See instructions and format at the beginning of the first week's thread.
Social Constructionism in Environmental Sociology: The Media
"Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.'"
Noam Chomsky
[Extra curricular reading about U.S. media at this link why it is so...]
To paraphrase Min from class, 'where is the media in reporting all these things? Why don't they report?" Exclusively looking at the USA for a moment, I argued that the media itself is part of the political economy. Second, media consolidation in the USA has increased to make TV, radio, and advertising billboards all three very consolidated industries. This has demoted local news coverage toward more centralized news/advertizements and little investigative journalism.
Watch this short video about how FOX News in the USA got to fire their investigative reporters for looking into health risks of a Monsanto product. It is a short film excerpt that demonstrates how much censorship can be involved in the major TV media 'even in the United States.'
THE CORPORATION [17/23] Unsettling Accounts: Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) made by Monsanto
Monsanto. These investigative reporters in Florida documented potential health and safety problems of drinking milk treated with the synthetic hormone made by Monsanto, but threatened with legal action from Monsanto, their boss at Fox News wants the story killed. For refusing, journalists Jane Akre and Steve Wilson were fired by the Fox News television station they work for after refusing to change their investigative report on Posilac, a Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) made by Monsanto. Their research documents potential health and safety problems of drinking milk treated with the synthetic hormone....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkDikRLQrw
This is who owns the three major TV networks in the USA right now.
NBC
The network is currently a part of the media company NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric (GE), and supplies programming to more than 200 affiliated U.S. stations. [GE is a huge military contractor. GE provided huge funding to George W. Bush's campaign in 2000.]
CBS
In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which coincidentally had begun as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In late 2005, Viacom split itself and reestablished CBS Corporation with the CBS television network at its core. CBS Corporation and the new Viacom are controlled by [Australian-born neocon and very right-wing] Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, the parent of the two companies. [Viacom has consolidated TV stations and print media throughout the world.]
ABC
ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. A separate entity named ABC Inc., formerly Capital Cities/ABC Inc., is that firm's direct parent company, and that company is owned in turn by Disney. CAP CITIES CHIEF COUNCIL WAS WILLIAM CASEY, OSS VETERAN (founding group for the American CIA), CASEY LATER THE HEAD OF THE CIA IN THE 1980s...Reputedly, "William Casey, who clung to his shares by concealing them in a blind trust even after he was appointed CIA director by Ronald Reagan in 1981." *
CORRECTIONS FROM LECTURE ON MONDAY:
1. I misspelled "Bagdikian" on the board.
The New Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian (Paperback - May 15, 2004)
Review
'Ben Bagdikian has written the first great media book of the twenty-first century. The New Media Monopoly will provide a roadmap to understanding how we got here and where we need to go to make matters better.' -Robert McChesney, author of Rich Media, Poor Democracy "No book on the media has proved as influential to our understanding of the dangers of corporate consolidation to democracy and the marketplace of ideas; this new edition builds on those works and surpasses them." -Eric Alterman, author of What Liberal Media? Praise for the First Edition of The Media Monopoly: "A groundbreaking work that charts a historical shift in the orientation of the majority of America's communications media-further away from the needs of the individual and closer to those of big business." -Bruce Manuel, Christian Science Monitor Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ben H. Bagdikian is dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. His other books include Double Vision: Reflections on My Heritage, Life, and Profession.
Book Description
When the first edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 1983, critics called Ben Bagdikian's warnings about the chilling effects of corporate ownership and mass advertising on the nation's news "alarmist." Since then, the number of corporations controlling most of America's daily newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, book publishers, and movie companies has dwindled from fifty to ten to five. The most respected critique of modern mass media ever issued is now published in a completely updated and revised twentieth anniversary edition.
2. General Electric (not General Motors) owns NBC.
12 comments:
1.
Speaking of social construction of environmental problems, the example from Queenie/YingQi in the last thread noted how 'quiet' the cement industry is about its huge CO2 emissions.
And speaking of ecological modernization, there is a cement manufacture process without CO2. Plus, it's more durable than Portland Cement! And it is capable of being more locally-sourced with available materials instead of requiring special materials!
I mention it at this link and its first comment:
"...That Portland Cement industry, incidentally, currently accounts for well over 8% [another source says 5%, see below] of all the CO2 emissions on the planet not to mention being the most expensive ingredient involved in the making of modern concrete [the fuel to make it]....[T]here's going to be...a hubbub over this before...new or old dust surrounding this discovery settles.
All that CO2 [in the Portland Cement process of manufacture] comes from the tremendous heat that is needed to currently burn limestone and of course uses a similarly staggering amount of the world's...energy supplies to do it.
