The World’s Vanishing Glaciers – Photos By James Balog

Birthday Canyon, Greenland Ice Sheet, Greenland, June 2009. Courtesy of James Balog

It is very sad to see what is happening to our planet Earth.

The glacial ice is melting in the Alps, Greenland, the Himalayas and in other parts of the world.

James Balog, an environmental photographer spent more than six years taking photographs to document the vanishing glaciers.

But do we care?

We have to do our part to take good care of our planet because it is our responsibilities to do so.

Please click here for more images:

25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster – Part 2

Belarus, Ukraine and Russia mark the 25th anniversary of the nuclear reactor explosion in Chernobyl on April 26.

This is the world’s worst nuclear accident and classified as a level 7.

It happened on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine).

Large quantities of radioactive contamination was released into the atmosphere that spread over much of the Western Russia and Europe.

Now we are facing another level 7 nuclear disaster – the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster.

(Please >>>click here<<< to read my post on Fukushima Daiichi disaster.)

I think that nuclear power is efficient but very, very, very dangerous.

These photos show before and after view of Pripyat, a beautiful city that had to be abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

A combination of images, taken in 1982 and on April 7, 2011, shows before and after view of the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. REUTERS/Vladimir Repik and Gleb Garanich

A combination of images, taken in 1982 and on March 31, 2011, shows before and after view of the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. REUTERS/Vladimir Repik and Gleb Garanich

A combination of images, taken in 1982 and on March 31, 2011, shows before and after view of the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. REUTERS/Vladimir Repik and Gleb Garanich

A combination of images, taken in 1982 and on March 31, 2011, shows before and after view of the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. REUTERS/Vladimir Repik and Gleb Garanich

A combination of images, taken in 1982 and on March 31, 2011, shows before and after view of the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. REUTERS/Vladimir Repik and Gleb Garanich

A combination of images, taken in 1982 and on February 24, 2011, shows before and after view of the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. REUTERS/Vladimir Repik and Gleb Garanich

A combination of images, taken in 1982 and on March 31, 2011 (bottom), shows the before and after view of the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. REUTERS/Vladimir Repik and Gleb Garanich

Please >>> click here <<< for ’25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster – Part 1′.

25th Anniversary Of Chernobyl Nuclear Accident – Part 1

These are the photos of the ghost city of Prypiat.

The city was abandoned since 25 years ago because of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident on April 26, 1986.

The city used to be very nice and beautiful but now it looks so sad, ugly and scary.

I think that we should stop building new nuclear power plant because it can be very, very dangerous.

(Please click here for my post on ‘Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster’).

Nuclear power plant can cause dangerous nuclear radiation if a disaster happen and a big area has to be abandoned for a long, long time. 

A view of the abandoned city of Prypiat, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant March 31, 2011. Belarus, Ukraine and Russia will mark the 25th anniversary of the nuclear reactor explosion in Chernobyl, the place where the worlds worst civil nuclear accident took place, on April 26. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

A view of the abandoned city of Prypiat, with a sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the background March 31, 2011. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

An empty swimming pool is seen in the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant April 4, 2011. Engineers are still struggling to regain control of damaged reactors at the Fuskushima plant after last months earthquake and tsunami, in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986, with the government urging the operator of the plant to act faster to stop radiation spreading. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

A childs gas mask and a shoe are seen at a kindergarten in the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, April 4, 2011.

Newspapers from March 1986 with a picture of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin are seen in an empty building in the abandoned town of Pripyat, in the 30 km (19 miles) exclusion zone around the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant March 31, 2006. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

A view of the abandoned city of Prypiat near Chernobyl nuclear power plant April 15, 2011 REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

A photo album and a gas mask are seen inside a kindergarten in the ghost town of Pripyat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in this April 13, 2006 file photo. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/Files

Toys are seen scattered on the floor inside a kindergarten in the abandoned city of Prypiat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant April 4, 2011. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

The sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is seen near in the abandoned city of Prypiat April 4, 2011. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

‘100 Places to Go Before They Disappear’, A Book By Gaute Hogh

Gaute Hogh wrote a book  named, ‘100 Places to Go Before They Disappear’.

The book was about the effect of global warming that can make some places disappear.

Global warming makes the earth hotter and hotter and sea level rises up because of ice melting at the North Pole and South Pole.

In Zahara de la Sierra, Andalusia, Spain, they get less and less rain and the place becomes drier and slowly turning into a desert; like bad drought in Kenya were killing plants and animals.

I think that it is a very good book for all of us to read, so that we can do our parts to stop the global warming and heal the world.

It will very sad to see all the beautiful places disappear.

( Please click here for my post, ‘Ways To Heal Our Earth’ )

I wish I can have a copy of  ‘100 Places to Go Before They Disappear’ 🙂

Go Green!

( Please click here for my post, ‘Plea For Survival’ about the effect of global warming ).

The southern shoreline of Manhattan Island, known as the Battery, is the largest public place in downtown New York. Hundreds of thousands work nearby and over 36,000 residents live in its surrounding area. About every 100 years, the area experiences extreme flooding that reaches heights of up to 10 feet. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of winds and hurricanes and cause sea levels to rise. According to the worse-case scenario, extreme events may occur every four years by 2080, with floods raising water levels by 11-14 feet and paralyzing the whole Manhattan infrastructure. “The tidal area there with the Hudson River is a very beautiful place but it will go underwater,” Hogh warns. “There is more than 280,000 people working in this walking district.”

