The relationship between plastic and the environment is one that starts bad and ends worse.

To begin with, plastic is manufactured from petroleum, a non-renewable resource and major contributor to global warming. Billions of plastic bags crowd the world’s landfills and nearly 80 percent of plastic water bottles are never recycled. They also end up in the landfill by the billions according to the Smithsonian. The effects of plastic in the environment are far reaching – in some of the most remote parts of the earth’s oceans the water contains more plastic than plankton.

Many types of plastic are recyclable. If you’re not already recycling, check with your local waste management company to learn more about recycling in your area. As important as recycling is, the first action required to help ease the heavy load modern life takes on the environment is reducing our use of resources. There are many ways to reduce the amount of plastic we use on a daily basis; it’s as simple as forming a few new habits.

Ban the Bottle

Bottled water may be a necessity for people living in regions of the world where clean drinking water isn’t available, but thankfully that’s a small percentage of us. For those who want to have water with them all the time, there are other ways of having water readily available. If you’re headed to the gym or traveling with small children and need some water on hand, invest in a reusable metal water bottle thermos.

If you’re concerned about the quality of water that comes out of your tap, install a water filter in your sink or replace that old refrigerator with an energy efficient model that comes with a water filter. For example, a GE refrigerator water filter provides clean, cool water at a fraction of the cost of bottled water. Using a home filtration system saves you money while saving the environment.

Ban the Bag

Think of all the places plastic bags show up: at the grocery story, the mall and the dry cleaner – even the farmer’s market. Get in the habit of carrying cloth or canvas bags with you and you’ll always be prepared for a quick stop at the market or drug store. Say no to plastic bags when they really aren’t necessary, like to hold a container of milk or a single item you could easily carry. Do you really need that plastic bag over your dry cleaning? Ask the cleaner to skip it or bring your own cloth garment bag for regular use.

Grande or Venti?

Whether you prefer your favorite coffee shop drink hot or cold, soy or full fat, it’ll taste even better when sipped out of a reusable container. You can completely eliminate your need for one-use plastic cups by using reusable cups instead.

Quickfire Tips

Here’s a list of little ways to reduce your plastic use every day:

• Skip the plastic trash bag and dump your waste directly into the trashcan.
• Choose products with the least amount of packaging.
• Don’t take plastic utensils from the take-out joint if you don’t need them. Wash and reuse them if you do.
• Use foil and reusable containers for packing lunch instead of plastic bags.
• Ask the paperboy to skip the plastic bag on your daily paper.
• Buy beverages in glass or cans, not plastic bottles.
• Buy laundry detergent packaged in a cardboard box, not a plastic bottle. Same for milk.
• Don’t use straws.
• Use canning jars to store leftovers.
• Shred and save junk mail to use in place of peanuts or bubble wrap for packaging.
• Give pets cloth toys instead of plastic.
• Use cloth diapers instead of disposable.

Cultivating some new environmentally friendly habits can be hard to do, but as with any new habit, repetition is the key to success. Start with the changes that are easiest and you’ll be taking a big step to ensure the story of plastic and the environment has a happy ending.

Jessica is interested in organization and DIY projects. She enjoys reading and spending time outdoors.

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Although people have theorized that plants benefit from soothing music, there is some pretty interesting scientific evidence that shows that there may really be some substance to the concept. In addition to this scientific data, another controlled study also offers insight into how plants react to different types of music and why this might be a worthwhile pursuit. The use of music may even make it possible to eliminate the use of chemical weed killers and fertilizers in home gardens.

Joel Sternheimer
Andy Coghlan first disclosed the science regarding the impact of sound on plant growth in a 1994 article in New Scientist. His subject was French physicist and musician Joel Sternheimer, who made a discovery that plants grew better because of musical sequences he wrote. Sternheimer then applied for a patent to protect his concept.

Sternheimer’s melodies were carefully constructed, with each note corresponding to an amino acid in a protein, and the entire sequence corresponded to the entire protein. When plants heard the appropriate tunes, they produced more of the desired protein. But Sternheimer went a step further: he also composed tunes to inhibit protein synthesis. By doing this, he was able to inhibit the growth of undesirable plants like weeds.