It's replacement:
"MORE LOCALLY DIVERSE CEMENT PROCESS, FAR MORE DURABLE, ZERO CO2 EMISSIONS, THAN PORTLAND CEMENT
Instead of burning lime, it's a non-heat process..."
links:
http://www.materials.drexel.edu:80/Pyramids/
http://commodityecology.blogspot.com/2007/06/3-building-materialstool-construction.html
from:
http://industrial-energy.lbl.gov/taxonomy/term/138?from=15
Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Global Cement Industry
The cement industry contributes about 5% to global anthropogenic CO2 emissions, making the cement industry an important sector for CO2-emission mitigation strategies. CO2 is emitted from the calcination process of limestone, from combustion of fuels in the kiln, as well as from power generation. In this paper, we review the total CO2 emissions from cement making, including process and energy related emissions. Currently, most available data only includes the process emissions. We also discuss CO2 emission mitigation options for the cement industry. Estimated total carbon emissions from cement production in 1994 were 307 million metric tons of carbon (MtC), 160 MtC from process carbon emissions, and 147 MtC from energy use. Overall, the top 10 cement-producing countries in 1994 accounted for 63% of global carbon emissions from cement production. The average intensity of carbon dioxide emissions from total global cement production is 222 kg of C/t of cement. Emission mitigation options include energy efficiency improvement, new processes, a shift to low carbon fuels, application of waste fuels, increased use of additives in cement making, and, eventually, alternative cements and CO2 removal from flue gases in clinker kilns.
2.
Another example of the social construction of environmental blame is toward framing cows (for methane, a very strong greenhouse gas, though it is very short lived in the atmosphere) instead of mostly human CO2 creation (very long lived greenhouse gas). Malthusian social constrution of environmental problems as a direct expression of population is another example. This gets back to my point about how the Construct influences your thought patterns about both environmental degradation and environmental amelioration (like the treadmill or ecological modernization, or populationism, all with different Constructs. As for me, I prefer the route of comparative historical analysis first and then theory later. We will explore more about these comparative historical methods in a later course lecture.)
3.
Yes, the "Gaia Hypothesis" (from the last thread) I suppose is another example of scientists providing an idea symbol to socially construct environmental issues.
4.
In addition to that more academic cement article here, there's an article about ecological modernization of steel manufacturing. I didn't read it myself, though I wonder if they know that you can cheaply using electricity, without CO2 or fuel, use microwaves to create steel.
On that:
Microwave Steel: Faster, Cleaner, Cheaper
In looking for CO2 by sector, I found a very mathematically heavy article about Spanish CO2.
Energy Policy
Volume 35, Issue 2, February 2007, Pages 1100-1116
Title: CO2 emissions and intersectoral linkages. The case of Spain
Authors: Miguel Ángel Tarancóna and Pablo del Río, a,
aDepartment of Spanish and International Economics, Econometrics and History and Economic Institutions. Faculty of Law and Business, University of Castilla—La Mancha, Spain
Available online 5 April 2006.
"By considering key sectors and relevant transactions in terms of CO2 emissions, the most effective policy measures aimed at reducing CO2 emissions can be identified."
One result of his study of Spain is noted in chart 4.2.1
4.2. Main results
4.2.1. The quantitative results
First, those sectors whose contribution to overall CO2 emissions is above 1% are assumed to be “key” sectors. A total of 14 key sectors, representing around 3/4 of overall CO2 emissions in 2000, have been identified (Table 1).
link
Top 14 Spanish Sectors for CO2 Connections
Code / Sector / Computed Percentage after Analysis (2000 Data, Percentage of Top 14, SPANISH STATE DATA ONLY)
28 Production and distribution of electricity… 30.34
16 Other non-metallic mineral products 13.75
13 Coke production, refining… 5.49
17 Metallurgy 4.86
1 Agriculture… 4.35
14 Chemical industry 3.76
33 Terrestrial transport 3.63
35 Air transport 1.86
7 Food, drinking and tobacco… 1.78
31 Commercial sector… 1.47
2 Fishing 1.35
30 Construction 1.13
34 Sea transport 0.86
11 Paper industry 0.84
Total key Sectors 75.46
Total economic sectors 80.88
Emissions from households 100.00
So, in his view, the areas of policy that would be most beneficial to work upon would be the [1] generation of CO2 in electricity production and [2] mining/smelting CO2 reductions, in the raw.
Of course this study is only on CO2 reduction. Constructing environmental issues on another factor (like attempts to reduce long term risk or maximize human health in the process) would yield another construct... that might feature reducing ozone and urban pollution for example.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Sihwa-Lake Tidal Power Plant, finished by June 2008, working by 2009, 25 km from Seoul, largest in world, 260 MWe (megawatts)
3. No CO2, no pollution. Or is there pollution from another source hidden in this project? IRONICALLY, it seems though that the environmentaly unfriendly flushing some of Silwa-Lake's pollution out to sea was an intentional factor in the construction of this environmentally friendly project... Quote from the article: "Due to environmental [pollution] reasons [in Lake Sihwa] the project is of extreme urgency [to flush the pollution out into the sea] and the Sihwa tidal power plant is scheduled to be completed by 2009."
The Korean government is thinking of making this only the first of many tidal power projects, the article notes. Hopefully the other's won't be an excuse to build a large flush toilet like this one.
Lake Sihwa was humanly constructed in 1994 for agricultural water supplies, reclaiming land (more than 173 km2!), and for water for industry nearby. However, that industry has polluted the water source for it ("second contradiction of capital"?). Now they will be flushing their pollution out to sea instead of solving the issue.
Interesting combination of ecological modernization without a 'cradle to cradle' viewpoint, eh? The pollution of Lake Sihwa seems the most pressing political issue since the article mentions that environmental pollution (instead of desires for energy diversification by this date) guided the deadline for construction!
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Sihwa in the mix
The Sihwa tidal power plant is being developed as part of Korea’s drive to increase the share of renewable energy in its fuel mix. At 260 MW, Sihwa will be the largest power plant of its kind in the world, and will bring a number of socio-environmental benefits to the Lake Sihwa area [as well as flush a polluted Lake Sihwa into the ocean regularly].
