Treating Rising Food Prices: Time, Financial Investments, and Care

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David Loyn of the BBC recently reported on a meeting in Rome between the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and delegates after “the price of grain hit a two-year high at a time of year when the harvest in the northern hemisphere should be pushing prices down.” Following the release of this article the BBC opened up a debate under their Have Your Say section asking readers to comment on rising food prices in their region. Comments varied from ‘yes’ to criticisms of society as a whole, yet the undermining cause of rising food prices can be treated by investing time, financial resources, and attention, to the agricultural sector.

 

Time, or more specifically, patience, is a key investment to ensure careful monitoring over food supplies like grain. Nature itself takes time to develop what has become agricultural commodities such as apples and oranges but patience is closely linked to financial investments in the field of agriculture to ensure farmers a sustainable existence and better development of the land. Ultimately, none of this matters if the political will is not present. Related to patience, care, or rather the will to foster, plays a vital role when it comes to developing and monitoring food commodities like grain. Like raising an infant, hoping for the best outcome without actually devoting time and resources towards that outcome, is not a secure way of ensuring the future. Just as children may stall in terms of growth, so too will food prices fluctuate. By monitoring agriculture around the world it becomes easier to recognize events like the rising cost of grain, and alter practices to ensure a better outcome, such as lower food prices. With that said treating rising food prices is not the same as ‘curing’ them altogether.     

 

Iceland: Fishing For A Compromise

UKPA is reporting that “in the absence of a fish quota deal with the European Union, Iceland and the Faroes declared they were stepping up their mackerel catch – absorbing the bulk of the available North Atlantic Stock”. When it comes to fishing, cooperation is essential. Management are given a quota which has to respect current predictions concerning the estimated amount of fish available. Fines can be awarded if a quota is breached as quotas are partially intended to preserve the fishing environment from activities like overfishing that leaves an area barren. Additional information on fishing quotas can be found in this article by howstuffworks which describes quotas as,

limits put in place in a wide range of areas including the following:

• Size of the fish you can keep
• Total number or pounds you can keep
• Total number of fish you can keep
• Time period that it’s legal to fish
• Fishing methods
• Fishing equipment

According to Shetland Marine News “the disagreement started after Faroe more than tripled its catch from a quota of 25,000 tonnes to 85,000 tonnes while Iceland increased its 2010 quota by 6,500 per cent from 2,000 to 130,000 tonnes” yet an article from The Press and Journal is reporting that “they also claim the EU has ignored evidence of a substantial increase in mackerel in their waters.” Regardless of reason, overfishing has the potential to devastate future harvests. Ultimately, caution is best exercised in this scenario until a concrete decision is finalized.

 

Solar Storms: Knowledge Is The Next Best Defence To Taking Preventative Measures

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Quote from NASA update:

The sun and Earth are separated by 93 million miles of space—a seemingly safe distance. But since the Space Age began, and especially in recent years, there has been a growing realization that 93 million miles really isn’t so far apart.

Solar mass ejections from the Sun, consisting of a breeze of plasma, can be traced to the phenomenon here on Earth known as the Aurora Borealis. Today, Dr. Tony Philips of NASA issued an update informing the public of the meeting on Germany of “representatives from more than 25 of the world’s most technologically-advanced nations” declaring the risks solar storms pose on the safety of urban society.

In an earlier update on January 21 2009, it was revealed that ”a solar flare can make you toilet stop working”, and that

[t]he strongest geomagnetic storm on record is the Carrington Event of August-September 1859, named after British astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the instigating solar flare with his unaided eye while he was projecting an image of the sun on a white screen. Geomagnetic activity triggered by the explosion electrified telegraph lines, shocking technicians and setting their telegraph papers on fire; Northern Lights spread as far south as Cuba and Hawaii; auroras over the Rocky Mountains were so bright, the glow woke campers who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. Best estimates rank the Carrington Event as 50% or more stronger than the superstorm of May 1921.

If you are interested in tracking solar storms, with training instructions provided, visit http://solarstormwatch.com/ to watch next to live data streamed every hour from STEREO, which “ consists of two space-based observatories – one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind. [NASA STEREO Website]“

Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickr

Ultimately it becomes very easy to tie the possibility of a solar mass ejection to doomsday prophecies, but much more difficult to provide solutions. One such person by the name of Lawrence E. Joseph featured on the popular American radio show Coast to Coast AM suggested that a good way to counter these plasma bursts from the Sun frying electrical components in the ground would be to install giant surge protectors to prevent an overload of electricity. HowStuffWorks further explains how excess power is diverted from the surge protector to the ground, but the true test of this concept would be to develop a working prototype capable of protecting the Power Grid.

In conclusion, solar storms can trigger beautiful displays on light on Earth’s poles, but they can also trigger disasters. Hence a meeting was needed to put forth new ideas and raise awareness on the risks associated with a plasma ejection travelling to the Earth. Surge protection found in most homes could be the solution, if applied on a grand scale, but unless more people become educated on the risks of solar storms, the demand for their installation, or the installation of other preventative technology, could be compromised.

If you are interested in the topic of solar storms here are some articles below for further reading:

• ‘Sun Awakens’: Scientists Warn of Solar Storms to Come (abcnews.go.com)
• Lawrence E. Joseph: The Solar ‘Katrina’ Storm That Could Take Our Power Grid Out For Years (huffingtonpost.com)
• Earth Gets Geomagnetic Wallop (news.discovery.com)
• STEREO Reveals Solar Storm Related to Failure Aboard Communications Satellite (eon.businesswire.com)

 

World Environment Day

Image by bamalibrarylady via Flickr

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, Rwanda has already made the eco-friendly move of banning plastic shopping bags. Yesterday, they were the host country of World Environment Day 2010. For those who are not aware of this yearly event the following quote from Achim Steiner, United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Executive Director, provides some insight into the significance of holding this event.

