Decorations lead to death

Image Source: ibermutuamur.es

Air pollution is a prominent problem in China and it has been drawing a lot of public/government attention for years, especially after Beijing won the bid for 2008 Olympic. However, another category of air pollution, the indoor air pollution, has always been omitted and now it is time to pay more attention due to the increasing cancer incident and medical expense related to this type of environmental problem. Recently, the China's first case of a child killed by toxic fumes given off by indoor decoration materials has come before the court and a compensation of 170,000 Yuan (AUD$27,900 ) was awarded to the plaintiff. The incident is about a four-year-old girl was diagnosed with acute leukemia and died in August 2005 after staying in her newly decorated apartment for 10 months.

In most developing countries, when they talk about indoor air pollution, it is always about the kitchen smoke generated from burning stalks, wood and low-quality coal. However, with rapid urbanization and development, indoor air pollution from buliding materials becomes a new member of the pollution catergory. China, for instance, the incidents of leukemia among children in the country’s metropolises is worsening within the past decades and there is a rising trend of the children of migrant workers catching blood diseases. In Beijing and Shanghai, the incidence of leukemia in children is 4.6 per 100,000, while the highest is about 7 in 100,000 in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. It is believed tha more than half of the blood cancer patients are victims of indoor air pollution from home and school refurbishment and decoration.

Indeed, air pollutants emit from architectural materials and building interiors has long been an issue in many developed countries. Over the past decade, increasingly stringent VOCs (voltaic organic compounds, the major indoor air pollutant) regulations have led to the development of water-based solvent and other alternatives for solvent-based paint. However, in most developing countries including China, they are still stick to solvent-based paint and other low quality building materials, that lots of such material are already abandoned or banned by developed countries.

I believed the reason behind is not only because of the lower environmental awareness/knowledge in developing countries but also the existence of wealth gaps. For most cleaner and better technology, it is very hard for the industry and the market in developing world to absorb without foreign aids. But in current global economic and politic systems, newer and cleaner technologies are always developed by private corporations and such technologies will only be transferred through the market instead of free transfer as humanity aids. It sounds to be again that injustice is one of the inherent characteristic of our society.

News link : Decorations lead to death

Beer Lovers' Rationalization

“Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest.”
– The Buffalo Theory

It is from one of my friends’ email I received recently. He tried to show me a very valid reason for drinking beer by using Darwin’s Natural Selection Theory. In the email, the Buffalo Theory explains:

"When the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first.This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular culling of the weakest members.

In much the same way the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells.Excessive intake of alcohol, as we all know, kills off brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers!.”

If only this were true, we'd all be genius!

Ginger,Close-Up!

Some close-up pictures of my lovely kitty Ginger.



More Photos: Ginger, Close-up!

An Inconvenient Truth

Caption: An Inconvenient Truth is the first climate documentary to get mainstream distribution. Former US vice President Al Gore is featured and is the narrator in the about the truths of global warming. Photo Source:Paramount Classics

"Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced. If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom - think again. This documentary offers a passionate and inspirational look at former Vice President Al Gore's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress."

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH is a climate documentary made by the former US vice president Al Gore. I’ve been waiting for this movie for long time and it showed in the Sydney Film Festival few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I missed it… too bad! I have to wait until September when it is shown in the cinemas.

Some criticisms said that the motivation of Gore make the film is to gain publicity as he is a possible presidential candidate in 2008. However, the film also make a change in the cinematic landscape in which documentaries from all sides of the political spectrum are finding audiences and affecting the political conversation. No matter what is the motivation of the documentary, it still gives a powerful lecturer on climate as it borrow a Hollywood marketing playbook to propagandize impacts of climate change as well as raining people’s environmental consciousness.

Global warming has been a passion of Gore's since he was a student a Harvard University. After losing the presidential election and leaving office five years ago, Gore pulled together a nonpartisan slide show on the effects of global warming and took it on the road, making hundreds of appearances since then at universities and colleges, and for lawmakers, environmentalists and anyone else who will listen.

View Movie Trailers Here
Official Website: An Inconvenient Truth

Too much money, Too less sport (2)

Days before the big kick-off, there also have been complaints from the German organisers that the marketing of this tournament has reached unacceptable levels.The amount of money paid by the World Cup sponsors rise sharply in past few years: US brewing giant Anheuser-Busch paid 40 million dollars (31 million euros) to be one of the 2006 World Cup’s 15 official sponsors, sparking outrage in Germany where all but one local beer will be banned from the stadiums in favor of Budweiser. Polls in Germany also showed that the public is growing sick of World Cup-related advertising and product tie-ins. Just wonder whether there have limits of money-making.

The side effect of money that ruins the sports not only can be found in the World Cup as it is also the core cause of the Italian match-fixing scandal. The Football Federation's prosecutor charged Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio, as well as 26 individuals for sporting fraud and violating fairness and probity. Juventus almost certainly face relegation as a result of the scandal, while AC Milan may receive lighter punishment.

I am quite depressed by the news as once I was a very big fan of the Italian Serie A., especially during the age of Roberto Biaggio and the time when Del Piero started his career in Juventus. What is happening now is too bad...anyway, hopefully the scandal can give some sorts of lesson to the sports world.

