Friday, April 20, 2007
Coastal areas face risks from warming
By: John Donnelly 17 April 2007
WASHINGTON -- Coastal communities around New England and the rest of the United States will be "increasingly stressed" by global warming in the coming decades and are especially vulnerable to widespread flooding from storm surges, according to a draft report released yesterday by an international group of scientists.
Authoring a chapter in a report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , nearly two dozen scientists focused on climate change's potential impact on North America, predicting an increasing number of "weather-related extremes" including hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves, and wildfires.
The list of possible impacts "sounds like a recitation of biblical plagues: heat, drought, disease, insects, and rising seas," said Angela Anderson , vice president for climate programs at National Environmental Trust , an advocacy and education group.
The scientists said they were not only worried about sea level rise along the East Coast, but also about more ferocious storms and the accompanying surge of water ashore.
"It's the No. 1 vulnerability," said Cynthia Rosenzweig , director of the Climate Impacts Research Group at Goddard Institute for Space Studies .
While specialists could not say that yesterday's rare springtime northeaster was specifically related to global warming, Michael Oppenheimer , a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, said that climate change will increase such storms in the future.
"This is the kind of thing you can expect in the years ahead," Oppenheimer said, referring to the storm Sunday and yesterday that caused flooding along the East Coast. "These storms are going to get more intense and happen more frequently."
Oppenheimer told reporters that the panel of scientists was all but certain that sea levels would rise, from 7 inches to nearly 2 feet during this century.
"That will cause a lot of problems along the coast," he said, referring to vanishing land and animal and plant habitat.
But he said the melting of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets poses an even greater danger. He said that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet alone could cause the oceans to rise roughly 22 feet in total, though a catastrophe of that proportion is difficult to predict and could take hundreds or thousands of years.
This year, the intergovernmental warming panel organized by the United Nations has been releasing parts of its fourth update on assessing the state of knowledge on climate change. Earlier this year, the panel said there is greater than 90 percent certainty that humans are contributing to global warming.
Even though many scientists have said that global warming would hurt developing countries the most because they lack the means to adapt quickly, several scientists said yesterday that rich countries would face significant problems as well.
"None of us will escape the impacts of climate change," said Patricia Romero Lankao , one of the report's authors and a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit group based in Boulder, Colo.
The newly released review also found that rising temperatures in the United States would diminish snow accumulations and increase water evaporation, threatening rivers, lakes, and other water sources. In the Great Lakes and major US river systems, lower water levels could have an impact on water quality, production of hydroelectric power, and relations with Canada.
Warming temperatures could also spur increases in respiratory illnesses, accelerate the spread of infectious diseases such as Lyme disease and West Nile virus, and produce more extended periods of high-temperature days.
Biblio:
John Donnelly (2007). Coastal areas face risks from warming. StopGlobalWarming.org. Retrieved April 18, 2007 from http://stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_read.asp?id=1102524172007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Global warming may hinder storms
Maybe global warming isn't spawning more powerful hurricanes, after all.
A new study conducted by two atmospheric experts, one at the University of Miami, has found that global warming is producing increasingly stronger wind shear over the Atlantic, and that might hinder hurricane formation.
That conclusion would seem to temper earlier studies that insist hurricanes are becoming more intense as the atmosphere heats up. Those studies point to storms such as Katrina, Rita and Wilma, all of which reached Category 5 status during the tumultuous 2005 storm season.
The most recent study doesn't altogether dispute that. Rather, it asserts that wind shear will compete against warmer ocean temperatures, and the stronger force will determine the strength of tropical storms.
"Which one is going to be the dominant factor, the wind shear or the warm ocean, we still don't know that," said Gabriel Vecchi, lead author of the paper and a research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "They're kind of conflicting forces."
The study is to be published today in Geophysical Research Letters, a scientific journal dedicated to studying the Earth's atmosphere. It is the first analysis to find a steady increase in greenhouse gases will correlate with stronger wind shear.
Wind shear, a change of wind direction or a strengthening of wind speed with altitude, can prevent hurricanes from forming or tear them apart.
Because global warming has been in progress for the past few decades, wind shear already is having some impact on storms, but not much, the study's authors said.That is because the amount of wind shear is increasing slowly, by about 1.25 mph for every degree increase in the atmosphere's temperature. During the next century, that should amount to about a 10 to 15 percent increase over current wind shear levels, said Vecchi, who is based in Princeton, N.J.
