Conclusion of GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily’s conversation with American independent filmmaker Sam Bozzo of Purple Turtle Films about his new award-winning documentary on the global water crisis, “Blue Gold: World Water Wars”.
[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]Click Play Below,
or
GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks with American indy filmmaker Sam Bozzo of Purple Turtle Films about his new award-winning documentary on the global water crisis, “Blue Gold: World Water Wars”.
[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]Click Play Below,or
GreenTalk Radio Host Sean Daily talks with Vipe Desai of project BLUE. project BLUE, the national initiative established to raise funds in support of ocean and beach protection, continues to gain momentum as the campaign’s second year officially gets underway.
[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]Click Play Below,or
Lester R. Brown - Earth Policy Institute
In the May issue of Scientific American Lester R. Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute, discusses how food shortages could be the weak link that brings down civilization.
In this feature article, “Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?” Brown notes that the biggest threat to global political stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse. Those crises are brought on by rising demand and ever worsening environmental degradation.
“In the twentieth century,” Brown says, “dramatic rises in grain prices results from poor harvests. They were event-driven and short-lived. In contrast, the recent escalation in world grain prices is trend-driven, making it unlikely to reverse the rise in food prices without a reversal in the trends themselves.”
Earth Day provides us with an opportunity to both reflect and act on our desire to use the planet’s resources in a sustainable manner. As we’ve noted in numerous posts, water may be the one resource we should focus on more, individually and collectively. No doubt, many of you have water-saving activities planned; a few of you may already be at work installing low-flow shower heads, faucet aerators, or even rain barrels.
Rainwater harvesting makes a lot of sense: the initial investment can be quite low (especially if you do it yourself), and your plants love rain water. Unfortunately, as Rachelle Carson Begley once noted, an awful lot of commercially-available rain barrels are, well, ugly.
Sean Daily, Green Living Ideas’ Editor-In-Chief, discusses health tips and dangers about drinking water with Colin Ingram, Author of The Drinking Water Book.
[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]Click Play Below,or
Host Sean Daily talks subject with filmmaker Irena Salina, director of the documentary “FLOW: How Did a Handful of Corporations Steal Our Water?” about the global water crisis and her experience making the film.
Wired Magazine referred to the documentary as the “scariest movie at the Sundance Film Festival” after its screening there in 2008.
[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]Click Play Below,or
Editor’s note: This post was written by Jason Pelletier, and originally published at Low Impact Living on March 28, 2009.
If you’re one of those folks out there who is suffering from a bit of carbon fatigue, then a post in the NY Times’ Green Inc. blog this week could either provide additional motivation for green projects or increased fear of another jargon-laden debate. Green Inc highlighted the growing trend of striving for “water neutrality”, as highlighted at the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul last week.
The idea is gaining ground within a group of companies looking to understand and reduce their consumption of water, including Coca Cola, whose chairman has pledged to eventually balance out all of the water used in its products and manufacturing processes through conservation elsewhere (over 80 billion gallons worth!).
This got me to thinking: what would it take to be water-neutral in our own homes, meaning that we don’t import any net water? If we include all of the water that goes into our food and the products we consume, then it gets ugly real fast (see this post on the water content of food, for example). But what about our direct water use - showers, irrigation, toilets, etc?
Now, this would require some significant changes to a home and to local building/health/safety codes, since the only way to go water-neutral is to reuse graywater and harvest/store rainwater. Both of these options now face numerous permitting and legal obstacles around the country (including some pretty counterintuitive ones, like Utah and Colorado bans on capturing ANY rainwater at your home). Assuming we could, though, how much rain would it take to provide a family’s annual water needs?
It had to happen: boxed water is here.Recently, commentator/comedian Bill Maher hypothesized what would happen if the only sacrifice required to curb climate change was for people everywhere to give up their TV remotes. His theory was that, after an intolerable stint of shuffling betwixt couch and television, harried viewers would finally give up and resume clicking the world toward apocalypse.
It’s an amusing premise, though one seasoned with the nagging aftertaste of truth. For sustainability will ultimately require changing many small habits, which when weighed in the aggregate, make a big difference.
Few of these habits have received as much attention from environmental advocates as disposable water bottles. Why water? Mainly because (disposable) bottled water adds an avalanche of industry to a resource that is readily and cheaply available at the tap.
Pointing to the success of bottled water, one could make a compelling case for a bottled air industry. There could emerge rainforest and mountain flavors. Cracking open a bottle would provide a lungful of rarefied airs from exotic locales.
Alpine Air. Belgium Breeze. Wyoming Wind. In the realm of the absurd, possibilities are endless.
Yet bottled water has become a staple of Americans on the go, and plucking it from the shelf plays a part in the grocery store shopping ritual for millions of us.
Toothpaste?
Check.
Noodles?
Got ‘em.
Bottles containing the same stuff drawn nearly free from household tap?
Score.
Now enter boxed water. The company’s name is Boxed Water is Better, and it is marketing the product as an earth-friendlier alternative to plastic bottles. Read the rest of this entry »
By Lester R. Brown
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch07_ss4.htm
While heart disease and cancer (largely the diseases of aging), obesity, and smoking dominate health concerns in industrial countries, in developing countries infectious diseases are the overriding health concern. Besides AIDS, the principal diseases of concern are diarrhea, respiratory illnesses, tuberculosis, malaria, and measles. Child mortality is high.
Progress in reaching the United Nations (U.N.) Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality two thirds by 2015 is lagging badly. As of 2005 only 32 of 147 developing countries are on track to reach this goal. In 23 countries child mortality has either remained unchanged or risen. And only 2 of the World Bank’s 35 fragile states are on track to meet this goal by 2015.
Sustainablog
Since July 2003, sustainablog has been providing information on environmental and economic sustainability, green and sustainable business, and environmental politics. The blog regularly features environmental leaders, experts in alternative energy and green technology, and real people trying to lighten their environmental footprints.
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