Clipmarks | Garbage dump Clips

Stung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump - Cambodia

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:52:40 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Yikes! "nicknamed “Smoky Mountain” because of the miasma of smoke that the dump constantly gives off. It is literally on fire; the waste creates methane as it rots and the methane burns."

Clip Source: www.pbase.com

Stung Meanchey - Cambodia

Stung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump is located in southern Phnom Penh, in a district of the city of the same name, Stung Meanchey. It is a part of the city with low-income neighborhoods and slums. The dump itself covers about 100 acres, or almost 6 hectares. It is flanked by private property on which rubbish pickers build makeshift huts and are charged extortionate rents by landowners. Roughly 2,000 people, about 600 of which are children, live and work there.

It is nicknamed “Smoky Mountain” because of the miasma of smoke that the dump constantly gives off. It is literally on fire; the waste creates methane as it rots and the methane burns. In monsoon season and throughout much of the rest of the year, the surrounding area is swamped and the children live and play in fetid water.

Tags: waste, refuse, garbage, cambodia, phnom penh

Educating children from the dump

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:07:14 GMT

clipped by: traviscrocker

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- Walking down a street in Cambodia's capital city, Phymean Noun finished her lunch and tossed her chicken bones into the trash. Seconds later, she watched in horror as several children fought to reclaim her discarded food.

she quit her job and started an organization to give underprivileged children an education. Noun spent $30,000 of her own money to get her first school off the ground.

opened a school at Phnom Penh's largest municipal trash dump, where children are a large source of labor

Today, Noun provides 240 kids from the trash dump a free education, food, health services and an opportunity to be a child in a safe environment. Watch Noun and some of the children who attend her school »

"I have seen a lot of kids killed by the garbage trucks," she recalls. Children as young as 7 scavenge hours at a time for recyclable materials. They make cents a day selling cans, metals and plastic bags.

Tags: mercy, poverty

Crafty sea lion boards family's boat

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:58:32 GMT

clipped by: kkcapricorn
clipper's remarks: How cool is that?
Sea Lion says "Dump your garbage in my home, I'll come live in yours."

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

FERNDALE, Wash. (AP) — No one wants to be stuck with a large, uninvited visitor. Especially a sea lion on a family sailboat. Even more so twice in a day.

A California sea lion hopped aboard the Flarry family's 31-foot Catalina near Clark Island, Wash. on Sunday, Aug. 3.

"When they got close (she) hid (her) head behind the lifesaver like a little kid who hides behind a curtain and doesn't realize his toes are sticking out," Flarry said.

One effort after another failed to dislodge the sea lion until Flarry's son used a boat hook to nudge the creature gingerly back to the water.

"It was the strangest thing," Flarry said. "He was on there for more than an hour."

the sea lion swam in circles around the boat. Then the animal climbed back up the ladder onto the boat and resumed sunning itself.

Back came the rest of the family to try to evict the sea lion.

Her 5-year-old grandson begged in vain to keep the sea lion as a pet.

grandson was more than willing to give up his bathtub

Tags: sea lion, boat

trash bag island is no island i'd wanna be stranded on.

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:30:13 GMT

clipped by: pitim
clipper's remarks: Never heard of this one...

Clip Source: myitthings.com

[Video]

floating in the pacific ocean, part way between hawaii and san francisco lies a strange, mystical island. it appears on no map and is seldom visited by living souls, the lonely island is bigger than texas, nearly doubling is size, and is getting bigger with each passing day. the island has a name but it's unlikely that you've ever heard of it. it's not a popular vacation spot, in fact, certain people dont even want you to know about it.the island in question isnt really an island at all, but instead a giant garbage patch floating in the pacific ocean. growing quickly since the 1950s, the floating toxic dump weighs over 3.5 million tons and is made up mostly of trashed plastic. that's right, plastic. the stuff that at times makes our lives so much easier and more convenient is also trashing our planet at the same time. Scientists agree that cleaning up the toxic mass is not an option at this point, it's just too damned big. but, there are somethings that you can do to help:1. reduce the

State of emergrncy for crumbling Pompeii

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:59:49 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: 13,000 people once lived in Pompeii, which is now being visited by around 2.5 million tourists each year, while the 1/3 that remains uncovered has become a Naples garbage dump.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Silvia Aloisi

The Italian government has declared a state of emergency at Pompeii in an effort to rescue one of the world's most important cultural treasures.

A Italian cabinet statement says it will appoint a special commissioner for Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried by an eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD and now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Bogus tour guides, illegal parking attendants and stray dogs also plague visitors.

2.5 million tourists visit Pompeii each year, making it one of Italy's most popular attractions, and many have expressed shock at the site's decay

"Every year at least 150 square metres of fresco and plaster work are lost for lack of maintenance," says Antonio Irlando, a regional councillor responsible for artistic heritage

"The same goes for stones: at least 3000 pieces every year end up disintegrating," he says.

