Since January is the National Radon Action month, it would only seem appropriate to test or have your home tested for radon presence. Luckily, the tests are inexpensive and it should be done before one buys or sells a house, any structural changes are made (such as installing new cooling or heating system or changing pipes) or periodically for your health and safety.

For those who don’t quite know what radon is, it is a tasteless, odorless radioactive gas occurring naturally from the rock decay. The gas leaks into the homes through various cracks, especially the ones in the foundations and gathers inside contaminating the indoor air. Radon is said to be one of the leading causes of lung cancer and according to EPA, it causes about 21000 deaths per year in the US alone.

It’s advised that homeowners perform a radon test at least once ever 18 months to be on the safe side. The radon test kits are sold in nearly all hardware or home improvement stores and cost on average from $10 to $20. The duration of the test also varies and may take anywhere from a few days up to 90 days but the longer test usually give more accurate readings.

According to the EPA, there are no safe levels of the radioactive gas, however if the long-term test shows levels exceeding 4 pCi/L, you should take action to remove it, and that can cost you quite a penny (up to $2,500) since a qualified contractor will have to be called to carry out the job.

photo credit: BL1961

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported recently that the ocean surface temperatures hit the record highs in June, 2009.

According to the data, the combined land and sea  surface temperatures were the highest on record: 1.12 degrees F (0.62 C) above the previous century’s 59.9 F, while the ocean’s temperature alone was 1.06 F (0.59 C) higher.

The culprit for these drastic changes is the global warming and the results for this summer so far are:
• Heavy rains resulting in floods and mudslides in Central and Eastern Europe.
• Unusual warmth experienced mainly in Africa, Siberia, Black and Mediterranean Seas.
• American northern plains, Canadian Prairie Provinces as well as central Asia recorded temperatures cooler than normal for this season.
• Arctic ice coverage was below the average recorded previously and rapidly melting leading to more open water and thus more heat absorption, which in turn causes the temperature of the ocean to rise speeding up the melting of the ice.

The scientists now warn that at this rate (if nothing changes and the global warming culprits are not lessened) the Arctic ice could disappear in about 30 years, while previously estimated that it wouldn’t happen until at least the end of the 21st century.

Last April a major Swiss conglomerate has agreed to stop any seismic testing that had been planned to take place on the Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, which is one of the main feeding grounds for the endangered gray whale.

This decision was reached at the meeting called forth by the Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel (WGWAP), which includes 11 prominent scientists in the field, in order to discontinue any gas and oil developments in and around the feeding areas for the Western Gray Whale.

The meeting was held between the WGWAP and the representatives of Shell, Sakhalin Energy (a partnership between Shell, Gasprom and other shareholders), Russian government officials, project lenders and environmental NGOs and ended in an environmental step forward, since the parties agreed to cancel all planned seismic activities in the Russian Far East, despite the fact that the plans were already put to work.

Such small victories are a good example of the fact that even the big conglomerates and corporation when faced with undeniable science as well as provided with a certain amount of compromise can be reasonable. Thus, perhaps it is not too late to save our planet.

A new sturdy has recently found that the life-saving ozone layer is slowly recovering and may be nearly restored to a healthy level by the mid XXI century however, it may never go back to what it used to look like, the scientists say.

Ozone is an incredibly important gas that protects the earth and all form of life (including humans, animals, plants and various ecosystems) from the blistering effects of the UV rays by absorbing most of them in the stratospheric zone surrounding the planet. However, the last decades have had a terrible effect on the ozone, destroying its layer to ‘barely there’ levels.

Luckily, drastic measures, which started with a worldwide ban (called Montreal Protocol) of the use of chemicals mostly hazardous to ozone—namely chlorofluocarbons (CFCs) found in aerosols and refrigerants, are beginning to pay off. Various studies performed over the past 25 years have shown that the ozone in the polar region stopped depleting around 1997 and have stabilized or even increased in the last decade. 

However, full recovery (that is to the levels form the early 1980s) is still decades away due to numerous reasons, which include changing temperatures and atmospheric dynamics. According to the scientists, greenhouse gasses are the biggest culprits for the thwarting the ozone layer recovery. Some experts state that in some areas the ozone will be thicker than before the ban on ozone-depleting chemicals while other areas may remain insufficient.

Still, hope remains… For us, the planet and the protective ozone layer.

photo credit: VenturaB.

The Amazon is not only the largest forest on the planet but is the planet’s own set of lungs helping it breathe and reduce some of the pollution humans create. However, according to a Brazilian environmentalist, Philip Martin Fernside, the Amazon could well vanish by 2080, if its logging is not curbed.

The forest encompasses 1.2 billion acres and is situated in five different countries—Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana—with 60% of the it in Brazil. Moreover, the Amazon forest constitutes nearly half of the world’s remaining intact forests. Unfortunately, deforestation is a serious threat to the Amazon, which increased rapidly in the recent decades due to a number of various factors, such as the governments building roads into and through the forest, agricultural and private companies logging it for farm lands and many instances of logging for a short-term profit etc.

Additionally, the Amazon, like any other virgin forest, has large quantities of accumulated carbon dioxide, which is released into the atmosphere  by any type of logging or tree burning adding to the global warming.

Luckily, the many conservation and environmental groups active in the region have succeeded leading to slowing down the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. Furthermore, an increasing number of the western countries are interested in developing methods, which will protect and preserve the forest as a way to combat their carbon emissions. Thus, perhaps, there’s a way to at least slow down the destruction of the largest forest on Earth…