2. Sustainable Style: Models strutted across wooden slabs at New York Fashion Week's FutureFashion show in January
3. Fashion designers show a interest in the environment. So in New York open the new style fashion show for sustainable fashion. I think that is great. Usally fashion is considered that waste material. But in that fashion show designers use new Fabrics. For example, they use sasawashi (a Japanese fabric made from paper and herbs), peace silk (a process that lets silkworms live out their full life cycle) and hemp. That is eco friendly fabrics. And they design eco- friendly design. This efforts change Earth environmet. But I hope this efforts don't make wrong.
------------------
The New York fashion week crowd packed a large hall to await the latest designs by the likes of Narciso Rodriguez, Versace and Calvin Klein. When the lights dimmed and a procession of lanky models wafted across the runway, the looks they wore were far from the designers' standard fare. Instead of using traditional fabrics like silk and cashmere, designers sent out clothing cut from sasawashi (a Japanese fabric made from paper and herbs), peace silk (a process that lets silkworms live out their full life cycle) and hemp. In a dramatic visual representation of recycling, Belgian designer Martin Margiela draped three vintage wedding dresses over a bustier to make a stunning ball gown.
The January show, called FutureFashion, exemplified how far green design has come. Organized by the New York-based nonprofit Earth Pledge, the show inspired many top designers to work with sustainable fabrics for the first time. Several have since made pledges to incorporate organic fabrics into their lines. Many other recent events have budged eco-friendly design toward wider recognition and a more fashion-forward image. At the high end, specialty store Barneys made a major commitment to sustainable design, commissioning exclusive "conscious" lines from Theory, 3.1 Phillip Lim and Stella McCartney, and dedicating its Christmas windows and catalog to green fashion. "We felt we should do our part in moving fashion into a more conscious place," says Julie Gilhart, Barneys' fashion director. Last November, eco-conscious designer Rogan Gregory won the prestigious CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award for rising talent, sending another signal that style and sustainability aren't mutually exclusive. At the lower end, nearly every recognizable brand, from Banana Republic to Guess to H&M, has rolled out a green line. In May, Target will launch one in partnership with Gregory's Rogan label.
The designers who undertake green fashion still face many challenges. Scott Hahn, cofounder with Gregory of Rogan and Loomstate, which uses all-organic cotton, says high-quality sustainable materials can still be tough to find. "Most designers with existing labels are finding there aren't comparable fabrics that can just replace what you're doing and what your customers are used to," he says. For example, organic and non-organic cotton are virtually indistinguishable once woven into a garment. But some popular synthetics, like stretch nylon, still have few eco-friendly equivalents. "There are not a lot of people making the best green fabrics," says Hahn. "The coolest stuff is tech-driven, and that's what people get excited about."
Those who do make the switch are finding they have more support. Last year the influential trade show Designers & Agents began waiving its participation fee for young green entrepreneurs who attend its two springtime shows in Los Angeles and New York and giving special recognition to designers whose collections are at least 25 percent sustainable. It now counts more than 50 green designers, up from fewer than a dozen two years ago. This week Wal-Mart is set to announce a major initiative aimed at helping cotton farmers go organic: it will buy transitional cotton at higher, certified-organic prices, thus helping to expand the supply of a key sustainable material. "Mainstream is about to occur," says Hahn.
Some analysts are less sure. Statistically, green fashion occupies a tiny sliver of the apparel market. Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market-research firm NPD Group, says it represents less than 1 percent of industry sales. Among consumers, only 18 percent are even aware that ecofashion exists, up from 6 percent four years ago. Natalie Hormilla, who writes for the blog Fashionista.com, is an example of the unconverted consumer. When asked if she owned any sustainable clothes, she replied: "Not that I'm aware of." Like most consumers, she finds little time to shop, and when she does, she's on the hunt for "cute stuff that isn't too expensive." By her own admission, green just isn't yet on her mind. But—thanks to the combined efforts of designers, retailers and suppliers—one day it will be. ------ By Anna Kuchment | NEWSWEEK Apr 14, 2008 Issue
3. 1) Malthusian theory Through Malthusian view, this article cannot be explained. According to his theory, the growth of population is the direct variable of food crisis. However, according to the article, food and water are in shortage becase they're wasted, especially in the developed countries.
2) EcoMarxist theory The Shchnaiberg's model doesn't fit here either. According to the treadmill theory, the government, industry and civil society cooperate to pollute the environment. However, the report says that if the three entities work together to improve efficiency, wasted food could be cut in half by 2025.
3) Ecological Modernization theory Ecological modernization model best explains the report's solution to food and water crisis. (using technological fix)
"Water conservation recommendations included advanced technologies to capture more rainwater for agriculture, incentives for consumers to waste less food, and benchmark standards for industry to reduce water use in the entire food chain."
4)Social Construction of the Environment The report argues that not many people know about how much food they're wasting.
"Very few people know about the water consumption related to the food that they eat," said Jan Lundqvist, a researcher with the Stockholm International Water Institute. "With increasing competition, increasing prices, it's now a very auspicious moment to try to push this type of message."
________________________________
As food prices escalate and water scarcity extends worldwide, the best solution to both issues would be a global reduction in wasted food, a new international report says.
Inefficient harvesting, transportation, storage, and packaging ruin 50 percent of food, according to the report, which was released last week by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute. Add up how much food consumers simply throw away, especially in developed nations, and a whole lot of water is being wasted as well.
If government, industry, and civil society worked together to improve efficiency, wasted food could be cut in half by 2025, the report says. Water conservation recommendations included advanced technologies to capture more rainwater for agriculture, incentives for consumers to waste less food, and benchmark standards for industry to reduce water use in the entire food chain.
The water experts decided to target the food sector because agriculture requires 80 percent of the world's water resources. With populations set to grow in the coming years, and as developing nations eat more meat and dairy, water demand is expected to also surge. "It's likely we'll need two times the water by 2050 than what we need today. The challenge is to reduce the amount of water we need today," said David Molden, research director at Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, in a press conference.
