The Environmental Handbook, Edition 2
I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the book and less than 30 pages in I had already come across useful information, research results and even a feature on biodiversity. Further on I even found that biodiversity and conservation were on the list of the results from the surveys, although their ratings were low.I was delighted that the handbook didn’t only contain graphs and endless tables with foreign symbols, acronyms and numbers, but articles, case studies and features. There were some organisations that appeared noticeable often, but in fairness the most notable ones were the same organisations that co-operated to create the handbook. So other than a little project pushing and brand punting, overall the handbook is a highly useful source of information in an easy to read conversational tone.Leonia Joubert, a science writer known for Scorched; South Africa’s changing Climate Change, wrote a feature article on nature capital which caught my eye. She used an example of the cost of a fizzy drink to simply describe how the cost of including nature capital costs could influence pricing. Ecosystems and nature resources have for far too long been banked as freebies. By using projects and company case studies Joubert demonstrates how increasing necessary action are needed to achieve Millennium Development Goals.In chapter three; Corporate Environmental Practice, the Environmental Handbook conducts surveys with 100 major companies and reports their findings. It was a bit disappointing to see that out of the average score up to 5, biodiversity and resource only received 2.9, whereas energy got 4.7, waste 4, and water 4. Products and services stood at 3.4 and land stewardship at 2.9. What was even more of concerning was that even taking into consideration that metals, paper and wood all have a direct impact on biodiversity, 17% of the companies said that biodiversity was not ‘applicable’ to their businesses.The survey highlighted that the biggest critical challenge of biodiversity issues was simply a lack of awareness (18%) and although 98% said they all complied with biodiversity legislation, 11% said the critical challenge was lack of awareness in legislation. Another 11% said it was not a priority for management and a further 11% said it was a daunting task. The remaining 7% said the challenge was it was too costly to the company.The handbook covered a lot of environmental issues and contained a good foundation and scope of how companies are tackling sustainability. They covered legislations ranging from biodiversity strategy through to the new waste management paper as well as case studies on how companies are counteracting and handling environmental issues both internally and externally. The handbook is a great resource for any business or individual looking for information and useful tactics in the environmental field.I look forward to see how biodiversity ranks in next year’s edition.
Understanding Your Credit Score And How A Credit Pro Can Help
1. GET RID OF YOUR COLLECTION ACCOUNTS.Did you know that paying a collection account can actually reduce your score? Here’s why: credit
scoring software reviews credit reports for each account’s date of last activity to determine the
impact it will have on the overall credit score. When payment is made on a collection account,
collection agencies update credit bureaus to reflect the account status as “Paid Collection”. When
this happens; the date of last activity becomes more recent. Since the guideline for credit scoring
software is the date of last activity, recent payment on a collection account damages the credit
score more severely. This method of credit scoring may seem unfair, but it is something that must
be worked around when trying to maximize your score. How is it possible to pay a collection and
maximize your score? We can help you negotiate with the collection company’s and maximize your score, by removing all references to a collection account completely which will increase your score.2. GET RID OF YOUR PAST DUE ACCOUNTS.Within the delinquent accounts on your credit report, there is a column called “Past Due”. Credit
score software penalizes you for keeping accounts past due, so Past Dues destroy a credit score.
