Alicia Grisel Ramirez Ramirez

Natural Disasters Notes

Typhoon
 Koppu made landfall early Sunday morning local time as a strong category 3
with winds nearing 124 miles (200 kilometers) per hour. The storm, known as
Lando in the Philippines, toppled trees and buildings, killing a 14-year-old
boy and a 62-year-old woman. Torrential rains have flooded entire towns and
displaced tens of thousands of people.
 Evaporation of warm water fuels these disastrous storms, which are
alternately known as hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones. Water temperatures
around the Philippines regularly top 82°F (28°C), which is the temperature
that typhoons need to get going.
 Another component that can put a stop to these fierce storms is wind shear.
Those upper atmospheric winds bring drier air into the center of a hurricane,
which is "like throwing cold water on a fire," said Emanuel. "It just throttles
the whole engine back."

Drought
 A young male giraffe stood under the shade of a tall tree, seeking relief from
the unusually brutal March sun. As he heard the tires roll over dry thorn
bushes, he craned his long neck and perked up his ears.
 During the past 35 years, the number of reticulated giraffes, which today live
almost exclusively in northern Kenya, has dropped from 36,000 to fewer than
16,000—a 56 percent decline. The species was classified as endangered by
the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2018.
 The giraffes have died in huge numbers, largely because of decades of tribal
conflicts over land and resources, violence by the Somalia-based terrorist
group al-Shabaab, and, perhaps most urgent, from climate change, which has
accelerated habitat loss and increased poaching in the region.
 Climate change is hitting the region’s wild animals on several fronts. It’s
exacerbating human-wildlife conflict and habitat destruction, as traditionally
nomadic pastoralists lose their livestock and settle in what was once wildlife
hábitat
 It’s ramping up poaching, as locals and refugees kill animals to eliminate
competition for scarce resources, feed themselves and their families, or sell
their meat for a small income
Alicia Grisel Ramirez Ramirez

Fukushima
 The water is off Fukushima are some of yhe most fertile fishing grounds in al
lof Japan and Captain Paddy has fished them for 40 years in all the time he
never imagined a catastrophe would not only take away his crewa livelihood
but would also turned the ocean into a threat
 Collect simples for the goveremnet to test for radioactive cesium
 Nobody knows just how much radioactive material has splide into the ocean
 In the peak or the Chernobyl incident 1.000 per cubic meter of water was
detected at the peak of Fukushima it was 1000,000 records it
 It was first thought currents would swiftly delete the radiation at this testing
lab in Fukushima results from the samples of fish are proving otherwise
 Some are registering cesium leves of up to 15,000 beccarose 30 times the
goverment limit
 The ocean floor are showing even higher concentrated leves suggesting
contamination is seeping into the seabed

Navajo
 Rich in uranium but ruined by the uss demand for it
 Drinking the contaminated waters that we have drank
 Many navajo inhabitants were healthy employees working and living around
uranium mines
 Beginnig in 1944 nearly 4 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from
navajo lands under the auspices of private companies and the us goverment
 Residents were left behind to battle deteriorating health conditions
 One of yhe womens was diasgnosticated with some formo f cancer and she
said that fell pain below her chin, and toke medication.
 U.S. officials say radioactive toxins in the air and drinking wáter have been
linked to thousands of cases of lung cancer, bone cancer and imparied kidney
function.

"China’s hi-tech toxics"

 Workers break them up, salvage what they can sell and leave the rest on the
streets for others to pick through. A crackdown by the Chinese authorities
earlier this year closed some of the workshops. I posed as a student to visit
the remaining ones. Some owners were very aggressive – others invited me in
for tea.
Alicia Grisel Ramirez Ramirez

 The mountains of e-waste are laced with a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

 According to the Basel Action Network, a pile of 500 computers contains
717kg of lead, 1.36kg of cadmium, 863 grams of chromium and 287 grams of
mercury – all poisonous metals. I saw computers with American and
European labels in the workshops I visited
 Investigators from the Basel Action Network (BAN) in the region have seen
villagers burning the coating off cables in open fires – certain plastics are
known to release highly toxic dioxins and furans when burnt
 Girls aged between 17 and 19 sort computer chips. There are about 50
workshops in each village, each employing between 12 and 20 people –
although the Chinese press has estimated the number of people employed in
the sector to be as high as 100,000.
 The BAN investigators said the typical wage was about US$1.50 a day
 The glass contains lead oxide, to protect users from potentially harmful X-
rays, and is classed as a hazardous waste under the international Basel
Convention
 Every day villagers inhale this dirty air; their bodies have become weak.
Many people have developed respiratory and skin problems. Some people
wash vegetables and dishes with the polluted water, and they get stomach
sickness,” a 60 year-old resident of the region told them.

WHO DO YOU AGREE WITH THE MOST?

I agree with Vandana Shiva, who is a physicist, environmentalist, activist, editor and
writer, since I consider what she mentions about walking to be important, it is a
much more practical and sustainable alternative to stop using a car and get into the
habit of walking. . I agree that if we do not act differently regarding sustainability it
could end badly to the point of ending us, since it has been reflected in climate
change. I also consider myself a very oractic person who buys and gives what I
know will be useful to the person to whom I will give it.
WHO DO YOU DISAGREE WITH THE MOST?
I do not agree very much with Ernst Weizsäcker's ideals because I cannot agree
much with the things he thinks and does, since he is a person who bases his ideals
very much on technology and it is something that I do not agree with much. Perhaps
what could differ is in its initial idea, which is "Double wealth, half resource use"
because I don't think it is the solution to sustainable problems.