50 cents more than the Venti.


America has a well-known reputation of being the "fattest" country in the world and I think it's quite true. People like to go about their day quickly and stopping to eat is convenient at fast food restaurants. Our Mcdonalds sizes are very large compared to large sizes in other countries. In France for instance, you cannot get free fountain drink refills and a large drink is the size of a medium in the States.  It's not only fast food sizes that are a problem but also what we eat regularly. Lots of fried foods, microwaveable meals, and fatty based foods are consumed daily. The knowledge of a well-balanced meal is not really known for some Americans. I think it's important for this problem to be brought to attention because not only is health being tampered with but also culture. Eating is apart of life and a part of culture. In this country, eating a meal is just narrowed down as a need when it should be enjoyed more amongst people. Eating a meal should also be looked at as a social aspect of life. I hope that one day people will realize this issue in hopes that it could change slowly but surely.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/17/news/companies/starbucks_trenta/index.htm?hpt=T2