Environment in Kenya

 Environment in Kenya 

Deforestation and soil erosion are two huge environmental problems in Kenya. With a growing population here there becomes an increased demands for food production and fire wood. Drought and desertification threatens the lands of Kenya. By the mid 1980’s Kenya had already lost 700% of its original mangrove areas. Water pollution from urban and industrial areas have cause problems with being able to get clean drinking water in large cities. Only about 42% of the residents that live in rural areas and 88% of city dwellers have pure drinking water. The pollutants from industry produce about 1.1 million tons of solid wastes.

The government has worked on preserving some land in Kenya by setting aside more than 3.5 million national parks and game preserves. Game Hunting and trade in ivory has been banned from Kenya. But poaching threatens leopard, cheetahs, lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, and other species. In Kenya it is illegals to kill an animal even if it attacks, which doesn’t happen when attacks take place. There are about 43 species of mammals and 24 bird species in Kenya who are endangered. Alongside with the animal endangerment there are about 130 plant species in Kenya that are threatened with extinction. 



http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Kenya-ENVIRONMENT.html

 Change from a Climate Activist

Ma, Jun is an environmentalist in China and he thinks that trump should visit China for multiple reasons. When speaking with Trumps he said that he wants to reduce energy regulations, eliminate the carbon reducing Climate Action plan. On Friday the US senate confirmed Scott Pruitt will now be the head of the environmental protection agency. Ma believes that China could offer some lessons to the new US president.

 Taking a deeper look into China’s pollution is what Trump should be doing, it is obvious that as a result of this pollution something should happen. Nearly 60% of China’s ground water is polluted and more than four thousand people die a year from toxic air, and soil pollution could cost more than a trillion dollars to fix. Ma went to the outskirts of Beijing to see what the sky looked like before all this pollution was there. There he called it a “rare blue-sky”, thinking back he sooner later remembered how it used to be without all the major pollution. There is a stated owned company in China that wanted to expand production to 10 million tons a year, but the acrid haze that was over the city was a major embarrassment for the Olympic host. Multiple parties have tried to help address this problem but the government isn’t listening to what they are saying which later formed into a protest. People there mostly recognize the fact of the horrible pollution, “It was hard to ignore the choking smog enveloping China’s northeast.  

While Trump wants to implement an “American First”, he is focusing on untapped shale oil, and natural gas reserves, and clean oil. China later on announced that 360 $ billions of those investments are going to be used to create jobs and curb greenhouse gas emission. It’s a great opportunity to expand out even more. China has a unique role to play in curbing rising temperature. China may later on take force to lead in combating climate change. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/19/asia/china-environmental-leader/index.html

No more mosquitoes

No more mosquitoes In China

There’s been problems with mosquitoes all around the world since forever ago. But in China they want to get rid of that fact and have no more mosquitoes in the world at all. In China they are, “building good mosquitoes that can help them fight the bad ones.” Xi from Michigan State University is researches this and has hundreds of trays, each filled with about 6000 squirming mosquito larvae. In the room that he is doing this experiment it reeks of ground beef liver powder cut with yeast, a super food for the tiny creatures. The mosquito factory is on a Science campus away from the city center. The Mosquitoes that are in the factory had been infected with bacteria that prevents them from transferring viruses to humans. Xi expects that this technique will lead to a massive reduction in the number of mosquitoes. 

 

The Zika virus has spread to more than 60 countries all around the world. An effect of the Zika virus is the Dengue fever, this fever effects about 390 million people a year, and it can be fatal. It not only takes time to develop vaccine candidates, but by showing that the vaccine is safe and protects against disease in humans will also require a few years. What the Chinese are trying to accomplish could be very effective for the rest of the world, and could lead to the reduction of this disease. With the reduction of the Zika virus many more people would be able to travel without the fear of catching this deadly disease. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/28/health/china-mosquito-factory-zika-dengue/index.html