Water Pollution
Greenpeace Protest Continues in the Rig that Threatens the Arctic
Scottish oil company Cairn Energy wants to extract oil from the Arctic Ocean to the risk of contamination of the water involved. Greenpeace took their protest actions, peaceful, and now the oil will claim millions of euros in compensation, after only eighteen Greenpeace activists climb into Leiv Eiriksson platform to request a copy of your contingency plan before discharge. They do not want a repetition of accidents like the Prestige or the Gulf of Mexico and many others.
Leiv Eiriksson The platform is located 180 kilometers off the coast of Greenland ready to drill. The opera company, Cairn Energy, has refused to publish the plan because it claims do not allow you to Greenland.
The platform will start drilling in an area known as “Iceberg Alley”, where a large population of narwhal, a type of toothed whale. Ben Ayliffe, head of the oil campaign of Greenpeace International said the company Cairn Energy is hiding his plan oil spill response and would have to go where it’s supposed to be, that is, until the platoforma to ask. He added that if it wishes to make public the plan is for there can be an effective response plan in the area. Before freezing temperatures and as far away location of the platform, a deep-water disposal would be an irreversible and irremediable disaster. If you publish the plan would expose all the dangers.
Finally, police arrested eighteen Greenland Greenpeace activists who climbed the platform. The activists came from various European countries and have been questioned in the capital of the autonomous region belonging to Denmark, Nuuk.
The company Cairn Energy has admitted that drilling will lead to at least 9,000 tons of toxic chemicals are discharged directly into the waters of Davis Strait. The amount of chemicals is greater than the sum of all the drilling of oil per year in Norway and Denmark. Also recognized that Greenland will be decades until it can receive a substantial flow of money derived from drilling.
On the other hand, oil extraction operations are an immediate threat to the fisheries of the region, which represents 88% of exports of the island. Confidential documents showed that the British Government experts believe that an oil spill in the Arctic would be virtually impossible to clean.
Cairn Energy, meanwhile, ensures that each day that the platform can not punch it costs four million dollars, which has sued for two million euro fine for each day the activists remained in the Leiv Eiriksson.
Posted in Water Pollution | 
Tags: Contamination, extract oil, Greenpeace, Gulf of Mexico, water disposal | 
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Arena Drinkable Water
Researchers at Rice University illusionists appear instead of scientists. They want magic. Are developing nanotechnology that will create a superarena, an arena that has properties that serve to purify water. Many poor and developing can benefit from this invention, countries where more than one billion people lack access to potable water.
Use sand to filter drinking water is not new. But the size of sand grains affects their efficiency to remove contaminants from water. The new technique being developed by researchers at Rice University is to use graphite oxide, a product used to make the mines that lead pencils. The resulting material is much more efficient at removing contaminants than sand alone.
The idea is that these graphite oxide nanoparticles can be adapted to perform at both hydrophobic (in other words, water-repelling) and hydrophilic (water attracting). Thus, the sand filtration is a cheaper and more effective. They cover the sand grains with this material that removes mercury and dye molecules of water.
In tests to analyze the level of mercury after filtration, the current saturated sand after ten minutes, while the sand created by the Rice team absorbed contaminant metal for more than fifty minutes. This high level of filtration is similar to some devices in modern charcoal filtration systems that are for sale in developed countries, but at a price impossible for poor countries.
Besides cleaning the water of mercury, the treated water is also cleaned super arena dye Rhodamine B. At least as efficiently as activated carbon filters.
Researchers are looking for a way to increase the efficiency of filtering and combining graphite oxide with other materials to clean contaminants such as arsenic, trichlorethylene or other.
Posted in Water Pollution | Tags: carbon filters, charcoal filtration systems, contaminants, graphite oxide, mercury, purify water | No Comments »
The Sea of Japan is Still Contaminated
Greenpeace continues to analyze all the radioactivity that can come from the disaster of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and has recently complained that the new measurements of radiation in coastal seawater near the plant show that contamination in seaweeds is fifty times higher than marking the official limit.
This would be a serious issue in any country, but even more in Japan, where several species of seaweed are consumed in bulk. The Japanese authorities very different view additional information and ensure that the radioactivity is dispersed or diluted. They accuse the environmental organization to analyze a given marine area. If so, if only that particular area is contaminated, it would be a serious problem.
The data presented by Greenpeace have been accredited laboratories in France and Belgium show that there is a huge amount of radioactivity that is spreading at a great distance from the nuclear plant in Fukushima. Most fish and shellfish in the area have levels of radioactivity above legal levels for contamination of food.
Other tests warn that fishermen may also be in danger. They have an additional risk for the management of fishing nets that have been in contact with sediments radioactive materials, hemp, like ropes that absorb radiation. Should be reported reliably both the fishermen and their communities and consumers. It is essential to know how and how much radioactivity affects their lives, resources and ecosystems. For each person can freely choose how to deal with it. Moreover, it should give detailed information on how to protect yourself and your family from contamination.
Two months ago, the radioactivity in the sea near Fukushima exceeded in the case of iodine at 4385 times the legal limit.
Posted in Water Pollution | Tags: contaminated, contaminated of water, contamination of food, disaster, nuclear plant, sea | Comments Closed
Water Pollution
Water pollution
The problem of freshwater pollution is known of old. One of the first historical evidence it is the story of Scripture on one of the ten plagues of Egypt, which describes the transformation in “blood” of the river Nile, a phenomenon due to contamination caused by biological microorganisms.
With increasing population and the emergence of industrial water pollution of rivers, lakes and even groundwater is steadily increasing. Pollution caused by domestic and industrial effluents, deforestation and land use practices, is significantly reducing the availability of usable water.
WHO and water pollution
The World Health Organization defines the pollution of freshwater as follows: “It should be noted that water is contaminated, when its composition or state are altered so that no longer meet the conditions of use to which it had for in its natural state. ”
According to the definition given by WHO for water pollution should also be considered, both the changes in physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water as the temperature changes caused by emissions of hot water.
Who is responsible for water pollution?
There is always a natural water pollution caused by animal and plant remains by mineral and gaseous substances that dissolve when the bodies of water cross different terrains, but this can not accuse nature to follow its natural cycle.
Therefore, the primary responsibility for water pollution of our planet are men, through our activities.
- Water pollution by industry: it is due to the use of water is done in industrial processes. Some industries dump polluted water into rivers and seas without control.
- Water pollution from livestock and agriculture due to intensive farming of cattle and abuse of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture.
- Water pollution by domestic and urban uses: this is due to wastewater from domestic and urban uses.