Critically Endangered Gorilla Gives Birth at Florida Zoo

05.10.2018

980x — Photo: Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens

Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Florida announced on Wednesday the arrival of a healthy baby western lowland gorill, a critically endangered species.

The 4.8-pound female was born last Friday and has not yet been given a name, according to the zoo’s press release. The zoo said that the baby’s mother, a 22-year-old named Kumbuka, initially displayed normal maternal behavior toward her baby. However, she was improperly cradling and carrying the little gorilla, similar to how she behaved when she lost two previous offspring at another zoo.

Because Kumbuka is hearing impaired, it is believed that her disability may prevent her from detecting when her youngsters are in distress, the zoo said.

“Faced with a life-threatening situation, the extremely difficult decision was made to remove Kumbuka’s baby for short-term assisted rearing by gorilla care staff,” the zoo said, adding that the decision was supported by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Gorilla Species Survival Plan (SSP).

The Gorilla SSP recommended that Kumbuka join the Jacksonville Zoo troop to learn maternal behavior from the other mother gorillas. Zoo keepers will also show Kumbuka how to properly hold and carry her youngster.

The new mom can see and smell her daughter, who is being given around-the-clock care by keepers next door, the zoo said. Keepers will care for the young gorilla for the next four months and allow mom to maintain a close connection, which is essential for a successful reintroduction.

“Welcoming the newest member of our zoo family is always exciting, and this little gorilla’s arrival is both special and challenging,” said Dan Maloney, JZG Deputy Director of Animal Care and Conservation in the press release. “I’m so proud of the animal care and health teams who are working so hard on behalf of Kumbuka and her baby.”

Wild western lowland gorillas can be found in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Their population is estimated in the order of a few hundred thousand. However, despite their abundance and wide geographic range, the gorillas are listed as “critically endangered” because their population has reduced more than 80 percent in roughly six decades due to ongoing poaching, disease, habitat loss and climate change, the IUCN says.

Source: Eco Watch

Hydrogen Plane Looks to Gain Serious Altitude

04.10.2018

screenshot-55-1 — Photo: HES Energy Systems

HES Energy System hopes the vehicle will offer zero emission flights.

A Singapore-based aviation firm is developing a hydrogen-powered plane it says will offer zero emission flights.

HES Energy Systems’ Element One uses ‘ultra-light’ hydrogen fuel cells and can be refuelled in less than 10 minutes using an automated ‘nacelle swap system’.

The company aims to develop its first flying prototype before 2025.

The plane is designed to carry just four passengers at distances of between 500 and 5,000 kilometres, depending on whether its hydrogen fuel is stored in gaseous or liquid form.

HES Energy Systems claims the plane is “several orders of magnitude” better than any battery-electric aircraft – its Founder, Taras Wankewycz said: “Element One’s design paves the way for renewable hydrogen as a long-range fuel for electric aviation.”

Source: Energy Live News

German Energy Secretary Backs Forest Clearance to Build Coal Mine

04.10.2018

forest-272595_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Controversial plans to chop down a German forest to build a vast coal mine should proceed because Germany needs the polluting fuel to keep the lights on, according to the chief of the country’s state secretary for energy.

Dozens of treehouses built and occupied by campaigners for years have been recently cleared by police to make way for plans by energy firm RWE, which owns Hambach forest near Cologne, to expand its nearby opencast coal mine.

Environmental groups have rallied against the project, which they argue would lock the country into higher carbon emissions, just as a government-appointed commission simultaneously debates a timeline for Germany to phase out coal.

“It should go ahead,” said Thomas Bareiß when asked by the Guardian if the Hambach clearance should proceed when the “coal exit commission” is still deliberating.

Bareiß said RWE had “a right to do this”, noted that the regional government had already agreed the clearance and said Germany needed the mine to maintain its energy supplies in the short term. “We still need lignite [brown coal] for our reliable coal supply.”

He conceded the highly polluting form of coal was disliked by most of the German public but said extracting lignite had a long tradition in some regions. “In general lignite is unpopular. People think it is dirty.”

