A three day meeting with growing economies of China and India participates as pressure mounting for both develop and developing countries to tackle climate change, blame for droughts, rising sea levels and intense calamities.
Advocates of climate change who have seen the use of motored or engine run vehicles as one of the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, a simple solution has emerged: get people to ride a bicycle, they not only help conserve energy but they also help themselves to be fit and healthy.
China has at present more than five million hectares of bamboo plantation and still growing. In recent years bamboo has also been lauded as a source of fabric. Bamboo cloth is gaining popularity in the world market, for its softness comparable to silk and its ability to produce fabrics that breathe. Few are aware that there are at least 1500 recorded uses of bamboo. It can be used either as food (bamboo shoot), shelter (bamboo grove or rest houses), clothing (bamboo fabric), protection (fence, windbreaker and soil erosion) and fishing materials.
Since time immemorial people have been fascinated and awed by snakes. Many people dislike and fear them. In reality they are beneficial creatures. It is time to learn a little more about them. With sufficient background and knowledge of them, we can put our fears in proper perspective. Truth to the matter, is that most venomous snakes would not attack people unless they are provoked.
A new data has provided the link showing that there are earlier deaths because of noise. Until now noise is a form of pollution that most people are not aware of, that it has a detrimental impact to their health. Thousands of people around the world are dying untimely from heart disease brought about by long term exposure to excessive noise a research by World Health Organization (WHO). The world body’s working group on the Noise Environmental Burden on Disease has began working on the health effects of noise in Europe in 2003.
The underlying trend of higher and higher temperatures indicates that global warming is likely here to stay not until humanity do something about it to lessen its effect. The global surface temperature in 2008 will increase by 0.37 degrees Celsius (0.67 degrees Fahrenheit) above what climate scientists call the long term average of 14 degrees Celsius (57.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
The average is derived by calculating the mean surface temperatures registered globally between 1961 and 1990. That would be enough to have it rank among the hottest years on record, although it would be unlikely to beat the current warmest year of 1998 which was 0.52 degrees Celsius (0.94 degrees Fahrenheit) above the long term average.
In the next ten years or so, the tourism industry is going to double and its contribution to global warming is expected to jump as increasing numbers of people travel by air. The industry accounts for five percent of global emissions of heat trapping gases in the atmosphere. According to a UN agency report, global warming may extend the summers of northern countries like Canada, Britain and Russia and create new opportunities for travel in the polar regions. In poorer and island nations where the tourism industry is generating an economic output up to forty percent were seen jeopardized by worlds rising temperature and the result of environmental changes. Beach resort tourism and winter-summer sports as well already felt the effect of rising temperatures which will cause more hot days, strong winds, tropical storms, intense rainfall, drought and wildfires, the UN World Tourism Organization has reported.
In a February 2007 report by the world’s foremost authority on climate change - the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In their first of six reports, the IPCC has this to say ” fossil fuel pollution would raise temperature this century, worsen floods, droughts, hurricanes, melt polar ice and damage the climate system for a thousand years.” The report also confirmed that man is ninety percent to blame. ” His burning of oil, coal and natural gas in factories and industrial plants since the industrial revolution (1880s) induces the earth to heat up. These fossil fuels release carbon into the air, creating an invisible greenhouse that pollutes the upper atmosphere, lock the heat inside, and thus radiate this heat back to earth. Carbon dioxide (CO2), which account for sixty percent of the greenhouse gases in the upper atmosphere by industry, cars, agriculture and deforestation. In its natural state, CO2 is produced by volcanic eruptions, forest fire and decaying plants.
Some thirty years ago, scientists had already alerted the world regarding the possible repercussions of global warming. It is the biggest threat to our civilization after the cold war. Due to climate change that is brought about by global warming, glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, devastating storms prevailing, floods and landslides aggravating, droughts affecting crops and livestock production happening and etc.
They are some of the catastrophic effects brought forth in our midst where solutions and immediate resolve urgently needed to cope with the situation. Have we done something to address the problem? Are we allowing it to continue without the objective to combat it? Well, it is now considered a mega proportion predicament that we need to put up our collective effort and partnership that every country and government should promote environmental awareness to their citizens on how they can contribute in alleviating the situation. It should not only encourage and inspire action individuals, businesses, but also other countries and governments worldwide as well.
Most of us have not realized the benefits, in which plants can bring to urban life. Plants improve the quality and refresh the air we breathe, considering the gas emitting vehicles and other sources of pollution in which urban life is exposed to. Plants energize life and beautify a dull surroundings, they provide the shade to help cool the atmosphere and protect us from sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays.
A watershed of plants helps increase the underground water table level which can be an excellent source of our water daily requirement. A closely knit root system of most plants, enable them to hold water and consolidate loose soil particles in place, thus preventing soil erosion. Plants also serve as sanctuaries to insects, bees, butterflies, birds, reptiles and other creatures thus preserving the ecological balance within such an environmental system. Notwithstanding, of the other benefits we can derive from, in the form of herbal medicines, food, wood, flavorings, dyes, spices, etc.