In the developing world, wasted food is mostly attributed to harsh climate conditions and crop-eating pests or organisms. Agricultural productivity could double, the report says, if farmers adopt existing water conservation technologies, such as small dams that supply rainwater run-off during times of drought.
Post-harvest food losses, which in Africa range from 25 to 50 percent, can be reduced through proper storage and transfer facilities, the report states. In addition to investments in silos, "processing of the products, to add value and keep freshness," would better preserve food resources, says Virginia-based Millennium Institute president Hans Herren, who is a World Food Prize laureate, when commenting on the report.
The report called for businesses to minimize wasted water during food processing and transportation by setting benchmark standards. Industry should also create labels that state how much water each product requires, said Molden, a report lead author. "If industry can demand a banana has a certain shape or a tomato has a certain color, why not say something about how much water it takes for farmers to produce those crops?" he said.
As the world suffers a burgeoning food crisis-grain prices rose 80 percent between 2005 and 2008-more attention is being dedicated to food waste. Waste in the developed world is particularly high. According to a 2001 study by the University of Arizona, Americans were throwing away three times as much food then as they were 20 years prior. A study released this month by the U.K. government said more food is being wasted there, too, costing the country 10 billion pounds ($19.6 billion) each year.
The international water report estimates that households in developed nations are wasting as much as a quarter of their food. "Very few people know about the water consumption related to the food that they eat," said Jan Lundqvist, a researcher with the Stockholm International Water Institute. "With increasing competition, increasing prices, it's now a very auspicious moment to try to push this type of message."
But Anders Berntell, the Stockholm International Water Institute's executive director, suggested that a public relations campaign may not suffice. "If a family can afford to throw away 25 percent of the food they eat, maybe the price is too low," he said. _______
3. The article is about the contaminated fishes. There are increasing concerns that some kind of fishes are contaminated by Mercury. This is because Canada's clean water was polluted by Mercury. Thus, even fishes there got a damage.
This is one way for human to be exposed in Mercury. The important thing is that Mercury exosure is very dangerous. Mercury released from human activities can be transformed in the environment to a highly toxic form called methylmercury.
I think this article shows how much the ecosystem is connected each other by food chain. If we make just a little bit of damage to environment, it absolutely comes back to humans in a large scale of damage. Therefore, we should recognize that the nature is one big organism. It is not seperated piece by piece.
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Canada is renowned for its pristine lakes and rivers, attracting recreational and subsistence fishers who enjoy and consume the diverse fish species they catch. There is growing concern, however, that certain fish species in some of Canada's freshwater bodies have acquired elevated mercury levels. Mercury released from human activities can be converted in the environment to a highly toxic form called methylmercury, which can bioaccumulate and biomagnify in fish tissue, particularly in predatory species like pike, walleye and bass. The consumption of mercury contaminated fish is one of the main pathways for mercury exposure in humans, and may pose serious health risks, particularly for young children and the developing fetus.
In addition to creating regulatory tools to reduce mercury releases to the environment, federal, provincial and territorial governments have placed fish consumption advisories on individual species, lakes and in some cases on entire regions, in order to prevent high levels of mercury exposure to consumers. The links below provide information on some fish consumption advisories that are available electronically. People who catch and consume fish as a staple part of their diet should consult local fishing and health authorities to obtain information about local advisories.
Examining Fish Consumption Advisories Related to Mercury Contamination in Canada (2001) outlines federal, provincial, and territorial roles, responsibilities and procedures related to fish consumption advisory development across Canada. This document is not intended to serve as a reference guide for these advisories because they can change over time. The links below provide up to date information on current advisories in various regions across Canada and/or contacts for the responsible agencies.
1. Keonhwa Sung 2. CFLs are easy to use, difficult to recycle 3. Is there anyone who can make something without pollution? Even though many people use CFLs, we cannot care about our environment. The more we use CFLs, the more we are dangerous in mercury, hazardous chemical. As the article mentioned, all people have responsibility for protecting our environment, not only CFLs’ case. --------------------------------- MECHANICSBURG, Pa. - It's a message being drummed into the heads of homeowners everywhere: Swap out those incandescent lights with longer-lasting compact fluorescent bulbs and cut your electric use.
Governments, utilities, environmentalists and, of course, retailers everywhere are spreading the word.
Few, however, are volunteering to collect the mercury-laced bulbs for recycling — despite what public officials and others say is a potential health hazard if the hundreds of millions of them being sold are tossed in the trash and end up in landfills and incinerators.
For now, much of the nation has no real recycling network for CFLs, despite the ubiquitous PR campaigns, rebates and giveaways encouraging people to adopt the swirly darlings of the energy-conscious movement. Recyclers and others guess that only a small fraction of CFLs sold in the United States are recycled, while the rest are put out with household trash or otherwise discarded.
"In most parts of the country, it requires getting in your car and burning up your gas and going out of your way, a long ways, and people are unlikely to do this," said Paul Abernathy, the executive director of the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers in Calistoga, Calif.
Bulb sales have skyrocketed Sales of the bulbs have skyrocketed this decade — doubling last year to about 380 million after registering just 17,000 in 2000, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Recycling efforts, though, are spotty at best.
Some communities are arranging special CFL drop-off events while some city or county hazardous waste collection facilities accept them.
Swedish retailer IKEA collects the bulbs at its 34 U.S. stores and manufacturer Osram Sylvania offers a mail-in program. In Nevada, customers of Sierra Pacific Power Co. can now take used CFLs to eight landfills to be recycled.
A few governments have targeted retailers.
The city of Madison, Wis., requires retailers that sell the bulbs to also collect them for recycling, although stores can charge a fee for it. Maine and Vermont fund programs that distribute collection bins to retailers, from neighborhood hardware stores to Wal-Marts, and get the bulbs to recyclers, either by pickup or mail.
