The greenhouse effect. Tribute to Dame Anita Roddick.

by Dawn Hodson - 11:57 on 21 May 2007

Tribute to Dame Anita  

I was shocked and saddened to learn of Dame Anita Roddick's demise.  As I spilled back onto my road in SE19 I heard the news today with great dismay. With head in hand I turned to the Heavens and asked it time and time again why, why, why but the stillness of its response was equal to the reticence of a monk. Indeed, she was summoned to face the gates of purgatory at whatever time it was that autumn evening. The world has never known the like of Dame Anita, she was pioneer to go back to nature issues and as I asked the lord what on earth was he/she thinking about when the idea of ending Anita's existence came about I could not help but feeling a mighty roar of affliction engulfing inside me. Her widespread and her far-reaching benevolence, and what she did for the world as a whole would not be lost in time. Certainly, she was a large than life figure. Absent-minded I was not when I heard on the wireless again and again, the broadcasting of her unexpected demise.  Indeed, the Dame is dead. Her life washed away from her body by a wild storm of feeble ineffectual physical self-righteous ailment which had an unremitting influence over her mortal life. I know that the will of the almighty must be respected and all that jazz but Anita's speedy doom is causing misery wherever she was known. Anita your name the world will forever know but your philanthropy will be missed by many. Albeit Anita breathed out her last her humanity will forever live in the heart of those who appreciated her personal distinctive inclination to do good in the world as a whole. As I bid her farewell, my heart is my hands crying the tears that don't necessarily show but which are most sincerely an honest emotional reaction to her demise. Addio Anita.

 

P. Figueras

The Earth's Agony

The world's climate has been a subject much talked about in recent times. The greenhouse effect, which defines the untypical trends of cooling and warming of the earth, is blamed, and rightly so, on mankind's activities.

Experiments have shown that carbon dioxide (a colourless gas formed by combustion and by emission of gas from the anus and breathing of people and animals), the main cause of global warming, is transparent to the short-wave infrared heat radiation from the sun, but opaque (not transparent) to long wave infrared radiation emitted from warm objects on earth; in a nutshell, heat can get in but it cannot get out as easily.

The consensus of leading experts in environmental issues is that the level of carbon dioxide in the air has increased significantly during this new millennium. Indeed, the combustion of fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide and is the principal culprit of global warming; in addition, ploughing land also releases large amounts of soil-held gas into the atmosphere taking the measurement of carbon dioxide to an even greater level. Furthermore, industrial effluent (liquid discharged as wasted) and untreated sewage, which are the most common pollutants of water and the common use of fertilisers in food production, means that huge amount of nitrates (compound of nitric acid, used as a fertiliser) and phosphates (fertiliser containing phosphorus) are released into river systems. Consequently, the abundance of chemicals such as phosphates in lakes and coastal waters produces an increase in algae (plants which live in or near water and have no true stems, leaves, or roots) on the surface, which blots out the light necessary for flora life. This, in turn reduces the oxygen content and, ultimately, marine life. More and more water systems are dying as a result.

The debate over tackling global warming has become a growing concern owing to the general notion that the long-term effects of some of man's activities are uncertain. The fluorocarbons (synthetic compound of carbon and fluorine) contained in aerosol cans is a considerable concern since a million and one tons of these chemicals are release into the atmosphere each year, and it is thought they may be destroying the ozone layer (layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere) which filters out the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The result of this could be an increase in skin cancer, damage to crops and even a change in climate. The ozone layer may be threatened also by the release of nitrous oxides (colourless sweetish-smelling gas used as anaesthetic laughing gas; N2O) from nitrogen fertilisers, on which man depends for greater crop yields.

It is often difficult to put a price on the conservation of nature and the protection of our vulnerable environment but we have arrived at point where serious thought must be given to the environmental impact of man's activities. Recent years have seen enormous strides in the awareness of this issue but more, much more, must be done in order to bring this potentially catastrophic climate change under control.

Pollution of the land in its most obvious form is all too familiar. The devastating effects of open-cast mining on the landscape, the problems of disposing of waste products from industrial processing, and the scattering of chemicals over our farmland are mounting. 

Of more immediate concern is the disposal of the waste produced by modern society. It is a monumental problem and so far little has been done to introduce recycling on a large scale or in the most efficient manner. Before burning refuse, for instance, one ought to separate the glass, metal or plastic constituents, but the sorting operation is a costly one. Noise is increasingly a problem, too. To stand within a few yards of a heavy lorry, for instance, can cause stress and, after a time, damage to the hearing of human beings can occur.  

Pollution of the air can take the form of mixture of smoke and fog — for which London was notorious before the 1950s — produced by the accumulation in the air of sulphur dioxide (substance used for fumigating harmful germs), sulphuric acid (colourless corrosive liquid used for making explosives) and smoke from industry, and the photochemical hazes (chemical effects of light caused by heat) produced largely by car exhaust fumes. The pollution of the air increases the cloud cover-particles providing a nucleus around which cloud droplets can condense reflecting solar radiation back into space and which could therefore lower temperatures on earth.

The problem of pollution is certainly not restricted to a particular country, as a result of air currents and winds, “acid rain” now falls over parts of Western Europe that are not themselves industrialised regions, inhibiting forest growth. Pollution of the air can be manifested in what is known as a photochemical haze. Car exhausts provide many of the raw materials needed for the atmospheric reactions — nitrogen dioxide, hydrocarbons and other organic compounds which reactions are initiated by the sun's energy. Road vehicles and aircrafts also, consume vast amounts of oil and other materials, pollute the air and eat up land space for roads, car parks and airports.

The air is still clear and the land unscathed in regions of the earth that are apparently remote from the industrialised world. Nevertheless, studies of tissues from certain animals in the northern and southern latitudes shows evidence of pollution in the form of insecticides and other man-made chemicals that are carried to all parts of the globe by the earth's wind and water systems.

Moreover, the world is in danger of losing some of its unwonted fauna as a result of man's activities. Such animals are either hunted into extinction or their habitats are ruined by human encroachment. The environment is in danger; the future of the planet is in danger. It is time for every male and female of mature intelligence to be aware of the threat those global warming poses to the planet. The condition of the environment is not a lexical reference to a fad, defined by a lexicographer; it has real biological meaning since the surface of the earth is truly a living organism. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. Therefore, if catastrophic climate change is to be forestalled every one of us must now take part in the debate over tackling global warming. I am concerned. Are you not?

Pedro Figueras

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