Just recently NASA has published some of it’s latest satellite images, these are fully documented and illustrate the earth’s rapidly changing climate.    The mission which produced these images was called GRACE and it stands for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment -it’s main function was to try and quantify the volume of ice that has been lost from the glaciers and ice caps.   The experiment covered the periods 2003 to 2011 and was of course trying to assess the damge of our warming planet.

It’s the first dedicated and comprehensive study using satellites that is purely focussed on this effect of climate change.  It’s findings were also hoped to perhaps stop the growing numbers of people who are suffering from climate change denial.   The people who deny the growing body of evidence of course usually have some other agenda or vested interest.  

The study found that over the 7 year period, around 4.3 trillion tons of land ice mass was lost, resulting in a 0.5 inch rise in global sea level. About one-fourth of-the total yearly ice lost to the ocean. Tom Wagner, NASA scientist, states that the job “… confirms that ice is being dropped from round the earth, with just a few places in precarious balance.”

It is hard to believe that with evidence and such scientific research there are still several who want to deny climate change. Recently two groups, Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund were introduced into the limelight for giving millions of dollars to anti – environmental and climate change denial groups.

Organizations like the Heartland Institute, a conservative think-tank and 1 of the recipients of-the Donors Trusts’ funds, give to the spread of climate change science denial propaganda by targeting kids. It’s important that we pay some heed to education and combating this sort of of disinformation, there are many websites and sources of reputable information online.  Point people to such sources as NASA and the BBC – most part of the sites are freely available although depending on yoru location spending some cash on a US or UK IP address may be worthwhile to bypass blocks.

Though it sounds shocking, this was not the very first time that Heartland attempted to incorporate anti – climate change materials into schools. In 2008, over 11,000 Canadian schools received teaching materials that denied human involvement in climate change from the Heartland Institute. Last Year, they sent copies of The Skeptic’s Handbook to 14,000 US school board officials.

China has launched an exciting development in the field of weather prediction – the Gaofen 1 satellite.  The satellite is classed as an Earth Observation device and has been launched by SASTIND – China’s State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.  It is the very first satellite capable of broadcast high resolution pictures back to earth,

The device was actually developed by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology and the launch took place last Friday from the province of Gansu in  the North of the country. It was carried into orbit by a Long March rocket and there are great hopes for the satellite. It is hoped that it will provide numerous services for agriculture, disaster prevention and provide general environmental services to the scientific community. Particularly apt after the recent inclusion of China in the last Earth Hour.

China has suffered from many natural disasters in the last few years and it is hoped that Gaofen 1 will play an important role in initially predicting these events and also in monitoring events in progress. Many natural disaster cover huge areas especially things like floods and snowstorms, the satellite should be able to predict the extent of some of these events.

The Gaofen 1 can move very fast aswell so can be repositioned to cover different areas when needed.  Gaofen 1 is expected to be only the first in a series of these high resolution satellites that are launched.  In fact SASTIND are expected to launch about 5 more in the next three years or so.  These wll create a spation coverage and observation system across the country.

It is hoped that these satelites are only used for scientific and weather prediction purposes, although there is obviously a worry that their use is extended given the reputation for the regimes monitoring and controling it’s population.  Ironically many of the films of the launch were not accessible last week in China – with viewers receiving the message – that this youtube video not available in your country !  Fortunately most Chinese internet users are well used to this sort of filtering and  they are usually skilled in using security tools like proxies and VPNs to neatly sidestep these restrictions.

If you haven’t heard this weekend on Saturday 23rd March at 8:30pm millions around the world will be recognising Earth Hour.  At this time (your local time) people across the world will simply switch off their lights for an hour as a sign for concern for the environment. 

IT’s been growing in success, last year there were more than 6900 cities and towns which took part.  The astronauts on the International Space Station even joined in by turning down the power on their systems.  This year it is hoped lots more countries will join in, new participants include Palestine and Rwanda.

There are some famous building across the world which join in such as the Houses of Parliament and the Sydney Opera House.  There are iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, the Brandenburg Gate and even the Empire State Building.

IS it worth it?  Well the event is primarily about raising awareness of the environmental issues facing the planet. The organisers WWF appreciate in itself it has limited effect, the benefit of turning all the lights off is cancelled out by the huge strain on electricity infrastrcture when everyone turns them back on.  However it is meant to be a starting point and hope that invidiuals and governments follow up the event with making real change.

