|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
|
 Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:59 am Post subject: |
 |
|
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/06/27/2003366996
| Quote: |
Blue-green algae has emerged on another of China's large inland lakes, threatening water supplies for millions of local farmers, an official said yesterday.
"The Dianchi Lake now looks like green paint," said a press officer with the government bureau in charge of the lake who would only give his surname, Zhao.
The massive freshwater lake lies near Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province.
Zhao said the outbreak began last month and was thought to be caused by hot weather. However, he also said the lake has been badly polluted by industries and sewage discharge in recent years.
He said Dianchi is among the country's most polluted lakes and is similar in quality to Lake Tai, which last month also suffered an algae bloom that forced 5 million residents of the eastern city of Wuxi to drink and bathe with bottled water. |
| Quote: |
The paper also quoted another resident, surnamed Li, who said the algae was deadly to aquatic life and very corrosive.
"Where there is algae, there is no fish or shrimp. Ship paint also peels off because of the algae," Li said.
Residents of Kunming mainly rely on a separate Zhangjiuhe reservoir for their drinking water, but Zhao said that factories and millions of farmers still use Dianchi's water for industrial use and for watering crops. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Vanica
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 368
Location: North Carolina
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I read about a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where the water has no oxygen anymore. It floats around, and for right now, the fishermen enjoy catching the fishes avoiding it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
guruengerish
Joined: 28 Mar 2004
Posts: 424
Location: Australia
|
| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:26 pm Post subject: pollution |
|
|
"Where there is algae, there is no fish or shrimp. Ship paint also peels off because of the algae," Li said.
This should be bottled and used as paint stripper 
In regard to Jakarta's pollution, it is supposed to be the world's 3rd most polluted city. When you see the smoke from the buses, you wouldn't be surprised. Recently, outdoor smoking was banned 'to reduce pollution' Ha!
One European country, I think Switzerland, funds a program for Jakartan kids, to help keep their lead levels below the danger point. There had been talk of converting all taxis and buses to LPG, but that's all it was - talk.
Lead-free petrol/gasoline has been discussed; I wonder if leaded petrol was ever phased out? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
william wallace
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 2869
Location: in between
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| The house is afire and the occupants are wondering how they should go about putting it out, and trying to find a schedule that works for everyone, so that they can meet and discuss how bad the situation is,and how to lower the fire damage. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| As gloomy as China's pollution picture looks today, it is set to get significantly worse... |
 
| Quote: |
But just as the speed and scale of China's rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.
Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China's leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country's 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics.
|
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/25/asia/26china.php |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MrMrLuckyKhan
Joined: 08 Feb 2008
Posts: 282
Location: Kingdom of Cambodia
|
| Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Vanica wrote: |
| I read about a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where the water has no oxygen anymore. It floats around, and for right now, the fishermen enjoy catching the fishes avoiding it. |
LoL, so the water is just "H2", not "H2O"?? JK!!!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:02 pm Post subject: |
|
|
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7266364.stm
| Quote: |
Pollution turns Chinese river red
Water supplies to about 200,000 people in central China have been contaminated by pollution, which has turned branches of a major river system red.
At least three tributaries of the Han river - a branch of the Yangtze - have been affected.
State media reported high levels of chemicals in the water.
China is increasingly concerned about its environment. A recent ban on plastic bags has led to the country's largest bag factory shutting down.
The Xinglong, Tianguan and Dongjing rivers were all affected by the pollution, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
A chemical spill is thought be the cause, but the source has not yet been identified and an investigation has been launched.
Gao Qijin, a water company official in Xinguo, Jianli County, told Xinhua that the water in the Dongjing river had become red with large amounts of bubbles.
Mr Gao said the company had detected the pollution on Sunday and immediately stopped drawing water from the river.
Gates closed
About 60,000 people in Xinguo have been left without running water as a result of the incident.
They are reportedly relying on bottled water and limited underground supplies.
Xinhua reported that five schools were closed and others were unable to provide food for their students.
Zheng Jiarong, vice mayor of Qianjiang city, said water companies in five towns had been ordered to stop drawing supplies from the rivers.
Local officials have closed a gate connecting the Han river to the tributaries, and are using water from a nearby lake to flush out the pollution.
Official attempts
China has faced problems in the past with careless or dangerous use of chemicals for industry or agriculture.
Last week a farmer in south-western Yunnan province was arrested for destroying a nearby fish farm after he spread phosphors over his fields thinking it could be a fertiliser.
On Tuesday, China's largest producer of plastic bags announced that it had been forced to close, and lay off up to 20,000 staff.
Huaqiang factory in Henan province previously produced 250,000 tonnes of plastic bags worth 2.2bn yuan ($305m;�153m) every year.
