http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/ Think Daily,News Think the Earth project & SPACEPORT Inc. Think the Earth project & SPACEPORT Inc. Copyright 2000-2006 Think the Earth Project & SPACEPORT Inc. All rights reserved. 2008-06-26T05:30:29+09:00 http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-589.shtml?from=rss 2008-06-26T05:30:29+09:00 Since it does not have a good train transportation system, even in large cities, taxis, buses, jeepneys (public transport based on stretched American jeeps), and minibuses are the main public transport in the Philippines. Many of them are second hand cars from other countries, and emit exhaust gas which does not seem to pass emission regulation. The Philippine government said it would lend up to 1 billion pesos (22 million dollars) to owners of taxis and buses to convert their diesel engines to more environmentally friendly engines using fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and compressed natural gas. This environmental policy also aims to help people who have been suffering from the steep rise in international oil and food prices. Diesel costs 49 pesos (1.10 dollars) per liter, while around one third of the Philippine's nearly 90 million people live on less than 1 dollar a day. Liquefied petroleum costs 31 pesos per liter, and is said to give better mileage. The high international oil price is one of the main reasons for the high inflation rates in the Philippines. The government hopes reducing dependency on imported fuels will have a positive impact both on the country's environment and economy. Photo:Central Manila in the morning. Exhaust gases turn the clear blue sky into a gray polluted one. http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-587.shtml?from=rss 2008-06-24T18:42:16+09:00 Many people are familiar with Google's satellite photograph service "Google Earth." Well, there is an attempt to make use of this service to keep an eye on the Brazilian rainforest in order to help rein in illegal logging and gold mining. The idea was generated by Mr. Almir Narayamoga, the chief of the indigenous Amazonian tribe, "Surui." The Surui live in a reservation measuring 600,000 acres (2,428 km2) in the Brazilian Amazon. Chief Almir said that he discovered illegal logging within the reservation by using Google Earth, and that is what gave him this idea. The members of Surui have even mastered the use of GPS , and a workshop on how to use Google Earth will also be held shortly. Google has been involved in environmental and humanitarian issues in the past, such as offering the United Nations Environment Programme's "Atlas of Our Changing Environment" on Google Earth, and information on the state of the conflict in Darfur , Sudan, in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum among others. Could we put a stop to the deforestation of the Amazonian rainforests if all Google Earth users around the world kept an eye on the area? First, "seeing is believing," so why not jump to the Brazilian Amazon with GoogleEarth ! http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-584.shtml?from=rss 2008-06-08T04:53:19+09:00 On May 16th, 44 subway cars that operated through New York City for the past forty years were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean, 21 miles (34 kilometers) off the coast of Maryland’s Ocean City. This artificial reef project aims to enhance the local sport-fishing business through increasing the fish population and cut down the disposal cost of the subway cars. Indeed, the practice of an artificial reef project was not for the first time; there are at least 1200 subway cars that have been drifted to the bottom of the sea near the state of New Jersey and Delaware. “A 600-car reef in that state’s waters had increased the local fish population by 400 times, and boosted the number of angling trips to 13,000 a year from 300 before the reef was created,” said Jeff Tinsman, Delaware’s reef program coordinator. Accordingly, the reef protects fish from their predators and mussels and shrimps quickly colonize the structure. Then the increase in fish population attracts the recreational fishermen, which benefits local businesses. Additionally, New York City saved approximately 11 million dollars to 13 million dollars in disposal cost through releasing the subway cars to the bottom of the ocean. Any environmental hazardous material regulated by the environmental policy of the federal government was removed from all the subway cars before transporting them to the ocean, but there is still uncertainty with the environmental effect concerned with sinking this many number of subway cars to the sea. http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-583.shtml?from=rss 2008-06-04T05:41:00+09:00 The Brazilian government published photographs of the tribe who live in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon, in almost complete isolation from other societies. The discovery of this indigenous tribe living in the area bordering Peru, provides strong support for protecting the tribe and their home, the Amazonian rainforest. It is said that there are 100 groups of tribes around the world who live in isolation from society, and more than half of these live in Brazil and Peru. In Brazil, indigenous people's right to the land is guaranteed and protected by law, but Peru does not have such legislation in place yet. There is a danger that tribes who may lose their homes due to deforestation in Peru may migrate into Brazil, and come into conflict with other tribes. In the pictures published, you can see straw-thatched dwellings and tribesmen, bodies painted red, aiming their bows and arrows at the camera shooting from the air. Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior of the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department (FUNAI) said, "(deforestation is) a monumental crime against the natural world and further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilised' ones, treat the world." Mr. Meirelles protests against those who deny tribal existence and cut down the forests. http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-581.shtml?from=rss 2008-05-26T16:40:21+09:00 About one-third of food bought is discarded without being eaten - a research institution has brought to light the actual situation of food waste in the UK. This investigation conducted by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP） looked at solid wastes produced by 2,138 households in England and Wales. According to WRAP's test calculations, 6.7 million tons in all of UK, which is about one-third of the food purchased, end up in the bin each year. 4.1 million tons equivalent to 10.2 billion pounds (about 2.1 trillion yen) are edible food unnecessarily discarded, of which about a quarter is even untouched. Food worth 86,000 yen for general households and 125,000 yen for households with children are thrown away without being consumed. Potatoes and bread make up a large part, but 440,000 items of ready-to-eat food, and 1.3 million yogurts and yogurt drinks are discarded unopened every single day. In addition, WRAP announced that reduction of such food waste may have the same effect as deciding not to use 1 out of 5 cars, or approximately 18 million tons of annual CO2 emissions reductions. Following the report, Joan Ruddock, UK's Environment Minister said, "These findings are staggering in their own right, but at a time when global food shortages are in the headlines this kind of wastefulness becomes even more shocking." http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-576.shtml?from=rss 2008-05-13T18:25:18+09:00 It has been 10 years since Iinan-cho in Shimane Prefecture established the "Shimane Prefecture Mountainous Region Research Center". Its research results are now well known to the entire nation because it went onsite and listened to the voices of its people , and diligently continued its activities in the face of shrinking population in settlements in the mountainous districts. Although people may tend to become pessimistic when it comes to depopulation issues, this approach attempts to give it a positive spin, by reenergizing the region through reexamination of regional resources such as the abundant biomass and directly managed local stores for selling agricultural produce. The center has been summarizing information covering a wide range of genres such as citizens' regional activities, forest information, wildlife measures, water environment, and traffic, onto a map since 2002; the information is also available on the website. Everyone can share the information and if you register, you can even post messages on the map. If you look at the map, you'll realize that resources in the region will become vibrant and energized more so if these become connected to one another, and this is also true for regions as well. In the 2 settlements that are on the verge of becoming non existent, exchange with metropolises have been actively promoted since the last fiscal year, so that the settlements may be reenergized. Here, the "people" play an important role. Some people from NPOs, etc., have gone to the region to attempt to act as a bridge between the settlements and the outside world, to perform a "cohesive function." And to promote human resource development, a collaborative structure will be set up between the University of Shimane and partner graduate schools. This center is the only one of its kind in the whole nation that researches and attempts to manage depopulation. I hope that the deep-rooted activities undertaken by this unique municipality will continue to help to revitalize the rural areas in Japan. http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-573.shtml?from=rss 2008-05-01T07:33:01+09:00 Plastic garbage, riding the waves - we've all witnessed such a sight at lease once in our lives. According to the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, this "soup" like cluster of plastic garbage held together by the underwater sea currents stretches across the Pacific. And the surface area of the "soup" is said to be about twice the size of mainland US. The "soup," which drifts from California to Hawaii, and even near Japan, forms 2 clusters, holding waste that amounts to about 100 million tons. One-fifth of comes from trash thrown off of ships and oil platforms, and the remainder is said to have floated adrift from land. Charles Moore, an American oceanographer, who discovered this "soup," warns that unless consumers decrease the amount of disposable