TV Schedule

Pollution

  • Public Topic: Everyone is invited to contribute to Pollution

    • Algae Attacks China!

      The Beijing Olympics face yet another hurdle on their way to hosting the worlds premiere sporting event. In the recent months leading up to the games the Chinese have endured a woeful series fatal earthquakes and landslides. The traditional torch relay sparked a global barrage international protests and ridicule all of which was televised and uploaded to every corner of the world, physical or otherwise. The Chinese sustained these sorrowful and humiliating events whilst mustering up the will and already strained resources to build an intricate infrastructure to accommodate the Games. Comparatively, a little algae would be a piece of cake. Fate, it seems, wasn't interested in taking it easy, and so the Chinese are now dealing with a massive amount of green algae that is burgeoning at cruel increments. The oversize bloom of the sea-faring organism is a source of fear to Olympic sailing teams who may face unfamiliar conditions that are considered unfavorable. The algae effect on boats is simple, the more algae the slower the boat. So for sailors who have spent their lifetimes training for this one competition the green blob is not a welcome challenge.
      To combat the algae Chinese citizens have dutifully answered the call to duty that would surely be lost without them. In this selfless act it is impossible to dismiss their steadfast determination that truly embodies the spirit of the Olympic Games. Civilian algae-fighters armed solely with their pride and plastic sacs have started extracting the green mass. Some working one handful at a time. Some athletes and coaches are still concerned that these efforts, however admirable, will fail to clear the 19 square miles of water needed for the competition. Chinese officials on the other hand have promised an algae-free race. Perhaps the most compelling competition then is not between countries or people. Indeed this battle is just The Olympic Spirit against all odds.
      The Beijing Olympics face yet another hurdle on their way to hosting the worlds premiere sporting event. In the recent months leading ... more

      clemwilson

      added this

      0 responses

      4 minutes ago
    • Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Coral Rerefs are Disappearing quickly

      CO2 Pollution Could Erase Coral Reefs. Coral reefs, nature's most lively architecture, could come tumbling down and it could take millions of years for them to return, if carbon dioxide emissions aren't cut quickly, scientists warned today.

      The world's oceans have absorbed 40 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans in the industrial age, but that buffering is changing the chemistry of the oceans. Already, the acidity of ocean waters, which are generally basic, has shifted about 0.1 on the pH scale, or 10 percent, since pre-industrial times, and could get far more acidic by mid-century.

      In a editorial in the journal Science, the researchers also noted that unlike CO2's climate impacts, which vary between models to some extent, ocean acidification is based on basic chemistry and is nearly sure to occur if we continue burning fossil fuels, with disastrous consequences for some marine life.

      "What we're doing in the next decade could mean that for the next two million years, there are no coral reefs in the ocean," said Ken Caldeira, a Stanford professor, and recent Wired profilee.

      While most of the attention on the impacts of carbon dioxide emissions has focused on its ability to act as a greenhouse gas, that warms the earth's climate, the changes CO2 emissions will bring to the world's oceans are receiving increasing attention. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more of it that dissolves into surface ocean water. That small chemistry change could cause huge changes in marine biology.

      Marine organisms, like coral, that build skeletons out of calcium could find themselves unable to do so. If current emissions trends continue over the next decade, the world's marine creatures will be dealing with what's essentially an alien ocean. The last time ocean conditions like those predicted for mid-century existed was long before humans walked the earth.

      "I think in order to find something that is as extreme as what we continue to do this century, you have to go back to when the dinosaurs became extinct, 65 million years ago," Caldeira said.

      After the last acidification, it took two million years for coral reefs to recover. The Science paper called for lower CO2 emissions caps and for them to come quickly. Otherwise, he warned, the Great Barrier Reef and other structures like it will be destroyed and will take millions of years to return.

      "Where a doubling of CO2 might seem like a realistic target from a climate perspective, but from an ocean chemistry perspective, it means changes that haven't been seen in tens of millions of years."