The world’s oceans are a potential source of enormous amounts of pollution-free energy that could be harnessed to meet increasing global energy demand. Oceans hold 97 per cent of all water resources and cover more than 70 per cent of the surface of the earth.
The tides are generated by the rotation of the earth within the gravitational fields of the moon and sun. The relative motions of these planets cause the surface of the oceans to be raised and lowered periodically. On most shorelines the tides go in and out twice a day, and energy can be captured from this movement with tidal power stations [that are the same technological principle as the spinning magnetic dynamos used in hydroelectric dams]. A tidal power station can stretch over a delta, estuary, or beach, but energy is most easily harnessed where there is an estuary.
Click here to enlarge image
Figure 1. Sihwa will be the world’s largest tidal power plant, and the first plant of its kind in Korea
The best sites for tidal power plants are those with big tidal ranges and a narrow estuary. Tidal barrages can provide protection against coastal flooding during very high tides by acting as storm surge barriers. Especially at large sites, the presence of a road across the dam is a major benefit.
The most noticeable benefit of tidal power plants is that they do not generate emissions. Like most renewable sources of energy, tidal energy displaces fossil fuels and reduces CO2 in the atmosphere.
Costs and benefits
While hydropower stations can operate around the clock, tidal power stations can only produce electricity during a short period of the day, provided that the water quantity and the tidal ranges are sufficient.
The cost of tidal power systems varies depending on the biological, geographical and geological features of the site. Generally speaking, rather high capital costs and long construction periods have prevented the construction of large tidal schemes. Only very large tidal power plants requiring a high investment volume will operate economically. [Not true. That relates only to large projects. This idea could decentralize electrical generation as well.]
The major factors determining the cost effectiveness of a tidal power site are the size of the barrage required, and the difference in height between high and low tides. Although the initial cost of a tidal power plant is relatively high compared with other types of power plants, the benefits include low operating and maintenance costs, since no fuel is needed.
Tidal power generation has some additional advantages, including improved transportation due to the development of traffic or rail bridges across estuaries and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by utilizing non-polluting tidal power in place of fossil fuels.
One tidal project that will illustrate such benefits is the Sihwa tidal power plant, which is being constructed by Daewoo Engineering and Construction on Sihwa Lake in South Korea.
This 260 MW, $250 million project is the first of its kind in the country and is expected to play a big role in improving the water quality of Lake Sihwa [and polluting the ocean, read on!]
Click here to enlarge image
Other benefits that this project will bring to Korea include the restoration of the Lake Sihwa ecosystem and water quality, local economic activation due to new tourist attractions, reduction of crude oil imports, and a reduction in emissions.
Renewable goals
Korea started its industrial development in the 1970s, focusing on energy-intensive heavy and chemical industries, including steel, chemicals, shipbuilding and cement. Korea is very much dependent on energy imports and as well as trying to secure supplies from elsewhere, for example gas from Russia, it is also developing a positive attitude towards renewables and energy efficiency.
Korea is the world’s fourth largest oil importer and is trying to diversify energy sources to increase security, meet rising energy demand and meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. It plans to increase spending on alternative energy sources and wants to increase the share of alternative energy in its fuel mix from 1.4 per cent to 5 per cent by 2011. Korea imports 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, representing a small proportion of its needs. The country is mainly targeting solar and wind projects in order to increase the share of renewables. In addition, Korea has been closely examining the potential for tidal power projects around its shores.
Korea ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 and is looking to explore ways to carry out AIJ (Activities Implemented Jointly) and CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) projects.
The Korea Water Resources Corporation (Kowaco) is the governmental water authority of Korea and is responsible for irrigation, water supply and waste water. Kowaco is dedicated to fulfilling its role in improving the quality of life of Koreans and in supporting the national economic development.
Lake Sihwa
Lake Sihwa is located in the mid-west of the Korean Peninsula in Gyeonggi province, bordering the West Sea at the Lake Sihwa Dam around 4 km from the city of Siheung.
The lake was created by constructing a dam in 1994 to secure agricultural water for the region, for developing industrial/agricultural lands near the metropolitan area and to secure irrigation water. [And now it's polluted, and they are going to open it up to the ocean without changing the industry on shore...]
Besides the 56.5 km2 freshwater lake (one of the largest tidal lakes in Korea), reclaimed land of 173 km2 and 330 million m3 volume was also created.
Due to the cut-off of tidal currents and the rapid increase of population and industrial waste loads from factories in the neighbourhood, the water quality of Lake Sihwa has deteriorated over the years since the construction of the dam. The water pollution is largely due to the lack of fresh water and disposal of sewage from nearby factories. [No. Pollution is not due to the lack of fresh water. It is due to pollution. Dillution is still pollution.] The pollution situation is now considered to be severe and a [political] solution is urgently required.
Because of rapid socio-environmental changes and the lowering of water quality in Lake Sihwa [due to pollution that will remain unsolved], it was decided that there was no choice [sic] but to open the lake to sea water. The dam will therefore be opened up allowing tidal flow into the lake, and the Sihwa tidal power plant will be built to harness the energy of the [polluted] tides.