Practically speaking, he said, that means keep your hurricane shutters handy.
"Even if there weren't any warming of the ocean, and wind shear happened by itself, it wouldn't be enough to get rid of hurricanes altogether," he said.
The study was conducted by simulating an increase in greenhouses gases in 18 global models. All but five of the models found that wind shear should increase over a large portion of the tropical Atlantic at the same rate that the atmosphere warms.
"This is something that hadn't been recognized or considered in previous studies," said Brian Soden, co-author of the study and an associate professor of meteorology and physical oceanography at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Soden said while the scientific community widely agrees that global warming is for real, its impact on hurricanes remains a major question.
"Certainly, this isn't the last study," he said. "There's going to be a lot more vigorous debate."
Biblio :
Ken Kaye (2007). Global warming may hinder storms. South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-psshear18apr18,0,7872739.story?track=rss
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Global Warming (II)
International report details impact of global warming
By James Kanter and Andrew C. Revkin
Published: April 6, 2007
BRUSSELS: Earth's climate and ecosystems are already being affected by the atmospheric buildup of smokestack and tailpipe gases that trap heat, and while curbs in emissions can limit risks, vulnerable regions must adapt to shifting weather patterns and rising seas, top climate experts said Friday।
The conclusions came in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has tracked research on human-caused global warming since it was created under UN auspices in 1988।
In February, the panel released a report that for the first time concluded with 90 percent certainty that human actions were the main cause of warming since 1950। But in this report, focusing on impacts of warming, the group described for the first time how species, water supplies, ice sheets, and regional climate conditions were already responding.
(The report can be found at www।ipcc.ch.)
At a news conference capping four days of debate between scientists and representatives from more than 100 governments, Martin Parry, the co-chairman of the team that wrote the new report, said widespread impacts were already measurable, with much more to come
"We're no longer arm waving with models," said Parry, who identified areas most affected as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, small islands and Asia's sprawling, crowded, flood-prone river deltas
"This is empirical information on the ground"
The report said that climate patterns were shifting in ways that would bring benefits in some places - including more rainfall and longer growing seasons in high latitudes, opening Arctic seaways, and reduced deaths from cold - but significant human hardship and ecological losses in ओठेर्स.
The panel said the long-term outlook for all regions was for trouble should temperatures rise by 1।5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius, or 3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, with consequences ranging from the likely extinction of perhaps a fourth of the world's species to eventual inundation of coasts and islands inhabited by hundreds of millions of people.
The worst outcomes faced regions that are mainly poor and already facing dangers from existing climate and coastal hazards, let alone what might be worsened by human-caused warming, authors said.
"It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit," said Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the panel and an energy expert from India.
'People who are poor are least equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change and therefore in some sense this does become a global responsibility in my view."
The report, written by hundreds of scientists and reviewed by outside experts and government officials, warned that adaptation is essential because decades of rising temperatures and seas are already inevitable due to the buildup of carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. But it said that efforts to reduce emissions, could reduce, delay or avoid some harmful outcomes.
Final details were completed by hundreds of scientists here on Friday and approved by officials from more than 100 countries.
Some authors said the report removed any doubt about the urgency of acting to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.
"The warnings are clear about the scale of the projected changes to the planet," said Bill Hare, an author of the impacts report and visiting scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Potsdam, Germany. "Essentially there's going to be a mass extinction within the next 100 years unless climate change is limited," added Dr. Hare, who previously worked for the environmetal group Greenpeace.
"These impacts have been known for many years, and are now seen with greater clarity in this report," he said. "That clarity is perhaps the last warning we're going to get before we actually have to report in the next IPCC review that we're seeing the disaster unfolding."
James Connaughton, the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said some of the findings in the report, particularly the prospect of intensifying coastal damage from rising seas, were "of great concern," but noted the panel also foresaw benefits to agriculture in temperate regions as well.
Overall, he said, the analysis reinforced the importance of industrialized countries working to help developing countries cut their vulnerability to climate shocks by fostering their economic growth.
One of the most dramatic shifts in prospects laid out in the report is a projected overheating and parching of southern Europe, particularly in summer, and blossoming of northern regions.
But the report stressed that outsize threats would mainly face communities in Africa, the crowded river deltas of southern Asia, and low islands.
It also found that if investments are made to adapt to climate and coastal changes, some disruption and damage could be held at bay.
