By Tiina Mustakangas-Laukka
A fourth of the people in developing countries live in dry areas and mountains that are environmentally very delicate. A majority of these people live in extreme poverty. At the same time, every sixth person in the world lives in a slum. The same number of people lack clean drinking water. Sustainable development means that the things you do today will guarantee a good life, clean environment and nature’s diversity for future generations too. Solutions are needed for such big problems as reduction of waste as well as the improvement of living conditions in slums.
How would brown drinking water taste to you? What if you lived in a hut where there is no toilet and all the trees in your yard had been cut down for fire wood? How can you reduce the use of water in your family? How much water do you use a day? Why is recycling important? How can you promote it? Why is nature conservation important? How can you promote it?
(The Ministry for Foreign Affairs. http://www.vuosituhattavoitteet.fi/)
8 comments:
By Ilmari Kinnunen
Crystal-clear tap water is a self-evident truth for Finns. It is not realistic for us to bottle our water and haul it all the way the the areas that need it. We must pursue local resolutions, such as tapping the local aquifers to create artificial oases, build plants to remove salt from seawater and condense morning dew on plastic surfaces to gather water where it naturally doesn’t exist. In developing countries many rivers and lakes are too polluted to drink from and water purification technology in Finland his highly developed, so maybe we could create solutions adaptable into developing countries (cheaper, that is).
i dare to doubt the sense behind these plans of aiding the peoples of dry or otherwisely "uninhabitable" areas to no end. And not many are willing to donate their pennies if it seems that they ultimately aren't making a difference. "dead land will but stay dead" so people should move closer to rivers and whatnot. is it really so hard? well what if the aids were used to promote that goal? if it's extreme poverty they're moving away from, leaving shouldn't prove difficult. then plant those desolate, dry places full with nuclear plants, solar plants, whatever. lest they remain an eyesore and a security issue. the powerplants i mean... that's what they are in urban milieu, riiight? then bury deep the nuclear waste. and if there's no people around, said "deep" could mean a hundred meters or so :D.
as for the topic, "ensure" might be a wrong word for it since we haven't got environmental sustainability in the first place. not glabally. can we really still turn on our path? it's up to USA, moreso than to Finland. you blasted superconsumers :D
I think the global warming is not caused by man, but I think it’s great when people are doing something to polluting. Petrol and natural gas are running out in couple of decades and its time to do something about it. People should start using hydroelectric-, solar- and wind power. Cars are depending on petrol and should start using hydrogen or other not polluting resource. One problem in polluting is that ground water gets polluted and then it’s not drinkable anymore. Factories should stop spilling all chemical waste straight into lakes and rivers. That also causes oxygen loss which leads to huge fish casualties.
In my family we can reduce water as an example taking shorter time on shower.We have to think more what is not so important.Recycling is important because we don`t have left enough all kinds of raw material.I belive that everyone can do something better and think how much we waste.
I believe there is many things the whole world can do to help reduce the waste we create. But one thing my family alone can do to save water is. Take quicker showers and not leave the water running when brushing our teeth. Recycling is so important because if we keep throwing usable resources away we will see them rapidly disappear, and we need to advertise recycling more to get the word out how important it is to do.
While I believe that the United States does consume more water than other areas such as mexico, Finland(maybe :o), Australia. But we can all play our own part in conserving water. As someone said earlier, salt water plants that remove the salinity from water would help a lot, and would be worth it(extreme costs).
~Ian McGuire
Should we believe in global warming which is humans fault or is it just nature's own warming? Recycling and using bus/bike instead of own car are little things we all can do. If we don't believe in little things impressiveness, what can we do? Propably nothing. Or is little country like Finland unable to affect on these things? Hard to understand what it could be to drink brown water...
It is totally sad that prosperity of people in the world has been divided so unequally. It is so unfair that when someone has a chance to take a shower five times a day, at the same time there are a lot of people who have no clean water for drinking. Every time when someone is wasting clean water, he or she should think how happy someone in developing countries would be if he got that water.
Next time when someone who owns a lot of money, and thinks that maybe he could by a new house, even if his old house is big and fabulous, it would be better if he just donated that money to someone who does not have a proper place to live.
In my opinion everyone should think how they could spend less water and money. Do not by anything you do not really need. If you still have a feeling that you would want to waste your money, you can always donate them to the charity.
-by Kreeta Manninen
Post a Comment