Rising Sea Levels and Carbon Dioxide Pollution
Perhaps one of the most concerning things about the predicted course of climate change over the next century is the likelihood of rising sea levels. It is thought that by 2100, the melting glaciers and ice caps could rise the level of oceans all over the world by as much as 3.4m/11 feet.
While this may not sound like a particularly large rise in sea level, consider that the 20mm (about ¾ inch) rise in sea levels that have already been observed in the last 150 years have been already been responsible for the submergence of several South Pacific islands and atolls.
The engine that drives this is the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and the one that has the greatest impact in the early 21st century is carbon dioxide. This is one of the primary by-products of the burning of fossil fuels, which are responsible, in large measure, for the massive increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and the increase in pollution.
How to Gauge Your Pollution Exposure Risk
Pollution is found not only in the natural environment, but also in your own home and work, regardless of where you live or what you do for a living. But how does one gauge their own personal exposure to these pollutants and toxins?
The only way to quantify your exposure to known toxins is to have a wide-spectrum blood test done. This has been done for people who suffer cases of acute exposure as well as by journalists investigating the pervasiveness of chemical exposure. However, these tests are very expensive.
What such tests don’t tell you is how these chemical interact together in your body, since no one actually knows. You can, however, get a general idea of the sources of contamination by taking stock of all the places where you encounter pollution, including:
- air pollution
- water pollution
- soil pollution
- food residues
- bio-accumulated toxins
- fragrances, additives and other chemical additives
- industrial waste
- pharmaceutical drugs
A Worldwide Campaign Against the Light Bulb
The technology that brought nighttime illumination to the whole world, didn’t change much for about a century and, it turns out, that’s a problematic thing. Not only do the filaments burn out quickly, leaving glass and metal that is not recyclable, but they emit far more heat than light, using a great deal of electricity.
With the advent of a long lasting compact fluorescent bulb in the 1990s, it became easy for consumers to change out these bulbs and use anywhere from half to one tenth the amount of power for the same amount of light.
Governments all over the world have seized upon the light bulb as an inherently wasteful technology that needlessly uses vast amounts of electricity – electricity that is emits carbon dioxide and all the other air pollutants that increase dependence upon fossil fuels.
Replacing these bulbs can go a long way in helping nations meet their environmental treaty obligations. They also last longer and produce far less dangerous waste. So next time you buy a light bulb how about buying the long lasting fluorescent bulb to save the environment and save money too!
Is There Such A Thing As Clean Coal?
Coal is widely derided as the least environmentally friendly option for power generation and a cause of air pollution. It has, for several hundred years, been responsible for the generation of large amounts of mercury, soot and other pollutants that are known to cause respiratory ailments.
This is very true for the people who work in coal mines, several thousand of which die from coal-related damage each year.
The term clean coal technology has been very regularly used as a buzz-word in the ‘aughts as a way to utilize a “home grown” energy source. This usually refers to the use of “scrubbers” to cut down on the amount of sulfur dioxide that is emitted.
Though this smog and acid rain producing chemical is removed from the stack output, it is still deposited in the materials that are used to “scrub” it out of the emissions. Regulations are such that this also allows much lower grades of coal to be legally used, with little or no net improvement in emissions.
As far as coal being clean, there is no such thing!
Highly Volatile Chemicals and Their Potential Synergistic Reactions
There are more than 80,000 man-made chemicals on the market, approved for use in North America. Several thousand more are submitted for approval each year.
In nearly every case, regulatory organizations are responsible for testing each of these chemicals, individually, for human toxicity.
Not all chemicals that are approved will even go through this process. However, the truly frightening thing about this process is that not one of these chemicals will be tested for how they react with the other 80,000 existing chemicals. Even when they are designed to be combined with other chemicals, are they tested together.
It is well known that chemistry does not take place in a vacuum. The human body itself has become a hodge-podge of these chemicals, often stored in body tissues and fats because the liver simply doesn’t know how to deal with and eliminate these substances. When each new one is added, this unregulated chemistry experiment begins anew, with consequences that people can only imagine.
