For this homework, we decided to talk about an environmental foundation named Green cross.


This foundation has found a lot of solutions to save the environment.



1-When was the foundation created?

In 1993

2- Who is the creator of Green cross International?

Mikhail Gorbachev

3- How many country is Green cross represented?

31 countries all around the world

4- What is the mission of Green cross?

“The mission of Green Cross International is to help ensure a just, sustainable and secure future for all by fostering a value shift and cultivating a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility in humanity's relationship with nature.”

5- What are the areas of activity of Green cross international?

First of all, this foundation “promotes legal, ethical and behavioural norms that ensure basic changes in the values, actions and attitudes of government, the private sector and civil society, necessary to build a sustainable global community» . Second, it prevents and solves conflicts that are linked to environmental degradation. Third, it assists people that are affected by environmental degradation and wars and conflicts between countries.

6-What do you do to prevent and resolve conflicts over natural resources?

The foundation helps people to have access to clean water and sustainable energy. Green cross established a program named “Water for peace” to help people to have access to water and that promotes cooperation between. All the countries want the same thing: to have access to clean water.

7-Have you created a program to solve conflicts that are linked to environmental degradation?

Yes, 3 programs exist, nowadays.

1 GREEN CROSS INTERNATIONAL, «Mission of GCI» ,[Online], http://www.gci.ch/who-we-are/mission (page consults on November 18, 2009)

2 GREEN CROSS INTERNATIONAL, «Mission of GCI» ,[Online], http://www.gci.ch/who-we-are/mission (page consults on November 18, 2009)

Industrialization And Oceans

The pollution in the oceans is a problem that is caused by industrialization. Big industries are dumping waste such as oil, fertilizers, solid garbage and toxic chemicals. In fact, ocean pollution directly affects humans by causing serious health problems. This pollution is also caused by boats. The chemical products ejected, when the engine is running on high speed, pollute water, and kill fish and other important marine animals. Secondly, this pollution is caused by garbage. Fore one hundred years, human have produced a lot of garbage and this has caused pollution problems in the ocean and killed many plants and animals. For example, cigarettes have killed many turtles. Thirdly, this pollution is caused by cars. One third of carbon dioxide produced by cars goes into the oceans and increases acidification. Solutions could be as easy as reinforcing present laws on this subject, but on a large scale pollution can be reduced by opposing coastal development or reducing mercury emissions

http://www.grinningplanet.com/2008/01-08/water-pollution-solutions-article.htm
http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/pollution/
http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/ocean_pollution.htm

The impact of industrialization in India

Since India started building industrial areas for ground water systems, Bangalore’s inhabitants have developed serious health problems. So the Bureau of India Standards (BIS) launched an investigation to discover the cause of the problem. The result shows that water in the area contains nitrates, calcium, magnesium, sulphates, fluorides and many other products people don’t usually enjoy drinking. Now the impact is that a lot of people living in Peenya’s industrial area, in the city of Bangalore are suffering from serious health problems because of the consumption of toxic water. Since the problem was discovered in 2003, an alert about the urgency of the water qualities problems has been ringing in all urban areas. Finally, it proves that industrialization doesn’t always have positive impacts. On the contrary, it frequently causes more damage when the country isn’t developed enough in terms of economic and health systems

http://www.springerlink.com/content/m631t5v890100359/

The Marine Mammal Center is located in Sausalito, California. The principal vocation of this center is to rescue and nurse back to health marine mammals like elephant seals, sea lions and harbour seals. Volunteers who work at the Marine Mammal Center have an important job; they have to save seals that are malnourished, injured, have physical abnormalities or are affected by domoic acid that comes from phytoplankton. At least 50% of the seals at the mammal center survive. However, When seals cannot survive on there own or when they are too sick, veterinarians have end there lives through euthanasia. The Center wants sea lions and all other marine mammals to return, as soon as possible the ocean because they don’t want them to get used to humans. Because of this kind of hospital, injured marine mammals are now very likely to survive. It’s also important to note that this center makes a good contribution to field of science because of the satellite they put on the mammal’s head when they leave the Center. With this strange thing, they can inspect the seals’ movements in the ocean and find out what kind of toxic products are harming them.

The siberian sturgeon

The Siberian Sturgeon is a large fish that comes from Russia and lives in the cold water of the north. The population has dropped dramatically in the last few years to reach a historic low level today. If people do not change the way aquaculture is done, this fish will have to pay the consequences. Fish hybridization, leads to a more efficient culture and that is one of the reasons that they are endangered. An organisation named IUCN (which is specialized in marine species protection) says that Siberian Sturgeons and more than 3,000 species living in fresh water are threatened. Farm can prevent extinction by keeping hybridized fish in close area so they do not reproduce with wild fish. This fish has been an endangered specie since 1996. The decline of the Siberian Sturgeon in the ocean will throw the ecosystem off balance and it will also affect other levels of the food chain.

Sources:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r5210422277814h2/

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/240/0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterlet