ORCA: Nature in the Service of Agriculture

20.06.2018

In the interview with Elvir Burazerovic, General Manager of NGO ORCA, we found out what is necessary to do in order to make our agriculture sustainable, as well as what ORCA is undertaking in that sector and what are the consequences on nature if we do not change our way of managing agricultural holdings

The aim of sustainable agriculture is to reduce negative anthropogenic environmental impacts by efficient use, preservation and improvement of the quality of natural resources since agriculture largely depends on the services provided by ecosystems. Preserved natural resources and improved quality of the environment in sustainable production systems are in service not only for the present but also for future generations. Sustainable agricultural production implies that farmers are actively involved in the decision-making process and have concrete benefits from economic development, good working conditions and good prices for their agricultural products.

Traditional agricultural production is a kind of sustainable agriculture and it was widely represented not only in Serbia but also in the greater part of the Western Balkans for a long time. Then, the use of mechanization, fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics was introduced, so that more food could be produced in less time. The quality of food produced in this way is extremely questioned, and the process of intensive agricultural production itself pollutes land, water, and air.

– Traditional agricultural production has held out in some parts of Serbia, especially when it comes to livestock breeding. On the other hand, many farmers slowly turn to organic or other forms of sustainable production, as the market for their products is gradually being created. The market is definitely created by consumers, and duty of the civil sector is to present the real situation to consumers, that is to all the citizens, and to influence decision-makers to provide a healthy environment in which healthy food can be produced. It is exactly what ORCA is doing with partner organizations through its projects. We do the research, detection of problems, propose solutions which we present to decision-makers and we look for better solutions for people, animals, and environment. The goal is to transfer information to citizens, and they are the ones who create the market, thus we together create the area for development of sustainable production – says Elvir.

NUMBERS AND FACTS ABOUT NATURE

 About 1,300 liters of water is needed for the production of one kilogram of wheat, thus about 40 liters of water is required for the production of one slice of bread of 30 grams (for raw materials and processing)

 If a slice of cheese of 10 grams is put on that slice of bread, then for the production of both requires around 90 liters of water. (World Water Conference, 2008)

 The number of birds that most commonly inhabit agricultural habitats has dropped by almost 50 percent over the past 30 years (Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme, 2013)

 Planet Earth will lose up to 50 percent of wildlife species by the middle of this century (Biological Extinction Conference, 2017)

 18 percent of greenhouse gases emissions are caused by intensive livestock breeding – which is more than traffic emits (FAO Food and Agriculture Organization. 2006)

Nature in the service of agriculture, namely the concept of “high-value agricultural production” is the branch of sustainable agriculture in which special attention is paid to the protection of nature and biodiversity. Agricultural production of high natural value is designed so that it protects nature and biodiversity, and at the same time, it allows sustainable food production and development of rural communities.

– It is very important that the farmers in Serbia and other countries of West Balkans understand and start to apply this concept since it implies the preservation of traditional agricultural systems, which mainly include our small and medium-sized farms. The concept functions so that the farmers introduce small changes to their practices, which do not hinder the production but stimulate the environmental protection. By protecting the nature, the farmer provides the use of free services of nature for himself, such as pollination, prevention of erosion, natural regulation of the number of insects that can damage crops and many others. In this way farmers, nature and animals can prosper – Elvir explains.

Agriculture is one of the main greenhouse gas emitters. From the conversation with Mr. Burazerovic, we found out that between 2001 and 2011 global emission of gases from livestock and crop production increased by 14 percent Methane is mostly emitted from livestock production. In Europe, agriculture contributed to the emission of these gases by 10 percent.

In Serbia, 65 percent of the territory is covered by agricultural land and as such it represents one of the main pillars of the country’s economic development. It is expected that good agricultural policy in Serbia will have a significant role in economic development of the country, but also in the reduction of greenhouse gases through improvement of agricultural practices. Since 2000 we have witnessed several extreme periods of droughts and floods in Serbia that have caused significant damages and losses worth more than 5 billion euros, and more than 70 percent of losses were due to drought and high temperatures. Rural communities are particularly affected by such events.

Another project was launched in Serbia in September 2016. The project was aimed at developing a strategy and action plan for climate change at national level, which was also financed by the European Union. It is also expected that this project develops national strategic and legislative framework that would define the priority measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as to identify responsible institutions for the implementation of these measures.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF SOME SPECIES OF BEES

Scientists from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) conducted a study to determine the connection between intensive agriculture and the disappearance of domestic bee species. Namely, scientists have planted two meadows with field flowers: one in the vicinity of the land on which intensive agriculture is carried out,
and the other in the area surrounding the land where agriculture is of small size. After a while, they noticed that the bee population that visited the first meadow decreased by 90 percent.

This study showed that bees do not need a completely unchanged area to survive and continue to pollinate plants, but they need parts of the natural habitat. These parts of the natural habitat, today almost do not exist in regions where intensive agriculture is carried out.

The goal of the European Union is to make agriculture sustainable and competitive, and the European Union’s Strategy on biodiversity aims to stop the loss of biodiversity by 2020 and also ecosystem services. For this reason, in the European Union, there are various financial incentives for farmers who are market-oriented, that is who satisfy the consumer’s demand and on the other hand, the ones who protect the nature, biodiversity and health and welfare of animals.

– In Serbia we have access to so-called pre-accession funds which largely serve for the development of agriculture and environmental protection – says Elvir adding that the availability and volume of such funds will be expected to increase in the following years as Serbia continues to make better progress in its path to European integration.

At the end of last year, ORCA held a regional conference for the media of Western Balkans and Energy portal took part in it. The conference was organized as the part of four-year project on “Sustainable Agriculture for Sustainable Balkans”, which was funded by the European Union, and the realization was entrusted to ORCA association and its partner organizations from Western Balkan countries with the aim of developing and supporting agro-ecological policies, as well as development of civil sector in the region. The main conclusion from this conference is that the participants realized and pointed out the need for stronger cooperation of civil society organizations, media, and farmers on sustainable agriculture and promotion of principles of agricultural production of high natural value. In addition, the need for creating strategies in order to develop the support to small and medium-sized agricultural producers was highlighted. ORCA will continue to organize these and similar events that will significantly contribute to agro-ecological policies and civil sector in the Western Balkans region.