But Bareiß said Germany, which sources nearly 40% of power from coal, would still need its coal plants in the early 2020s. That is partly because Germany is also due to shut its last nuclear power station in 2022. “At end of the decade there is more possibility to shut coal [plants],” he said.

The coal exit commission, whose members range from energy companies to Greenpeace, has been tasked with agreeing dates for phasing out Germany’s reliance on coal power stations, ahead of a UN climate summit in Poland this December.

Observers think that a compromise cut-off date at some time in the 2030s will be the most likely outcome.

Bareiß told an industry audience in London that getting off coal would be a “very expensive transition” but it was necessary and would “work in the long run”.

He cautioned that Germany could not move too fast on renewable energy projects, because of multibillion-euro upgrades required to take power from windfarms in the country’s north to the south. Those upgrades are behind target, causing bottlenecks and “large costs”, Bareiß said at the BNEF Future of Energy summit.

Fabian Huebner of the German Climate Alliance, which is organising a demonstration this Saturday against Hambach’s clearance, said: “Scientists agree: the brown coal under the Hambach Forest will not be needed for the security of electricity supply in Germany.”

Source: The Guardian

Ikea Says Goodbye to Plastic Straws with Display at London’s Design Museum

03.10.2018

straws-8001_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

‘Last Straw’ installation aims to raise awareness of plastic waste as the firm bans single-use straws from UK and Irish stores.

Ikea today symbolically unveiled its last single-use plastic straw in a display at London’s Design Museum, after it stopped serving or selling the items in any of its UK and Ireland stores, restaurants and bistros this week.

The so-called Last Straw installation will be on show to the public until Saturday and aims to inspire consumers to collectively take small steps that will have a positive environmental impact.

“Plastic straws have become such an important emblem for change when it comes to single-use plastic, but this campaign is not just about straws,” said Ikea spokeswoman Hege Sæbjørnsen. “We want to harness people’s energy behind ditching single-use plastic straws and disposables to draw attention to the thousands of everyday changes we can all make to have a big impact on the planet.”

The UK uses an estimated 8.5bn straws a year, according to the Marine Conservation Society, and plastic straws are one of the top 10 items found in beach clean-ups.

The Swedish furniture chain announced in June that it will phase out all single-use plastic products from its stores and restaurants globally by 2020 amid growing concern about the effects of plastic on the environment.

Plastic straws, plates, cups, freezer bags, bin bags, and plastic-coated paper plates and cups are all being phased out and where possible replaced by alternatives.

Plastic waste has become a charged issue, with TV programmes such as Blue Planet II and, more recently, Drowning in Plastic, exposing its impact on the oceans and regular warnings made over the dangers of a global plastic binge.

Ikea has 363 stores in 29 countries worldwide, including 21 in the UK and Ireland. Its three-year Lagom project aims to give customers and co-workers the chance to test products that help save energy and water, reduce waste and promote a healthy lifestyle. The company says the programme is based on a Swedish philosophy on everyday life that means “just the right amount”.

Source: The Guardian

Plastic Bottles Can Pay for Parking in Leeds

03.10.2018

multi-storey-car-park-2705368_960_720 — Photo: Pixabay

Each 500ml bottle equates to a 20p discount on the cost of parking.

A new initiative in Leeds will allow drivers to pay for their parking using plastic bottles.

Car park operator CitiPark has launched a programme at the Merrion Centre, which will run throughout October.

Drivers can bring plastic bottles that are 500ml or larger to quality for the free parking – but CitiPark will take any sized bottles to recycle.

Each 500ml bottle equates to a 20p discount on the cost of parking.

The collected bottles will be recycled into usable items such as chairs, shirts and toys.

The initiative is being accompanied by a week of recycling and sustainability programmes, which aims to bring together retailers and other organisations at the shopping centre during the week of 22^ndOctober.

Charlotte-Daisy Ziff, Head of Corporate Social Responsibilities at CitiPark and parent company Town Centre Securities said: “Here at CitiPark, we believe that we all have a part to play in ensuring the preservation and betterment of our environment for future generations.

