Category Archives: Science and Environment

Health & Medicine, Science and Environment

Move Over, Low-Carb Diet, Here Comes The Low-Carbon Diet

Leave a comment
Photo: theguardian
Photo: theguardian

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (The Adobo Chronicles, Berlin Bureau) – Danish researchers at the University of Copenhagen looking at the effects of global warming have uncovered a startling phenomenon involving diet and nutrition.

The researchers found that high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in humans causes weight gain, and sometimes, obesity.

Researcher Lars-Georg Hersoug stumbled on a weird anomaly while studying cardiovascular health and obsesity. Over a 22-year period, both thin and fat people put on weight, and the increase was proportionally the same.

CO2 appears to make our blood more acidic, which influences our brain to want to eat more. Hersoug surmised that excess CO2 in the atmosphere might be affecting hormones in the brain known as orexin neurons. Orexins stimulate eating, wakefulness and energy expenditure.

Danish researchers at the University of Copenhagen conducted further testing. Under controlled conditions, men with the greater amount of CO2 in their blood ate 6 percent more food than men in climate rooms with less CO2.

The Danish findings prompted Weight Watchers and other diet experts to throw out the popular low-carb diet and replace it with low-carbon diet.

The low-carbon diet does not involve any special food intake or avoidance of any food items or ingredients.  Rather, it promotes the use of surgical face masks , 24 hours a day, to avoid exposure to excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, which ultimately will reduce food cravings.

Have scientists found the key to reducing both global warming and obesity?

International, Science and Environment

As Philippines’ Population Grows, So Does Its Land Mass

Leave a comment
Photo: Hundred Islands in Pangasinan, Northern Luzon.
Photo: Hundred Islands in Pangasinan, Northern Luzon

MANILA, Philippines  (The Adobo Chronicles) – Filipinos learn in school that their country is composed of 7,101 islands (at low tide). Now, geography books may have to be revised.

The Philippines’ population is fast increasing, reaching over 100 Million as of the latest population census. But not to worry, its land mass is also increasing!

The National Mapping and Resource Information Authority discovered 400 more islets in a series of mapping research.

Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje made this remark in his speech at the ongoing Philippine Environment Summit at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on Wednesday.  Paje told summit participants the country is now officially composed of 7,500 islands as he reported on the state of the Philippine environment.

The National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (Namria) confirmed that using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IfSAR), the agency was able to “discover” more than 400 previously “unknown” islands in various parts of the country.

An attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Namria is mandated to provide the public with mapmaking services, and to act as the central mapping agency, depository and distribution facility for natural resources data in the form of maps, charts, texts and statistics.

Now if only Filipinos stop congregating in overcrowded Metro Manila and other urban centers, and move to one of these oftentimes uninhabited islands, it would solve many of the country’s social and economic problems.

And they need to do it quickly before the big corporations start developing these islands into expensive resorts for tourists.

So while China illegally ‘creates’ artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea territories, the Philippines just does it very casually with the help of Mother Nature. And mapping services.

International, Science and Environment

Philippines A Popular Dumping Ground for International Waste

Leave a comment

imageMANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – The Philippines is fast gaining a new reputation as an international dumping ground for toxic and dilapidated waste.

First, containers from Canada arrived years ago at the Port of Manila, supposedly carrying several tons of recycled plastic.  Alas, the contents were nothing but Canadian garbage, including used adult diapers.

Now, a massive and dilapidated floating drydock used in the Pacific since World War II is moving to the Philippines after spending nearly half a century at Naval Base Guam.

Several local tugboats and the 467-ton Philippine tug Rhocas guided Richland out of Apra Harbor Wednesday in preparation for an open-ocean tow to the Philippines that will take several days. The Rhocas began that tow on Thursday.

It’s unclear what will happen to the drydock, which has a deep basin that can be flooded so ships can be floated in and repaired after the water is drained, once it arrives in the Philippines.

For many, however, it is clear that the Philippines is seen by foreign governments as a convenient dumping ground for unwanted waste, and Philippine officials don’t seem to care.