In one section, for example, the report projects the number of people who would be flooded out of homes by rising seas by 2080 under various scenarios for warming. A midrange level of projected warming by then could affect some 60 million additional people a year worldwide without adaptation efforts, but if investments in sea walls and other actions limiting flooding continued at the current pace, the number would drop to a few million a year.
"The actual outcome in terms of damages and ruined lives and costs depends heavily on the response - the response of individuals to deal with the changes and governments to organize and anticipate and deal with this in advance," said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton and an author of the report.
The meeting dragged on through Thursday night before Pachaui emerged Friday morning and announced that agreement had been reached over the final details of the 21-page summary.
Some authors said they were disappointed to see sections on hurricanes, some details on impacts, and outcomes under different emissions tracks removed or toned down under pressure from countries including Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. Officials from those countries argued that data in the underlying report did not support the level of certainty expressed in the final draft.
As a result, the final document was "much less quantified and much vaguer and much less striking than it could have been," said Stéphane Hallegatte, a participant from France's International Center for Research on the Environment and Development.
Another reason the meeting went through the night was because European delegates demanded that the final report reflect the need for cutting back on greenhouse gases - and not just adapting to new conditions.
"Adaptation will only work if climate change is not too large and not too fast," Mr. Hallegatte said.
The panel, created in 1988 and run under the auspices of the United Nations, has sometimes endured criticism for allowing governments to shape the summaries of its periodic reviews of climate science, which fill thousands of pages of reports.
But it remains, by many accounts, the closest thing to a barometer for tracking the level of scientific understanding of the causes and consequences of global warming.
Next month, the panel will release a report on options for limiting emissions of the greenhouse gases and late in the year it will publish a final synthesis report.
James Kanter reported from Brussels; Andrew C. Revkin reported from New York.
Link:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/06/healthscience/web-0406climate.php?page=2
By James Kanter and Andrew C. Revkin
Published: April 6, 2007
BRUSSELS: Earth's climate and ecosystems are already being affected by the atmospheric buildup of smokestack and tailpipe gases that trap heat, and while curbs in emissions can limit risks, vulnerable regions must adapt to shifting weather patterns and rising seas, top climate experts said Friday।
The conclusions came in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has tracked research on human-caused global warming since it was created under UN auspices in 1988।
In February, the panel released a report that for the first time concluded with 90 percent certainty that human actions were the main cause of warming since 1950। But in this report, focusing on impacts of warming, the group described for the first time how species, water supplies, ice sheets, and regional climate conditions were already responding.
(The report can be found at www।ipcc.ch.)
At a news conference capping four days of debate between scientists and representatives from more than 100 governments, Martin Parry, the co-chairman of the team that wrote the new report, said widespread impacts were already measurable, with much more to come
"We're no longer arm waving with models," said Parry, who identified areas most affected as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, small islands and Asia's sprawling, crowded, flood-prone river deltas
"This is empirical information on the ground"
The report said that climate patterns were shifting in ways that would bring benefits in some places - including more rainfall and longer growing seasons in high latitudes, opening Arctic seaways, and reduced deaths from cold - but significant human hardship and ecological losses in ओठेर्स.
The panel said the long-term outlook for all regions was for trouble should temperatures rise by 1।5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius, or 3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, with consequences ranging from the likely extinction of perhaps a fourth of the world's species to eventual inundation of coasts and islands inhabited by hundreds of millions of people.
The worst outcomes faced regions that are mainly poor and already facing dangers from existing climate and coastal hazards, let alone what might be worsened by human-caused warming, authors said.
"It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit," said Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the panel and an energy expert from India.
'People who are poor are least equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change and therefore in some sense this does become a global responsibility in my view."
The report, written by hundreds of scientists and reviewed by outside experts and government officials, warned that adaptation is essential because decades of rising temperatures and seas are already inevitable due to the buildup of carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. But it said that efforts to reduce emissions, could reduce, delay or avoid some harmful outcomes.
Final details were completed by hundreds of scientists here on Friday and approved by officials from more than 100 countries.
Some authors said the report removed any doubt about the urgency of acting to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.
"The warnings are clear about the scale of the projected changes to the planet," said Bill Hare, an author of the impacts report and visiting scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Potsdam, Germany. "Essentially there's going to be a mass extinction within the next 100 years unless climate change is limited," added Dr. Hare, who previously worked for the environmetal group Greenpeace.
