It's hard to find the truth nowadays. Even in my interactions with friends and family, the line between fact and fiction can get a little blurry. One can only imagine how hard it must be, relatively speaking, to fathom what is really going on at Monsanto.
If you don't know who Monsanto is, do...
This morning Pope Francis released an unprecedented call to action on climate change, in a letter to 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide.
That's right: one the world's most prominent moral voices just cast climate action as a moral imperative. Whether or not you're Catholic, this is huge news, and...
Every September, the clean tech community gathers for Oregon BEST FEST, the Pacific Northwest’s premier clean tech innovation conference. This interactive event convenes a diverse audience of university researchers, entrepreneurs, industry leaders,and more to accelerate solutions to environmental ch...
Plastic is a nuisance after use, especially if there are no guidelines of how to dispose it off. In developed countries there are special containers and in some places you are paid to dispose of your glass and plastic. In Kampala the capital city of Uganda receives about 600 tons of disposed of plastic every day, which ends up in sewage systems and littering the city (National Environment Management Authority) adding to the uncollected garbage which ends in manholes, drainage channels, on the road side and natural water courses. Which is normally dumped during night fall in slum areas, leading to flooding in those areas and the city as most of the water channels running through the city originate from slum areas.
Source: Waqt News
The government once threatened banning packed water if the producers didn’t ensure proper disposal of used bottles by the Minister of Water and Environment in 2009. Coca Cola is the only company that has complied by setting seven plastic waste collection centres in the whole of Uganda. Plastic does not degrade like organic garbage and hence not supporting life in the soil where dumped. Places with plastic are not fit for agricultural production. Polyvinylchloride (PVC) plastic emits gases like carbon monoxide they are found in bottles, drain pipes, sewage pipes e.t.c. furans and dioxin are leading to cancer and respiratory diseases when burnt.
Source: New vision
The problem has been tackled head on by collecting the used and improperly disposed of plastic for recycling through plastic waste management for cash. In 2010 one plant was operational, now we have more than 15 plastic recycling plants in Uganda, most of them in Kampala the centre of the problem. A need for partnership is that most of the plants operate below capacity due to the limited technology like the specialized film washing line missing in most of the plants. Recycling has given employment to youths who collect the used plastic for money i.e. 250 to 1,000 UGX SHS per kg which depends on the type of plastic. Some are organized and supported into community based collectors by Living Earth Uganda a local branch of an international natural resources management nonprofit organization.
Source: Waqt news
Bottles are used as bricks for building, a practice that is being taken up in South America, Africa and Asia. There are many other uses for plastic bottles only limited to someone imagination and inventing capability.
Pope Francis is once again rattling the already frayed nerves of conservative Catholics and just about everyone else.
With his long-awaited and potentially groundbreaking encyclical on the degradation of the environment and poverty expected to be made public as early as this week, and...
Who would have thought that a nineteen year old college dropout would become the world's richest man? Furthermore, who would have guessed that this same man would become the second largest philanthropist in history (only following behind Andrew Carnegie)? Bill Gates has given away over $30 b...
Stabilizing the global climate is one of the most urgent challenges in coming decades. Our warming world affects all people and ecosystems, particularly the poor who already suffer disproportionately from climate-change impacts.
Global Investment for a Resilient Low-Carbon Economy
Major fi...
Meeting this week in the shadow of the Bavarian Alps, the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations sent out strong signals that the world needs to shift away from fossil fuels this century while enhancing finance for those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
These signals ar...
BONN, GERMANY/WASHINGTON, DC (8 June 2015) — On June 7th and 8th, government leaders met at the G7 Summit in Schloss Elmau, Germany. On the topic of climate change, G7 leaders demonstrated their support for a goal to phase out greenhouse gas emissions over the course of this century and reached a se...
Have you ever seen those little blue flakes before in your toothpaste? Those little flakes, and I am not kidding here, have potential to do some SERIOUS damage to our planet's ecosystem...
Studying film at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to watch a documentary call...
Once a year, the United Nations puts a day aside to focus on the oceans and actions that can be taken to preserve it. Every June 8th, World Oceans Day is held and given a theme to drive a given message forward. This year it is Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet with special attention to stoppi...
By Allie Wilkinson
More than 90 species of marine fishes in Europe’s waters are threatened with extinction, according to a report published today by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Sharks, rays, and other cartilaginous fish are at greatest risk, with about 40% f...
Shark fins worth up to $1.5m discovered after raids on nine properties in the port city of Manta
Hundreds of shark fins seized by the police in Manta, Ecuador. Photograph: Ecuador's Attorney General/AP
Police in the Ecuadorian port city of Manta say they have seized about 200,000 shark fins dest...
The rhetoric is there, but issues of oversight appear to be blocking real progress.
By Lotus Yang Ruan
March 16, 2015
In early March, a debate over China’s action (or inaction) on the environment gripped both Chinese and international media. While air pollution and other environmental degradation...
Despite this week’s announcement by a Norwegian parliamentary committee, that Norway's state pension fund - Norwegian Government Pension Fund (GPF) - (the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund), will now be required to divest its significant exposure to the global coal sector and reversing the rejec...
Flying over the North pole on my way back to the states from France made this whole global warming thing hard to understand. As I flew over Greenland, I saw that there was plenty of ice to share: with so much ice, how can there be a crisis? It did not make sense.
Well after doing some digging on ho...
Anyone looking to help with the cleanup efforts of the massive Santa Barbara oil spill, finally has the opportunity to lend a hand.
After being turned away for days, members of the public can now register online for volunteer training sessions to help with the cleanup as long as they...
By Byron Kidd
Cycling to work in Tokyo may do more than just keep you healthy, fit and happy, it also may help you earn a little additional income on the side if our employer isn't smart enough to have a bike to work policy in place.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare 86% of Ja...
Students and environmental organizers protest oil extraction in response to Tuesday’s pipe rupture. Cheryl Sun/Daily Nexus
by Cheryl Sun
Local grassroots climate justice organization, 350 Santa Barbara, hosted a demonstration and press conference at Santa Barbara County Courthouse Thursday to prot...
The oil pipeline rupture at Refugio State Beach may have spilled as much as 105,000 gallons of crude, authorities said. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
By JULIE CART, JACK DOLAN AND DOUG SMITH
Plains Pipeline, the large Texas-based company responsible for the pipe that ruptured in Sa...