More information: FIFA deny World Cup spoiled by money-making

Too much money, Too less sport

Photo Source: freshegg.com

Sport is the world’s most common language. The World Cup,as one of the biggest sports events, it is supposed to be a platform of building bridges across boundaries and ethnic. However, due to its enormous profit making potential, every one just tries to to make big bucks from the global frenzy and distorts the real spirit of sports, I think.

In some cities and countries, the broadcasting right is snatched by paid TV and high prices are set which avoid some lower income groups and poor people to enjoy all the 64 matches. Although the first and the last few matches are broadcasted for free everywhere, watching the process of how the teams going to the final is definitely the heart of World Cup, but such right is being deprived from some poorer people. Sports is no longer being a bridge across different people, but a potential tool to deepen the problem of social injustic as some poorer social groups are being excluded in this universal event when money is involved. What is underlying the “sports spirit” nowaday is more likely refer to the partnership between football, the economy and television which need to find a way to benefit all sides. Sports now is a bit over commericalised and capitalised. So sad to reckon this reality.

The Dirty Secret of China's Economy

Photo Source: The Globalist

According the latest statistics from the China's top environmental agency the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), the mainland's pollution scourge costs almost 10% loss in gross domestic product of the country, which is roughly about $200 billion a year. That's why an article used the title "The Dirty Secret of China's Economy" to criticize the country's economic development.

China is a remarkable growth story. But it is also fast becoming an ecological wasteland, home to world-class smog, acid rain, polluted rivers and lakes, and deforestation. Environmental problems play a role in the death of some 300,000 Chinese people each year, according to World Bank estimates.”

- Brian Bremner, "Business Online"

It is quite true that with the China’s “Dragonomics”, it is unrealistic to expect China to be very clean or environmentally sound. Indeed, the Chinese government shows quite a lot of initiatives about how to make China greener and more sustainable. For example, the newly released 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), which is the guideline for development directions, propagates more energy-saving, higher value-added industries as well as expanding the services sector as a call for turning away from rough, polluting, and energy-wasting industries that had been made as early as the mid. The 11th Five-Year Plan further stipulates that the industrial sector must cut energy use by 20 percent.

The Chinese Government also suggested heaps of schemes to deal with different environmental problem, such as Green GDP etc. But many skeptics wonder whether all these are just done for greening the Beijing Olympics 2008 and the country will lose interest after the Game. Although I am also quit suspicious about the environmental program for the Beijing Olympics is some sorts of greenwashing, I am still optimistic that the Chinese Government does learn some lesson from the Western mordernisation. So, it is too early to say whether they will lose interest and will do badly in environmental protection after the Olympics. Let’s see.

More information:
The Dirty Secret of China's Economy
Green GDP — The Real Chinese Revolution?

Football, Solar City – Gelsenkirchen

Caption: Gelsenkirchen- a model to move dirty energy source to sustainable and clean solar energy (Photo Source: FC Schalke 04 and the City of Gelsenkirchen Official Website)

Immediately after the World Cup opening match in Munich on 9 June 2006, the second match of the tournament is kicked off at the FIFA World Cup Stadium Gelsenkirchen, a city once know “the city of a thousand fires” for its dependency on coal-mining, now has shifted its energy focus dramatically to become a national solar energy technology centre.

The city was once dominated by the coal industry, however, the coal crisis in the late 1950s brought about a structural change away from coal and steel. Today, Gelsenkirchen is more renowned for cleaner solar energy and has developed into a national business and research centre for solar technology. More than 21,000 of jobs in the renewable energy sector are also created throughout the transformation. Moreover, the end of coal to exploitation has also made way for a rich cultural landscape with mineshafts being replaced by theatres and cabarets.

Green power and solar energy debates have been lasted for years in Australia. However, moving to solar energy means a decentralization of electricity service and a reform of economy structure, which involves heaps of vested interests and large corporations. The myth between government-business relationship is definitely the biggest barrier for the clean energy transformation, from my point of views. That’s why the solar energy development in Australia is always stayed within the academic domain, while centralized nuclear energy plants development dominated the policy agendas in Oz.

(The next match in Gelsenkirchenis the quarter final between England/Ecuador and Portugal/Holland on 1 July. I do looking forward a good game in this Solar City!)

More about the city:
Science Park, Solar City, "Stairway to Heaven"
The history of the city of Gelsenkirchen

Hydrogen Bus to Ferry Football Fans in Germany

Caption: Two hydrogen are being tested by football fans in Berlin. Environment-friendly hydrogen-fuelled buses will be a common sight in European streets in the future. (Photo Source: MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group )

Football fans in Germany traveling from the stadiums are riding hydrogen buses during the World Cup. Two 12 m single-deckers hydrogen buses are being tested in the Berlin bus network to transfer World Cup visitors coming or going from the Olympic Stadium or the Tegel Airport.

This project is a part of a sustainability development program HyFLEET to contribute to the establishment of a safe hydrogen infrastructure for the European future. The buses will be tanked at a service station that the station is itself part of the experiment: a steam reformer will generate, on site, gaseous or liquid hydrogen meeting the majority of the fuel needed to feed the buses. Fuel cells from a Sweden-based company will be used to power and heat the tank station. Fuel hybrid vehicles are used in other "Lion's cities”, such as Hannover and Hamburg, to shuttle visitors between World Cup games in order to achieve better urban-driving efficiency and lower emissions.