You can follow the event at their web site - http://earthhourlive.org/ which will be having regular updates.  For those who would rather watch coverage on a mainstream channel, I can recommend this method for watching UK Television over the web - http://www.uktv-online.com/.  It’s quite simple and involves using a secure proxy server to route your connection through giving you the appearance of being in that country.

The European Cryosat mission has been focussing on analysing the sea-ice cover in the Artic recently.  New data has been produced from the spacecraft which uses it’s radar to estimate the thickness of the ices has noticed some alarming results.  The data points at a very substantial reduction in the volume of the ice particularly during the months of Autumn.

In fact the amount has fallen nearly a third compared with the last known data on this, which was produced covering 2003-2008. The fall in levels for the winter months is not quite as dramatic however. Much of the loss seems to have occured in specific regions though, mainly on the Canada Archipelago and also some areas to the North of Greenland.   We obviously have much more data about these levels since we had the technology of satellites to measure them,   But the Cryosat report has only covered the last two years.  At the moment it would be difficult to tell if  these fluctuations are significant until there is enough data to look at the long term trends.

Cryosat was established by the European Space Agency in 2010. The satellite sends down a radar pulse towards the ice floes and then measure the results with a built in altimeter.  If you are interested in seeing a paper discussing the findings in depth you can find them on this site – http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50193/abstract, the report was compiled by Professor Lazon who unfortunately died in an accident at the beginning of the year.

The polar scientist is a big loss to the Cryosat mission as he has developed a lot of techniques to help the project work effectively.  We still don’t know exactly how the change in the ice cover might have an effect on the atmosphere and the Artic ocean, but the Cryosat data will definitely play an important role in understanding this.

If you want to read more and keep up to date with this research there are lots of resources on the BBC website in the environmental section.  Also many of the documentaries and reports are viewable on the BBC Iplayer application.  Unfortunately you won’t be able to access these if you’re based outside the UK, although I found this useful method to allow me to watch Iplayer on my IPad.  It uses a VPN server to hide your IP address so even when I’m based in the US, it looks like my IP address is originating from the UK.

It often doesn’t really matter too much what kind of diet you are placing yourself on, in order to lose some weight as long as the diet fits with your personal needs. You should still lose weight if the diet is compatible with you and your lifestyle, but you can really boost the effect of any diet you try by adding the one ingredient that compliments any calorie restrictive diet. And that’s exercise!

The kind of exercise you choose to do along with your diet is not so important as the fact of getting some daily activity going. The idea is to boost your metabolism so your body is using up all the calories you are giving it through the diet while forcing your body to give up some of its fat store every day to make up the shortfall. If you hate the idea of going to the gym, why not try walking for weight loss? You can get out into the fresh air every day and enjoy a brisk, invigorating walk that does you more good than you will realize.

The benefits from the exercise itself goes without saying, but there are added bonuses to walking in the fresh air and more importantly, natural daylight. Sunlight boosts your body’s production of vitamin D which recent clinical studies have proved benefit you when losing weight, while a deficiency of that vitamin is linked with weight gain and obesity! Fresh air boosts your oxygen intake, which boosts metabolism. Sitting around indoors all day robs your body of much oxygen because you’re breathing in stale, carbon dioxide rich air which makes you more lethargic and feeling tired!

Natural daylight also lifts your mood thanks to stimulating your body’s production of serotonin, the feel good hormone that we produce ourselves. This boosts motivation to do more to boost our health, such as more exercise and more determination to succeed.

So you see, there are many health benefits to exercise that compliment a healthy, weight loss diet in so many ways. If you like to run, then go for a run each day. If you like swimming, then got to the local public pool and swim. If the weather is nice, then use an outdoor pool and get the benefit of sunshine and fresh air too.

Dieting is a great way to lose weight easily and works well when you make a healthy diet choice. It’s even better when you combine it with fresh air, natural daylight and exercise!

A recent study by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers has estimated the amount of food that the world throws away.  It’s quite a scary figure especially for anyone who is interested in the environment and how we manage our finite resources.  The total is a staggering 50%, that’s half of the food we produce is actually eaten and the other half simply thrown away  

So how come we are managing to waste so much food?  Well the Institute have some suggestions and a lot of it’s down to a few specific reasons.  Inadequate infrastructure including lack of storage facilities are two of the biggest problems.  However  there are more obvious ones like sell by dates which are simply much too strict.  In fact a lot of the supermarket behaviours are too blame in particular the practice of offering incentives like ’buy one get one free’ or ’two for one’ etc.  