Plant design
The Sihwa tidal power plant is designed as a flood generating system. Flood generating systems generate power from the incoming tide i.e. from the sea to a basin. When the high tide comes in, water flows through the turbines to create electricity. Separate gates beside the turbines are designed to open during the ebb phase. When low tide comes, the gates are raised and the water flows out.
The turbines operate in sluicing mode during the ebb [outflowing] phase and no energy is produced. [It's only designed to generate power in one direction. It seems a poor design to do this just one way, given all the expense.]
The Sihwa tidal power plant project is the first of its kind in Korea. The plan is to open the existing dam to allow the circulation and exchange of water between the Lake Sihwa and the sea [to remove the pollution without solving the pollution origins].
The tidal plant will improve the lake [by polluting the ocean] by circulating 60 billion tonnes of seawater annually.
Click here to enlarge image
Figure 2. Opening up the dam will allow sea water to circulate around Lake Sihwa. Plant operation is scheduled to start in 2009
The Sihwa tidal power plant will generate power from the incoming tide, taking advantage of the differing tide water levels between the sea and the artificial lake. Kowaco, as the project developer/owner, will implement the tidal power plant with a total turbine output of 260 MW and an annual power generation of 543 GWh.
The Sihwa tidal power plant consists of powerhouses for ten bulb type turbines and with direct driven generators including gates and other equipment. Each unit has a capacity of 26 MW [more than the entire solar plant being built], a runner diameter of 7.5 m, speed of 64.29 r/min and operates under a rated head of 5.82 m.
The dewatering of the basin will be accomplished with eight new gates and the existing gates plus all turbines in reverse sluicing mode. The total project cost will be around $250 million.
Competitive bids
The project was a strictly domestic bidding project with civil engineering companies as lead companies and suppliers and engineering companies as sub-contractors. Three groups bid for the project. Leaders of these groups were Korean civil companies with internal engagements with equipment suppliers and engineering companies.
The Daewoo Construction Consortium with Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. as leader participated in and won the bidding with Saman Engineering Consultant Co., Ltd. Kowaco awarded the contract.
Kowaco selected from the bidders according to the evaluation criteria: price (35 per cent), technical concept (45 per cent) and references (20 per cent). It announced Daewoo as the preferred bidder, which has to perform the detailed design before being awarded with the project. In the bidding, Daewoo presented a price which was higher than its competitor, Hyundai Construction Consortium.
As Daewoo’s sub-contractor, VA Tech Hydro will be responsible for certain supplies and services with respect to the electro-mechanical portion. VA Tech Hydro will act as the technology provider for the Sihwa tidal power plant project and carry out the detailed design for the turbine/generator equipment. Additionally, VA Tech Hydro will supply all the major equipment for the turbines and generators, while Daewoo will supply non-core components for the plant.
The delivery of VA Tech Hydro will include the turbine runners, the turbine shaft seals, bearings and oil heads, the wicket gates, stator cores and windings, rotor poles, combined bearings, excitation, protection, and the SCADA system. The first deliveries of electro mechanical equipment will commence at the beginning of 2007.
Since the installation of the tidal plant will be accomplished in a staggered mode and there is not much storage space available at the site, the electro mechanical parts and components have to be delivered on time.
Click here to enlarge image
Figure 3. VA Tech Hydro will act as the technology provider for the Sihwa tidal power plant project and carry out the detailed design for the turbine/generator equipment
In addition, VA Tech Hydro will supply a comprehensive services package that includes supervision of manufacturing for parts to be delivered by Daewoo, supervision of preassembly and installation, supervision of commissioning and a training package for the operators.
The contract value for VA Tech Hydro amounts to approximately &euro75 million ($93 million).
Due to environmental reasons the project is of extreme urgency and the Sihwa tidal power plant is scheduled to be completed by 2009.
Project team
A team of specialists from Daewoo, Sam-An Engineering and VA Tech Hydro worked out the technical and commercial issues and finally succeeded by signing the contract documents.
The Sihwa tidal power plant opens up a new chapter in the domestic renewable energy development in South Korea. It will reduce oil imports by approximately 860 000 barrels ($43 million) as well as make a great contribution to the water quality improvement of Lake Sihwa through the continuing circulation of sea water.
With the enhancements planned around Lake Sihwa the quality of life of Koreans will be improved and the national economic development will be supported. With this award, VA Tech Hydro takes an important position in the realization of the world’s largest tidal power plant.
VA Tech Hydro is planning to continue its efforts to participate in the construction of further large hydro power plants and its involvement in similar projects. There are investigations for several large scale projects on the western shorelines of the Korean peninsula and prospective sites have been targeted for tidal power development.
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Tidal power: past, present and future
Tidal power plants were invented in the early 1900s. At that time only one tidal direction was utilized. Tidal mills were built in the 18th century when their major competition were windmills and water wheels. The tidal mills disappeared with the invention of cheap steam engines. Rather few tidal plants have been built so far. The important reference plants are:
La Rance: The first and largest tidal plant in operation is the 240 MW plant built for commercial production across the La Rance estuary in north-western France between 1961 and 1967. A 75 m dam (including sluices, powerhouse, ship lock and embankment) encloses a 17 km2 basin. The tidal power plant has 24 bulb-type Kaplan turbines with a rated capacity of 10 MW each.
Annapolis: The second commercially operated tidal power plant in the Western hemisphere is a 18 MW plant at Annapolis Royal on the Nova Scotia coast of the Bay of Fundy in Canada. Built in 1984, the project utilises an existing flood control dam with a 7.8 m diameter Straflo turbine.
