“Forests are worth more dead than alive. Today we commit to change that equation,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
This week, the Indonesia President Yudhoyono pledged to stop giving permits for the destruction of virgin forests for a period of two years. 50 countries attended the conference in Oslo, Norway.
Environmentalists are very happy. Large areas of forests are cleared every year to provide wood for timer and paper industries and also to grow palm oil trees.
REDD Plus (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) is an organisation of a group of countries which agreed to provide funding to slow down deforestation in tree-rich countries like Indonesia. Forests are important in carbon dioxide removal from the air.
US $4 billion have been collected by the USA, Australia, France, Japan, Britain and Norway to save the rainforests. Google volunteered to provide satellite imaging to watch out if the two year agreements to stop cutting down rainforests is adhered to.
eating 1 hamburger = cutting down 6 sq m of forest
eating 4 hamburgers = cutting down the size of a classroom of forest
eating 6 hamburgers = cutting down forest the size of a school stage
eating 37 hamburgers = cutting down forest the size of a school hall?
Global contributors of Green house gas emissions
In Percentage
Deforestation
25%
Livestock farming
18%[51%]
Transport [760 million vehicles]
14%
Industry
43% [35%]
Solution 1: Stop deforestation and start reforestation
To date up to 50% of the world's rainforest is lost
If 30% more is deforested, the remaining forest cannot survive
Deforestation rate is 50 million acres per year
Worldwide deforestation rate is 16 football fields per minute
In the Amazon, deforestation rate is 7 football fields per minute.
"70% of previously forested land in the Amazon rainforest was changed into areas for cattle grazing and growing feed crops" UN report
Deforestation in Australia Of the 100 million hectares of land area that is being deforested:
Animal farming 70 million hectares
growing crops 25 million hectares
occupied by people 2 million hectares
Solution 2: Reduce livestock farming to reduce green house gas emission
UN 2006 Livestock's Long Shadow Report: Livestock industry produces:
18% of Global Greenhouse gas emissions
37% of Global methane (which is 23 times CO2 global warming power)
65% of Global N2O (which is 296 times CO2 global warming power)
"Raising animals generate more greenhouse gases (18%) than all the 760 million cars and trucks in the world combined (14%)" UN FAO Report.
Producing 1 kg of beef generates 36.4 kg of CO2 Producing 1kg of beans generates 0.6 kg of CO2
Meat industry requires lots of refrigeration and transport (energy inefficient process)
Switching to vegetarian diet reduces 1.5 tons of CO2 emissions per year
Tons of manure from livestock farms flow into underground water and into seas causing large areas of Dead Zones.
Conserve the world's food and water resources Food fed to animals:
75 % of world's soy bean
50% of world's corn
36% of world's grains
In 2007, food fed to animals was 760 million tons
in 2007, world hunger figure was 900 million people
The grains fed to livestock would be able to feed 2 billion people!
Water requirements of livestock- UN FAO Report Stockholm International Water Institute states that the agricultural sector (growing of crops and livestock) accounts for 70% of the world's water usage
To produce 1 kg of
Amount of Water Needed [litres]
Maize
900 lt
Rice
3000 lt
Chicken
3900 lt
Pork
4900 lt
Beef
15,500 lt
15,5000 litres of water is sufficient for a man to shower for 6 months!
Solution 3: Support Organic farming
"Practical organic agriculture if practised on the planet's 3.5 billion tillable acres, could seqester nearly 40% of current CO2 emissions.." US Rodal Institute
Solution 4: Green Energy
Solution 5: Practise the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)
More about solutions 4 and 5 on a later blog post.
All of us know blood transport oxygen and carbon dioxide. We also know that red blood cells transport oxygen from lungs to all cells of the body. But do we also know that carbon dioxide is transported by the plasma? The red blood cells are very important in this transport too, but indirectly only.
Watch these two videos and understand the concepts better.
On June 3, I was at Commonwealth Secondary School for the "Just One Earth Environmental Seminar 2009".
The first half of the seminar consisted of presentation by various speakers on importance of maintaining a green environment and sustainability of our resources. the second half of the seminar consisted of visits to various places related to the sustainable energy and waste management. I chose to visit the Poh Ern Shih Buddhist Temple for the excursion.
Mr Derrick Ho from MEWR (Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources) spoke on Sustainable Development Blueprint for Singapore and its Implications for Schools. It can be viewed in detail by clicking this link. Here is a more direct link to a list of actions that individuals can take in support of sustainable development.
You can see the pictures I took below.
Mr Edwin Khew, CEO of IUT Global Pte Ltd, a global environmental waste technology company taking us through how organic wastes are treated in his Tuas Factory, methane gas is collected, and the then the wastes are incinerated into ash and sent to Pulau Semakau for landfill
Sec. One students of Commonwealth Sec. Sch. explain their project on sustainability
Cattails, sedge, reeds, bladderwort growing in clean water from the school's washbasins
Pandanus growing luxuriantly in the marsh garden created with waste water from the school toilets
At the Poh Ern Shih Buddhist Temple,you can meet volunteer Mr Lee Boon Siong. He is very committed to greening the temple. Many of his technologies are applicable to residential buildings too. You may want to read about the temple at the Poh Ern Shih Buddhist Temple website before visiting it yourself.
