Did you know that bottled water is not just bad for the environment but also for your health? Take a look at this presentation to find out more about why you shouldn’t drink bottled water…

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Tags: healthy living, Save Earth, Stop Wasting, Sustainable Living, Water Conservation, why save water

Developing countries are fast becoming dumping grounds for hazardous waste generated in the developing world. As the environmental laws become more stringent in the developing world and as more and more hazardous waste is being generated, exporting this waste to poorer countries, even at a cost to the exporter is a financially attractive alternative. Much easier and cheaper than setting up environment friendly waste treatment and disposal facilities. And for the countries importing it, it is a hard to resist offer, given their high levels of poverty. Did you know that Guinea Bissau, one of the poorest 20 countries in the world was to be paid $600 million for storing and disposing of imported hazardous waste? At the time of the offer, the amount was twice the country’s foreign debt!! And about four times its Gross National Product. One can see why it is therefore easy to find disposal grounds and convert them into potential disease and death traps for the natives. The high level of corruption in these countries, and little awareness among the local population of environmental and health hazards resulting from improper industrial waste disposal, only serves to facilitate the trend. 

Olurominiyi Ibitayo in his article Transboundary dumping of hazardous waste, talks about this and other factors that promote easy disposal of hazardous waste in the sub-saharan African countries.

The only way out as I see it, is for local community groups to generate more awareness and pressure the authorities into creating and implementing stringent regulations regarding disposal of hazardous waste. And also effect ban on such imports. In 2003, environmental groups in India, along with Greenpeace had succeded in sending toxic waste back to the sender, in this case Unilever. Hindustan Lever had set up a factory in 1983 in India to import all its mercury waste from the US and export products from the plant back to the US. Greenpeace and the local community groups had exposed the dumping of hazardous mercury waste at a local scrapyard. They had then started a very successful campaign to put pressure to send back the toxic waste to its country of origin.

Such efforts can happen and be successful only if the local community is sensitised to the perils of improper toxic waste disposal. As I write this, tonnes of toxic waste material (read old computers, old mobiles and other electronic parts) shipped from the first world may be getting offloaded at some port in India. Several thousand of unsuspecting workers at the scrap-yards will then break open, sort and recycle this e-waste with their hands in an open uncontrolled environment. What can’t be recycled will be burnt in the open, releasing toxic fumes in the air. Or will be dumped in open grounds, quite possibly next to a residential area! India and China are the world’s dumping grounds for electronic waste. As long as there is a lack of political will in enforcing regulations, lack of awareness amongst the scrap-yard workers & the local population and as long as it is financially attractive to the traders, this deadly business will continue to thrive.

Tags: environment conservation, Save Earth, save nature

That our tiger count is rapidly waning is no new news. We have lost more than 39 tigers in the last year out of which 17 have been in the last three months alone. And mind you these are official figures. I recently read an article by Jay Mazoomdaar where he elaborates on how the unprofessional management and lack of knowledge on the part of concerned officials is nulling any tiger conservation efforts.

Jay enumerates an incident where a tiger cub was mistakenly taken to be a man-eater and had it not been for the prudence of the authorities at Corbett in 2005, there would have been killings.  Interesting….

To quote Jay, “Conservation is not about raising a million tigers in ranches but about letting a few thousands to be in the wild, where at the top of the food chain, they protect the ecology of forests, which in turn, ensure our water security.”

Food for thought…?

Tags: environment conservation, Save Earth, save nature, save tiger, Sustainable Living

How beautiful!

Photo credits: diko1967

Sadly, the fragile underwater ecosystems today are threatened by:

• Ocean acidification: which occurs when CO2 released by humans enters sea water. The impact has been studied by scientists studying Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
• Oil spills.
• Pollution - garbage from the cities flowing into the seas, including polythene bags.
• Decreasing levels of O2 in seas, which in turn is causing the formation of  ‘underwater deserts; in tropical oceans. When the oxygen levels are low, nitrogen can-not react with oxygen to form biologically available nitrate - needed by underwater organisms at the base of these fragile ecosystems.
• Reckless fishing.
• Dredging for urban development, fishing.

Tags: environment conservation, Global Warming, Save Earth, Sustainable Living, underwater world

What are lead acid batteries? Am I using them?

These are batteries made up of lead and acid, highly poisonous. You and I use lead-acid batteries in our cars, trucks, bikes, boats and inverters. 

