Cleaning Up the Environment Could Save 13 Million Lives Annually, Report Shows

Reducing environmental risks worldwide could save 13 million lives every year, according to the World Health Organization’s first country-by-country analysis of the impact environmental factors have on human health.

WHO analyzed health data from 192 countries, factoring in environmental risks related to such things as air and water pollution, agricultural practices, ecosystem changes, UV radiation, noise pollution, climate change, and workplace hazards.
The Worst and the Best Environments for Health
The worst affected countries include poverty-stricken nations such as Angola, Burkina Faso, Mali and Afghanistan. Iceland and Israel have the healthiest environments, according to WHO, followed by Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Britain, and the United States.

In 23 countries worldwide, more than 10 percent of deaths are due to just two environmental risk factors: unsafe water, including poor sanitation and hygiene; and indoor air pollution due to using solid fuels for cooking.
Around the world, children under five are the main victims and make up 74 percent of deaths due to diseases characterized by diarrhea and lower respiratory infections. In some countries, more than one third of the disease burden could be prevented through environmental improvements.
Environmental Risks Affect Health in All Countries
Low income countries suffer the most from environmental health factors, losing about 20 times more healthy years of life per person every year than high income countries, but the data also show that no country is immune from the environmental impact on health.
Even in countries with better environmental conditions, almost one sixth of the disease burden could be prevented, and efficient environmental interventions could significantly reduce conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease to road traffic injuries. For example, the data show that 398,000 deaths in the United States each year could be prevented if environmental risks were reduced, and making a healthier environment a priority could save 1.8 million lives annually in 53 countries around Europe.
"These country estimates are a first step towards assisting national decision-makers in the sectors of health and environment to set priorities for preventive action," said Susanne Weber-Mosdorf, WHO Assistant Director-General for Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments. She said that by quantifying the burden of disease from unhealthy environments, WHO hoped to help countries develop “appropriate interventions.”
Reducing Environmental Risks to Improve Health and Save Lives
Interventions at the community or national level might include promoting household water treatment and safe storage, reducing air pollution, and introducing energy policies that favor development and health.
The WHO analysis also includes information that can help individuals and families take direct action, with household interventions that could dramatically reduce environmental risks and lower the death rate. The data show that using better cooking devices and cleaner fuels, such as gas or electricity; improving ventilation; and keeping children away from smoke could greatly lower the risk of respiratory infections and other diseases among women and children.

Tropical Rainforests: Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that rainforests contain perhaps thousands of plants and herbs with medicinal properties?
—E. Wolfson, Brooklyn, NY
Tropical rainforests, which account for only seven percent of the world’s total land mass, harbor as much as half of all known varieties of plants. Experts say that just a four-square-mile area of rainforest may contain as many as 1,500 different types of flowering plants and 750 species of trees, all which have evolved specialized survival mechanisms over the millennia that mankind is just starting to learn how to appropriate for its own purposes.

9/11 Terrorist Attack Left Rescue Workers with Chronic Health Problems

The largest health study ever conducted of rescue and recovery workers who were at ground zero following the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center shows that the effects on the workers’ health are widespread, persistent and, in many cases, chronic and unlikely to improve.
Study Finds Serious Health Problems Among 9/11 Rescue Workers
According to the study, released in September 2006 by doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center and published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 70 percent of the 9,500 workers tested at Mount Sinai between 2002 and 2004 said they had respiratory problems that either began or grew significantly worse during or after the time they spent working at ground zero. The study did not address cases of cancer reported by rescue and recovery workers since 9/11.

Common Household Chemicals Linked to Cancer

Fluorinated polymers may not be a household name, but they show up in a lot of household products—from microwave popcorn bags and fast-food wrappers to stain-free carpets and windshield washer fluid. Unfortunately, they are also showing up in the blood of animals and human beings all over the world after degrading to become a group of toxic chemicals called perfluorocarboxylates (PFCAs).

Beach Erosion: Can We Stop Beach Erosion from Destroying Our Coastlines?

