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Focus on environment
Partnering for the planet
Religious institutions around the world are going green and providing a push to the environmental movement, says a new report from the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable World documents how these unconventional alliances are growing in frequency and significance to address issues from deforestation in Thailand to green investing by stockholders in New York.
“This collaboration could change the world,” says author Gary Gardner, Worldwatch Research Director. “These groups have different but complementary strengths. Environmentalists have a strong grounding in science. Religious institutions enjoy moral authority and a grassroots presence that shape the world views and lifestyles of billions of people. It’s a powerful combination that until recently remained virtually unexplored.”
Invoking the Spirit provides examples from around the world where religions are using their influence to promote sustainability. For instance, in Pakistan, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, working with the government of North West Frontier Province, turned to Islamic clerics to help carry out the province’s environmental action plan. Aware that the region had one mosque for every 70 persons, IUCN and the government saw the mosques as potentially even more effective centres of education than the local schools.
Ski resorts battle global warming
The ski resort industry is at risk from global warming as glaciers melt and snowfalls diminish. But the industry has recognized the danger and is taking steps to limit its own emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change. Ski lifts are powered by the wind, energy efficient building techniques are in use, and resort vehicles are running on alternative fuels.
Volcanoes’ impact on climate
By examining volcanic rocks retrieved from deep within the ocean, scientists have found that they can estimate the carbon dioxide stored beneath much of the earth’s surface — a development that could enhance understanding of how volcanoes affect climate. The research by scientists of the University of Florida and others is reported in the journal Nature.
Birds poisoned by metals, pesticides
Colonial birds in Pakistan and China are poisoned by heavy metals, according to a study conducted by the Worldwide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) and its partners.
Using colonial water birds as bio-indicators of environmental contamination and other ecosystem changes, the study was conducted in coastal and inland wetlands, including Haleji Lake, Taunsa Barrage and Karachi Harbour, besides the Poyang Lake, Tai Lake and the Pearl River Delta in China.
The study found that colonial birds’ eggs showed significant variations in concentrations of zinc, cadmium and lead between locations, with the highest levels of zinc and cadmium in the samples from Haleji. The study was funded by the European Union.
The study says there is no information about the levels or the impact of persistent organic pollutants in Pakistani wetlands. Pesticides in Pakistan are applied mostly to cotton fields concentrated in Punjab, Sindh and to a lesser extent in Balochistan. At Haleji Lake, DDT was found in all egg samples. Some birds were probably exposed to high DDT levels while feeding in agricultural areas or paddy fields. The shells of these eggs were thinner than the eggs with low concentrations of DDT.
Rescued whale recovers in hotel pool
Guests at The Islander Resort in Islamorada, Florida, peer over the fence around the hotel’s pool to catch a glimpse of the pygmy sperm whale. A rescued pygmy sperm whale was recovering in a resort hotel’s heated saltwater pool, being treated for dehydration and wounds possibly inflicted by a harpoon.
The 3.3m, 540kg pygmy sperm whale, nicknamed Kokomo, was found stranded on a Florida Keys sandbar recently and taken to protected waters behind the US Coast Guard station on Islamorada, near Key Largo.
Concerned about the cold, caretakers from the Marine Mammal Conservancy later moved the whale to the Islander Resort, which turned its heated saltwater swimming pool over to the animal’s care.
Medical examinations showed Kokomo was suffering from anaemia, severe dehydration and a suspicious wound just behind its blowhole.
While Kokomo is checked in, the saltwater pool is closed to guests, but a freshwater pool is still available.
The whale, monitored constantly, was being given supplemental drinks and distilled water to combat its dehydration, and medicine to settle its stomach and to fight pneumonia and infection. i
The writer works in Communications for IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Pakistan
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