August 4, 2007 at 2:09 pm (Tzu Chi, TzuChi, civilisation, climate change, conservation, earth, environment, general, global warming, global warming fears, nature, poverty, science)
So far, 19 million resident have to be displaced, 166 dead after heavy monsoon floods in India, Bangladesh.
“I have not seen such flooding in the last 24 years. It’s a sheet of water everywhere,” said Santosh Mishra, a resident of Gonda district in India’s Uttar Pradesh state.
In New Delhi, India’s Meteorological Department said unusual monsoon patterns this year led to heavier than usual rains. “We’ve been getting constant rainfall in these areas for nearly 20 days,” said B.P. Yadav, a spokesman for the department.
‘Compared to the 280 millimetres of rains we recorded during all of the last monsoon, we received 873 millimetres in July alone. It’s raining non-stop,’ said Mr Sharma.
‘There is just nothing left to eat,’ said drenched farmer Ashish Thakur in submerged Kaanti village in Darbhanga district.
‘People are fighting for food like dogs, I have no strength left,’ the farmer wept, hugging his two hungry children and shivering wife.
Is the heavier rainfall related to global warming ? Environment scientist claim that with each additional degree Celsius added by the global warming, the planet gets an extra 7% of water into its atmosphere. [3]
Ref :
1. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/02/asia/AS-GEN-South-Asia-Monsoon-Floods.php
2. http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Asia/STIStory_145110.html
3. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Global-Warming-Means-In-Fact-More-Rains-56209.shtml
4. http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/RMS/june99/papers/nachtnebel.pdf
5. http://www.livescience.com/environment/051116_water_shortage.html
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July 28, 2007 at 4:33 am (civilisation, climate change, conservation, earth, environment, general, global warming, nature, philosophy, poverty, science, spirituality, wealth)
Some are asking, what civilisation, conservation got to do with global warming ?
Let assume there is an economy transaction between two peoples, say Tom and Jerry.
(before ) (after)
Tom + Jerry = (Tom + 3) + (Jerry – 3)
Jerry loss 3 units of wealth that gave to Tom his profits of 3 units. In the universe defined by Tom and Jerry, the units are conserved. It is a zero sum game.
But when nature is addded into the transaction
(before) (after)
Tom + Jerry + Nature = (Tom + 4) + (Jerry +2) + (Nature – 6)
The stated loss of (-6) suffered by the nature may take the form of : loss of oil, loss of forest, pollution, ozone, increase greenhouse gases. Tom gain (+4) because he pumping oil from the ground, Jerry gain (+2) because he furnished it to automobile for burning. What peoples have taken from the nature, nature has lost. One day, the nature cannot bear the lost anymore, it has to adjust itself from the losses. What will happen to Tom and Jerry ?
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June 29, 2007 at 8:51 am (Mahayana, Resource Recycling, climate change, disparity, earth, environment, general, global warming, philosophy, poverty, science, spirituality, thoughts, water scarcity, wealth gap)
Imagine, you have a 2 months old baby. Is this water enough to clean your baby nappies using water that arrives once in 3 days for 15 mins ?
This is a real situation happening in India, Peeplee Ka Bas. The residents can only fill their buckets for 15 minutes every 48 hours. A country with millions of brilliant scientist and programmers. Water crisis is no longer a problem that we can continue ignore.
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June 24, 2007 at 4:44 am (climate change, disparity, earth, environment, general, global warming, love, nature, philosophy, poverty, powerless, water scarcity, wealth gap)
When your finger slightly push the toilet flush, the amount of water that flush your toilet bowl is equal to a Somalian people consume for a day. And these people are walking up to 70km to search for that amount of water.
The easiness to access to water in our city make many of us around have neglected to appreciate this resources.
Transporting water from a far to help these unfortunate is much much harder than transporting foods. If we lost our water due to vapourisation and global warming. It will not be easy to get help from neighbouring countries.
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April 19, 2007 at 9:57 am (Mahayana, Tzu Chi, TzuChi, disparity, general, global warming, love, love other, philosophy, poverty, powerless, space tourism, spirituality, thoughts, wealth gap, 慈济)
Photo Courtesy from carf.
I read a recent article in magazine about space tourism in which a normal person like us can travel to the space for personal pleasure. But it is only affordable to wealthy individuals. Surprisingly, its has become so popular that, even at $20 million a ticket, the Russsian Space Agency is fully booked until 2009.
On the other site of the world, according to UNICEF 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth. Being week and meek in life makes these dying even more invisible to us.
If the money of the ticket to tour the space is share with the poor hungry children. How many life in earth it could save ?
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