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve noticed a lot of beach erosion along the eastern U.S. coast. Beaches are virtually non-existent in places. Is this a usual cycle that will self-correct, or are these beaches permanently gone from sea level rise or other environmental causes? – Jan Jesse, Morristown, TN
Unfortunately for beach lovers and owners of high-priced beach-front homes, coastal erosion in any form is usually a one-way trip. Man-made techniques such as beach nourishment—whereby sand is dredged from offshore sources and deposited along otherwise vanishing beaches—may slow the process, but nothing short of global cooling or some other major geomorphic change will stop it altogether.
Beach Erosion Not Simply “Shifting Sands”
According to Stephen Leatherman (“Dr. Beach”) of the National Healthy Beaches Campaign, beach erosion is defined by the actual removal of sand from a beach to deeper water offshore or alongshore into inlets, tidal shoals and bays. Such erosion can result from any number of factors, including the simple inundation of the land by rising sea levels resulting from the melting of the polar ice caps.

Climate Change Creating More Refugees than War

The number of refugees worldwide grew from 9.9 million in 2007 to 11.4 million in 2008, according to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which identified climate change as one of the leading causes of the global rise in refugees, along with conflict and escalating food prices.
Climate Change Displaces More People Than War
According to the International Red Cross, climate change disasters are now a bigger cause of population displacement than war and persecution.
The global impact of the environment on human livelihoods is creating a new kind of casualty: environmental refugees. Rising sea levels, increasing desertification, weather-induced flooding, and more frequent natural disasters have become a major cause of population displacement in several parts of the world—a trend that is very likely to continue.

European Union Tells US Airlines to Go Green or Get Lost

U.S. airlines must start paying for carbon credits to offset their carbon dioxide emissions or face restrictions, or a possible ban, on flights to the European Union, according to EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot. The United States and the EU will begin negotiating the second phase of their “open skies” agreement in May 2008, and Barrot said negotiations will include a demand that U.S. airlines join the EU emissions trading system or set up something equivalent in the United States.
EU Demands Full Airline Participation in Carbon Trading Program
EU airlines must join the carbon emissions trading scheme in 2012, and the EU is requiring all other airlines that fly in and out of its member countries to subscribe, but the United States has refused to let U.S. airlines participate. The U.S. is not alone in its opposition. According to the International Air Transport Association, 170 countries oppose EU efforts to force airlines to join the carbon trading scheme.

Controlling Global Warming is Cost-Effective and Within Reach

The cost of controlling greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and avoiding the most serious effects of global warming is affordable and would be partially offset by economic gains and other benefits, according to a group of the world’s leading climate scientists.
In Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change [pdf]—the third in a series of reports on global warming issued in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—scientists outline strategies that could reduce global warming over the next few decades at increased costs of $20-$100 for each ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Despite those anticipated costs, however, the consensus of scientists who worked on the report is that nations have no choice but to take immediate action.
“If we continue doing what we are doing now, we are in deep trouble,” said Ogunlade Davidson, co-chair of the working group that produced the report.

Solar Water Heaters: What are the Benefits?

Dear EarthTalk: I heard that using a solar powered water heater in my home would reduce my CO2 emissions significantly. Is this true? And what are the costs?
-- Anthony Gerst, Wapello, IA
Conventional Water Heaters Use Energy
According to mechanical engineers at the University of Wisconsin’s Solar Energy Laboratory, an average four-person household with an electric water heater needs about 6,400 kilowatt hours of electricity per year to heat their water. Assuming the electricity is generated by a typical power plant with an efficiency of around 30 percent, it means that the average electric water heater is responsible for about eight tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, which is almost double that emitted by a typical modern automobile.
The same family of four using either a natural gas or oil-fired water heater will contribute about two tons of CO2 emissions annually in heating their water.

Living Green and Doing Good

As the name implies, Green for Good offers consumers an opportunity to live “green” and do good at the same time. Green for Good, based in Edmonds, Washington, provides an easy-to-access online marketplace for hundreds of organic and natural products. The company also donates at least 10 percent of its after-tax profits to ecologically friendly organizations.
Living Green
According to David Kaufer, Green for Good president and CEO, the Green for Good site features everything a consumer needs to live a "green" lifestyle, including organic food, clothing, cosmetics and beauty products, plus organic cotton beds, pet products, housewares, and much more.
"This is an ideal site for people to purchase practical items and do a lot of green window shopping and see unique products," Kaufer says. "We've thoroughly enjoyed selecting these products because it helped us realize how diverse the marketplace has become and how many choices customers now have."

