Tank Tek

October 8, 2007

Digital Camera’s are good for the Environment - Really?

Filed under: Blog — admin @ 9:19 am

Digital cameras are good for the environment

Few people realize it but digital cameras are like a blessing in disguise for the environment. This is because as more and more people move away from conventional cameras they are unwittingly reducing the use of chemicals that were earlier being used to process the film. These chemicals, especially the developer and fixer solutions, were serious environment hazards.

That is why the US laws required that the spent chemicals should be made inert before they were disposed off in landfills. But more often than not, most film processing centers released the chemicals into the drain because of high expenditure involved in treating them before discharge. This was especially true of the smaller and locally owned companies not only in the US but across the world. Most photographers themselves have been guilty of this misconduct.

They are not the only ones who broke the law with abandon. The cruise ships in the international waters were even bigger culprits. As a routine, these ships first developed pictures shot by passengers and then dumped the film-processing chemicals into the open ocean. No one cared, since no restrictive laws apply to international waters. This is the reason why our oceans and green reefs are dying at a rate faster than the rain forests.

They can now thank the makers of digital cameras for saving them from some of the chemicals that earlier poured on them from ships. The same can be said of ponds and rivers that used to be polluted with chemicals flowing out of film processing labs, and which incidentally still flow out of such labs in the third world.

There are some green campaigners who point fingers at inkjet printers — used to take prints — and rechargeable batteries used in digital cameras. However, they must realize that very few people take prints of the photographs. Most transfer the images into computers electronically. Also, used cartridges are either recycled or dumped in landfills. Very rarely they find their way in water bodies.

Similarly, the scale of impact is very low when it comes to rechargeable batteries. This is because most of the batteries are rechargeable and no consumer disposes them till they are full exhausted. This means that an alkaline battery may continue to be used for weeks. Also, being a solid waste it is more likely to end up in landfills than in water bodies.

So, if you are a nature lover dump your conventional camera and get a digital camera.

October 1, 2007

Environmental Education Degree

Filed under: Education — admin @ 11:09 am

It has often been said that the education offered in our country’s colleges and universities are a direct response to the job market and the trends therein. If this is an assumption to be taken at face value, then the future for professionals with an environmental science degree could not be much brighter than it is right now. For after the industrial and the informational age, we are slowly but steadily entering the environmental age, where the environment and its characteristics are of paramount importance. Never before have we ever paid attention to the environment. But continuous exploitation of the earths natural resources and constant generation of waste, heat and other damaging refuse has done nothing to mitigate the damage we have caused to the environment. We live in an age where knowing, understanding and adapting to the environment is no longer a choice – it is the only way ahead. And such an age demands qualified professionals, especially those with professional environmental science degrees.

Anyone aspiring to be an environmental professional would typically need to go in for a BS Environmental science degree before going for an MS or a PhD. Environment science degrees are offered in all major colleges and universities across the United States. A number of allied degrees find their place with most conventional environmental science degrees. Most corporation have for long been following safety and industrial security programs. Especially in industries like biotechnology, due to the nature of the products, there are several chances for disaster. As such, disaster management and hazardous material management are fields of study that are very much in demand by today’s high technology industry. While not sufficiently comprehensive to be offered as science degrees by themselves, such courses are more often than not clubbed with typical environmental science degrees as part of a package deal.

For the environmental science degree student, it is an advantage. While pursuing a main course of study, they manage to get qualifications in a number of allied fields, making them thorough professionals, capable of entering a wide range of industries when they graduate with an environmental science degree.

In fact, as a result of the long-standing lobbying activities, the United States is home to some of the world’s largest and best funded environment groups today. Most professionals working for such groups have some sort of an environmental science degree. Jobs with government bodies, lobbying positions with parties and corporate organizations, research positions with foundations and research organizations, the environment-friendly departments of leading oil majors and even faculty positions at colleges offering environmental science degrees are all lucrative positions that professionals with an environmental science degree can hope to secure.

But an environmental science degree does not deal with environmental topics alone. Due to the very nature of their work, professionals who acquire an environmental science degree need to be equipped with allied subjects like compliance, law, criminal justice, and public communication. As such, the courses of study that ultimately lead to a environmental science degree are varied and multifarious. After all, someone with an environmental science degree is likely to be tasked with protecting our environment. And when it comes to that, we need the very best right?!

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