Qatar and other items in the news

Whenever I get behind, which is what I usually get, I like starting with something recent and then going back.  That way I'm sort of up-to-the-moment even though there are huge gaps.

So even though I haven't yet finished summing up my Life Style Project, I'm going to spend an hour this morning going over what environmental topics are in the news.

Yesterday's Datebook section has a big article by John King, the SF Chronicle's urban design critic, on "Visionaries' grand designs for cities."  Aparently NYC was planned without any thought to hills and the need for public parks.  (I'm glad they've overcome that.)  But there's a diagram by Patrick Geddes, 1909, which shows "how natural terrrain shapes human activity." 

Is there enough laughter in the environment?  A study at Oxford University confirmed what we already knew:  Laughing cause the body to release the same endorphins as exercising and results in "euphoria mixed with serenity."  So instead of going to the Y this morning, can I stay home and laugh?  Then I can call myself an Oxford scholar.

There was an article about the importance of seniors' walking to maintain health--people in their 80's--and one consideration is finding a place where they feel safe.  Not everyone lives in neighborhoods where they do. 

The front page headline was actually "Hazards hidden in couches/Potentially harmful flame retardans remain ubiqutous" with a byline by Stephanie M. Lee.  It's ironic, but California passed a law in 1975 requirin foam in furniture to withstand "a 12-second open flame without catching fire."  That sounded like a good safe-guard, but the flame retardant is toxic, which doesn't sound like a good safe-guard!

Chernobyl workers have begun a $2 billion cleanup project.  This came as a surprise to me because I thought they'd have done that a lot earlier, but I guess they couldn't do more than temporarily cover their exploded nuclear reactor after the accident (worst in history)  that occurred April 26, 1986. 

The Amazon deforestation in Brazil has dropped to the lowest in 24 years, but that's not quite as wonderful as it may sound because 1798 square miles were deforested between August 2011 and July 2012!  It's just that a year earlier 2478 square miles were deforested!

"Plant crisis" caught my eye, but it turned out not to be flora but workers storming Europe's largest steel plant.

The governor of Washington State has ordere state agencies to do something to halt the increasing acidity of the ocean!

Nanette Assimov, who was covering City College of San Francisco, much to the chagrin of many, did an article exposing cruelty to animals at UCSF.    Even when they're experimenting with animals, they're supposed to keep the suffering to a minimum, and there were lapses.  I'm glad that we live in a society where people care and understand that animals are sensate beings. 

More than 4800 are suing Chevron over the Richmond fire because Chevron wasn't honest about the dangers in addition to their carelessness. 

Now 200 countries are in Qatar holding talks iwth the UN, and some people think that's ironic because Qatar, described as a "tiny Persian Guld emirate," is wealthy because of its gas and oil and emits ore greenhouse gases per capita than any other nation!    The Kyoto Protocol adopted in 1997 expies this year.    The Copenhagen gathering in 2009 failed, and the UN-sponsosred negotiators have given themselves a 2015 deadline to adopt a new treaty.

A fascinating report from Earthweek:  A Diary of the Planet says that La Nina (ocean-cooling rather than ocean-warming) tow years ago actually halted andreversed the rise in global sea levesl by 1/4 of an inch between 2010 and 2011.  Tell that to the people in Lower Manhattan.  EArthweek also reports on "penguin devotion."  Even though couples went their separate ways during winter feeding trips, they got back together and stayed together for 16 years--better than we do in California and certainly better than I've done (although the Club Toruno-Martin has been in existence and active for 10 years, which is getting there...)

John King featured the North Point Water Pollution Control Plant at Bay and Kearny Streets on November 25, 2012.  He points out that Fisherman's Wharf was "pat of the working city" before it became a tourist sotp.  South of Pier 39 there's a full block devoted to wastewater treatment that you wouldn't know was there except for "the faint pungent aroma." 

Thre's a documentary out now that shows the melting of glaciers from a personal perspective:  "Chasing Ice."  It's about a 60 year old mountaineer and photographer, James Balog, who has written for the National Geographic and, in addition to the documentary , has a book out, Ice:  Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers.


The Congo rebels brought attention to analysts who believe the fighting is over natural resources including minerals used in the world's smarthphones and laptops.  One of the videos we watched for the environmental science course I'm taking was about this--something totally new to me.

November 18, on agriculture, brought an article about Mary's free-range birds that showed a picutre that did NOT make them look like free range.  I'm going to be careful where  get my eggs, even if I have to pay $1 a piece!

There was an November 14 article on using algae as an alternative fuel!  "Fill'er up--with algae" by Peter Fimrite.  WE can buy Biodiesel B20 in Berkeley at 76, 849 University Avenue or in Oakland at Chevron at 350 Grand Avenue!

I wasn't surpsied to see that "diabetes rates, linked to obesity, skyrocket in South" because my cousins have their reunions at the Varsity in Atlanta!

I'll be back!