Enviromental Awareness

.."We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of it is staggering," said Dr David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the Bas in Cambridge.

"[It is hard] to believe that 500 billion tonnes of ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."..

Full Article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1880566.stm

[Jellah]

You are scaring me paka, but then again I should be afraid. I cant figure out why we ignore environmental issues the way we do, it seems so very short-sighted and down-right stupid.

Jellah

sadly, a question the G8 refuses to acknowledge

[nikki-ann]

it makes me mad that there are people out there who
are littere bugs. they constantly trow their rubbish
out of car windows etc.throw chewing gum on pavements.
when i worked for macdonalds we had to go on a trash
walk. picking up litter. i worked in a driv-thru.
most of sthe young customers didnt care less. i used to
pick their litter up right from in front of them.
and theyd laugh in my face. one day i threw it back
in the car right at them.
i am taking part in the recycling scheme in my area.
every 2 weeks the department stops by and collects
glass,newspapers&mags,tins and charity bags. i wish
they would extend this to plastics and cardboard.

[bosse_s]

I must say that the awareness have become quite high here in Sweden the last 15-20 years or so. There is much less material (packing) used by producers these days since they have to take part of the responsibility by paying a fee to the recyckling system for their packages. The level of recycling is high (paper, dark-white glass, plastic, metal, hard paper, paper, composting if you have a house, etc).

Sometimes the level of recycling might not be the best for the environment I guess: People clean their stuff (hot water) and it gets picked up by different trucks (polution) and garbage standing out in the streets between pick-ups (sort of littering)... in the end the profit for the environment can perhaps be discussed (it is being discussed), but at least it have raisen the overall awareness (I tend to avoid bringing a lot of useless packages home - if I need toothpaste and it comes in a box, I leave the box in the store) which I think is great. We should continue to recycle, but develop the processes upon which it is being done.

We are pretty close to nature still up here. People don't litter that much.

[nikki-ann]

yes bosse, i think you have a good point. the amount of
packaging does annoy me too. i guess the outside of
something does draw the attention of the customer. like
cereals. but im more interested in whats inside to be
more precise. i recently bought toothpaste without the
boxes from a new chemist store. they were on offer.
also the laundry tablets are in enclosed packets and then
they are in a box. i would like to just buy them in a box
only or in their packets.

...And I'll say it again, we Americans are the most wasteful society on Earth.

I don't know why we can't enforce mandatory recycling and other environmental constraints to help save our planet.

I'm reading a National Geographic article on the buildup of nuclear waste in our country.

WHERE WE GONNA' PUT IT ALL? There are millions of tons of this potentially dangerous stuff.

Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose..

Sadly, we have a LOT to lose. The American Indians had it right when they said, "We don't own this land; we are borrowing it from our children".

At this rate, I see a lot of crying children in our future.

[nikki-ann]

the american indians were right. i bought a book on
them for my children.
sweden is a lot cleaner and greener than wales im sad to
say. there wasnt any spec of rubbish on the ground
and that was the same everywhere. i think more should
be done in schools! they should send more leaflets home
on the subject. because i find adults are worse than
their children. its our childrens world next not ours.
frankfully the majority of adults dont care enough,
full stop.
are there cars in the states that are run off gas fuel.
there are a few over here, but not many.

[PaulMc]

I saw a programme on UK television a few weeks ago called "A Land worth Loving" [part of an Open University programme].

It concentrated on a challenge to two families to see just how far they could REDUCE the amount of things they discarded in their household rubbish (ie.dustbin) in a typical week, thereby reducing the amount of waste buried in landfill sites [or at least, that was the 'ideal solution' possible if EVERYBODY did exactly the same as a HABIT .....]

It opened my eyes! The absolute irreducible minimum they were left with (expressed in % terms) was LESS THAN 10% of what they had been tossing in the bin!!

My own particular 'grudge' against attitudes and policies as they are at the moment in the UK focus on the totally irresponsible and frightening long-term pollution effects of the discarding & burying in landfill sites of one particular type of toxic waste which Sweden seems to have dealt with very effectively long ago.
For over 2 years now I've been trying to create some interest in establishing a system based on what I observed in Sweden regarding DRY CELL BATTERIES.

Over 490 MILLION of these were sold in the UK last year ALONE (and subsequently buried in landfill sites). In 25 - 30 years from now, when the casings rot away, our children/grandchildren will have lots of lovely lead, nickel, cadmium, maybe [if they're REALLY lucky - haha] mercury contaminating the soil and their drinking water supplies .....

It should be simple to develop a system such as that which I saw used in Sweden. Used batteries are returned to the Point-Of-Sale when purchasing replacements. By arranging for these to be collected from the shops regularly and disposed of/partially recycled through a specialist commercial enterprise, this problem would appear to be non-existent in Sweden.

WHEN ARE THE REST OF THE WORLD GOING TO LEARN????

[rant - gibber - froth - rage - exit stage left pursued by a bear and carried by four little men in white coats....]

[alqasry]

Originally posted by Jellah
You are scaring me paka, but then again I should be afraid. I cant figure out why we ignore environmental issues the way we do, it seems so very short-sighted and down-right stupid.

Jellah