There are many other studies which back this up.  Global food suggest that about 2 billion tonnes of food is produced and never eaten.  If you just look at the UK about 30% of the crops grown are never actually picked from the ground as their physical appearance is not suitable for consumers.  All this uneaten produce of course still takes energy, resources and water to produce.  

The results of these studies are truly amazing and it’s a waste that the human race can ill afford.  Predictions on population growth are notoriously innaccurate however most agree there will be several more billion mouths to feed in this century alone.  This is not going to happen unless we change our mindset to food and that covers us the consumers, retailers, farmers and distributors.  The reality is that without this sort of change then we are going to continue wasting food whilst people on the planet starve.

I don’t know about you but this pretty much rings true in my experience.  I hate waste but continuely over buy mainly due to the way the supermarkets push you into over consumption with their pricing practices.  Sometimes it’s difficult to buy one of anything.  I remember watching a documentary on the BBC about a bunch of people who lived completely off thrown away food it was quite inspiring. I managed to watch this on the BBC after someone showed me how I could watch UK TV online, I’m not sure what they were called but it might be worth checking out IPlayer if you’re interested in this subject.

Possibly the most important climate talks in a generation have just finished in Doha, Qatar.  The climate talks were hosted by the UN and have seen an unparalleled shift in principle from some of the richest and polluting countries on the planet.  This will be remembered as the summit were for the first time, richer countries agreed that compensation should be paid to poorer countries for lost growth and productivity linked to climate change.

This is no small, fringe deal but includes over 200 countries and the Kyoto agreement is extended to 2020.  It could be easy to criticise this protocol, and many do citing the lack of genuine cuts as opposed to the high ideals.  But the reality is that Kyoto is the only game in town, it is the only vaguely legally binding agreement for reducing emissions and combating global warming.

The latest deal covers both Europe and Australia, although these areas only cause 15% of the world’s emissions. There is an urgent undertaking to update the protocol with a new treaty which bound all nations rich and poor and the expectation that will be implemented by 2015.

There were no strict financial resources allocated through this meeting, there is a suggested figure of 10 billion dollars to be spent every year in order to combat global warming.  There are still rifts within the organisations in the agreement though, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus nearly derailed the agreement by insisting on credits for their previous emissions cuts.  Fortunately the chairman restarted the meeting and swiftly bypassed all the objections by Russia and the linked states.

The key passage is referred to in the protocol as the Loss and Damage mechanism, it holds the key to bringing all countries on board.  Many envrionmentalists see this as a key watershed and a vital point in the talks.  There is more information on the meeting on the BBC website and the Iplayer application – if  you have trouble viewing the site because of your location then check this out, if you enabled a proxy server based in the UK then you should have full access.  There is also still a clip of the applause when the chair stifled the Russian led revolt – his name is Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah – ironically a former head of the OPEC oil cartel.

A big part of maintaining a good level of physical health is in living the kind of lifestyle that is most conducive to promoting it. Many people believe that all it takes is getting on some kind of diet program and going to the gym three times a week. But there is so much more to it than just that, as we shall see as this article gets going.

When we think about our health, we tend to focus on what is observable. The image that we hold is also influenced by what we see around us and what we are told by those that we believe are authorities in that area. But we tend to miss the most important part, which is what is going on inside of us.

Getting Reacquainted with Nature

To get a true perspective of what we need to maintain a healthy physical body, we need to look at nature and how she fulfils her goals by complying with the immutable laws that govern all things. In other words, we ought to be viewing ourselves as an integral part of nature and then follow her lead to achieve the kind of balance and harmony that will fulfil our own goals.

It’s actually not hard at all to do. It only takes a shift in our prevalent habits to get away from the idea that we need to be using artificial means to improve our health and move toward a more natural way of living to bring about the necessary change in our well being.

Living Sensibly

Healthful living can be achieved through common sense choices and then sticking to them. It will mean discarding some of the old habits and getting used to acquiring new ones.

