Entries by NexPlan Recycling

Many organizations and think tanks in Canada and the United States are suggesting that the best way to revive the faltering economy would be to finance solutions to ongoing environmental problems. Supporters are calling the idea "green stimulus." They suggest that directing new government expenditures to wind farms, solar panels, gas-sipping cars and mass-transit infrastructure, and other environmentally friendly initiatives, would give a far larger boost to the economy than tax cuts or government rebates. A green stimulus would stimulate the economy here with positive effects, not just economic, but also environmental and ecological. The environmental funding would have the side benefit of helping solve such problems as global warming by propelling the development of less-polluting energy sources and increased energy efficiency.

We are pouring billions into bailing out big banks and Wall Street corporations. Now the North American auto industry is crying for taxpayer’s money to bail them out. The North American auto industry has manufactured gas-guzzling large vehicles that are not doing a lot to really tackle global warming and environmental issues. Can we afford to give them billions to do more of the same? Now is not the time for band-aid or shortsighted solutions. Two of the biggest challenges in North America and other parts of the world today are economic and environmental. We need to merge the two together and bring about a positive change. We need to look at the big picture. We need to look at fifty years or a hundred years ahead instead of just next year. We need economic reform. More importantly we need a green revolution and to clean up our environment and preserve the health of the planet and our population.

With the US election over and Barack Obama voted in as the next President of the United States, many environmentalists are wondering if we will have a greener future here in North America. Obama has hinted during his campaign about the need to pursue alternative energy sources such as wind power, solar power ,tidal power and other clean energy sources.

I believe we are at a crossroads here in North America. With economic distress this year along with threats of climate change and global warming, this is the perfect time for change. We should embrace change in the US government and develop and implement cleaner energy sources to help our environment and lesson our dependence on foreign oil. We cannot depend on governments to solve all our problems and deploy alternative energy solutions on their own. We must all be accountable and work together to bring forth change and work towards a greener tomorrow.

I was reading the morning news today and was shocked (maybe I shouldn’t be surprised) that Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported income this week that broke its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83-billion in the third quarter of this year. This is in the midst of tough economic times for many companies and individuals around North America and other parts of the globe. I could write forever on the politics behind oil profits and the oil industry but I don’t have time for that. Huge obscene profits by oil companies will continue as long as society is addicted to oil. Oil companies have a lot of control over governments. They also have control over business and individuals. When the price of oil and gas rises the more it hurts the economy. I am not against corporate profits in a general sense but things seem to be lopsided these days in favour of oil companies.

There is one huge solution to this issue. It is known as “alternative energy”. The more we develop and use sources of alternative energy the less we depend on oil and the less we are at the mercy of big oil companies. We need to start stop talking about green energy and start using clean green energy sources. Not only will it allow us to stop depending on oil for practically every thing our society runs on, it will also clean our environment and combat issues such as pollution, greenhouse gas, and global warming. Anyone that does not like reading quarterly profit reports for oil companies like Exxon, must push harder for alternative energy sources such as solar power, wind power and tidal power.

Recycling has become a catchy phrase in the twenty-first century. It is trendy to say that you recycle and are doing your part to save the planet and combat global warming. It makes us feel good to take our e-waste to a place that says it recycles e-waste and get it off our hands. What happens to our electronic waste when it is dropped off? It is not always what we think.

According to a recent report by a leading Canadian news source, a lot of e-waste that is collected by Canadian recycling companies are eventually shipped to Asian countries like China where this electronic waste is taken apart and burned in unsafe inhumane conditions that are environmentally unfriendly. There are parts of China that are toxic dumping grounds for North American e-waste that we ship there after we are through with them. It is really ironic that electronic items are manufactured there, and after we use them here in Canada and the United States and no longer want them, we ship old computers, monitors, cell phones, televisions and other e waste to countries like China to dispose of them. Is it true recycling?

Recycling is a great thing to do and it is crucial to combat climate change and global warming. However, recycling needs to be done properly. Recycling is the third step in the “reduce reuse and recycle” cycle. We need as a society to first reduce then reuse and then recycle. We need to make sure our waste is being truly recycled in a proper way that is safe to human health and the environment. There are many recycling companies that do great things and truly recycle e waste. Is the recycling company you are taking your old computer or television to doing the right thing?

The majority of Canadians have voted “NO” to the Liberal Party and its carbon tax. The government that is considered by many people to be the least environmentally friendly was voted in yesterday. The Conservative Government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper was given another minority government.