Pennsylvania spent $8,000 to distribute white plastic buckets to several dozen businesses, community organizations and local governments that wanted them. The buckets come with a seal-tight lid and the state pays the postage to send them to a recycler.
Two of the buckets are nestled among the expanding display of CFLs lined up on wall pegs at Ritters True Value Hardware in the central Pennsylvania town of Mechanicsburg, looking like something a store employee inadvertently left there while cleaning up — not a fledgling attempt to collect the bulbs for safe disposal.
The bulbs contain mercury Compact fluorescent bulbs each contain roughly 5 milligrams of mercury, which health professionals say is tiny in relation to the amount in a glass thermometer. Using that estimate, almost 2 tons of mercury were in the 380 million sold last year. By comparison, about 50 tons of mercury are spewed into the air each year by the nation's coal-fired power plants.
The longer fluorescent tubes, in use since World War II, contain slightly more mercury per lamp, but recyclers typically collect them in bulk from the biggest users, businesses and factories, which are required by federal law to dispose of them properly.
Even if recycling efforts have been meager, environmentalists and government officials say it is important to balance the positives of CFLs against any negatives.
For instance, CFLs can curtail the need for energy and thereby cut pollution from power plants. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a coal-fired power plant will emit about four times more mercury to keep an incandescent bulb glowing, compared with a CFL of the same light output.
"People should care about mercury and if they do, they should be working to save energy wherever they can and CFLs are a great answer to that," said John Rogers, a senior energy analyst for the Cambridge, Mass.-based group.
To recycle his spent CFLs, Rogers bags them, stores them in the basement and drops them off when his town, North Reading, Mass., holds a recycling event.
David Stotler, a railroad clerk from Maytown, Pa., does not know of a local option to recycle CFLs, so he threw out the one or two in his home that burned out.
Recycling prevents mercury release The bulbs do not release mercury if they are used properly and recycled, and the EPA and state governments have written guidelines for how to clean up the mercury from a broken bulb.
Kim N. Dietrich, a professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati, said the bigger concern is the hazard that would result if the mercury from millions of bulbs escapes into the air and waterways before working up the food chain.
"I'm just amazed that the government is not paying more attention to this," Dietrich said.
Manufacturers have looked at substitutes for mercury in the bulbs, but been unable to synthesize the chemical reaction. Still, they say they are working to reduce the amount of mercury in each bulb.
In search of a solution, a group from Brown University in Providence, R.I., has submitted a packaging invention for patent protection: a cardboard sandwich with an element in between that absorbs mercury.
The bulbs can be packaged in the material for retail sale and, after they burn out, returned in it for collection and recycling. If a bulb breaks, the packaging can absorb the mercury residue like a sponge, said environmental studies professor Steven P. Hamburg.
Hamburg estimated that the average CFL will save a user roughly $35 over the bulb's life, compared with the power costs of an incandescent bulb, and cost 25 cents to recycle.
At Ritters hardware, co-owner Jack Winchell wants his store to be recycling-friendly — he also accepts used motor oil and batteries — but said he can't do it alone on CFLs if there's no government subsidy.
"If I raise my bulbs 50 cents to pay for the recycling, then I'm not going to be competitive," Winchell said. "Somehow we need to have a shared responsibility for recycling these." --------------------------------- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24694496/
3. Western Europe and the US are throwing their e-waste in west Africa illegally. Now Africans are seriously in danger because of e-waste, which can release lead, mercury and other chemicals. People in Ghana are already suffering from nausea, headaches and other problems. I think this happens because there are no infrastructure to handle e-waste and this flow is seriously threatening people in west Africa.
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Thousands of discarded computers from western Europe and the US arrive in the ports of west Africa every day, ending up in massive toxic dumps where children burn and pull them apart to extract metals for cash.
The dumping of the developed world's electronic trash, or e-waste, is in direct contravention of international legislation and is causing serious health problems for inhabitants of the shanty towns that have sprung up amid the smouldering dumps in Lagos and Accra.
Campaigners believe unscrupulous scrap merchants are illegally dumping millions of tonnes of dangerous waste on the developing world under the guise of exporting it for use in schools and hospitals. They are calling for better policing of the ban on exports of e-waste, which can release lead, mercury and other dangerous chemicals.
"Ghana is increasingly becoming a dumping ground for waste from Europe and the US," according to Mike Anane, director of the League of Environmental Journalists in Ghana. "The people that break open these monitors tell me that they suffer from nausea, headaches and respiratory problems."
More than half a million computers arrive in Lagos every month but only about one in four works. The rest are sold as scrap, smashed up and burned.
"Millions of tons of e-waste disappears from the developed world every year and continues to reappear in developing countries, despite international bans," according to Luke Upchurch from Consumers International, which represents more than 220 consumer groups in 115 countries.
Lucrative The illegal trade in e-waste is highly lucrative. It is possible to extract more gold out of a tonne of electronic circuitry than from a tonne of gold-bearing rock. But illegal dumping is putting at risk charities and other organisations that donate second-hand equipment to the developing world.
Since the introduction of the Basle Ban outlawing the export of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries in 1992, computers have become an everyday item. Consumers and businesses are replacing their kit at an ever increasing rate, creating a new waste mountain.
Six years ago the EU produced the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive, which introduced new curbs and restrictions on the movement of e-waste. The directive, which came into effect in Britain in January last year, heavily regulates the movement of e-waste for recycling and bans its export for disposal. It also introduced a scheme under which the cost of properly disposing of electronic equipment put on the market after August 2005 must be picked up by the producers of the waste - manufacturers, retailers, branders and importers.
But DanWatch, a partner organisation of Consumers International, has evidence that computer equipment from British companies and even local authorities is being dumped in west Africa.
"We filmed children as young as six searching for metal scraps in the earth, which was littered with the toxic waste from thousands of shattered cathode ray tubes," said Benjamin Holst, co-founder of DanWatch. "A whole community is virtually living and working in this highly toxic environment, which is growing every day."
