MyGreenHealth

Tropical Storm

The facts are already out and overwhelmingly clear for those who have eyes to see and heart to ponder. Of course, not unless you are an alien stationed in a far flung galaxy. All over the globe, year 2010 could be on record as the hottest year ever in the history. Catastrophic events like the enormous Pakistan floods, persistent droughts in Russia and huge landslides in China countryside might be hard to deny before our own very eyes.

I think we have to consider for a moment and honestly compare facts of the emergence of extreme weather patterns with what scientists have projected all along that results from climate change: shifting global temperature, relentless rainfall and snow in other parts of the globe while major major droughts in some parts. Are we still on the denial road?

Despite the overwhelming facts, skeptics — like the now infamous Koch brothers, Massey Coal and Lord Monckton — will no doubt continue to spend big bucks to keep spreading misinformation about global warming. Instead of using their resources fighting the problem, they would rather waste money to deny global warming. I must say these people are very pathetic indeed!

We want to fight the skeptics so we need a growing number of people to get informed. Due to overwhelming evidence, global leaders like Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are now convincing us to look seriously on climate change. President Medvedev clearly delivered a strong message at a United Nations Security Council gathering when he said:

“What is happening now in our central regions is evidence of this global climate change, because we have never in our history faced such weather conditions in the past. This means that we need to change the way we work, change the methods that we used in the past.”

Pakistan suffered almost 1,700 deaths and huge property and agricultural damages this summer induced by severe monsoon-related floods in recent memory. According to statistics, 2000-2009 would go down to be the warmest decade on record. And 2010 alone could be the warmest year ever in the past 130 years.

Extreme weather disturbances are putting lives and properties at risk on a global scale.  It is about time we get the real facts and evidence and spread the warning to the people while there is still time left.

How many lives have to lose before we all wake up to the facts? Do we have to wait before everything is too late?

Honest questions need frank answers!

Malignant Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is known as a moderately uncommon type of cancer where abnormal growth of cells occurs in mesothelium. The mesothelium is a defensive lining that is present on most of the body’s internal organs. So what causes mesothelioma? It is ascribed to asbestos exposure — once someone gasps asbestos particles and the particles stayed in the lungs.

What is asbestos then? It is a mass of supple and tough material that is usually found in the Earth. To belong in the risk group, you must have in contact with asbestos at any one time.

So what’s all the fuss with asbestos? It is because for several years asbestos was utilized in the manufacture of such materials like shingles, brake pads, cement, flooring, and insulation. It is now known that the mining process and the manufacturing of products containing asbestos are the top contributing factors for this cancer.

Regrettably, more individuals other than the workers were affected. Because some asbestos particles can lodged on clothes, families of these workers were also exposed to asbestos. Anyone who handled and laundered the clothing was at risk. And this certainly does not exclude commercial laundry services.

Asbestos has been in the market since 1800s and its utilization reached a climax in World War 2. Due to asbestos cancer-inducing risk, it was nearly completely forbidden in 1989. One of the problems associated with asbestos is that symptoms of mesothelioma can take from 20 to 50 years to finally show up in the body. So it is possible that some people today may suffer the effects due to past asbestos exposure.

What are ways to determine if you have mesothelioma? The cancer can be diagnosed through X-ray, CT scan, or MRI. In case you have been exposed to asbestos, it is recommended that you tell it to your doctor.

Let’s fight the menace of mesothelioma!

Many Species. One Planet. One Future

There are so many ways of going green or environmentally conscious. There are some people who might be thinking that going green is beyond their own reach. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, going green is an individual and personal choice. Each and everyone of us could do something and do our own share for the upliftment and preservation of our only planet Earth. Come to think of it, it is not hard nor complicated to go green. In other words, it is the small things we do everyday that counts the most.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. As consumers, we have the responsibility to lessen our impact on the planet Earth. Everything that we consume comes from the resources of the planet. The 3 R’s are the basic guide for all of us living here on this planet. First, if you don’t need it don’t buy it – this way you are reducing wastes. You might be surprise to learn that there so many things you are buying which just ended up in the garage. As to the things that you can still use, don’t throw it away nor buy a new one. If you can still repair your child’s bike, why buy a new one? All the other things that must be put away, get into a community-based recycling program if there is available one in your area.

Shopping habits. Aside from the 3 R’s above, it would help a lot if you can bring your own bag while shopping. There are now reusable “eco-bags” available in different shopping centers. You are reducing the garbage to be thrown into landfills this way. Plastic and paper bags will only contributing to more problems for the environment.