Other sites: Other plants include the 400 kW experimental unit at Kislaya Guna, built in 1968 in Russia on the Barents Sea, and the 3.4 MW Jianxia station built in China between 1980 and 1986. Most of the technically available tidal resources in Europe are in the UK. The site in the Severn estuary in south-western England represents a potential of 8 GW and has been the object of several feasibility studies. Large potential also exists in northern France, at the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy.
There are several other possible sites, in Argentina, Chile, Australia, Canada, China, India, Korea and Russia, with a tidal range between 4.8 and 11.5 m. Many of these sites are remote from centres of demand and therefore, although representing very substantial resources at rational equipment cost, stand little chance of development at present.
Power Engineering International September, 2005
Author(s) : Harald Schmid
Find this article with pictures at:
http://pepei.pennnet.com/display_article/237722/17/ARTCL/none/none/Sihwa-in-the-mix/
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Background on "Lake Sihwa" where the waters are described as a 'cloudy black'; and change in environmental consciousness claimed after the 1997 Asian financial crisis?
3. I wanted to know how bad the pollution in Lake Sihwa was. Yikes. And this gives a good feel for the contention over multiple uses for the same resources area. There is something in the reading packet related to Japanese land reclamation (that this news article references).
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Koreans turn against land reclamation (2002 article)
HITOSHI WATANABE
Fishermen dig for clams at the Se-mahn-kum tideland, where a land-reclamation project isunder way. Fishermen dig for clams at the Se-mahn-kum tideland, where a land-reclamation project isunder way.
As the tide sweeps out, a myriad of holes appear in the tideland--sign that crabs and clams live below the muddy surface.
But for the fishermen who come to dig for asari clams, this is little consolation: There livelihood is being threatened by a huge land reclamation project in the area.
"We only get half the clams we used to because the land-reclamation project has created an embankment and changed the flow of the tide," lamented a fisherman.
The land-reclamation project in Se-mahn-kum, in Jul-la-book-do province on the west coast of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) involves 40,000 hectares of land--about 10 times that of a similar project in Isahaya, Nagasaki Prefecture-over 11 years. The project will create agricultural land and a freshwater lake for agricultural use. [Sound familiar?]
The embankment is currently under construction, but when the final 5-kilometer gap is filled, it will stretch along 33 kilometers of the coast, making it the world's longest.
Public opinion of the plan--dubbed "the dream project" -has soured in recent years. Citizens groups show their opposition by dangling shells and crabs on trees in the area.
Even some fishermen who received subsidies oppose the project.
"I want the embankment to be destroyed," says Lee Son Suk, 40.
Lee lives in the fishing town of Gun-san, which will be affected by the embankment.
Lee's concerns were heightened when she heard how a similar project damaged Lake Sihwa near Seoul. The freshwater lake was created by in 1994, but it waters have since turned a cloudy black "cause of industrial waste water from surrounding factories," according to a water resources public corporation official.
Before the embankment was built, the waste water was purified [huh?] by organisms in the tideland.
But the local government bowed to criticism and opened the embankment gates in 1997 [in the interests of mixed use].
This incident drastically changed the way citizens viewed land-reclamation projects.
"Tidelands are inhabited by numerous species that eat organic substances and purify water," says Kim Kyung Won, executive director of an association for swampland preservation.
"The 1997 currency crisis also heightened distrust of conventional land- development projects. This changed people's environmental conscience," says Seoul University professor Kim Jung Wook. [i.e., social constructionism change?]
The Se-mahn-kum project was temporarily discontinued in 1999, but resumed last year because, according to an executive of a public corporation in charge of the agricultural infrastructure, "We need to raise the low self-sufficiency rate of our food supply."
Turning around the nation's land-development policy has been a long struggle.
Tidelands were long considered effective land development projects. But times have changed.
In a bid to preserve the tidelands, Japanese and South Korean environmental groups recently conducted joint studies of tideland species. Such groups hope to exchange information and improve their relations in an effort to transform the environmental fate of Asia.
The author is The Asahi Shimbun's editorial writer and an AAN researcher.(IHT/Asahi: September 23, 2002)
---
http://www.asahi.com/english/asianet/hatsu/eng_hatsu020923c.html
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The enginnering difficulties of seawater based turbines at Lake Sihwa due to corrosion
3. This is just an excerpt about the design issues that had to be tailored to seawater corrosion resistance. Anode/cathode protection (i.e., attempting to demote corrosion by giving an electrical charge to metals to make them less likely to corrode chemically, while submerged in seawater) is dependent upon the external seawater chemistry it says. It sounds very complicated and easily messed up.
----------------
excerpt:
The general design concept is based on conventional run-of-river bulb units, but there are some technical highlights that have to be considered, e.g. the capability to operate in reverse mode when emptying the basin and an increased number of operating cycles with two starts and stops every day.
Special attention has to be paid to corrosion protection to avoid problems with the electro-mechanical equipment operating in seawater. A combination of passive protection measures – with the appropriate selection of materials and coatings – and active measures, such as the installation of a cathodic protection system, have to be made to guarantee a long life time and high availability.
Especially in the field of the selection of materials, the units will differ from conventional hydro-electric power plants.