Properly functioning computer equipment is exempt from the WEEE rules about export. In fact the regulations encourage refurbishment and re-use of computer equipment. But there is no regime that checks computer equipment destined for re-use before it is shipped overseas.
Regulating waste in England and Wales falls under the remit of the Environment Agency. "Our position would be that genuine re-use of working equipment is generally a good thing," explained Adrian Harding, the agency's policy advisor.
The trouble lies in the phrase "genuine re-use". Harding admits that the agency simply does not have the resources to check every consignment destined for re-use in the developing world. Part of the problem is that the agency does not even have to be notified about the movement of goods for re-use so it would not know which containers to target.
One organisation that has already made a name for itself as a legitimate supplier of second-hand computers to the developing world is Computer Aid International, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary and has sent more than 119,000 computers to countries including Kenya and Chile.
The charity is registered with the Environment Agency as an official e-waste treatment company. Any machines it cannot use are sent to specialist recycling facilities within the EU. Founder Tony Roberts believes the problem with existing e-waste regulations is that outside the EU they do not make the producer of computer equipment pay for its proper disposal.
Unscrupulous Without this cash there is little incentive for developing nations to start investing in proper recycling facilities. As a result the e-waste problem is likely to grow, not because of unscrupulous European exporters but because of the increasing number of computers being sold in the developing world.
"When you look at the whole product lifetime of a computer 75% of the environmental damage is done before the computer is switched on for the first time," he pointed out. "It is the production, the mining, the factories producing the kit and the use of toxic materials - that is where the environmental damage is done. So if we do not make the producer responsible for dealing with these environmental issues we are never going to get a redesign of computers; we are never going to get computers that are produced in a more environmentally friendly way."
Once Computer Aid's donated equipment reaches the end of its useful life, the company tries to limit the environmental damage caused by its disposal. In Kenya, for instance, it is helping to build a recycling facility that will take not just its own kit but broken machines from across the country. The process is basic but better than using landfill - and circuit boards are re-exported to Britain.
Roberts said: "The problem is the producers are not providing any funds in the developing markets, where they are selling millions of PCs, so we just need to set up similar funds in all markets."
It is a call taken up by Martin Hojsík, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace International. "We want the producers to be responsible for the take-back of their kit," he said.
The hope is that the sheer expense of making producers pay for the disposal of their computer equipment wherever it is sold or used across the world, will spur the industry towards making "greener" machines.
To bring a quick end to the spectacle of children scrabbling around in toxic waste dumps in Africa, Europe's regulators and more importantly its consumers and businesses need to take responsibility for disposing of their computer equipment.
2. Large Cracks in Arctic Ice Noticed for First Time
3. This goes 'well' (if you can call this 'good) with the short 1 minute video in the syllabus about the sounds of cracking North Pole Ice. It feels rather ominous to be discussing this calmly, though they are right: if one large piece begins to move, it is already in the ocean and completely unattached to land and could go anywhere?
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Page last updated at 18:29 GMT, Friday, 23 May 2008 19:29 UK
Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice By David Shukman Environment correspondent, BBC News
A Canadian expedition found the new cracks
Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military.
Scientists travelling with the troops found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada's far north.
The team found a network of cracks that stretched for more than 10 miles (16km) on Ward Hunt, the area's largest shelf.
The fate of the vast ice blocks is seen as a key indicator of climate change.
Satellite image of Ward Hunt Ice Shelf cracks
Enlarge Image
One of the expedition's scientists, Derek Mueller of Trent University, Ontario, told me: "I was astonished to see these new cracks.
"It means the ice shelf is disintegrating, the pieces are pinned together like a jigsaw but could float away," Dr Mueller explained. [The North Pole ice cap is just floating on the ocean, unlike Antarctica's land mass].
According to another scientist on the expedition, Dr Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa, the new cracks fit into a pattern of change in the Arctic.
"We're seeing very dramatic changes; from the retreat of the glaciers, to the melting of the sea ice.
"We had 23% less (sea ice) last year than we've ever had, and what's happening to the ice shelves is part of that picture."
When ice shelves break apart, they drift offshore into the ocean as "ice islands", transforming the very geography of the coastline.
Ayles Ice Island (BBC)
Mission to Ayles Ice Island Last year, I was part of a BBC team that joined Dr Mueller and Dr Copland as they carried out the first research on Ayles Ice Island, an iceberg the size of Manhattan.
It has since split into two, each vast chunk of ice now 400 miles (640km) south of its original position.
The rapid changes in the Arctic have reignited disputes over territory.
The Canadian military's expedition was billed as a "sovereignty patrol", the lines of snowmobiles flying Canadian flags in a display of control.
After the record Arctic melting last year, all eyes are now on what happens to the sea ice this summer.
Although its maximum extent last winter was slightly greater than the year before, it was still below the long-term average.
2. More Solid Evidence for Microwave-induced Brain Tumor Susceptibility Increase
3. This continues a theme from last class session. I would like to say that these types of reports are rare. However, in the past several years they are quite frequent. As others have predicted, we surely will have a huge surge of brain cancers and other mental problems associated with continuing these frequencies utilized in cell phones and WiFi arrangements. changing the frequencies as soon as possible is required in the interest of public health particularly for the least responsible groups of society--children who are harmed more by these frequencies due to their growing nervous/brain systems and smaller bodies.
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More Solid Evidence For Cell Phone Brain Tumors
This is a 64 page document summarizing some current evidence of the danger of this microwave infrastructure.
A very down to earth* kind of guy. I'm an environmental sociologist interested in establishing material and organizational sustainability worldwide. I'm always looking for interesting materials/technologies, inspiring ideas, or institutional examples of sustainability to inspire others to recognize their choices now. To be fatalistic about an unsustainable world is a sign of a captive mind, given all our options.
*(If "earth" is defined in a planetary sense, concerning comparative historical knowledge and interest in the past 10,000 years or so anywhere...) See both blogs.
