Some Articles To Consider


The following articles were passed on to me by some friends from our local community, and some long distance family in the blogosphere.

This first one details the tragic realization that thousands of children have been poisoned due to proximity to manufacturing plants in rural China that are leaching lead into the soil. Fortunately, this is being treated both as a sanctity of life issue, dealing with the humanitarian impact, but is also being adressed by China's environmental agencies, who will be demanding that standards be raised and met by the guilty manufacturing plants.

"If you don't reduce the use of heavy metals at the source it's very difficult to actually treat them after they're released into the environment," said Ma. "So it poses a long term threat to environment in China. According to the government, about 10 percent of the nation's arable land is contaminated with lead, and annually about 12 million tons of food crops are contaminated by lead."

Read thw whole article here, and share your thoughts/ reactions with the Canvas Community On-Line.


The next article follows trash and recyclables on their journey through the waste disposal system, using high tech tracking divices.

One purpose of the project, said Carlo Ratti, director of the lab, is to give people a concrete sense of their impact on the environment in a way that might lead them to change their habits.
“If you see where a plastic bottle ends up, a few miles down the road in a dump, you may want to get tap water or some other container for the water,” Mr. Ratti said.

Read the full article here:



Questions for thought & Reaction:

Would we behave differently toward the environment, or live with greater awareness, if we knew our trash was ending up just down the road from us?

If we knew that everything we thre away was so close to us, or that likely the waste of others was slowly becoming our neighbor, what do you think you could begin to live with less of?

What has been a staple luxury in your life that you don't really need? What is something you use regularly that is harmful to the planet, and could be replaced, or substituted with a more sustainable alternative?