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from Photographers Blog:
The sky of Beijing
Beijing, China
By Wei Yao
This past winter, Beijing and the entire northern part of China were repeatedly blanketed by thick haze, raising serious concerns among citizens and the government. Air quality in Beijing has mostly stayed above "very unhealthy" and "hazardous" levels. Therefore, how to clean up the sky became one of the most important subjects for the delegates at China’s annual National People’s Congress (NPC). As a photojournalist based in Beijing, the moment I was told I would be able to cover the NPC, I decided to shoot a series of photographs to illustrate this matter.
The first thing that came to mind was placing my camera at the same position to objectively document the sky of Beijing throughout the two weeks of the NPC. I immediately thought of the Tiananmen Gate with the giant portrait of China’s Late Chairman Mao Zedong, because for Chinese or foreigners, nothing says more about China and Beijing than Tiananmen Gate.
It puzzled me for a while on how to present the set of pictures to highlight the differences of each day's air quality. All of a sudden, I remembered a combination of images of the midnight sun in Northern Europe that I saw a few years ago, and decided to combine my pictures in a similar way.
VIEW AN INTERACTIVE ON THE POLLUTION PROBLEM
Having the idea of how to do my project, I encountered some difficulties. Unlike the midnight sun in which shooting only lasted for a day, I had to reset my camera everyday at Tiananmen Square. I originally planned to shoot a picture from the same position at the same time of day, but in the meantime, I also needed to cover many other NPC assignments for my papers. Being in a rush all the time, I wasn't able to get the same position or angle throughout the two weeks. Fortunately, after spending a long time editing, I still managed to create what I needed.
from Photographers Blog:
A recycling hero
Santana do Parnaiba, Brazil
By Paulo Whitaker
Today's Brazil is synonymous with great promise, as the country of the future with tremendous economic potential. But in terms of our care for the environment, we are far from being a global example.
Although we are the world champion in recycling aluminium cans, we still have many polluted rivers and cities, and our rainforests are being devastated to make room for soybeans, cattle and sugar cane. Recycling cans is high thanks only to the thousands of poor who survive by collecting them.
from Global Investing:
Turning water into gold in China
By Stephen Eisenhammer
Rivers of gold? Maybe not, but there can be money to be made in Chinese water systems.
With the world's largest population rapidly moving from the countryside to the city, Chinese water supplies are becoming horribly polluted and the companies wading in to clean and purify them are set to benefit.
from George Chen:
China’s toxic leaks and social unrest
By George Chen
The opinions expressed are the author’s own.
What does PX mean? That's the keyword for China from the past 24 hours.
State media reported that residents of Dalian were recently forced to flee when a storm battering the northeast Chinese coast, whipping up waves that burst through a dyke protecting a local chemical plant. The plant produces paraxylene (PX), a toxic petrochemical used in polyester.
On Sunday, some angry residents finally decided that instead of being forced to flee, the chemical plant should be relocated.
from MuniLand:
$96 for noise citations
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pooZM_hBRJ4&feature=related
America generally has done a very good job in reducing water and air pollution. If you have been in Beijing or Manila where the air is so polluted that most people wear air-filter masks in public, then you can appreciate the only slightly dirty air of New York City or other urban areas. There is one form of pollution, though, that we haven't fully tackled yet: noise pollution. In residential areas the decibel levels can climb in the summer months as souped-up motorcycles are brought out of storage and people roll down the car windows and crank up the tunes. A little history from Wikipedia:
In the 1960s and earlier, few people recognized that citizens might be entitled to be protected from adverse sound level exposure. Most concerted actions consisted of citizens groups organized to oppose a specific highway or airport, and occasionally a nuisance lawsuit would arise. Things in the United States changed rapidly with passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 and the Noise Pollution and Abatement Act, more commonly called the Noise Control Act (NCA), in 1972.
from Environment Forum:
The Green Gauge: Vedanta, Sterlite ordered to shut smelter
This month, Vedanta Resources and subsidiary Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd. made headlines for posing a public health risk to the surrounding community in southern India with pollution from a large copper smelter. They share the top spot in this issue of The Green Gauge, a breakdown of companies recently in the news for winning or losing credibility based on environment-related activity.
Selections of companies were made by Christopher Greenwald, director of data content at ASSET4, a Thomson Reuters business that provides investment research on the environmental, social and governance performance of major global corporations. These ratings are not recommendations to buy or sell.
from Environment Forum:
Getting down to business at U.N. climate talks a hard task
[CROSSPOST blog: 12 post: 11721]
A U.N. concession to delegates at this week's climate talks in Bonn to take off jackets and ties due to recent high temperatures may be going to some participants' heads.
Breaking the back of negotiations for a new climate pact after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 is proving hard work even though the talks' chair hopes to have a new negotiating text on the table by the end of the week.
from Commodity Corner:
Getting down to business at U.N. climate talks a hard task
A U.N. concession to delegates at this week's climate talks in Bonn to take off jackets and ties due to recent high temperatures may be going to some participants' heads.
Breaking the back of negotiations for a new climate pact after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 is proving hard work even though the talks' chair hopes to have a new negotiating text on the table by the end of the week.
from Environment Forum:
Brazen disregard, from the wellhead to the tap
-- Erin Brockovich is an environmental investigator and activist and Ben Adlin writes social commentary and is a former Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. Any opinions expressed here are their own. --
As the wreckage of the now-infamous wellhead continues to spew oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico, evidence of environmental fallout comes streaming in.