      Unlike climate change, which Caldeira thinks could be partially counteracted through geoengineering, ocean acidification is a problem of a completely different scale. In the physics of climate change, he said, sulfur particles can have an outsized effect in counteracting the greenhouse effect induced by carbon dioxide. But ocean acidification, and the chemistry that underlies it, is fundamentally different.

      "There's no way around having a molecule-to-molecule response, so the scale of the solution ends up being the scale of the problem," said Caldeira.

      While some individual reefs could be preserved by various means, the broader problem appears difficult to geoengineer.

      "At the scale of the whole ocean, I don't think is anything simpler than transforming our entire energy system," he concluded.
      - Wired Science
      CO2 Pollution Could Erase Coral Reefs. Coral reefs, nature's most lively architecture, could come tumbling down and it could take mill... more

      Moopak

      added this

      0 responses

      13 hours ago
    • Jamaica, Nuff Problems Man

      In the Tuff Gong chapter of Frank151, we investigated Jamaica’s ongoing environmental crises that is being caused by bauxite mining on the island. Bauxite is a key ingredient used in manufacturing aluminum, and Jamaica happens to have some of the largest reserves in the world. The process of mining and processing bauxite can also be extremely toxic. While mining this resource should be economically beneficial to the people of Jamaica, politics and the business interests of international mining corporations have prevented much of the profits generated from reaching the people. In fact, the mining seems to have done more harm than good for your average Jamaican.

      Now, from the Jamaican Bauxite Environmental Organization comes Jamaica http://www.jbeo.com/) , Nuff Problems Man, a new documentary shedding more light on the harmful practices of the bauxite mining industry. We implore you to take notice. The problem of bauxite mining in Jamaica highlights the dangerous effects of what happens when greed overshadows the basic needs of human beings.


      Please don’t hesitate to forward this post or re-post the videos on your own blogs. The bauxite crisis in Jamaica has been destroying the land and peoples lives for far too long.
      In the Tuff Gong chapter of Frank151, we investigated Jamaica’s ongoing environmental crises that is being caused by bauxite mining on... more

      goldenways

      added this

      3 responses

      6 hours ago
    • Stop the Bush/McCain oil disaster

      Next time you go to the beach with your family, do you want to see a mammoth oil rig only three miles off the coast?

      There's been a moratorium on offshore oil drilling since 1981, but if President Bush has his way, there won't be for long. Last month, Senator John MCcain reversed his previous position and called for lifting the moratorium that has protected our shores for the last 27 years. Days later, President Bush hopped on the bandwagon, demanding that Congress reverse this time-tested policy. Such action would be a disaster for the environment, a boon for the oil companies, and won't have any effect whatsoever on gas prices.

      Let's tell our governor to speak out against this reckless proposal. We can't stand by while Bush and MCcain try to sell out our beaches so big oil can profit.

      Follow this link to learn more and take action:

      http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/stop_drilling_ca/

      Thanks!
      Next time you go to the beach with your family, do you want to see a mammoth oil rig only three miles off the coast? ... more

      onechance

      added this

      20 responses

      10 hours ago
    • Is your TV responsible for climate change?

      The list of things that you thought to be fairly harmless but are apparently contributing to climate change has grown again. Now flat screen TVs are being blamed as well. Research has suggested that a gas - nitrogen trifluoride - used in the production of flat screen TVs is 17000 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide as a cause of global warming. Since the boom in demand for flat screen TVs began annual production has risen to about 4000 tonnes, giving it about the same effect as some of the largest coal fired power plants However, one company has suggested that very little of the gas is actually released into the atmosphere. The list of things that you thought to be fairly harmless but are apparently contributing to climate change has grown again. Now flat ... more

      cassius

      added this

      0 responses

      13 hours ago
    • Why $4 gas is good!

