Environmental Science

Our world is changing at an alarming rate, socially, indrustially, but most importantly environmentally. The hard times that are facing countries of today are on a global scale, everyone is feeling the wrath but even through these dark times some have risen to the occasion and become the most eco-friendly countries. These top five countries show their commitment to protecting the environment for future generations. As you will see that the top four are  all Scandinavian countries, but what is interesting is that the US is only at number 39, no surprise there though. Here is the list of just the top five and how they have earned their ranks.

Number One : Switzerland

This constant neutral country in Europe has a way of always staying out of trouble but they are also known for their pride in taking care of their pollution. They even have had their own policy with how to help and maintain the environment before anyone else. There have environmental taxes, charges for water/waste managment, and created the FOEN (Federal Office for the Environment) which deals with the process of finding sustainable management of natural resources.

Number Two: Norway

This country many  years ago planned to reduce the number of carbon emissions, and now they are striving to become ‘carbon neutral’ in the next 25 years. The people there have made extensive changes to their lifestyles such as driving/flying less, something that effects them financially in the end. They also have the world’s largest solar powered company, they are definitely putting in the effect.

Number Three: Sweden

This country deserves the number three spot because nuclear and hydroelectric power is how they recieve majority of their electricity. At the rate they are going they predict that by the year 2020 they will not have any fossil fuels in use. Since soon there will be next to no oil Sweden is preparing in advance by starting now to not rely so heavily on oil. In 15 years are planning on using no oil, making them the first country ever to be completely oil free. They are also planning on accepting carbon-free options.

Number Four: Finland

Many years ago Finland use to have many contaminated lakes and rivers, the country has since then cleaned them up, making the air cleaner. Their forests are one of their greatest ‘natural resources’ available to them and they have a high annual growth rate, which in turn gives back to their country. Their next plan of action is to have more green buildings that will boost energy efficiency. This country has very big plans in their future and knows the risks that they are about to  take, which is why they are number four.

Number Five: Costa Rica

The final country on the list is the only non-Scandinavian country, they have been named one the of the most bio-diverse countries in the world, holding 5% of the world’s biodivesity. They already have 25% of their land reserved for ‘protective parks and reserves.’ They attained more than 80% of their power from hydro-electrictiy, bought 200,000 tons of carbon from Norway, and made a 5% tax on fuels.

All of these countries and many more are making the effect to change the way their countries are headed, they are looking towards the future, if only the US could look to them for examples.

http://www.econsciousmarket.com/eco-times/top-5-most-eco-countries/

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In January of 2009 there was a terrible typhoon called Morakot that hit Taiwan. It dumped record amounts of rain washing away roads, houses, buildings and bridges. The ground was solid because of a previous drought; this meant that over 80 inches of water was building up on top of the soil; this was the worst flood in 5 decades. Overall, about 6,000 houses were destroyed and more than 380,000 hectares of farmland was flooded. Landslides took many mountain villages into the ocean in seconds taking many lives with them. The storm also hit mainland in China, where six people were reported killed but not as much damage to the natural environment. The speed had slowed down before hitting China so the damage was not as sever as it was in Taiwan. The amount of rubbish that was left floating in the ocean is awful for our environment, houses, cars, gas and oil polluting the water and there is not much that can be done. ministry said, “The storm has caused as much as 1.3 billion dollars in damage.” River banks have been destroyed, washing away buildings, roads and bridges, cutting power lines and flooding city streets as well as farmland. Losses to the farming industry were estimated to be 152 million dollars. Farmers are hurting since most of the farmland was destroyed due to the amounts of water that was poured into the soil creating it to turn into mud. The amount of money that was lost in the farming industry will take a while to save up so that farmland can be nourished back to good soil for crops to be successful. Lets just hope that a storm this bad does not come back so soon and destroy the country again.

Is there anything that can be done to prevent the farmland from being destroyed every time there is a natural disaster? Could green houses possibly save crops from storms such as Morakot.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8194460.stm

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