Dorothy Retallack
Dorothy Retallack published a book entitled The Sound of Music and Plants in 1973. Her book discussed the experiments she performed with plants at Colorado Women’s College, in which she used three Biotronic Control Chambers. Retallack conducted several experiments; for the one described in her book, she used two chambers and placed identical plants and radios in each chamber. One chamber’s radio was set to a local rock music station while the other chamber’s radio played more soothing music.

By the end of two weeks, plants that heard soothing music were lush, green and equal in size. Their stems leaned 15 to 20 degrees towards the radio. Plants that heard rock music were tall and spindly, they drooped, their blooms had faded, and they leaned away from the radio. Two days later, almost all of the plants that were subjected to rock music were dead, but those that listened to soothing music were growing magnificently, and every plant was alive.

Benefits of Music to Plants
There are several ways by which plants can benefit from both positive and unsavory music:
• One way to use unpleasant music to your benefit is by playing it to kill weeds. This will only work if the weeds aren’t growing close to the area where your beloved plants are.
• By playing positive music for plants, you may be able to eliminate the need to use chemical fertilizers.
• Music can be used anywhere in the world, regardless of climate or terrain.
• Playing music for vegetable and edible crops can increase the size and flavor of these foods, as it did in some of Sternheimer’s experiments with tomatoes.
• Sternheimer also used note sequences to inhibit enzymes of the tomato mosaic virus to stop the virus from killing his plants.

How to Use Music to Benefit Plant Growth
• For specific plants, Niles Audio offers speaker pots, or speakers that look like a windowbox, that can fit well into your garden or patio décor.
• For larger areas, consider placing waterproof rock loudspeakers throughout the backyard. This is great for times when you’re entertaining or out working in the yard because you can also enjoy the music.
• Place rock speakers in places where you want to get rid of invasive plants, provided there aren’t desirable plants in the same area.
• Bring a portable all-weather radio outside and turn it to a station with soothing music.
• Open your windows and allow your plants to hear music from within the house.
Sternheimer and Retallack were able to prove that there is a correlation between soothing music and thriving vegetation. Playing music for plants in the garden while working outside may also reduce stress and help you be more productive in their outdoor chores, making this a win-win situation for you and your garden. So what are you waiting for? Crank it up!

Jessica is interested in gardening and growing her own vegetables and herbs. She enjoys spending time outside and tending to her garden.

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There is no doubt that society is finally waking up to our impact on the world and becoming more environmentally-aware. As individuals, we’re recycling, reducing waste, thinking about our carbon footprints and seeing to re-use and recycle. As organisations and community groups, we’re putting pressure on damaging business practices, lobbying for supportive government policy and coming together to create sustainable community initiatives.

For businesses, there are as many opportunities in the green sector as there are threats. ‘Older’ businesses are waking up to the pressure and benefits of adopting green strategies and CSR approaches in their operations. And newer businesses are launching straight into the burgeoning sector to ride the tide of change and be at the forefront of it.

Opportunities for Individuals

As with any new sector, there are great gains available for the people who get in early on. The number of specialist green jobs is increasing greatly, with government money still available for grants and large-scale construction and building projects that tie in with long-term sustainable policies. This means an increase in alternative-energy work, such as wind jobs, hydro-power engineers, nuclear physicists and the like. It opens up research positions for biofuel and food-production scientists and it also offers great opportunities for start-ups and entrepreneurs who can offer business consultancy, accreditations and other services in the green sector.

The Benefits of Working in the Green Sector This societal shift reflects a more fundamental change in the work force. People no longer wish to work every hour of the day simply to earn large sums of money and foist more consumerism on to society. Generation Y is a strong example of people seeking balance and meaning in their work. Rather than working to damage our world, we now see people wanting to put their energies and intelligence into finding ways to preserve it and grow sustainably.

More than Intrinsic Rewards

And yet, green jobs do pay well! In fact, initial research has found that jobs in the green sector actually pay between 10-20% more than those in other sectors and there are plenty more roles available than just specialist engineering, scientific and research positions too. For every engineering project or green-energy plant build, there needs to be a team of administrators, general managers, communications specialists, financial experts and trainers. There are roles in education and youth work, in sustainable small businesses, in small consultancies and even in events and community work. Green business initiatives have seen ‘grass roots’ businesses such as small food producers and local markets also find valuable opportunities in local activity.

