American Entropy is dedicated to the disruption and discrediting of neoconservative actions and the extreme ideals of the religious right.
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04 June 2005
UN atlas documents damaging environmental change
This info was brought to my attention from an article by the BBC on the recent release of the United Nations Environment Programme's amazing "One Planet Many People" Atlas.
I guess I'm not surprised by the content but the comparisons are amazing. Here is the first pic What you are looking at is the Southern tip of Iraq and neighboring Iran near al Basra. The dark purple color you see in the 70s is the once lucrative fig farming industry along the Shatt al-Arab estuary. This once thriving crop has been destroyed by, "[t]he UN estimates war, pests and salt have destroyed 14 million palms." On a side I want to look at a recent article from Reuters covers the problems of the current invasion and occupation of Iraq "An improvement is almost impossible in these security conditions. Chemicals are seeping into groundwater and the situation is becoming worse and creating additional health problems," said Pekka Haavisto, Iraq task force chairman at the United Nations Environmental Programme. Back to the atlas… This is a shocking change in Spain; I'm, however, not too worried by the view. What was once traditional farmland has been replaced by greenhouses. So at least the land is being used for nature not industry, but the Fertilizer can be problematic. I'll let people in the comments clear that up. This pic has two interesting points First notice the dam and the change that occurred. Second notice the lack of change in Argentina as opposed to Paraguay and Brazil. What remains in Argentina was once a larger Iguazú National Park. This is an example of a victory for those fighting deforestation; well at least a victory in Argentina. There are a few more pictures at BBC here. UNEP has an extremely informative press release here. 11:41 AM // Blogroll AE // Email // |
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