Monthly Archives: June 2011

Canada legally required to take action on human right to water: Report

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Ottawa – As the first anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s historic recognition of the human right to water and sanitation draws near, the Council of Canadians is releasing a new report today by chairperson Maude Barlow, titled Our Right to Water: A People’s Guide to Implementing the United Nations’ Recognition of the Right to Water and Sanitation. The report is available here.

The report finds that Canada is legally bound to respect the UN vote, and therefore to address the pressing issue of access to water and sanitation in First Nations communities…

http://www.canadians.org/media/water/2011/20-Jun-11.html

 

Thank you White Wolf Inn!

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I am writing this letter to send deep regards and thanks to Sandi and her staff at the White Wolf Inn in Stratton.

Sandi generously hosted the Mother Earth Water Walkers when they came through Stratton on May 11. We all enjoyed excellently cooked and filling meals at the restaurant, and slept soundly in the Inn’s quaint and comfortable rooms…

…For those who did not hear about this event, the Mother Earth Water Walk is a ceremony envisioned and actualized by the Anishinabe Native American Tribe to raise people’s awareness of water across North America…

…Water is the source of all life, and if you start to think about it, you will begin to realize that it is a part of everything. By bringing salt water to fresh water, walkers are symbolically cleansing and healing our water…

Click below for full article:

http://www.theirregular.com/news/2011-06-15/Letters/Thank_you_White_Wolf_Inn.html

 

Bottled Water a Bust

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Posted Wednesday, June 15, 2011 in Sustainable Maine

Bottled water a bust

Bottled water then and now; that’s apple cider in the glass bottle.

by Steve Cartwright

When I was a kid, some upscale folks bought Poland Spring water in glass bottles to demonstrate their refined taste. Me, I just drank tap water. I mean, this wasn’t root beer. It’swater.

But now nearly everybody, even environmentalists, seem to be clutching a plastic Poland Spring bottle, or some other brand such as Coca-Cola-owned Dasani. Dasani, by the way, is reputedly just tap water in a bottle with a price tag. But you’d think it’s something stronger and more addictive, like the unhealthy, caffeine-laced Coke.

Why are we so easily seduced by hype? Someone in the boardroom is laughing at us, we foolish people buying plastic bottles full of the exact same stuff we can have for free, without degrading the environment and emptying our wallets.

Continue reading →

Activist Alert: Keep your eyes and ears open!!!

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Nestlé Waters CEO Kim Jeffery is eyeing a bottle production plant for the East Coast.
Report: Nestle Waters plans new plant

Nestle Waters North America reportedly is interested in building a $30 million bottling plant at an unspecified location on the East Coast, which could produce some 40 million bottles from recycled materials annually.
Stamford-based Nestle Waters occupies a large section of supermarket shelves and convenience store coolers, with Poland Spring, Nestle Pure Life and Ice Mountain among its brands.
Plastic News reported the Nestle subsidiary wants a plant operational within a year’s time.
Separately, CEO Kim Jeffery told Dow Jones the company raised prices on its bottled water nearly 10 percent in April, due to the cost of plastic used to make bottles rising more than 40 percent since last October.
–Thanks to Save our Groundwater/NH.  Originally posted 6/3/11 by Westfair Business Publications

Health concerns at Poland Springs bottling plant in Framingham

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The Milford Daily News, June 12, 2011
FRAMINGHAM -Concerned about a 500 percent increase in water quality complaints, the state and town are monitoring Nestle’s Poland Spring bottling plant on Pennsylvania Avenue.
State and town inspectors first visited the facility in April, looking for the cause of unpleasant taste, odor and sickness reported by some Poland Spring home and office delivery customers…..
Stamford, Conn.-based Nestle Waters told officials they’ve noticed a sharp increase in complaints over the past year about water bottled in Framingham.
There were 3,573 complaints involving taste and odor and 54 complaints about illness between last September and April that trace back to the plant at 105 Pennsylvania Ave., near the Southborough line, the company says….
Inspectors suspected that complaints could possibly be tied to peeling paint on some pipes and water droplets from condensation that were falling from overhead pipes near the bottle rinsing area, Zemel said…
[follow link below for full article]

Town of Wales, New York, Adopts Community Rights Ordinance That Bans “Fracking”

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Defending Water Congratulates Wales, New York, for protecting their community and their water from the destructive gas drilling practice known as “fracking” which injects water laced with toxic chemicals into the ground to release natural gas from shale rock.