“So this promotion not only offers our customers the chance of free/discounted parking but they can also get rid of their waste plastic bottles and contribute to the protection of the environment at the same time: it’s a win-win all around! We hope that as many people as possible will get on board.”

The free parking is not eligible for season ticket holders, partnerships, permit holders and members of staff.

Source: Energy Live News

Milena Zindovic: Woman in Architecture

03.10.2018

Photograph: (Milena Zindovic) Rade Kovač

On the academic and business trajectory of the Serbian architect Milena Zindovic, in addition to our capital, where she graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in 2007, there are also New York, Ljubljana, and Sabac.

At the Cornell University in New York, where she went for a master’s degree, her majors were architecture and media. Cornell belongs to the “Ivy League” universities which include the eight most prestigious private universities in North America. Side by side with Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton, it is one of the most popular and most selective US universities, and the League got its name from the ivy plant which covers the oldest buildings of these higher education institutions. Coincidentally, Milena has something in common with it – both her and the ivy make various structures and projects green.

Besides the very advanced skills, from America, she also brought to Belgrade the taste and the appearance of diners, cheap fast food restaurants, which helped her transmit the real spirit of American culture to one of Belgrade’s catering facilities.

Stozice Arena in Ljubljana represents one of the projects she took part in, which gave us the reason to feel a specific dose of patriotism while walking the streets of the capital of Slovenia.

In 2013, she launched the regional portal for women’s creativity in architecture “Women in Architecture”, and two years later she found herself in Sabac where she, as the Director of PUC Plan Sabac, promoted a sustainable approach to urban development and by 2017, with her team, provided the citizens of Sabac with more multifunctional public spaces.

EP: You were the Director of the Public Urbanization Company Plan Sabac. In the context of humanity’s concern for the survival of our planet, how has this city contributed to the fight against climate change with its urban plans and projects?

Milena Zindovic: I spent two years in a leadership position in the PUC Plan Sabac. I resigned in November 2017. Sabac, as well as a significant part of our country, experienced the consequences of climate change during the floods of 2014. Apart from these extreme events, the result of overheating are also increasingly warmer and longer summers that are harder and harder to bear, especially in urban areas. As urban planners, we have the task to make the space we are planning more pleasant for everyone, and achieving excellent microclimate in urban areas is one of the prerequisites for accomplishing better and healthier life in the cities.

Since the beginning of my mandate in Sabac, I have advocated a sustainable approach in urban development, in particular, the development of multifunctional public spaces, which in addition to their purpose as gathering and circulating places, have the function of green oases, providing shade, and improvement of the microclimate. I am especially interested in nature-based solutions for urban development. We have incorporated them into several projects and plans, of which undoubtedly the most important for Sabac is the detailed regulation plan of Savapark, which envisages the adaptation of 300 hectares of the river border into a predominantly park space.

Illustration: Courtesy of Milena Zindovic

We have also applied the principles of the sustainable planning to the strategic urban planning, and in cooperation with EnPlus, consultants from Belgrade, we developed the Green – Blue Strategy of the City of Sabac. This strategy consisted of the analysis of all aspects of city life, urban systems, and functions, it also identified the resources, synergies, and interactions, and it gave us the basis for further planning with the goal not only the sustainability but also the regeneration of urban ecosystems.

On the strategic level, we also dealt with the question of urban mobility in Sabac, which is ideal for biking and walking because of its size and topography, but whose infrastructure is inadequate or nonexistent. Improving the quality of public spaces to encourage pedestrian and cycling transit is of vital importance for the city, therefore on that basis, the City of Sabac is also developing its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan.

EP: You are one of the founders of the Smart City Association, which, among other things, promotes sustainable development and new technologies in spatial planning. Have you applied some of the “ecological” solutions and which ones?

