|
|
|
Earth A Live: Focus on environment
Environmental threats to health
The environment, which sustains human life, is also a profound source of ill health for many of the world’s people. In the least developed countries, one in five children do not live to see their fifth birthday — mostly because of avoidable environmental threats to health. That translates into roughly 11 million avoidable childhood deaths each year. Hundreds of millions of others, both children and adults, suffer ill health and disability that undermine their quality of life and hopes for the future. These environmental health threats — arguably the most serious environmental health threats facing the world’s population today — stem mostly from traditional problems long since solved in the wealthier countries, such as a lack of clean water, sanitation, adequate housing, and protection from mosquitoes and other insect and animal disease vectors.
Rainwater harvesting
With many makeshift wells in New Delhi, India, running dry, and many more in danger of following suit, citizens are turning to an old-fashioned solution: rainwater harvesting.
Five pilot projects in the city have successfully tested an inexpensive system for collecting monsoon rainwater and directing it underground to replenish over-tapped aquifers. New Delhi officials have recently started requiring builders to include rain-collection systems on new homes and other buildings. Solutions to the city’s water crisis couldn’t come too soon; New Delhi has 14 million residents and adds another 500,000 every year.
Conservationists estimate that at the current rate of consumption the underground aquifers that provide more than 12 per cent of the city’s water supply could go dry by 2020. Meanwhile, a remote section of northeast India, known as one of the world’s wettest spots, Khasi Hills, is suffering from a serious water shortage blamed on pollution and deforestation.
Pink dolphin born in captivity
He is six months old and has no name yet but the endangered pink dolphin swimming in Singapore’s Underwater World is one of the first of its species to be born in captivity.
While members of its species are called pink dolphins, or Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins, the calf is actually dark grey for now. It will gradually turn pink like his parents, Pann and Jumbo, as it grows up. Born last November, the marine park kept the calf’s existence under wraps until it was old and robust enough to eat fish. The park is now launching a contest to name the calf.
Pink dolphins are found in shallow, coastal waters of the western Pacific and Indian oceans, from southern China and northern Australia to South Africa. They are known in mainland China as Chinese White dolphins or ‘giant pandas at sea’. In the waters around Hong Kong, where they are most commonly sighted, the pink dolphin population is estimated to be less than 1,000.
Environmentalists say that oil spills, toxic dumping, dredging for more development and poorly treated effluent threaten the dolphins’ existence.
Down under water
The folks down under will have a lot to be down about if climate change proceeds as projected. Rising temperatures could trigger a 164 per cent increase in heat-related deaths in Australia by 2050 and an increase of up to 240 per cent in injuries and deaths caused by flooding by 2020, according to a study commissioned by the Australian government. Tropical diseases like malaria and dengue could also spread through the country.
Worse off than the Aussies will be residents of Pacific Island nations, 60,000 to 90,000 of whom could be exposed to flooding each year by the 2050s, up from about 5,000 now. “This research strengthens the case for Australia and other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible,” said the lead author of the report. Australia, like the US, has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Recycling old phones
Cell phone users now have a way to recycle their old phones. About a million mobile phones are tossed out each week in the US as consumers upgrade or switch to different phone service providers, and those old phones leak a bunch of toxic substances, including mercury, lead and arsenic into the environment.
CollectiveGood, a recycling group, has teamed up with Staples, the office-supply chain, to set up bins in all Staples stores in the US, where people can drop off cell phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants for reuse or recycling. About half of the phones are expected to be in good enough shape that they can be refurbished and put back into circulation; many will end up being sold at discounted prices in Latin America. If phones can’t be put to good use, CollectiveGood will recycle them and properly dispose of toxic elements.
The writer works in Communications for IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Pakistan.
|
|
|
|
