GreenWatch

B. McPherson Sand mafia are stealing people's homes Who would have thought that sand and gravel was in short supply around the globe? Aggregates are as common as dirt, right? Apparently not so and the UN Environmental Programme is sounding the alarm, saying that the extraction of aggregates at this pace is not sustainable. The extraction is also causing widespread environmental damage. Our modern world relies on the use of sand and gravel in many ways. As much as 59 billion tonnes of the material is mined every year. Sand is the result of millions of years of erosion and wearing away of bedrock. Gravel is just part way in that process. The trade in sand and gravel is a multibillion dollar business, estimated to be in excess of $18 billion each year. Sand mining is usually done as open pit. Sources for sand may be dunes, beaches, dredged from rivers and glacial deposits. The sand may contain valuable minerals that can be sifted out to use in the chemical industry. ...

B. McPherson             Since the Clean Air Act in the US was instituted in 1990 efforts have been made to limit pollutants. Now there is some good news. The American Lung Association(ALA) has announced findings that ozone and particulate matter in the air are the lowest they have been since the group started monitoring in 2000.  The ALA estimates that the measures started in 1990 have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands Americans and added nearly half a year to their life expectancy. There is still work to be done. “The ALA warns that some 127 million Americans – more than 40 percent of the population – still live in areas that it graded with an F for air quality. These people suffer pollution levels that are often too dangerous to breathe, the report says.” Christian Science Monitor California contains some of the country’s most pollution affected cities. Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno and Hanford have air that is ...