Top 10 Things You Can Do to Reduce Global Warming

Burning fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal, oil and gasoline raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect and global warming. You can help to reduce the demand for fossil fuels, which in turn reduces global warming, by using energy more wisely. Here are 10 simple actions you can take to help reduce global warming.

1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Do your part to reduce waste by choosing reusable products instead of disposables. Buying products with minimal packaging (including the economy size when that makes sense for you) will help to reduce waste. And whenever you can, recycle paper, plastic, newspaper, glass and aluminum cans. If there isn't a recycling program at your workplace, school, or in your community, ask about starting one. By recycling half of your household waste, you can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

Environmental Protection is Essential to Long-Term Economic Growth, New UNEP Chief Says

On his first day in office, the new head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called on all nations to put the environment at the heart of their economic policies.

"Care for the environment is often portrayed as detrimental to economic growth," said Achim Steiner, the 45 year-old former Director General of IUCN-the World Conservation Union and new executive director of the UNEP, in a telephone interview with Reuters from UNEP headquarters in Nairobi. "We hope to lay that myth to rest in the 21st century.”

Do the Benefits of Recycling Outweigh the Costs?

Dear EarthTalk: Some people argue that recycling uses more energy than it saves, and thus it is not worth the effort. Is this true? – Tigger Fox, Millinocket, Maine
Controversy over the benefits of recycling bubbled up in 1996 when columnist John Tierney posited in a New York Times Magazine article that “recycling is garbage.”
“Mandatory recycling programs,” he wrote, “…offer mainly short-term benefits to a few groups -- politicians, public relations consultants, environmental organizations and waste handling corporations -- while diverting money from genuine social and environmental problems. Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America…”

Amazon Rainforest: Half of Remaining Rainforest Could Soon Disappear

Dear EarthTalk: It seems like the Amazon rainforest is not in the news nearly as much as it used to be. Have the environmental problems there been resolved? – Justin Tucker, Oakland, CA
Just because the Amazon is not in the headlines today as much as when the media first covered its widespread destruction in the 1980s does not mean that environmental problems there have been solved. In fact, the non-profit Rainforest Action Network (RAN) estimates that more than 20 percent of the original rainforest is already gone and that, without stricter environmental laws and more sustainable development practices, as much as half of what remains could disappear within a few decades.

Sugar Produces Bitter Results for the Environment

Dear EarthTalk: What is the environmental impact of sugar, aside from its not-so-healthy aspects? I’ve heard that the industry is no friend to the outdoor environment. – Mary Oakes, via e-mail
Sugar is present in products we consume every day, yet we rarely give a second thought to how and where it is produced and what toll it may take on the environment.
Sugar Production Damages the Environment
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), roughly 145 million tons of sugars are produced in 121 countries each year. And sugar production does indeed take its toll on surrounding soil, water and air, especially in threatened tropical ecosystems near the equator.

EPA Poised to Regulate Nuclear Waste Disposal for a Million Years

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to issue a regulation that will govern the disposal of power plant nuclear waste in the United States for the next 1 million years.
A million years is pretty far beyond the usual scope of EPA regulations.
"This will be the only rule that applies for such a long duration into the future," said Elizabeth Cotsworth, the EPA director of radiation and indoor air, in an interview with National Public Radio. "Most EPA rules apply for the foreseeable future -- five or six generations. This rule is for basically 25,000 generations."
Why is the EPA Issuing a Regulation for 1 Million Years?
The march toward a million-year regulation for nuclear waste disposal began in 2002, after Congress and President Bush approved plans to store power plant nuclear waste material at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. With that decision, the EPA was charged with setting building codes and other regulations for the repository that would cover the next 10,000 years.

Chernobyl Nuclear Accident

Date and Time of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident:

The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred on Saturday, April 26, 1986, at 1:23:58 a.m. local time.

Location of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station:

The V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station was located in Ukraine, near the town of Pripyat, which had been built to house power station employees and their families. The power station was in a wooded, marshy area near the Ukraine-Belarus border, approximately 18 kilometers northwest of the city of Chernobyl and 100 km north of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

Top 10 Environmental News Sources

Even when you work at it, staying informed can be a chore. To make things easier, I have pulled together my choices for the best online sources for environmental news. All of the resources listed here are either free, or provide a significant amount of free information. There are other excellent resources I could have included, and some I didn’t list because they charge for content, but reading a few of these sites regularly will keep you up to date.

