Planet of Polluted Water

Image of the Day:

The [Polluted] Water Planet

How Polluted is the Water on Your Planet?

From the space you cannot yet see how polluted the water is on the ‘Water Planet!’

Detailed, photo-like image of Earth based largely on observations by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite.Click Image to enlarge. Download large image (1 MB, JPEG). Image acquired July 10, 2005.

Related Links:

• The Water Cycle [NASA E/O]
• Canceling Your Life Insurance Policy with Nature
• Drying Aquifers, Sinking Cities

• Our Dying Oceans

Italy: Submerged in Floodwaters, Sinking in Garbage

A Shrinking World Series

How Much More Floodwaters, Trash Before the Truth Sinks In?

As the Campania region in southwest italy is buried deeper in trash, the northwestern region of Piedmont, another of the country’s 20 regions, is submerged in floodwaters. The authorities declared a state of emergency in Turin and Val d’Aosta.

[Darn, I wonder what caused that!] A man surveys the damage caused by a landslide caused in Turin. (Photo: AFP) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Eyewitnesses reported a five-meter high wall of mud engulfing houses in an Alpine village near the French border. A landslide caused by heavy rainfall has killed at least three people; a 3-year old girl was reported missing.

The floods also pose a serious risk to crops in the area. “The torrential rain and the Po [Italy’s longest river] and the Dora breaking their banks have meant many wheat fields are flooded and the harvest could be lost,” the Italian Farmers Confederation said in a statement.

The Po valley, Italy’s most fertile farming area, is also its most industrially developed. “There has been too much building, concreting-over and canalization along our rivers with devastating consequences that happen as soon as rains start,” said Michele Candotti of the Environmental group WWF Italia. (Source)

Related Links:

• Naples Garbage Opera – Act II
• Seeking Toxic Asylum