However, when adopting new hybrid vehicles, questions about in what way the energy source is clean and renewable, what energy use to produce the hydrogen fuel cell and what are the negative environmental impacts associated should also bear in mind.

More Information:
First hydrogen buses for Berlin: today's step into the future of mobility
Hydrogen Buses for Football Fans at the FIFA World Cup in Berlin

How China involves in the Germany World Cup

Photo Source: Yahoo! FIFA World Cup

Although China is unable to qualify for the Germany World Cup, everyone one in Germany is still able to feel China’s “involvement”- it is because most of the flying German National flags are made in China!!

Some flags manufactures announced that the number of different national flags used in the Germany World Cup is far more than the number in 2002. In the past few months, one flag manufacturer already used more the 300 thousands square meter of clothes to make national flags and half of them are used for the German one’s. The company now produces 30 thousands flags every month instead of 150 before the World Cup. The cheap price of the flags(1 euro to 2 euro) is also another reasons for the drastic sales boost. It is believed that such cheap price is solely because they are “Made in China”!

Relater Article: How China involves in the Germany World Cup 2006 (Chinese Article)

Green Goal

It has been a while I haven’t update my Blog. Last week was the final week of semester and I was so busy with all presentations and assignments in last few weeks. My work doesn’t final yet as I still have one 4000 essay to go. This week seems much busier…not because of study but the World Cup!! Vive de fútbol!

As Australia also participate in this year (after missing the competition for 32 years), the Aussies are just suddenly being so crazy about this sport. Everything here, news, commercial or non-commercial stuff etc, are link with the competition to draw people’s attention. Similar situation in Hong Kong as the World Cup fever is just sweeping across the city and driving almost everyone crazy. So do I.

Some environmental protection project is also taking in place with this soccer fever as it can probably yield twice the result with half the effort when everyone’s attention is on the topic. A Green Goal™ was piloted in The 2006 FIFA World Cup™ which is assigned a central role to protecting the global climate. For the first time ever at a FIFA World Cup, the event’s effect on the climate will be minimized by conventional methods of energy efficiency, use of renewable energy sources and support for environment-friendly transportation. Unavoidable greenhouse gases, emitted throughout Germany, will be balanced by investment in climate projects, ensuring the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ ends up "climate neutral". Tight, measurable targets also set to minimize the environmental impacts from this sports event. For example, they set rules to restrict plastics, food and drink packaging and promotional items in the stadiums and introduce high-tech energy management systems to reduce 20 per cent in electricity consumption on both and match and non-match days.

It is a very positive and effective strategy to incorporate environmental considerations into the World Cup and I can see including environmental impacts and considerations are increasingly being factored into important sporting events. What an uplifting news for the environment! Although it is very possible they are not doing as good as they can, but at least they moved the first step!

Link: 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany: Green Goal

New "Trend" in Hybird Car

Source: Rustle the Leaf

With high gas prices straining our household budgets, hybrid car has been advocated (both by government, car manufactures and some scientists) as the “best” alternative of conventional petroleum-based vehicles for a long long time. Such advocacy is much more strengthened with these two years due to the striking oil price.

Originally, the rationale behind hybrid car development was to reduce gasoline consumption and reduce air emissions. Fuel efficiency, together with alternative energy source, should be the main concerns. However, new hybrids car model are very focus on power and speed, ther newer the hybrid car model, the faster and more powerful it is. It implies that more fuel/electricity are required pre journey with those newly innovations. It seems to me that there is a risk the hybrid car development is going out of the track.

The current hybrid car development trend is a good demonstration about the “effectiveness” of using technology to fix environmental problems. Technology is one of the solutions but never can be the only solution to deal with environmental crisis. In the hybrid car case, attitudes towards how and why people using car is the more underlying cause that we have to deal with. It is pointless to use an environmentally sounded technology or products in an unenvironmentally friendly way. Similar situation in the nuclear power or other renewable energy development. Shifting energy sources or finding alternative are not able to solve energy crisis if people keep using energy in consumptive and insensible way.

Sadly, the main stream environmental practice is still focus on techno-fixed solution. Although there are heaps of people and studies suggestion and urging about the essential of changing attitudes, behavior and culture, those discussion are still fighting only on paper.

Latest News on Hybrid Car: Scientists Back Plug-In Hybrids

A “Damn” from Space

Caption: Damning the Earth? The Keyhole Nebula NGC 3372 (Source: NASA Image Gallery)

The photo was taken in 2000 by NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team. This Nebula is about 8000 light years away.
When I saw the image first time, I found that this glowing cloud of gas, dust and stars is just like giving us their “middle finger”. Well, it is just a normal astrophysical phenomenon in the outer space. But for a raving person like me, I will say it is a damn to the Earth because those who are living on the globe is not only damaging their own planet but also dumping rubbish to the space. The world currently sends approximately 200 tons of payloads, the equivalent of two 747 freighter flights, into space annually and there is an increasing trend for such “illegal dumpling”. In US, some scientists suggested that to dump the nuclear waste into the space is the best option for nuclear waste disposal!! So, it is very reasonable why the outer space gives us their “middle finger”!!

