Showing posts with label Environment effects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Environment effects. Show all posts

Friday, February 26, 2010

Some Recent Feeds from An Environment Blog

Posted by Chittagong Fun at 7:15 PM 0 comments Labels: , ,

Monday, March 9, 2009

Global Warming Basics

Global Warming basic knowledge :


Global Warming: Global Warming Basics
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 7:46 PM 0 comments Labels: ,

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

During the Holidays, plastics

During the Holidays, plastics can be a part of our daily life without hampering our environment....



  • Wrap them into a holiday wreath.

  • Exchange them for straw in Halloween scarecrows.

  • Use them for kid-proof holiday crafts, like ghosts and pumpkins .

  • Decorate them with paint or stickers and use to give out plates of cookies at the holidays.

  • Use brightly-colored versions to make faux flowers.
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 6:41 PM 0 comments Labels: , ,

Paper Bags or Plastic Bags?

Paper Bags or Plastic Bags?

by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 07. 9.08

Paper or plastic bags: which is better?
It's an age old question, when it comes time to check out when grocery shopping: paper bag or plastic bag? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there's an incredible number of details and inputs hidden in each bag. From durability and reusability to life cycle costs, there's a lot more to each bag than meet the eye. Let's take a look behind the bags.

Where do brown paper bags come from?
Paper comes from trees -- lots and lots of trees. The logging industry, influenced by companies like Weyerhaeuser and Kimberly-Clark, is huge, and the process to get that paper bag to the grocery store is long, sordid and exacts a heavy toll on the planet. First, the trees are found, marked and felled in a process that all too often involves clear-cutting, resulting in massive habitat destruction and long-term ecological damage.

Mega-machinery comes in to remove the logs from what used to be forest, either by logging trucks or even helicopters in more remote areas. This machinery requires fossil fuel to operate and roads to drive on, and, when done unsustainably, logging even a small area has a large impact on the entire ecological chain in surrounding areas.

making-paper-bags-wood-pulp-mill-photo.jpg
Part way between trees and paper bags. Photo credit: Sally A. Morgan—Ecoscene/Corbis

Once the trees are collected, they must dry at least three years before they can be used. More machinery is used to strip the bark, which is then chipped into one-inch squares and cooked under tremendous heat and pressure. This wood stew is then "digested," with a chemical mixture of limestone and acid, and after several hours of cooking, what was once wood becomes pulp. It takes approximately three tons of wood chips to make one ton of pulp.

The pulp is then washed and bleached; both stages require thousands of gallons of clean water. Coloring is added to more water, and is then combined in a ratio of 1 part pulp to 400 parts water, to make paper. The pulp/water mixture is dumped into a web of bronze wires, and the water showers through, leaving the pulp, which, in turn, is rolled into paper.

Whew! And that's just to make the paper; don't forget about the energy inputs -- chemical, electrical, and fossil fuel-based -- used to transport the raw material, turn the paper into a bag and then transport the finished paper bag all over the world.

Posted by Chittagong Fun at 1:04 PM 0 comments Labels: , ,

Last Rites for a Lake

Last Rites for a Lake

by Jennifer Hattam, Istanbul, Turkey on 02.25.09

lake van turkey scenic landscape photo
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey and the fifth largest in Europe. Photo via Van Gölü Kirlenmesin (Don't Pollute Lake Van)

On a blustery winter's day last weekend, a small group of activists in eastern Turkey left notes on the doors of their shops and workplaces reading, "We are closed on account of a funeral." Then they bundled themselves up and headed down to the snowy shores of Lake Van to say last rites for the polluted body of water.

In what was apparently a variation on the traditional Islamic funeral prayer, an imam asked the congregated group, "How did you know Lake Van?" to which they responded, "We knew it as dirty." The imam, Sinan Aygül, continued, saying, "This funeral prayer is performed for our lake, for our fading hopes, and for us not being able to leave a clean lake for future generations."


The lake, Turkey's largest and one of the more popular tourist sites in the less-traveled eastern region, has become polluted through a combination of garbage dumping, erosion along deforested areas of its 530-kilometer-long coastline, and dirty streams flowing into it through nearby towns. The lake's water level has also dropped two meters between 1995 and 2008, likely due to global warming, concentrating the effect of pollution.
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 12:52 PM 0 comments Labels: ,

Exxon-Paid Scientist Claims Earth Doesn’t Have Enough Greenhouse Gases

Exxon-Paid Scientist Claims Earth Doesn’t Have Enough Greenhouse Gases

February 28, 2009 ·

A scientist on ExxonMobil’s payroll is trying to convince people that all those greenhouse gas emissions flowing freely around the world are nothing to worry about – in fact, we need more! Princeton University Atomic Physicist Dr. William Happer testifed before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee on the 25th, claiming that the real concern is a ‘CO2 famine’.

Posted by Chittagong Fun at 11:40 AM 0 comments Labels: , ,

A Living, Biodegradable Mushroom Chair By Shinwei Rhoda Yen

A Living, Biodegradable Mushroom Chair By Shinwei Rhoda Yen

by Kimberley D. Mok, Montreal, Canada on 03. 2.09

mushroom chair Shinwei Rhoda YenMushrooms ate my furniture chair by Shinwei Rhoda Yen (All photos: Design Boom)

What if our furniture were ‘living’ somehow? Well, this clever ‘mushrooms ate my furniture’ chair by designer Shinwei Rhoda Yen has all the right elements – it’s simple, biodegradable and its underside is graced by small mushrooms. One can easily imagine it outdoors as a comfy seat to use while gardening, and as a tool to grow mushrooms (perhaps ones suitable for eating?). Let's take a closeup view of this fantastic chair:

Hey, are those shitake mushrooms?
mushroom chair Shinwei Rhoda YenCloseup of the mushrooms...

The chair’s bottom is already embedded with spores for easy growing, and the straightforward design allows the mushrooms to grow and live on the chair for years, as they feed off the nutrients of the wood. Eventually, the chair will degrade naturally. The chair presents a minimal and intelligent statement about the life-cycles of consumer products, and it’s one that suggests a re-thinking and re-defining versatility and sustainability to include the humblest of life forms as well.
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 10:54 AM 0 comments Labels: , ,

Sustainable Village in Nepal Houses Former Street Children

Sustainable Village in Nepal Houses Former Street Children

March 2, 2009 ·

The Pegasus Project built a small sustainable village near Kathmandu, Nepal in the Himalaya mountains where there are over 40 super adobe domes to accommodate 80 children, 10 staff and a small school. The village also has solar panels for hot water and a bio gas plant. The video below shows how the adobe homes are built:


Posted by Chittagong Fun at 10:52 AM 0 comments Labels: ,

Greener Gadgets: The Lightimus Solar LED Light

Greener Gadgets: The Lightimus Solar LED Light

March 2, 2009 · Print This Article

There were a lot of amazing eco-friendly inventions unveiled during the 2009 Greener Gadgets Design Competition, and ultimately, there could only be one winner: The Tweet-a-Watt. One design that didn’t make the top 4 but was brilliant and eye-catching all the same was the Lightimus, an indoor solar light that acts as a constant reminder of the cycle of life.

From Core 77:

Light, Time & Us… All we are sharing the same time and the same planet to which the sun gives life. However, modern life makes us self-focused, and causes us to forget that we are a part of total life chain on our planet. Global warming, enviromental pollution and biological pollution threaten this chain and a sustainable lifecycle.

Lightimus is a decorative lighting design emphasizing the importance of the life cycles of our planet by keeping on its own life cyle during its usage. The product is in the form of an hourglass. One side is composed of solar panels and accumulates energy during day time. The other side is composed of a series of LED lights to lighten its enviroment during night time. When fully charged, its NiMh Battery can illuminate 12 LED bulbs (3mms) for up to 8 hours. When the lights fade away in the morning, you rotate the other side and put it under the sun; in the night it will be ready to illuminate its enviroment again. And the cycle continues - there is no switch on this product.

The LED bulbs on the Lightimus fade away gradually, mimicking the setting sun and representing the passage of time. It may not be the next amazing piece of eco-technology that’s gonna help us save the world, but it’s a slick piece of green design that we’d love to see go into production.

Posted by Chittagong Fun at 9:52 AM 0 comments Labels: , , ,

Minimalist Soap Holder Alert

Minimalist Soap Holder Alert

by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 03. 2.09


Soap Holder Banus Overflow Holes Photo
Image via: Jaboneras Banus

Sure you could just toss the soap on the counter, or if you're lucky your sink has a little cut-in indentation for holding soap. But it's inevitable that that soap will end up a slimy mess as the water pools under the soap and just turns the hidden half of the bar into goo, just waiting for you to grab it - you know what I'm talking about. Well designer Marcos Shayo of Buenos Aires, Argentina has taken that goo to task and designed a minimalist soap dish - the Soap Holder Banus - that can be installed anywhere, uses minimal resources and also keeps the soap fresh.

Posted by Chittagong Fun at 9:48 AM 0 comments Labels: , ,

International Renewable Energy Agency launched in Bonn

International Renewable Energy Agency launched in Bonn

Monday, 26 January 2009

eolicoA new organisation promoting the development and use of renewable energies was launched on Monday January 26 in the former German capital, Bonn. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will advise industrialised and developing nations on ways of reducing their dependency on oil, coal and gas.
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 9:46 AM 0 comments Labels: , , ,

Brazil. Biofuels' booming is destroying Amazon rainforest

Brazil. Biofuels' booming is destroying Amazon rainforest

Monday, 16 February 2009 14:43

canna_zuccheroFor the first time in Brazil's history, in 2008 sales of ethanol as fuel for motor vehicles surpassed those of petrol - according to the National Fuel Authority (Agência Nacional de Petróleo ANP).

