GIBRALTAR
1500 people protested peacefully against the planned repairs to the stricken nuclear submarine, HMS Tireless, on Tuesday 15 August.
HMS Tireless had been docked at the deepwater port at the base of the Rock of Gibraltar since May.
The people protested last month about the length of time that the sea vessel had been docked there and demanded that the vessel be taken back to the UK.
The people of Gibraltar fear a radiation leakage will take place during the impending repairs to the submarine.
The Government of Gibraltar stated that it must be satisfied and that the
repairs will not cause any danger to the public and the environment before work is carried out.
On Friday, 11th August, the Ministry of Defense reassured that there had been no increase in background radiation levels in Gibraltar.
On the same day, Armed Forces Minister, John Spellar said that it was safer to carry out repairs in Gibraltar and it carried no risk to its people.
The question is: safer for whom?
Gibraltarians, environmental groups and self-determination groups of Gibraltar are looking at the legal action against the UK's Ministry of Defense.
Source: Lycos News
CHINA
Chinese volunteers traveled to the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau (source of the
Yangtze and Yellow Rivers) to plant drought-resistant shrubs and trees intended to slow down soil erosion.
Source: Lycos News
EGYPT
The Egyptian police seized a consignment of ivory, worth $200 000.
The 78 pieces of elephant tusks were seized from a warehouse in Aswan, Egypt
and had been smuggled in through Egypt's southern border from Central Africa.
Dealing in ivory has been banned in Egypt since 1990
Source: Insight, Egypt
The mounting litter problem on the Nile has brought urgent measures to be carried by the Egyptian Government
The rubbish is littering the West Bank and the Nile.
Crew from cruise-liners can often be seen throwing rubbish over board.
The ministries for water, environment and tourism are considering fining the cruise-liners.
'Explore Worldwide' are organizing subsidized rubbish-collecting holidays.
Source: The Times
AOYE (Arab Office for Youth and Environment) aim to overcome the difficulties of collection by a quick action community reponse, and they do so with a hotline service. They liase with the Ministry of Health, Irrigation and Public Works; the Ministry of the
Environment; the Cairo and Giza Cleaning Authorities; and the Governates ofCairo, Giza and Qalubiah.
AOYE field specialists act on calls from the public, visit the "problem areas" and then notify the relevant ministries.
The calls range from illegal garbage dumping, traffic congestion, noise
pollution and canal clean-ups.
Illegal garbage accounts for 70 percent of the calls received.
If you want to support AOYE in some way you can call them on Egypt, Cairo,
302 8593
Source: Egypt Today
Space Pollution
Debris of rocket casings, forgotten satellites, broken solar panels, bolts,food bags, compact discs, cameras, pens, and human waste disposal bags are moving at a minimum rate of 8 km per second in space.
After 4000 launches, there is more than 23 000 units of human garbage in orbit.
More than 100 units have collided and shattered into small pieces.
To address this problem an international space station, Project Orion, is
under construction.
The station will result as a seven-story building, with a shield against flying debris.
The shield alone will cost $5 billion
Objects larger than 10 cm in width are traced by the US and European space scientists.
However, anything smaller is hard to trace.
Project Orion is the brainchild of Jonathan Campbell of NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The aim is to either direct the debris further out into space or to bring it
down into the earth's atmosphere where the debris can combust.
Source: Independent
