Seven Generational Ruminations

Serves the people who are transforming the world. It is a community directory and networking forum that maps and connects non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more. Content is created and edited by people like you.

Living on Earth with Steve Curwood is the weekly environmental news and information program distributed by Public Radio International. Every week approximately 300 Public Radio stations broadcast Living on Earth's news, features, interviews and commentary on a broad range of ecological issues. The show airs in 9 of the 10 top radio markets and reaches 80% of the US.

There is no more important cause than the call to action to save our planet. This is a movement about change – as individuals, as a country, and as a global community. We are all contributors to global warming and we all need to be part of the solution. Join the 507,913 supporters of the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand solutions to global warming now.

World Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives.

The World Resources Institute's mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Because people are inspired by ideas, empowered by knowledge, and moved to change by greater understanding, WRI provides -- and helps other institutions provide -- objective information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that will foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development.

Pesticides are hazardous to human health and the environment, undermine local and global food security and threaten agricultural biodiversity.

Yet these pervasive chemicals are aggressively promoted by multinational corporations, government agencies, and other players in this more than $35 billion a year industry.

PANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America) works to replace pesticide use with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. As one of five PAN Regional Centers worldwide, we link local and international consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups into an international citizens' action network. This network challenges the global proliferation of pesticides, defends basic rights to health and environmental quality, and works to insure the transition to a just and viable society.

Environment category index at the Wikipedia.

The Scottish Solar Energy Group (SSEG) exists to promote solar interests in Scotland, as a means of reducing national reliance upon environmentally polluting, non-renewable fossil based fuels whilst enhancing the health, comfort and safety within internal working and living environments. Membership is open to all with an interest in solar energy. Applications are especially welcome from teachers, researchers, building and services design professionals, component manufacturers, system suppliers and students.

SSEG events include regular visits to solar projects, meetings, talks and participation in energy related conferences and competitions. Whilst the SSEG is a wholly autonomous body, it has excellent contacts with national organisations such as Solar Energy Society, the Solar Energy Society of Ireland, the British Wind Energy Association, the Energy Design Advisory Service, the Association of Scottish Schools of Architecture and many others.

Asthma is a serious chronic lung disease that appears to be on the rise in California, the United States and many other countries around the world. The prevalence of asthma in the U.S. has increased by more than 75% since 1980; children and certain racial groups, especially African Americans, have experienced relatively greater increases in asthma prevalence. An estimated 11.9% of Californians - 3.9 million children and adults - report that they have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lives, compared to the national average of 10.1%. Nearly 667,000 school-aged children in California have experienced asthma symptoms during the past 12 months. Asthma causes breathing problems due to a narrowing of the airways causing the lungs to get less air. Attacks are characterized by a tight feeling in the chest, coughing and wheezing.

Air pollution plays a well-documented role in asthma attacks, however, the role air pollution plays in initiating asthma is still under investigation and may involve a very complex set of interactions between indoor and outdoor environmental conditions and genetic susceptibility. The Research Division of the Air Resources Board has been a leader in developing and supporting research to understand the relationship between air pollution and asthma. Most notably, the ARB-funded Children's Health Study at the University of Southern California found that children who participated in several sports and lived in communities with high ozone levels were more likely to develop asthma than the same active children living in areas with less ozone pollution. In another ARB-funded study, researchers at the University of California, Irvine found a positive association between some volatile organic compounds and symptoms in asthmatic children from Huntington Park. Additional ARB studies are underway and many will focus on the role of particulate matter pollution on asthma. In the Central Valley the ARB F.A.C.E.S. project is examining the role of particulate matter pollution in the exacerbation of childhood asthma.

The Air Resources Board (ARB) has led a multi-agency research effort to collect emissions data from late-model heavy-duty transit buses in five different configurations. The objectives of the study were 1) to assess driving cycle effects, 2) to evaluate toxicity between new and "clean" heavy duty engine technologies in use in California, and 3) to investigate total PM and ultrafine particle emissions.

Chassis dynamometer testing was conducted at ARB's Heavy-duty Emissions Testing Laboratory (HDETL) in Los Angeles. The impetus behind this work was to compare the emissions from transit buses powered by similar engines and fueled by ARCO (a BP company) Low Sulfur Emission Control Diesel (ECD-1) and compressed natural gas (CNG). Follow-on work focused on the assessment of aftertreatment control for CNG applications. Five vehicle configurations were investigated: 1) a CNG bus equipped with a 2000 DDC Series 50G engine certified for operation without an oxidation catalyst, 2) the same CNG bus retrofitted with an OEM oxidation catalyst, 3) a diesel bus equipped with a 1998 DDC Series 50 engine and a catalyzed muffler, 4) the same diesel vehicle retrofitted with a Johnson Matthey Continuously Regenerating Technology (CRT) diesel particulate filter (DPF) in place of the muffler, and 5) a CNG bus equipped with a 2001 Cummins Westport C Gas Plus engine and OEM-equipped oxidation catalyst.

The duty cycles were: 1) idle operation, 2) a 55 mph steady-state (SS) cruise condition, 3) the Central Business District (CBD) cycle, 4) the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS), and 5) the New York City Bus Cycle (NYBC). Collection of PM over multiple cycles was performed to ensure sufficient sample mass for subsequent chemical analyses. Information on regulated (NOx, HC's, PM, and CO) and non-regulated (CO2, NO2, gas-phase toxic HC's, carbonyl compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, elements, and elemental and organic carbon) emissions was collected. Size-resolved PM mass and number emission measurements were conducted and extracts from diesel and CNG total PM samples were tested in the Ames mutagenicity bioassay analysis to determine mutagen emission factors.

The Fresno Asthmatic Children's Environment Study, which began in 2000, is a large epidemiological study of the effects of air pollution on children with asthma. About 250 asthmatic children who reside in the Fresno area of the Central Valley of California will be enrolled in the study. The overall goal of this study is to determine the effects of different components of particulate matter (PM), in combination with other ambient air pollutants, on the natural history of asthma in young children. The study is sponsored by the California Air Resources Board and conducted by investigators at the University of California, Berkeley. An overview of the Fresno Asthmatic Children's Environment Study is available here and the Fresno Asthmatic Children's Environment Study Fact Sheet is here.

Importance of the Fresno Asthmatic Children's Environment Study

• The information provided by the study will help the Air Resources Board (ARB) protect public health. The ARB sets California's ambient air quality standards to protect people who are most sensitive to air pollution.
• Children may be more strongly affected by air pollution because their lungs and bodies are still developing. Understanding the effects of air pollution on children with asthma is essential for setting health standards protective of sensitive populations.