Seek Out Opportunity

So the potential for employment is good, whether you’re an advanced scientist or a kitchen-table entrepreneur thinking of setting up a food-box delivery scheme with a local farm. Look into the industry, research its potential and get in now while it’s growing. Get accredited and trained up – you don’t need to go back to college or university as you can train online – and carve out your niche in this rewarding and exciting new growth sector.

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The Tibetans have done it finally! With Tibet emerging as the new sun saga for the world, it is interesting to note how the lives of many Tibetans have changed after they have started mass worshiping the enormous potential of the sun. The things have changed after the Tibetan Autonomous Region Government took a firm step towards a greener, cleaner and wealthier future.

If we include the Chinese development statics as a whole, it has been an exponential change after facing an accusation of being a high carbon contributor to the global ecological environment. The shift has been drastic and the attitude of China’s mass populace towards this change has been worth a standing ovation. Almost every large construction facility in the Chinese region is now equipped with solar converters. As for Tibet, the change is not new, in fact, it is amongst the leaders to implement the solar concept on the Chinese national front.

Tibet, has one of the largest exposures to the Sun’s direct rays, and is the most appropriate place which can adopt a complete shift from conventional energy to solar aid. Under normal days, Tibet receives about 3000 hours of sunlight annually, this statistic is enough to enable to produce huge amount of energy to thrive on for the Tibetan population.

The Autonomous Government of Tibet has continuously blown in huge investments into the realization of this concept, which is still only a concept in many parts of the world. As of now, 13 percent of the total energy usage in Tibet, which would boil down to a numerical 9 MW, is derived from solar energy. Future plans are equally bright, since huge investments are yet in the pipeline. 220 million Yuan have been put into a solar facility which is supposed to blaze out a good 10 MW. The list does not stop here! Two more megaprojects, of capacity 30 MW and 2000KW are already in process.

Bigger projects apart, facilities like passive solar buildings have already seen their actualization. These buildings have the capacity to heat up the inner temperatures, with a potential difference of 10 degree Celsius as compared to the outer environment in winter, all by using solar energy. The same buildings can reflect back sunlight, thus reducing the heat inside the walls during summers. The arrangement heavily reduces the need for air conditioners for temperature adjustments. Of course the role of air conditioners for air circulation cannot be excluded. It seems like the Government has truly bucked up its lions to give a shoot to its fame as a potent contributor to the global scenario, of course, covering all aspect. Tibet, also acclaimed as the Buddha haven, has seen a drastic alteration in the lifestyle of its residents, all because of the application of solar energy. While the place was highly dependent on conventional energy sources in the past, it has become equally independent on the derivations from the earth’s crust. They (Tibetans) have looked up to the sky and have got just what they wanted, a pure, blissful life in the lap of Mother Nature.

This move should serve as a torch holder for the rest of the world, where the reason as to why is it taking such long time for the idea of mass application of the solar concept is taking such a huge lot of time, still remains only a guess. As for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of how Tibet, being a holy, religious, pious place known throughout the world for lamas and monks, popularly called the land of Buddha has gone ahead of the rest of human civilization and proven itself to be the superior land, not only from the religious point of view but also as a well wisher of human race as a whole.

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About the author: Alia haley is a blogger who is very fond of gadgets. She enjoys hacking from

software modification point of view. She is always into buying new gadgets upcoming in the market and

currently planning to buy an android tablet. These days she is busy in writing on eco friendly gadgets and recycled materials.

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Various occasions every year would come and some family gatherings are held into our home. I have a very closely knitted family and we spend a great deal of time during weekends on our yards doing some cooking and bonding. It was the main reason why I was able to purchase the best light source for our yard. I was really worried about the rising cost of electricity and had second thoughts of permanently install yard lights. Another compelling reason that I had was to achieve effective home security without splurging too much into the electrical bills.

I came across outdoor solar lights when I can and thought of doing some research through the internet. I am really worried about how effective it is to be used on our own yard. My wife has a really creative mind and she does a lot of landscaping in our yard. What she did was dig deeper if there are available yard lights powered by the solar power technology so that we can still incorporate it into the theme and design of our home.

I installed the solar powered yard lights at home to go with the holidays and events the entire year. We use a lot of various solar lights at home for Halloween, Christmas and even 4th of July. Other family gatherings were a constant favorite to be held on our yard.
Other homeowners in the community village that I live in are awed by how beautiful our yard looks like during the night. Because of these a lot of people went through utilizing solar energy technology at their own homes.Think of the convenience and the bucks you save for using solar panels!

