​10 Green Commitments 

Tread gently on the earth (continued)

 

CWG? 

 

God: ‘The truth is, the first weed is no more addictive and no more of a health risk than cigarettes or alcohol, both of which are protected by the law. Why is it then not allowed? Because if it were grown, half the cotton producers, nylon, and rayon manufacturers, and timber products people in the world would go out of business. Hemp happens to be one of the most useful, strongest, toughest, long-lasting materials on your planet. You cannot produce a better fiber for clothes, a stronger substance for ropes, an easier-to-grow-and-harvest source for pulp. You cut down hundreds of thousands of trees per year to give yourself Sunday papers, so that you can read about the decimation of the of the world’s forests. Hemp could provide you with millions of Sunday newspapers without cutting down one tree’. (1.3)

 

Water of course is a critical resource and here the contrast between rich and poor is stark: Western nations use it for flushing human waste while some people in poor nations have to walk miles to get to drinking water! As fresh water abstraction for human use has increased at double the rate of population growth, 70% of which is used in agriculture (24), water availability will become more critical. Much of our water comes from underground aquifers and ‘these are rapidly being depleted by the human population’ (4). It would be wise if aquifers were managed to balance the depletion with the recharge rate.

 

The damming of rivers interferes with the rain cycle and weather patterns. Of course dams are needed to store water and hydropower is clean and desirable, but man does not always do things in moderation. To give one example of many: the recent damming of the mighty Yangtze River in China shows what a massive and detrimental impact man is having on this planet. The Three Gorges Dam (eight times the size of the Hoover Dam) has dropped the Yangtze’s flow by 50% and all the impacts in the form of increased landslides and earthquakes, changes to weather patterns, rise in waterborne diseases and decline in biodiversity will only be fully understood in time to come.

 

According to tropical disease specialist George Davis,

‘There’s been a lot less rain, a lot more drought and the potential for increased disease . . . Geologists, biologists and environmentalists had been warning for years: building this massive hydro dam in an area that is densely populated, home to threatened animal and plant species, and crossed by geological fault lines is a recipe for disaster’. (46)

 

The consequences of the building of this dam are either misunderstood or ignored, and environmental agencies do not have the necessary influence. However, it must also be pointed out that the motivation for this project is good: trying to reduce China’s CO² emissions which were 6.2 billion tons in 2007 or 21% of worldwide emissions* (12). The problem is the scale of the project – the dam is just too big. 

                              

* Incidentally the US is the next biggest CO² emitter at 19%.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        NZ Herald

 

 

The huge scale of dairy farming in New Zealand is having a negative effect on our rivers with a further 370 000 hectares - a 25% increase on its current size which is an area half the size of Taranaki - due for conversion by 2020 (47). This will increase nitrogen (N) levels in our rivers by an estimated 6% (47).  Canterbury is the worst affected with an anticipated 46% N level increase from 1996. Cow urine is the main culprit: it amounts to 1000 kg per hectare, far outweighing the effects of fertiliser (47). This obsession with dairy conversion is a major reason why a third of NZ’s native plant and animal species are at risk today and many of our rivers are polluted. Balance and moderation are principles desperately needed here but too easily jettisoned when big profits beckon. 

 

Finally, the new field of geoengineering must be mentioned. This is essentially man trying to find quick fix solutions to climate change. A few examples are liming the oceans to make them more alkalinic (and thus more able to absorb carbon with causes acidity), and placing particles in the atmosphere to reflect solar radiation. The former would be disastrous for marine life and the latter would affect air quality. In short, these band aid solutions will themselves have consequences for the environment and they do not eliminate the source of our climate change problems. Perhaps painting buildings white (and making roads grey) to reflect sunlight might help; provided the materials in the paint meet environmental standards.