An Invisible Chain of our Time
Page 25
everybody. The astonishing side of this issue is: these costs never assumed have been unnecessary absolutely. Nobody would reject a good practice, a true improvement. Why deny we that the use of the technology is not the proper? It seems to be easier watching the big infrastructures and opening the mouth saying wow! And not think beyond as this means in reality. Surely, because we have a lazy mind, which has been setup with a model of behavior learnt from televisions. I am sorry; I guess we are a pity of mankind.
Then, I must disagree with the repeated phrase as a mantra, on faith, as sacred taboo: “we have dominated the nature”. I do not think so, the accumulation of nonsense that even today continue to taking place, that is not to dominate nature, that is being a bungling, and in comparison with the Roman hordes, taking us much alleged knowledge, I would say that we are actually unbridled and drunken.
What has been managed?
Another question that has not need of much debate is this, what has been actually managed and in a significantly measure mistakenly, is the weapon's power, the industrial development, the building and trading: on the contrary, never were managed neither the human and political stability, nor natural resources. We could point many issues that draw the map of our footprint over the environment, but I think only a few of them may be necessary to explain and give an overall sketch.
For example, we must assume as is assumed by chemists working on it, that we have released on the waters by one hand, clearly and mainly 100 compounds, being among them the steroids, antibiotics, coagulants generic disinfectants, soaps, beta-blockers (which operate over the SNC, used in cardiac arrhythmia, infarction and hypertension), analgesics, or the SSRIs (antidepressants and as well as treatment for anxiety and personality disorders); in other hand, a large list of para-pharmaceutical drugs, that have not been accounted until now. Once are released, its concentration decrease, but the debugging capacity of rivers, and the average flow has dropped into them in a high percentage, thus being detected in analysis made along various points of control. The drugs can be degraded under certain conditions, or transformed in worse substances, or be deposited at the sediments or funds and fixed, or be absorbed by aquatic flora and fauna, remaining anyway its presence. Also can travel flying like an airplane, and reach other touristic places, as happens with some compounds.
The response to this issue from some scientists in pharmacy, was when less incredible: they told “we do not know if it react (the released compound), but it would be better that those substances do not react with the environment,” what is a very clever reply. Then, the feminization of fish (as can be seen not only in Europe, also in Japan, India, US, and likely in all the industrialized countries) related to spread of steroid estrogens into waters, which caused the reduction of fertility, fecundity and reproduction, it only would not have happened. Of course, a few persons notice this, the rest keep watching to TV.
Other examples can be the following ones: the lead laid on the ground along fields and fields in two subcontinents (North America and Europe) killing silently million birds and mammals, if not were killed in the special points where the birds cross the continents (when they are migrating yearly); the poisoning of vultures which decline almost at 99% in Asia with the veterinary drug diclofenac, which consequently provoked the unbalance in populations of dogs feral and leopards; or the intake of waste micro-plastic (as nurdles), which became eventually in a constant in our days in half of beaches.
The future will bring us new kind of troubles as these ones, with other words and names: genes, and thereby target-genes compounds, which will act upon the genes. In medicine and pharmacy, things run differently according where we be: can be 13 the drugs applied in tropical diseases (therefore in poor countries mainly) in front of 1,450 widely produced the last 25 years. Where do they go the remaining 1,425? Those drugs go to the richest market, where we find residues everywhere: pollution in the tropics is of another type, previously banned in the West. Thus, the developed coasts are the main sources of chemical pollutants by many reasons.
Let’s go see another kind of development also managed. An event about you probably has heard is the spill on the Niger Delta. Since the onset in 1960, the pipes in the complex of factories that has had Shell in the Niger Delta, poured on the environment tons of petrol along years in a list of events, these sites never were cleaned, and again in 2009 another last spill more occurred, encroaching continuously areas of marsh, riparian lands and reaching the sea. The company, desiring “help” to people, carried "a few bags" of tapioca, rice, beans, milk, sugar, peanut oil and even tea, to help some 70,000 people (as seems to be after read the Amnesty International report). Would not have dared to do this in the West, of course. At the same time that the oil has been withdrawn from the subsoil during 50 years never was developed any drinking water or power supply, two essential issues without which you, the reader, would not live. Less still were the health services. This situation would be unthinkable to happen in Western countries: or could it? It also happens with the oil, with the nuclear debris, with rivers, estuaries, there is a long list that is ongoing. When an activity makes the 80% of incomes for a Government, this is possible, and there is no development. Thus is not strange to see any individual or organized action taking advantage of the troubles, riots, conflicts and clashes usual: the theft of oil has many ways, like bunkering or the extraction from the pipes.
The picture (Creative Commons, by Socialist Ungom, SU) shows the disaster in many areas affected by operations and spills in the Niger Delta.
In either case, when profits do not reverse in the local society, hopefully that happens, trying to survive or take advantage of this wealth. However, the company acknowledged it leaks in 50% of the pipes: is not invested in maintenance and safety when they are not being watched. Trying measuring the facts, how much oil was spilled there? Are possible many numbers, but sure are between least 8 million barrels and 14 million barrels (along 25-45 years). We cannot let to talk of facilities over 20,000 square miles, the decreasing of fish, the weakening of marshes, the pollution of underground waters, the affection to birds of the Delta (and tourism is an income today), the spread along the trophic chain of oils and chemical soaps, crops depleted, and a large list of effects on the area and population. The poor countries, in order to earn something, must sell its safety, its resources, taking there, far from laws, all the wrongs and barbarities at low cost. Towards the towns in the North just goes the clean petrol. A map of all sort of big changes can be viewed here. A resource for teaching is here.
In Africa, the sudden whorls of violence have had as reason for fight whatever tribal squabble possible, but always underneath what is going on is hidden the allowance of natural resources to clusters of companies which provide services worldwide. This last fact never has been interesting for first pages. The resources are of many kinds, but somehow a bit bunch of them are the main engine that moves the trade and politics.
The water and its guests.
An ancient story is this one of waters. I bring it here because it is closely related to something that we understand and see as development, as was the set of cities where our prosperity began.
Europe, only a few years ago, let behind its road of epidemics: since the Greece epidemics, Ethiopia or Japan, till the America discovering, and the Mexico outbreak, it reached out time with a new kind of epidemics. But until 1950, almost all big cities in Europe were visited in some degree by some of this burst of infections: Sevilla, London, Milan, Marseille, and some more. All the species were (and are supposed even in the first outbreak known) the cholera, typhus, smallpox, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, influenza, bubonic plague, and tuberculosis. In addition to get rid from millions of people from this world, the more strong common factor that have had all this zoonotic epidemics (remember the origin) has been that all these diseases are strongly related with poor and bad conditions of hygiene in the daily living, where waters were always the vector transport, a kind of conveyor belt, home and nest of microo
rganisms.
Those centuries until 1950, were a period of comings and goings, ups and downs, with periods of death and survival, and sure all these crowds travelled to towns looking a better life and thriving: they saw the towns as the ridge of life. During this time, they never suspected that they were developing its lives mistakenly, never suspected that the waters are the perfect nest, the perfect home for bacteria, a vector of disease, especially when the waters are not well managed, when they are not smartly managed. Could think we today that we know absolutely all, we are on the ridge of knowledge already?
Despite this, we have a name, a sort of tag for the XVII century: the "Industrial Revolution". You can try and study patiently, spending a bit of time, looking the data provide by FAO about the global resources of water: not ever data are good, and must be scrutinized carefully, when are always related to other actors as could be the irrigation systems in a country, the efficiency in use, the waste treatments, the kind of crops and others so. But this database is at least wide and consistent: Aquastat.
As well as we can remember this, we