From Scientific American…
If you use cocaine and need a reason to quit—or one to avoid starting in the first place—think conservation. The national parks of Guatemala and other countries have become the preferred haven of drug traffickers who usurp protected areas and burn the forest to serve their own purposes and the demands of their customers, according to Roan McNab, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) country director for Guatemala.
“They systematically destroy and sabotage forests so they can put in landing fields,” McNab said at the WCS State of the Wild conference on April 15. The landing fields enable them to move drugs—particularly cocaine—north by plane to feed American habits.
Similar misuse of parklands has plagued Colombia since at least the 1990s, and the Sierra de la Macarena National Park there is home to some 13,000 hectares (32,100 acres) of coca plantations, according to field data compiled by the illegal-drug monitoring U.N. body the Sistema Integrado de Monitoreo de Cultivos Ilicitos. As a result, officials have targeted the park for herbicide spraying from airplanes. Of course, this indiscriminately kills both coca and forest vegetation as well as poses a risk to the area’s frogs and other amphibians.
In Guatemala, drug traffickers clear a new landing strip on average once every six months to avoid being caught. read full article…
As we celebrate Earth Day today, our focus is on addressing the impact that global climate change has on the planet. But what impact will it have on our health?
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers up a two minute podcast about the preparing for the implication of health issues due to global climate change.
CDC Global Climate Change Podcast - April 2008.
Striving to be environmentally conscious in your decisions connects directly with living a well-balanced, healthy life. What works for your good health often helps support a healthier planet and vice versa. In that vein, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention offers the following information about safe drinking water.
Safe drinking water is essential to good health and quality of life. Therefore, protecting water sources from contamination is a major concern.
Water is one of our most valuable resources. Water covers about 70% of the Earth’s surface and is one of the most important resources needed for maintaining life (1). In 2000, the United States alone used 408 billion gallons of water per day (2)! Ground water, which is obtained by drilling wells, is water located below the ground surface in pores and spaces in the rock, and is used by approximately 40%–45% of the US population as its drinking water supply (3–5).
People use ground water every day for a variety of reasons, including drinking, recreation, agriculture, and industry. Most of the time this water is completely safe and not a cause for worry. However, during 2003 and 2004, 30 waterborne-disease outbreaks related to drinking water were reported to CDC. These outbreaks resulted in 2,760 cases of illness and 4 deaths. Seven of these outbreaks (23%) and 1,830 cases of illness could be attributed to improperly treated or untreated ground water used for drinking purposes; two of these outbreaks involved private wells (6).
read full article…