Milena Zindovic The Smart City Association was established to promote and implement modern concepts of sustainable urban development in Serbia, and it is in every respect based on the challenges and experiences I had during my practice in Sabac. For us, it is not only the digital that is smart but every approach that makes sense and contributes to a better life for our citizens in our towns and cities. Many smart concepts are neither expensive nor complicated, they are not even technologically advanced, but they require smart planning and designing. As a part of our activities, we strive to highlight and draw attention to different aspects of sustainability our communities lack. So far, we have had events related to accessibility, gender equality, and climate change.

Along with the City of Sabac, we participated in the public call for the Open Data Challenge, which is implemented by the UNDP and the Ministry of Environmental Protection as part of the Local Development Resistant to Climate Change project. The goal of this project is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, and we applied with a plan that proposes the data collection on different methods of heating in households in Sabac and by the association of the energy sources and methods of heating with the greenhouse gas emissions. We were rewarded, along with seven other local self-government, and in the next six months, we are going to participate in the Climate Incubator which was inaugurated within this project.

Read the whole interview in the new issue of the Energy portal Magazine on SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE, July 2018.

Interview by: Jelena Kozbasic

Blenheim Palace Goes Green with 100% Renewable Deal

03.10.2018

blenheim-palace-867689_960_720 — Photo: Pixabay

The UNESCO World Heritage site will now be supplied with clean electricity from Good Energy.

Good Energy is to provide Blenheim Palace with 100% renewable power under the terms of a new deal.

The UNESCO World Heritage site says the move is part of an ongoing commitment to reduce its carbon footprint – it has also pledged to become a net generator of green energy within a decade.

The clean energy supplier will supply all demand to the site’s main buildings as well as its Pleasure Gardens, Park Farm, offices and on-site bottling plant.

The new agreement also includes the Windrush Industrial Estate, allowing other businesses based there to become more sustainable.

Blenheim Palace has also invested extensively in solar panels, biomass boilers and a hydroelectric turbine.

Randall Bowen, Sales and Commercial Director at Good Energy, said: “Blenheim is one of Britain’s most important historic sites and they have a longstanding commitment to the environment.

“Switching to a truly clean energy supplier is the natural choice for the business and the single most important thing the public can do to tackle climate change.”

Source: Energy Live News

Germany Agrees to Plan to Cut Diesel Pollution

02.10.2018

industry-611668_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The German government backed plans Tuesday to help reduce pollution from diesel vehicles while easing the burden on consumers worried about costly upgrades.

Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer and Environment Minister Svenja Schulze told reporters the concept is to keep modern, less polluting diesel vehicles on the road while upgrading or retiring older models to prevent dangerous levels of nitrogen oxides in Germany’s large cities.

“Our goal is to avoid a driving ban and ensure the air quality of our cities,” Schulze said.

The issue is a political hot potato in a country in love with its cars and where diesels are favored by commuters and small businesses for their generally better efficiency and lower fuel costs.

At the same time, the government doesn’t want to damage the country’s automobile industry — including manufacturers Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW — by saddling it with too many upgrade costs.

Its hand has been forced after several cities began instituting piecemeal bans on older diesels to comply with European Union clean air rules on levels of nitrogen oxides, following lawsuits from environmental groups.

Scheuer said there had been an urgent need to provide a clear path forward for owners of diesel vehicles wondering what to do.

He and other members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government met until the early morning hours to come up with the new measures.

Among other things, the plan calls for auto manufacturers to offer generous trade-in offers for older model diesels against new cars, or cleaner used vehicles.

When possible with newer diesel vehicles, consumers should have the option to upgrade the mechanical systems if there is an appropriate retrofit available, Scheuer said.

He said Germany’s major automakers were on board with the trade-in idea, and were still discussing whether upgrades would be technically possible and cost effective for their vehicles.

“Today is a huge step forward but we still have work to do,” he said.

Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, an expert with Germany’s CAR automotive research center at the University of Duisburg-Essen, was skeptical about the plan, noting that a 2017 offer of high trade-in prices on older diesels failed to generate the results hoped for.

“Overall, we see the results of trade-in offers as limited,” he said.

There also remains the lingering question of how foreign carmakers could be forced into compliance, but Schulze said she was convinced they would follow the lead of the domestic companies.

“This will have a domino effect on the foreign auto manufacturers,” she said.

