Skateboarding is not death!
13 years ago
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Digital Dump Official Trailer
The next movie was called "Exporting harm" and was about e-waste export to China. Both are worth watching.
E-waste - ever heard of it?
It seems that I'm becoming an eco-freak. Whatever... :) So - we just bought biodegradable laundry detergent, laundry softener and dishwasher soap. We try to buy organic food as much as we can (well, that probably wouldn't bother me that much back home, but since I found out how it is with genetically modified food in the US, it just seems much better this way). I don't use the dryer for my clothes (I never did, really, we don't have one at home, there's no eco reason for that :)). Well, there are still plenty of things that I could do and I don't do them. Perhaps it will just come gradually. And I guess that one of the reasons behind that is one of the classes that I'm taking this year. I've learned so much from the Environmental Sociology class so far! And also from other things... For example - did you know that laundry detergents often contain oil-based cleaners (or whatever it's called)? I did not. Also - my family has always recycled paper, plastic, glass... I had a hard time in South Africa where I couldn't recycle but I somehow understood that. But why is it harder to recycle here than back home?
Anyway, what I wanted to share with you today is the problem of e-waste. I don't know much about it. I just watched two documentaries yesterday about e-waste and I was shocked. In short, some developed countries just dump their e-waste, which is highly toxic and dangerous, in the developing countries, which, of course, have no facilities to deal with it. The result? Poor people work on "recycling" old computers etc. which is slowly but surely killing them and destroying their environment completely. Often, some developed countries claim it's actually help - they claim that the computers and other stuff they send to Africa or Asia is for the people to be used. Well, very often, it can't be used!
There are four international treaties that deal with that: the Basel Convention on the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes (1989) with the Basel Ban Amdendment (1995) effectively banning hazardous waste exports from OECD and Liechtenstein to all other countries; The London Convention Protocol (1996) on forbidding most forms of ocean dumping; the Rotterdam Convention (1998) requiring prior informed consent on export of certain dangerous product chemicals; and the Stockholm Convention soon to be adopted in May 2001 which will effectively move to phase-out and reduce the release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (you can find more about them on the Basel Action Network website). On the BAN website, you can also find out which countries signed and ratified the treaties and which have not (the list). When you look at the list and watch the videos that BAN made about this problem, you'd find out that the biggest exporter of e-waste is the US, also the only developed country that hasn't ratified any of the treaties, thus exporting safely, because it's legal, and killing people (besides that, it was found out that it's often US state governments and other state agencies that do that and thus you can actually find lots of information that should be kept confidential when you go, say, to Nigeria to one of the e-waste stores and get a computer from there).
Well, all I can say about this is that it's terrible. I wouldn't like to see my kids playing at a place like that:
Or have all this carcinogenic stuff in my neighbourhood. I guess nobody would like that, including the US government members. How can they be ok with doing this? I mean - what other countries than the developed ones should be able to deal with e-waste in the right way?
Well, so if there's a time when I need to get a new cell phone, laptop, computer because the old one isn't working anymore, I'll just make sure to dispose of it in a way that doesn't harm other people's healt and other people's environment. I guess we should all do that.
Anyway, what I wanted to share with you today is the problem of e-waste. I don't know much about it. I just watched two documentaries yesterday about e-waste and I was shocked. In short, some developed countries just dump their e-waste, which is highly toxic and dangerous, in the developing countries, which, of course, have no facilities to deal with it. The result? Poor people work on "recycling" old computers etc. which is slowly but surely killing them and destroying their environment completely. Often, some developed countries claim it's actually help - they claim that the computers and other stuff they send to Africa or Asia is for the people to be used. Well, very often, it can't be used!
There are four international treaties that deal with that: the Basel Convention on the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes (1989) with the Basel Ban Amdendment (1995) effectively banning hazardous waste exports from OECD and Liechtenstein to all other countries; The London Convention Protocol (1996) on forbidding most forms of ocean dumping; the Rotterdam Convention (1998) requiring prior informed consent on export of certain dangerous product chemicals; and the Stockholm Convention soon to be adopted in May 2001 which will effectively move to phase-out and reduce the release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (you can find more about them on the Basel Action Network website). On the BAN website, you can also find out which countries signed and ratified the treaties and which have not (the list). When you look at the list and watch the videos that BAN made about this problem, you'd find out that the biggest exporter of e-waste is the US, also the only developed country that hasn't ratified any of the treaties, thus exporting safely, because it's legal, and killing people (besides that, it was found out that it's often US state governments and other state agencies that do that and thus you can actually find lots of information that should be kept confidential when you go, say, to Nigeria to one of the e-waste stores and get a computer from there).
Well, all I can say about this is that it's terrible. I wouldn't like to see my kids playing at a place like that:
Or have all this carcinogenic stuff in my neighbourhood. I guess nobody would like that, including the US government members. How can they be ok with doing this? I mean - what other countries than the developed ones should be able to deal with e-waste in the right way?Well, so if there's a time when I need to get a new cell phone, laptop, computer because the old one isn't working anymore, I'll just make sure to dispose of it in a way that doesn't harm other people's healt and other people's environment. I guess we should all do that.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Petroleum Hike (March 2008)
It's been a little while... It was Saturday and we headed towards the Oil Creek State Park with Jeff (driving) and Noam. After a two-hour drive (I was half-asleep all the time so I'm not really sure about the time) we got to the oil area and, after going through Oil City, we got to Petroleum Center where our hike started. I was a little surprised when I saw all the snow there. Analyzing the situation, I soon became quite comfortable with the fact that it's going to be a very wet hike (I didn't mind during the hike, but later, I did...). So we started and walked and saw a well from time to time, a pipe... fake wells... not-fake pipes and used-to-be houses and even less fake graveyards (two, to be exact - one was really small, the second was bigger, both in the middle of the woods... I remember myself thinking "now, t
hat's the real ghost town").