8 comments:
1. Hea Joung Lee
2. Sustainable Style: Models strutted across wooden slabs at New York Fashion Week's FutureFashion show in January
3. Fashion designers show a interest in the environment. So in New York open the new style fashion show for sustainable fashion. I think that is great. Usally fashion is considered that waste material. But in that fashion show designers use new Fabrics. For example, they use sasawashi (a Japanese fabric made from paper and herbs), peace silk (a process that lets silkworms live out their full life cycle) and hemp. That is eco friendly fabrics. And they design eco- friendly design. This efforts change Earth environmet. But I hope this efforts don't make wrong.
------------------
The New York fashion week crowd packed a large hall to await the latest designs by the likes of Narciso Rodriguez, Versace and Calvin Klein. When the lights dimmed and a procession of lanky models wafted across the runway, the looks they wore were far from the designers' standard fare. Instead of using traditional fabrics like silk and cashmere, designers sent out clothing cut from sasawashi (a Japanese fabric made from paper and herbs), peace silk (a process that lets silkworms live out their full life cycle) and hemp. In a dramatic visual representation of recycling, Belgian designer Martin Margiela draped three vintage wedding dresses over a bustier to make a stunning ball gown.
The January show, called FutureFashion, exemplified how far green design has come. Organized by the New York-based nonprofit Earth Pledge, the show inspired many top designers to work with sustainable fabrics for the first time. Several have since made pledges to incorporate organic fabrics into their lines. Many other recent events have budged eco-friendly design toward wider recognition and a more fashion-forward image. At the high end, specialty store Barneys made a major commitment to sustainable design, commissioning exclusive "conscious" lines from Theory, 3.1 Phillip Lim and Stella McCartney, and dedicating its Christmas windows and catalog to green fashion. "We felt we should do our part in moving fashion into a more conscious place," says Julie Gilhart, Barneys' fashion director. Last November, eco-conscious designer Rogan Gregory won the prestigious CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award for rising talent, sending another signal that style and sustainability aren't mutually exclusive. At the lower end, nearly every recognizable brand, from Banana Republic to Guess to H&M, has rolled out a green line. In May, Target will launch one in partnership with Gregory's Rogan label.
The designers who undertake green fashion still face many challenges. Scott Hahn, cofounder with Gregory of Rogan and Loomstate, which uses all-organic cotton, says high-quality sustainable materials can still be tough to find. "Most designers with existing labels are finding there aren't comparable fabrics that can just replace what you're doing and what your customers are used to," he says. For example, organic and non-organic cotton are virtually indistinguishable once woven into a garment. But some popular synthetics, like stretch nylon, still have few eco-friendly equivalents. "There are not a lot of people making the best green fabrics," says Hahn. "The coolest stuff is tech-driven, and that's what people get excited about."
Those who do make the switch are finding they have more support. Last year the influential trade show Designers & Agents began waiving its participation fee for young green entrepreneurs who attend its two springtime shows in Los Angeles and New York and giving special recognition to designers whose collections are at least 25 percent sustainable. It now counts more than 50 green designers, up from fewer than a dozen two years ago. This week Wal-Mart is set to announce a major initiative aimed at helping cotton farmers go organic: it will buy transitional cotton at higher, certified-organic prices, thus helping to expand the supply of a key sustainable material. "Mainstream is about to occur," says Hahn.
Some analysts are less sure. Statistically, green fashion occupies a tiny sliver of the apparel market. Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market-research firm NPD Group, says it represents less than 1 percent of industry sales. Among consumers, only 18 percent are even aware that ecofashion exists, up from 6 percent four years ago. Natalie Hormilla, who writes for the blog Fashionista.com, is an example of the unconverted consumer. When asked if she owned any sustainable clothes, she replied: "Not that I'm aware of." Like most consumers, she finds little time to shop, and when she does, she's on the hunt for "cute stuff that isn't too expensive." By her own admission, green just isn't yet on her mind. But—thanks to the combined efforts of designers, retailers and suppliers—one day it will be.
------
By Anna Kuchment | NEWSWEEK
Apr 14, 2008 Issue
1. SONG Jee-Hyun
2. Conserve Water through Food Efficiency
3.
1) Malthusian theory
Through Malthusian view, this article cannot be explained. According to his theory, the growth of population is the direct variable of food crisis. However, according to the article, food and water are in shortage becase they're wasted, especially in the developed countries.
2) EcoMarxist theory
The Shchnaiberg's model doesn't fit here either. According to the treadmill theory, the government, industry and civil society cooperate to pollute the environment. However, the report says that if the three entities work together to improve efficiency, wasted food could be cut in half by 2025.
3) Ecological Modernization theory
Ecological modernization model best explains the report's solution to food and water crisis.
(using technological fix)
"Water conservation recommendations included advanced technologies to capture more rainwater for agriculture, incentives for consumers to waste less food, and benchmark standards for industry to reduce water use in the entire food chain."
4)Social Construction of the Environment
The report argues that not many people know about how much food they're wasting.
"Very few people know about the water consumption related to the food that they eat," said Jan Lundqvist, a researcher with the Stockholm International Water Institute. "With increasing competition, increasing prices, it's now a very auspicious moment to try to push this type of message."
________________________________
As food prices escalate and water scarcity extends worldwide, the best solution to both issues would be a global reduction in wasted food, a new international report says.
Inefficient harvesting, transportation, storage, and packaging ruin 50 percent of food, according to the report, which was released last week by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute. Add up how much food consumers simply throw away, especially in developed nations, and a whole lot of water is being wasted as well.
If government, industry, and civil society worked together to improve efficiency, wasted food could be cut in half by 2025, the report says. Water conservation recommendations included advanced technologies to capture more rainwater for agriculture, incentives for consumers to waste less food, and benchmark standards for industry to reduce water use in the entire food chain.
The water experts decided to target the food sector because agriculture requires 80 percent of the world's water resources. With populations set to grow in the coming years, and as developing nations eat more meat and dairy, water demand is expected to also surge. "It's likely we'll need two times the water by 2050 than what we need today. The challenge is to reduce the amount of water we need today," said David Molden, research director at Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, in a press conference.