      1. Globalized Jobs Return Home
      2. Spraw Stalls
      3. Four Day Workweeks
      4.Less Pollution
      5. More Frugality
      6. Fewer Traffic Deaths
      7. Cheaper Insurance
      8. Less Traffic
      9. More Cops on the Beat
      10. Less Obesity

      The world had long assumed that americans were just unrepentant energy pigs. If gas prices went up, well, we kept our Explorers aimed at the horizon, and little changed. We truthfully didn't have lots of options. Unlike Europeans, we didn't have jobs we could bike to or convenient public transit. Gasoline prices never stayed high enough long enough to force those kinds of shifts in how we lived.

      Now here we are. Gas prices are near $4 a gallon, as no one needs to tell you, and they are likely to stay that way. Most of us still don't have the alternatives we need to adapt with grace, which means that many will adapt just by suffering. We will run out of gas on I-80, ease our minivans over to the shoulder and tell the kids everything is O.K. We'll fall behind on Visa bills to pay for gas so we can buy food made ever more expensive by energy costs.

      But it's also true that Americans are finding options where there seemed to be none. They're ready to change — just waiting for their infrastructure to catch up. They are driving to commuter-rail lines only to find there are no parking spots left. They are running fewer errands and dumping their SUVs. Public-transit use is at a 50-year high. Gas purchases are down 2% to 3%. And all those changes bring secondary, hard-earned benefits.

      "You suddenly are reminded how the economy works," says Eric Roston, author of a new book about energy, The Carbon Age. "Nobody wants high prices for oil. But there's also no faster mechanism to change behavior." The suffering will go on. But the story, like any good tragedy, is not without redemption.

      Follow link for the 10 good things about $4 gas and pictures. . .
      1. Globalized Jobs Return Home 2. Spraw Stalls 3. Four Day Workweeks 4.Less Pollution 5. More Frugality 6. Fewer Traffic Deaths ... more

      Moopak

      added this

      1 response

      5 hours ago
    • Algae invades China's Olympic venue


      More than 10,000 people have been mobilised in the Chinese city of Qingdao to clean up green algae, which have invaded the Olympic sailing venue.

      The algae had arrived in late May and now covered 13,000 sq km (5,000 sq miles) of sea, Xinhua news agency said.

      They occupy almost a third of the area that will be used for the sailing competition during the 9-21 August Olympic Games.

      Officials estimate that the clean-up will take two more weeks.

      'Smelly'

      Richard Zheng from Qingdao told the BBC News website that a number of his fellow students had been involved in the clean-up effort.

      "There is really too much algae. When I go to the beach, I can smell it and it is really quite smelly - a bit like a soup we drink in restaurants," he said.

      "Some people are getting quite worried in case this will have an impact on the Olympic Games. But there are many fishing ships out collecting the algae as well as students. We believe the algae will disappear when the weather changes.

      "This has happened before in Qingdao but not so frequently in the last few years," Mr Zheng added.

      Nitrogen

      At a news conference on Sunday, Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee member Yuan Zhiping said workers were focusing on the competition area.

      "We have stressed to all the people devoted to this campaign that the priority should [be] given to the Olympic venue and we expect to eliminate all these sea weeds before 15 July," he said.
      Aerial view of the algae on 26 June 2008
      Beaches around the city have been smothered by the algae

      Olympic sailors were already training in the area and their preparation was being affected, Xinhua said.

      More than 1,000 boats were involved in the clean-up operation and 100,000 tonnes of the weeds had already been removed, it added.

      Coastal areas and lakes in China see frequent algae blooms, often caused by the discharge of nitrogen-rich chemical pollutants, sewage and fertilisers in the water.

      But Wang Shulian, of Qingdao's Oceanic and Fishery Department, put the presence of the algae down to the temperature of the water and its salinity.
      ... more

      Neghie

      added this

      6 responses

      13 minutes ago
    • Pentagon fights EPA on pollution cleanup

      The Defense Department, the nation's biggest polluter, is resisting orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Fort Meade and two other military bases where the EPA says dumped chemicals pose "imminent and substantial" dangers to public health and the environment.

