“How Our Great Oceans Meet”

I attended last week’s RGS lecture in which Dr. David Hydes spoke on the issue titled “How Our Great Oceans Meet”. Dr. David Hydes is a marine chemist who has over 30 years experience in environmental chemistry and oceanography. He is one of the first scientists to realize climate change. Currently, he works with shipping companies carrying out various scientific researches.

Dr. Hydes compared the ocean to a living body. At the natural biological level, respiration carried out by different organisms creates carbon dioxide. This gas is then recycled by plant organisms like phytoplankton through the process of photosynthesis. The more biologically active the ocean is, the more carbon dioxide could be removed and that is how the ocean system circulates itself. However, problem arises as more and more carbon dioxide is emitted into the ocean due to pollution and urbanization. The excess of the carbon dioxide cannot be reduced easily. In fact, it takes the gas as long as over 1000 years to move through the system. In addition, the carbon dioxide release contributes to the acidification of the ocean. This affects the entire marine system and alters the nature of the ocean.

On the other hand, Dr. Hydes compared the Ocean Conveyor Belt to the arteries and veins of a body. The Conveyor is the global flow of sea current. Diagram below illustrates the flow of warm water and cold water in our ocean. As the icebergs in the Arctic are melting faster and faster due to global warming, it changes the temperature of the ocean. Interestingly enough, while most parts of the world are experiencing a raise of temperature under the effects of global “warming”, the Northwest European countries and the Caribbean will experience colder weather due to the melting icebergs. The rapid melting of icebergs in the Polar Regions presently are signs of the occurrence.

After listening to Dr. Hydes, it consolidated some of my thoughts about the effects of global warming. The combination of acidification of the ocean and melting of icebergs are definitely bringing destructive impacts to our lives and the earth as a whole. Further researches on David Suzuki Foundation’s Abrupt Climate Change report have shown that this climate change “could be disastrous for eastern North America and western Europe. Average temperatures could plunge by 5 degrees C - for comparison, this is about the same difference as between the global average temperature today and during the last Ice Age…The resulting colder, snowier winters would require new infrastructure, damage crops and shorten the growing season. The costs associated with such a change would be enormous.” The report suggests that “reducing the use of fossil fuels is the only strategy available to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate surprises”.

Yet, some scientists like James Lovelock believe that it is already too late for us human beings to alter the inevitable catastrophe. He thinks that it might have helped the situation if certain sustainable work was carried out 40 years ago. During the lecture, Dr. Hydes did not point out specific practical methods to protect the ocean and the earth as a whole. As hopeless as it might sound, I somehow think that global warming is really on its way to alter our world’s climate drastically! Is Lovelock actually correct that we could do nothing much to amend such devastation?

Melamine Aftermath

Since the tainted milk scandal broke out in the mid September, the Chinese government has been trying to resolve the problem. Up till now, 27 people are arrested for tampering with milk; while the top food quality inspection official Li Changjiang was forced to resign. Yet, there are still more and more dairy products, including cookies and chocolates, found containing the industrial chemical melamine.

People worldwide have definitely lost confidence in purchasing Chinese dairy products. According to a Beijing-based media research, less than half of respondents (out of 900) who formerly purchased major Chinese dairies brands said they would consider buying them again. As more and more food products are found contaminated, over 30 countries restrict Chinese dairy products or even all Chinese food imports. China’s two largest dairy producers, Mengniu and Yili, combined losses were expected to top 526 million over the next four months.

Hopefully, though painful and saddening, this will be a lesson for the Chinese food manufacturers and businessmen to learn. Gaining profit unscrupulously could only make things worse. At the same time, the Chinese government should really re-examine its food safety regulations; and more importantly, the whole food safety administration. There should be no more babies being harmed by tainted milk!

One positive aspect on this issue would be the Chinese milk producer once again shifting back towards sourcing milk from larger U.S. style farms. This way, the dairy products would go through fewer hands before being manufactured to the market. Food safety control could also be done with fewer complications as modern milking technology would allow for better quality control. On top of that, as the Chinese government is now more watchful of the food safety officials, corruption between officials and manufacturers could no longer be tolerated!

Let’s hope that the red banner slogan of Yili will be what all the food manufacturers in China are certain about – “Provide 100 percent safety to consumers.”

Melamine VS Shenzhou VII

It is almost two weeks since the Chinese tainted baby formula scandal broke out. Up till now, more than 13 000 children have been hospitalized while over 530 000 are sickened with kidney ailments. So far, four babies have died. The world is now very concerned about all milk products and byproducts imported from China; the scandal has triggered import bans and recalls worldwide.

It is not the Chinese government’s first time causing global attention to its food safety issues. Not long ago, in year 2004, 13 babies in eastern China died in the “Big headed babies” incident where milk powder was found containing little nutritional value; last year, it was found fish contaminated with banned drugs, toothpaste and cough syrup made with toxic chemicals made in China. All these incidents have caused the global world to lose confidence in Chinese imported products and have also damaged the Chinese food manufacturers’ image.

Reading all the negative news surrounding China, some may think that the Chinese must be very careless and thoughtless about their manufactured goods. Yet, amid of the tainted milk scandal, the China National Space Administration launched the spaceship Shenzhou VII few days ago, where the first Chinese man set foot in space. The success of the space project proves that the Chinese is able to work in a very precise manner and the Chinese technological advance is no doubt in quick progress. This leads me to wonder why the Chinese can’t apply the same attitude in launching a spaceship to manufacturing its food products. Isn’t controlling the milk content a lot simpler than launching a spaceship?

Yet, what lies between is the moral status of the people. The milk producers, knowing the serious consequences of adding the toxic chemical melamine to milk, only cared about their economic profit at the risk of millions babies’ health. This reflects that the people have very poor moral standards and little knowledge in work ethics.

In China, a rapidly developing country, I believe moral education is desperately needed in order for the country to develop healthily. If China could launch the Shenzhou VII successfully, producing a pure, natural and nutritional cup of milk should be MEI WEN TI (no problem)!