What is the problem with their usage?

Primarily, its not the usage but the disposal that is an issue, and one that can’t be ignored any longer!

• The heavy lead content and corrosivity of lead acid batteries is extremely hazardous for both humans and the environment.
• Most developed countries ban disposal of used lead-acid batteries in solid landfills

Is Recycling the batteries the solution then?

Very very doubtful, considering the fact that:

• Recycling lead acid batteries has led to lead poisoning in workers and their children.
• At the recycling sites, lead finds its way into land and from their into water and crops.
• Lead acid battery recycling sites have air laden with lead - a highly toxic metal.
• Recycling of lead-acid batteries has been moved out of the developed to the developing world. No brownie points for guessing why! An excerpt from a Greenpeace report by Madeleine Cobbing and Simon Divecha reads thus:

“In 1993, Greenpeace researchers followed the toxic battery waste trade to numerous lead-acid battery recycling facilities in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. This research followed similar investigations conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting in Taiwan in 1990, and other researchers in Brazil and Mexico in recent years.

Pieced together, these investigations reveal that industrial countries are not shipping their batteries to environmentally sound recycling operations. In fact, U.S., U.K. and Australian automobile batteries are being burned in extremely dangerous and dirty Third World factories. These secondary lead smelters are discharging acid into waterways, dumping residual wastes outside property gates, and poisoning workers, villagers and their families.

The investigations reveal the “double standards” inherent in all types of toxic waste trade. These double standards are reflected in all of the lead waste recycling processes that can potentially harm people and the environment, including transportation, workplace and ambient air emissions, storage and handling of scrap batteries, and slag disposal.

For example, people working in lead recycling facilities in the U.S. are required to wear full-body protective gear to shield themselves from hazardous fumes and burning liquids. In one facility in the Philippines, Greenpeace witnessed factory workers pulling batteries apart with their bare hands. In Indonesia, villagers reported that lead ash from the factory falls in their food at night.”

(Read the full article at http://www.things.org/~jym/greenpeace/myth-of-battery-recycling.html)

What can we do at our level?

• Do not throw away spent batteries in garbage dumps. Exchange (and only exchange) for new batteries. Leave the disposal to the experts/concerned authorities.
• Ensure that you service the batteries regularly to imporove their life. Inspect them periodically to check for acid leaks.
• Buy batteries that last long. Its a small difference in terms of price while buying but weighed against the benefit to the environment, it makes a whole lot of sense.
• When storing batteries and also when using them with inverters, make sure that they are placed in an acid-resistant rank. Prevent acid running off to the floor or other areas to avoid any contamination. 

The BIG picture - What is the Real solution?

No, it does not lie in any of the above - Not careful disposal, not recycling and not the little things we can do. 

The only real solution lies in moving towards lead free batteries.  As long as the third world offers itself as a cheap recycling base, the industrialised world will not invest in enough research to eliminate lead from batteries. Even though they completely realise the perils themselves. The ngos in third world countries need to get their act together and push their lawmakers to put in place laws that completely ban ‘recycling’ of these killer batteries.

Tags: battery recycling, lead acid batteries, lead poisoning

Did you know that being a vegetarian is not just healthy but also good for the environment? As Albert Einstein said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

Sample this…

• “Growing a pound of corn can take between 100 and 250 gallons of water…But growing the grain to produce a pound of beef can require between 2000 and 8500 gallons.” - Peter H. Gleick
• According to a UN report, 18 percent of global warming emissions come from raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other animals for food. This is nearly 40 percent more than all the cars, trucks, airplanes, and all other forms of transport combined. And is way more than all the homes and offices in the world put together (8 percent).
• “If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.” - Environmental Defense
• Animal farming causes an explosion in CO2 emissions, methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which are the primary causes of global warming.
• Animal farming emits two-thirds of acid rain causing ammonia into the environment.
• Animal farming uses 30% of land on earth and is a prominent cause of shrinking forest cover.

…and more…Jennifer Horsman and Jaime Flowers talk about it in this presentation. I was particularly appalled by the devastating effect on the environment (slide 13 onwards).

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Be a vegetarian, its healthier and eating lower down in the food chain will ensure you have plenty of water and trees to not worry about global warming alarmingly. For those who want to make an effort to Go Vegetarian, this site offers a Starter Kit.

Tags: dont eat animals, environment conservation, healthy eating, Save Earth, vegetarianism