Prepared by: Nevena Djukic

This article was published in the tenth issue of the Energy Portal Magazine SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, in March 2018.

Delhi’s Air Pollution Is Now so Bad It Is Literally off the Chart

20.06.2018

Smog more toxic than can be measured by monitoring devices has blanketed the Indian capital this week, months before the start of Delhi’s traditional “pollution season”.

A thick haze was visible across the city from Tuesday and some government pollution monitors have recorded concentrations of 999 – the highest they can measure – as dust storms kicked up in nearby Rajasthan state blanketed the region.

Though the billowing clouds of dust and sand were blamed for the immediate spike in pollution levels, the sight of dense smog engulfing Delhi months before winter has underscored a growing awareness that harmful air is a year-round problem for the city.

Air quality in Delhi usually begins to plummet in October when slower winds and cooler temperatures trap pollutants closer to the ground.

But data published by the government’s Central Pollution Control Board shows that air quality has been classed “very unhealthy” – with index scores as high as 270 – every April and May for the past three years, or since authorities began collecting and publishing the statistics.

Just a single day in April or May of the past three years had air classified as “good” – 12 April this year, when levels fell to 99. “It clearly shows that this is also a summertime problem,” said Aishwarya Sudhir, an independent researcher who studies air quality in India.

Authorities have ordered a halt to all construction in the capital and its satellite cities until the weekend to reduce pollution levels, and doctors have advised people to stay indoors as much as possible.

Meteorologists said the presence of a layer of dust across the city is also trapping heat, sending temperatures soaring in excess of 40C.

Concern about north India’s air quality crisis is usually most acute after the Hindu festival of Diwali in autumn, when hundreds of thousands of Indians release firecrackers that combine with existing pollutants to form a poisonous haze over the region that persists for months until temperatures cool. Public health experts said pollution levels on some days in November last year were the equivalent of smoking 50 cigarettes per day.

India, home to 14 of the world’s top 20 most polluted cities, has the highest rate of respiratory diseases of any country. A leading lung specialist, Arvind Kumar, says the cancer patients he sees Delhi are younger, more often female and more likely to be non smokers than those outside the city.

Children are the most vulnerable: a 2015 study concluded about half Delhi’s 4.4m schoolchildren had stunted lung development and would never completely recover.

But pressure on local and central governments to act usually clears along with the air in February when warmer temperatures help to thin the smog.

Sudhir said this week’s spike in pollution was a wake-up call that Delhi’s air is rarely safe. “Polluting activities keep going on in the city during summer, including construction, allowing road dust to linger, the operation of coal-fired power plants and other things,” she said.

Under an action plan in place since January 2017, pollution levels of the kind recorded this week should have resulted in trucks being denied entry into the city, the closure of brick kilns and other polluting industries, and a ban on using diesel generators.

Yet the government seems only to implement some of these measures, and only in response to public outcry, she said.

“We tend to act only when it’s an emergency,” she said. “There were forecasts that dust storms would sweep the entire region. They should have acted on these weeks ago, not when it became this severe.”

Source: Guardian

Sea Stars Started Dissolving: What Helped Some of Them Survive?

20.06.2018

seastar-1285125_960_720 — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

In the summer of 2013, the ocher sea stars of the California coast fell victim to a deadly plague.

First they developed ominous white patches. Then, in a touch straight from a horror movie, their rotting arms began to detach from their bodies and crawl away. They didn’t make it far.

“They just kind of dissolve within days,” said Lauren Schiebelhut, a biologist at the University of California, Merced, who studies the creatures.

More than 80 percent of the ocher sea stars on the northern coast died as a result of that outbreak of sea star wasting syndrome, as the disease is called. In the wake of the devastation, Dr. Schiebelhut and her colleagues looked at the survivors and wondered: Did they have something that the dead did not?

In a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they report a detectable difference between the genes of sea stars before the epidemic and the survivors. Genetic tests also show that new generations of sea stars have more in common with the survivors than with past generations — the events of 2013 seem to have left an indelible mark on the sea star’s gene pool.

The ocher sea star makes its home in rocky tide pools all along the California coast. Before the outbreak, the researchers had taken tissue samples at 16 different locations scattered between the San Francisco Bay and the Oregon border. Afterward, they took samples from the survivors in the same locations. Using several kinds of genetic testing, they found that some sequences were more common in sea stars now than they had been before, while others were less common.

Then, they turned their attention to the juvenile sea stars that appeared after the outbreak.

Each year, flurries of tiny sea star larvae spend the first stage of their life floating in the open ocean. Months later, they return home to settle down.

At the time of the wasting disease outbreak — the cause of which is still unknown, but may be linked to warmer temperatures — many larvae spawned by dying sea stars were still at sea. The researchers thought that when the next batch of young sea stars appeared, they would resemble previous generations. “We expected their gene pool to look very similar to the original adults,” said Dr. Schiebelhut.

Source: The New York Times

Sustainable Fashion Innovator Makes Fiber From Pineapple Leaves

19.06.2018

In 1960, 97 percent of the fibers used in clothing came from natural materials. Today that number has fallen to 35 percent. But sustainable fashion veteran Isaac Nichelson wants to reverse that trend.

His company, Circular Systems S.P.C. (Social Purpose Corp.), has developed an innovative technology for turning food waste into thread, according to a Fast Company profile published Friday.

“We want to enable food crops to become our primary fibers,” Nichelson told Fast Company.

That technology, the Agraloop™ Bio-Refinery, uses pineapple leaves, sugarcane bark and banana, hemp and flax stalks to make a textile-grade fiber. The technology recycles problems into solutions. 270 million tons of banana waste is left to rot each year, contributing to methane pollution and crop disease. But burning crops causes more than 10 percent of global annual air pollution deaths, according to the product’s website. Instead, Nichelson wants people to wear that waste instead; just the five crops currently used in the Agraloop could produce 250 million tons of fiber a year, enough to exceed global demand 2.5 times.

