300 years of fossil-fueled addiction

Hi,

Condensed history of man's affect on the environment.



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Forests are definitely worth more when alive than when dead

Hi,

“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.



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Lets vote for earth

Hi fellow earthlings,

All of us have a responsibility to preserve the earth's climate. However, most of us are living our lives with scant regard for the issue of climate change. We have a responsibility to keep the earth's climate liveable for ourselves and for the future generations.

The future of the earth's climate depends on ourselves. Watch the videos produced by NUS students in 2009 and learn how empowered you are actually.





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Some solutions to reducing global warming

Solutions to reducing global warming

Did you know?

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.

Cheers

The fastest way to cool the planet is.......

Deforestation-the tragic aftermath

Hi,


Listen to these songs and watch the videos on the impact of man on the environment. Big animals like the Sumatran tiger of which only about 10 are left in the wild will not take long to go extinct. Small animals like frogs and fresh water organisms, and plants big and small are all in danger when their habitats disappear.

These haunting images of the near extinct magnificent fauna and flora are seldom in the radar of our everyday experiences but they are all treasures which we must be taught to treasure and preserve for our future generations. They are not only beautiful, but their demise will decrease the biodiversity of organisms on the planet. They are important in economic crop plant and animal breeding and as sources of new pharmaceutical products.














For more songs on the environment, click on the link below to listen to Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil.

http://asal-sakti.blogspot.com/search/label/Peter%20Garrett



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