In the developing world, wasted food is mostly attributed to harsh climate conditions and crop-eating pests or organisms. Agricultural productivity could double, the report says, if farmers adopt existing water conservation technologies, such as small dams that supply rainwater run-off during times of drought.
Post-harvest food losses, which in Africa range from 25 to 50 percent, can be reduced through proper storage and transfer facilities, the report states. In addition to investments in silos, "processing of the products, to add value and keep freshness," would better preserve food resources, says Virginia-based Millennium Institute president Hans Herren, who is a World Food Prize laureate, when commenting on the report.
The report called for businesses to minimize wasted water during food processing and transportation by setting benchmark standards. Industry should also create labels that state how much water each product requires, said Molden, a report lead author. "If industry can demand a banana has a certain shape or a tomato has a certain color, why not say something about how much water it takes for farmers to produce those crops?" he said.
As the world suffers a burgeoning food crisis-grain prices rose 80 percent between 2005 and 2008-more attention is being dedicated to food waste. Waste in the developed world is particularly high. According to a 2001 study by the University of Arizona, Americans were throwing away three times as much food then as they were 20 years prior. A study released this month by the U.K. government said more food is being wasted there, too, costing the country 10 billion pounds ($19.6 billion) each year.
The international water report estimates that households in developed nations are wasting as much as a quarter of their food. "Very few people know about the water consumption related to the food that they eat," said Jan Lundqvist, a researcher with the Stockholm International Water Institute. "With increasing competition, increasing prices, it's now a very auspicious moment to try to push this type of message."
But Anders Berntell, the Stockholm International Water Institute's executive director, suggested that a public relations campaign may not suffice. "If a family can afford to throw away 25 percent of the food they eat, maybe the price is too low," he said.
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http://www.enn.com/agriculture/article/36729/print
1. Gowoon JUNG
2. Mercury and the environment, Fish consumption
3. The article is about the contaminated fishes. There are increasing concerns that some kind of fishes are contaminated by Mercury. This is because Canada's clean water was polluted by Mercury. Thus, even fishes there got a damage.
This is one way for human to be exposed in Mercury. The important thing is that Mercury exosure is very dangerous. Mercury released from human activities can be transformed in the environment to a highly toxic form called methylmercury.
I think this article shows how much the ecosystem is connected each other by food chain. If we make just a little bit of damage to environment, it absolutely comes back to humans in a large scale of damage. Therefore, we should recognize that the nature is one big organism. It is not seperated piece by piece.
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Canada is renowned for its pristine lakes and rivers, attracting recreational and subsistence fishers who enjoy and consume the diverse fish species they catch. There is growing concern, however, that certain fish species in some of Canada's freshwater bodies have acquired elevated mercury levels. Mercury released from human activities can be converted in the environment to a highly toxic form called methylmercury, which can bioaccumulate and biomagnify in fish tissue, particularly in predatory species like pike, walleye and bass. The consumption of mercury contaminated fish is one of the main pathways for mercury exposure in humans, and may pose serious health risks, particularly for young children and the developing fetus.
In addition to creating regulatory tools to reduce mercury releases to the environment, federal, provincial and territorial governments have placed fish consumption advisories on individual species, lakes and in some cases on entire regions, in order to prevent high levels of mercury exposure to consumers. The links below provide information on some fish consumption advisories that are available electronically. People who catch and consume fish as a staple part of their diet should consult local fishing and health authorities to obtain information about local advisories.
Examining Fish Consumption Advisories Related to Mercury Contamination in Canada (2001) outlines federal, provincial, and territorial roles, responsibilities and procedures related to fish consumption advisory development across Canada. This document is not intended to serve as a reference guide for these advisories because they can change over time. The links below provide up to date information on current advisories in various regions across Canada and/or contacts for the responsible agencies.
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http://www.ec.gc.ca/MERCURY/EN/fc.cfm
1. Keonhwa Sung
2. CFLs are easy to use, difficult to recycle
3. Is there anyone who can make something without pollution? Even though many people use CFLs, we cannot care about our environment. The more we use CFLs, the more we are dangerous in mercury, hazardous chemical. As the article mentioned, all people have responsibility for protecting our environment, not only CFLs’ case.
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MECHANICSBURG, Pa. - It's a message being drummed into the heads of homeowners everywhere: Swap out those incandescent lights with longer-lasting compact fluorescent bulbs and cut your electric use.
Governments, utilities, environmentalists and, of course, retailers everywhere are spreading the word.
Few, however, are volunteering to collect the mercury-laced bulbs for recycling — despite what public officials and others say is a potential health hazard if the hundreds of millions of them being sold are tossed in the trash and end up in landfills and incinerators.
For now, much of the nation has no real recycling network for CFLs, despite the ubiquitous PR campaigns, rebates and giveaways encouraging people to adopt the swirly darlings of the energy-conscious movement. Recyclers and others guess that only a small fraction of CFLs sold in the United States are recycled, while the rest are put out with household trash or otherwise discarded.
"In most parts of the country, it requires getting in your car and burning up your gas and going out of your way, a long ways, and people are unlikely to do this," said Paul Abernathy, the executive director of the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers in Calistoga, Calif.
Bulb sales have skyrocketed
Sales of the bulbs have skyrocketed this decade — doubling last year to about 380 million after registering just 17,000 in 2000, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Recycling efforts, though, are spotty at best.
Some communities are arranging special CFL drop-off events while some city or county hazardous waste collection facilities accept them.
Swedish retailer IKEA collects the bulbs at its 34 U.S. stores and manufacturer Osram Sylvania offers a mail-in program. In Nevada, customers of Sierra Pacific Power Co. can now take used CFLs to eight landfills to be recycled.
A few governments have targeted retailers.
