GreenWatch

B. McPherson An environmental good news story October 2010 the world watched a toxic red sludge engulf a small Hungarian town. The village of Devescer was flooded a with two metre deep wall of burning, toxic mud that escaped from a holding pond, the by product of the aluminum industry. The disaster killed 10 and seriously injured 150 more. It looked as if the town was finished. Houses were ruined and had to be demolished. Farm land was rendered useless for food crops. But that’s not what happened. This is ultimately a good news story. Today Devescer stands an example of resilience and smart thinking. The town has reinvented itself as an environmentally sustainable village. The site of the two metre flood has been cleared of sludge. Farmland was planted with fast growing trees and the forested land with more mature trees have been turned into parkland. The fast growing poplars are both a carbon sink while they are growing and a source of energy for heating when they are...

B. McPherson Air and water pollution threatens China's future. China has taken one small step towards cleaning up their heavily polluted country. They have acknowledged the existence of “Cancer Villages”. Until the recently they have denied that they exist. These villages are in close proximity to industrial operations which until now have had free rein to dump their toxic waste into surface and ground water. The resulting pollution has rendered about 20% of the rivers in China so polluted that they are no longer useful for industrial use. The water that people are forced to use for washing and drinking is also heavy with toxins. In the Cancer Villages as many as 80% of the people are suffering from various cancers. Greenpeace activists in China have been urging the People’s government to take action on the release of toxins into the environment since 1997. They hail the acknowledgement of the problem and a five year plan to eliminate some of the most toxic che...