The Earth needs help! (Earth day 2019) ~ Dora.

Teach · May 8

I am sure Hermine - this thread April 26th.

GemmaRowlands · May 9

filauzio said:
Here in Italy too, the government are promoting and championing the electric vehicle revolutions, @mheredge.

Nevertheless, when you walk outdoors searching for the closest charger port, there it is nowhere to be found.

Actually the charger ports are just a few and located mainly in the centre areas, to serve as witnesses of a municipal eco-friendly attitude to tourists' eyes.

There are a few in the wealthiest neighbourhoods too: a kind of bow of flattery to powerful citizens.

Although those well-off households hold two highly pollutant SUVs on average, in fact, they want to wash their guilty conscience with the permanent sight of a charger-port facing their windows across the road.

They just serve as colourful, glossy and neat window dressing.

The reality is that diesel engines monopolize the motor traffic overall.

That's the reason why I still missed to leap at the opportunity of buying an electric vehicle.

However I see that current car's technology offer the so-called hybrid cars, which are equipped with both petrol and electric engines.

While you're driving petrol-fuelled, the battery charges, so that eventually you can switch to the ecological choice, without having to change car.

@bfluentmanish I see you are a new member, so welcome to the Forum.

I'd like to visit India one day, because I think it is a country with a lot of culture, religious buildings, amazing landscapes and traditions.

I really think I could fall in love with your country, whenever I happened to put foot on it.

I also read an article on The Economist about the ecological plan issued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

I was astonished to read about the fact Modi wanted to build hundreds of thousands of public toilets all across the country too.

I think that's a praise worthy policy and not banal at all.

Sewage has to be treated and purified before being discharged in the rivers.

Water, together with the air, are fundamental for humankind survival: do you know what's our body mainly build up of ? Needless to say, water.

There are growing numbers of electric vehicles here, but they are still much more expensive than other choices, so not everyone really wants to own one yet!

mheredge · May 9

I'm sure one day it will be possible @filauzio. Since the number of people wanting to and being better able to afford travelling, it is a necessity.

I saw this article that looked interesting: . (click on the title to follow the link).

Here it is stated champions of 'new economics' think governments should support communities to create participatory forms of economic activity that can tackle inequality while also restoring planetary health.

Green parties have been around a while, but seem to be becoming more popular and might be the best way forward.

One thing for sure, we can't go on the way we are doing now. This report from WWF and Global Footprint Network says that If everyone consumed at the rate of the average European resident, 2.8 planets would be needed.

The report was published on 8 May and suggests "If everybody in the world had the same ecological footprint as an average EU resident - emitting as much carbon, consuming as much food, timber and fibres, and occupying as much built up space - May 10th would be the date by which humanity would have used as much from nature than our planet can renew in a whole year."

bfluentmanish · May 10

@mheredge, @GemmaRowlands, @GemmaRowlands,filauzio
How mediation can help in reversal of global warming.
Here is a beautiful parable in the Indian lore. A man is sitting on the branch of a tree – the wrong end of the branch – and cutting the branch. If he succeeds, he will fail. Right now, the economic engine that we have let loose on this planet is just like that. If it succeeds, we will fail. How absurd does it seem that we should pray for failure? That is where we are right now.
Most people have not understood that life on this planet is not a transaction, it is just an extension of each other. We may have transactions in society, but when it comes to life, it is a mass of life, not one distinctly separate from the other. What you call as my body is just a piece of this earth. Unfortunately, most people do not get it till they are died.
The leadership in the world should meditate once they meditate then only they will be able to connect with themselves with nature.

If you sit in meditation, slowly, after some time you clearly know who you are is not a separate entity. It is one with everything else. If this becomes a living experience in the leadership on the planet, it does not take much to fix this. In spite of all the damage that has happened, it does not take much. In twenty-five years, we can do a significant reversal. Before we fall dead, we can fix it, but it needs top-level support.

Dora · May 10

@bfluentmanish - I love the example of the tree and I agree with you to some extent.

But I think nothing can help with the reversal of global warming besides a good time machine.

And secondly, it's not just the global warming, some areas are significantly colder than before, so I would say it as a climatic change. So far we've reached the deadline for the global warming. This needs to stop right there. About the meditation - I am trying to catch on to what you're saying.

I was taking a look at the Project Drawdown - how Global warming could be in reverse by 2050, a plan to reverse global warming based on 100 existing and emerging solutions!

>> Five of the 100 solutions to reverse climate change
- Feed red algae to sheep to reduce their methane production
- Retire hydrofluorocarbon air conditioning units and dispose of them safely
- Design walkable cities with wide, well-lit, tree-lined sidewalks and improve mass transport solutions
- Fit commercial buildings with automatically shading glass to keep the heat out
- Adopt a vegetarian diet

bfluentmanish · May 11

@Dora,
I have seen that video on TED Talk what a splendid speech and solution given by the author.

mheredge · May 12

Controversy has erupted over the environmental impact of football fans travelling across Europe in coming weeks – to watch English sides play each other hundreds of miles from home.