The city of Madison, Wis., requires retailers that sell the bulbs to also collect them for recycling, although stores can charge a fee for it. Maine and Vermont fund programs that distribute collection bins to retailers, from neighborhood hardware stores to Wal-Marts, and get the bulbs to recyclers, either by pickup or mail.
Pennsylvania spent $8,000 to distribute white plastic buckets to several dozen businesses, community organizations and local governments that wanted them. The buckets come with a seal-tight lid and the state pays the postage to send them to a recycler.
Two of the buckets are nestled among the expanding display of CFLs lined up on wall pegs at Ritters True Value Hardware in the central Pennsylvania town of Mechanicsburg, looking like something a store employee inadvertently left there while cleaning up — not a fledgling attempt to collect the bulbs for safe disposal.
The bulbs contain mercury
Compact fluorescent bulbs each contain roughly 5 milligrams of mercury, which health professionals say is tiny in relation to the amount in a glass thermometer. Using that estimate, almost 2 tons of mercury were in the 380 million sold last year. By comparison, about 50 tons of mercury are spewed into the air each year by the nation's coal-fired power plants.
The longer fluorescent tubes, in use since World War II, contain slightly more mercury per lamp, but recyclers typically collect them in bulk from the biggest users, businesses and factories, which are required by federal law to dispose of them properly.
Even if recycling efforts have been meager, environmentalists and government officials say it is important to balance the positives of CFLs against any negatives.
For instance, CFLs can curtail the need for energy and thereby cut pollution from power plants. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a coal-fired power plant will emit about four times more mercury to keep an incandescent bulb glowing, compared with a CFL of the same light output.
"People should care about mercury and if they do, they should be working to save energy wherever they can and CFLs are a great answer to that," said John Rogers, a senior energy analyst for the Cambridge, Mass.-based group.
To recycle his spent CFLs, Rogers bags them, stores them in the basement and drops them off when his town, North Reading, Mass., holds a recycling event.
David Stotler, a railroad clerk from Maytown, Pa., does not know of a local option to recycle CFLs, so he threw out the one or two in his home that burned out.
Recycling prevents mercury release
The bulbs do not release mercury if they are used properly and recycled, and the EPA and state governments have written guidelines for how to clean up the mercury from a broken bulb.
Kim N. Dietrich, a professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati, said the bigger concern is the hazard that would result if the mercury from millions of bulbs escapes into the air and waterways before working up the food chain.
"I'm just amazed that the government is not paying more attention to this," Dietrich said.
Manufacturers have looked at substitutes for mercury in the bulbs, but been unable to synthesize the chemical reaction. Still, they say they are working to reduce the amount of mercury in each bulb.
In search of a solution, a group from Brown University in Providence, R.I., has submitted a packaging invention for patent protection: a cardboard sandwich with an element in between that absorbs mercury.
The bulbs can be packaged in the material for retail sale and, after they burn out, returned in it for collection and recycling. If a bulb breaks, the packaging can absorb the mercury residue like a sponge, said environmental studies professor Steven P. Hamburg.
Hamburg estimated that the average CFL will save a user roughly $35 over the bulb's life, compared with the power costs of an incandescent bulb, and cost 25 cents to recycle.
At Ritters hardware, co-owner Jack Winchell wants his store to be recycling-friendly — he also accepts used motor oil and batteries — but said he can't do it alone on CFLs if there's no government subsidy.
"If I raise my bulbs 50 cents to pay for the recycling, then I'm not going to be competitive," Winchell said. "Somehow we need to have a shared responsibility for recycling these."
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24694496/
1. Nuri Na
2. Breeding toxins from dead PCs
3. Western Europe and the US are throwing their e-waste in west Africa illegally. Now Africans are seriously in danger because of e-waste, which can release lead, mercury and other chemicals. People in Ghana are already suffering from nausea, headaches and other problems. I think this happens because there are no infrastructure to handle e-waste and this flow is seriously threatening people in west Africa.
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Thousands of discarded computers from western Europe and the US arrive in the ports of west Africa every day, ending up in massive toxic dumps where children burn and pull them apart to extract metals for cash.
The dumping of the developed world's electronic trash, or e-waste, is in direct contravention of international legislation and is causing serious health problems for inhabitants of the shanty towns that have sprung up amid the smouldering dumps in Lagos and Accra.
Campaigners believe unscrupulous scrap merchants are illegally dumping millions of tonnes of dangerous waste on the developing world under the guise of exporting it for use in schools and hospitals. They are calling for better policing of the ban on exports of e-waste, which can release lead, mercury and other dangerous chemicals.
"Ghana is increasingly becoming a dumping ground for waste from Europe and the US," according to Mike Anane, director of the League of Environmental Journalists in Ghana. "The people that break open these monitors tell me that they suffer from nausea, headaches and respiratory problems."
More than half a million computers arrive in Lagos every month but only about one in four works. The rest are sold as scrap, smashed up and burned.
"Millions of tons of e-waste disappears from the developed world every year and continues to reappear in developing countries, despite international bans," according to Luke Upchurch from Consumers International, which represents more than 220 consumer groups in 115 countries.
Lucrative
The illegal trade in e-waste is highly lucrative. It is possible to extract more gold out of a tonne of electronic circuitry than from a tonne of gold-bearing rock. But illegal dumping is putting at risk charities and other organisations that donate second-hand equipment to the developing world.
Since the introduction of the Basle Ban outlawing the export of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries in 1992, computers have become an everyday item. Consumers and businesses are replacing their kit at an ever increasing rate, creating a new waste mountain.
Six years ago the EU produced the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive, which introduced new curbs and restrictions on the movement of e-waste. The directive, which came into effect in Britain in January last year, heavily regulates the movement of e-waste for recycling and bans its export for disposal. It also introduced a scheme under which the cost of properly disposing of electronic equipment put on the market after August 2005 must be picked up by the producers of the waste - manufacturers, retailers, branders and importers.
But DanWatch, a partner organisation of Consumers International, has evidence that computer equipment from British companies and even local authorities is being dumped in west Africa.