“[It’s a] regenerative system that uses plant-based chemistry and plant-based energy to upgrade the fibres whilst enriching the local communities and creating a new economic system,” Nichelson said in a press release. The Agraloop systems are intended for farmers and producers to own so that they can dispose of their own waste and use it to augment their own revenue, according to Fast Company.

In April, Circular Solutions won the 2018 Global Change Award from the H&M Foundation, which comes with a $350,000 grant Nichelson said he would use to scale up production of the Agraloop.

The Agraloop isn’t the only sustainable technology that Circular Solutions has developed. Texloop targets the problem of textile waste—almost 85 percent of used clothing gets sent to landfills—by upcycling it into new fabrics. Orbital™ Hybrid Yarns are high-quality yarns made from recycled food and textile fibers.

Nichelson, who is developing partnerships with H&M and Levis to use his fibers, told Fast Company that the fashion industry was increasingly interested in sustainability, largely for economic reasons. This year’s McKinsey and Company and Business of Fashion annual survey said the industry would see losses of three to four percent unless it could increase efficiency and reduce waste.

“Right now, it’s so extractive and so destructive, and we’re looking at these resources becoming more and more finite as the population grows,” Nichelson said.

Source: Eco Watch

Orca Whale ‘Crewser’ Presumed Dead as Population Reaches Its Lowest Point since 1984

19.06.2018

orca, orka — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Following the suspected death of an orca whale nicknamed Crewser, the population of southern resident orca whales is the lowest it has been in 34 years, The Seattle Times reported Saturday.

The Center for Whale Research (CWR) declared the whale, officially known as L92, “missing and presumed dead” on Friday. L92 had not been seen since November 2017 and was “conspicuously absent” from 2018 sightings. He was 23 years old.

With L92s death, the number of southern resident orca whales, who travel between waters in Washington State and southwestern British Columbia, fell to 75, the lowest it has been since 1984. Orca whales were listed as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2005.

Despite a baby boom, the southern orca population has fallen by eight since 2016, The Canadian Press reported.

Deaths are being blamed on a decline in Chinook salmon, the whale’s main prey, as well as noise and boat traffic, The Seattle Times reported.

Conservationists are concerned that the increased shipping associated with the Trans Mountain pipeline could exacerbate these risks, since it will increase tanker traffic in the Salish Sea by 700 percent, according to the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

“Even without oil spills the additional noise from Kinder Morgan tanker traffic increases the risk of extinction to already imperilled Southern Residents. Today’s approval of the Kinder Morgan project sanctions the probable extinction of Southern Resident killer whales. We are now considering our options including additional legal action,” Raincoast Executive Director Chris Genovali said in 2016, when the pipeline was first approved.

L92’s death is a reminder of the urgency of the orca’s situation, coming three months after Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed an executive order to protect orcas and Chinook salmon.

“The problems faced by orcas and salmon are human-caused, and we as Washingtonians have a duty to protect these species,” Inslee said at the time. “The impacts of letting these two species disappear would be felt for generations.”

He ordered state agencies to outline both immediate and long-term solutions to ensure both species’ survival.

L92 was a member of L pod, the largest group of orca whales that spends time in Washington and BC waters. The smaller J and K pods complete the southern resident population.

On June 11, the CWR counted 50 whales in inland waters. The CWR said the whales were spending less and less time inland in the spring as Fraser River Chinook salmon runs decreased. 2018 looks to be an especially low year for Fraser River Chinook salmon, the CWR reported.

Source: Eco Watch

High Risk of Food Shortages without Pesticides, Says Chemical Giant

19.06.2018

farming-climate-change-3449647_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The world is likely to face food shortages within 20 years if pesticides and genetically modified crops are shunned, according to the head of the world’s biggest pesticide manufacturer.

J Erik Fyrwald, CEO of Syngenta, also said the technologies to produce more food from less land are vital in halting climate change, but that better targeting will mean farmers around the world will use less pesticide in future.

The widespread use of pesticides is coming under increasing pressure as their negative effects on bees and other wildlife become more apparent. The EU banned neonicotinoid insecticides from fields in April and gave the weedkiller glyphosate a shorter renewal period than expected in November.

In an interview with the Guardian, Fyrwald said that shunning agricultural technology will have serious consequences, with the global population expected to rise by 1.5 billion people by 2050 and global warming continuing to rise.

“If we don’t keep getting better with technology that helps feed the world with less greenhouse gas emissions, I think we are going to have food availability issues and the climate is going to get much worse from agriculture,” he said. “There could very well be, 10 to 20 years from now, significant issues around feeding the world.”

The necessity of pesticides has been challenged by a series of recent reports, with a UN study calling the idea that pesticides are vital to feeding the world a “myth”, a scientific study showing many farms could slash pesticides use without losses and another warning that their industrial-scale use cannot be assumed to be safe.

Fyrwald does not agree, but does say farmers will use less pesticide in future: “Absolutely, and they are going to do it because [of] new technologies that are more targeted. Digital technology is going to enable precision agriculture, where it will be spraying much more at where the weeds, insects and diseases are.

“We believe in strict [pesticide] regulation, but it needs to be science-based and regulators need to be independent,” said Fyrwald. “If they make a decision that a product is not right, we fully accept that decision and move on.”

However, Fyrwaldsaid the EU ban of Syngenta’s neonicotinoid was “very political” and not scientific, and the company has mounted a legal challenge against the way the decision was made: “We are not anti-democratic, but in a democracy the regulators have a job.” Nonetheless, he does accept public trust in pesticides is a problem: “I do think there is a trust issue – I think we have to listen more, engage more.”

Syngenta has been criticised for selling some pesticides long banned in Europe, such as paraquat and atrazine, in other parts of the world. But Fyrwald says they remain approved in countries with “very high standards”, such as Brazil and the US.