"These impacts have been known for many years, and are now seen with greater clarity in this report," he said. "That clarity is perhaps the last warning we're going to get before we actually have to report in the next IPCC review that we're seeing the disaster unfolding."
James Connaughton, the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said some of the findings in the report, particularly the prospect of intensifying coastal damage from rising seas, were "of great concern," but noted the panel also foresaw benefits to agriculture in temperate regions as well.
Overall, he said, the analysis reinforced the importance of industrialized countries working to help developing countries cut their vulnerability to climate shocks by fostering their economic growth.
One of the most dramatic shifts in prospects laid out in the report is a projected overheating and parching of southern Europe, particularly in summer, and blossoming of northern regions.
But the report stressed that outsize threats would mainly face communities in Africa, the crowded river deltas of southern Asia, and low islands.
It also found that if investments are made to adapt to climate and coastal changes, some disruption and damage could be held at bay.
In one section, for example, the report projects the number of people who would be flooded out of homes by rising seas by 2080 under various scenarios for warming. A midrange level of projected warming by then could affect some 60 million additional people a year worldwide without adaptation efforts, but if investments in sea walls and other actions limiting flooding continued at the current pace, the number would drop to a few million a year.
"The actual outcome in terms of damages and ruined lives and costs depends heavily on the response - the response of individuals to deal with the changes and governments to organize and anticipate and deal with this in advance," said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton and an author of the report.
The meeting dragged on through Thursday night before Pachaui emerged Friday morning and announced that agreement had been reached over the final details of the 21-page summary.
Some authors said they were disappointed to see sections on hurricanes, some details on impacts, and outcomes under different emissions tracks removed or toned down under pressure from countries including Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. Officials from those countries argued that data in the underlying report did not support the level of certainty expressed in the final draft.
As a result, the final document was "much less quantified and much vaguer and much less striking than it could have been," said Stéphane Hallegatte, a participant from France's International Center for Research on the Environment and Development.
Another reason the meeting went through the night was because European delegates demanded that the final report reflect the need for cutting back on greenhouse gases - and not just adapting to new conditions.
"Adaptation will only work if climate change is not too large and not too fast," Mr. Hallegatte said.
The panel, created in 1988 and run under the auspices of the United Nations, has sometimes endured criticism for allowing governments to shape the summaries of its periodic reviews of climate science, which fill thousands of pages of reports.
But it remains, by many accounts, the closest thing to a barometer for tracking the level of scientific understanding of the causes and consequences of global warming.
Next month, the panel will release a report on options for limiting emissions of the greenhouse gases and late in the year it will publish a final synthesis report.
James Kanter reported from Brussels; Andrew C. Revkin reported from New York.
Link:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/06/healthscience/web-0406climate.php?page=2
Global Warming (I)
Nature at risk - the impacts of Global Warming
Animals and plants are under increasing threat from climate change.Human-induced climate change has already sounded the death knell for its first victims. The golden toad (Bufo periglenes) and the harlequin frog (Atelopus varius) of Costa Rica have disappeared as a direct result of global warming. Species are under threat in more than one way.
Irreversible changes to ecosystems and animals
As climate change wreaks its havoc across the globe, ecosystems could disappear altogether, or they may undergo serious and irreversible changes, such as those happening to coral reefs.Warming affects cold seas and polar communities as well: Polar bears in the Hudson Bay area of Canada are losing weight and getting less fit because the ice breaks up 2 weeks earlier in spring, robbing them of 2 weeks’ hunting. Fish stocks that used to stay in Cornwall in south England have moved as far north as the Shetland Islands. As average temperature increases, optimum habitat for many species will move higher up mountains or further towards the Poles. Where there is no higher ground or where changes are taking place too quickly for ecosystems and species to adjust, local losses or even global extinctions will occur.
Glaciers
Some of the most intense climate change-related habitat alterations are those that affect glaciers and ice-fields. Glaciers are retreating at an unprecedented rate, changing the entire ecology of mountain habitats. Conservation managers are powerless to prevent this loss and have to stand by as the ecology transforms before their eyes.
Seasons are changing
Rapid temperature changes affect the seasons, causing variations in season length. Changes such as shorter winters can lead to mismatches between key elements in an ecosystem, such as feeding periods for young birds and availability of worms or insects for food. It also impacts on farmers’ growing seasons. Climatic records put together with long-term records of flowering and nesting times show clear warming trends. In Britain flowering time and leaf-break records date back to 1736, thus providing solid evidence of climate-related changes. Long-term trends towards earlier bird breeding, earlier spring migrant arrival and later autumn departure dates have been observed in North America, along with changes in migratory patterns in Europe.
Link:
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/problems/impacts/index.cfm
Animals and plants are under increasing threat from climate change.Human-induced climate change has already sounded the death knell for its first victims. The golden toad (Bufo periglenes) and the harlequin frog (Atelopus varius) of Costa Rica have disappeared as a direct result of global warming. Species are under threat in more than one way.
Irreversible changes to ecosystems and animals
As climate change wreaks its havoc across the globe, ecosystems could disappear altogether, or they may undergo serious and irreversible changes, such as those happening to coral reefs.Warming affects cold seas and polar communities as well: Polar bears in the Hudson Bay area of Canada are losing weight and getting less fit because the ice breaks up 2 weeks earlier in spring, robbing them of 2 weeks’ hunting. Fish stocks that used to stay in Cornwall in south England have moved as far north as the Shetland Islands. As average temperature increases, optimum habitat for many species will move higher up mountains or further towards the Poles. Where there is no higher ground or where changes are taking place too quickly for ecosystems and species to adjust, local losses or even global extinctions will occur.
Glaciers
Some of the most intense climate change-related habitat alterations are those that affect glaciers and ice-fields. Glaciers are retreating at an unprecedented rate, changing the entire ecology of mountain habitats. Conservation managers are powerless to prevent this loss and have to stand by as the ecology transforms before their eyes.
Seasons are changing
Rapid temperature changes affect the seasons, causing variations in season length. Changes such as shorter winters can lead to mismatches between key elements in an ecosystem, such as feeding periods for young birds and availability of worms or insects for food. It also impacts on farmers’ growing seasons. Climatic records put together with long-term records of flowering and nesting times show clear warming trends. In Britain flowering time and leaf-break records date back to 1736, thus providing solid evidence of climate-related changes. Long-term trends towards earlier bird breeding, earlier spring migrant arrival and later autumn departure dates have been observed in North America, along with changes in migratory patterns in Europe.
Link:
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/problems/impacts/index.cfm
Global Warming Theme (April/May)
Alright people! The first 2 articles were the trial run only! Now for the serious issues! I have decided to go by themes instead of randomly picking out articles! It gives it more of a system and organization. So, for the months of (April/May), Global Warming will be the proposed theme! Check out articles regarding Global Warming! Keep up to date you guys! Don't miss it!=)
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Environment Crisis (II)
British waste adds to environmental crisis across China
· One-fifth of rubbish in province is imported
· Recycling firms relocate to get round crackdown Jonathan Watts in MaiSaturday March 31,
2007
British high street waste is fouling streams and ditches in China despite promises of an environmental crackdown by both governments.
Mai village in Guangdong province, southern China, suffers from a Made-in-Britain eyesore: Tesco and Argos plastic bags choke the waterways, snag on tree branches and contribute to a rotting stench during floods and hot weather. There is even a green and white Help The Aged carrier bag printed with a slogan proclaiming the charity's fight against "poverty, isolation and neglect".
It is a side-effect of globalisation. Many of these products were manufactured in China, shipped to the UK for use and sent 5,000 miles back for disposal.
China exported £12.6bn worth of manufactured goods to the UK last year and received an estimated 1.9m tonnes of rubbish in return. Under EU regulations member countries are not allowed to dump garbage overseas, but are permitted to send sorted waste for recycling.
Environmentalists say this is irresponsible because much of the recycling is carried out in poorly-regulated communities, where health risks and pollution worries are a low priority.
Guangdong is scattered with scavenging centres. In Guiyu and Qingyuan small family-run businesses chop up and melt down toxic plastics and metals from discarded computers, printers and mobile phones. In Nanhai and Shunde factories deal with mounds of plastic bags and bottles. About 20% of the waste comes from overseas according to local sources.
A series of exposés in the domestic and foreign media prompted the government to crackdown on the business earlier this year. Guangdong's provincial government banned unlicensed businesses and individuals from importing plastic waste and suspended operations at factories that failed to meet environmental standards.
Last month factories in the most notorious district, the Lianjiao area of Nanhai, were shut down. But most firms simply relocated.
Two hours drive away a new recycling centre is under construction in Shijing village, which is now littered with scrapheaps. The dealers said they would no longer touch foreign waste.
In nearby Shenzhen and Shunde businessmen were still reprocessing carrier bags and other UK waste from the UK. "It can be done as long as the plastic is well enough packaged to get through customs," said the owner of one factory.
At "plastic street" in Mai village, dozens of small plastic recycling firms line the road. Most of the work is done by migrant workers who are paid about £50 a month.
Thousands of plastic carrier bags were being blown into ditches and waterways, creating an eyesore and a bad smell. Students at the local school said the stench came into their classrooms and got worse when the fetid stream floods.
The sanitary department of Shunde township said it was unaware of the mess in Mai village.
"We have a project to clean up villages in this area but we haven't got round to Mai yet," said a spokesman. The provincial government declined to comment.
Britain supports the recycling business. "It allows for a more sustainable use of world resources, but it should be carried out under strict environmental controls," said the UK consulate in Guangzhou. When told of the impact on Mai village it said individual companies should take more responsibility.
Greenpeace believes that wealthier countries should deal with their waste problems at home, rather than exporting them to developing countries, which have to pay the environmental costs. "If we can stop the waste trade I am sure it will lead to more sustainable development around the world," said Kevin May, toxics campaign manager at Greenpeace's office in Beijing.
Link:
· One-fifth of rubbish in province is imported
· Recycling firms relocate to get round crackdown Jonathan Watts in MaiSaturday March 31,
2007
British high street waste is fouling streams and ditches in China despite promises of an environmental crackdown by both governments.
Mai village in Guangdong province, southern China, suffers from a Made-in-Britain eyesore: Tesco and Argos plastic bags choke the waterways, snag on tree branches and contribute to a rotting stench during floods and hot weather. There is even a green and white Help The Aged carrier bag printed with a slogan proclaiming the charity's fight against "poverty, isolation and neglect".
It is a side-effect of globalisation. Many of these products were manufactured in China, shipped to the UK for use and sent 5,000 miles back for disposal.
China exported £12.6bn worth of manufactured goods to the UK last year and received an estimated 1.9m tonnes of rubbish in return. Under EU regulations member countries are not allowed to dump garbage overseas, but are permitted to send sorted waste for recycling.
Environmentalists say this is irresponsible because much of the recycling is carried out in poorly-regulated communities, where health risks and pollution worries are a low priority.
Guangdong is scattered with scavenging centres. In Guiyu and Qingyuan small family-run businesses chop up and melt down toxic plastics and metals from discarded computers, printers and mobile phones. In Nanhai and Shunde factories deal with mounds of plastic bags and bottles. About 20% of the waste comes from overseas according to local sources.
A series of exposés in the domestic and foreign media prompted the government to crackdown on the business earlier this year. Guangdong's provincial government banned unlicensed businesses and individuals from importing plastic waste and suspended operations at factories that failed to meet environmental standards.
Last month factories in the most notorious district, the Lianjiao area of Nanhai, were shut down. But most firms simply relocated.
Two hours drive away a new recycling centre is under construction in Shijing village, which is now littered with scrapheaps. The dealers said they would no longer touch foreign waste.
In nearby Shenzhen and Shunde businessmen were still reprocessing carrier bags and other UK waste from the UK. "It can be done as long as the plastic is well enough packaged to get through customs," said the owner of one factory.
At "plastic street" in Mai village, dozens of small plastic recycling firms line the road. Most of the work is done by migrant workers who are paid about £50 a month.
Thousands of plastic carrier bags were being blown into ditches and waterways, creating an eyesore and a bad smell. Students at the local school said the stench came into their classrooms and got worse when the fetid stream floods.
The sanitary department of Shunde township said it was unaware of the mess in Mai village.
"We have a project to clean up villages in this area but we haven't got round to Mai yet," said a spokesman. The provincial government declined to comment.
Britain supports the recycling business. "It allows for a more sustainable use of world resources, but it should be carried out under strict environmental controls," said the UK consulate in Guangzhou. When told of the impact on Mai village it said individual companies should take more responsibility.
Greenpeace believes that wealthier countries should deal with their waste problems at home, rather than exporting them to developing countries, which have to pay the environmental costs. "If we can stop the waste trade I am sure it will lead to more sustainable development around the world," said Kevin May, toxics campaign manager at Greenpeace's office in Beijing.