So Petroleum... From what I found out, it was one of the town established during the oil boom in the area. It managed to attract thousands of people in a few week. When there wasn't much oil left, all the people left as quickly as they came and all that was left (how many lefts am I going to use in this sentence? :)) was what I've already said we saw. Not much... But honestly - would you like to live in a town called Petroleum? I certainly wouldn't. :)
It wasn't either Africa or the Rockies... or anything that is really beautiful and offers plenty of photographic opportunities. :) It was, nevertheless, interesting to see it. Also - it was interesting to go through Oil City and think that that is the real ghost town although people do live there (it definitely looked like a ghost town to me... but then - Pittsburgh looked a little like a ghost town, too, when we got back from NYC :)).
Probably the most exciting thing happened on our way back when we heard a weird sound from under Jeff's car and then tha car started behaving weird and then Jeff stopped. And we could see there's something wrong with the car as there was something hanging down from somewhere (I found the situation rather amusing, although my feet were freezing in my wet shoes :), because I was there, with three CMU PhD students, some of the best brains, and none of them could do anything :)). So Jeff called AAA, they said they would come in an hour, but they couldn't take more than two people (nobody seemed concerned about this). Many a cary passed, some slowed down to look at us (and laugh? I mean - you don't want to help, why do you do that? :)), some didn't care at all... I do want to believe that people in the Czech Republic still stop to help others in emeergencies :)). Anyway, after an hour, one car actually stopped. This made our inability to do anything even funnier. The driver was a woman. A middle-aged man with a beard and a bear left the car and asked us what's wrong (he added several f-words and such :)). So we told him. Hi lay down, looked at it and said that it's just oxygen something and that we can go that it's safe. Then he asked us if we didn't see a hitchhiker there (we did, but about an hour ago), looked amused (probably thinking how useless we were :)) and left. And we got back into the car and left that place, whatever it was, in a rather loud car which, nevertheless, took us back to Pittsburgh safely. And that's the end of the story.
Wait - it isn't! We were also supposed to go to a performance downtown, somewhere, that night, which we, of course, didn't make (but Pan said it wasn't good anyway... :)).
If you want to see some pictures, just click here:
hat's the real ghost town").So Petroleum... From what I found out, it was one of the town established during the oil boom in the area. It managed to attract thousands of people in a few week. When there wasn't much oil left, all the people left as quickly as they came and all that was left (how many lefts am I going to use in this sentence? :)) was what I've already said we saw. Not much... But honestly - would you like to live in a town called Petroleum? I certainly wouldn't. :)
It wasn't either Africa or the Rockies... or anything that is really beautiful and offers plenty of photographic opportunities. :) It was, nevertheless, interesting to see it. Also - it was interesting to go through Oil City and think that that is the real ghost town although people do live there (it definitely looked like a ghost town to me... but then - Pittsburgh looked a little like a ghost town, too, when we got back from NYC :)).
Probably the most exciting thing happened on our way back when we heard a weird sound from under Jeff's car and then tha car started behaving weird and then Jeff stopped. And we could see there's something wrong with the car as there was something hanging down from somewhere (I found the situation rather amusing, although my feet were freezing in my wet shoes :), because I was there, with three CMU PhD students, some of the best brains, and none of them could do anything :)). So Jeff called AAA, they said they would come in an hour, but they couldn't take more than two people (nobody seemed concerned about this). Many a cary passed, some slowed down to look at us (and laugh? I mean - you don't want to help, why do you do that? :)), some didn't care at all... I do want to believe that people in the Czech Republic still stop to help others in emeergencies :)). Anyway, after an hour, one car actually stopped. This made our inability to do anything even funnier. The driver was a woman. A middle-aged man with a beard and a bear left the car and asked us what's wrong (he added several f-words and such :)). So we told him. Hi lay down, looked at it and said that it's just oxygen something and that we can go that it's safe. Then he asked us if we didn't see a hitchhiker there (we did, but about an hour ago), looked amused (probably thinking how useless we were :)) and left. And we got back into the car and left that place, whatever it was, in a rather loud car which, nevertheless, took us back to Pittsburgh safely. And that's the end of the story.
Wait - it isn't! We were also supposed to go to a performance downtown, somewhere, that night, which we, of course, didn't make (but Pan said it wasn't good anyway... :)).
If you want to see some pictures, just click here:
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| Petroleum Hike (03/2008) |
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Europe... once again... :)
If you look at this map, what do you see? I know... Europe... :) But does the Czech Republic seem to be an East European country? I don't think so... (does it say Czechoslovakia somewhere in the map? :)) I probably know where all this comes from. The Cold War. Europe was divided into the Eastern and the Western bloc (as the whole world was) and we were obviously in the Eastern one. It didn't have much to do with geography, it was rather a political concept. But we moved on. The whole world moved on. The Cold War is over and there is no need for political divisons of this kind, right? (Well, now it's more like the EU and the rest of Europe).I promise that's all I'm going to say on this topic :) (well, probably until somebody asks me again if I can teach them Russian... :)). Just have a look at what Linda says here. I totally agree with her. :)
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