Alternative energy resources in Central Europe – Fighting climate change

While in the 20^th century climate change was just a ghastly subject to scare humans, 21^st century people definitely have to face the reality and cope with a warmer climate and its consequences. Since the industrial revolution, humanity has a significant role in altering the environment and we experience its consequences in the form of intense heat waves and heavy downpours. What is more, global warming is showing its effects all over the world, glaciers are shrinking at the poles and the temperature of the seas and oceans is rising, leaving thousands of animals without their natural habitat and proper access to food. Extreme weather phenomena, droughts, floods, hurricanes, dog days in Scandinavia may lead to new challenges and the realizing of old ones, including water scarcity, rising sea level, famine and new diseases. Most industrial activities we depend on nowadays have raised atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels. Carbon-dioxide and methane are greenhouses gases that easily reflect the heat back to the surface.

So the question is, what can WE do to end all these horrors and escape from the prison of climate change. The key point is always education and raising awareness. But when words can’t find ears we have to act and show the results, in order to people to find the right way. And doing something starts locally. I live in Hungary, in the heart of Europe, so this area, Central Europe, home of 150 million people, is the one I know, the one I can write about.

Read More

Life after Chernobyl

Radiations are everywhere in our world, but they don’t have the same effect on our lives. Radiation includes pure energy, technological devices, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet and x-ray. But there’s another type of radiation which may be lethal or at least have a permanent trace in our lives… and this is nuclear radiation.

In general nuclear power is used to produce electricity, but it was the main character of the arms race between the USA and the Soviet Union, back in the 1950s; the era which is also known as the cold war.

I think Chernobyl is place we have all heard of. Chernobyl is a settlement in the former Soviet Union, on the North part of today’s Ukraine, near the border with Belarus, which gained its reputation due to an unfortunate disaster. In April 1986 a nuclear power plant, providing electricity for much of the country, exploded. It released radiation equivalent to 400 Hiroshima bombs, 5 times more than the Fukushima disaster. Thousands of people died and countless suffer from its heritage even today. As ionised radiation is able to change your DNA, it causes cancer or radiation sickness, with symptoms including blood vomiting, hair loss, dizziness, shrunk of internal organs and extremely small brains. Without a containment shell around the reactor, a cloud of radioactive material spewed into the air from the plant and spread out over the western Soviet Union and central Europe. In fact people in Sweden knew that something happened way before those who lived there. Even decades later, it is so dangerous to go there, that it’s still abandoned and sealed off. A 20 mile Exclusion Zone obstructs people from going there. Nothing was expected to survive here, but let’s see what 30 years of nuclear fallout has done to life here.

Read More

Water scarcity

70% of the Earth- home of all known living creatures- is covered with water, yet only 3% of it is available for use. Funnily enough this 3% is said to be sufficient for 7 billion people, but it is distributed unevenly or otherwise wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed. The result is that 40% of the entire population has little or no access to clean water, therefore the right for an adequate life.

There are several causes of water scarcity, including global warming, human conflicts and corruption, pollution, inadequate infrastructure development and overpopulation. In developing countries women and girls are primarily responsible for collecting water, which eventuates in muscle damage as they have to carry heavy bowls of water on long distances. What is more, females are usually alone during collecting, making them an easy target for sexual abuse and causing unwanted pregnancy.

Teenage pregnancy is the number 1 reason for school dropouts, which contributes to overpopulation, as girls won’t get the necessary knowledge of the world, family issues and protection. Overpopulation and water scarcity are among the primary reasons for migration which heavily affects today’s world.

Read More