About the Keyhole Nebula

Ecological Footprint

Caption:What we did and doing is making permanent mark on our planet. (Image Source: http://dieoff.org/Foot.gif)

Ecological Footprints is an environmental accounting tool to estimate the resources consumption, emissions and waster assimilation requirements of a defined human population or economy in terms of corresponding productive land use. A population’s ecological footprint is the total area of productive land or sea required to produce all the crops, meat, seafood, wood and fibre it consumes, to sustain its energy consumption with the biologically productive capacity of the land and sea available to population.

According to the WWF research in 2002, the Earth has about 11.4 billion hectares of productive land and sea space and it is about 1.9 hectares per person. Nevertheless, we consumed 2.3 hectares per person which was 20% above the Earth’s biological capacity. Moreover, due to the wealth gaps between nations, not every one can consume their own productive space. In 1999, the average for North American was about 9.6 hectares per capita, while it was 5.0 hectares per person in Europe and 1.9 for Asian and African. (China is 2.0 hectares per person in 2001)WWF predicted that the humanity’s footprint is likely to grow to about 220% of the earth’s capacity by the year 2050. It means that we need 2 more Earth to sustain our activities at that time!

Yet, there are some limitations to use ecological footprints to estimate the environmental degradation. One major deficiency of this tool is only CO2 emissions are included in land consumption calculation. Other emissions are assumed to be within the carrying capacity of receiving environment but the validity of such assumption is really doubtful.

By the way, I still think that ecological footprints is pretty useful in terms of education as it can help those who do not have science, engineering and environmental background to understand the broad picture of the land required to support their activities on a per capita basis, and of the enormous inequities between nations of the world in access to resources and pressures placed on the planet.

To calculate your own Ecological footprint: Earth Day Footprint
More about Ecological Footprint: Global Footprint Network

Quote of the Day

The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.

Larry Hardiman

(I tried to get more information about who is Larry Hardiman but i just failed to found more about him. What a pity!)

Light and Shadow

This is a photo I took in a cemetery when I went for a walk before. I was so impressed when I saw this view: shadows of different kind crosses form other graves projected on to a grave that with Mary’s statue during the sunset time. It just gave me a strong sense of peacefulness and holiness even though I am not a religious person. (I went to church for a whole year last year but eventually I reckon that those kind of spiritual stuffs do not fit in with my shoes.)

Greenwash

Image Source: Portland indymedia , Green Left

Last week was an extraordinary busy week for me because I had to attend a short course of Environmental Auditing (EA).

Environmental Auditing, by academic definition, is a systematic, independent and documented assessment process to evaluate the environmental performance of an organisation, a facility, a process, a service or a product against a set of pre-agreed criteria. . Performing an EA is suppose to improve environmental performance, identify risks, improve staff and public relations, ensure compliance and contribute to a defence of due diligence. However, the current EA practice seems to me that is being a tool to greenwash a company or a product. (Greenwash, by my word, is an action of giving people a false sense of eco-satisfaction and giving a positive public image to putatively environmentally unsound practices.)

The main reason for an organisation to conduct EA nowadays is to accredit with the ISO 14000 series standard to benchmark their Environmental Management Systems or “environmentally friendly” practices or products. Yet, there has some major flaw of the ISO requirement as it does not assess the real environmental performance and outcome of a company but to assess whether the company has “continual improvement” in their environmental related aspects. So, it is very possible for a company or a product accredited with ISO certification but the company is doing something harming the environment seriously. I heard a story about an environmental audit of a printing company in Australia. They did the audit in order to accredit with the ISO standards. They got the ISO certificate just by improving their printing material treatment and paper usage from “sub-standard” to “below standard. However, once the got the ISO certificate, their customers may just think that their printing activities are in “environmentally friendly” manner!! I dare to say that heaps of multinational corporations or oil companies are doing such “greenwashing” stuff. McDonald’s is a good example and their environmental management system is accredited with ISO 14001.

By the way, EA and ISO are still useful tools to get the company at least to start some improvement and awareness on their environmental performance.

More about Ginger

Ginger

It'd been a while I haven't updated my Blog. The main reasons are i'm a bit lazy and a bit busy with the new member in my apartment- Ginger, a four-months old kitten! After her arrival, we have much more funs+work with this little cat and i do really enjoy a lot althought sometimes i doubt that i am the kitten's servant instead of master!!

The Dying Out of April Fool's Day

(Source: Star Wars' Funny)

Just wonder if anyone celebrates April Fool's Day anymore. It seems to me that the official day of practical joking appears to be as flat as a deflated cushion. In the past, people would make hoaxes during the day to bring in some funs and sense of humor in the unexcited everyday life.For example,

The Left-Handed Whopper
In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."
(Source: The Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time)

Well, there still has some April Fool's jokes in recent years, but most of them are circulated within Internet instead of mainstream media. One joke made by Nature.com last year that an lunar image taken by the Floating Optical Orbital Lens (F.O.O.L) revealed that the moon surface was being heavily eroded by the bacteria that Apollo lunar mission left behind!
I’d really like to have more these kinds of jokes around us. People nowadays become more serious, feeling insecure or even scare because of different sorts of instability and threats (terrorism, natural disasters, environmental degradation, more competitive and demanding workplace etc.). Depression, psychiatric or psychological problems due to pressure become more and more common, and even becomes a social problem in some big cities. So, the celebratipn of April Fool's Day may refresh our world with a bit more humours.

