CRISIS: Water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Global Issues

Local solutions

Talking Trees…water without a filter is polluted

The Phuket happiness development club organized a tree planting Bang Kanoon Forest in Thalang during November 2011.

Belonging to the Ministry of Natural Resources & Envirnoment  (MNRE) ten happiness members planted 28 hardwood treas including Teak

The area is 4,850 rai of which as much as 20% had been encroached upon, but is now being rehabilitated from illegal rubber planting… they organize it two to three times a year with supporting ecotourism expected in 2012.

Picture tells a thousand words.

NEW DEFORESTATION REPORT

Risk analysis company Maplecroft compiled an index of 180 countries & deforestation… days before the start of the Durban climate change talks,

13.7mn hectares a year being cut down… about the size of Greece…

Worst: Nigeria ( losing 2mn hectares a year), Indonesia (16 times Singapore a year)& North Korea have the highest rates

China & US have the lowest… however despite Chinas protection and replanting it was driving deforestation elsewhere..mostly US/Canada, plus illegal from Brazil, Cambodia..

Brazil has new laws pending but still is losing over 2mn hectares a year, same as Nigeria

Australia at 10^th, is high risk, India Vietnam and Spain all low risk

Trees & Life

Oxygen, Forests create oxygen, our life blood

Trees sequester CO2, which means they soak up and lock away large amounts of CO2, acting as a brake on climate change

Deforesting is disrupting this cycle and accounts for as much as 10% of mankinds annual greenhouse gas pollution.

200 gigatons over 100 years

Trees & Diversity

2/3 rd of our species live in forests

They cover 25% of the earths surface

Reduced by 50% since pre agricultural times

Forests are younger, smaller and less diverse

Losing 130,000 sq km every year

20% of subtropical forests have gone since 1960s

Indonesia, losing 20,000 sqkm per year

Forest cover down 50% since 1985

70% is illegal.

 

ACTION: in May they bagan a 2 year moratorium on new licenses, and monitor through satellite

Increasing forest fires, forests are drier, climate change changing seasons, Brazil fires +50% on a decade

Forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra almost gone

 

Trees & Floods

Retain and filter water, with forecast loss in south asia of 30-60% within next decade, on top of heavy losses already

No forest, no biodiversity, no water

 

Trees & Fuel

Fuelwood accounts for 50% of tree loss, biomass energy use

2Bn people rely of fuelwood, or about 30% of total global energy demand

 

Trees & extinction

10% of all tree species are facing extinction

 

Trees and Phuket National Parks:

Sirinarth National Park

nai yang and mai khao beaches

 

Khao Praeh National Park

adjoining thanyapura

 

Khao sok and Phang Nga

North of Phuket 2 hours

 

With good forests and natural filters water quality is sustained:

1/3^rd of the world will face water shortages by 2020. India/bangaladesh/pakistan

2100 rise 1m

Flooding 1/3^rd of the worlds population that live within 100km of the shore

50cm rise would displace 90mn people.

GLOBAL NEEDS

Stabilize co2 emmissions

Reduce deforestation

Change energy sources

Over 50 percent of all water projects fail and less than five percent of projects are visited, and far less than one percent have any longer-term monitoring. (10)

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Investment in safe drinking water and sanitation contributes to economic growth. For each $1 invested, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates returns of $3 – $34, depending on the region and technology.(14)

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Almost two in every three people who need safe drinking water survive on less than $2 a day and one in three on less than $1 a day. (1)

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Households, not public agencies, often make the largest investment in basic sanitation, with the ratio of household to government investment typically 10 to 1. (15)

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Investment in drinking-water and sanitation would result in 272 million more school attendance days a year. The value of deaths averted, based on discounted future earnings, would amount to US$ 3.6 billion a year.(15)

 

Thanks to water.org which is a fantastic source for all things water…..

http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/sanitation/

 

Check out this movie, last call at the oasis…

http://www.lastcallattheoasis.com/

 

and this Q&A from the film-makers and Erin Brockovitch “our planets in peril…”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOtapHK5Vqc

 

 

Gates foundation on world water day 2012 and the crisis we face

http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/03/Shattering-the-Myths-Around-the-Global-Water-Crisis

 

MARINE POLLUTION,

fabulous Nov 2011 study PDF, please download, needs 20 minutes to read carefully

http://www.thegef.org/gef/sites/thegef.org/files/publication/STAP%20MarineDebris%20-%20website.pdf

 

 

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