plastics they use, the "soup" will double in size in the next 10 years. And according to the United Nations Environment Programme, almost 100,000 mammals and more than 1 million seabirds are dying annually due to accidental ingestion, etc. We recalled that during a trip, we saw a sea lion that had got plastic garbage caught around its neck. We also saw that in South America and Africa, where recycling processes are lacking, huge amounts of plastic products were dumped in a heap. We hope we will be able to reduce the consumption of plastic before the Pacific Ocean becomes covered in plastic. http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-571.shtml?from=rss 2008-04-26T19:47:42+09:00 Shiraho district on Ishigaki island, in Okinawa prefecture is known for the largest and the most primeval blue coral reef community in the northern hemisphere. And according to WWF Japan’s research conducted in March this year, the coral reef is in danger of red soil pollution. This investigation involved estimating the amount of red soil that would precipitate on the seabed from the water cloudiness caused by fine particles contained in the sand at the bottom of the sea. And by April 21st, it was reported that the pollution levels are at the highest level of "Rank 8." It has been 5 years (2003) since the last time results yielded Rank 8 pollution levels, and WWF Japan suspects that the higher than average rainfall is the paramount cause. Okinawa prefecture drafted a master plan for measures to prevent red soil runoff from farmland, and it had helped to bring about a downward trend. However, WWF Japan points out that the prefecture must enhance measures and conduct better effect measurements in order to cope with an enormous amount of build up of red soil caused by varying conditions, such as the heavy rainfall experienced this year. In addition, in the recent years heavy land development and construction have been in progress on the island. The acceptable level of pollution for healthy coral growth is said to be below Rank 4 - 5. And pollution levels above Rank 6 are said to be man-caused. However, it is very difficult for an ordinary citizen to prevent red soil runoff, so we hope that the government will take immediate measures such as implementation of regulations to protect the precious coral reef community. http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-568.shtml?from=rss 2008-04-22T13:51:08+09:00 Pacific atoll of Bikini in the Marshall Islands experienced 23 US nuclear bomb tests from 1946 to 1958. About 50 years after the last nuclear bomb, an international team of scientists from 7 countries, such as Australia and Germany, found that the corals are flourishing again. The largest hydrogen bomb on the atoll - a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb - exploded in 1954. This explosion left a crater 2km wide and 73 deep in the atoll, and caused radioactivity, and increased water temperature and nutrient levels. The marine environment was considered to be completely devastated. However, the scientists dived in the area and were greatly impressed to see healthy coral cover as high as 80 per cent, which included 8m high or 30cm thick branch corals. Their analysis showed that two factors might have contributed to this coral recovery, 1) No human disturbance in the atoll due to the fear of radioactivity, 2) Neighboring Rongelap Atoll, the second largest in the world, served as the coral breeding area for Bikini Atoll. Though Rongelap Atoll was contaminated by radioactive ash, no nuclear tests were carried out directly on it. The corals in Bikini Atoll demonstrated a high resistance and ability to recover from large scale destruction. However, the number of coral species decreased. Compared to the early 1950s, 42 species are still missing, and 28 species are considered extinct in this area. http://www.thinktheearth.net/thinkdaily/news/news-detail-567.shtml?from=rss 2008-04-20T08:45:17+09:00 According to the government of Zimbabwe, a country in Southern Africa, suffers from a higher inflation surpassing an annual rate of 160,000% . And it is here in this country that presidential and congressional elections, the results of which have attracted interest from all over the world, were held on March 29. The opposition party, the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), was quick to celebrate its victory, announcing that it won a majority of the congressional seats. However, the results of the presidential election have not yet been released even though more than 3 weeks have gone by. The incumbent president, Robert Mugabe, has been in power since the country's independence in 1980, yet his tough policies have been criticized by the international community for being dictatorial. The ruling party, ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front) led by the charismatic president, Robert Mugabe, has refused to announce the results of the presidential election. Political tension is on the rise, and there has been some violent action taken against activists of the opposition party. Although Zimbabwe has been in a state of political unrest before, its citizens and local NGOs are concerned that the current situation may trigger a large insurrection, resulting in many dead and injured.