Roz Savage: rowing oceans for a better world



There are many reasons why Roz Savage is an extraordinary woman -- she has rowed single-handed across the Atlantic and is now tackling the Pacific, after all.

But her response to some everyday commuter's ennui is perhaps of the most remarkable things about her. Back in 2000 a 33-year old Roz was facing another dreary journey by train to the office.
She had a great job as a management consultant, money and a husband; but deep down she knew something was missing. So, instead of just burying her feelings, she wrote two obituaries of herself. In one she kept going with life as it was. In the other she took a jump into the unknown and did the things she'd always wanted to. From that moment on her life has never been the same.
"One-by-one, I shed the trappings of my old life," she writes on her web site.
"The job, the husband, the home, the little red sports car. I moved house with increasing regularity, wherever I could find cheap or preferably free accommodation.
"Little by little I began to realign my life, to put myself on track for the obituary I really wanted."
Eventually she settled on the challenge that would in many ways define her: rowing the Atlantic single handed...



From Eco Solutions

A First: Ice Caps Linked to Carbon Dioxide

It seems an unlikely place to have to go in order to uncover one of the key mysteries of the Antarctic ice cap's history, but Tanzania is the source of some remarkable rock samples, on which the performance of geochemical analysis has significantly advanced our understanding of global climate science.

A team of British and American scientists has determined that the formation of the ice cap approximately 34 million years ago followed a long period of decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide, with expansive growth in ice cover after atmospheric chemistry dipped and stayed below a critical threshold.

As reported by PhysOrg.com,the team located marine sedimentary rock samples in Tanzania that spanned the time prior to, during and following the formation of the ice caps......

Report Finds Massive Pollution in the Peruvian Amazon Years After Oxy and Pluspetrol “Remediation”

Serious Questions Raised About Negligence by
Argentine Oil Company
Lima, Peru – A new report by a team of experts finds that crude oil and toxic waste pits left behind by Occidental Petroleum’s (OXY) operations in the Corrientes region of the Peruvian Amazon continue to contaminate the environment and present a serious health risk to local Achuar indigenous communities. The report also finds that the recent remediation operation by current operator, Argentine-based Pluspetrol, has been insufficient despite the intention of the company and the Peruvian government to declare the remediation work complete.

“The report leaves no room for doubt. Oxy’s massive industrial pollution of the region continues to threaten the Achuar people living in block 1-AB and Pluspetrol’s remediation has been entirely inadequate,” said Gregor MacLennan, Amazon Watch Peru Program Coordinator. “The Peruvian Government must withhold its approval on the remediation operation until there is adequate cleanup."

The report was published by E-Tech International, a non-profit technical consultancy firm from the US, that visited and sampled four contaminated sites and found heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and hydrocarbons at levels above what is considered safe by US and Peruvian standards.

In response to the report’s resounding conclusions, as well as signs that Pluspetrol is preparing to declare an end to the remediation process, the Achuar indigenous organization FECONACO demanded that Pluspetrol and the Peruvian Government provide an explanation as to why clean-up operations are winding down.

“Pollution from oil-spills still exists in many sites that have not been properly cleaned. When it rains, the oil runs down and contaminates the rivers and streams where the people source their food,” said Guevara Sandi Chimboras, an Achuar leader who has worked as an environmental monitor investigating contamination in the region.

OXY faces an ongoing lawsuit for harming the health and environment of the native Achuar people who live on the Corrientes River in oil block 1-AB, operated by OXY between 1971 and 2000. During 30 years of operations OXY, using practices long outlawed in the U.S., pumped millions of barrels of production waters into the rivers and dumped toxic waste in unlined earthen pits. In 2000, Occidental transferred its aging and substandard production facility to the current operator, Pluspetrol, and signed a deal leaving Pluspetrol to clean up the damage.

After blockades and protests by the Achuar in 2006, which shut down oil production for 13 days, Pluspetrol was forced to commit to upgrading OXY’s aging infrastructure and began to re-inject production waters. Despite this significant advance, the report demonstrates that Pluspetrol has failed to clean up OXY’s toxic legacy. Today heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and hydrocarbons continue to be present in the environment and pose a continued risk to the Achuar people’s health.

“We call upon OXY to face up to their moral and legal responsibility to fund an adequate cleanup of their toxic mess in block 1-AB, to compensate thousands of Achuar who have suffered profound harm, and to ensure the Achuar have access to modern health care to treat any medical conditions which OXY has contributed to or created over the years,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch.


Full Report here

Site Photos:

How weird some people are.. not in this website ..

Playgreen.

Featured articles - Latest updates - Community wish list

National Snow and Ice Data Center

1. Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis


Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the third-lowest extent since the start of satellite measurements in 1979. While this year’s minimum extent is above the record and near-record minimums of the last two years, it further reinforces the strong negative trend in summertime ice extent observed over the past thirty years..


Overview of conditions

On September 12, 2009 sea ice extent dropped to 5.10 million square kilometers (1.97 million square miles). This appears to have been the lowest point of the year, as sea ice has now begun its annual cycle of growth in response to autumn cooling. The 2009 minimum is the third-lowest recorded since 1979, 580,000 square kilometers (220,000 square miles) above 2008 and 970,000 square kilometers (370,000 square miles) above the record low in 2007.

The 2009 minimum is 1.61 million square kilometers (620,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average minimum and 1.28 million square kilometers (490,000 square miles) below the thirty-year 1979 to 2008 average minimum.

Conditions in context

This year, the minimum extent did not fall as low as the minimums of the last two years, because temperatures through the summer were relatively cooler. The Chukchi and Beaufort seas were especially cool compared to 2007. Winds also tended to disperse the ice pack over a larger region.

While the ice extent this year is higher than the last two years, scientists do not consider this to be a recovery. Despite conditions less favorable to ice loss, the 2009 minimum extent is still 24% below the 1979-2000 average, and 20% below the thirty-year 1979-2008 average minimum. In addition, the Arctic is still dominated by younger, thinner ice, which is more vulnerable to seasonal melt. The long-term decline in summer extent is expected to continue in future years.


Scroll down .