For instance, with regard to diet, it will mean avoiding all processed foods and embracing meals made from wholesome, fresh ingredients that you have to prepare and cook for yourself. It will mean swapping the cans of soda and bottles of sports drinks for glasses of pure, natural water.

With regard to physical activity, it means doing some form of exercise every day. It is not so important to have to get that exercise in a gym unless you prefer to, as to get out of the house and into the fresh air and simply get your body moving!

Tying It All Together

Essentially, the way to a healthful life is to move toward the natural and away from the man-made and factory processed. It means combining a healthy diet with lots of physical activity and tying them together with a mental attitude of positive thinking, relaxed persona and dealing with stress so that it can be minimized or even eliminated.

You can read more about this way of living and get a better understanding of what it is to lead a natural lifestyle by visiting: http://health-hop.com where many of these concepts are discussed and rationalized. You can gain much from embracing a natural way of life. At least try it and then decide if its better for you.

Two of my most abiding passions are being environmentally friendly and traveling. And yet in may ways I feel these two interests are pulling in differrent directions. One of the most important things about being environmentally friendly is trying to tread lightly in the world by reducing your personal carbon output. I walk or ride my bicycle to work; I never use air-con; I turn off lights and electrical applaices (at the mains) when I’m not using them; I buy things with the Energy Star approval rating; I only use CFLs and LED lights in my home; I conserve water by using a low flow shower head and faucet aerators; I collect rain water to use in the garden; I compost my food waste; I re-cycle; and I consume as carefully as possible.

And yet, I go on holiday. I take airplanes, taxis and tuk tuks. I sit in air-conditioned spaces. I eat food that I strongly suspect is not organically grown. My body waste places a burden on basic sanitation systems in developing countries. I take long bus journeys. Just by being a traveler and using the services of local people I am encouraging local economies to change – people give up farming and become waiters, cooks, drivers and construction workers. Tourism is big business in countries like Thailand, and the allure of the tourist dollar is tempting people to give up their low carbon and eco friendly lifestyles to serve people like me. No matter how careful you are as a traveler you cannot help but have a negative impact on the environment.

The last time I went to Chaweng in Koh Samui I noticed strange biting creatures in the sea. I wondered if they were feeding on human waste. Anyone who has been to Chaweng or Lamai must have noticed the large numbers of sex workers at night. Would they be there if it wasn’t for tourism.

From conversations with Thai friends it is clear that many local beach communities at first benefitted in places like Koh Samui, Phuket and Pattaya from an influx of foreign guests. Then the best beach front land gets sold to outside developers who build big resorts. The guests at the resorts spend little of their money in the local businesses. The locals find themselves being forced to abandon their small businesses and have to start working for the resorts or move away. Development caused by tourism is breaking up communities.

Moreover, in many backpacker spots around the world drugs become a problem. Whereas, they were tolerated before, they soon become big business. Local youngsters start dealing instead of studying. Local communities that had no problems with soft drugs suddenly find themselves faced with a hard drug problem.

No matter how carefully I act when abroad I feel sometimes feel guilty by association.

So what can you do? Here are a few tips to being environmentally friendly when traveling:

1) Don’t buy drugs.

2) Stay at locally run guest houses not resorts.

3) Minimize your use of the air-con.

4) Take local public transport where possible and limit your flights.

5) Make time to volunteer for local charitable projects.

6) Be respectable of foreign cultures and encourage other travelers to be as mindful as you.

7) If you go on a tour then check out the eco-credentials of the company before you sign up. I once when on a tour of the Pantanal in Brazil and was horrified that our guide played (or tormented) baby crocodiles.

I’m not saying don’t travel. I am saying try to find ways to treadl lightly and respectfully in the world.

One of the biggest things we can do to help maintain the integrity of the environment and all of its wonderful creatures is to choose eco-friendly products that do not harm the world around us.  Beauty products, especially hair care products, can contain dangerous chemicals that can not only hurt us personally while using them (e.g., hair spray that contains Diethanolamine, a chemical that can block the absorption of choline, a nutrient that is vital to healthy brain development), but can also take a long-term toll on the environment.  Every time we use a hair care product that contains dangerous chemicals, those chemicals are released into the air as well as deposited in the water when we wash our hair.

