Events and Pollutive Effects

On the topic of Earth Hour, I've always been curious to know how significantly the 1 hour of lights-out contributes to the environment, i.e. how much of a difference Earth Hour actually makes to the consumption of electricity. A study done by Olexsak and Meier in 2014 sought to investigate exactly this. They analysed and evaluated energy-saving behaviour in 10 countries, namely Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Ireland, Sweden, United States and Canada. 274 measurements of observed changes in electricity demand from Earth Hour activities were conducted for 6 years, from 2007 to 2012. The results were as shown below:  Table of recorded Earth Hour demand changes in various countries.  Source: Olexsak & Meier (2014) The negative values in the table represent an increase in electricity demand. On average, they found that electricity consumption across 10 countries during the 1 hour fell by 4.0%. On the extreme ends, Canada achieved the hig...

 Earth Hour is perhaps one of the biggest environmental awareness movements around the world, with it taking place on the last Saturday of March every year since its beginning in 2007. The participation of certain monuments in this activity has certainly helped promote conversation about this event. This video below provides a quick recap of what went down this year on the 26th of March and shows some of the biggest landmarks turning off their lights for this year's Earth Hour.  Source: WION (2022) Although it's a relief to know that big cities are still actively participating in this, many of the commenters under this video expressed scepticism regarding the effectiveness of this movement. For example, one comment by user 'NG' reads:  "This is just western capitalism ideas to show themselves being good but what is [the] use of such 1 hr in a year drama when they [are] responsible for more than 60% of the problem" This comment alludes to the dissatisfaction w...

 After years of thinning and surface heating as a result of global warming, the 1,200 km2 Conger Ice Shelf in East Antarctica finally collapsed. This happened on the 15th of March, following extreme increases in temperature of as high as 40 degrees C above the normal seasonal warm temperatures (Lu, 2022). Satellite images from MODIS and Landsat below reveal the extent of damage on the ice shelf which occurred within a timeframe of only 2 months.  Image on the left shows Conger ice shelf in February 2022; Image on the right shows state of the ice shelf in March 2022. Source: Catherine Colello Walker on Twitter NASA scientist Catherine Colello Walker stated that the Conger ice shelf has been shrinking since the mid-2000s but it was only this year that there were noticeable and drastic changes to the surface area. Increasing temperatures and extreme heat, termed the March Heatwave, leading to surface melting were quoted to be one of the factors driving this collapse, which is sim...

 When I was checking my Shopee app on my phone a few days ago, the first thing I saw was this ad that popped up:  A clickable advertisement that re-directs users to the discounts and Vouchers page. I also noticed other e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Zalora having massive promotions commemorating the 15th of March, or World Consumer Rights Day. The idea is to of course attract consumers to the low prices and encourage them to purchase items that they have been meaning to purchase. These advertisements aimed at increasing e-commerce sales is seen as beneficial and necessary for boosting Singapore's economy following the pandemic and for achieving Singapore's goal of becoming Asia's leading e-commerce hub (Bala, 2021). However, according to Consumers International, the original motive of this day was to promote awareness for the protection of the rights of consumers, which include: the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be...

 Happy St. Patrick's Day! Singaporeans (including myself) generally don't celebrate this holiday but regardless, I think it's a nice excuse for me to wear green. Taking a look at other countries, particularly the U.S., St. Paddy's celebrations there are grand and extravagant. I was surprised to learn that in honour of this occasion, Chicago dyes its river green! This has been a long-standing tradition ever since plumbers in the 1960s accidentally turned the river fluorescent green by using dye to detect sources of illegal sewage discharges (Russell, 2010).  This accident was then intentionally incorporated as part of the annual St. Paddy's parades. While photos reveal that it is quite an interesting sight, making the city look like a comic book scene, I also wondered whether there were any toxic environmental impacts on the ecosystems in and around the river.  Chicago River after it was dyed green for St. Patrick's Day, 2022.  Source: CNN Initially, the dye - oi...

 On the topic of Budget 2022 and the increase in car prices, it appears that more Singaporeans are opting for Electronic Vehicles (EV). Finance minister Lawrence Wong announced in his Budget speech that around 4% of new car registrations last year were EVs, which is a small albeit significant increase (Chew, 2022).  Singapore's Ministry of Transport also plans for all vehicles to be low emission vehicles by 2040 by implementing incentives for the purchase of EVs such as the electric vehicle Early Adoption Incentive (Teo, 2020). Just four days ago, in an effort to work towards net zero-emission, the government set a target of reducing land transport emissions by 80% from Singapore's 7.7 million tonnes in 2016 (Mohan and Lim, 2022). Some proposed efforts in place to achieve this include making equipping HDB car parks with EV charging ports and electrifying the public buses. These measures, along with the increasing taxes and fuel costs, is said to drive up demand for EVs in the ...

 With the ongoing and steady rise in residential property prices in Singapore, I am starting to lose hope in getting my ideal home. HDB resale prices are predicted to increase by about 8 per cent in 2022, although this increase is said to be 'gentler' than other years (Goh, 2022). This led me to fantasise about my own future home by watching Tiny House Nation, a reality show where 2 builders design and construct a tiny house (around 20 - 55 square meters), usually mobile and made out of shipping containers. Throughout the show, the designers make mention of the sustainable concept of small homes and how carbon and energy-efficient they are, which is what attracts the homeowners. Recently, this concept was brought to a few locations in Singapore, such as the SG Hotel On Wheels (SHOW) in Pasir Ris and the Shipping Container Hotel (SCH) at OneNorth. These shipping container hotels seem to be changing the hotel industry in Singapore due to their unique concept and sustainability fa...

Since La Liga season is ongoing right now, it is a good opportunity to talk about a pollutive event that occurred in 2020, which resulted in postponement of games. A few weeks before the football game between Eibar and Real Sociedad, a landfill holding thousands of tonnes of industrial waste collapsed in Basque, an autonomous community in Spain. Two workers were declared missing and presumed dead following this, while a few fires also broke out near the town of Zaldibar, sparking not just town-wide but nation-wide concerns as toxic pollutants significantly contaminate the air (Hedgecoe, 2020). Reportedly, the quality of the air was found to be 40 times more toxic than usual levels following the incident. This is likely to be from the burning of plastics or materials which release Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP). Several water supplies were also contaminated with industrial chemicals, including ammonia. Locals in nearby towns Ermua and Eibar, where the football game was supposed...

Recently, on 25th February, an earthquake with a moment magnitude (Mw) of 6.2 hit Indonesia's Sumatra, wounding many and killing at least 11 people (The Guardian, 2022). Thousands were displaced in the aftermath and tremors were felt even in neighbouring countries Singapore and Malaysia. The effects were of course devastating as rescue is still being carried out in affected states. But apart from immediate injuries, how do earthquakes affect the health of those living nearby? According to NASA's Astrophysics Data System (ADS), earthquakes of similar magnitude can result in 14 groups of Infectious Diseases, including respiratory, water-borne, skin, vector-borne, and many more. These are often an indirect consequence of the earthquakes, termed secondary Earthquake Environment Effects (EEE) and more badly affects countries/areas with poor access to healthcare, sanitation and clean water.  Location of Epicentre of Sumatra Earthquake. Source: DW Earthquakes also significantly affec...