Another good reason for using solar yard lights is its convenience and easy installation. You practically no need to worry of wirings from the main source at home and the lawn light source. All you have to do is identify the spot where you want to illuminate and accentuate when night time falls.

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in order to overcome global warming, we should have a good plan to make a save house, save house means house that had low consumption on electricity and so many other, check the picture below for green house art sample,

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Cell phone concept designs are often crazy yet cool. When concept phones are also eco-friendly, then their awesomeness rocks the charts. These 15 futuristic green gadgets are creatively cool concept cell phones and accessories that we’d love to see developed and on the mainstream market soon.

Wearable Solar-Powered Leaf Phone Charges on the Go

(image credits: Yanko Design)

Designers Seungkyun Woo and Junyi Heo were inspired by photosynthesis. The Leaf cell phone is a wearable bracelet phone that accumulates power from solar cells on its front panel. As a backup, it also can be recharged with electricity. The Leaf offers high-tech fashion and function, however its main objective is to “remind people that they can contribute to energy efficiency.”Mechanical Mobile Spin Finger Phone

(image credits:ubergizmo)

Designer Mikhail Stawsky came up with the Mechanical Mobile, a concept cell phone that can be charged by spinning it around your finger. Touchscreen technology meets the Wild West? This design might be for the modern day cowboy. Like gunslingers of old, the quickest draw to twirl and power their phone wins?

Biodegradable Grass Cell Phone

(image credits: inhabitat)

Je-Hyun Kim designed a cell phone meant to last only for as long as the length of its functional life cycle. The grassy casing on the Natural Year Phone concept will slowly dissolve, leaving the keypad and screen to be recycled. This biodegradable phone is a great idea, but you might want to avoid using it on a rainy day.

Mobile Script Phone

(image credits: Yanko Design)

Designer Aleksandr Mukomelov created a sleek, thin cell phone concept that sports two touch screens. One is a traditional screen and the second is a flexible OLED screen that stiffens when you unroll it. The Mobile Script phone has most any feature you might want, like internet access, documents on the go, games, communication, and mobility. Can it get any better? Oh yes. You don’t ever need to recharge this phone. The case is coated with a photo sensitive nano material that converts sunlight into energy.

Scrap Wood Phones

(image credits: dvice)

Touch Wood concept phones are made from cypress wood scraps. The protective coating allows these biodegradable phones to be waterproof, insect-proof, and mold-proof. Touch Wood phones have a touch screen and camera.

Kinetic Flexible OLED Cell Phone

(image credits: core77)

If you are a rabid texter, then this concept phone might be for you. Kyocera’s Eos folding concept phone “feeds off of our physical interaction with it, translating kinetic energy into an electric charge via an array of nano-scale piezoelectric generators. The more we interact with Eos, the more energy it creates – without using batteries.” The flexible OLED screen can fold to wallet-size, able to open and close with shape memory.

OLED Roll Phone

(image credits: coroflot)

Designer Tao Ma has created the world’s shortest roll-up phone. The display screen rolls up so the entire phone is about the size of film canister. The tiny keypad roll might prove challenging to keep from making fat finger typos. It does run on batteries but the OLED screen makes it eco-friendly.

Tenna

(image credits: Yanko Design)

Designer Yuree S. Lim created a screen-less phone that uses voice recognition-based UI. The 1.5 inch Tenna cell phone concept breaks down into a detachable ear piece and a USB mini port. Plug Tenna in and it transforms any gadget with a screen into a cell phone.

Motorola Origami

(image credits: core77)

Origami, a Motorola concept cell phone, is made of thin segmented “technostuff.”  It “can be folded into different forms to serve different functions: phone, recording device, camera, and, presumably, a pointy paper crane.”

Coke Powered Phone

(image credits: treehugger)

Daizi Zheng designed a cell phone to run on Coke. Her design has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium batteries. She wrote, “The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment. Bio battery is an ecologically friendly energy generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst. By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugary drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out.”

Finger Phone

(image credits: Yanko Design)

Do you talk with your hands? Then this concept phone may be for you. Finger Touching is a wearable mobile device for enhanced chatting. Excluding the thumb, each finger joint makes up 12 buttons for input.