1. Grist Magazine

Billing itself as a “beacon in the smog,” Grist combines humor and solid journalism to deliver some of the hippest and most entertaining environmental news coverage on the Web. Saving the planet is serious business, but it doesn’t have to be dull. As the magazine says on its website, “Grist: it's gloom and doom with a sense of humor. So laugh now – or the planet gets it.”

How is Wildlife Affected by Global Warming?

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve seen those images of polar bears stranded on small islands of ice and heard that some are now dying by drowning. How are other wildlife populations affected by global warming?
-- Jessie Walters, via e-mail


Most researchers agree that even small changes in temperature are enough to send hundreds if not thousands of already struggling species into extinction unless we can stem the tide of global warming. And time may be of the essence: A 2003 study published in the journal Nature concluded that 80 percent of some 1,500 wildlife species sampled are already showing signs of stress from climate change.
How Global Warming Affects Wildlife
The key impact of global warming on wildlife is habitat displacement, whereby ecosystems that animals have spent millions of years adapting to shift quickly. Ice giving way to water in polar bear habitat is just one example of this.
Another, according to The Washington Post, is the possibility that warmer spring temperatures could dry up critical breeding habitat for waterfowl in the prairie pothole region, a stretch of land between northern Iowa and central Alberta.

Global Warming is Unstoppable and Humans are to Blame

On Friday, February 2, 2007, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—the leading international group of climate scientists—published a 20-page summary of a much longer scientific report, The Physical Basis of Climate Change [pdf], which confirms global warming is now “unequivocal” and states with more than 90 percent certainty that human activity “very likely” has been the primary cause of rising temperatures worldwide since 1950.
The report summary also says that global warming is likely to continue for centuries, and that it is already too late to stop some of the serious consequences it will bring—even if mankind could somehow hold the line on greenhouse gas emissions worldwide starting today.
Despite those grim conclusions, however, the report does say that there is still time to slow global warming and to lessen many of its most severe consequences if we act quickly. At the same time, the IPCC report avoids prescribing specific strategies, leaving that to policymakers worldwide, the audience for which the report summary was prepared.
This article answers some of the most common questions about the IPCC report and its predictions for the future of our planet.

How Does Carbon Sequestration Help Reduce Global Warming?

Dear EarthTalk: I recently heard the term “carbon sequestration” in relation to climate change. What is it and how can it help stave off global warming?
— Bob Whelan, Pawtucket, RI
Carbon sequestration is simply the intake and storage of the element carbon. The most common example in nature is during the photosynthesis process of trees and plants, which store carbon as they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) during growth. Because they soak up the carbon that would otherwise rise up and trap heat in the atmosphere, trees and plants are important players in efforts to stave off global warming.
Trees and Plants Absorb Carbon Dioxide and Produce Oxygen
Environmentalists cite this natural form of carbon sequestration as a key reason to preserve the world’s forests and other undeveloped lands where vegetation is abundant. And forests don’t just absorb and store large quantities of carbon; they also produce large quantities of oxygen as a byproduct, leading people to refer to them as the “lungs of the earth.”

Americans Would Support Higher Gas Tax to Reduce Global Warming

Americans are generally opposed to raising the federal tax on gasoline, but a majority would support a gasoline tax increase if they knew the money would be used to reduce global warming or to lessen United States dependence on foreign oil, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted in late February 2006.
The Pros and Cons of Raising the Federal Gasoline Tax
Advocates of a higher gasoline tax tend to argue that raising the tax will cause people to drive less, reduce gasoline consumption, and provide more money for transportation priorities. People who oppose a gasoline tax increase generally argue that taxes are too high already and should be reduced, or that a higher tax on gasoline would fall hardest on those who can least afford it.

Environment High in Personal Values, Low in Political Priorities for U.S. Voters

Almost everybody claims to care about the environment, but when it comes to voting not many Americans actually do anything about it.
A 2005 survey of 800 registered U.S. voters, commissioned by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University, found that 79 percent favor “stronger national standards to protect our land, air and water, with 40 percent strongly favoring them. But only 22 percent allowed their environmental concerns to significantly influence their choice of candidates in federal, state and local elections.
Environmentalists Don't Always Vote Green
Even among people who described themselves as environmentalists, only 39 percent were able to recall an election in which a candidate’s environmental position ranked among the top two or three reasons for the way the cast their vote.
“There is a clear disconnect here,” said William K. Reilly, former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and chair of the advisory board of the Nicholas Institute. “Seventy-four percent of Republicans and 85 percent of Democrats say they support stronger environmental standards. Yet, when it comes time to vote, they rank the environment low on their list of priorities.”