French automaker Renault already announced on its website that it would be offering up to 10,000 euros ($11,500) for German owners of its older diesel vehicles to trade them in for a new car.

The issue with older diesel cars is not a German one alone, with several cities across Europe also having announced they are considering bans.

On Tuesday, Denmark’s center-right government announced it wanted to completely end the sale of vehicles operating on only gas or diesel to help reduce pollution as of 2030.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told parliament his three-party government would push for more electric and hybrid vehicles to reduce greenhouse gases.

“The future is green, and it is very close to us,” he said.

Source: ABC News

About 70 Hydropower Projects in Himalayas at Risk of Quake-Triggered Landslides

02.10.2018

During 2015 Nepal earthquake, the hydropower sector experienced severe losses. The country temporarily lost about 20 per cent of its hydropower capacity and more than 30 hydropower projects were damaged. The projects, which were affected by earthquake‐triggered landslides, were the worst hit.

Two years prior to that, June 2013 flooding in Uttarakhand damaged at least 10 big hydropower projects in operation and under construction. Another 19 small hydropower projects, which collectively generated under 25 megawatts, were destroyed. Currently, 37 hydropower projects are in operation in the state, and according to the official website of Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. , 87 more projects are being developed.

Similarly, one cannot say for certain that Jammu & Kashmir, which is categorised as zone IV & V seismic earthquake-prone area, won’t be affected by eight upcoming hydropower projects, which will be located in seismic zone V. The state has a history of earthquake destroying dams. The October 2005 earthquake, one of the deadliest ones to hit South Asia since the 1935 Quetta earthquake, triggered around 2,500 landslides, according to an analyss. Those landslides resulted in destruction of infrastructure.

The risk of building dams in the Himalayan region is manifold and that has again being emphasised by the findings of a recently released study on 2015 Nepal earthquake. The study reveals that many hydropower projects in Nepal were wiped out by moving debris.

The researchers from the Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, Potsdam‐Golm, Germany analysed reports on damaged hydropower plants in Nepal and concluded that the damage caused to plants in the aftermath of the quake was due to landslides triggered by the quake rather than the earthquake itself.

The team also analysed 273 hydropower projects that are already in operation, under construction or are being planned in the Indian, Nepalese and Bhutanese Himalayas. They found that about 25 per cent of them are likely to face severe damage from quake-triggered landslides. The researchers point to an urgent need to re-evaluate hydropower development in the region.

Currently, more than 600 large dams have been built or are in some stage of construction or planning in the seismically active Himalayas, but most of them are probably not designed to withstand the worst earthquakes that could hit the region. According to a DownToEarth report, the Himalayas would have the highest dam density in the world, with over a thousand water reservoirs dotting the mountain range in India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, over the next few years.

“We have overestimated the hydropower potential in the region and underestimated the cost,” says David Gernaat, a computer modeller at the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in The Hague.

Source: Down to Earth

Rwe Boss Says Hambach Forest and Its Tree Houses Will Have to Go

02.10.2018

japan-744806_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The boss of RWE says the Hambach Forest and its tree house protestors will have to go.

The energy giant wants to raze the German woodland to expand its coal mine in the area and is currently evicting the environmental campaigners living in its trees.

RWE, which owns the forest, plans to begin cutting down trees and clearing space this month – it claims expanding the lignite facility, which is one of the largest in the country, will play a vital part in securing the nation’s demand for reliable baseload power.

However, anti-coal protestors believe preserving the ancient forest is needed to maintain biodiversity and protect the climate.

RWE CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz said there is “no way” the trees will be spared, suggesting his main responsibility was to the thousands of workers employed by the plant and the German citizens that rely on the power it helps produce.

He added: “There’s no possibility of leaving the forest standing. We need the ground beneath the remaining forest in order to keep the embankments stable.”