Two-thirds of the 66 hectare town, home to some 13,000 people in the Roman era, have been uncovered since serious excavations began 260 years ago.

2 teens attacked in town mocked in YouTube videos

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:50:37 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: ap.google.com

DOVER, N.Y. (AP) — Two teenagers who drove to Oniontown after a series of YouTube videos portrayed the hamlet as a run-down, backwoods dump were pelted with rocks by an angry group of young residents, authorities said.

Troopers arrested a 17-year-old from Oniontown on Thursday and charged him with criminal mischief. Additional arrests were expected, police said.

State police investigator Eric Schaefer said it wasn't the first time out-of-towners were attacked by local residents.

"The biggest recommendation at this point is for everybody to stay out of there," Schaefer said. "Anybody that doesn't belong there, anybody that's not a resident, just stay out of Oniontown."

In one YouTube video posted in May called "Oniontown Adventures," three boys with foul mouths supposedly drive up to the town. While there, they mock the poverty they find — giggling at the garbage strewn along the streets and the abandoned cars in the front yards of trailer parks.

Tags: youtube, oniontown

Made entirely from trash, Semakau Island, Singapore

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:45:45 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Started as a garbage disposal dump - today it is an island, where birds nest and people play, oblivious of the fact that the entire island is made of rubbish! 66 bird species have been recorded here. Along with various marine life (corrals, sponges, starfish, etc), all the animals have been fooled into thinking its a natural island! Singapore has been incinerating its waste here since 1999.

Clip Source: www.rsi.sg

Semakau Landfill - Waste Disposal in Singapore

Southern side of the landfill with an opening that facilitates flow of fresh water into the cell

The sustainability of any country, especially for a small island-state like Singapore, begins with ensuring that physical land resources are not overwhelmed by the waste people generate.

The Semakau Landfill is Singapore's only landfill for waste disposal. It covers a total area of 350 hectares and has a landfill capacity of 63 millions cubic metres

Sentosa? No, its Semakau Landfill, Singapore's only offshore landfill

A large supporting fleet of overland transporters, barges, dumpers and bulldozers are also required.

Semakau_aerial view - Aerial view of Semakau Landfill during its first phase

Clip Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

Made entirely from trash, Semakau island is luring environmentally curious tourists

A great-billed heron flaps its majestic wings

starfish and gritty crabs adorn the beach while coral reefs thrive close to the shore

Clip Source: xlhecymtravel.blogspot.com

soft & hard corals, reef sponges and the anemones.

Tags: semakau, garbage disposal, landfill, ash, singapore, animals, birds, marine life, corrals, environment-friendly

From Dump to Park in Cairo

Wed, 07 May 2008 23:47:15 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.planetizen.com

Cairo's first new green space in more than 100 years has opened -- on top of a 500-year old garbage dump.

"Amid Cairo's sprawling cityscape, there's a lush retreat where Egyptians can find some breathing space."

"Like New York's Central Park, the 74-acre Al-Azhar Park is a green getaway for the city's 17 million residents. But less than a decade ago, Al-Azhar Park was little more than a mound of dirt and trash — a 500-year-old garbage dump."

'It was … the shame of the city,' says Thomas Taha Rassam Culhane, founder of Solar Cities, a group that is installing environment-friendly solar hot-water heaters in Cairo's slums."

"At a cost of $30 million, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture hired world-class Egyptian, European and American architects who worked with the city and local residents to create Cairo's first new green space in more than a century."

Full Story: Slow but Sure Environmental Progress in Cairo

Tags: cairo, environment, park

Hey Coffee Drinker, replace That Paper Cup

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:38:48 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: And of course, trees are elegant and amazing organisms that deserve better than to be pulped into coffee cups -- think Stradivarius. Forests generate value with an ease industry will never replicate. The unmeasured economic value provided by Canada's boreal forest for things like water filtration and air purification has been has been estimated at $93 billion. That is two and a half times as much as the combined economic value of the forestry, mining, oil and gas and hydroelectric industries in the boreal forest. This would represent eight per cent of Canada's entire GDP, and trees don't need a pension or health care. And yet we keep grinding them up -- North America uses 60 per cent of the world's paper cups, 130 billion of them per year. Those cups require about 50 million trees and 33 billion gallons of water, which could sequester 9.3 million tonnes of CO2 and quench 550,000 drought-stricken citizens of the state of Georgia, without even asking them to lower their ridiculous consum

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

North America consumes 50 million trees a year for paper cups. Buy a travel mug already!

We have some amazing technology developing here in Canada. Homegrown high-tech whiz-bang -- Nobel Prize material, really.