For several components usually made of carbon steel at run-of-river units, stainless steel will be used instead, such as the runner hub, runner cone, wicket gates, gate barrel cones and shaft seals. Special care has to be taken in areas which cannot be protected sufficiently by the Cathodic Protection System e.g.: overlay welding, stainless steel quality with higher resistance against sea-water corrosion. Painting material resistant to sea water will be used for all sea water contacted surfaces of carbon steel components.
Special steels with increased molybdenum content will be used for core components, critical areas will be clad-welded with seawater resistant alloys and a cathodic corrosion protection system will protect stainless steel parts and coated carbon steel structures against corrosion by a potential shift into the cathodic region.
The necessary protective current depends on [something external and environmental that they will only vaguely be able to control or predict] the oxygen content of the electrolyte (sea- or brackwater), the salt content, the alkalizination of the protected surfaces, the temperature and, to a great extent the flow velocity, has to be adapted continuously.
Because assembly has to be carried out in a sea water environment, special precautions will be necessary.
...
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http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=2041292
1. Mark Whitaker
2. News and commentary about environmental global climate change; major city in U.S. (Atlanta) perhaps to run out of water in several months; argument that the massive expansion of U.S. militarism is related to climate change
3. This is just a nice editoral with a point of view I think you should ponder because from other news about core U.S. Department of Defense/Pentagon group around an old man named Marshall (the group is known as the "Marshallites"), his point of view holds climate change as THE major military and defense concern in private, despite much of the U.S. public media and public government decrying climate change socially constructing it as 'unreal'. However, in private, Marshall considers climate change as the #1 U.S. real issue. However, they are only offering military responses instead of sustainability design responses.
The post mentions some news and commentary about environmental global climate change, a major city in U.S. (Atlanta) that is perhaps to run out of water in several months unless it rains a lot. The general argument is that the massive expansion of U.S. militarism is related to climte change.
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COMMENTARY:
Exodus - It's Official - We're Past the Tipping Point.
author: Lloyd Hart e-mail: dadapop@dadapop.com
Earlier this year it was reported that the southern oceans were now releasing carbon dioxide
Exodus - It's Official - We're Past the Tipping Point.
By Lloyd Hart
Earlier this year it was reported that the southern oceans were now releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere instead of absorbing it and now with the publishing of a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that nature's ability to sink carbon dioxide emissions produced by human beings is dropping while at the same time the amount of carbon being put into the atmosphere is increasing from a variety of sources not just direct human production it is becoming clear that we are past the tipping point.
Carbon sinks lose ability to soak up emissions
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3087271.ece
In other words the domino effect of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere from other sources rather than just man-made sources such as methane from the melting permafrost and the from oceans has placed us in an accelerated warming period. A warming period that will bring with it ever increasing catastrophic climate events including radically long stretches of drought as we're beginning to see in two thirds of the United States of America.
Even though it doesn't have the incredible drama of category 3 storm making landfall on the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana as Hurricane Katrina did the drought that has struck a Southeast of the U.S. is catastrophic in nature. 3 million people will be without water in the metropolitan region of the Atlanta within 90 days and unless it rains 40 days and 40 nights the people of Atlanta will be doomed to exodus just like the people of New Orleans and the south coast of Mississippi.
New to Being Dry, the South Struggles to Adapt
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/us/23drought.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Between the drought in the Southeast and the West in which catastrophic drop in water tables is occurring America is going to start to see a radical decrease in food production.
Recently to well-known agricultural profs published an op-ed in New York Times asking America to spark up the farm fields in the Northeast region of United States.
This signaled to me that agribiz is starting to catch up to what I've been saying for decades - that we are running out of groundwater. But instead of proposing to fix the problem by restoring wetlands along the Mississippi estuaries and across the Great Plains, replanting forests to create moisture traps and instead of dumping waste water into the sea from the great coastal cities and recycling that water back into that the system agribiz is now proposing an agribiz exodus to the north east's fallow fields from the failing croplands in the west and south.
I know it is probably heartbreaking for everyone to come to grips with reality that we are going to witness the [potential] total collapse of all the societal systems that we have created so that we might live above and beyond nature but come to grips we must.
Many of us may not survive this period consequences but unless we stop what we're doing and strictly focus on re-engineering our lifestyles and reintegrating ourselves with nature we simply will radically reduce the amount of us that will survive through to the other side of this catastrophe.
With over 500,000 people having to evacuate from their communities in Southern California as a result of Santa Ana winds accelerated obviously by the effects of global warming and then pushing brushfires into being giant blowtorches will we continue to cut down the forests drying out the land even further to rebuild the homes that are burned to the ground as a result of drought continuing his vicious spiral to total collapse?
Catastropic Califonia Drought
http://climate.weather.com/video/vid07cagoingdry.html
I sit here wondering if human beings are actually going to recognize the danger were in. [i.e., can they socially construct it to matter to more people?]
I keep thinking are human beings so detached from nature that they cannot see what is happening?
Are human beings going to continue to go to work that continues to create nothing but our own destruction and collect salaries that feed life styles that can only lead to mass exodus and starvation? When will humans beings go on strike for the real economic feedback? A bountiful environment.
As best I can see the only people preparing for the collapse are the Generals. The generals are building up weaponry for and training personnel in mass crowd control. Hmm, food and water riots come to mind. Next year the Pentagon will spend $700 billion on what I consider a phony war - the war on terror. I have been saying from the very beginning that the generals are using the war on terror as cover for preparation for them and their political culture to survive the catastrophe brought on by global warming and climate change.