"At a time of heightened fears over the impact of climate change, caused by rising fossil fuel emissions, the matches’ effect on the environment is seen by many as dangerous and inexcusable. And others warn that the problem will get worse next year when the Euro 2020 finals are held in a new transcontinental format that will greatly increase the amount of travel for supporters as their teams move back and forth across Europe."

mheredge · May 12

At last air pollution is being recognised for the problem to health that it is. The UK health secretary has described polluted air as a “slow and deadly poison” and warned of a growing national health emergency.

Vok · May 13

@mheredge I agree that it's ridiculous that two teams and thousands of their fans have to travel almost 4000km as the crow flies to see the game. It'd be wiser to move the final to London. I don't think it'd take too much of a preparation.

mheredge · May 13

From the sound of things, it is set to get worse next year too @Vok. Maybe the administrators have a stake in the airline industry!

filauzio · May 13

Agree @mheredge, the impact of pollution caused by soccer fans travelling to the next match venue is really inexcusable and annoying.

To say nothing of the vandalism they also endear themselves with towards the match city's citizens.

Just to add insult to injury.

And yes, it really seems like sports events organizations and airline industry have reached a deal to equally share travelling profits.

It's interesting that, when talking about air pollution, we usually refer to pollutants emitted from burning of fossil fuels for transport, heating, energy production and so on.

However, there are also pollutants which just exhale or are formed at ambient temperature and light, without combustion involved.

That's the case with the so-called VOCs: volatile organic compounds and the ozone.

The VOCs are mainly hydocarbons, substances like perfumes added to house cleaners, solvents used in paints but also in cosmetics and toiletries such as nails polish.

These VOCs overall make up the indoors pollution, whose health effects are currentlty being studied, but which are supposed to be somewhat dangerous, at least according to the early findings.

The line between harmlessness and danger is probably drawn according to the concentration of VOCs you are being exposed to and for how long.

Nevertheless the imminent risk persist, especially in case of high concentration exposure; scientists, so far, just advise people to open your windows while going to use such products sources of VOCs, letting fresh air in and stale poisoned air out.

When emitted outdoors, as it's of fuel evaporating from cars' tanks during refuelling, VOCs can react with open air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxides, forming particulate matters, other than, in hot climate and sunlight, the poisonous gas ozone.

This latter can be very dangerous to all people working or exercising outdoors, especially to older people, children and people already affected by respiratory system's diseases, such as chronic bronchitis and asthma.

The ozone can, in fact, aggravate the symptoms of all these people.

Children are the most affected, because their lungs are still in a development stage and ozone exposure can result particularly detrimental to them, eventually even triggering asthma in previously healthy ones.

Amazingly, I read that the effects of ozone on the airways' lining closely compares to the skin sunburnt ones.

mheredge · May 14

@filauzio it is a serious problem that a lot of people seem to be unaware of. In Kathmandu, the air is very polluted and this has led to many times more admissions to hospital of patients with chronic respiratory problems.

In this news article, the Prime Minister of Nepal is obviously in denial of this poor state of affairs if he can claim Kathmandu “now has become a dust-free city” and that no one uses masks these days." Even if he travels in an air-conditioned car all the time, he is obviously out of touch with reality.

I won't say that it always looks as bad as this, but the air is very bitter and after about a week in the city, I am coughing like everyone else around me. I try now to limit any stays to just a few days at a time.

GemmaRowlands · May 15

Vok said:
@mheredge I agree that it's ridiculous that two teams and thousands of their fans have to travel almost 4000km as the crow flies to see the game. It'd be wiser to move the final to London. I don't think it'd take too much of a preparation.

Imagine how much pollution could be prevented just by making this change. It seems like common sense to change things really.

filauzio · May 19

Sometimes it seems that rulers, politicians, VIPs, the elites breathe an air which is quite different from the one ordinary people breathe @mheredge.

Then they obviously travel on armoured vehicles, equipped with air-conditioning and particulates-proof windows, just in case they had to pass through dirty polluted roads, down from their pristine ivory tower.

I sympathize with Kathmandu's citizens for the hazy air they have to breathe.

Unfortunately particulates are very dangerous and, in the long term, they cause shortness of breath and chronic respiratory diseases as you wrote.

I'm afraid surgical masks can do little to resolve the problem though: they are just a palliative; they can filter out bigger particles, but not the finest ones, a few microns in diameter, which will ineluctably end up depth in the lungs.

I think one most viable countermeasure could be to throw water in the air with hydrants, so that particulates are removed and fall to the ground.

The reduced health care budget might well be worth some water consume I suppose.

I wonder whether The Ass has written anything sarcastic about the Prime Minister's nonsensical release.

GemmaRowlands · May 21

filauzio said:
Sometimes it seems that rulers, politicians, VIPs, the elites breathe an air which is quite different from the one ordinary people breathe @mheredge.

Then they obviously travel on armoured vehicles, equipped with air-conditioning and particulates-proof windows, just in case they had to pass through dirty polluted roads, down from their pristine ivory tower.

I sympathize with Kathmandu's citizens for the hazy air they have to breathe.

Unfortunately particulates are very dangerous and, in the long term, they cause shortness of breath and chronic respiratory diseases as you wrote.

I'm afraid surgical masks can do little to resolve the problem though: they are just a palliative; they can filter out bigger particles, but not the finest ones, a few microns in diameter, which will ineluctably end up depth in the lungs.

I think one most viable countermeasure could be to throw water in the air with hydrants, so that particulates are removed and fall to the ground.

The reduced health care budget might well be worth some water consume I suppose.

I wonder whether The Ass has written anything sarcastic about the Prime Minister's nonsensical release.

I do think the masks help quite a lot, but there needs to be more done about why there is so much rubbish in the air in the first place.

filauzio · May 21

I think the technology so far would already allow us to drive electric vehicles and potentially at an affordable cost either, @GemmaRowlands .

The only obstacle lays in oil companies' resistance, together with all minor companies' which make profits within the oil industry, down to the small local petrol station.

As long as there will exist commercial activities which entirely rely on oil extraction, refining, processing, filling for a living, there will be no reasonable hope to convert our existences to the electric clean fuel.

Needless to mention the fact that some countries like Saudi Arabia, rely mainly on oil for their export, I suppose.

That scales up the impact of energy conversion to the millions of people, if I don't go wrong.

mheredge · May 22

You're absolutely right @filauzio. There are too many powerful corporate interests with vested interests to make exploitation of renewable energy sources more than a supplement than the main means of power.

Vok · May 22

What do you think of a flying-less complain and the idea of imposing tax for using an airplane more than once a year? If I had so much time and money, I'd join the no-fly movement. For now I can limit myself to one journey per year by plane I think. But what about business trips? I don't think my employer will be happy to hear that I'm not flying anymore.

mheredge · May 22

I don't think charging more is the solution as the rich and businesses willa without changing the frequency of flying. Maybe some cost conscious tourists might fly less. Time is the biggest problem as I can see now, as instead of maybe half a day to reach Bucharest it's taking 36 hours. That said I'm loving the beautiful scenery as we're going through Romania now and am enjoying this very much. But it's not everyone's choice. @Vok.

GemmaRowlands · May 23

filauzio said:
I think the technology so far would already allow us to drive electric vehicles and potentially at an affordable cost either, @GemmaRowlands .

The only obstacle lays in oil companies' resistance, together with all minor companies' which make profits within the oil industry, down to the small local petrol station.

As long as there will exist commercial activities which entirely rely on oil extraction, refining, processing, filling for a living, there will be no reasonable hope to convert our existences to the electric clean fuel.

Needless to mention the fact that some countries like Saudi Arabia, rely mainly on oil for their export, I suppose.

That scales up the impact of energy conversion to the millions of people, if I don't go wrong.

Unfortunately people aren't willing to pay the extra price in the UK yet, but I hope that the price will go down soon and make the vehicles more accessible to everyone.

mheredge · May 23

The government should help by providing incentives.

GemmaRowlands · May 24

mheredge said:
The government should help by providing incentives.

Well when diesel cars get phased out I don't think they will have an option but to help people to get more economical cars.

mheredge · May 24

I think most countries are hastening the process with cash incentives to invest in electric cars. You can easily hire by the hour electric cars and scooters in the same way as bikes that you pike up and use, leaving them at designated places.

science24 · July 1

@mheredge
She is really amazing at that age, you should see her TED talk

mheredge · July 2

Yes I have seen this @science24. She is truly inspiring and I hope she is able to get the message home that it's everyone's responsibility to act now.

mheredge · July 23

Leonardi Di Caprio is being called on to help protect Lake Baikal in Russia. Baikal, is a Unesco world heritage site and is the oldest and deepest lake on earth and, by volume, the world’s largest freshwater lake. But campaigners, including the WWF, say the lake, also known as the “pearl of Siberia”, is at risk from pollution, development and poaching.

GemmaRowlands · July 24

mheredge said:
Leonardi Di Caprio is being called on to help protect Lake Baikal in Russia. Baikal, is a Unesco world heritage site and is the oldest and deepest lake on earth and, by volume, the world’s largest freshwater lake. But campaigners, including the WWF, say the lake, also known as the “pearl of Siberia”, is at risk from pollution, development and poaching.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/22/leonardo-dicaprio-baikal-lake-siberia-instagram-appeals-to-save?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVS19XZWVrZGF5cy0xOTA3MjM=&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&CMP=GTUK_email

It's up to him whether he helps, obviously, but I like to think that if I had the money to do so, I would at least try to help some worthy causes such as this one!

mheredge · July 24

Lake Bailkal is in my top ten Bucket List destinations. I tried unsuccessfully to get there in the 1990s, when the visa to Russia was a problem. I am biding my time for when the new e-visas start for Russia and I will be there like a shot. @Practical_Severard thank you very much for bringing this to my attention!

mheredge · July 29

Technology is being harnessed to help farmers meet increasing challenges from climate change.

Hermine · July 29

@mheredge, I wished you would start writing a book about all the places you where and tell us stories about people advantures.

Your experiences are unique don't let them forget.

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The Earth needs help! (Earth day 2019) ~ Dora.

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The Earth needs help! (Earth day 2019) ~ Dora.

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