Posts tagged EPA

Global Warming & Climate Change

I read recently an article that raised more my worries about “Climate Change”& “Global Warming”; it was about the citizens of a small coastal village of “Newtok, Alaska” voting to move their village nine miles inland because melting ice shelves made their present home too risky.

  

Effects of Global Warming

Global Warming is the most threatening factor to our planet and our lives, it is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation.  Most of the temperature increase is “very likely” due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations which trap energy in the atmosphere, bringing intense longer heat waves, greater summer cooling costs, more frequent ozone alerts, more frequent droughts, severe storm and erosion damage, and will counteract the benefits of soil moisture due to the warming climate for agriculture

As the global climate change and continues to warm, The effects of Global Warming will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, likely including an expanse of the subtropical desert regions.  Other likely effects include Arctic Shrinkage and resulting Arctic methane release (release of methane from seas and soils in permafrost regions of the Arctic), shrinkage of the Amazon rainforest, increases in the intensity of extreme weather events, changes in agricultural yields, modifications of trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and changes in the ranges of disease vectors and an invasion of various warm-climate crop pests and pathogens

 

global warming

global warming

The planet we live on has been getting sick.  We can not set aside anymore the depletion of natural resources as our planet has a limited amount.  We can not leave it to the next generations to challenge pollution, depletion of natural resources, global warming; we need to preserve the foundation of a good standard of living in saving clean air, water, fuel sources and soil.  To start, we need to watch what we are throwing away everyday as the household batteries and electronics which often contain dangerous chemicals that may pollute the groundwater which in turn can contaminate our plants/ vegetables and even tap water. The risks to human health are tremendous.  Each time a car, home appliance, or light bulb is purchased, a decision is made that has a small influence on climate change. But many small decisions, done in multitudes of billions of people, the effects become overwhelming.

Humans are challenged to find a set of policies, practices, and standards of behavior that provide long-term economic opportunities and improved quality of life around the.  The involvement of governments around the world will be imperative, to include decisions about the best ways to reduce a country’s carbon emissions and where to invest funds in research on alternative energy source.

But if change can happen, and if we are to reverse the effects of Global warming that are supposed to be irreversible in 10 years from now, it needs to start by and from each one of us.  We need to realize that our daily simple buying decisions affect the whole world.  We need to start caring and be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.  It is up to us, it is up to you and me to start our first steps, and push our governments to intervene in saving the planet.

 

Cheers,

Sahar Andrade

www.saharconsulting.com

www.linkedin.com/in/saharandrade

 

 

Leave a comment »

EPA fails to inform Public about Weed-Killer in drinking water

 

EPA fails to inform Public about Weed-Killer in drinking water

I came across a very disturbing article this morning while reading the “Huffington Post”

EPA failed to let us know “US” the public that a may be hazardous material is added to our drinking water

We are thinking about a thousand innovative ways on how to recycle plastic and how Plastic recycling is affecting our environment so we are not buying or at least diminishing buying bottled water so we will not add to the landfills of waste, and here is EPA “Environmental Protection Agency” and the emphasis is on Protection fails to bring to our attention that a Weed-Killer i.e. chemicals are added to our day to day drinking water.

The Weed-Killing chemical is “Atrazine” and it has been found that records that tracked the amount of the weed-killer Atrazine in about 150 watersheds from 2003 through 2008.

While EPA claims that the amounts used didn’t exceed the federal safety limits. I wonder so why we were not informed about it, so we can make a consciousness choice of using that water or finding other alternatives

Atrazine is an herbicide that does not occur naturally. Pure Atrazine is an odorless, white powder that is not very volatile, reactive, or flammable and that will dissolve in water.