So if the generals can steal over half the U.S. budget for preparations of the catastrophe why can't the public have an equal amount of money toward planting forests, reestablishing wetlands, recycling waste water and redirecting America's labor force toward all of this work?
The answer is quite simple, the generals, the neocons and the neo conservative liberals inside the democratic party don't give a **** about us and as far as they're concerned with either do as we are told or be left to starve in the exodus.
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http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/10/367254.shtml
1. SuJung, Kim
2. Asians seek out the sun despite cancer threats
3. I don't like bronze color..I also don't like in the sunlight that much.. this article says about Asian people's preference of sunlight. I'm not sure how many Korean people like tanning.. but it is striking that in Korea there are many people who are suffering from skin cancer.. I also thought (like what article says) Asian people are safe from the skin cancer.
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HONG KONG (Reuters) - It's autumn in Hong Kong but the island's beaches are still crowded with sun worshippers desperate to catch the last rays of sunshine before winter.
"I love the bronze color," says sunbather Richard Tong.
A growing trend in East Asia to soak up the sun either on beaches or in tanning salons is worrying dermatologists in the region who say they are seeing a rise in skin cancer, which is caused by cumulative over-exposure to the sun.
The number of cases is low compared to the United States and Australia but the tanning trend has raised concern of cancer risks in a region where a porcelain complexion was traditionally considered the ultimate sign of beauty and refinement.
"Asians, including South Koreans, used to think they were pretty safe from skin cancer.
However, due to increased outdoor activity, more (sun) exposure and sun tanning, there is an increasing incidence of skin cancer amongst younger people," said Ro Young-suck, head of the Korean Dermatologist Association.
"There has been a huge increase in skin cancer rates in Korean men in particular. We predict it's because while most Korean women usually wear sunscreen while putting on their makeup, men aren't used to this, aren't aware how dangerous it is, and so they don't bother to."
While incidences of skin cancer in most places in Asia are small compared to the United States and Australia, the number of cases have jumped markedly in recent years.
There were 1,712 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed in South Korea in 2005, up from 777 in 1995, according to the Korea Central Cancer Registry. Incidences in Hong Kong went up to around 650 in 2004 from 370 in 1995.
"People who are constantly exposed to UV (ultraviolet radiation in sunlight) won't get cancer immediately," said George Li, a plastic surgeon at Hong Kong's public Queen Mary Hospital.
"It takes a long time to cause skin damage, as people get older there is a high chance to develop skin cancer."
Skin cancer is one of the commonest forms of cancer and is linked to other risk factors like fair skin, light colored hair and eyes, a compromised immune system, genes and old age.
There are three major types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. The first two are slow growing and highly treatable if discovered early.
Melanoma is the most lethal. It affects deeper layers of the skin and can quickly spread to other parts of the body. It causes 8 out of every 10 skin cancer deaths in the United States.
Caucasians are more susceptible to skin cancer and an average of one in three Caucasians gets skin cancer in their lifetime, according to the U.S. Skin Cancer Foundation.
TANNING SALONS
In Asia, sun worshippers don't just work on their tans on the beach or by the pool -- tanning salons are increasingly popular as beauty salons offering a range of treatments take off in a region that is enjoying unprecedented affluence.
A 15-20 minute session costs anywhere between S$35 and S$60 (US$24-US$41) in Singapore.
In Hong Kong, a 10-minute session costs about US$13.
Even in Australia, where one in two Australians develop skin cancers in their lifetime and 1,600 people die from skin cancers each year, a campaign to educate people to wear sunblock, sunglasses and shirts to reduce skin cancer risks does not seem to be making major dents in skin cancer rates.
Melanoma cases in Australia rose nearly 7 percent in women in the 10 years to 2003, and nearly 19 percent in men.
Although Cancer Council Australia president Professor Ian Olver expects skin cancer figures to flatten out when the young generation, educated to cover up from the sun, gets older.
"Caucasians migrated into an area where the sunshine is intense. In other countries, indigenous people have pigmented skin because of the climate they lived in over the years. We migrated to a country that didn't suit our skin color," Olver said.
In Hong Kong, Luk tries to educate locals by telling them to cut sun exposure, use sun-block rather than tanning creams and avoid sunbeads -- which use mainly ultraviolet A rays.
"UV-A is not completely innocent, we cannot completely disregard it. We are exposed to a lot of UV-A and because of its high wavelength, it penetrates deeper," he said.
(Additional reporting by Jessica Kim in Seoul, Koh Guiqing in Singapore, George Nishiyama in Tokyo)
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http://www.enn.com/health/article/24123
1.Mark Whitaker
2. Social Construction of the (Consumer) Environment
3. This could be an example of what Murray Edelman's article discusses: state level 'symbolic politics' designed to make citizens or others quiescent, in an encouragement to convince others that everything is under control because of some highly symbolic changes or actions.
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China arrests 774 in product crackdown By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
Mon Oct 29, 2:38 PM ET
BEIJING - China said Monday that it had arrested 774 people in a crackdown on substandard goods, part of ongoing efforts to calm international worries over the quality of the country's products.
The General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said the arrests were the result of 626 criminal investigations nationwide into the manufacture and sale of fake or substandard food, medicine or agricultural products between August and mid-October.
