Artsy Swag » environment

Top 10 most polluted cities in the world

sanela — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 14:29:24 +0000

Pollution is a big problem in many cities around the world. It has been a serious threat to environmentalist in all developed countries. Efforts are being made to overcome the growing pollution in the world but for some cities it’s too much, and those are the ones where it hits the hardest. So if you’re a neat freak avoid these ten cities.

1. Baghdad – Iraq

Baghdad is the most troubled and vulnerable city of the world due to ongoing war. Frequent bomb blasts and destruction have risen the level of pollution in the city. Also because of poor water quality there have appeared many water-borne diseases in the city.

2. Brunei – Darussalam

3. Dhaka – Bangladesh

Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh located in southern Asia, between Burma and India. The capital is battling with the constant threats of water pollution. Surface water is often thick with disease and pollutants from the use of commercial pesticides.

4. Karachi – Pakistan

Karachi is the metropolitan city and business hub of Pakistan: On one side the image of Karachi is being projected as major and industrial city of Pakistan but on the other hand pollution-related diseases in Karachi are on the rise due to intolerable levels of air and noise pollution in the city. Some 35 percent of people in one way or another are affected by these ailments including cardiac, lung, ENT, skin, eye and psychological diseases.

5. Lagos – Nigeria

Lagos is the commercial capital and largest city in Nigeria. The hovering smoke over the city blurs the skyline of the central business area of Nigeria’s commercial capital. The city of 12 million residents and one of the biggest cities in Africa is facing a huge air pollution problem.

6. Mexico City – Mexico

Mexico City the capital of Mexico has gone from among the worlds cleanest to among the dirtiest in the span of a generation. The average visibility of some 100 km in 1940s is down to about 1.5 km. Snow-capped volcanoes that were once parts of the landscape are now visible only rarely and levels of almost any pollutant like nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is regularly breaking international standards by two to three times. Levels of ozone a pollutant that protects us from solar radiation in the upper atmosphere but is dangerous to breathe, is twice as high here as the maximum allowed limit.

7. Moscow- Russia

Despite claims that Moscow is the most important and capital city of Russia and where people pay an average $3,000 a month for a three bedroom apartment does not even have clean running water, Moscow also has a huge level of air pollution which is resulting in daily strain on lung health. Cholera is on the rise in some of parts of Moscow due to filthy areas where there is no adequate arrangement to dispose of garbage.

8. Maputo – Mozambique

Maputo is the capital and the largest city of Mozambique located on the bank of Indian Ocean. It is suffering from lack of sanitation processes – specifically the lack of a solid waste removal system as well as sewage treatment has created difficulties for people over there. Huge garbage dumps and piles of garbage seem scattered in the streets, and the sewage in the river can be seen.

9. Mumbai – India

Mumbai is one of the most populated cities of the world so you can see piles of garbage in various streets of the city. It is also considered to be one of the busiest and crowded cities of the world. There are places in the city where you would perhaps not want to go due to stink that comes from filthy garbage scattered over there. The pollution in these areas is massive and is spoiling the beauty of the city on daily basis.

10. New Delhi – India

Garbage and sewage is creating water-borne diseases contributing to extremely high rates of infant morbidity in New Delhi.

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Masdar – the city of the future

sanela — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:10:14 +0000

During the 2007 in the desert near the city of Abu Dhabi (capital of UAE) began the building of the world’s first environmentally friendly city – Masdar. The city will take up 6 square kilometers and around it a wall will be built to protect the city from wind. Masdar will entirely be powered by solar power and other types batteries that get their energy from naturally sustainable resources. This city will be something completely different and never seen before with its futuristic design, special and its artificial microclimate this will be the most comfortable place on Earth.

Green architecture

sanela — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:08:34 +0000

Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:

* Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
* Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
* Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation

Probably the day when all the buildings will look like this is not so far away. What do you think about this type of architecture? Are you interested in taking care of environment?

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So this is what a global warming looks like

sanela — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:16:21 +0000

Have a look at these images below and you’ll find out how global warming looks like. It seems a bit contradict, but it’s true. Global warming might actually manifest by temperature going down, because of icebergs melting down and cold water getting into oceans, the temperature of water will get down and temperature of hot water streams such as Golf stream will get down, which will further effect global climate. It actually makes sense, but it’s still ironic!

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E-waste in Guiyu

sanela — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:50:38 +0000

Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) describes loosely discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken, electrical or electronic devices. The processing of electronic waste in developing countries causes serious health and pollution problems because electronic equipment contains some very serious contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium and brominated flame retardants. Even in developed countries recycling and disposal of e-waste involves significant risk for examples to workers and communities and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaching of materials such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes.

Rapid technology change, low initial cost, and with planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. Dave Kruch, CEO of Cash For Laptops, regards electronic waste as a “rapidly expanding” issue. Technical solutions are available, but in most cases a legal framework, a collection system, logistics, and other services need to be implemented before a technical solution can be applied.

In the United States, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfills comes from discarded electronics, while electronic waste represents only 2% of America’s trash in landfills. The EPA states that unwanted electronics totaled 2 million tons in 2005. Discarded electronics represented 5 to 6 times as much weight as recycled electronics. The Consumer Electronics Association says that U.S. households spend an average of $1,400 annually on an average of 24 electronic items, leading to speculations of millions of tons of valuable metals sitting in desk drawers. The U.S. National Safety Council estimates that 75% of all personal computers ever sold are now gathering dust as surplus electronics. While some recycle, 7% of cellphone owners still throw away their old cellphones.

Increased regulation of electronic waste and concern over the environmental harm which can result from toxic electronic waste has raised disposal costs. The regulation creates an economic disincentive to remove residues prior to export. In extreme cases, brokers and others calling themselves recyclers export unscreened electronic waste to developing countries, avoiding the expense of removing items like bad cathode ray tubes (the processing of which is expensive and difficult).

Guiyu is the largest E-waste site on earth, and was first documented fully in December 2001 by the Basel Action Network in their report and documentary film entitled Exporting Harm. The health and environmental issues exposed by this report and subsequent scientific studies have greatly concerned international organizations such as the Basel Action Network and later Greenpeace and the United Nations Environment Programme and the Basel Convention.