In Brazil ecofuels' exchanges have increased in one year by 45%, reaching 16 billion liters sold in gas pumps.

Ethanol is cheaper than petrol, it is derived from sugar canes through an alcoholic fermentation process of the plant's sugars.

Brazil is the second largest producer of ecofuels worldwide behind the United States, which derive them from maize, though.

At the same time environmental associations are more and more worried about the overwhelming development of this market. Ecofuels have become the vanguard of the green technological revolution, the US increased by 5 times ethanol production, in Brazil almost all pumps have been converted.

Investments on ecofuels' production are expected to reach 100 billion dollars in 2010. However the impact on the environment is serious, as destroying the Amazon Rainforest so to create new areas destined to cultivation may lead to an acceleration of global warming: on the one hand huge quantities of CO2 are generated by the forest's burning, on the other hand its capacity to produce oxygen is reduced as well.
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 9:43 AM 0 comments Labels: , , ,

A house made of paper for poor and homeless

A house made of paper for poor and homeless

Friday, 23 January 2009 17:34

paperhouseGerd Niemoeller, a design engineer has created the ultimate 'wall paper house' from recycled cardboard and newspapers. These accommodation units provide a fine option for the homeless and poor, as it can be built for less than $5000.

Constructed from an innovative cellulose-based material, the Universal World House is light, cheap, well-insulated, and remarkably strong, making it an incredible asset to developing countries, the homeless, and those displaced by disasters.

It measures 36 square meters, weighs about 800 Kg, can be assembled, is environmentally friendly and earthquake-proof. It comes complete with plumbing, eight built-in single and double beds, and basic facilities. Its versatile structure allows its walls to open up to take advantage of daylight and natural ventilation.
The modular prefab is constructed from Swisscell, a material made from cellulose extracted from recycled newspaper and cardboard. The material is impregnated with resin and formed into honeycomb walls that provide excellent insulation and offer a a great strength-to-weight ratio.

The process is extremely cheap, and machinery can be easily mobilized to other countries, cutting down on the impact of shipping the homes and providing local manufacturing jobs. Niemöller has stated: “From the very beginning, our goal was to create practical, environmentally sustainable, and, most importantly, cheap living quarters for the slums of the Earth.”
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 9:36 AM 0 comments Labels: , ,

Soft toilet rolls cause huge environmental devastation

Soft toilet rolls cause huge environmental devastation

Friday, 27 February 2009 15:33

toilet_rollAccording to green campaigners, the Americans’ predilection for extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply toilet roll made from virgin forest causes “more environmental devastation than the country's love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions”, the British daily The Guardian reported on Thursday.

More than 98% of the toilet roll sold in America comes from virgin forests, while in Europe and Latin America up to 40% of toilet paper comes from recycled products.
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 9:29 AM 0 comments Labels:

Friday, February 20, 2009

The greenhouse-gas emissions for an entire country : Possible to measure ??

The United Nations reported this week that Kyoto Protocol signatories have reduced greenhouse-gas emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels, four years ahead of the treaty schedule.

For a country to get a direct readout of its national emissions, it would have to put a greenhouse-gas meter on every tailpipe, landfill, and cow. Since that's impractical, government officials track the inputs rather than the outputs. In other words, they count up the number of gallons of fossil fuels consumed, cattle raised, and pounds of waste produced. From there, it's just a matter of doing the right calculations.

More Details on Here
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 7:02 PM 0 comments Labels: , ,

IPCC : International Panel For Climate Change

Climate change is a very complex issue: policymakers need an objective source of information about the causes of climate change, its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences and the adaptation and mitigation options to respond to it. This is why WMO and UNEP established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988.

The IPCC is a scientific body: the information it provides with its reports is based on scientific evidence and reflects existing viewpoints within the scientific community. The comprehensiveness of the scientific content is achieved through contributions from experts in all regions of the world and all relevant disciplines including, where appropriately documented, industry literature and traditional practices, and a two stage review process by experts and governments.

The IPCC is a scientific intergovernmental body set up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Its constituency is made of :

  • The governments: the IPCC is open to all member countries of WMO and UNEP. Governments of participate in plenary Sessions of the IPCC where main decisions about the IPCC workprogramme are taken and reports are accepted, adopted and approved. They also participate the review of IPCC Reports.
  • The scientists: hundreds of scientists all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC as authors, contributors and reviewers.
  • The people: as United Nations body, the IPCC work aims at the promotion of the United Nations human development goals

IPCC does :

The IPCC provides its reports at regular intervals and they immediately become standard works of reference, widely used by policymakers, experts and students. The findings of the first IPCC Assessment Report of 1990 played a decisive role in leading to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was opened for signature in the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 1992 and entered into force in 1994. It provides the overall policy framework for addressing the climate change issue. The IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 provided key input for the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Third Assessment Report of 2001 as well as Special and Methodology Reports provided further information relevant for the development of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. The IPCC continues to be a major source of information for the negotiations under the UNFCCC.