"All local authorities and relevant departments have maintained a high-pressure attitude toward their crackdown on the illegal activity of producing and selling fake products," the AQSIQ, one of China's main quality control agencies, said on its Web site.
"One after another, authorities have broken large-scale cases, investigated and taken care of them, shut down a large number of illegal hubs of activity, effectively striking and intimidating criminals," it said without providing any other details.
The actions were part of a four-month quality-control campaign launched in August by a Cabinet-level panel, a high-profile attempt by Beijing's leadership to show the world it was serious about tackling its perennial food and drug safety woes.
China' exports have come under intense scrutiny this year because a number of potentially deadly chemicals have been found in goods like toothpaste, toys and seafood. The international outrage gathered speed in March after a tainted pet food ingredient made in China was blamed for causing the deaths of cats and dogs in North America.
Also Monday, Gao Hongbin, the vice minister for agriculture, said a system of using barcodes to track catfish is helping Chinese consumers begin to trace their food — another measure that would improve quality.
Gao said barcode, which costs just pennies, was an example of the progress that has been made two months into the four-month campaign.
Barcode technology, which allows people to read information on products, is not common on agricultural products in China.
"You can call up directly and find out where it was produced, what type it is, and if any pesticides were used and what kind of pesticides ... you can search all of this information out," Gao said.
"After they added the barcode the value of the product went up two yuan ($0.30) — so wouldn't you say this is good for the producers?" he said.
But Gao told a news conference that the success of the campaign, headed by Vice Premier Wu Yi, depended on the cooperation of lower-level officials.
Gao said the use of technology and better education will help step up supervision of products and ensure that when tainted products are discovered, they are not sold and a traceable link is established.
In China many pesticides have different names and are not labeled properly, so an interactive online network will also enable China to respond to specific complaints, Gao said.
During the campaign the government said more than 300,000 technical staff went to rural areas in the last month to help more than 18 million rural households.
Nearly 200 illegal food companies have been shut amid more than 10,000 cases of violations of the law.
"We will ensure the results will be longer lasting," Gao told reporters.
The official Xinhua News Agency also reported Monday that China would raise quality standards for pharmaceutical licensing following a string of deaths and injuries from faulty drugs.
The new standard, which takes effect Jan. 1, will allow no "severe defects" in the drug manufacturing process, while current rules let a producer obtain a license if three such defects are found but corrected, the Xinhua News Agency said.
The report said submission of false information by pharmaceutical companies was considered a "severe defect" but gave no other examples.
___
Associated Press writer Henry Sanderson contributed to this report.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071029/ap_on_re_as/china_tainted_products
1.Min Sook Kim
2.S.Korea to invest $6.14 bln in 2 nuclear plants
3.From the beginning of the environmental movements in S. Korea, two issues have been central: pollution and the nuclear issue. Even though high-speed industrialization has produced all kinds of pollution, operation of multiple nuclear plants and nuclear waste are far more hazardous. It’s clear the basic position of the government remains unchanged-keep constructing the plants and it seemed the anti-nuclear activists lost the aspiration to fight anymore.
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From: Reuters
Published September 12, 2007 07:28 AM
S.Korea to invest $6.14 bln in 2 nuclear plants
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will invest 5.73 trillion won ($6.14 billion) to build two nuclear plants of 1.4 million kilowatts each by 2013-2014, Seoul's energy ministry said on Wednesday.
The plants will cut the use of fuel oil used for power generation by 4.2 million tones annually.
This is equivalent to saving 2.84 billion won per day on fuel oil, the ministry added.
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www.enn.com/energy/article/22965
1. YingQi Fan
2. Endless controversies on fuel problems
3. Biofuels, at first as the less environmentally-damaging and more climate-friendly alternative to oil, now were found not as good as it seemed. For the increasing use of food corps for producing biofuels will bright out much more hunger. When I saw this new, I was counting how many environment-friendly things are still remaining in the world. Being environmental scientists must be very depressing since they are always overruled. There are no perfect solutions when having to take so many factors into account. Why don’t the critics judge the comparative merits and demerits and then say “even though ** has some downsides, its strong points weigh more, so it is practicable now.” but not to plan to ban something in the next several years.
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A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity.
The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said he feared biofuels would bring more hunger.
The growth in the production of biofuels has helped to push the price of some crops to record levels.
Mr Ziegler's remarks, made at the UN headquarters in New York, are clearly designed to grab attention.
He complained of an ill-conceived dash to convert foodstuffs such as maize and sugar into fuel, which created a recipe for disaster.
Food price rises
It was, he said, a crime against humanity to divert arable land to the production of crops which are then burned for fuel.
He called for a five-year ban on the practice.
Within that time, according to Mr. Ziegler, technological advances would enable the use of agricultural waste, such as corncobs and banana leaves, rather than crops themselves to produce fuel.
The growth in the production of biofuels has been driven, in part, by the desire to find less environmentally-damaging alternatives to oil.
The United States is also keen to reduce its reliance on oil imported from politically unstable regions.
But the trend has contributed to a sharp rise in food prices as farmers, particularly in the US, switch production from wheat and soya to corn, which is then turned into ethanol.
Mr Ziegler is not alone in warning of the problem.
The IMF last week voiced concern that the increasing global reliance on grain as a source of fuel could have serious implications for the world's poor.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7065061.stm
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