      The Pentagon has also declined to sign agreements required by law that cover 12 other military sites on the Superfund list of the most polluted places in the country. The contracts would spell out a remediation plan, set schedules, and allow the EPA to oversee the work and assess penalties if milestones are missed.

      The actions are part of a standoff between the Pentagon and environmental regulators that has been building during the Bush administration, leaving the EPA in a legal limbo as it addresses growing concerns about contaminants on military bases that are seeping into drinking water aquifers and soil.
      The Defense Department, the nation's biggest polluter, is resisting orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Fort M... more

      Ogmin

      added this

      16 responses

      11 hours ago
    • Your Laptop's Dirty Little Secret

      Phones and computers contain dangerous metals like lead, cadmium and mercury, which can contaminate the air and water when those products are dumped. It's called electronic waste, or e-waste, and the world produces a lot of it: 20 to 50 million tons a year, according to the UN — enough to load a train that would stretch around the world.

      The U.S. is by far the world's top producer of e-waste, but much of it ends up elsewhere — specifically, in developing nations like China, India and Nigeria, to which rich countries have been shipping garbage for years. There the poor, often including children, dismantle dumped PCs and phones, stripping the components for the valuable — and toxic — metals contained inside. In the cities like the southern Chinese town of Guiyu, they work with little protection, melting down components and breathing in poisonous fumes. What can't be recycled is simply dumped, turning already poisoned rivers into toxic sludge. It's all done in the hope of earning a few dollars from the detritus of the clean digital economy.

      Officially, this shouldn't be happening. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was established by the UN in 1989 to control the hazardous garbage flowing from rich countries to poor ones. The convention allows countries to unilaterally ban the import of waste, and requires exporters to get the consent of destination countries before they send trash abroad. But the United States, a prime source of e-waste and other toxic waste, never signed onto the treaty, leaving it weakened, and some of the destination nations — most prominently China — quietly allow the dumping to continue, for the money it brings in. At an international summit on the convention held last week in Bali, Indonesia, environmentalists and many poor countries insisted the agreement had failed, and pointed to the growth in e-waste as a main reason.

      Much of the fault does lie with the U.S. and its technology companies, which export e-waste because it is cheaper to offload the problem on poor nations than it is to take care of the waste at home. "This is effectively long-distance dumping," said Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme. One solution is to promote recycling programs for old PCs and phones, as Dell has done recently, or try to reduce the amount of toxic metals used in those products, as Apple has done. The answer will almost certainly have to come from rich importers — for poor nations, the money that can be made off the e-waste trade is simply too good to abandon, despite the environmental and health costs.

      What's certain is that if we don't act, the e-waste will continue to pile up, as we buy more electronic devices and the lifespan of those products grows shorter. If we could see the dumps of Guiyu, we might rethink the purchase of that new iPhone.
      Phones and computers contain dangerous metals like lead, cadmium and mercury, which can contaminate the air and water when those produ... more

      jefftego

      added this

      2 responses

      1 day ago
    • Bisphenol A - starts in plastic, ends up in your body

      all sorts of disorders and diseases caused by the chemicals in our plastics,
      too many to list here.

      We have to do something.

      _______

      this video is the extra interview to a 12 part series of videos about the Northwest Gyre, a.k.a. Eastern Garbage Patch, a.k.a. Garbage Island. It's a shocking and disugsting look at how we've affected the ocean.

      WARNING: you may never want to eat fish again.
      all sorts of disorders and diseases caused by the chemicals in our plastics, too many to list here. We have to do something. ... more

      stephenthomson

      added this

      0 responses

      13 hours ago
    • 7,000 more wind turbines for Great Britain

      "In the next 12 years, 7,000 wind turbines will spring up across the hills and around the coasts of Britain, in a £60bn renewable energy programme outlined by Gordon Brown. They will be the highly visible symbols of what the Prime Minister called "the most drastic change in our energy policy since the advent of nuclear power" – a shift to producing at least a third of UK electricity from carbon-free renewable sources, compared to under 5 per cent today.