A management official told Xinhua that the company had no choice but to close, as 90% of its product were on a list of banned products drawn up by the government in a bid to rein in waste and pollution. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Vanica
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 368
Location: North Carolina
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:39 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| MrMrLuckyKhan wrote: |
| Vanica wrote: |
| I read about a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where the water has no oxygen anymore. It floats around, and for right now, the fishermen enjoy catching the fishes avoiding it. |
LoL, so the water is just "H2", not "H2O"?? JK!!! |
Dissolved oxygen. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
|
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20080415/news_20080415_56_482752.htm
| Quote: |
Fears drinking water could be polluted
2008-04-15 HKT 16:47
An algae bloom linked to pollution has reappeared in China's third-biggest lake, prompting renewed fears about the drinking water supplies for millions of people. The People's Daily says Tai lake, in Jiangsu Province, has seen the re-emergence of a growth that forced the authorities to cut off drinking water to the city of Wuxi last year. The lake, which has been celebrated through Chinese history as one of the country's most beautiful bodies of water, has been massively polluted by the dumping of sewage and industrial and agricultural waste.
|
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/news/2008-04/15/content_14957505.htm
| Quote: |
Pollutant algae returns to Lake Tai
Blue-green algae in Lake Tai (file photo)
A year after an outbreak of blue-green algae in Jiangsu Province's Lake Tai caused a drinking water crisis in the nearby city of Wuxi, the pollutant algae has returned even earlier than last year, threatening a new natural disaster, warned Lin Zexin, vice director of the Lake Tai Basin Administration, on Monday.
In past years blue-green algae would appear in Lake Tai in July or August but last year it was detected at the end of May.
This year the algae season has arrived even earlier. By the beginning of April, Lin's office had already detected blue-green algae spreading across large areas in the west and south of the lake.
He said the high density of nitrogen and phosphorus in the lake, favorable temperatures and slow moving currents had triggered the growth of the algae.
Lin said Lake Tai would almost certainly be hit by another massive outbreak of blue-green algae this year, adding that his office is closely monitoring the ecological condition of the lake.
In an attempt to defeat the algae, water from the Yangtze River has been diverted to Lake Tai in order to raise the water level and speed up currents. A total of 1.19 billion cubic-meters of water will be diverted to the lake this year.
A protracted battle
Lin said Lake Tai is suffering from eutrophication (an increase in chemical nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous), creating a perfect environment for the algae to flourish. He warned the ecological consequences may last another three to five years, or even longer, despite ongoing pollution control measures.
Faced with the impending algae outbreak, the authorities in Wuxi have made plans to guarantee the security of the city's water supply.
According to Lin, measures have been taken to prevent algae from entering drinking water intake pipes and standby sources of water have been made ready.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting April 15, 2008) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MO39
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
|
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I live in Mexico City where air pollution has been a big problem for years. But after reading this thread, I realize that things could be much, much worse here! Of course, the air quality improves greatly during the cool rainy season that runs from May to September. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:55 am Post subject: Hong Kong suffers worst ever air pollution |
|
|
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/news.htm?elocal&20080729&56&509431
Yesterday was bad...
| Quote: |
Hong Kong suffers worst ever air pollution
29-07-2008 HKT 00:54
Hong Kong suffered it's worst ever air pollution yesterday since monitoring was introduced in 1995. The Air Pollution Index reading at Tap Mun reached a peak of 202 - classified as severe - before subsiding. Pollution levels also exceeded 100 at Shatin, Tsuen Wan, Tung Chung, and Yuen Long. Principal Environmental Officer, Dave Ho, said there were two main reasons for the bad air quality:the intense heat;and because Typhoon Fung Wong trapped high levels of ozone around Hong Kong. Yesterday was also the hottest day so far this year. The temperature reached 34.6 degrees Celsius. |
also: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/7685232 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
gajackson1
Joined: 28 Jan 2008
Posts: 210
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
Lived in Seoul for 5 years, Korea for 10 total, and traveled all over the world in the past 20 years. I've seen both ends of the pendulum
I think that is one of the biggest things about being here in Brunei, and maybe a subconscious factor in the places i like to visit? Cleaner air, water, swaths of semi-protected nature really appeal to me.
As a diver, it is so depressing to visit a dive community/site that was previously beautiful, and has been ruined by poor diving & fishing practices and environmental dumping/pollution.
I hope the Bruneian govt. continues to take the steps to conserve and protect its resources.
Cheers,
Glen |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
john_n_carolina
Joined: 26 Feb 2006
Posts: 700
Location: n. carolina
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
| ...also, that pollution map someone put up on this thread isn't accurate. what about Rio, Sao Paolo, Santiago? Salt Lake City, Houston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| gajackson1 wrote: |
| As a diver, it is so depressing to visit a dive community/site that was previously beautiful, and has been ruined by poor diving & fishing practices and environmental dumping/pollution. |
agreed. I was in Sabah a few weeks ago (as I told you in a PM) and saw some horrendous things: divers without buoyancy control who were literally breaking off pieces of coral, divers grabbing turtles, rubbish floating in the water, primitive boat cleaning with chemical dumping, etc. Some who had been there years ago told me how much it has changed for the worse.
But you have a great opportunity to instill good behaviour in your students.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