Esteemed as a winter wonderland, Austria and the Alpine region is Europe’s snow resort Mecca. It’s also gorgeous in summer with its evergreen pastures and cascading mountainsides, made famous by the classic Hollywood musical 'The Sound of Music.' “Everyone here in Europe is used to going there, for skiing,” Hogh explains. “They’ve been skiing there for the last 200 years and some of the country is less and less snow.They try to make snow with snow cannons. You’re not allowed to heli-ski as much anymore because of the pollution. It will go down by 80% of its normal size. Will my children be able to ski there? I don’t know.'

The Mississippi River Delta, with its rivers, marshes and barrier islands, provides a habitat for many species of birds, fish, shellfish and small mammals. At the rim of the delta, the Chandeleur Islands form a chain that acts as a buffer zone against hurricanes and storm surges for the densely populated regions of Louisiana and Mississippii. But ferocious storms, like 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, have greatly reduced the islands’ defenses. Storms and hurricanes are expected to grow even fiercer in the future with global warming, leaving the local environment and vital culture more exposed to destruction.

Stretching for 90 miles along the Californian coast midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Big Sur is arguably one of the most breathtaking landscapes in the U.S. For the last 20 years, most of California has been experiencing increased droughts with less rainfall in the spring and summer, leading to a severe escalation in the number of large wildfires. In 2008, a major fire destroyed 16 houses in Big Sur and more than 50 square miles of forest were swallowed by flames. Fires and subsequent flooding also threaten the region’s fragile access roads and infrastructure.

The first Olympic Games are believed to have been held in Olympia, Greece, in 776 B.C. The earliest evidence of building at the site is the Temple of Hera, honoring the wife of Zeus, which dates to around 600 B.C. In recent years, extremely warm and dry summers have increased the number of wildfires in Greece. Fires in 2007 severely burned the area surrounding Olympia. With temperatures projected to rise with diminishing rains, the frequency and ferocity of wildfires are expected to grow. “If you go to Olympia in Greece and you can’t see it, that will be part of our history which will disappear,” Hogh says.

Gujarat is India’s largest producer of cotton and salt and is also the birthplace of Mahatma Gahdhi. Monsoons will intensify with continued global warming, causing severe flooding and destruction in India. In 1930, Gandhi launched a campaign against the British salt tax, which had made it illegal for Indians to produce their own salt. He eventually won that fight. India is now the third biggest cotton producer in the world after the U.S. and China and the majority of its cotton comes from Gujarat.

Hogh describes Zahara de la Sierra as “a white city in this very green place.” Also known for its olive oil production, the region faces the risk of desert- ification as olive orchards face increasingly dry seasons. Due to climate change, the IPCC projects that rainfall in southern Spain will decrease by 40% by 2080. Local temperatures in the Iberian Peninsula could also spike, turning green pastures into deserts and choking agriculture.

Kauai, the fourth largest Hawaiian island, is famous for its tropical beauty and lush mountains. Global warming could disrupt its distinct “cloud forest” ecosystem, pushing life-giving moisture to higher elevations. Home to the hummingbird-like honeycreeper, a rare and colorful animal that sips nectar from flowers, this cool zone is vital to Kauai’s verdant environment. Deforestation and non-indigenous species like pigs and goats have also decimated the honeycreeper’s habitat in recent years and the bird is now in danger of going extinct.

Located between Australia and Hawaii, in one of the most remote areas of the Pacific Ocean, lies the nation of Tuvalu. Only 10-square miles – made up of tropical reef islands and narrow coral atolls encompassing blue lagoons -- Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world. Only 12,000 people inhabit the nine-island nation. At 16 feet above sea level, the country has one of the lowest maximum elevations in the world, making it extremely vulnerable to storms and changes in sea level. Tuvalu is also affected by the King Tide, a high tide that raises the sea level higher than normal. Coupled with the expected rise in global sea levels, the entire nation could ultimately become submerged. “I don’t care whether the place is big or small,” Hogh concludes. “It’s the same thing with people. No matter if you’re black or white or Chinese or whatever. It’s about treating each other with respect and it’s the same thing with these small islands.'

Trees And Mudslides

Mudslide happens when too much water turn the earth into mud and push the mud down a hillside.

Mudslide is a disaster.

Mudslide can destroy lots and lots of houses as in Bolivia.

A general view shows the destruction after a landslide in the Kupini and Valle de las Flores districts in La Paz February 28, 2011. REUTERS/David Mercado

On 6 December 2008, lots of people died because of landslides and mudslides in Bukit Antarabangsa, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Landslide and mudslide in Bukit Antarabangsa damaged houses, roads, cars and others.

Mudslide always happens when people cut down trees and plants on hills because:

1. The root of the trees can hold the soil on the hills; so when people cut down the trees, there will be nothing to hold the soil during heavy rain.

2. The roots of the trees drink the water from the ground to help the trees grow, so there will not be too much water under the ground.
3. Animals living around the trees can help drinking the water too, and the earthworms’ tunnel can help the water to travel deep into the ground.

If we do not cut down the trees to build houses on the hillside, the mudslide will not be too powerful.

Please stop cutting down trees!

We must stop destroying our earth.

Go Green!