Syngenta is also a major seed producer but has given up on genetically modified crops in Europe, where public opposition remains high. “It is something we are not even attempting to work on any more,” says Fyrwald. The consequence for the EU of eschewing the technology will be it becoming a net importer of food, he says: “Agricultural outputs will not keep up with the rest of the world.”

Syngenta was bought a year ago by the Chinese government, through the state-owned company ChemChina, and other major seed and pesticide companies have recently merged: Bayer with Monsanto and Dow with DuPont.

This leaves about two-thirds of the world’s seed sales and pesticide production in the hands of very few businesses, but Fyrwald said people should not be concerned, saying regulators required various divisions to be sold off before the mergers: “I think there will continue to be plenty of competition. We are very committed to offering farmers choice and competitive products.”

China, which has 21% of the world’s population but only 6% of its arable land, bought Syngenta to help ensure its people remain fed in the coming decades, Fyrwald said: “President Xi Jinping grew up during the [Great Leap Forward] , when farming failed and 35 million Chinese people starved to death. So I don’t think he and others in his senior leadership will ever forget that. Assurance of food supply is a big deal for the Chinese.”

“The Chinese government wanted to make sure we continued to invest in the technologies that are going to help to absolutely assure there is always plenty of food for the Chinese people,” he said. China is also a major food importer, and so needs global agriculture to be productive as well, Fyrwald says.

Agriculture must also improve to tackle global warming, Fyrwald says, with the sector responsible for almost a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, from deforestation, fertiliser use and livestock. “How can deforestation stop? By having less land in agriculture not more, and you can do that with technology,” he says, arguing that organic farming is a “great marketing approach” but delivers low yields.

How the world feeds itself without destroying the environment remains one of the biggest questions of the age, but there is little agreement on the answer. Fyrwald says: “I think the most important thing that we do here is open up a conversation with government, NGOs, food companies, consumers and farmers and get people to sit down and talk about what is sustainable agriculture.”

Source: Guardian

CEEFOR: Achieving Energy Efficient through the Development of Energy Audits

18.06.2018

Energy efficiency is the sum of planned and implemented measures which have a goal to use the minimum amount of needed energy while preserving the level of comfort and production rate. The company CEEFOR – Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development has provided more rational energy consumption for many companies by more rational energy consumption for many companies by performing energy audits for their industrial plants.

Some well-known products come from these companies: some of them refresh you when celebrating Patron Saints day (Knjaz Milos), make your life sweeter (Stark and Swisslion-Takovo) and make your lunch more tasty and richer with proteins (Neoplanta). Associate in the field of energy saving for these companies was exactly CEEFOR. Its headquarters in Belgrade and was founded in 2010.

With successfully accomplished assignments in the field of energy technologies, the Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development has reduced not only the costs for its clients but also the negative impact of harmful components that cause the greenhouse effect, which made this company one of the leading companies that strive for social responsibility.

The CEEFOR team consists of 20 experts with many years of experience in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency: mechanical, electrical, and civil engineers, technology engineers, architects, traffic and fire protection engineers, economic and financial experts and translators.

The experts of Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development can also provide your company with a direct benefit through the development of energy audits, feasibility studies, as well as with preparation of full project documentation and economic-financial analysis, by implementing technical control and construction supervision, as well as the quality evaluation of applied technology. The company offers consulting and engineering services by obtaining opinions, conditions, approvals, and permissions, as well as contacts with equipment suppliers.

The energy-efficient solutions, implemented by the group of CEEFOR experts, include two solar power plants in Kladovo with the installed capacity of 2 MW, and a solar power plant on the IKEA Department Store building in Belgrade. The team of engineers also worked on the elaboration of the investment-technical documentation for a solar power plant with a total power of 9.9 MW for the Public Enterprise Elektroprivreda Srbije.

The Petroleum Industry of Serbia also engaged CEEFOR engineers, and one of the projects that took place between 2013 and 2015 for the mentioned oil company was designing, licensing and organization of technical inspection for the cogeneration and gas power plants in the territory of the municipalities of Kanjiža, Srbobran, and Veliko Gradiste.

The field of work of Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development is not solely related to power plants. The Umka cardboard factory is also on their client list for which they made a pre-feasibility study of a steam turbine power plant.

CEEFOR is also active in the field of eco-mobility. through energy consulting service activities, technical and financial analysis and designing and communicating with manufacturers of necessary equipment, several preliminary designs were developed for setting up charger stations for electric vehicles. The result of these projects was the installation of chargers at several locations in Belgrade – at the BMW showroom in Cukarica, at the public garage in Obilicev Venac, at the Pro-Credit Bank branch and other locations as well.

ENERGY EFFICIENT SOLUTION

CEEFOR d.o.o.

Bulevar oslobođenja 103, Beograd

W | www. ceefor.co.rs
M | info@ceefor.co.rs
T |0114063160

Antarctic Ice Melting Faster than ever, Studies Show

18.06.2018

Ice in the Antarctic is melting at a record-breaking rate and the subsequent sea rises could have catastrophic consequences for cities around the world, according to two new studies.

A report led by scientists in the UK and US found the rate of melting from the Antarctic ice sheet has accelerated threefold in the last five years and is now vanishing faster than at any previously recorded time.

A separate study warns that unless urgent action is taken in the next decade the melting ice could contribute more than 25cm to a total global sea level rise of more than a metre by 2070. This could lead eventually to the collapse of the entire west Antarctic ice sheet, and around 3.5m of sea-level rise.

Prof Andrew Shepherd, from Leeds University and a lead author of the study on accelerating ice loss, said: “We have long suspected that changes in Earth’s climate will affect the polar ice sheets. Thanks to our satellites our space agencies have launched, we can now track their ice losses and global sea level contribution with confidence.”

Ice in the Antarctic is melting at a record-breaking rate and the subsequent sea rises could have catastrophic consequences for cities around the world, according to two new studies.

He said the rate of melting was “surprising.”

“This has to be a cause for concern for the governments we trust to protect our coastal cities and communities,” Shepherd added.

