Tidbits: Environmental concerns
Jeffrey Hill | Wed, Jan 16th, 2008 | Category: Report | Tags: jeffrey hill, tata nano, stinger jellyfish, sea world, al gore, switzerland
-image courtesy of Motor Trend
How do you make a car affordable without sacrificing size or safety? Impossible. How does an automobile company appease everyone in the entire world? Impossible. Will countries like India, where seven out of every 1,000 people own a car, embrace the the punky little red roadster pictured above? Probably not. Is the Tata Nano a revolution in automobile manufacturing? Sure, why not? Do people in under-developed third world countries care? No. They’re too busy wishing for education, efficient hospitals, water, sewage, food and paved roads. Are environmentalists suggesting that a delicate balance with nature exists because people in third world countries do not own vehicles? No, they’re just not taking their medication this week.
-image courtesy of Adventurist.net
Sea World is leaking salt water. That salt water is leaking into the ground and contaminating the ground water. Why did this happen? Hmm ... maybe because Killer Whales were meant to be in the ocean, and not face-to-face with America’s fanny-pack tourists and their ugly children in an over-sized swimming pool. “Fortunately, we’re not getting any drinking water from below those facilities. There’s no wells around here,” said Florida State Agency spokesperson, Jeff Prather. You know that he just went out and bought a Brita. It is nice to know that Shamu is literally peeing on Florida.
-image courtesy of Switzerland-Trips.com
Switzerland is melting, and if these people can’t ski, they might just get hostile. Warm winters are making the luxury resorts in the Alps sweat a bit, and alternatives are being planned (waterslides?). According to this article in Reuters, “Lack of snow could have serious consequences in mountain areas, some of which generate 80 percent of their income from tourism, and many hotels could go out of business.” It’s a shame that banks don’t melt. If they did, somebody other than Al Gore may start taking a look at this problem.
-image courtesy of Treehugger.com
If terrorism wasn’t enough, Britain is readying itself for a massive strike by a swarm of Stinger Jellyfish. According to this article on the Environmental News Network’s website, Jellyfish are invading Scotland’s waters, causing Swedish Nuclear Power Plants to shut down, and wiping out Northern Ireland’s salmon industry. Wow! Do you think there’s an intern at the Pentagon trying to link this to Al Queda somehow? Anyway, British scientists admit underestimating the creatures, claiming they thought they were just “bags of water.” Now they are fully dedicated to studying the creatures, figuring out why they are attacking Europe and diverting them to a non-European country.
Jeffrey Hill is News Editor for Access Intelligence, a business and technology information firm, web editor for Next American City and a freelance writer based in Washington D.C.