Interesting Links:
The Origin of April Fool's Day
The Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time

What is your political position?

My friend introduced a very interesting web site in his blog. It is about a test called "Political Compass" which helps us to know about our own political stand. Here is my political compass:
Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.15

Web site: The Political Compass

Post-Normal Science

Caption: Post-Normal Science can be located in relation to the more traditional complementary strategies, by means of a diagram . (by J. Ravetz)


These few days I am doing some reading and research on the concept of “Post-normal science” to help me diagnose the process of environmental policy making. It might be a bit sophisticated or boring for those who are not interested in the environmental stuff, but I still found it is an interesting concept to share as it can trigger us to rethink about the role and the nature of science.

Post-Normal Science is a concept to describe the methodology of scientific “facts” inquiry in contemporary conditions, especially in the environmental science and policy arena. The so-called objective “truth” or hard “scientific facts” from science research itself is no longer adequate to deal with the uncertainty, decision stakes and complexity of environmental problems. Most of environmental policy are value-driven that soft subjective human value are “hard” in various ways, for which the scientific inputs are irremediably “soft” instead. It is a new form of scientific “facts” construction and interpretation with the involvement and participation of different stakeholder & local knowledge to construct new “facts” as a basis for policy making. To put it simplier, post-normal science is:

Scientific facts+ extended facts (such as local knowledge) + human value = new perception of "scientific facts" as policy basis

After reading enormous amount of related readings, there are only two words in my mind about what happens with science in the environmental arena, i.e. “politicizing science”.
By the way, science researches are always goal-driven and value-laden. What we need to do, as a general citizen or reader or whatever, is to be more sensible with those scientific reports or articles, and think about what are the drives behind such scientific publishing, maybe we can find more interesting stories after.

Further Information: The Post-normal Time

Uranium Fever

Caption: Nuclear Energy is much dirter than we throught.

Australia is the world’s number two exporter of uranium after Canada despite Australia has almost half the world's known uranium supply. One reason for their “limited” uranium export is that the Howard government promised years ago (for electoral purpose) that no more new uranium mines would be allow due to environmental concern. However, the country now is under huge pressure, basically economic force, to open new uranium mines after the landmark nuclear power deal between India and the Untied States, plus the formalisation of uranium export negotiations with China since the end of last year.
Apart from the question that wheather the nuclear technology or uranium will be ended up as dreadful weapons in China or/and India, there is other question about whether the “civil nuclear energy reform” is a correct direction for long term sustainable development in developing countries.
Public opinion is gradually swinging towards accepting nuclear energy to help combat climate change but in reality, nuclear power is much dirtier, more dangerous and expensive than it apparently looks like. Although the advance in technology ensures no Chernobyl-scale disaster could happen again in theory, nuclear waste remains a major problem. Even there may be technical solutions to dealing with the nuclear waste, such toxic waste management is an ongoing, non-stop process with present technology, which means that cost and energy of dealing the waste are required for very long term. Hence, the benefits of nuclear energy to combat climate change are not clear and it seems to me that nuclear power is definitely not the answer for climate change. In addition, it consumed a lot of energy and resources to build a nuclear plant but the life-span of the plant is always too short to pay-back what it consumed. In fact, nuclear energy is a non-renewable energy and uranium is finite resource.
Sadly, the fact is uranium prices have more than tripled in the past five years to record highs, in step with higher oil prices, nuclear energy seems regard as the most common alternative (but not the most welcome) source to fossil fuels. Just wonder whether the illusion and delusion on nuclear will be clarified.

Clean Water

Photo Source: Geotimes.org

Clean water is essential to human health, and the constant availability of clean water from tap is virtually taken for granted in where we are staying, I mean the developed urban paradise we are living. In the developing world it is the reverse. According to WHO and UNICEF, we have more than 1 billion people — about one sixth of the world's population — do not have access to safe drinking water – and it also suggest that this number could quadruple by 2025. Most of them are in rural Africa and Asia, and millions of children and leaving millions more on the brink of survival.
However, around the world our supplies of freshwater are increasingly threatened by pollution, overuse and climate change. Problems with access are most severe in the developing world but even wealthy and relatively water-rich nations, like the U.S., need to take action to ensure that their water supplies can meet looming threats.
Prescription For Survival is a science documentary that I watched tonight. It is the trigger that makes me to think about the clean water issue now. The program is a six-part documentary series and one of the topics is the clean water. It told a case of one small village in Uganda. In that remote village, the only source of fresh water for the villagers is an open pound, where is also a water source for their cattle and other animals. The only water system there is plastic water containers, children and adult. No doubt that the water is not clean and unsafe to drink. As far as I saw from TV, the water they drink is dirtier than the water I used after cleaning the floor yesterday. It makes me feel very uncomfortable when I saw them to drink! WHO and UNICEF are trying to improve the situation but they find a lot of difficulties because of lack of funding and the severe drought. Meanwhile, Australia is still using fresh, clean water for toilet flushing.
Well, I have no idea about how to fix or to improve the problem, as well as how to deal with the injustice between developed and developing country. What I think I can do is to do something from individual for first step, i.e. to use water more wisely, cautiously and carefully. It makes me feel a bit better to enjoy the fresh water while knowing somebody is suffering from not having this basic essential.