Camera-Projector-Printer Phone

(image credits: Barakan Design)

Designer Hideo Kanbara created a phone that is truly full-featured and meant for multitasking. Much more than a cell phone, it also functions as a game controller, photo printer, and projector.

Sticker Cell Phone

(image credits: Yanko Design)

Designer Liu Hsiang-Ling considered that people place their phone close to a window to pick up better signal reception. The Sticker Phone has a solar panel on the back. The shape is slightly arched so the phone will stick via suction onto a window to charge.

Viber Burst Kinetic Energy Charger

(image credits: ecofriend)

Josh Pell developed a concept charger known as Viber Burst. It harnesses the power of motion to charge a cell phone. Viber Burst can be carried in your pocket, your purse, or even attached to your shoe. Once fully charged the device can dump all that energy into your cell phone’s battery in just two seconds.

Cell Phone Battery Concept Charges with a Flick of a Finger

(image credit: unplggd)

Designers Song Teaho and Hyejin Lee may not call this a “green” concept, but finger powered batteries are eco-friendly. If your cell phone is running low on battery power, you pull out the battery and spin it around your index finger. It will be recharged long enough to let you have a conversation or to get to a electrical charger. It would be great to see this developed to last longer.

sources : webecoist.com

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Here is tips to make our heat pump work efficiently. With snow possible accumulating in your town, you see people shoveling out their cars and sidewalks, but here’s an efficiency tip for you – don’t neglect your heat pump.

Be sure to clear an area around your heat pump so that it can ‘breathe’.

Just like we told you back in the fall to clear the leaves from out and around your unit, don’t forget to shovel a path around it during wintry weather.

As temps rise during the day, snow begins to melt but will refreeze at night to ice. This ice can build up inside and prohibit the fan from running. Heat pumps will go through an automatic defrost cycle but be sure to inspect them for ice buildup.

There are also heat pump deflectors, but once again, don’t place too close to the heat pump as to restrict the air flow it needs.

sources : http://e-conserve.blogspot.com/2010/02/another-heat-pump-efficiency-tip.html

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Another day, another unnecessary loss of lives: 24 people killed and 10 still missing in floods and landslides on the small island of Tahuna off Indonesia’s Sulawesi. The date is January 12, 2007.

At an alarming rate, Indonesia is replacing Bangladesh and India as the most disaster-prone nation on earth. Whenever the word Indonesia appears on the list of headlines on Yahoo News, chances are that another enormous – and often unnecessary – tragedy has occurred on one of the islands of this sprawling archipelago.

Airplanes are disappearing or sliding off the runways, ferries are sinking or simply decomposing on the high seas, trains crash or get derailed on the average of one per week Illegal garbage dumps bury desperate communities of scavengers under their stinking contents. Landslides are taking carton-like houses into ravines; earthquakes and tidal waves are swallowing up coastal cities and villages. Forest fires from Sumatra are choking huge areas of Southeast Asia.

The scope of disasters is on a scale so vast that they cannot be discounted simply as the nation’s bad luck or as the wrath of gods or nature. Corruption, incompetence and gross indifference on the part of ruling elites and government officials are to blame. Poverty, in combination with a dearth of sound public projects as well as kleptomania, is taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of desperate Indonesian men, women and children.

Since the 1965 U.S.-sponsored military coup that deposed Sukarno and installed the military regime of staunchly anti-communist and corrupt pro-market dictator Suharto, Indonesia has escaped serious scrutiny by the international media and governments. After Suharto was forced to step down in 1998, Indonesia has been hailed by the international media as an emerging and increasingly tolerant democracy: yet the only political parties allowed to compete in elections are those that are staunchly pro-business.

All continue to cover up the facts of Indonesia’s recent history, notably the 1965 massacre and the nation’s recent social collapse and the slide toward Muslim domination of Indonesian politics and society. In the wake of major earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides, citizens are encouraged to pray, instead of analyzing facts, particularly the facts of government failure and corruption.

Some of the disasters that have struck Indonesia are man-made; many are preventable; in all cases the possibility exists of reducing the human toll. On close scrutiny it becomes obvious that people die due to almost non-existent efforts to prevent the loss of life and the lack of basic education. Perhaps it is above all the product of a savage unrestricted market economic system, which allows enrichment of the very few at the expense of the majority who live on less than 2 dollars a day in this resource rich country.