It is not that most Canadians do not care about the environment, however as a whole, it is still not our primary concern in my opinion. The Canadian Liberal Party’s main platform was a carbon tax. Many Canadians rejected this carbon tax due to a fear of home heating and oil prices increasing and the price of gas at the pumps increasing. We have been slammed in the past year with increasing energy prices and we don’t need heavy taxes imposed on gasoline and other energy sources. I am neither a Conservative nor a Liberal nor do I pledge allegiance to any political party. One of the key things about Canada is that it is a vast country with a harsh climate. The carbon tax that may work in parts of Europe won’t work the same in Canada. I am for a carbon tax in theory, but only if it is a suited for Canada and sensitive to business and individuals already faced with high energy prices.

I personally think that there is still a vast amount of Canadians that really are not too concerned about the environment yet. Most of us have not felt the drastic impacts of global warming in this country so far, so many do not heed the warnings. Consider that over five million Canadians still smoke despite all the warnings of health risks associated with smoking and tobacco. Do you think heavy smokers care about the environment as a whole if they continue to pump toxins into their own body? We still like our high status of living and still think that we as individuals can’t solve the global warming and environmental issues on our own and that governments will fix the issue. Governments alone will not fix climate change and pollution issues! It is up to each and every one of us to chose alternative forms of energy and clean up our planet. We need to start making good decisions today for a greener tomorrow.

I hate writing about the price of gas, I really do. However, as I write this, The American Gulf Coast is preparing for Hurricane Ike. I feel for the people that live there and the issues they have are far more serious than me paying more at the pump.

However, I have a problem with "Big Oil Companies" that use the hype of hurricanes to make even a bigger profit than they already make. I live in Canada and I was just informed that gas has jumped today by 13 cents per liter to make it in the $1.40 a liter ballpark. That is over 5 dollars a gallon. This is despite the price of a barrel of crude oil dropping to close to $100 over the past few months.

Here is what really gets me: The oil companies were quoted in the media the past few weeks as to why the price of gas at the pumps in Canada has stayed high over the past month? Their response… It takes a while for the price of a barrel of crude to filter down to the pumps. Now we have a hurricane and the price jumps 13 cents a liter overnight!!! Is it just me… or does the statement… “It takes a while for the price of a barrel of crude to filter down to the pumps” seem like a lie?

We need to stop listening to lies from the big oil companies and some politicians regarding gas prices. We need also to push more for the manufacture of hybrid vehicles and other alternative energy sources so we can get off the big oil companies’ merry–go-round!

An ice chunk 18 square kilometers (seven square miles) across broke off a Canadian ice shelf in the Arctic recently. The ice sheet broke away last week from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off Ellesmere Island about 500 miles from the North Pole. The polar north is once again experiencing a rapid ice retreat this year, in addition to the 4.13 million sq km (1.59 million sq miles) of sea-ice that retreated in 2007.

Dramatic changes are occurring in the region, affecting the ice both in the open ocean and the ice, which is attached to the coast. Many scientists believe that the Artic will have ice-free summers in 2013, which is earlier than previously predicted.

While global warming is a major issue around the globe resulting in food shortages and pollution causing health problems, along with severe weather, let’s look at a global warming issue in a less serious nature.

I live in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. As I am writing this article I have not seen the sun for four straight days. Here is the striking contrast; inside the city of Saint John, which sits on the Bay of Fundy, there has been a huge fog bank that has sat here for the better part of the past two weeks. Inside the city the temperature has hovered around 15C/58 F in the middle of the day. Yes, this is July! 50 miles inland the temperature has been between 28C/82F and 32 C/90 F midday in sunshine.

The fog is formed when warm, humid air moves off the land and over the cold Fundy waters. As the air cools, it condenses to form millions of microscopic water droplets in the air. The Bay of Fundy is among the foggiest areas of the world, especially during the summer. In Saint John fog occurs on more than one quarter of the days of the year and 36% of the time in July according to data from Environment Canada. The waters of the North Atlantic Ocean are cold - seldom exceeding 8C/46 F, even during the summer .The Bay of Fundy takes in this chilled volume twice a day through currents from the North Atlantic maintaining a relatively constant water temperature. It is like liquid ice in fact. Saint John, New Brunswick is officially Canada's second-most foggy city. Ironically there was a huge cruise ship in the city yesterday and no one could even see it in the harbor!

As the North American summers will get more hot and humid due to global warming, areas along the Bay of Fundy will get more persistent fog. Some people love the fog and cool temperatures, but I am one that will be spending more time inland in the future.

Some people predict that about a quarter of oil and gas to be discovered in the world in the coming decades might be found in the arctic basin region. The current center of activity in this great arctic gold rush is the Barents Sea off the coast of Russia - where experts say there could be as much as the equivalent of half a trillion barrels of oil.

The paradox here is that global warming is melting much of the ice in the arctic region. Melting ice means that drilling for this oil will be much easier. More human arctic activity could spell an environmental catastrophe killing off many species and further hastening the melting of the polar ice shelf. A Canadian climate scientist recently stated that the North Pole might be ice-free this summer for the first time in history.