P.S. Some example water saving strategies that you don't even need to have a big change in your living habit:
- Washing dishes by hand, fill one sink or basin with soapy water. Quickly rinse under a slow-moving stream from the faucet
- Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Dispose of tissues, insects and other similar waste in the trash rather than the toilet.
- Wash vegetable and fruit in containers or sink instead of running the tap.

Useful Link
Family Water Audit Check out to see how well you use water.
Water Saving tips A comprehensive and interactive website to investigate water saving opportunities in each area of our home.
Challenges to Clean Water Worldwide

How fast should I run in the rain?

This is an age old question that whether we need to run or walk under the rain if we don’t have an umbrella with us. By common sense, we have to run as fast as we can to stay as dry as possible. Even there has a possibility that we are colliding with extra rains drops if we run instead of walk. We still believe that run is better than walk to keep ourselves drier.
However, some mathematicians found that there is a surprising twist to this understanding. They used mathematics formula and calculation to find out the answer and have such conclusion”

If you are a person of typical build and the rain is
coming from behind you at the speed of a gentle walking pace, you will be hit by less rain if you amble along than if you run full pelt.
- “Why Do Buses Come in Threes? The Hidden Mathematics of Everyday Life” by Rob Eastaway, Jeremy Wyndham

Well, I haven’t thought about such question seriously before. It is so easy for us to ignore and neglect something which is so common in our everyday life. But I found that I’ll have much more funs if I pay a bit more attention to something so normal to me. One of the best examples is the hidden mathematics of our daily life. For example, what is the best way to cut a cake, why the honeycombs build as hexagons, why bad things always happen in threes, etc. All of such questions are related to mathematics. So even of the people who has math phobia are actually dealing with math everyday.
I highly recommend you guys to read the book Why Do Buses Come in Threes? by Rob Eastaway, Jeremy Wyndham. It is an easy-reading and fascinatic book that gives the amusing, interesting, and practical aspects of math around us, helps you to look your daily life with one more interesting perspective.

The Bushisms

I received an email from my friend and it is some quotes of the U.S president G.W. Bush. It is really hard for me to believe that he said such thing. Could anyone be able to make such a duffer as the US President is made out to be? The first thing came up my mind is "did Bush really say all these things?"
Well, I'm not going to justify but just to share it for funs. For sure, there should be something wrong with Bush that makes people keep making jokes on him.

Here you are:

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." - George W. Bush

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country." - George W. Bush

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - George W. Bush

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'." - George W. Bush

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." - George W. Bush

"The future will be better tomorrow." - George W. Bush

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world." - George W. Bush

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." - George W. Bush

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firmcommitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."- George W. Bush

"Public speaking is very easy." - George W. Bush

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls." - George W. Bush

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur." - George W. Bush

"For NASA, space is still a high priority." - George W. Bush

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children." - George W. Bush

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system." - George W. Bush

Quiz

I’ve done a quiz recently. It is a quiz on how well we know about what’s happening in the world. Sadly I just got half correct and I found that I have quite a lot of misconceptions about the global trend. You know, when I checked the answers, I just thought that some of them couldn’t be true, but it is! I found I got a wrong picture about the world, probably due to media misinformation or stereotyping, as well as my obsession with certain “facts”.
Go to test yourself how much you know about the things that are happening around us. It is a very good test to correct our obsession of some “facts” that we commonly know. Take a paper out and mark down your choice. I’ve put the answer in the “comment” session following this post.


1. Complete this statement: "Bicycle production has decreased over the last decade in every world region except in..."
A. Europe
B. Africa
C. Asia


2. What energy source was consumed most in 2000, after fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas?
A. Hydropower and traditional biomass
B. Nuclear
C. Solar


3. Which country—the United States, Saudi Arabia, or the former Soviet Union—produced the most oil in 1950? In 2003?
A. United States; Soviet Union
B. Soviet Union; Saudi Arabia
C. United States; Saudi Arabia


4. In 2002, United States residents emitted how much more carbon dioxide than residents of India?
A. 2 times as much
B. 17 times as much
C. 23 times as much


5. Which country leads the world in photovoltaic (solar cell) production?
A. United states
B. Japan
C. Sweden


6. Which country was home to the most Internet users in 2001?
A. Japan
B. United States
C. China


7. Which European country has on average 1.6 mobile phone subscriptions for every person?
A. Czech Republic
B. United Kingdom
C. Luxembourg


8. In 2002, the world spent $_____ on military expenditures while the UN spent $_____ on peacekeeping.
A. $735 billion; $83.7 billion
B. $943 billion; $375 billion
C. $943 billion; $2.82 billion


9. True or False? China is projected to be the most populous country in the world in 2050.
A. False
B. True


10. In 2002, did the world consume more beer, coffee, or bottled water?
A. Coffee
B. Bottled Water
C. Beer

Photo and information Source: Worldwatch Institute

Plasticoholic

Caption: Every year more than 100,000 whales, sea bird and sea turtle are killed by plastic bags. (Photo Source: Planet Ark )

Every minute, we consume over one million plastic bag. An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Billions end up as litter as only one out of five is recycled on average.