      The aim, set out in a consultation document that will lead to a formal new strategy, is to cut down the greenhouse gas emissions from conventional power stations that are causing climate change, reduce Britain's reliance on foreign energy supplies, and meet the demanding climate target agreed by EU leaders last year, of providing 20 per cent of Europe's total energy use from renewable sources by 2020 ..."
      "In the next 12 years, 7,000 wind turbines will spring up across the hills and around the coasts of Britain, in a £60bn renewable ener... more

      googolplexer

      added this

      11 responses

      4 hours ago
    • Blasting the Appalachian Economy

      The Apppalachian people, along with our oldest mountains, are paying the full price for coal. Coal companies are really good at making promises.

      The families and communities of Appalachia have, in fact, been the beneficiary of coal company promises for 150 years, with a lasting peace and prosperity always “just over this next dune,” or in the case of Appalachia…just under our next mountain.

      Over the last 30 years in Appalachian coal country we have seen more than 1 million acres of some of the most bio-diverse forest in the world destroyed, more than 1200 miles of vital American headwater streams buried and polluted by mountaintop removal mining waste, and over 474 mountains blasted to rubble by mountaintop removal coal mining (check out Appalachian Mountaintop Removal in Google Earth ).

      All the while, coal companies have promised up that while there may be some environmental trade-off to mountaintop removal mining – it was SURE to bring great jobs and prosperity to the region. But while many corporate zillionaires from outside the region have profited mightily off of our resources, the Appalachian people have learned that mountaintop removal does the same thing to our economy that it does to our beloved mountains.

      In 1995, Harvard economists Jeffery Sachs and Andrew Warner discovered a clear negative relationship between natural resource-base exports, including agriculture, minerals, and fuels, and GDP growth.

      They dubbed this phenomenon "The Resource Curse."

      Of the 95 countries they investigated, only two achieved a 2% annual GDP growth rate between 1970-1989. A more common occurrence was increased poverty, warfare, and civil strife.

      Electric power generation pulled in more than $380 billion in 2005. More than half of that electricity generation came from coal.

      If we’ve been mining coal for 150 years...why are the people of Appalachia among the poorest in the country?
      The Apppalachian people, along with our oldest mountains, are paying the full price for coal. Coal companies are really good at making... more

      JanforGore

      added this

      9 responses

      1 day ago
    • Ambitious California Emissions Plan Could Boost Economy, Chart National Policy

      Quong also noted that consumers stand to economically benefit. The state estimates that car owners will save about $30 per month if all the plan's car regulations are deemed legal.

      Cutting down emissions could save over 300 lives and up to $2.4 billion dollars, ARB staffer Edie Chang said. The savings would come mostly from decreasing asthma and lost-work days.

      "We believe that this scoping plan is going to be an important milestone, an important framework for other states," said Nichols, the board chair.
      Quong also noted that consumers stand to economically benefit. The state estimates that car owners will save about $30 per month if al... more

      googolplexer

      added this

      0 responses

      4 days ago
    • Living with water scarcity: world must act now

      Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind over the next 50 years. "With earth's water, land and human resources it is possible to produce enough food for the future - but it is probable that today's food production and environmental trends will lead to crises in many parts of the world" says David Molden Deputy Director General of the International Water Management Institute.

      This is the opening prognosis given in the Earthscan publication Water for Food, Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. The Assessment, the first of its kind, brings together the work of over 700 specialists from hundreds of institutes around the world into the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of water and food ever written, critically examining policies and practices of water use and development in the agricultural sector over the last 50 years.