Cheers
Poh Ern Shih Buddhist Temple, off Pasir Panjang Road, is the "temple of the future". It is designed to harness solar, hydro and wind energy for its energy needs
Mr Lee Boon Siong, a volunteer at Poh Ern Shih Buddhist Temple, explaining how even diffused light in the shade can be directed with a series of mirrors in a tunnel to light up the floor below
Diffused light is captured in the shade of the temple to direct to the lower floors
This skylight channels daylight through a winding tube using internal mirrors to deliver light to the temple interior
The hall is lighted by the sunlight coming from the atrium and ventilated by the mesh-like design of the walls
Solar panels come in this size. Mr Lee experiments with different types of panel. He found the "amorphous panels" to be the best for Singapore's cloudy skies.
Harvesting wind power is not so effective as Singapore is not windy enough.
There are more than 3 types of solar panels being experimented with by Mr Lee. There is much R&D in this field of technology.
Solar power is harvested to heat up water for the temple's use.
Look at the panel. Today 23 KWH has been harvested from the sunlight
Table cum bed cum cupboard at the temple is made of bamboo, a fast growing, sustainable alternative to the usual hard wood used in making furniture
To listen to some songs on the environment by Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil, click on the link below:
I was listening to Bill McKibben recently. He is the author of "End of Nature", a book he wrote in 1989. It seems he was was the first to warn of global warming, 20 years ago!
View the short video below, which is deliberately wordless so that it needs no translation. It has proved very effective in mobilising the communities around the world into taking responsibility for their actions. Now they can go out there and make the necessary impact. They can do something to change the course and momentum of the global warming. Activists like Mr McKibben are calling for changes in attitude, cultures, efficiencies in energy consumption in homes, production lines to becoming central parts of our lives.
He first raised an alarm about global warming in 1989 but, he says, he never dreamed the crisis would come as soon as it has. Even 18 months ago the scientific view was not as bad as it is today. Click on the link below to learn about the movement Mr McKibben and 6 of his friends founded.
An increase of 10C so far has already caused the following:
new diseases in some countries. eg dengue fever in Bangladesh
changes in hydrological cycles arid land experiencing drying out faster and wetter areas, getting inundated with frequent heavy rainfalls and flooding
rivers drying out and bigger and more frequent forest and bush fires
tens of millions of pine forests killed off by pine bark beetles as they did not die in the cold winters as winters are so warm nowadays
80% of sunlight energy falling on polar ice caps is reflected. But no more now. when sunlight is absorbed, it melts the permafrost (permanently frozen ice, ie ice that does not melt in summer). This releases millions of tons of methane which usually lies below the permafrost. Methane is many times more powerful green house gas than carbon dioxide.
For 10,000 years, since the civilisation of man, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has remained at around 275 ppm. In Jan 2008 it has been found to be 350 ppm. Anything above this concentration will not be tolerated. It means the planet is "sick". The symptoms are already seen in Arctic ice melting, rivers drying up etc.
Global warming and cooling are not new to the planet. However, this time it is caused by man and it is happening way too fast. This does not allow the organisms (plants and animal species) to adapt to these changes as it is happening too fast.
The tipping point is - or was - the number '350'. This is the level in the atmosphere of CO2 in parts per million that will cause global warming to go beyond our control. And we are reaching this number... just... about... NOW! This is why McKibben calls 350The Most Important Number in the World
Watch this space around October 24 this year, and look out for events focused on 350 that you can get involved in between now and then - or organise an activity of your own.
To listen to songs on the environment by Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil, click on the link below:
John Doerr is one of Silicon Valley's richest man and a savoy investor. However he is afraid that he may not be able to talk to his 15 year old daughter, Mary, about what his generation has done to the planet. His daughter demands that he and his generation has to clean up the mess their generation has created.
His emotional talk about climate change and how businesses, political will, scientific research and investment are our "last straws" to rescue ourselves from eco-apocalypse.
He lists a number of initiatives that have taken place in line with reducing global warming. Walmart, the biggest US retailer, has reduced 20% electricity consumption in all its old outlets and 30% in its new outlets. Using smart skylight, compact florescent lighting and doors in its refrigerated shelves, are the simple changes that can bring about such reductions in energy consumption.
He talks about people being ignorant of how much CO2 is released when we drive short distances when we should be walking. Legislation should be passed to make clear a mandate for people to be aware and responsible for their own behaviour.
New microbes must be created by genetic engineering where the creature will make and excrete biofuel. More money must be set aside by government and private companies to increase investment in green energy.
Bills must be passed to promote green behaviour. Individuals must stand up and be counted. Green activists must multiply their influence to solve these global problem as we have only one atmosphere.
The sun is the ultimate source of energy that powers all food chains. Sunlight energy is captured by green plants and passed on to the other organisms along the food chains. Without this original (asal) energy there will be no energy to power (sakti) ecosystems.
The painting at top shows how Man and his machines could easily destroy the delicate and beautiful balance of Nature, which we can crush as easily as soap bubbles.
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