Link:
Environment Crisis (I)
Gore paints picture of environment crisis
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)Updated: 2005-10-11 05:57
It was a vivid picture of the consequences of global warming: melting glaciers, rising sea levels, dying lakes and increasing numbers of floods and droughts.
The painter was Al Gore, the former vice-president of the United States and also the author of "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit."
He was invited to give a speech on global climate changes to about 700 Tsinghua University students yesterday in Beijing at a Tsinghua Forum.
"Many people in the US believe that Hurricane Katrina marks the beginning of consequences," Gore said, adding that all people in the world are facing a huge global environmental crisis.
In the next 10 to 15 years, Gore said in the speech, there will be no more snow on Kilimanjaro, and the melting of Himalayan glaciers will result in a sharp decline in the availability of fresh water for people along the rivers and streams that come from the mountain. The frequency of large natural disasters related to more flooding, more drought and stronger storms is increasing.
The largest land-based ice shelf in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, has broken in half, and Antarctic glaciers are melting at an unexpected speed. Two major studies show that within 50 to 70 years, glaciers might be completely gone in summer time, and the sea level will be 6 metres higher.
Gore displayed a picture of Shanghai's coastline made to show the serious consequences if the predictions are right.
"We are making the storms stronger and more destructive, increasing the number of floods and droughts, and making ourselves more vulnerable to viruses and bacteria," Gore said. "These are warnings that we must hear, understand and fight with. It's everyone's mission."
In reply to a question raised by a Tsinghua student, Gore said the major obstacle to the United States' ratifying the Kyoto Protocol is that "there are still arguments in the United States that China is not obligated to reduce its global warming pollution under the treaty."
The treaty was designed so that developed countries take the first obligation, establish momentum and then require nations with lower average incomes to join in the global obligation, Gore said.
China's rapid growth in power and economic strength during the last two decades has made some Americans believe that it should do more under the global warming treaty.
"However, it is unrealistic in my view to see a global treaty that requires the same obligations for countries with very low incomes and countries with very high incomes," Gore said.
Actions by China, such as the establishment of higher environmental standards for cars and more robust tree planting programmes, will move the world forward faster, he said.
Gore will leave Beijing today for Sweden to continue his global lectures.
(China Daily 10/11/2005 page2)
Link:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/11/content_483954.htm
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)Updated: 2005-10-11 05:57
It was a vivid picture of the consequences of global warming: melting glaciers, rising sea levels, dying lakes and increasing numbers of floods and droughts.
The painter was Al Gore, the former vice-president of the United States and also the author of "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit."
He was invited to give a speech on global climate changes to about 700 Tsinghua University students yesterday in Beijing at a Tsinghua Forum.
"Many people in the US believe that Hurricane Katrina marks the beginning of consequences," Gore said, adding that all people in the world are facing a huge global environmental crisis.
In the next 10 to 15 years, Gore said in the speech, there will be no more snow on Kilimanjaro, and the melting of Himalayan glaciers will result in a sharp decline in the availability of fresh water for people along the rivers and streams that come from the mountain. The frequency of large natural disasters related to more flooding, more drought and stronger storms is increasing.
The largest land-based ice shelf in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, has broken in half, and Antarctic glaciers are melting at an unexpected speed. Two major studies show that within 50 to 70 years, glaciers might be completely gone in summer time, and the sea level will be 6 metres higher.
Gore displayed a picture of Shanghai's coastline made to show the serious consequences if the predictions are right.
"We are making the storms stronger and more destructive, increasing the number of floods and droughts, and making ourselves more vulnerable to viruses and bacteria," Gore said. "These are warnings that we must hear, understand and fight with. It's everyone's mission."
In reply to a question raised by a Tsinghua student, Gore said the major obstacle to the United States' ratifying the Kyoto Protocol is that "there are still arguments in the United States that China is not obligated to reduce its global warming pollution under the treaty."
The treaty was designed so that developed countries take the first obligation, establish momentum and then require nations with lower average incomes to join in the global obligation, Gore said.
China's rapid growth in power and economic strength during the last two decades has made some Americans believe that it should do more under the global warming treaty.
"However, it is unrealistic in my view to see a global treaty that requires the same obligations for countries with very low incomes and countries with very high incomes," Gore said.
Actions by China, such as the establishment of higher environmental standards for cars and more robust tree planting programmes, will move the world forward faster, he said.
Gore will leave Beijing today for Sweden to continue his global lectures.
(China Daily 10/11/2005 page2)
Link:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/11/content_483954.htm
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