"We filmed children as young as six searching for metal scraps in the earth, which was littered with the toxic waste from thousands of shattered cathode ray tubes," said Benjamin Holst, co-founder of DanWatch. "A whole community is virtually living and working in this highly toxic environment, which is growing every day."
Properly functioning computer equipment is exempt from the WEEE rules about export. In fact the regulations encourage refurbishment and re-use of computer equipment. But there is no regime that checks computer equipment destined for re-use before it is shipped overseas.
Regulating waste in England and Wales falls under the remit of the Environment Agency. "Our position would be that genuine re-use of working equipment is generally a good thing," explained Adrian Harding, the agency's policy advisor.
The trouble lies in the phrase "genuine re-use". Harding admits that the agency simply does not have the resources to check every consignment destined for re-use in the developing world. Part of the problem is that the agency does not even have to be notified about the movement of goods for re-use so it would not know which containers to target.
One organisation that has already made a name for itself as a legitimate supplier of second-hand computers to the developing world is Computer Aid International, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary and has sent more than 119,000 computers to countries including Kenya and Chile.
The charity is registered with the Environment Agency as an official e-waste treatment company. Any machines it cannot use are sent to specialist recycling facilities within the EU. Founder Tony Roberts believes the problem with existing e-waste regulations is that outside the EU they do not make the producer of computer equipment pay for its proper disposal.
Unscrupulous
Without this cash there is little incentive for developing nations to start investing in proper recycling facilities. As a result the e-waste problem is likely to grow, not because of unscrupulous European exporters but because of the increasing number of computers being sold in the developing world.
"When you look at the whole product lifetime of a computer 75% of the environmental damage is done before the computer is switched on for the first time," he pointed out. "It is the production, the mining, the factories producing the kit and the use of toxic materials - that is where the environmental damage is done. So if we do not make the producer responsible for dealing with these environmental issues we are never going to get a redesign of computers; we are never going to get computers that are produced in a more environmentally friendly way."
Once Computer Aid's donated equipment reaches the end of its useful life, the company tries to limit the environmental damage caused by its disposal. In Kenya, for instance, it is helping to build a recycling facility that will take not just its own kit but broken machines from across the country. The process is basic but better than using landfill - and circuit boards are re-exported to Britain.
Roberts said: "The problem is the producers are not providing any funds in the developing markets, where they are selling millions of PCs, so we just need to set up similar funds in all markets."
It is a call taken up by Martin Hojsík, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace International. "We want the producers to be responsible for the take-back of their kit," he said.
The hope is that the sheer expense of making producers pay for the disposal of their computer equipment wherever it is sold or used across the world, will spur the industry towards making "greener" machines.
To bring a quick end to the spectacle of children scrabbling around in toxic waste dumps in Africa, Europe's regulators and more importantly its consumers and businesses need to take responsibility for disposing of their computer equipment.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/06/waste.pollution
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Large Cracks in Arctic Ice Noticed for First Time
3. This goes 'well' (if you can call this 'good) with the short 1 minute video in the syllabus about the sounds of cracking North Pole Ice. It feels rather ominous to be discussing this calmly, though they are right: if one large piece begins to move, it is already in the ocean and completely unattached to land and could go anywhere?
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Page last updated at 18:29 GMT, Friday, 23 May 2008 19:29 UK
Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice
By David Shukman
Environment correspondent, BBC News
A Canadian expedition found the new cracks
Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military.
Scientists travelling with the troops found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada's far north.
The team found a network of cracks that stretched for more than 10 miles (16km) on Ward Hunt, the area's largest shelf.
The fate of the vast ice blocks is seen as a key indicator of climate change.
Satellite image of Ward Hunt Ice Shelf cracks
Enlarge Image
One of the expedition's scientists, Derek Mueller of Trent University, Ontario, told me: "I was astonished to see these new cracks.
"It means the ice shelf is disintegrating, the pieces are pinned together like a jigsaw but could float away," Dr Mueller explained. [The North Pole ice cap is just floating on the ocean, unlike Antarctica's land mass].
According to another scientist on the expedition, Dr Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa, the new cracks fit into a pattern of change in the Arctic.
"We're seeing very dramatic changes; from the retreat of the glaciers, to the melting of the sea ice.
"We had 23% less (sea ice) last year than we've ever had, and what's happening to the ice shelves is part of that picture."
When ice shelves break apart, they drift offshore into the ocean as "ice islands", transforming the very geography of the coastline.
Ayles Ice Island (BBC)
Mission to Ayles Ice Island
Last year, I was part of a BBC team that joined Dr Mueller and Dr Copland as they carried out the first research on Ayles Ice Island, an iceberg the size of Manhattan.
It has since split into two, each vast chunk of ice now 400 miles (640km) south of its original position.
The rapid changes in the Arctic have reignited disputes over territory.
The Canadian military's expedition was billed as a "sovereignty patrol", the lines of snowmobiles flying Canadian flags in a display of control.
After the record Arctic melting last year, all eyes are now on what happens to the sea ice this summer.
Although its maximum extent last winter was slightly greater than the year before, it was still below the long-term average.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7417123.stm
1. Mark Whitaker
2. More Solid Evidence for Microwave-induced Brain Tumor Susceptibility Increase
3. This continues a theme from last class session. I would like to say that these types of reports are rare. However, in the past several years they are quite frequent. As others have predicted, we surely will have a huge surge of brain cancers and other mental problems associated with continuing these frequencies utilized in cell phones and WiFi arrangements. changing the frequencies as soon as possible is required in the interest of public health particularly for the least responsible groups of society--children who are harmed more by these frequencies due to their growing nervous/brain systems and smaller bodies.
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More Solid Evidence For Cell Phone Brain Tumors
This is a 64 page document summarizing some current evidence of the danger of this microwave infrastructure.
here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3070367/EVIDENCE-FOR-BRAIN-TUMORS-AND-ACOUSTIC-NEUROMAS?secret_password=l05vlz8diaxrj0dp45k
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