(http://www.jointhebiggerpicture.co.uk)
Está estabelecido que o Aquecimento Global é um fenómeno induzido pela actividade humana e nesta, sobretudo pela introdução de Carbono e de vários gases com efeito de estufa na atmosfera terrestre. Como indivíduos devemos ter parte activa na redução destas emissões que se impõe cumprir para salvaguardamos o mais possível as condições de habitabilidade do planeta e não comprometermos seriamente a vida dos nossos filhos e das demais gerações no nosso planeta.
Reduzir é pois uma obrigação ética e racional de cada um de nós. Existem formas de calcular quanto Carbono lançamos enquanto indivíduos para a atmosfera, uma delas é aceder ao Carbon Calculator e conhecermos assim a nossa “pegada de Carbono” (“Carbon Footprint”) através da medição da quantidade de recursos naturais que consumimos individualmente e qual o impacto que a nossa existência introduz no meio ambiente. Este impacto é mensurável na quantidade de toneladas de Dióxido de Carbono que emitimos por ano para a atmosfera e o contributo que damos individualmente – cada um de nós – para o Aquecimento Global.
Encorajo-os vivamente a conheceram a vossa “Pegada de Carbono” individual e amanhã, dia 10 de Agosto, entre as 19:55 e as 20:00 reduzirem o mais possível consumo de electricidade da vossa casa, nomeadamente apagando todas as luzes da vossa habitação. Sugiro que passem esta mensagem aos vossos amigos e os encoragem a aderir a esta iniciativa para a qual fui alertado pelo Sá Morais e que terá tido origem em França.
Se gostou deste artigo, adicione-o nas redes de notícias colaborativas:
DoMelhor (Portugal) ou
Chuza (Galiza) ou ainda em
Linkk (Brasil)
Mesmo a propósito! Acabei colocar um post sobre a energia nuclear em Portugal.
E eis a minha “pegada”:
“your personal carbon dioxide emission is 786 kg per year.”
e a vossa?
Vou lá ver, Eurico!
BEIJING China has blamed fraud in project approvals and failure to apply emission control measures for rising pollution, state media reported Monday, as the authorities grapple with the environmental impact of headlong economic growth.
The director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, Zhou Shengxian, said pollution increased in 17 provinces in the six months to June despite a government pledge to cut emissions by 2 percent this year, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
China’s senior environmental official also said a government investigation into pollution control approvals for construction projects worth more than $12.5 million had found violations in almost 40 percent of cases, according to the report.
“It is clear the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection is coming to a head,” Zhou was quoted as saying. “Fraud in project approval was prominent with many projects passing their environmental assessment without fulfilling the necessary criteria.”
The Chinese economy expanded 11.3 percent in the second quarter, its fastest pace in a decade according to official statistics, as factories continued to churn out goods for export and investment surged in fixed assets such as power plants, steel mills, roads, shopping malls and apartment buildings.
Along with fears that the economy may be in danger of overheating, the authorities are clearly worried that widespread pollution poses a threat to long-term prosperity.
Social stability could also be at risk as anger grows over the threat to public health from widespread industrial contamination and accidental discharges of chemicals and fuel.
The authorities are also under pressure to clean up Beijing’s notoriously polluted air before the city plays host at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Zhou said local governments were responsible for controlling emissions and warned that officials failing to protect the environment would “pay the price,” the Xinhua report said.
Environmental experts agree that fraud and failure to enforce the law is a major contributor to rising pollution levels.
“This is definitely a huge problem,” said Wen Bo, China representative for the California-based environmental group, Pacific Environment. “Some of the less economically advanced regions in China have been actively working to attract investment from overseas and other parts of China. But, they don’t have huge advantages except cheap labor and loose environmental standards.”
Sulfur dioxide emissions, mostly from burning coal, increased 5.8 percent in the first six months compared with the same period in 2005, the Xinhua report said.
China, which burns more than two billion metric tons of coal a year to produce about 80 per cent of its electricity, leads the world in emissions of sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain.
Discharges of sulfur dioxide from power plants and industry increased by 27 percent in the five years to 2005 to reach 25.5 million metric tons according to official figures.
Zhou said that in some counties, only 30 percent of projects had been checked for compliance with pollution controls before they were granted construction licenses, Xinhua reported.
And, almost half of the companies, including those that passed environmental appraisals, failed to carry out required emission control measures.
The Chinese authorities have recently announced a flurry of measures aimed at curbing pollution as evidence mounts that growth has come at the cost of widespread environmental degradation.
While more than three decades of expansion has delivered prosperity to hundreds of millions of Chinese, the country now has some of the world’s most polluted air, water and soil.
China has 16 of the world’s 20 cities with the most polluted air, according to the Worldwatch Institute, based in Washington.
Pollution is also compounding the country’s acute water shortage.
According to reports in the official media, 90 percent of waterways that flow through China’s cities and 75 percent of lakes are contaminated.
Waste and emissions from industry and agricultural waste also threaten large tracts of farmland.
On July 18, official media reported that the government planned to spend $175 billion on environmental protection over the next five years.