The study, published in Nature, involved 84 scientists from 44 international organisations and claims to be the most comprehensive account of the Antarctic ice sheet to date. It shows that before 2012, the Antarctic lost ice at a steady rate of 76bn tonnes per year – a 0.2mm per year contribution to sea-level rise. However since then there has been a sharp increase, resulting in the loss of 219bn tonnes of ice per year – a 0.6mm per year sea-level contribution.

The second study, also published in Nature, warns that time is running out to save the Antarctic and its unique ecosystem – with potentially dire consequences for the world.

The scientists assessed the probable state of Antarctica in 2070 under two scenarios. The first in which urgent action on greenhouse gas emissions and environmental protection is taken in the next few years, the second if emissions continue to rise unabated and the Antarctic is exploited for its natural resources.

The scenario which plays out largely depends on choices made over the next decade, on both climate-change and on environmental regulation, they conclude.

Co-author Profe Martin Siegert, from the Grantham Institute, said: “Some of the changes Antarctica will face are already irreversible, such as the loss of some ice shelves, but there is a lot we can prevent or reverse.

“To avoid the worst impacts, we will need strong international cooperation and effective regulation backed by rigorous science. This will rely on governments recognising that Antarctica is intimately coupled to the rest of the Earth system, and damage there will cause problems everywhere.”

As well as being a major cause of sea-level rise, scientists say the oceans around Antarctica are a key “carbon sink” – absorbing huge amounts of greenhouse gases helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Siegert said: “If the political landscape of a future Antarctica is more concerned with rivalry, and how each country can get the most out of the continent and its oceans, then all protections could be overturned.

“However, if we recognise the importance of Antarctica in the global environment, then there is the potential for international co-operation that uses evidence to enact changes that avoid ‘tipping points’ – boundaries that once crossed, would cause runaway change, such as the collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet.”

Greenpeace which is campaigning for a large tract of the ocean surrounding the Antarctic to be made into the world’s biggest ocean sanctuary, said government’s must heed the warning.

Louisa Casson, of Greenpeace UK’s Protect the Antarctic campaign, said: “Governments can take a historic step forward in October this year if they decide to create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary, protecting 1.8 million square kilometres in what would be the largest protected area on Earth.

“Ocean sanctuaries create havens for marine life to build resilience to a changing ocean, but also crucially help us avoid the worst effects of climate change, by preserving healthy ocean ecosystems that play a vital role storing carbon.”

Source: Eco Watch

Starbucks Urged to Cut Ties With Hong Kong Chain That Still Serves Shark Fin

18.06.2018

shark-fin-472685_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Starbucks is being pressured to cut ties with popular Hong Kong restaurant chain Maxim’s Caterers Limited over its offering of dishes with shark fin.

Maxim’s said it phased out the controversial product in 2017 but undercover investigators with the wildlife conservation charity WildAid found that the eatery still offers shark fin on a secret “premium” menu, the South China Morning Post reported.

Now, activist groups are calling on the coffee giant to break its 18-year partnership with Coffee Concepts (HK) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Maxim’s Caterers Limited.

In a letter to Starbucks executives last month, WildAid urged the company to end its relationship with Maxim’s Caterers ahead of its upcoming expansion in China.

“Maxim’s seemingly contradictory status as Hong Kong’s largest retailer of shark fin soup casts a stain on Starbucks’ reputation,” the letter stated, as quoted by Hong Kong Free Press. “[We] sincerely urge Starbucks to call on its Hong Kong licensee Maxim’s Caterers Limited, to halt all cruel, dirty, unsustainable, and often illegal shark fin trade with immediate effect.”

Shark fin soup is mostly served in Chinese banquet menus as a symbol of prosperity and for its supposed health benefits. But the shark fin trade poses a danger to vulnerable shark species. More than 70 million sharks are killed each year and a quarter of species are threatened with extinction, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

WildAid did not appear impressed with Starbucks’ response to their letter, tweeting on Tuesday “we got the brush off from Starbucks customer service about two weeks ago. Since then, nothing.”

Gary Stokes, Asia director for Sea Shepherd Global, also spoke out against the partnership.

“The shark fin industry is not limited to just the shark fin traders, but spans from the fisherman who killed the shark all the way to the restaurants that serve shark’s fin soup,” he said in a statement. “By licensing Starbucks’ brand to Maxim’s Caterers Limited who openly sell shark’s fin on their menus, Starbucks has partnered with the shark fin trade itself.”

Despite the protests, Maxim’s Caterers told Hong Kong Free Press on Thursday that they will continue to sell shark fin products “upon request” at their Hong Kong restaurants. They also claimed to only use shark fins from Blue Sharks—a “Lower Risk-Near Threatened” species.

“We have stringent sourcing process, and all suppliers must provide legal shark fin import documentations that met regulatory requirements. We are also the first Chinese chain restaurant to proactively conduct independent DNA testing on shark fin to ensure that the supply is from the lower risk species,” they told the publication.

In their press release, Sea Shepherd noted that Starbucks’ environmental mission statement includes commitments such as “understanding of environmental issues and sharing information with our partners,” “striving to buy, sell and use environmentally friendly products,” and “encouraging all partners to share in our mission.”

Stokes commented, “None of the above points in the mission statement are in line with or justify selling shark fin soup. With between 100-200 million sharks being killed annually, no business can claim that they are environmentally friendly or responsible when they sell shark fin soup.”

“Starbucks needs to demand that Maxim’s Caterers Limited drop shark fin from their menus across their group or cancel their license to operate Starbucks in Asia. Tarnishing the brand of Starbucks should not be an option, and Starbucks customers deserve to be informed if the mission statement has changed,” Stokes concluded.

EcoWatch has reached out to Starbucks for comment.

Source: Eco Watch

McDonald’s to Switch to Paper Straws in UK after Customer Campaign

17.06.2018

papirne-slamčice, straws, paper-straws — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

McDonald’s will end the use of plastic straws in its British restaurants next year, after nearly half a million people called on the company to ditch them.

