GreenWatch

B. McPherson Indus River water for a parched Pakistan We live on a water rich planet. Most of the Earth is covered in oceans, some water is locked into ice, some hidden deep underground. Only about 2% of the world’s water is available and useable to humanity. As the climate changes, weather patterns also change. Some areas will receive more water than before and others, less. Currently the monsoon rains are refilling reservoirs in SE Asia.  The rains are filling to the brim the second largest dam in India. Located in the Punjab area, the dam is currently holding back 1647.87 feet of water(ref: Times of India ). Authorities are watching the situation carefully as this is the most water held to date. Currently authorities plan to empty the spillways if it reaches 1650 feet. When the monsoons deliver their water to the Indian sub-continent, people scramble to make the most of the bounty. Reservoirs are filled, irrigation is assured and the earth springs up green from ...

From You Tube: Some of the reasons to oppose garbage incineration Press Release: Nanaimo Sierra Club FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, July 29, 2013 No time to waste for formal opposition to Metro Vancouver’s incinerator NANAIMO, B.C. – Nanaimo City Council failed to directly oppose the siting of Metro Vancouver’s planned waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerator within Nanaimo city limits at the special open council meeting of July 22 after hearing appeals from Sierra Club Nanaimo and others to take strong measures to protect our local environment and Nanaimo residents from the toxic devastation such a facility would disperse. “We were dismayed that no direct action was taken despite the fact that seven councillors from Nanaimo sit on the Regional District of Nanaimo board, who had previously passed two resolutions expressing a negative stance toward waste-to-energy incineration within the region,” says Carla Stein, core member of Sierra Club Nanaimo. Instead, city council directed staff to...

B. McPherson  No water no life China’s great leap forward that started in the 1990s has exacted a heavy price on the environment and small farmers. Slack environmental protection laws have allowed the factory owners to dump toxic waste directly into waterways, polluting them in some cases to the point where it is dangerous to touch the water. In addition to widespread pollution of waterways and ground water, industry sucks up vast amounts of water in the manufacturing process. Much of China runs on coal power, a resource in abundance particularly in the north part of the country which also is amongst the driest of the territory. Coal uses about 17% of China’s available water, but much comes from already dry areas. Some of these areas are as dry as the Middle East. Water used for industry becomes unavailable for growing food. While the central government is aware of the looming crisis, many urban dwellers are going about their daily business in blissful ignorance of t...

B. McPherson Fukushima the gift that keeps on giving Tokyo Electric Power Company(TEPCO) executives have finally admitted that radioactive water is leaking into the Pacific Ocean and has likely been doing so since the ill fated Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power station failed so spectacularly in March 2011. TEPCO’s behavior since the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan in 2011 has been of incompetence. It has appeared that the executives of the company were more concerned with profits and saving face than saving the people who were affected by the disaster. The clean up and shut down of the Fukushima complex has been so fraught with bungling that it would be laughable except for the fact that people’s lives have been ruined and many will die as a result of their floundering. Incidents where the cooling system is knocked off line by gnawing rats in the electrical system beggars belief.  That’s just one of the incidents that threatened the world with an...