Current Trends Now » Environment

Impact Of Cyclone Disaster Tomas In Fiji

Darrel Harminson — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:40:07 +0000

On 16^th March 2010 Fiji islands was hit by the cyclone Tomas. This cyclone hit hard the island nation and forced thousand to seek emergency shelter. It left a trail of heavy damage across the country.

Cyclone Tomas belongs to four-storm category and it is the second-most destructive rating on a five-point scale.

Tomas brought the wind of up to 175 km. Nearly 17,000 peoples were forced to refuge in temporary shelter.

Viti Levu island, eastern outlying islands were worst affected by this cyclone. Telecommunication and electricity of many smaller islands were cut by the storm. In starting phase of storm 50 homes were destroyed. Water and sewage services were also disturbed by this cyclone.

Anthony Blake an officer the National Disaster Management Office operation has declared Fiji as a state of disaster. Authorities have expressed concern to the affected areas of Fiji islands. They are trying to provide all necessary facilities to affected people.

Europe Blocks US Toxic Products

Philip Milton — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:59:33 +0000

US noninterference of toxic substances like lead in lipsticks, mercury in electronics, and phthalates in baby toys, are considered to pose unfavorable reaction to health, and also on economic and political grades in the world. Europe initiated strict new regulations, which need companies exploring access to their profitable markets should expel toxic substances and produce safer electronics, automobiles, toys and cosmetics.

Dangerous toxic chemicals were recognized through the European Union’s 2007 Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) law.

Many companies located in the US manufacture or import hundreds of chemicals considered as hazardous by the European Union. Out of the 267 chemicals identified in the potential REACH list, grouped by the International Chemical Secretariat in Sweden, only one third have regularly been tested by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and only two are controlled in any form under US law.

Due to the contrast between US deregulation and the publicizing of European model of regulation, the US has accumulated toxic materials like toxic toys, electronics and cosmetics.

Effects Of Hurricane Katrina In The US Gulf Coast

Stuwartclarck — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:09:19 +0000

Hurricane is one of the nature’s most destructive disasters. It reaches the shore and causes enormous damage to life, property, creates flash floods, storm surges, fire damage and mudslides.

Among all hurricanes, Hurricane Katrina was the costliest as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of United States. This disaster occurred in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.

On August 23, 2005, the hurricane Katrina was formed over the Bahamas and then crossed southern Florida in a moderate category. Hurricane generally causes some deaths and flooding, but Hurricane Katrina caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas. Disaster effect was high due to the storm surge.

However, the severe property damage took placed in coastal areas, like Mississippi beachfront towns. They were flooded over to 90 percent in hours. At least 1,836 people lost their lives in hurricane and subsequent floods. All these destruction made Katrina as the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.

The disaster had major implications on the population, economy, and politics of the entire United States. It has prompted congressional review of the Corps of Engineers and the failure of the federally built flood protection system.

Economic impacts of global warming

Richard Campbell — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:48:12 +0000

Several estimates of aggregate net economic costs of projected damages from climate change across the globe are now available. These are often expressed in terms of the social cost of carbon (SCC), the aggregate of future net benefits and costs, due to global warming from carbon dioxide emissions that are discounted to the present. Peer-reviewed estimates of the SCC for 2005 have an average value of US$43 per tonne of carbon (tC) (i.e., US$12 per tonne of carbon dioxide, tCO2) but the range around this mean is large. For example, in a survey of 100 estimates, the values ran from US$-10 per tonne of carbon (US$-3 per tonne of carbon dioxide) up to US$350/tC (US$95 per tonne of carbon dioxide.) In a 2004 remark on the economic effect of global warming in Copenhagen Consensus, Professor Robert O. Mendelsohn of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, stated that.

A series of studies on the impacts of climate change have analytically shown that the older literature overestimated climate damages by failing to allow for adaptation and for climate benefits. Countries in the polar region are likely to receive large benefits from warming, countries in the mid-latitudes will at first profit and only begin to be debilitated if temperatures rise above 2.5C. Only countries in the hot and subtropical regions are probable to be harmed right away by warming and be subject to the magnitudes of impacts first thought likely. Summing these regional impacts across the globe implies that warming benefits and damages will likely offset each other until warming passes 2.5C and even then it will be far smaller on net than originally thought (Mendelsohn and Williams 2004).” McKibbin and Wilcoxen (2002) cite the United Nations IPCC as concluding with 33 to 67 percent self-belief that the aggregate market sector effect of a small increase in global temperatures could be “plus or minus a few percent of world GDP”. Developed countries are more likely to experience positive effects and developing countries are more likely to experience negative effects. Larger temperature increase would be more adverse across the board. McKibbin and Wilcoxen do not endorse GDP as a welfare measure.

Hazardous wastes in the United States

Philip Milton — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:32:16 +0000

Currently most of the small businesses like dry cleaners, automobile repair shops, hospitals, exterminators, and photo processing centers and large companies like chemical manufacturers, electroplating companies, and oil refineries generate the hazardous waste. A US facility that treats, stores or disposes of hazardous waste must obtain a permit for doing so under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Generators of and transporters of hazardous waste must meet specific requirements for handling, managing, and tracking waste. Through the RCRA, the United States Environmental Protection Agency to create regulations to manage the hazardous waste. Under this rule, the EPA developed strict requirements for all aspects of hazardous waste management including the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste.

Some states might develop more stringent requirements in addition to these federal requirements. In the United States, mainly the hazardous wastes generated by commercial or industrial activities may be classified as “listed” hazardous wastes or “characteristic” hazardous wastes by the EPA. Either appears on one of the four hazardous wastes lists (F-list, K-list, P-list, or U-list) or exhibits at least one of the four “characteristics” of hazardous waste (ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity). Individual states may regulate particular wastes more harshly than mandated by federal regulation. This is because the U.S. EPA is authorized to delegate primary rulemaking authorization to individual states. Most states take advantage of this authority and form their own state regulatory agencies that are monitored by the U.S. EPA.