If you see an amount in this column, pay the creditor the past due amount reported.3. GET RID OF YOUR CHARGEOFFS AND LIENS.Charge-offs and liens do not affect your credit score when older than 24 months. Therefore,
paying an older charge-off or a lien will neither help nor damage your credit score. Charge-offs
and liens within the past 24 months severely damage your credit score. If you have both charged-off accounts and collection accounts, but limited funds available, pay the past due balances first.4. GET RID OF YOUR LATE PAYMENTS.When you make the decision to retain FiCODOC we fight with the creditors and bureaus to delete the late payments on your credit report. Be aware that one 30 day late on a car payment can drop your score by 70 points or more.5. CHECK YOUR CREDIT LIMIT(S) AND EVENLY DISTRIBUTE THE BALANCES YOU ARE
CARRYING.Make sure creditors report your credit limits to bureaus. When no limit is reported, credit scoring
software scores the account as though your current balance is “maxed-out”.For example, if you know that you have a $10,000 limit on your credit card, make sure that the limit appears on the credit report. Otherwise, your score will be damaged as severely as if you were carrying a balance of the entire available credit. Credit scoring software likes to see you carry credit card balances as close to zero as possible. If it is difficult for you to pay down your balances, read the following guidelines to maximize your score as much as possible under the circumstances:o There are different degrees that scoring software can impact your score when carrying credit
card balances.o Balances over 70% of your total credit limit on any card damages your score the most. The next
level is 50% of your balance, then 30% of your balance.o In order to maximize your score without having to pay down your balances, evenly distribute
your credit card balances among all of your credit cards, rather than carry a large balance on one
credit card. For example, if you are carrying a $9000 balance on a credit card with a $10,000 limit, and you have two other credit cards with a $3000 and $5000 limit, transfer your balances so that you have a $1500 balance on the $3000 limit card, a $2500 balance on the $5000 limit card and a $5000 balance on the $10,000 limit card. Evenly distributing your balances will maximize your score.6. DO NOT CLOSE YOUR CREDIT CARDS.Closing a credit card can hurt your credit score, since doing so effects your debt to available
credit ratio. For example, if you owe a total credit card debt of $10,000 and your total credit
available is $20,000, you are using 50% of your total credit. If you close a credit card with a
$5,000 credit limit, you will reduce your credit available to $15,000 and change your ratio to using
66% of your credit. There are caveats to this rule: if the account was opened within the past two
years or if you have over six credit cards. The magic number of credit card accounts to have in
order to maximize your score is between 3 and 5 (although having more will not significantly
damage your score). For example, if a card was opened within the past two years and you have
over six credit cards, you may close that account. If you have more than six department store
cards, close the newest accounts. Otherwise, do not close any at all.7. KEEP YOUR OLD CREDIT CARDS ACTIVE.15% of your credit score is determined by the age of the credit file. Fair Isaac’s credit scoring
software assumes people who have had credit for a longer time are at less risk of defaulting on
payments. Therefore, even if your old credit cards have horrible interest rates, closing those
cards will decrease the average length of time you’ve had credit. Use the old card at least once
every six months to avoid the account rating to change to “Inactive”. Keeping the card active is as
simple as pumping gas or purchasing groceries every few months, then paying the balance down.
An inactive account is ignored by Fair Isaac’s credit scoring software, so you won’t get the benefit
of the positive payment history and low balance that card may have. The one thing all credit
reports with scores over 800 have in common is a credit card that is twenty years old or older.
Hold onto those old cards trust me! Preparing credit is a slow and time consuming process.
Full knowledge of your credit profile and how it represents you to creditors and credit bureaus is
pivotal to full credit restoration success. Credit bureaus always advise individuals that they have a
right to dispute their own credit files, but when the rights of the Credit Bureaus slow you down~
you know where to ask for help.In conclusion, you can repair your credit if you hire a pro and listen to his or her professional advice.
Sources of Crime in the United States
For somebody with little drive, no education, and bad influences, crime is the only option available to them. Unfortunately, the society we live in more than promotes crime. In reality, the best way to deal with crime is to fight poverty at its sources, but it seems the government and police are just more interested in cracking down on criminals instead of doing what really needs to be done. If you take away the need to commit crime, then it will go down. Most people steal because it is their only option, although there are just as many who do it because it is easier than going to school. However, by educating children at a young age about the right paths in life, and enabling their parents to reinforce that education, crime can greatly be alleviated.Of course, if the parents are poor, then they might steal themselves, and children will see that. More should be invested in taking people out of poverty, because by doing that, you reduce crime and other government expenses. These expenses include law enforcement costs, repairs of city property, and healthcare costs, as many thieves injure the people they steal from. While the investment does have economic benefits, the most important savings come in the form of human costs. Getting robbed is one of the worst experiences in the world, not even including what you lose. We pay taxes to live in a safe society, and it is up to the government to make sure we are safe.It is not all the government’s task, though. Every single one of us needs to take steps to reduce crime. This means lobbying against poverty and taking other kinds of action. You should also learn self-defense in the case that you personally are targeted; if you take down a criminal, they may think twice about trying something again.