The State Environmental Protection Administration announced last week that it would set tougher standards for industries that pollute, with regulations drawn up or updated to include up to 1,400 environmental protection criteria.
The environmental watchdog also announced Friday that it would start the country’s biggest environmental research project aimed at fighting water pollution.
The government has set up two committees of experts, some from outside the bureaucracy, to advise policy makers on environmental protection.
Some analysts speculate that China’s environmental agencies, which are normally far less influential than the powerful economic and industrial ministries, have become more assertive as fears mount over the danger from economic overheating.
“Maybe the environmental agencies see this as a particularly good moment to raise these issues,” said Lu Yiyi, an associate fellow with Chatham House, a London-based international affairs institute, in an interview in Beijing.
“I sense that the environmental agencies feel they don’t have enough power and authority.”
Environmental experts believe that in most areas, China has ample laws and regulations to protect the environment compared with the best international standards.
However, these laws are often poorly and erratically enforced. Even when the law is enforced to stop polluting industries and factories, environmental activists complain there are sometimes unintended benefits for those in breach.
They note that in more developed coastal regions of China, factories are sometimes forced to shut down because they fail to meet emission standards.
“They sell their old location to a real estate developer and relocate to a rural area where there is no adequate enforcement of environmental controls,” said Wen of Pacific Environment.
“There they can easily discharge their pollutants without proper treatment.”
A situação ambiental na CHina é catastrófica. A água, o ar, e o ambiente em geral estão contaminados como em mais lado nenhum do planeta, fruto de décadas de ausência total de políticas e leis de protecção e de elevados níveis níveis de laxismo, corrupção e de dedicação total ao “crescimento industrial”.
A factura vai ser paga. Mas não só pela China, mas por todo o mundo…
Sendo que este ano, a China deve ultrapassar os EUA como o maior poluidor do mundo…
NOTTS UFO FILES: COULD TRUTH BE IN THERE?
The Ministry of Defence has given a first glimpse into Notts’ own ‘X-files’ on UFO sightings in the county.
Details revealed under the Freedom of Information Act show the MoD has recorded ten UFO sightings in Notts since 1999.
The most recent, in 2005, featured “two extremely bright, round lights” with a “lozenge-shaped” object nearby. The spotter reported the objects having “the speed of an arrow”.
Other sightings logged by the MoD include one in Nottingham in 2002 which recorded eight objects which “joined into a circle, then separated.”
In the same year, also in Nottingham, three “silver triangular objects” were reported as being seen in a triangle formation.
The log adds: “Was closely followed by a police helicopter.”
Another sighting in Bingham on New Year’s Eve 2001 reported seeing “one… object with lights that were orange, red, blue and white.”
In January 2001, in south Clifton, an object the size of a helicopter, was seen.
The MoD log records: “Red and white stripes/lights, with wings like a Phantom [aircraft]… stationary, then darted about the woods.”
Em relação ao Bili tens aí um belo post, bastante interessante, tendo em conta as ultimas descobertas… Irei colocar um post em breve no Ideias sobre algo relacionado.
Só espero que não dizimem estes animais… Tendo em conta onde estão… Hum… Preocupante?!
Abraço!
PS: Este teu wordpress queixa-se que estou a comentar “too quickly” e depois apaga-me os comentários… Ai! Ai!
Sá:
1. São relatos interessantes de fontes fiáveis… Pertencem evidentemente aos tais 2% que resistem a todas as explicações… Eles andam aí… Só gostava era de saber se alguma vez teremos mesmo um Contacto à escala mundial e completamente inquestionável.
2. A “vantagem” do Congo ser tão subdesenvolvido é que estas criaturas podem ter sobrevivido até aos dias de hoje.. Se o “Desenvolvimento” e a Explosão Demográfica os deixarem em paz poderão ser devidamente estudados e talvez possam prosseguir o seu caminho evolutivo…
3. É um mecanismo de defesa contra os Spammers… Coisa que por aqui tenho muito (quase 51 mil comentários de spam desde que lancei o Quintus!)
Está estabelecido que o Aquecimento Global é um fenómeno induzido pela actividade humana
cof…cof…
essa do “induzido” é esticar um pouco a corda, o mais correcto é “agravado”
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August 31, 2007
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday proposed the idea of basing a nation’s carbon emissions allowance on population size. German commentators on Friday say it’s another step on the path towards isolating the USA.
(…)
The idea of per-capita carbon emission limits comes from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who broached the idea at the G-8 summit in Germany’s Heiligendamm in June. It involves industrialized nations cutting per-capita emissions at the same time that developing nations are allowed to increase theirs.
(…)
The US releases about 20 tons of CO2 per capita each year while Germany emits 11 tons per capita. China, for its part, releases 3.5 tons against a global average of 4.2 tons, according to figures from the German government.
hum… existe sem dúvida um factor “natural” no Aquecimento Global: a actividade solar, os vulcões, etc… Mas a primeira parece ser irrelevante, enquantro que a segunda responde apenas por 5% de todas as emissões… O fenómeno é claramente antropogénico, diz a maioria dos climatologistas, o que contudo não exclui estes ou outros factores naturais, os quais, sem serem predominantes não podem obviamente ser excluídos.