Source: Energy Live News

Puerto Rico Planting 750,000 Trees to Defend Land from Natural Disasters

02.10.2018

September 20 marked the one-year anniversary of the most devastating and deadly natural disasters in 100 years of U.S. history—Hurricane Maria. Today, Puerto Rico continues to face both challenges, such as Tropical Storm Kirk landing today, and opportunities. Many wonder how Puerto Rico is doing so EcoWatch teamed up with the non-profit Para la Naturaleza(PLN) for an interactive Facebook live experience on Thursday. Watch the video below to learn how the community of Puerto Rico—the town of Comerío—came together to revitalize the natural ecosystems. PLN is working towards the ambitious goal of planting 750,000 native and endemic trees and establishing 33 percent of Puerto Rico’s lands as protected by 2033.

“We lost over 31 million trees during both hurricanes,” said director of PLN Fernando Lloveras. “And one of the things that we realized early on is that the ecological recovery was a kind of an inspiration for human recovery.”

PLN is bringing a botanical garden to the students at Juana Colón Public School, their sister organization which has transformed into a Montessori curriculum.

The students are learning the natural sciences in the classroom and also building a forest within the school. They plant trees to hold sediments and prevent erosion, especially in future flooding.

Planting of native trees, such as soursop or cacao, also brings essential wildlife to the area while protecting the landscape from future erosion, especially in future flooding.

“Trees are an easy way to help increase climate change resiliency,” said senior program officer at Chesapeake Bay Trust Jeff Popp in the comments thread of the live video.

One student, Andrea Santana, shared her moving testimony. “It was a really difficult process, but It was really beautiful to see how we all got together to see nature recover. When I first saw this place I was shocked because there were fish all over the place,” she said. “The buildings next to the river were completely destroyed and the vegetation here was just simply lost.”

Sustainability is the main goal of PLN. Together, the communities overcame an unfathomable disaster in Puerto Rico.

Santana ended her testimony with inspiring words. “We all just have to stick together and just go through it. We learned that lesson and I’m really happy [about] it.”

Source: Eco Watch

Environmental Campaign Floods Uk Royal Mail with Empty Potato Chip Bags

01.10.2018

crisp-2640743_960_720 — Foto-illustration: Pixabay

The U.K. postal service has implored its public to stop mailing empty potato chip bags addressed without an envelope after a surge in chip bag mailings was encountered by its courier offices. The mailings are part of an environmental campaign urging the most popular brand of British crisps, Walkers, to reevaluate its plastic packaging. Walkers, owned by PepsiCo, is being met with a petition signed by more than 310,000 people and an online campaign that is sending unknown numbers of empty bags right to the company’s doorstep.

Twitter is buzzing about the environmental activists, who have been posting pictures of themselves mailing the empty packets of chips through the Royal Mail service. The rebels are using the hashtag #PacketInWalkers to comment on the company’s latent efforts to revamp its packaging. An emailed statement from a Walkers spokesperson, released by CNN, stated, “We have received some returned packets and recognize the efforts being made to bring the issue of packaging waste to our attention. The returned packets will be used in our research, as we work towards our commitment of improving the recyclability of our packaging.” The company has announced that it plans to achieve plastic-free packaging by 2025.

.@walkers_crisps 2025 is too long to wait for you to use plastic free packaging. It’s just not good enough. You produce 4 billion packs per year. I’m sending these back to you so you can deal with your own waste. #PacketInWalkers pic.twitter.com/S13uiZXpdx

— Jarred Livesey (@Jaz_Livesey) September 22, 2018

For many campaign participants, such as Jarred Livesey, the commitments are vague and inadequate. “2025 is too long to wait for you to use plastic free packaging. It’s just not good enough,” he commented on Twitter last week. Despite PepsiCo working on a pilot project in the U.S., India and Chile that features compostable packaging, consumers are adamant about stopping the polluters as soon as possible.

Lisa Ann Pasquale went a step further in her Twitter commentary, suggesting, “What if — instead of buying crisps and posting the packages back to @walkers_crisps — we just save our planet AND cholesterol levels by not buying crisps… .” Pasquale makes a sound argument, considering the 11 million bags of potato chips Walkers produces daily in order to keep up supply for its spud-loving consumers, who consume approximately 6 billion packs of chips a year.