There are many companies out there that have developed environmentally friendly hair care products that use natural ingredients to do all of the things the chemical filled products do.  Although these products might cost more, the fact that they are non-toxic to both the person using them and the environment makes them well worth the added expense.  One company, Mira, has developed an all-natural hair oil from 17 Indian herbs that women all across the world have used to strengthen and replenish their hair.  Burt’s Bees is another well-known company that has an entire line of natural skin and hair care products, including favorites such as their Very Volumizing Pomegranate Shampoo.

The right products are out there.  It’s up to us to support these companies with our wallets.  Are you in?

What a person eats is generally reflected on how they are in terms of health, vitality and looks, so from the personal perspective of well being, it makes a lot of sense to eat the right foods for the body’s needs. But food consumption goes further than just the personal level, because the way we eat as a population determines the way nature is impacted and on what scale.

Too Much Meat

At present, a huge proportion of the farming industry is geared to raising livestock for meat. This has a detrimental impact on the environment because it creates an increase in the square footage of land given over to growing crops for farm animal feed in addition to pasture land that is naturally set aside for grazing animals. This additional load on the available arable land means more pesticides and other toxic chemicals are sprayed on land that could otherwise be left as open fields for grazing and not suffer the chemical onslaught of aggressive agricultural practices. After all, farmers are not so restricted in what they spray on crops destined for animal feed as they are on crops destined for human consumption.

The Vegetable Solution

This is a problem that could so easily be rectified and create a welcome bonus not only for the farmer but also for the natural environment and the end user, us. By switching over to eating more fresh vegetables and fruit and cutting back on the amount of meat we eat, the balance can be shifted to more of that poisoned land being returned to the production of edible crops for humans. Even better if farmers got their act together and cut back on the intensive farming model and instead opted for a more natural, organic farming approach, more people would be healthier and better fed with tastier, healthier food.

Eating Healthily

Of course, for such changes to occur, human education needs to be stepped up a gear to promote the common sense health giving benefits of eating more fresh fruits and vegetables as part of the daily diet. At present, people have become so used to expecting a slab of meat on every meal they eat that they find it almost unacceptable that a meal should consist of only vegetables and other non-meat products. Yet they could benefit not only their health, but cut down on their weight too by trying new things.

Eating a raw food diet with the raw part being those vegetables that readily lend themselves to being eaten uncooked is one way of achieving this. Eating more fresh fruit is an obvious yet often ignored way of getting more sweet tasting nutrients into the diet by replacing the processed sugar laden snacks that are currently weighing the nation down in terms of obesity. An apple is one of the most accessible, tasty, nutrition-packed convenience foods on the planet. Yet people would rather eat a candy bar to satisfy their sweet tooth and in doing so add an extra load of calories and dangerous fat to their already bloated bodies.

Learning to eat more healthily is not only good for people. It’s good for the environment of the planet on which we live. As soon as more people start to realize this simple yet vital fact, the sooner we will see a massive shift in the health of the population and a lightening of the load on the health service that has to treat so many obesity-related illness cases every day. Food for thought?

Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the earth’s crust. It is the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass. The exploitation of carbon is behind the success story of the industrial revolution. We have been able to harness the carbon in fossil fuels to power our machines, cars and airplanes. It is hard to imagine life nowadays without the benefits that fossil fuels have given us.

The uses of carbon do not stop there. Diamond is a form of carbon. It fascinates us in terms of its brilliance. Its hardness also makes it a useful cutting tool. The most common form of carbon is graphite. This is used to make motors turn around thanks to carbon brushes. These work because carbon is also a conductor despite not being a metal. It is for this reason that EDM works. This is a process where electricity is sent between two eletrodes, one of which is a graphite electrode. The gap between the electrodes causes a spark that can be used to cut the hardest metals to a high level of accuracy.

Over the last 20 years carbon has been central to nanotechnology that is able to make systems at a molecular level.

It is thus a shame that our use of carbon is also simultaneously our potential ruin. As fossil fuels are burnt they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that is inert. This traps solar heat and causes global warming. The dangers of global warming cannot be overemphasized as it thrreatens to raise sea levels by over 200 feet and submerge 60% of the world’s land mass.

It is the job of engineers and scientists to find ways to use carbon without changing the global climate. This is the main challenge in the 21st Century.

With so much pollution and environmental degradation , it it now more important than ever to involve our kids in helping save the earth. Everyone has a role in nature preservation. Each of us, no matter how young or old, can contribute to saving the planet, or least slow down the destruction process.

