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Pollution |
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| There may be an incredible amount of media coverage devoted to the subject of pollution in general, but we still do not have a clear picture as to how badly we have already polluted the World. With a growing awareness of corporations being much more interested in profit, than in our environment or health, we must try to find some way to develop an honest analysis of the situation, and we must also find a 100% safe way of storing our most harmful types of waste. |
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| The latest figures from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global cooperation body for nuclear power producers, tells us that around 13-14% of the World's energy was produced by nuclear plants during 2009, continuing the slight downward trend on production of nuclear power, when taken as a % of total energy production. In total 28 nations produce nuclear energy, and 16 have plants under construction. |
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| Depleted Uranium (DU) is a by-product which is produced when we make fuel for nuclear power reactors, and also when we make nuclear bombs. There is no safe way to dispose of this waste product, so we generally store it underwater or underground in containers, which are generally not made to last millions of years, the amount of time DU may take to loose it's radioactivity. Western forces have also dropped a whole lot of DU over Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, in DU bombs, some of which may contain reprocessed spent nuclear reactor fuel, the most dangerous DU to humans. |
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| In this short Greenpeace documentary we get a look into the growing E-Waste recycling industry in India, and the problems that it creates in terms of damage to the local population's health, and damage to the local environment. E-Waste, or electronic waste, is generally discarded computers, monitors, tvs and other electronic items, and these are rich in toxic organic chemicals and harmful metals such as cadmium, lead and copper. These metals & chemicals can be harmful to anyone living in the vicinity of an e-waste workshop, and there is also a lot of burning associated with this industry to harvest the correct parts from electronic items, like the computer chips, and this can be hazardous to us and every living thing around us. |
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| There are large parts of the World Ocean which are still to be discovered, so we do not have a complete picture of the state of our oceans. However, we already know that we have been doing damage to the overall oceanic eco-system by over-fishing, and by dumping not only waste, but highly toxic waste, in many hidden away areas of the sea. This episode of Futuris features disappearing fish stock, strange bacteria on underwater volcanoes, coastal changes, and endangered species amongst other issues. |
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| Michael Braungart and William McDonough came up with the 'Waste=Food' concept in the early 90's, and today it has become the national policy of the Chinese government and many industrial giants have adopted it too, including Ford, Nike and Herman Miller. It involves making the products we use completely safe to man & animals, allowing their components to be 100% re-usable in the biosphere or technosphere, and that they are easily disassembled for re-use. Provisions for how we can harness our power, clean our water and keep our soil pure have also been added. |
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| The film centre's on the county of Norfolk, and the city of Norwich, which were repeatedly sprayed with Zinc Cadmium Sulphide (ZnCds) in 1963/4, a chemical that is harmful to humans. Not only did they spray from air, but they also drove an adapted Morris van around the Norfolk countryside, and in broad daylight, they sprayed their chemicals amongst the local populations. Now that area of the uk suffers from high levels of oesophageal cancer. |
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| This is a truly poignant film which features a diverse mix of people who have been part of the clean up operation after recent major wars. We get to hear from French, Russian, Bosnian and Vietnamese nationals who have had to deal with the aftermath of human carnage. We meet people who clear the mines, some who's job it is to tend to the badly injured, others who are dealing with the fallout from biological weapons, and psychologists who are attempting to deal with mental war wounds. |
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| This film documents the widespread use of depleted uranium rounds by coalition forces in both Gulf Wars, aswell as in the Balkans. There have been massive rises in cancer and deformities in the newborn, amongst the local populations, and massive rises in the very same conditions within the families of those US/UK war veterans too (Gulf War Syndrome). |
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| TEDtalk - Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas. |
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| The Deputy Director of the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC) gives us an insight into what depleted uranium (DU) weapons actually represent. They are basically nuclear weapons, under a different guise, currently being used to dump excess western nuclear waste on Iraq and Afghanistan, and they impact mostly on civilians. |
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| Talk by former head of the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project speaking about Depleted Uranium (DU) just prior to the most recent invasion of Iraq. He gives some perspective on the use of DU as a weapon, and it's contamination prospects, both for those using it, and those it is being used on. |
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| Two NASA satellites are capturing images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010 with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. This short video reveals a space-based view of the burning oil rig and, later, the ensuing oil spill through May 24. The timelapse uses imagery from the MODIS instrument, on board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The oil slick appears grayish-beige in the image and changes due to changing weather, currents, and use of oil dispersing chemicals. |
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| Serbian video journalist, Ljubica Vujadinovic, uncovers some of the early signs that point to the population in Serbia and Kosovo suffering unusually high rates of cancers, aswell as other deadly Uranium-induced conditions. When local doctors question the health of the public, they are told to stay quiet. |
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