The decision by the US fast-food chain to switch from plastic to paper straws follows a trial at a number of outlets in the past two months. The firm uses around 1.8m straws a day in the UK.

The switch will affect McDonald’s 1,361 outlets in the UK, but not the rest of its 36,000 restaurants worldwide.

The Sum of Us petition calling for the change had warned that plastic straws ended up polluting the ocean, harming seabirds and marine life.

McDonald’s said it had listened to customer concerns and would begin phasing out plastic straws in September, completing the process at some point in 2019.

Paul Pomroy, the chief executive of McDonald’s UK and Ireland, said: “Reflecting the broader public debate, our customers told us they wanted to see a move on straws but to do so without compromising their overall experience when visiting our restaurants.”

The paper straws will be sourced from suppliers in Northern Ireland and Wales.

Initially, only a limited number of the chain’s restaurants will have recycling facilities for the paper straws, but the company has committed to ensuring they can be recycled at all stores by the end of 2019.

The government warned earlier this year that plastic straws, along with other single-use plastic items such as cotton buds, could be banned as part of its efforts to cut marine pollution.

McDonald’s is the latest in a string of high street names in the process of replacing plastic straws with paper or biodegradable straws, including Costa Coffee, Wetherspoons and Pizza Express.

Waitrose has said it would no longer stock them, while Pimms and other drinks at Wimbledon will be served with paper rather than plastic straws.

Other parts of McDonald’s global empire are experimenting with alternatives to plastic straws, and trials are due later this year in the US, France, Sweden and Norway.

Source: Guardian

EU Raises Renewable Energy Targets to 32% by 2030

16.06.2018

european-union-1328255_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The EU is raising its target for the amount of energy it consumes from renewable sources, in a deal lauded by the bloc’s climate chief as a hard-won victory for the switch to clean energy.

Energy ministers agreed a binding renewable energy target of 32% by 2030, up from the previous goal of 27%, but fell short of the hopes of some countries and green groups for a more ambitious share.

The EU council deal caps 18 months of negotiations. It was welcomed by the renewables industry and the trade body for European energy utilities called it: “a well-balanced compromise”.

The talks saw the UK call for a target of 30%, below the 32% a newly pro-renewables France wanted and the 35% that new governments in Spain and Italy argued for.

Miguel Arias Cañete, EU climate commissioner, said: “This new ambition will help us meet our Paris agreement goals and will translate into more jobs, lower energy bills for consumers and less energy imports.”

He added that the binding nature of the goal would provide certainty to investors.

Whether the target will apply to the UK after it leaves the EU will depend on the exit deal reached by London and Brussels.

The agreement also includes plans for a 2023 review on whether the target should be bumped even higher.

Around 17% of EU energy consumption in 2016 was from renewables, with the UK on about 9%.

Green energy advocates argued the existing 2030 target was unambitious because member states were already on track to exceed it.

Environmental groups said the increase did not go far enough and were critical of a decision to keep counting biomass as renewable energy.

Molly Walsh, renewable energy campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “EU decision-makers have agreed a paltry 32% target for renewable energy that is inadequate for a climate-safe fossil-free future, and shows a failure to grasp a shifting energy landscape, including rapidly falling renewables costs.”

However, the group welcomed the deal’s recognition of rights for consumers to produce and sell their own renewable energy, such as from solar panels on rooftops.

The agreement now needs to be formally approved by the EU parliament and council in coming months.

Source: Guardian

Hawaii Bans Use of Toxic Pesticide Chlorpyrifos

15.06.2018

In a win for public health, Hawaii Governor David Ige signed a bill banning the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to increased risk of learning disabilities, lower IQs, developmental delays, and behavior problems in children. “Hawaii is showing the Trump administration that the states will stand up for our kids, even when Washington will not,” said Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, a senior scientist at NRDC.

The news comes after nearly six years of advocacy from Protect Our Keiki coalition, Hawaii Center for Food Safety, Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action, Pesticide Action Network, Hawai’i SEED, and communities across the islands who have been demanding protections from harmful pesticides and healthier farming practices.

At the federal level, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has refused to finalize a ban on chlorpyrifos—despite the recommendation by the EPA’s own scientists—allowing the toxic chemical to continue to be sprayed on numerous U.S. crops, including kids’ favorites, like apples, oranges and strawberries. Studies have found that current uses in agriculture leave harmful residues on common fruits and vegetables that lead to exposures in children up to 14,000 percent of the EPA’s safety limit; residues have even been found under the peels of citrus fruits and in the flesh of melons. In April 2017, NRDC and partners took the EPA to court for illegally putting the brakes on the proposed ban.

“Scott Pruitt is doing everything he can to keep this pesticide on the market, benefiting the [Trump] administration’s friends at Dow Chemical despite his own agency’s warning that it is toxic to children’s brains,” Rotkin-Ellman said, referring to the nation’s largest manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, which reportedly donated $1 million for President Trump’s inauguration. Dow Chemical’s CEO also played a chief advisory role to the president, heading up his now defunct American Manufacturing Council.

“We celebrate this hard-fought victory for public health and community protections over corporate profits and thank the coalition of groups and communities in Hawaii for showing us how states can lead,” Rotkin-Ellman said. “We will continue to fight back to get this pesticide off the fruits and vegetables we feed our kids nationwide.”

Source: Eco Watch

Samsung Commits to 100 Percent Renewable Energy by 2020

15.06.2018

Samsung Electronics announced Thursday an aim to source 100 percent renewable energy for its energy used in all of its factories, office buildings and operational facilities in the U.S., Europe and China by 2020.

Specific locations were chosen as they are “well-equipped with infrastructure for the development and transmission of renewable energy,” the South Korean tech giant said on its website. Samsung has 17 of its 38 global manufacturing factories, offices and buildings in those markets.

As part of its initial commitment, the company will install around 42,000 square meters of solar panels at its headquarters in Suwon. It will also add about 21,000 square meters of solar arrays and geothermal power generation facilities at its campuses in Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong.