Atrazine is used to kill weeds, primarily on farms, but has also been used on highway and railroad rights-of-way. The EPA now restricts how Atrazine can be used and applied; only trained people are allowed to spray it.  (As per the ATSDR homage: Agency for Toxic Substances & Diseases Registry) this is the link to their website:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/substances/toxsubstance.asp?toxid=59

So again I wonder if the EPA has restricted the use of Atrazine why is it used and has been used in our drinking water for the last 5 years

What alarms me are the Health Effects caused by Atrazine? (Published on the EPA website)

  • Short-term: EPA has found Atrazine to potentially cause the following health effects when people are exposed to it at levels above the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level)  for relatively short periods of time: congestion of heart, lungs and kidneys; low blood pressure; muscle spasms; weight loss; damage to adrenal glands.
  • Long-term: Atrazine has the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: weight loss, cardiovascular damage, retinal and some muscle degeneration; cancer.

http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/contaminants/dw_contamfs/atrazine.html

Atrazine also is a known endocrine disruptor that affects hormones in both humans and animals. It has been also tied to poor sperm quality in humans and hermaphroditic amphibians.  Some scientists are worried about exposing children and pregnant women to the pesticide, as small doses could impact development of their brain and reproductive systems.

I am attaching a link to the summary of a report about the subject prepared by the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) so you can make up my own mind

http://www.nrdc.org/health/atrazine/files/fatrazine.pdf

The advice given is if you are concerned about this, you should install a water filter in your house that such as one that fits on the tap.

Now I have few questions:

  • Will it be safe even if we use the water filter
  • Why we were not as consumers informed about something that affects our lives, our health and our reproduction cycles
  • We are trying to save and protect the animal species or extinguish them like in this case the Amphibians
  • Should we or shouldn’t we use bottled water, but wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of handling the plastic recycling as not to affect our environment

I am really puzzled and worried, your comments are welcome.  For the record the Pesticide has been totally banned in Europe

  

Video Credits go to “Huffington Post”

Sahar Andrade

Guest Blogger at “Eco-Chamber”: www.ecochamber.com

www.saharandrade.com

www.linkedin.com/in/saharandrade

 

Leave a comment »

How does recycling affect the environment in 2 different cities

How does recycling affect the environment in 2 different cities:

 Environment is highly affected by recycling which is becoming more and more a daily part of our lives, if we want to help in cleaning the environment and become a part of the solution rather than being a part of the problem. Solid waste generation has increased from 3.66 to 4.62 pounds/ per person/ per day between 1980 and 2007, but also recycling increased from 10% in 1980 to more than 33% in 2007.  According to the EPA, plastics accounted for 12.1 percent of the 254 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2007 of that, only 6.8 percent was recycled.

Plastic recycling affecting the environment

Plastic recycling affecting the environment

1st City to ban Plastic water bottles:

A couple of weeks ago, the town of Bundanoon, about two hours south of Sydney, Australia, has banned the sale of plastic water bottles.  Merchants are offering alternatives to their population for reusable water bottles, as charging them a small amount to fill their reusable water bottles with purified water, or to offer the reusable bottles at the same price of the disposable ones. Banning the plastic bottles will reduce the fossil fuel energy consumption of petroleum and natural gas, used to manufacture PET (Form of plastic found in water bottles packaging).

styrofoam recycling affecting the environment

styrofoam recycling affecting the environment

 1st city that could have banned using Styrofoam:

While California has shut down the proposition to ban using Styrofoam for fear of loosing more jobs in the state, if this bill would have passed CA would have been the state to ban Styrofoam foam containers The reason that Styrofoam is bad for our environment is made from Expanded Polystyrene which is an end product meaning it can be only be recycled to more Styrofoam, the good news is that a bacteria found in beetles can break down Styrofoam into smaller pieces (Not decompose it).

 Other good news is that the State might have not passed the bill but there are more than 20 cities in CA banned Styrofoam food containers.

 

Next blog will be discussing the future of plastic recycling

Sahar Andrade

www.linkedin.com/in/saharandrade

Twitter:@saharAndrade

www.saharconsulting.com

 

Leave a comment »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.