Refer back to the situation of my home town Hong Kong, it was estimated that 27 million plastic bags were disposed of each day in Hong Kong in 2001. But recent figures show that we are using 33 million plastic bags per day now. Approximately 1700 plastic bags are used per person per year, which is four to five times the consumption level per person of Australia. I believe such dramatic increase in plastic bags consumption is mainly blame to the distribution of plastic bags with newspaper purchase, which is more or less a marketing strategy started by chain convenience stores few years ago. Small news agency and kiosks have no choice but to follow in order to maintain their competitiveness. A vicious cycle formed and it further encourages our plastic bags using habit which is disaster for our environment. Too bad.

With the emerging threat of “white pollution” (that polythene jamming and blowing on the streets) and the saturation of landfill lands within 6-10 year, our government starts to act more proactively. They started the consultation of posing an environmental tax on plastic bags (and tyres as well) in a bid to help cut demand for plastic bags.

Well, I think it is a good starting although it is a bit late to response the plastic bags problem. There has some successful case of the implementation plastic bag consumption tax. Like in Ireland, their plastic consumption reduced 90% after the implementation of PlasTax. However, one important component for their success is the Irish government spent all the money they raised from the tax on environmental conservation related area. That’s one thing I’m a bit worry about Hong Kong government. I’m pretty doubt that their main initiative and objective is raising revenue, environmental focus is only an appendix. Hopefully I’m just over-worried.

Related news :

"PlasTax" - Scoop on the Plastic Bag Tax

Plastic Bags - Just say "No!"

My Aussie Trip

I made a "Fish-hook" tour in Oz from mid-January to early February. Here are some photos i took during the trip.
The Red Centre
Great Ocean Road
South Austrlaia

The End Of The World As We Know It

Caption: Meltwater flowing of the Greenland ice sheet, 2002. (Source: NASA Observaory)


The End Of The World As We Know, is a documentary exploring climate change I saw tonight. It did gain some noise when I broadcast in UK last year as the program emphasizes again and again that the real threat we are facing is definitely not global terrorism but global warming, which the majority are not really agree with. The presenter interviews different experts, not just environmentalists but scientists and financiers and even the Shell’s director, about their scary of climate change.
Just 30 minutes before the program, I head another bad news about the case of Greenland's glaciers. The NASA satellite just found that the Greenland’s glaciers are losing ice quicker than any scientific prediction or modeling, and the results could mean ocean levels will rise even faster than previously thought. And the glaciers may melt even more quickly in the years to come. The founding does not analysis the acceleration of the Greenland ice sheet melting and moving but most scientists agree that human activity and burning fossil fuels, is playing an important role in global warming.I received an email from a U.S. friend and he told me the majority of people in his country have no idea of how their activities use energy, or are even aware of it any level, which entitles the U.S. becomes the world biggest greenhouse gases chimney. Meanwhile the U.S. government offer different “solutions” to show their concern on the issue but it seems that the situation does not change a bit. This not only happens in the U.S. but everywhere in the world.
It is very clear that we are seeing our warning sign but we just neglect this great peril. Our modern lifestyle and “fundamental needs” are bankrupting our nature resource; threaten our future planet. It is sad that for most people the attraction of modern life resist them for a change.
Climate change is creating the hugest obstacle to humanity and human are powerless to stop GHGs forcing the climate change if we are not doing more proactively right now.

Related News: Glaciers Losing Ice Quicker
Greenland's glaciers are slip-sliding away

Sleeping - Way out for big decisions

Thinking hard about a complex decision will bamboozle our mind. Most people are only able to consider a subset of information or part of the multiple factors in conscious mind, which they may weight inappropriately and resulting in an unsatisfactory choice. Sleeping on a big decision, in contrast, the unconscious mind appears able to ponder over all the information and produce a decision that most people remain satisfied with, the scientists suggested.
How many big decisions I have ever made and how I made them? Those are the questions come up to my mind. Honestly, I can’t remember any big decision I made recently so far. Um….buying a car? Not really. I did spend some time to search but once I found the car I made the decision very soon. How about quitting my job to seek for further study opportunity? I couldn’t remember I had weighing up the pros and cons to come.
I thought I am a person who always makes snap decisions or judgments, with feeling or the sixth sense. Maybe it is a bit risky but I always remain lucky, happy and satisfy with the results produced, no matter it is wanted/expected or not. How lucky I am! Of course I am not always depend on luck, efforts sometime are required to make things nicer.