Toxic Cloud Rises Over London as Fuel Fire Rages

A fire at a fuel depot in Hertfordshire caused a series of explosions that sent a cloud of toxic smoke into the air over London, raising concerns about public health. Officials said the fire at the Buncefield fuel depot, a 100-acre facility and the fifth largest storage facility in the U.K., is the worst industrial fire in Europe since 1945.

China Toxic Chemical Spill Flowing Toward Russia

Nearly a month after an explosion at a chemical plant in northeastern China killed five people and spilled 100 tons of cancer-causing benzene into the Songhua River, the damaging effects of the accident continue to spread.
_{Photo courtesy of Daniel T. Yara}

The 10 Worst Oil Spills in History

There are many ways to measure the severity of oil spills—from the volume spilled to the extent of environmental damage to the cost of clean-up and recovery. The following list describes the worst oil spills in history, judged by the amount of oil released into the environment.

By volume, the Exxon Valdez oil spill ranks around 35th, but it is considered an environmental disaster because the oil spill occurred in the pristine environment of Alaska's Prince William Sound and the oil fouled 1,100 miles of coastline. It's still not known where the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will end up placing on this list.

Why is Lightning Dangerous?

Question: Why is Lightning Dangerous?

Worldwide, 16 million lightning storms occur every year—2,000 of those storms are happening simultaneously at any given moment—and it's more than just a spectacular natural light show.

Every year, lightning kills roughly 10,000 people around the world (about 90 in the United States) and injures about 100,000 (approximately 400 in the U.S.).

Answer: Lightning is the world's most underrated weather hazard. It's also the most unpredictable.

When it comes to lethal weather, lightning is hard to beat. On average only floods kill more people than lightning. In the United States (and most other places), lightning routinely kills more people every year than tornadoes or hurricanes. Other weather hazards, such as hailstorms and windstorms, aren't even in the running.

One reason lightning is so dangerous is that it's hard to know just when and where it is likely to strike—or how it will behave when it does.

10 Things You Need to Know About the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico became front-page news as soon as the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and starting the worst man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Yet, there are a number of things about the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that have been overlooked or underreported by the media—things you need to know.

Hurricanes Plus Oil Spill Could Increase Environmental Damage in Gulf

Hurricane season begins today, and the experts are predicting a high number of storms between now and November 30. Officially, the Climate Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expects an "active to extremely active" hurricane season in 2010.

According to NOAA, there is a 70 percent probability that the six-month hurricane season

Acid Rain

What is Acid Rain?

Acid rain is a result of air pollution. When any type of fuel is burnt, lots of different chemicals are produced. The smoke that comes from a fire or the fumes that come out of a car exhaust don't just contain the sooty grey particles that you can see - they also contains lots of invisible gases that can be even more harmful to our environment.
Power stations, factories and cars all burn fuels and therefore they all produce polluting gases. Some of these gases (especially nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide) react with the tiny droplets of water in clouds to form sulphuric and nitric acids. The rain from these clouds then falls as very weak acid - which is why it is known as "acid rain".

How Are Tsunamis Detected?

To help identify and predict the size of a tsunami, scientists can look at the size and type of the underwater earthquake that precedes it. That is often the first information they receive, because seismic waves travel faster than tsunamis. 

This information is not always helpful, however, because a tsunami can arrive within minutes after the earthquake that triggered it.

Climate change needs to be discussed in 'meaningful' way: India

THIMPHU: With climate change being the central theme of the SAARC summit, India hoped the eight-nation bloc would hold the dialogue on the issue in a "meaningful manner" and backed its "fresh" position on global warming to be adopted at the Cancun meet later this year.

India supports "a fresh SAARC position on Climate Change for COP (Conference of Parties) 16 in accordance with the UNFCCC principles and Bali Action Plan," External affairs minister S M Krishna said, addressing the SAARC Council of Ministers.