Filtration, Part 2 – The Difference Between Mechanical, Biological and Chemical Filtration
Most aquarium keepers rely on a combination of three different filtration methods to keep the water quality up in their aquarium: mechanical filtration, biological filtration and chemical filtration. Mechanical filtration will remove larger debris from the water, biological filtration is performed by bacteria that convert dangerous waste products into less harmful compounds, and chemical filtration is typically performed by activated carbon that will bind toxic compounds, traces of medication etc.Several types of filtration can take place in the same piece of equipment. When you look at the basic corner filter filled with sponge used by many novice aquarium keepers, you might consider it to be just a way of performing mechanical filtration. The truth is however that the sponge is an ideal home for beneficial bacteria that can perform biological filtration. The corner filter is typically combined with a pump that causes a water flow and constantly provides the bacteria with biological waste products that are dissolved in the water. If you place a piece of activated carbon in your corner filter, it will perform chemical filtration of the water that is pumped through. This way, you can have three different types of filtration going on in the same piece of equipment.Mechanical filtrationMechanical filtration will remove larger debris form the water. You can get internal mechanical filters as well as external ones. A mechanical filter is typically combined with a pump that forces water through some form of filter media, e.g. sponge, foam or floss. Before you purchase a mechanical filter you should always find out how much water it will circulate and how fine the filter media is. A general rule of thumb states that a mechanical filter should pass roughly twice the amount of water in the tank every hour, but this is not true for all types of aquariums.The fineness of the filter media in a mechanical is very important. A very fine filter medium will catch even small debris from the water, but is on the other hand prone to clogging and must be cleaned very often. A coarse filter media is less prone to clogging, but will on the other hand allow a lot of debris to pass through. Many aquarium keepers use a combination of several filter media, where a coarse filter traps large particles before the water is forced through a finer medium.Biological filtration During biological filtration, harmful nitrogenous compounds produced by the animals in the aquarium will be converted into less harmful nitrogenous compounds by two different types of bacteria. The metabolism of your fish will produce ammonia that is excreted through the gills and present in the fish poop. High levels of ammonia are unhealthy for fish, and really high levels can even be lethal. There is however a certain type of bacteria that feed on ammonia. This type of bacteria will ingest ammonia and excrete nitrite. Unfortunately for your fish, nitrite is even more poisonous than ammonia. For successful biological filtration, a second type of bacteria is therefore necessary. This type of bacteria ingests nitrite and excrete nitrate. Nitrate is less poisonous than ammonia and nitrite, but you must steel keep an eye on the levels of nitrate in the aquarium and remove the nitrate by performing frequent water changes.You can support the colonies of beneficial bacteria by providing them with suitable materials to colonize, such as sponge and floss filter media, gravel, sand, plant leaves etc. When you start up a new aquarium, you should let it go through a process known a cycling. During this process, large colonies of both types of bacteria will establish themselves in the aquarium. You can jump start the cycling process in a new aquarium by introducing bacteria from an already cycled aquarium, e.g. by taking some gravel or filter media from it. You can also purchase a solution filled with the right type of bacteria from an aquarium shop. If you use materials form an established aquarium, you always risk introducing undesirable organisms together with the beneficial bacteria.Chemical filtrationThe most commonly used material for chemical filtration is activated carbon. Activated carbon will bind a wide range of different compounds to it self and thereby remove them from circulation. It is common for aquarium keepers to use chemical filtration for shorter periods only. When you have completed the treatment of a disease or parasite in the aquarium, you can for instance use chemical filtration to remove any traces of left over medication from the water. The use of activated carbon is quite controversial, and many keepers of planted aquariums refrain from using activated carbon for any longer periods of time since they suspect that it might lead to a depletion of nutrients.