The United States government predicted today that despite persistently high oil prices, global energy demand will grow by 50 per cent over the next two decades with continued heavy reliance on environmentally problematic fossil fuels, especially coal and oil.

“Fossil fuels ... are expected to continue supplying much of the energy used worldwide,” the Energy Information Administration report stated, in spite of the growth of renewable energy sources, especially wind and biofuels. The world's demand for liquid fuels – mostly oil – will continue to grow to 113 million barrels a day by 2030, nearly a third more than is consumed today.

The expected growth in energy demand is especially dramatic in developing countries, such as China and India, which are expected to have continued strong economic growth over the next two decades.

The US government wants to overturn a 26-year ban on offshore oil drilling in the U.S., and open a part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for petroleum exploration. The U.S. has an estimated 3% of global petroleum reserves, but consumes close to a quarter of the world's oil. Offshore territories and public lands like the ANWR that don't allow drilling may contain up to 75 billion barrels of oil, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Although it sounds like a lot, it's not enough to make a significant impact in a world where global oil demand is expected to rise 30% by 2030, to nearly 120 million barrels a day. Also, offshore drilling is rather expensive and would only be feasible if the price of oil remained high.

In North America, we are addicted to oil. We would go to every corner of the earth if we could find oil. What will be the impact on the environment if this ban is overturned? As well, in the United States this year, oil is a pawn on the political landscape. This is a much more serious issue than to be used as an election ploy. We must find alternative sources of energy. We cannot depend on oil, because it is a limited resource. The time has come to change to hybrid vehicles, solar and wind power and other methods to offset the environmental damage and the dependence on oil.

Honda's new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car rolled off a Japanese production line today and is headed to southern California. The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the gases believed to contribute to global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says. Hydrogen, instead of petroleum, fills its tank. Electricity, instead of internal combustion, moves it forward. Hydrogen fuel-cell cars are rare and new. They are also very expensive to make and there are hardly any hydrogen stations to support them

This type of car is certainly not feasible at the moment, but considering our dependence on oil and the cost of gas this is a technology worth taking note of. If these types of vehicles were mass produced and cheaper to manufacture, it would help the environment and send notice to big oil companies that are making record profits while many people and businesses are struggling to survive the cost of filling their vehicles.

Severe storms with heavy rains, high winds and powerful lightning swept across the American Midwest to the East Coast this past weekend, flooding towns from Iowa to Michigan, and leaving at least eight people dead. Indiana was declared a flood disaster area after more than 10 inches fell in two days. As well, the northeastern United States is under an early summer heat wave with temperatures expected to climb up to 100 in some places with humidex levels even higher. Electricity use in the northeast will peak as a result of the high temperatures and the high use of air conditioners.

We are certainly seeing more frequent storms, whether it is tornadoes, wind and floods.
Also extreme temperatures seem to be frequent across the North American continent. We can not ignore the warnings of global warming and climate change and the impact it will have.

Soaring food prices could trigger a global catastrophe, with the world's poor unable to feed their families, human rights activists said today. The warning came as world leaders arrived in Rome for a U.N. summit to tackle a food crisis that is pushing 100 million people into hunger, triggering food protests and could intensify violence in war zones. Poor harvests, low stocks and rising demand, especially from India and China, caused huge food price increases over the last few years, fueling protests, strikes and violence in Africa, Asia and Latin America. A combination of high oil prices, urbanization, flawed trade policies, production of bio-feuls and other factors have caused food prices to escalate around the world. These factors have provoked protests and riots in Africa and Asia in recent months and left aid organizations that feed the poor struggling. Close to a billion people on the planet live on a dollar a day and it is estimated that close to 15,000 children die daily due to food shortage related issues in third world countries. Hunger campaigners have targeted the recent rise in bio-fuels -- usually the conversion of food crops into energy -- as one of the main reasons for the rising food prices and say the summit should declare a ban on arable land being switched to biofuel production.

Global warming is damaging the earth more quickly than previously thought and escalating oil prices threaten to speed the growth in greenhouse gas emissions, scientists and activists told environment ministers from industrialized nations last week in Kobe, Japan. The rising price of oil can encourage the use of cheaper coal, a much dirtier fuel.

The ministers, from the Group of Eight countries, gathered in the Japanese city of Kobe for a three-day conference dominated by the struggle with the worsening effects of climate change. Environmentalists urged quick action to curb the effects of the rise in world temperatures, which scientists say threaten to drive species to extinction, worsen floods and droughts, and thwart economic development.

The G8 is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The Group of Eight environment ministers called Monday in a statement for rich nations to take the lead in a global effort to at least halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.