Related News: 'Sleeping on it' best for complex decisions -

Apple Core

How big is the core left after eating an apple? This question never came up to my mind until I heard a story from my 82-years-old aunt. It is a story about my father when he was escaped from China to Hong Kong in his teenage.
Unlike my stable, cheerful, peaceful and a bit materialised childhood, my father had a very tough time when he was young. He was born when China suffered from the Japanese invasion, and then passed his childhood in the years of Cultural Civilisation. He was not from a rich family but unfortunately, his family’s assets were enough to list themselves in the “Black Five Category”. So, my father and uncles were the targets to scoff, to torture or to attack. He was not given food most of the time as well.
In order to escape from torturing or starving till dead, he chose to leave his village. Different from most people who need to hire a big truck to put all their stuffs when they are moving, my father had nothing to bring with him as he had nothing, even he did not have clothes for changing. What he could bring for his journey was the most basic thing for survival: food. It was not difficult to find food at that time but it was very difficult for a person who categorised as the “Black Five” to find something to eat. At the end, my father was barely able to find dozens of apple for his trip to Hong Kong. Time was even tougher on his way as the only transport he was able to afford was walking, which is a physically demanding exercise when you need to walk for long time in the sun and on the mountains. The longer time he walked, the hungrier he was and less food he had. To maximise the food he could intake, he ate the whole apple included the core, where we believe that is not very eatable nowadays, to make himself felt a bit fuller…..
It is the story about apple core I heard. It is not an interesting nor inductive story but it absolutely makes me think a lot. It also reminded me how big was the apple core I had last time and how I used it. Last time I had an apple was about two weeks ago, during my tour in Kangaroo Island in South Australia. I had an apple as dessert after having an Aussie BBQ. To be honest,apple is not a fruit can raise my appetite most of the time. So, I just had a few bites and left a big core. Indeed, I had another reason to leave a big core. I discovered there had certain possums appeared around a campsite. Some of them were even entered our camp to search food. However, I missed the chance to take a photo at the first time. Therefore, I threw my big apple core outside the campsite to attract some possums to come again so that I could make a photo of them. That’s what an apple core meant to me.
The feeling of guilty come over me......

Message from Adelaide

After being in Australia for a year, i've got the chance to see the finest part of the country funally. I made a 6-day trip from Alice Springs to Adelaide to see the outback of the central area. The trip was finished yesterday and it seems to me that 6 days are not enough to explore 10% of the advanturous of central Oz. Challenging climbs, rock pool swimming, spotting kangroos and other wildlife, sleeping under the star...every moment is so impressive and time flew much faster than usual. I am sure the spectaclar views of the red centre will remain in my memory ofr a long time.
Trip is not end yet. I am going to explore the southern part of Australia in about 10 days. Kangroo Island and Great Ocean Road are the highlight of the coming trip. Will be back to Sydney around 5/2.

P.S I'd like to stay always from mobile phone or Internet during the tour. But i got some free coupons which gave me incentive/temptation to involve in the Net again.

Lucky Girl

Caption: My 98 Toyota Corolla AE102. I know it is a bit disagreeing with an environmentally friendly lifestyle to shift from public transport to private car, but it saves me lots of time and money. The public transport here is unreliable and it is more expensive than driving. Obviously the Aussie Government needs to pay some attention on this issue.

I always feel that I am a lucky and blessed person. Not fortunate with jet pot but things around me just go smoothly and nicely all the time. Although lots of them happened unexpectedly and unwanted, outcomes are not bad at all. Sometimes even some "dangerous" incidents for many people become adventurous experience for me. Nice! I treasure and appreciate this kind of fortune very much.
Such feeling strengthened a lot after I started my driving life. I brought a used Corolla last week in order to increase my mobility in Oz as well as saving my time+money. When I picked my car last Friday, it was the first time I have to drive a car independently. I won’t say my driving skill is bad but absolutely it is not good at all. Due to the nervousness and stressfulness I had for my debut driving, I almost crossed an intersection when the red light was on and changed lane improperly for couple times. Fortunately, I passed through all of them. The most horrible thing was about my parking. I can’t find any word that can describe how dreadful it is... Forget about to park successfully for once or twice, I don’t think I can park my car in the proper position for less than 3 or 4 times trials. Situation became ten times worse when I noticed that I was blocking the traffic during parallel street parking: always forget to give a signle light before stoping my car for parking and I even got tangled with the R/D (modes of automatic transmission) and left/right during reversing my car. I couldn’t remember how many times I had scratched the tyres as i also parked too close to kerbs. Not hard to imagine how horrible my parking was/is. I was so relief that I came home "entirely" at the end, both the Corolla and me.
But it is not the reason why I said I feel luckier after getting the car. The reason is how jammy I was when I had my driving test!! To be honest, I cannot recall exactly what happened during the test. The only thing I remembered is the examiner was a bit mindfulness during the test as I had to reminded him that I’d done the parking already when he asked me to do it at the second time. By the way, I am confident that I drive pretty well in a straight and big road, of course without any parking required.
One last thing to mention: the day I started of my independent driving life was a Black Friday, hopefully it doesn’t portend anything.

P.S. I read an interesting quote recently and I love it very much. It might become my motto one day, I suppose:
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." –by Henry Youngsman

New Year’s plan

Caption: I went to a zoo with my friend last week. It is a “open zoo” that animals (except birds and dangerous animal) can move freely in the zoo. Tourists are also allowed to touch them. Interesting experience.

Last year I found myself just living like a koala: sleep, eat and doing nothing. What I mean doing nothing is nothing I did last year inspired me a lot or gave me unforgettable memory/experience, except my studies on environment management.
I used to write diary everyday, especially the time when I was in Spain since there were too many memorable and adventurous stories for me to write down like a novel. However, the frequency of writing my journal drops dramatically after I finished my gran journey in Europe My life seems too usual and it is too boring to “record” them. Similar situation after I came to Australia. Sometimes, I strongly feel that I’ve already used up all my quota of “adventurous experience”.
By the way, one of my 2006 resolutions is to re-take my habitat of writing diary more often. Try not to be lazy and write down what I feel and what I see everyday. I always have strange or crazy feelings/thought/ideas about life or whatever which are worth to write them down. I would like to try a use a different dimension to see or to feel my everyday life.
Need some change in 2006.