“This local law embodies the will of our residents to protect our natural resources from destruction, so our children and grandchildren can have the quality of life we enjoy.” – Councilmember Mike Simon
The Ordinance includes a local “bill of rights” that asserts legal protections for the right to water; the rights of natural communities; the right to local self-government, and the right of the people to enforce and protect these rights through their municipal government.  [link to full story below] Continue reading →

108 Giant Chinese Infrastructure Projects That Are Reshaping The World

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Vivian Giang and Robert Johnson | Jun. 8, 2011, 10:28 AM

View Original Article.

As hundreds of million of Chinese move to cities and enter the middle class, China faces a huge demand for new infrastructure. 

At the same time, Beijing looks to fixed-asset investments to keep the economy booming.

The resultant infrastructure push is incredible. A list of 108 super projects is floating around Chinese message boards. From highways spanning the continent, to the largest wind power base in the world, to a modern Silk Road that links Europe and India, to new cities in the desert, China is showing what it really means to do big things.

 

$102 MILLION: The Pingtang telescope will be the world’s largest radio telescope when completed in 2016

$176 MILLION: Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory conducts China’s major scientific projects and is the country’s most expensive research facility

$200 MILLION: The Guangzhou Opera House is one of the three biggest theaters in China, designed by starchitect Zaha Hadid

$368 MILLION: The Hainan power grid project is China’s first underwater cross sea power grid and will link the southern island of Hainan to mainland China

$473 MILLION: The Qinling Tunnel is longest highway tunnel in China

$473 MILLION: The Qinling Tunnel is longest highway tunnel in China

CEN

$717 MILLION: The Kashgar-Hotan Railway connects all the cities and towns of the southwestern Tarim Basin

$760 MILLION: China Central TV Headquarters is a loop of six horizontal and vertical sections covering 1,551,837 ft.

$900 MILLION: The Tianhuangping hydroelectric project is the biggest in Asia and plays a vital role in providing power supply in eastern China

$1.1 BILLION: The Shanghai World Financial Center Project is home to the second highest hotel in the world – the Park Hyatt Shanghai is on the 79th floor

$1.3 BILLION: The Baltic Pearl Project is China’s largest foreign development project and consists of residential and commercial properties outside St. Petersburg, Russia

$1.7 BILLION: The Wuhan Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge is a combined road and rail bridge across the Yangtze River in the city of Wuhan

$1.7 BILLION: The Nanjing Metro Line was completed in 2005 and is used by almost 180 million people a year

$1.8 BILLION: The Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge is the fifth longest cable-stayed bridge in the world

$1.9 BILLION: The Chengdu Shuangliu Airport will annually handle 35 million passengers

$2.12 BILLION: The Wuhan Railway Station serves the world’s fastest trains at 217 mph

$2.2 BILLION: At 128 stories, The Shanghai Tower will be the tallest skyscraper in China and the second tallest in the world when completed in 2014

$2.2 BILLION: The Qinshan Nuclear Power Phase II will add to the Qinshan plant and have the most nuclear reactors of any site in the world

$2.88 BILLION: The Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power station in northeastern China and will reach 45 billion kWh annually

$3 BILLION: The Great Gabon Belinga iron ore mine is China’s largest African mining operation

$3.3 BILLION: The Tianjin offshore drilling rig is China’s national base for offshore oil development

$3.5 BILLION: The Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal is the largest single construction project in China and the third largest building in the world

$4.5 BILLION: Lingang New City, a planned city to be completed in 2020, will house almost 1 million people

$4.5 BILLION: Lingang New City, a planned city to be completed in 2020, will house almost 1 million people

$6.3 BILLION: The Xiangjiaba Hydro power Project is expected to be completed by 2015 and generate 31 billion kwh annually

$6.3 BILLION: The Xiangjiaba Hydro power Project is expected to be completed by 2015 and generate 31 billion kwh annually

Skyscraper city

$5 BILLION:The Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev project will create the fastest inter-city train in the world at 280 mph

$6.3 BILLION: The Beijing South Railway Station is Asia’s largest railway station

$6.5 BILLION: China is one out several countries that signed a contract to re-construct the ancient “Silk Road” linking China and India with Europe

$6.76 BILLION: Xiluodu Dam will be the third tallest dam in the world and second largest hydro-power station in the country.