Let WED 2010 be a moment– of many moments in 2010– when the history books record that the world took note, seized the opportunities and deployed its collective knowledge, abundant science and technology, financial acumen and prowess, intelligence and compassion to build a global society with value-environmental, social and economic.

For more information on this yearly event please visit: http://www.unep.org/wed/2010/english/.

 

Louisiana Address

more about “Weekly Address: Speaking from Louisia…“, posted with vodpod

 

*Internet Explorer may depict this video as a black box with no play, if this is what you see you have numerous alternatives.

1) Use Firefox or another browser

2) Visit the video archived on the YouTube ”whitehouse” channel at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2yQJ5VCHA0

 

Is The Universe “Defeating Itself”

According to October 16th’s, Friday Night Comedy News Podcast from BBC Radio 4, a new theory is emerging after failed attempts to re-create the “God particle” otherwise known as the Higgs Boson, suggesting that the Universe could be behind these failure acting as a kind of safety feature. The LHC, Large Hadron Collider has been tasked with the challenge of recreating this elusive particle that could potentially explain the cause gravity and the source of origin, after being shut down for repairs earlier this year it resumed operations around the start of Autumn and should provide a lot of material through the experiments conducted for scientists to formulate some kind of plausible hypothesis with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Links:

Proton accelerator blurring boundaries of science fiction and fact

God sabotaged the LHC, say scientists

 

The Hazards of Dumping Broken Electrical Equipment in the Developing World

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Last night I saw a program called Global Networks that really encapsulated some of the conflicts facing people in Nigeria. In short, it featured a story about how imports of used electronic equipment can damage the local environment, and harm the people who live near these sites. Suposedly, not all equipment recieved is reparable, so much of it is scrapped or burnt to get at the copper inside. However, water supplies nearby are at risk because some of these chemicals released during the scrapping or dismantelling process, such as what appeared to be lead on the featured story, found it’s way into that water supply. It is quite possible that local citizens are not even aware of the potential contamination, but in a world where communication is often determined by what electronic gadget you have, used electronics are very appealing when found in bulk and for a low price. I tried to find out more about that program on CTS, but what I found instead was more surprising. According to this article from the BBC entitled Nigeria fears e-waste ‘toxic legacy’, “up to 50 million tons of old PC’s [alone] are thrown away each year on waste dumps.” The article further quotes a person at one of these dumps as saying that, “the systems coming in are junk.” Leading to more questions such as, why then are they still accepting these electronics? But then again, as mentioned above, cheap electronics are good targets to get more parts. In conclusion I was surprised to realize how many of our used electronics make it to Nigeria. And while the program I saw just covered Nigeria, I am confident this is happening in other developing countries where the population is seeking cheap electonics or their parts. Ultimately it comes down to the developed world to set crucial standards when it comes to shipping used electronics and help expand the knowledge of how to dispose and treate “e-waste.”

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• A Green Way to Dump Low-Tech Electronics (nytimes.com)

FOR RELATED VIDEOS: YouTube: “electronic waste nigeria”

 

Could an Artificial Tree ever replace the real Tree?

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According to a newly released BBC article by Judith Burns entitled Artificial Trees’ to cut carbon, “[Artificial] trees are among three geo-engineering ideas highlighted as practical in a new report.” The key idea behind this concept is to literally pull the CO2 out of the atmosphere at a faster rate than nature itself via the ‘tree’ and “store it within the unit itself. Keep in mind, this idea is still in the early phases of development but as to whether or not an artificially engineered tree could ever replace a real tree, I would have to answer no.

Ultimately, the fact that trees draw CO2 from our atmosphere and release oxygen is just one of the many attributes natural trees possess that render them useful. They also provide sap in many cases, act as a home for many animals, and provide a source of water. The fact that an artificial tree is “practical”, has the potential to make a significant reduction in our CO2 levels, but it should be taken for granted that real trees do the same thing. And despite the fact that their process may not be as fast, for lack of a better word, real trees have defined Planet Earth and have played a significant role on its people. I should stress at this point that any chance of artificial trees replacing real trees is extremely unlikely but if the market makes artificial trees more affordable to have in parks than their real life counterpart anything could be possible.

 

New BBC Article on the possible Consequences of Stress on Polar Bears

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According to a recent article on the BBC’s News Website, Science reporter Victoria Gill posted that , “[s]cientists

compared bear [polar bear] skulls from the early 20th Century with those from the latter half of the century. Their study,

in the Journal of Zoology, describes changes in size and shape that could be linked an increase in pollution and the reduction in sea ice.” This itself might be seen as a bit of a leap in terms of drawing a valid conclusion but as the article also states, “[p]hysical “stress” caused by pollutants in the bears’ bodies, and the increased effort needed to find food, could limit the animals’ growth…,” and with greater awareness of this threat to this iconic animal of the north within the scientific community, the chances of successfully combating the issue of  melting sea ice increases as more people dedicate their time to research way to slow down and possibly reverse the effects of climate change. For more information the David Suzuki Foundation has a report available online entitled, “Canada’s Polar Bear: Falling Through the Cracks” and overall, I would highly recommend this article on the BBC as a read for anyone.