In celebration of Earth Day 2012, we aim to help you raise awareness on in your family, especially your kids on how to foster a connection with the Mother Earth and develop a personal sense of responsibility in making this world a better place.

1. Take your child to a local zoo or garden.

This will help your child develop a sense of connection to other living things, not just humans. You probably have a penguin park or even a small zoo in yur city. That way, you don’t have to travek far to areas outside where you live – that means less carbon footprint as well.

2. Ask your child to help you in the garden.

If you don’t have enough space to grow a garden outside, you can coach your child in taking care of a plant grown inside a pot. You can use these moments to teach your child important lessons in taking care of the environment. In addition, having a greehouse, even a small one, will help you illustrate the damaging effects of global warming, and discuss what your child can do to help stop this, no matter how small and insiginificant it may seem.

3. Get animal-themed toys.

When you give your child stuffed animals – whether it be as common as a bear or as exotic as an iguana, they’ll learn more about these animals helping them deepen their knowledge about nature. Even a crabbie sandbox will help your little ones associate this pincer creature to the sea.

Although these steps may not seem to make much difference in the world, the relationship your children develop with nature will help him love and protect it. Now, imagine if all parents around the world will do this, we will really make an impact.

These days it is all to easy to forget the important relationship we have with our planet. Many scholars agree that the Native American Worldview is one that respects nature, with strong family values where the views of all are taken into account. Western societies today cannot necessarily be seen in the same terms. The recent popularity of the Occupy movement and the 99% of the population against the 1% who control all the wealth shows just how divided we have become.

While many people can relate to this feeling of alienation and disconnect with society and by extension nature, the question becomes, what can we do about it? Each of us will have our own opinion on how best we are to move forward. Some are happy to maintain the status quo while an increasing number are becoming active in trying to make a change.

I believe that we cannot carry on raping the planet that we live on. There are only a finite number of trees growing in South America. If we continue cutting them down at the rate we are going, it will not be long until the rain forests are gone. The same is true of the ice in the arctic. The fact of the matter is that the way we’re living now is going to impact upon future generations. To be honest, we may well see the changes in our own lifetime!

For my part, I’m trying to reduce my “footprint” on the planet. Some of the things I’m doing reducing the amount of needless purchase I make. Waste is waste. Of course I re-cycle. But by reducing what I buy, I have even less of a need. Also I try to by in season, local produce where I can. It’s well known that animal foods “cost” more in terms of resources to produce them. So why not think about eating more fruits and vegetables? Youtube is a good starting spot to discover the best juicer to use. Ideally one that can juice all sorts of different produce is the best option. That way, you’ll only need to buy one of them.

Getting back to Native Americans, they lives in harmony with nature. Perhaps we could do the same.

A 2006 report into the rubber production industry in Thailand highlighted the ecological damage that these types of industries have on the wider environment. Thailand is the world’s chief producer and exporter of natural rubber and in 2004 produced 2.9 million cubic tonnes of the stuff. We still live in a world where rubber is a main constituent of thousands of products. Look around you and the need for natural rubber becomes obvious. From the soles of our feet, in the trainers or flip flops we wear, to the tyres on our cars and the toys that our children play with, rubber is everywhere.

The need for rubber is not in itself the problem. The problem lies in the old world production techniques and the treatment, or lack of treatment, of the waste products that production produces. In countries like Thailand where rubber is produced we can already see a massive problem in both air and water pollution from this industry. The main cause of air pollution comes from the smoke particles created from the burning of wood fuels in the process. The particles and odour pollution are an immediate threat to the health of the workers.

Furthermore the production of rubber leads to a lot of waste water which, time and again, is not being treated properly. Clearly the technology exists to combat these production pollutants but they are not being implemented and the economic reasons for these failings are clear. Such conditions in the UK or US would simply be unthinkable, but out of sight is out of mind and the lack of regulations and political will in these third world countries mean a fix anytime soon is unlikely. Certainly if foreign investment is being pumped into these industries then those companies from the west should be held accountable for the waste they produce. If the industry is made up of local companies then there is a much trickier question of how best to intervene.

Certainly action should be taken sooner rather than later, least we wish to see waste pollution washing around the coastlines of our favourite beach resorts in Thailand.