$7.89 BILLION: The Su-Tong Yangtze River Bridge is the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge

$7.89 BILLION: The Su-Tong Yangtze River Bridge is the world's longest cable-stayed bridge

Wikimedia Commons

$8 BILLION: The Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port Project will handle the largest container ships in the world

$8 BILLION: The Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port Project will handle the largest container ships in the world

Wikipedia

$8.3 BILLION: The Nigerian Railway Modernization Project is China’s largest overseas project

$10.2 BILLION: The Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong province will be the biggest nuclear power plant in China

$10.2 BILLION: The Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong province will be the biggest nuclear power plant in China

Wikimedia Commons

$10.2 BILLION: The Guangdong Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station will be China’s newest power plant when completed in 2013

$10.7 BILLION: The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge project will connect two huge regions when completed in 2016

$12 BILLION: The Hainan Wenchang Space Center launch project will be the country’s newest launch center

$14 BILLION: The Harbin–Dalian High-Speed Railway will serve the first high speed train in northeast China

$16 BILLION: Hangzhou Bay Bridge is the world’s longest cross-sea bridge project

$18.2 BILLION: The Jiuquan Wind Farm will be the largest wind power base in the world when completed in 2013

$23.1 BILLION: The Kunming New International Airport will be China’s 4th largest aviation hub

With no room for expansion at the current Kunming Wujiaba International Airport, the local government decided to build a new airport tentatively called Kunming Xiaoshao International Airport. With the completion of the new Kunming, the old Kunming will be demolished and all operations will be transferred from the old to the new.

$33 BILLION: The Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway is the world’s longest high-speed rail project

$33 BILLION: The Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway is the world's longest high-speed rail project

M.I.C Gadget via flickr

 

 

$44 BILLION: China is one out of 32 countries who signed an agreement for the construction of highways to span the continent and reach Europe

$45.4 BILLION: The Ningxia’s Ningdong Energy and Chemical Industrial Base will double the province’s GDP and generate $30.3 billion after the planned 2020 completion

$62 BILLION: The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is expected to divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water to the north by 2050

$62 BILLION: The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is expected to divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water to the north by 2050

$306.7 BILLION: The “Turn the Pearl River Delta Into One” will result in an urban “mega-city” bigger than Wales

$306.7 BILLION: The "Turn the Pearl River Delta Into One" will result in an urban "mega-city" bigger than Wales

busworld

$458 BILLION: The Tianjin Harbor Industrial Zone is one of the largest chemical ports in the world

Other Great Chinese Infrastructures worth mentioning

Other Great Chinese Infrastructures worth mentioning

rikj via flickr

$2.6 billion: China’s construction of the Libyan coastal railway project
$4.5 billion: Guangzhou Nansha Lair shipbuilding base project
$5.0 billion: Niger oil project
$5.4 billion: Changxing Shipbuilding Base will be the world’s largest shipbuilding base project
$7 billion: Sudanese oil project
$7 billion: China’s construction of the Algerian East-West Highway Project
$10.7 billion: Baosteel million-ton steel base project in Zhanjiang East Island
$11.7 billion: Rural Market Project
$20 billion: Portland Oilfield Sinopec investment
$26.8 billion: Tianjin ethylene project
$38 billion:  Zhangzhou and Fuzhou-Xiamen railway projects
$77.5 billion: Super markets projects
$77.5 billion: Liaoning Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Project
$237 billion: State Environmental Protection Eleventh Five-Year Plan
$800 billion: Zhejiang Sanmen nuclear power project
$900 billion: Northern Energy and Chemical Base project
$1 trillion: Tianjin Binhai New Area investment

Even more are listed here.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/giant-chinese-infrastructure-projects-2011-6?op=1#ixzz2O0PKtDJU