      Spearheaded by International Water Management Institute (IWMI), one of 15 CGIAR agricultural research centres striving to increase food production, increase rural incomes, and safeguard the environment, the report is co-sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), FAO, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the Convention on Biological Diversity in a bid to find solutions to the challenge of balancing the water-food-environment needs.

      The assessment finds that 1/3 of the world's population live in areas where water scarcity must be reckoned with. While much of this water scarcity cannot be avoided, water problems can be averted through better water management.

      Growing cities take more water, and environmental concerns are rising. A water-food-environment dilemma. Water use in agriculture is recognized as one of the major drivers of ecosystem degradation, causing habitat loss, drying up of rivers, and reduction in groundwater levels. Flows in the Colorado River in USA, the Yellow River in China, the Indus in India and Pakistan - all important food producing areas - dry up because of the water needed for irrigated agriculture. Clearly limiting agricultural water use is key for environmental sustainability. Therein lies the dilemma. More people require more water for more food; more water is essential in the fight against poverty; yet we should limit the amount of water taken from ecosystems.

      snip

      Since climate change is expected to hit these areas hard, better water systems will be a key to helping people cope with dry spells. Poverty, hunger, gender inequality, and environmental degradation continue to afflict developing countries not because of technical failings but because of political and institutional failings. There is need for drastic reform in the water sector. Governments must lead the reform process, but ironically state institutions themselves are in greatest need of reform. While water scarcity is here to stay, many of the problems associated with water scarcity can be avoided.

      This will require that we deal with difficult choices and tradeoffs. Reconciling competing demands on water requires informed negotiations by the many stakeholders involved in water with transparent sharing of information. "The hope is in realizing the unexplored potential that lies in better water management along with non-miraculous changes in policy and production techniques" says Margaret Catley Carleson, Chair of the Global Water Partnership, "but world leaders must take action now." As Sunita Narain, 2005 Stockholm Water Prize Winner says, "this issue must become the world's obsession."
      Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind ov... more

      JanforGore

      added this

      15 responses

      1 day ago
    • Pollution to Protest

      China’s rapid economic growth has stunned the world, making it a global power in a short span of years. It has also produced a staggering amount of environmental damage, which the world is also beginning to note. But it has also done something else—spurred ordinary Chinese citizens to start organizing, sometimes in defiance of the government. In the process, they’ve created the beginnings of a civil society that could bring greater freedom overall inside the world’s largest dictatorship. China’s rapid economic growth has stunned the world, making it a global power in a short span of years. It has also produced a stagge... more

      lauraling

      added this

      12 responses

      3 hours ago
    • Global Warming: Global Climate Justice Alliance launched by Kofi Annan

      Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has launched a global alliance for climate justice at the first meeting of the Global Humanitarian Forum.

      The two-day meeting in Geneva aimed to address the "human face of climate change" and to bring together different actors that don't normally work side by side to discuss how best to adapt.

      Some 300 luminaries from the world of politics, business, diplomacy and development took part in the discussions and identified a number of solutions that will be fed into discussions leading up to the critical post-Kyoto climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

      "Climate change is very real and is happening now. We will build a global alliance for climate justice and it must be at the heart of Copenhagen," said Annan at the first high-level meeting of his new humanitarian forum.

      "As an international community, we must recognise that the polluter must pay and not the poor and vulnerable."

      Annan said communities needed to be empowered with the knowledge and tools to deal with the worst effects of climate change.

      "We cannot allow the extra cost of adapting to climate change to be siphoned off from the ongoing poverty challenge. We should act immediately to provide them with additional funding and appropriate technical assistance," he said.
      Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has launched a global alliance for climate justice at the first meeting of the Glob... more

      WorldPeaceTV

      added this

      13 responses

      1 day ago
    • a chairman that would WILLINGLY pay for the pollution his company is responsible f...

      yup

      "Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson told a forum on climate change Tuesday that aviation is a dirty business and that airlines should be willing to pay for the damage they cause to the environment."
      yup ... more

      lfm

      added this

      1 response

      1 day ago
    • EPA proposes allowing coal plants to be built near national parks

      Critics fear the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will adopt a rule in the waning days of the Bush administration that will make it easier to build coal-fired power plants near national parks.

      The proposed change, pending since last June, comes as the utility industry moves into its biggest building boom in coal-fueled power plants in decades. To meet growing electricity needs, more than 20 plants are under construction in 14 states and more than 100 are in various stages of planning.

      Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, vowed in an interview with The Associated Press to push Congress to overrule the EPA if it enacts the rule, perhaps as early as this summer.

      The new rule would change the way states, the EPA and others calculate the impact of a new pollution source, like a coal plant, on a park's maximum pollution load, said John Bunyak of the National Park Service's Air Resources Division in Denver. Instead of weighing peak periods of pollution, the new rule would use annual averages.

      Don Barger, southern regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, compared it to a person sticking one hand in a block of ice and the other in a fire.

      "Your average temperature is just fine, but your hands are not," he said. "You are getting some real impact there."

      As an example, he said air quality in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the country's most-visited national park with more than 9 million visitors a year, recently reached an "orange alert" pollution warning. The park straddles the Tennessee-North Carolina border.

      When that happens, "the park is getting hammered. People in the park are getting hammered. Plants in the park are getting hammered," Barger said. "It doesn't matter where it averages out some other time. You have a family from Ohio on vacation. It is the only time they are going to be there. What views can they see? What air are they breathing?"

      EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn said the rule is part of an EPA program to prevent air quality degradation in national parks and would not change the level of emissions allowed in clean-air areas.

      But in a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, Alexander writes that the National Park Service and the EPA's own regional air quality experts have determined the proposal would result in undercounting of actual pollution sources.

      Alexander wrote that the National Park Service says the rule "provides the lowest possible degree of protection" for 156 so-called Class 1 areas that include the country's most revered national parks and preserves, from Acadia in Maine to Yellowstone in Wyoming.
      Critics fear the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will adopt a rule in the waning days of the Bush administration that will make i... more

      JanforGore

      added this

      29 responses

      1 day ago
    • The world's 10 worst cities

      You may already know about the pollution plight of Linfen, China. But how about the heavy metals Pittsburghers breathe in on a daily basis? Or the incomparable smog Milanesi put up with? PopSci has culled an eye-opening selection of some of the world's most problematic cities. From the painfully high cancer rates in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan to the acid rain destroying La Oroya, Peru, writer Jason Daley will walk you through the lowest of the low; and explain why, despite it all, there's still hope for these places.
      You may already know about the pollution plight of Linfen, China. But how about the heavy metals Pittsburghers breathe in on a daily b... more

      goldenways

      added this

      25 responses

      13 hours ago
    • Chickens On A Diet Reduce Pollution in Watersheds

      By adding an enzyme to chicken feed, scientists can reduce the massive amounts of pollution that comes from chicken waste.

      Julie_Soller

      added this

      2 responses

      3 days ago
1 2 3 4 5 6
...
15
showing 1 - 20 of 297

related topics
Pollution

Contributors (909)
Pollution

JanforGore stephenthomson onechance plusaf jubal stopnoise TouchArt Marilynn_Murray PlatoTacius covelogibbs Yoopernewsman VoyagerFilms twodee Tori ObiaMan Chique futuregen Cosmo_Plavix Pwdrskir googolplexer uroborus8 Relevations CarolynGillis dcsmitty dontipo malathion Humdrum Vierotchka mischabarrett Julie_Soller beedee 96thdayofrage Swiyyah celestialceiling J_Jammer Hawkmang Dmitri_Molotov current89 lfm Neghie shbhanda echoz ohplease JoQ PatrickEdwardMurray Saladin jcwelker crob80227 dco sfgaffer