General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnyone watching Olympic Opening Ceremony - entire portion on climate change !!!
Man, there's gonna' be some right winger heads exploding.
liberal N proud
(60,339 posts)a kennedy
(29,696 posts)Warpy
(111,327 posts)and muzzle the gabbers during the opening ceremonies.
I would have strangled them with a big grin on my face during the Oz opening ceremony, which would have been spectacular if they'd just SHUT THE FUCK UP. As it was, I watched with the sound off and it was disappointing not to be able to hear what was going on.
Moliere
(285 posts)I wouldn't be so sure
Ilsa
(61,697 posts)The part where 2/3 of Florida disappeared was stunning.
I still remember NBC cutting away at the London games when the program got to the part where they praised their national health system.
AwakeAtLast
(14,133 posts)Oh, the irony!
malaise
(269,157 posts)others have chemicals and other toxic poisons - same shit, different day.
roamer65
(36,747 posts)They should harvest it and use it as fertilizer to reforest destroyed areas of the Amazon.
well said
suffragette
(12,232 posts)issues with this as well.
That doesn't nullify calls to recognize and improve. Brazil's message that that we can and must do better is just as valid as the same message from developed countries. We have to accomplish this together.
Here are some examples of similar issues in western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, both regions which value environmental concerns, but also still face problems and need to improve. Having issues doesn't invalidate calls to improve them in our countries. The same should be the case for Brazil.
Victoria's Secret: Dumping Raw Sewage Like It's 1915
http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/01/26/Victoria-Raw-Sewage-Dumping/
More specifically, I blamed Victoria's raw sewage, which is pumped out to the Juan de Fuca Strait at a rate of 130 million litres per day. British Columbia's capital is one of the last major cities north of San Diego to dump all of its untreated waste (including pesticides, street runoff and pharmaceuticals) into the ocean. On Friday, the sewer's screening system failed, spilling three million extra litres of unfiltered crap into Ross Bay.
~~~
"Victoria thinks they're miraculously in a different situation."
When I relate this anecdote to the scientists tasked with monitoring Victoria's sewer situation, Chris Lowe and Glenn Harris of the Regional District's environmental protection division confirm the vast majority of testing happens within a few hundred metres of Greater Victoria's two major sewer outfalls. They test for a great many things -- heavy metals, bacteria, dissolved oxygen, hundreds more toxins -- but at a relatively short distance. Then they use computer models to extrapolate where it goes. This happens in weekly, monthly and quarterly cycles. Government guidelines don't require more remote testing, so they don't generally do it.
Lowe and Harris told me bacteria tests do routinely exceed water quality guidelines -- a problem that seems to be getting worse as time passes. Fecal coliform is a group of bacteria found in poop that can carry illness-causing pathogens like salmonella, E. coli and norovirus. Between tests in 2010 and 2013, the average fecal coliform count in Victoria's wastewater pipes went from 5.3 and 5.7 million bacteria per 100 millilitres of water up to 7.2 and 9.3 million bacteria per 100 millilitres of water.
It's been so bad for so long there's even a poop mascot, Mr. Floaty, to try to get people energized around the issue.
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Water and waste ignore man made borders, which has led Washington State to express its discontent over the issue.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/victoria-sewer-dispute-hits-the-fan-as-washington-state-urges-bc-intervene/article19131685/
Environmentalists and communities in the United States complain of pollution, while scientists say the ocean acts as a natural toilet that flushes and disperses waste with minimal environmental impact.
Gov. Inslee said the sewage issue poses health and economic issues for the area, because the untreated waste flows toward Washington State.
Left unresolved, Victorias lack of wastewater treatment has the potential to colour other regional and national issues at a time when our two countries are working to re-establish steady economic growth through various cross-border initiatives, said the letter.
And Washington has issues with run off pollution and waste leaks itself.
https://www.hcn.org/blogs/range/washington-runoff-causes-stormwater-stomachaches
Each year, 1.8 million to 3.5 million illnesses are caused by swimming in water contaminated by sewage overflows, and an additional 500,000 from drinking contaminated water.
One of the most troubling effects of polluted runoff is the contamination of peoples' drinking water--something we might take for granted as safe. More than half of the documented waterborne disease outbreaks in the US since 1948 occurred after extreme rainfalls, according to a 2001 peer-reviewed study. A 2003 study likewise made the connection between polluted stormwater runoff and waterborne disease.
Northwesterners generally can expect clean, safe drinking water to flow from their taps. But that's not always the case. There are numerous local examples of drinking water that's fouled when sewage and stormwater flow into waterways, or when storm runoff directly dumps fertilizers, fecal bacteria, and other pollution into our drinking water sources.