What’s more, the electronics firm plans to work with 100 of its top partner companies to assist their own renewable energy targets in alignment with the Carbon Disclosure Project supply chain program, which Samsung intends to join next year.

The Carbon Disclosure Project’s supply chain program helps organizations and suppliers identify and manage climate change risks, as well as deforestation and water-related risks.

“Samsung Electronics is fulfilling its duty as a corporate citizen by expanding and supporting the use of renewable energy,” said Won Kyong Kim, Samsung Electronics’ executive vice president and head of global public affairs, in a statement.

“As demonstrated by our expanded commitment, we are focused on protecting our planet and are doing our part as a global environmental steward.”

Further details regarding the company’s renewable energy plans will be disclosed in Samsung’s sustainability report 2018 to be released Friday.

The announcement was celebrated by environmental organizations. Greenpeace noted that Samsung’s commitment—the first from an Asian electronics manufacturing company—comes after months of campaigning and global protests pushing the company to set clear renewable energy goals for its operations and supply chain.

According to a Greenpeace press release, renewable energy currently accounts for only 1 percent of Samsung Electronics’ total energy consumption.

“Samsung’s announcement is a major step forward for the movement to build a renewably powered future,” Jennifer Morgan, Greenpeace International’s executive director, said in a statement. “If the company follows through with meaningful actions, it will join the ranks of innovative business leaders recognizing the sense of urgency around climate change and showing a different future is still possible.”

Samsung’s move follows efforts made by other major tech brands. In April, Apple announced that its global facilities are now powered with 100 percent clean energy. The same month, Google also announced it now purchases more renewable energy than it consumes as a company.

Insung Lee, IT campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, urged other companies to follow suit and advocated for governments to promote policies that allow companies to easily procure renewable energy.

“[Samsung’s] commitment could have an enormous impact in reducing the company’s massive global manufacturing footprint, and shows how critical industry participation is in reducing emissions and accelerating the transition to renewable energy,” Lee stated.

“Greenpeace and the thousands who took action with us will be watching Samsung carefully to ensure it follows through on its commitments,” Lee noted.

Source: Eco Watch

Major Coal-Fired Power Plant in Washington to Go Solar

14.06.2018

washington-monument-816642_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

It was once Washington state’s largest coal pit, a terraced, open-to-the-sky strip mine, five miles from the city of Centralia and halfway between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Today, the coal beds are quiet and blanketed in green, but an adjacent TransAlta power plant with three tall stacks still churns out electricity the traditional way, with coal now supplied from Wyoming.

Not for much longer. The coal mine closed in 2006—the last of the state’s mines to be shuttered—and then in 2011, TransAlta reached a deal with the state to shut down the plant. One burner will go cold in 2020 and the other by 2025. This move is part of Washington’s larger plan to get carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. And it should go a long way toward meeting that goal: Today, in a state that relies on hydropower for most of its energy, the Centralia power plant contributes 10 percent of the state’s total greenhouse gases—as much as the emissions from 1.75 million cars.

The plant currently also contributes a good deal of electricity, of course. When the Centralia power plant’s smokestacks quit spewing in 2025, it will mean a loss of 1,340 megawatts of energy. (Of that, it currently supplies about 380 megawatts to area homes via Puget Sound Energy, or PSE, the largest power supplier in the state.) To help fill that gap, TransAlta is converting about 1,000 acres of its former mine site to a solar farm. In homage to the old pioneer town of Tono that once stood where the mine now craters the earth, Tono Solar will be the land’s next incarnation.

“This is a good-news story about moving away from fossil fuels and toward renewables,” said NRDC senior attorney Noah Long about the project, which is set to start producing clean energy as soon as late 2020. He points out that beyond its climate benefits, it’s good for TransAlta’s bottom line, too. “Full reclamation of the site itself can be expensive,” he explained. Under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, coal companies are required to restore land once they have finished mining it to prevent groundwater contamination and erosion—and avoid leaving behind an eyesore. “By putting solar on the land, it maintains an industrial use,” said Long. “This good use of a brownfield brings the costs of reclamation down quite a bit.”

It’s also a practical reuse, since, handily enough, infrastructure already exists at the Tono Solar site to get the sun-produced electricity to the people who need it. “The location is good because it’s close to transmission lines,”‘ TransAlta lead developer Ryan Schmidt said in a March 2018 presentation. “We know exactly what’s in the ground, because we put it there when we reclaimed the site.”

Tono Solar won’t fully make up for the power generated by the Centralia coal-fired plant—it’s expected to provide 180 megawatts of electricity. But already, the region is shaping up to become a hub for alternative energy projects. Just 15 miles from the site of the future solar farm, plans are also in the works for the Skookumchuck Wind Energy Project. That venture expects to produce almost 140 additional megawatts from 38 turbines going up in neighboring Lewis County. (The two projects combined get much closer to making up for the needs of the PSE customers who currently rely on the coal plant.)

Ed Orcutt, Washington State representative for the 20th District, which includes Centralia, pointed out that these projects are near areas with a high demand for electricity—including the growing metro areas of Portland and Seattle. Orcutt noted he’d like to see even more alternative energy in the region and wants to work with area glassmakers to produce solar panels. “I’m interested in finding out how the glass could be locally sourced to get components manufactured and constructed in my district,” he said.

And making the region a center for alternative energy could help offset job losses once the coal plant shuts down entirely. While Tono will create more than 300 construction jobs to build the solar installation, it will offer only up to five permanent positions. That’s a concern on the mind of Bob Guenther, a local community member who worked at the Centralia power plant for 34 years as a mechanical foreman. Guenther has been active in negotiating for workers’ interests alongside environmental considerations and said he’d like to see Centralia become a leader not just in renewable energy production but manufacturing, too. Along with the wind and solar projects, he pointed to an industrial park not far from the soon-to-be-built solar farm, where solar panels and batteries could be built.