This system is too good to be true: it can provide fuel, or be easily processed into one of our most versatile building materials; it can sequester CO2 to slow global warming; be harvested for food; increase ecosystem health and biodiversity by providing habitat for animals, birds, plants and insects; slow damaging storm-water runoff; purify water; and help remediate contaminated soils. The feedstock is free and abundant, and maintenance on the system is negligible.

Or, we can destroy trees for pulp to make paper coffee cups, which, after 15 minutes of use, we throw in the garbage can. Then, we pick the cups up with pollution-belching trucks and throw them in a dump, where they rot and create more greenhouse gases.

Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:44:05 GMT

clipped by: conches

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

In a garbage dump in Port-au-Prince, people recently scavenged for food. More Photos >

By MARC LACEY

Published: April 18, 2008

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hunger bashed in the front gate of Haiti’s presidential palace. Hunger poured onto the streets, burning tires and taking on soldiers and the police. Hunger sent the country’s prime minister packing.

Haiti’s hunger, that burn in the belly that so many here feel, has become fiercer than ever in recent days as global food prices spiral out of reach, spiking as much as 45 percent since the end of 2006 and turning Haitian staples like beans, corn and rice into closely guarded treasures.

America's vagabonds

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:17:00 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08

Clip Source: www.tutztutz.com

The Life of American Vagabonds

Tags: vagabonds, nomads, tramps, garbage dump, shanty, slum

The Poison Arrow: Corn-Based Ethanol

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:35:47 GMT

clipped by: amgumen
clipper's remarks: The government seeks policy that stimulates industry, growth, wealth creation; corn production is near, easy, and most importantly: large-scale.

Can we keep trying to fuel an ever-upward curve of consumption with fragile oil replacements like food crops? So far, the answer seems a resounding no.

Meanwhile, we’re turning the Pacific into a garbage dump, and hoarding seeds for “doomsday”.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

In a government-supported rush to supply the ethanol industry, US corn growers may be hastening the large-scale destruction of life in the Gulf of Mexico.

The “dead zone”–over 7,000 square miles and growing–begins as nitrogen fertilizer in US Midwest fields. The fertilizer runoff makes its way into the Mississippi river, which dumps effluent directly into the Gulf of Mexico.

A recent Senate energy policy proposal recommended the manufacture of 15 billion to 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by the year 2022,

Like “green” building, however, the problem is already so bad that scientists and calling for radical action:

“We’re already at a point where recommendations have been made that nitrogen levels in the Mississippi River have to decrease by up to 55 percent in order to shrink the dead zone,”

Biofuel proponents might say “so let’s make fuel from other sources–algae, or palm oil, or something less bad”, missing entirely how blunt-force politics really work to shape and destroy the envir

Tags: environment

Floating island of plastic twice the size of USA in the middle of the Pacific

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:04:49 GMT

clipped by: rwatuny
clipper's remarks: Depressing !!

Clip Source: www.greendaily.com

Remember reading about that huge floating island of plastic crap out in the middle of the Pacific that's twice the size of the continental United States? How'd it make you feel when you saw that? ~~Proud of humanity's technological ability to dominate the earth completely?~~ Ashamed and depressed as hell? Well, wait til you hear the sequel.

Green Tech Blog reports on Charles Moore, an oceanographer who's just returned from a 5 week cruise in the Pacific who says that the situation is far more dire than even pessimists have imagined. According to Moore, samples taken from the 2.5 million square mile Pacific garbage dump show 6 times more plastic in the water than plankton, a fivefold jump in the decade from 1997 to 2007. He offers the opinion that no technology is going to clear the ocean of plastic, and that if anything it's only likely to get worse.

Anyway, Moore says we can't fix it and sadly, he's probably right. However, with a little personal effort, we can at least stop adding to it.

Tags: plastic, pacific, pollution, ocean, marine life

Mickey Grant presents: INJECTION

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:34:49 GMT

clipped by: WIDEEYECINEMA

Clip Source: wideeyecinema.com

Mickey Grant presents: INJECTION

Widespread reuse of disposable syringes is responsible for as many as seven million cases of AIDS in Africa. Public health officials are reluctant to discuss this problem, perhaps in fear that Africans will avoid critical medical care, such as inoculations for malaria and other virulent diseases. The thrust of public AIDS prevention campaigns is on safe sex, and health care risks are critically overlooked.

In this investigative documentary, Mickey Grant travels to Kenya, Bangkok, Sofia, Benghazi, Tripoli, Rome and London in an attempt to discover the truth. He follows the trail of syringes from hospital to garbage dump, and then back into Africa’s health care system.

Tags: aids, health, video

Pacific Garbage Vortex

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:53:59 GMT

clipped by: Lasaveron
clipper's remarks: This is really sad.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

The vast expanse of debris -- in effect the world's largest rubbish dump -- is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States."