The Royal Mail service is caught in the cross-hairs of this environmental argument. Bound by U.K. law to treat the empty potato chip bags as mail as long as they are properly addressed, there is not much else the national communications carrier can do. “If an item is addressed properly and carries the correct postage, then Royal Mail is obliged by law to handle and deliver the item to the stated address,” a Royal Mail spokesperson told CNN. “If they are taking part in this campaign, we would urge them to put crisp packets in an envelope before posting,” because improperly packaged bags could cause delays or be tossed from the sorting sequence.

Source: Inhabitat

Valuable Wetlands Are Disappearing 3 Times Faster Than Forests, New Study Warns

01.10.2018

moor-2226019_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Wetlands around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate. New research shows that these valuable ecosystems are vanishing at a rate three times that of forests. Unless significant changes are made, the disappearance of wetlands could cause severe damage around the globe.

The Global Wetland Outlook, which was completed by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, found that more than a third of the wetlands on Earth have disappeared over a 45-year period. The pace that wetlands are vanishing jumped significantly after the year 2000, and regions all over the planet were impacted equally. Unfortunately, there is a handful of reasons why wetlands are diminishing around the world. This includes climate change, urbanization, human population growth and variable consumption patterns, all of which have contributed to the way land is used.

There are several different types of wetlands found on Earth, including marshes, lakes, peatlands and rivers. Lagoons, coral reefs, mangroves and estuaries also fall into the wetland category. In total, wetlands take up more than 12.1 million square kilometers, an area larger than Greenland.

Wetlands are crucial, because they provide almost all of the world’s access to freshwater — something that is key to survival. Humans also use wetlands for hydropower and medicines. From an environmental perspective, wetlands help retain carbon and regulate global warming. They also serve as the ecosystems for 40 percent of living species on Earth, providing food, water, breeding spaces and raw materials for these animals to live. If the wetlands keep vanishing at the current rate, many species will go as well.

“The Global Wetland Outlook is a wake-up call — not only on the steep rate of loss of the world’s wetlands but also on the critical services they provide. Without them, the global agenda on sustainable development will not be achieved,” said Martha Rojas Urrego, Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. “We need urgent collective action to reverse trends on wetland loss and degradation and secure both the future of wetlands and our own survival at the same time.”

With wetlands in danger of disappearing, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has pledged to make saving these regions a top priority. The parties involved with the group have targeted 2,300 sites for protection and hope to expand that to include more wetlands around the globe.

Source: Inhabitat

Europe ‘Could Cut Energy-Related CO2 Emissions by 90% Before 2050’

01.10.2018

power-plant, carbon, co2 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Europe could cut energy-related carbon dioxide emissions by 90% by 2050, if it implements ambitious renewables-based electrification plans.

That’s according to a new report from WindEurope, which says Europe should transition its industrial processes, buildings and transport to using clean sources of generation – it suggests the level of electrification could realistically and affordably rise from 24% to 62% by 2050.

Although this would be likely to increase total energy expenditure to 2.7% of Europe’s GDP, a 0.5% increase, it would also reduce climate mitigation costs from 1.2% of Europe’s GDP to 0.86%.

The report shows that industrial processes could get 86% of their total energy from clean sources of electricity by 2050, offering emissions reductions of 88% – it suggests the cost-competitiveness and scalability of wind energy makes it particularly suited to this task.

WindEurope believes onshore and offshore turbines could provide 36% of Europe’s power generation by 2050, if 20GW is installed annually between 2030 and 2050.

The report states although these improvements would require more investment in flexibility, smart tech and storage technologies, they would result in other benefits such as better air quality and stronger energy security.

WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson said: “Europe has done quite well at getting renewables into electricity but much less well at getting them into industrial processes, buildings and transport.

“We’ve got to change that if we’re serious about decarbonisation.”

Source: Energy Live News

New York Teams up with Denmark to Boost Offshore Wind Sector

30.09.2018

windmills-1838788_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

They will work together to develop strategies and solutions for the development of the clean energy resource.

Source: Energy Live News

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