“What I’m hoping is that when TransAlta gets going on this project, that we can get some battery storage on it, too,” Guenther said, referring to the energy-storing battery units that now go hand-in-hand with many solar plants and help to save up the electricity produced during sunny days for use at other times. “We get so many cloudy and dark days here, and charged batteries could pick up that load and make for smoother power flow,” he added. Guenther is optimistic about what these new, high-tech fields could mean for his community. “I think we are going to end up doing some smart things with the Industrial Park, and that will be able to replace all the jobs from the plant closing—and more, too,” he said.

Meanwhile, clean energy advocates hope that projects like Tono Solar could serve as a blueprint for similar initiatives. They say there’s a good chance that other former industrial sites requiring reclamation—with transmission infrastructure already in place—may be out there as well. “There are lots of places in the Rust Belt of our country, not just coal mines,” Long said, noting their uses could be rethought, from former industrial sites to farmland degraded with heavily salted soils. All these are candidates for renewable energy projects.

Of course, when it comes to solar, another advantage is that it’s scalable—you don’t need a huge plant to process sunlight, after all. Several smaller solar installations—in parking lots, for example, or even on big-box store rooftops, spread out over an area, could be combined together. It’s this flexibility that will be key to transitioning away from coal-fired power plants like the one in Centralia and toward clean energy sources like solar.

Already, one project is transforming a former mine site in eastern Kentucky—where coal production has plummeted in the past decade. And with more than six million acres of abandoned mine land in the U.S., according to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, that leaves lots of room for innovative newcomers like Tono Solar, the nearby Skookumchuck Wind project—or maybe even for the battery-manufacturing plant that Bob Guenther is angling for in the heart of Washington state.

Source: Eco Watch

One-Fifth of Britain’s Mammals Could Be Extinct in 10 Years

14.06.2018

red-squirrel, veverica — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

One-fifth of UK mammals could go extinct within a decade, according to the most comprehensive report in 20 years released Wednesday by The Mammal Society and Natural England.

The report found that the Scottish wildcat, black rat and greater mouse-eared bat were the most endangered species left, The Guardian reported.

Next came the red squirrel, water vole, beaver and grey long-eared bat, according to BBC News. The hedgehog, hazel dormouse, Orkney vole, barbastelle bat and serotine bat were all listed as vulnerable, BBC News further reported.

“We have almost been sleepwalking,” The Mammal Society Chair and University of Sussex Environmental Biology Professor Fiona Mathews told The Guardian. “This is happening on our own doorstep, so it falls upon all of us to try and do what we can to ensure that our threatened species do not go the way of the lynx, wolf and elk and disappear from our shores forever,” she said.

The largest threats faced by mammal species were habitat destruction due to development and agriculture, as well as diseases and invasive species, Mathews told The Guardian. According to Mathews, the UK is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe and one of the most wildlife poor countries in the world.

The report assessed the more than 1.5 million individual records for animals belonging to the UK’s 58 terrestrial mammal species and considered their range, population size, trends and future prospects.

Not all mammals were suffering. Populations of otter, pine marten, polecat, badger, beaver, wild boar, greater and lesser horseshoe bat and red and roe deer had all increased since the last survey in 1995, BBC News reported.

Otters are no longer killed by pesticides and deer have no natural predator in the UK, The Guardian pointed out. Mathews further told BBC News the success of carnivores was likely due to the fact that they were not targeted as in the past.

Today, she said, the greatest threat was shrinking habitat.

“On the other hand we have species that tend to need quite specialised habitat like the grey long-eared bat or the dormouse where population numbers are really going down,” she said.

Another bat, the greater mouse-eared bat, is down to one male living in West Sussex.

“Unless we can find some lady friends for him soon [from continental Europe], he is going to be extinct,” Mathews told The Guardian. “He’s 16 now, so he’s getting on a bit. They can live up to the mid-20s.”

Luckily, the report gives conservationists a useful starting point to get to work protecting the vulnerable mammals of the British Isles.

“This project has significantly improved our understanding of the current status of terrestrial mammals known to breed in Great Britain, which is essential to underpin our efforts to protect them and their habitats,” Natural England Senior Specialist for Mammals Katherine Walsh said in The Mammal Society press release.

Source: Eco Watch

Ben & Jerry’s Joins the Campaign to Support Onshore Windfarms

14.06.2018

ben-and-jerry — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Tubs of Strawberry Breeze-cake, Cherry Gale-cia and other wind-themed ice-creams will feature in a campaign by Ben & Jerry’s to persuade the government to rethink its opposition to onshore windfarms.

The renamed flavours will be sold at half price on “windy Wednesdays” to support a pro-renewables push by the Unilever-owned firm, which has a history of campaigning on climate change and environmental issues.

The company’s intervention comes amid an industry lobbying effort to convince ministers to scrap obstacles for onshore windfarms.

They have largely stopped being built since the Conservatives ended subsidies and introduced planning reforms.

Ben & Jerry’s drive will feature a tour of the UK, including London, Birmingham and Bristol, to encourage people to take action supporting the technology.

The firm is also backing a petition by the climate change charity 10:10, which calls on the government to “remove the additional planning requirements” for onshore windfarms. More than 25,000 people have already signed the petition.

Rebecca Baron, the company’s UK social mission manager, said: “If we want to move away from polluting fossil fuels and build a future based on clean energy, then wind power is a vital ingredient.”

The government’s own polling found public support for onshore windfarms at a record high of 76% in April, up from 74% last November.

There is now mounting pressure on ministers to make a U-turn on its policy, with big energy companies including ScottishPower, Vattenfall and Innogy urging the Department for Energy and Industrial Strategy to allow the windfarms to compete for subsidies.

Allowing onshore wind back would save £1.6bn on household energy bills between 2019 and 2025, according to a report this week, commissioned by energy firms.

Lord Deben, the government’s top climate adviser, has also waded into the debate, saying ministers should tell consumers they face higher energy bills if there is no rethink.

The government has said large onshore windfarms are not appropriate for England but “could be right for other areas”, in a reference to Scotland and Wales.

Source: Guardian

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