Indonesia is profit-driven to the extreme. When combined with extreme corruption, the result is a formula for disaster. Particularly when there appears to be little profit to be made from implementing preventive measures. Dams and anti-tsunami walls are almost everywhere considered public works and it is precisely this word – public – that has almost disappeared from the lexicon of Indonesia’s decision makers. Short-term profits for special interests receive much higher priority than long-term gains for the entire nation. Moral collapse of the nation is reflected in these values, which slight the interests of the working poor.

Ferries are sinking not “because of high winds and waves”; they are sinking because they are overcrowded and badly maintained, or more precisely because they are allowed to be overcrowded and badly maintained. Everything is for sale, even the safety of passengers. Companies care only about their profits, while government inspectors are mainly interested in bribes.

In the recent well-publicized sinking of the Senopati Nusantara ferry on December 30, 2006 as many as four to five hundred are feared drowned. But this was just one of hundreds of maritime disasters that occur in Indonesia each year. While there are no comprehensive statistics available (the Indonesian government publishes none), some maritime routes lose three or more vessels a year.

The Indonesian airline industry has one of the worst safety records in the world. Since 1997, at least 666 people have died in eight major airplane crashes in Indonesia. Some of the pilots are so badly trained that planes regularly skip off runways, miss runways altogether or land in the middle of them. Maintenance is another issue: flaps often don’t function properly, wheels cannot be taken in after take-off, seldom changed tires frequently blow up on touch down. It is a mystery how some airplanes – particularly the old Boeings 737s flown by almost all Indonesian airlines – make it through inspections.

Local civil aviation officials told the author that the navigation systems at several major Indonesian airports are in a disastrous state, particularly those at Makassar in Sulawesi and Medan in Sumatra.

Adam Air which recently lost a plane off Sulawesi with 102 people on board during a short inter-island hop – without a mayday and with the flight recorder still unrecovered – is presently locked in a lawsuit with two former pilots who claim that the airline was violating every imaginable international regulation in order to maximize profits and cut costs. The two are among 20 pilots who have resigned, refusing to fly badly maintained aircraft, fearing for their lives and the lives of their passengers.

“The industry growth is so fast and it’s not matched by the growth of human resources,” said Dudi Sudibyo, an aviation expert called on to advise President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono about Adam Air Flight KI-574. “There are not enough regulators, flight inspectors or planes,” he told the Associated Press. The fact that no Indonesia airline has ever been held legally responsible for a major accident is indicative of unbridled corruption in the Indonesian government, legal system and regulatory bodies.

On average, a deadly train accident occurs every six days in Indonesia, many caused by the lack of gates at its 8,000 level crossings. In comparison Malaysia had no fatal accident for 13 years up to 2005 (the last year for which statistics are available).

Despite the fact that Indonesia has relatively few cars per capita, its roads are the “most used” of any network in the world (second only to Hong Kong): 5.7 million vehicle-km per year of road network (2003 data, The Economist World in Figures, 2007 Edition). Despite epic congestion resulting in the generally slow pace of traffic, more than 80 people die per day on Indonesian roads, mostly due to the terrible state of the infrastructure and poor law-enforcement, according to The Financial Times.

Earthquakes alone do not kill people. Poor construction of houses and buildings are the culprits, together with the lack of preventive measures and preventive education. It is a well known fact that Indonesia, located on the so called ring of fire, is prone to natural disasters. But the poor can count on no large-scale public housing projects (like those in neighboring Malaysia), which could withstand earthquakes. Almost every family must build its own dwelling. Major earthquakes kill hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

At least 5,800 people died and 36,000 were injured on May 27, 2006 during the earthquake that struck central Java near the historic city of Yogyakarta, recording 6.3 on the Richter scale. Primitive infrastructure, inadequate medical facilities and corruption in the distribution of aid are responsible for the unacceptably large number of casualties after each major tremor.

Illegal logging and deforestation are the main reasons for numerous landslides, frequently the result of deforestation. There are numerous solutions to this problem, including law enforcement, inspections and attempts to provide alternative means of livelihood for those communities that are so desperate that they are literally forced to dig their own graves by destroying the environment, which in turn annihilates entire communities. But almost nothing is done, as illegal logging is a huge and lucrative business that greases hundreds of willing palms.

