Environmental Reports from Around the World

Nepal: This nation hosts the world's tallest mountains, and Kathmandu, was once a city where every morning, a view of Mt. Everest loomed over the horizon. Today the city is choked in fumes, pollution, and dust. This is largely created by the small motorized 3 and 4 wheeled taxis, that spew out carbon and oil fumes, choking the city. The excuse for not doing more? "We have more important problems, such as a revolution and developing our economy."

Korea: South Korea has shown enormous economic growth in the last 20 years.Yet with all the new buildings, highways, ports, and factories, the nationis pouring tons of emissions from trucks, airplanes, factories into the air and water. The excuse for not doing more? "It is not economic to deal with environmental issues."

Mongolia: This nation was one of the cleanest nations on earth. Yet the government does nothing about trucks and busses that belch out black exhaust. Environmental regulation of the automotive industry is almost nil. Clean water and clean air still exist, but the nation is showing huge growth in vehicles. The streets of the capital city of Ulaanbaatar are often gridlocked in traffic jams. Respiratory disease is on the rise. The excuse for not doing more? "We don't have the resources for that yet."

Bangladesh: The capital city of Dhaka is sometimes called the world's dirtiest city. A day in the city air will cover your clothes with soot and your eyes will burn as your lungs begin to congest. Life seems to be cheap in this city, thousands die of disease from water and air born pollution every year. The excuse is often, "We are trying to simply feed the people,we don't have time for environmental issues."

England: The environmental resources of cities such as London continue to beat the brink of being overwhelmed. Sewage treatment agencies, industrial environmental regulators, and general agencies find that they are understaffed and underfunded. Excuse, "The war in Iraq is causing a deficit. We don't have resources available."

Ecuador: This South American nation is a jewel of environmental beauty. Yet the national forests are continually raided and forests denuded. Jungles are under pressure from developers. Uninformed groups, even the police, destroy the natural ground cover causing water, vegetation, and run off problems.The excuse for not doing more: "We do not have a stable government, how can we address the environment?"

Mexico: Mexico is plagued with everything from massive lead poisoning, water pollution, air pollution, industrial pollution, poor sanitation systems, and massive disregard for workers environmental health. The excuse for not doing more: "We need more grants from international agencies."

China: China's 1.4 billion people seem to be in a land where the government gives little emphasis on environmental issues, but great emphasis on economic development. Open sewers, poor water supplies, terrible working conditions are seen, particularly when one leaves the "show cities" of Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Reports are that sickness and death from environmental related problems are higher than the world average in most of rural China.

On and on it goes. Even "clean" nations such as Switzerland are suffering from environmental damage, caused by pollution, and subsequent global warming.

In Valais, Switzerland, the Rhone Glacier, has shrunk by 2.5 km.Look at the photo, posted by the Economist. The image from the bottom is from an 1859 etching of the Rhone glacier in Valais, Switzerland, and shows ice filling the valley. In 2001, the glacier had shrunk by some 2.5km, and its 'snout' had shifted about 450 metres higher up.

Image: Gary Braasch (c) A recent trip past Mount Hood showed how global warming was impacting the west. 7 years of declining rains and snows and gradually higher temperatures have reduced snow covers in America's western mountains.

See this photo: Mt. Hood in Washington Ocean tides are rising measurable, because of glacier melt around the world.This is causing some islands to be flooded, and cities like Venice, Italy now have much of the sidewalks and many buildings flooded regularly.The picture shows a section of beach in North Carolina. Rising tides eroding beaches in North Carolina.

Even in Alaska, and throughout the American west, a drive through the forests demonstrates thousands, hundreds of thousands of sick trees. They are sick because of airborne pollution, the lack of water and rains due to global warming and the increase of insects and disease brought on by global warming. Yet the excuse of the U.S. Forest service for not planting more trees, or for not controlling the disease is: "We do not have the funds, itis not economical". Forests sick in Alaska and throughout the American west.

