The Environment This Month - November 2016

Welcome back for another round up for The Environment This Month. I’ve already heard in October that the Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a snowy winter. That’s going to make the old commute a nuisance! When winter sets in, we’re inevitably inundated with statements like so much for global warming, by those who don’t understand the premise of climate change. Hopefully this news round up has given you sources to combat that dangerous thinking. So, let’s get started on this month.

Who can’t get behind savings? What if it were both health and financial? All the more reason to go green!

A study released this month by the American Lung Association finds that, while a gallon of regular gas now averages around $2.22 nationwide, that price does not reflect about $1.15 in healthcare and other costs imposed on taxpayers, healthcare consumers, and businesses when it is used.

New Study Finds Zero-Emission Cars will Slash Healthcare and Environmental Spending | Fortune – Tech

This next item came up at the end of last month, too. It’s not something that can be ignored. Public attention will be onto the next thing by the time this blog post hits, so it’s my way to help keep an eye on the issue presented. We can’t afford to move onto the next thing.

Read the latest business news, real estate, financial markets and personal finance in BC and Canada. Use financial tools and get daily business advice.

CNW Group

One more for the catch up…

The countries that decide the fate of Antarctica’s waters reached an historic agreement on Friday to create the world’s largest marine protected area in the ocean next to the frozen continent.

Countries OK World’s Largest Marine Reserve in Antarctica – The New York Times

Technological advances have created some of the biggest headaches for humanity. For instance, nuclear power and weaponization. Star Trek and other science fiction stories have explored the dangers of bizarre and seeming blessings that we develop. Sometimes the fall out is minuscule, not worth mentioning, and we marvel at the advancements the fictional worlds enjoy. Then, there are times the advancement becomes a nightmare, like the combustion engine and its contribution to global warming. There is no denying how the engine has helped humanity, but there is also no denying that the exhaust has become a great big problem. So, when I see articles like the following, I read them with the wonder of what good and what bad will come of such advances, and are we wise enough to be meddling so.

MIT engineers embedded the leaves of the spinach plant with carbon nanotubes to detect explosives that are hidden in the soil. How does plant nanobionics work?

Nanobionic Spinach Plants Engineered To Detect Buried Explosives : SCIENCE : Tech Times

While the world was distracted by U.S. elections and the dangers the American government is posing to the rest of the world, leaders in Paris accomplished a step toward mitigating further damage by our negligence to act appropriately to global warming.

The Paris Agreement to combat climate change became international law on Friday — a landmark deal about tackling global warming amid growing fears that the world is becoming hotter even faster than scientists expected.

Paris Climate Change Deal Becomes International Law – The New York Times

Unfortunately, I will have to cover this here, even if we’re all exhausted about the topic, but it is relevant and it will not be going away any time soon. Thanks, DNC!

This renewed threat to our environment by anti-science conservatives is something we’ll need to become vigilant about.

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a well-known climate skeptic to oversee the transition of the country’s Environmental Protection Agency. The Republican Party has pledged to shut down the regulatory entity.

Trump prepares to dismantle US environmental law | Environment | DW.COM | 10.11.2016

Meanwhile, China is taking environmental issues far more seriously than the west expected. Did we move to bizzaro world?

China has called more than 1,500 government officials to account for recent major environmental problems across three provinces. The move came after recent inspections found insufficient implementation of pollution control efforts, the environmental ministry said, according to Reuters. The Ministry of Environmental Protection said late on Tuesday that it had received feedback from inspection teams dispatched to Heilongjiang, Henan and Jiangsu provinces, the first group among eight regions the government plans to check.