Posted by Chittagong Fun at 10:06 AM 0 comments Labels: , ,

Green House Air : Future Impacts

Greenhouse hot air could be very dangerous for our this green planet. Such as

  • Experts predicts that as a result of global warming sea levels will rise by between 0.09 and 0.88 metres by 2100. This may not sound like much, but a half-metre rise in sea level would put paid to many low lying islands, especially in the Pacific, and cause vast saline inundations in countries like Bangladesh.
  • Many cities - among them Mumbai (Bombay) and Bangkok - could be threatened too. Millions of people will be forced to move as 'environmental refugees' to higher ground.
  • Future global warming will affect different regions in different ways. A report by the European Acacia Project predicts that parts of southern Europe will become so hot that the tourist industry could suffer, and alpine glaciers could melt entirely by the end of the century. In northern Europe snowfall and rain may increase. In the north cropland productivity is likely to increase, but with the warmer weather will come a greater risk of pests and diseases spreading.
  • The scientists predict that a decrease in rainfall in some parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia - another likely consequence of global warming - could lead to a decline in grain yield of 10-15 per cent over the next 50 years.
  • Indeed, the Experts suggests that global warming could trigger more extreme weather events - floods, droughts and the like - which will have a serious impact on food production and human populations.
  • Areas of the world which depend on runoff from glaciated mountains would see a catastrophic drop in water supplies as the final ice-fields melt.
  • The costs of global warming, in financial terms, could be astronomic. Already the cost of property damage is rising at around 10 per cent a year, and between 1970 and 2000 economic losses caused by natural disasters doubled.
  • Some insurance experts warn that the industry could be in danger of running out of money if it is to meet claims stemming from climate-related disasters in the not too distant future. Warmer ocean waters are likely spark more intense hurricanes, with more damaging winds and much heavier rainfall.
  • Overall, global warming is likely to be a disaster for biodiversity, complex ecosystems as species migrate to stay within their climate zone. And those that benefit tend to be invasive competitors, adding to the non-climate extinction crisis. A report published in the scientific journal Nature in 2004 suggested that up to a third of species could be 'committed to extinction' because of climate change by 2050.
  • Some scientists have speculated that global warming could lead to the complete wiping out of the Amazon rainforest, causing a biological catastrophe unparalleled in modern times. This is likely to be accompanied by the widespread loss of coral reefs due to more frequent 'bleaching' in warmer waters.
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 10:02 AM 0 comments Labels: ,

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Air: Hot or not : The basics of Greenhouse effects

During the twentieth century, global atmospheric temperatures have risen by about 0.7�C. However, since the mid-1970s the rate of warming has tripled. The last decade has seen nine of the warmest ten years since records began in 1861. 2004 was the fourth-warmest ever. In descending order of heat the five warmest-ever years were: 1998, 2003, 2002, 2004, 2001. Moreover, new evidence - compiled from 'proxy data' like ice cores and tree rings - suggests that temperatures are now higher than they have been for over a thousand years.

Just like the glass on a greenhouse, a blanket of water vapour and other 'greenhouse gases' - notably carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - trap some of the sun's radiation as it bounces off the surface of the earth.

This natural greenhouse effect has enabled life to develop in all its complexity - without it the planet would be frozen solid - but since the industrial revolution the amount of greenhouse gas has risen. As a result more heat has been trapped, causing a warming of the atmosphere.


Posted by Chittagong Fun at 9:51 PM 0 comments Labels: ,

Monday, January 26, 2009

How bad is the global water crisis?

  • 1.1 billion people lack access to water and 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation; most of these populations are in developing countries
  • Over 50% of the world’s wetlands have been lost in the last century alone
  • Most of the world’s largest rivers are losing their connection to the sea and nearly a quarter of those left risk being disconnected in the next 15 years
  • Only one-third of the world’s 177 large rivers (1,000km and longer) remain free-flowing, unimpeded by dams or other barriers
  • There has bee more than a 50% decline in freshwater species populations over the last 30 years, making species loss in freshwater ecosystems faster than any other biome
Posted by Chittagong Fun at 9:57 PM 0 comments Labels: , , ,

Green Roof : A Tehcnology to save our planet.

A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil, or a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. This does not refer to roofs which are merely colored green, as with green roof shingles. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems.

Container gardens on roofs, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, although this is an area of debate. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater.

Posted by Chittagong Fun at 6:24 PM 0 comments Labels: ,
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