GOOD ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING IS GOOD ECONOMICS

More and more studies are showing that good environmental practices are good economics. More businessmen are coming to the believe that dirty environment is bad business, and that clean environment is cost effective. Polls around the world indicate that a vast majority of the worlds people want their governments and business to provide clean environmental policies.

The Economist, recently reported: "According to two reports published by the World Bank at the end of 2004, significant progress has been made towards developing techniques for valuing environmental costs and benefits. There is, says one of these reports, no longer any excuse for considering them unquantifiable. A turning point came in 1997. In that year, the city government of New York realized that changing agricultural practices meant it would need to act to preserve the quality of the city's drinking water.

One way to have done this would have been to install new water- filtration plants, but that would have cost $4 billion-6 billion up front, together with annual running costs of $250m Instead, the government is paying to preserve the rural nature of the Catskill Mountains from which New York gets most of its water. It is spending $250m on buying land to prevent development, and paying farmers $100m a year to minimize water pollution.

Many of the valuation studies done since then have involved water, probably because it is so obviously a valuable ecological service. Forests and swamps (or "wetlands", to give the latter their politically correct modern moniker) filter and purify water, and act as reservoirs to capture rain and melting snow. When such areas become degraded, it may be necessary to make expensive investments in treatment plants, dams and other flood-control measures."

In Los Angeles north of Beverly Hills, the city and county have bought a large tract of land (near the famous HOLLYWOOD sign) so as to preserve a water shed and lake. Several other American cities, following in New York's footsteps, have calculated that every dollar invested in environmental protection would save millions of dollars. Many of the valuation studies have involved water, probably because it is so obviously a valuable ecological service.

Forests and swamps (or "wetlands", to give the latter their politically correct modern moniker) filter and purify water, and act as reservoirs to capture rain and melting snow. When such areas become degraded, it may be necessary to make expensive investments in treatment plants, dams and other flood-control measures. Several other American cities, following in New York's footsteps, have calculated that every dollar invested in environmental protection would save hundreds of millions of dollars just with good environmental management and planning.

EVEN REMOTE PLACES ARE AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENTAL ABUSE

Who would think that the Panama Canal is in jeopardy because of environmental abuse? Yet water levels are dropping, and sediment is filling the canal, because of denuded forests and the removal of ground cover. At the Miraflores lock on the Panama Canal it is possible to watch the heartbeat of international trade in action.

One by one, giant ships piled high with multi-colored containers creep through the lock's narrow confines and are disgorged neatly on the other side. If it were not for the canal, these ships would have to make a two-to-three-week detour around South America. That would have a significant effect on the price of goods around much of the world. It is therefore sobering to consider that each ship requires 200m liters of fresh water to operate the locks of the canal and that, over the years, this water has been drying up.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, in Panama, think that reforesting the canal's denuded watershed would help regulate the supply. One of them, Robert Stallard, a hydrologist and biogeochemist who also works for the United States Geological Survey in Boulder, Colorado, has operated in the country for two decades, and knows the terrain well. A deforested, grass-covered watershed would release far more water in total than a forested one, he admits, but that water would arrive in useless surges rather than as a useful steady stream. A forested watershed is far more efficient.

ARE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, SPIRITUAL ISSUES?

Scott Colglazier, Senior Minister of University Christian Church, in Fort Worth, Texas is one of America's leading ministers, for one of the largest congregations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He stated in a sermon on April 24, 2005 that: "We must consider protection of Mother Earth, a spiritual priority. Our world is in trouble, due to our lack of effort. Christians must make the effort. Many eastern and indigenous religions are far ahead of Christianity, in recognizing environmental responsibility as good spiritual practice."

ARE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, ECONOMIC ISSUES WORTH STRESSING?

In our research, and in our observations around the world, we can make a strong case, that a good clean environment is good economics and good business. At this time of year, when the world is again celebrating "Earth Day" we should reconsider the importance of environmental issues, and bring these issues to the forefront of our political agendas, our corporate agendas, and even the agendas of our local communities.