In December, 2006, dozens of people were killed in landslides and flash floods in northern Sumatra Island, forcing 400,000 people to flee their homes. In June 2006, floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains killed more than 200 people in south Sulawesi province.

Tidal waves, known as tsunamis, killed more than 126,000 people in Aceh province in December 2004. Not only was the response of the Indonesian government and military inexcusably slow and inadequate, but a large part of the massive foreign aid disappeared in corruption. Instead of helping victims, many members of the Indonesian military extorted bribes from relief agencies and destroyed precious supplies including drinking water and food when bribes were not paid.

Many victims were prevented from returning to their own land while children were forcefully separated from their parents (who lost birth certificates during the tragedy) and “adopted” by religious organizations; some became victims to human trafficking. More than two years after this devastating tragedy worsened by a scandalous land grab, hundreds of thousands are living in temporary housing.

Many victims of another tsunami, which struck the coast of southern Java on July 17, 2006, are still waiting for any substantial help. At official count, 600 people died, but the real number was almost certainly much higher. Indonesian officials received early warning from Japan but refused to act, later claiming that there was not much they could do, as the area was not equipped with sirens or loudspeakers.

Indonesia often suffers from man-made disasters that strain comprehension. Mud volcano – a torrent of hot mud from deep beneath the surface – began surging from a natural gas exploration site after a drilling accident. The mud inundated entire villages right outside the second largest city – Surabaya. This was the result of flawed safety procedures by a gas exploration company. The principal well owner is PT Lapindo Brantas, which is linked to the wealthy family of Indonesia’s Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie.

This “accident” displaced more than 10,000 people, covering more than 1,000 acres of land with hot mud, and destroying Surabaya’s only motorway as well as the major railway line. Garbage buried entire communities of poor scavengers at an illegal dumping site outside Bandung. There are many more cases similar in nature, but a complete list would require an entire book to begin to do justice to the subject.

The question is when will Indonesian people say that enough is enough and when will they demand accountability and justice, exact statistics and a concrete blueprint for solutions? In almost any other country, two recent disasters – the sinking of the Senopati Nusantara ferry and the “disappearance” of Adam Air’s Boeing 737 with 102 people on board – would be more than enough to force cabinet ministers to resign. In Indonesia, these tragedies are seen (or presented) as yet another misfortune with no one accepting responsibility and no one held accountable.

Indonesia’s press and mass media report every disaster in excruciating detail. But they fail to provide analysis to show that what is happening is extraordinary and intolerable, that probably no other major country is experiencing such devastating loss of human lives due to disasters that are either man-made, easily preventable, or subject to government action to minimize casualties. To link the enormous number of lost human lives in countless disasters with corruption and the system’s socio-economic priorities is unthinkable for the major media. The Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s leading daily newspaper, recently declined to publish this commentary.

Since December 2004, Indonesia has lost some 200,000 people in various disasters, excluding automobile accidents and military conflicts. That is more than Iraq lost in the same period of time in the course of a deadly war, and more than Sri Lanka or Peru lost during their long civil wars. Indeed, many Indonesians are experiencing lives as danger ous and hazardous as those in war-torn parts of the world. In the absence of comprehensive statistics and comparative analysis, however, few realize it.

Indonesia is poor, but it certainly has the capacity to protect some of its most vulnerable citizens. The main problem is a lack of political will and a system whose priorities lie elsewhere. There is plenty of concrete and bricks to build dams and walls against tsunamis, to reinforce the hills around those towns, which are in danger of being buried by the landslides. One has simply to look around Jakarta where dozens of new shopping malls are springing up and at the palaces being built for corrupt officials.

Failure to deal with the problems of natural and man-made disaster is rooted in the combination of the dominance of the calculus of profit and the system’s corruption. Local companies and officials have developed an uncanny ability to profit from everything, even from disasters and the suffering of fellow citizens. When the toll has to be calculated in hundreds of thousands of lost human lives, corruption becomes mass murder.

by : Andre Vltchek

novelist, journalist and filmmaker – is a co-founder of Mainstay Press and senior Fellow at the Oakland Institute. Producer and director of “Terlena – Breaking of a Nation“, a feature documentary film about the impact of Suharto’s dictatorship on present-day Indonesia.

Andre Vltchek presently resides and works in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific and can be emailed here. He wrote this report for Japan Focus.  This article is reprinted with (his) permission.

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