Dangerous chemicals on your bathroom. Scientists are already sounding the alarm of so many poisonous and harmful chemicals on different personal care products right on your bathroom and kitchen. What are these chemicals? Names like formaldehyde, sodium hydroxide, phthalates, ammonia, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, butyl cellosolve, propylene glycol and many more are now questionable. However, most of the leading brands are continually using these chemicals because they are all cheap and very effective. Harmful both to you and the environment. Look at the list of ingredients of your brand and in most probability you can find some of these chemicals in there listed. Thankfully, there are now products on the market, which refused to play along and use natural ingredients instead.

Use CFL light bulbs in your entire home. Instead of the traditional incandescent lightbulbs, it is now recommended to use CFL instead. Compact Flourescent Light (CFL) light bulbs are known to last longer and bulbs are known to last longer and use less energy. It could save 75% energy which means great savings in the bill plus it ahs a lifetime of at least 10 times compared to the incandescent ones.

Plant trees and start a garden. As we are taking the air we breathe from the trees and plants, it would surely help the environment if we can plant more whenever possible. You can also start a small garden in your own backyard. This is both refreshing and therapeutic to you and your whole family.

Let us all go green! We can do it right! We can do it now!

The Planet Earth

After the whole world got mesmerized for many years by the idea surrounding climate change, it now seems that we are experiencing some form of backlash. Personally, this is something not really surprising because it is just following a common and traditional road – after the crush there will be falling away, so to speak.

A new term now emerged and it is called climategate – referring to the scandal uncovered with how the facts were gathered and concluded on climate change. As to my own opinion, there is no question on my mind that we are destroying our own habitat – the planet Earth – but I don’t think it is right that anybody could just forward an idea without a thorough scientific vetting. Because of this carelessness, it would be harder to convince others of the need to alter our own consumerism lifestyle.  So what are pinpointed problems as to the facts on climate change?

• Many conclusions in the the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were based not on facts but on false claims and misquotes taken from biased environmental organizations — not from scientific and academic research as it should be.

• The embarrassing mess regarding the top three most trusted data series as utilized by the UN’s IPCC 2007 assessment report which has still to be publicly released. There are good indications that data have been intentionally and widely biased to conclude a rise in gauged temperatures when true temperatures were actually going down or at least just remaining the same.

• The claims that the great Himalayan glaciers will completely be gone by the year 2035. The said prediction or should I say “forecast” got its bearing on an interview with just one glaciologist in the year 1999. That glaciologist – an Indian named Syed Hasnain is now saying he was just misquoted and in fact at the time of the interview he did not produce any data to the interviewer. In 2008, Hasnain discovered the mistake upon perusing the IPCC’s report which was already published.

• The U.N.’s climate chief, Mr. Rajendra Pachauri initially denied of the knowledge on the error prior to the global warming conference in Copenhagen. However, he admitted that he was alerted about it before the conference by email correspondence with Pallava Bagla, a writer for the journal Science.

• The IPCC strongly concluded that global warming cause the whole world to “suffered rapidly rising costs due to extreme weather-related events since the 1970s.” There was only one reference to that — a study to support the claim. Unfortunately, by the time was published in the year 2008, the study also concluded: “We find insufficient evidence to claim a statistical relationship between global temperature increase and catastrophe losses.”

• Warning from the IPCC claimed that there is a big possibility for Amazon to lose 40 percent of its rain forest due to global warming. However, the only source for that was a report authored by two people who are known to be “green activists,” and one is working with World Wildlife Fund.

• Even some details are wrong in the IPCC report. Take for instance the correct percentage of the Netherlands that is already below sea level. The report put it at 55 percent but the right percentage is 26 percent.

• Mr. Pachauri defended the UN’s IPCC inaccurate report by saying that who are criticizing the report “are people who deny the link between smoking and cancer; they are people who say that asbestos is as good as talcum powder. I hope that they apply asbestos to their faces everyday.” While Pachauri honestly admitted that the IPCC report was actually inaccurate on the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, he claimed that the vicious attacks were campaigns financed and motivated by “business interests” who are protecting their interest through the “spread of a lot of disinformation.” Well, on that last claim, you can be partially right!

• The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of Great Britain, an agency responsible for enforcing the country’s freedom of information act law, concluded that the University of East Anglia (UEA) violated the law by not releasing the data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming, even with numerous requests from concerned groups and individuals. The numbers speak for themselves – UEA just complied with the 10 requests out of the 105 made.

It is about time that we have to be very transparent to a subject which the whole world is interested and could be affected of. Scientists and any groups should never have the notion that their claims must never be questioned in the light of the day. We need true facts and not just hype.

As they say, only the truth can set us free. And it is only when we are free, can we truly act as one global community!

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