Taxing Red Meat Would Save Many Lives, Research Shows

08.11.2018

photo-1521305916504-4a1121188589 — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash

The cost of bacon and sausages would double if the harm they cause to people’s health was taken into account.

Taxing red meat would save many lives and raise billions to pay for healthcare, according to new research. It found the cost of processed meat such as bacon and sausages would double if the harm they cause to people’s health was taken into account.

Governments already tax harmful products to reduce their consumption, such as sugar, alcohol and tobacco. With growing evidence of the health and environmental damage resulting from red meat, some experts now believe a “sin tax” on beef, lamb and pork is inevitable in the longer term.

The World Health Organization declared processed red meat to be a carcinogen in 2015, and unprocessed red meat such as steaks and chops to be a probable carcinogen. However, people in rich nations eat more than the recommended amount of red meat, which is also linked to heart disease, strokes and diabetes.

The new research looked at the level of tax needed to reflect the healthcare costs incurred when people eat red meat. It found that a 20% tax on unprocessed red meat and a 110% tax on the more harmful processed products across rich nations, with lower taxes in less wealthy nations, would cut annual deaths by 220,000 and raise $170bn (£130bn).

The resulting higher prices would also cut meat consumption by two portions a week – currently people in rich nations each eat one portion a day. This would lead to a $41bn saving in annual healthcare costs, the research shows.

“The results are dramatic for processed meat,” said Marco Springmann, at the University of Oxford and who led the new study. “Bacon is really one of the unhealthiest food products that is out there.”

“Nobody wants governments to tell people what they can and can’t eat,” Springmann said. But the healthcare costs incurred by eating red meat are often paid by all taxpayers, he said: “It is totally fine if you want to have [red meat], but this personal consumption decision really puts a strain on public funds. It is not about taking something away from people, it is about being fair.”

Source: The Guardian

Government and Recyclers Partnership Offers the Best Solutions

07.11.2018

During the recycling process, waste is converted into raw materials that can be further used in the production process. The use of recycled materials saves natural resources and energy. Recycling pollutes the air, water, and soil less than primary raw materials production. Recycling provides new jobs. Benefits are great but do we recognise the significance and do we have recycling opportunities in our country?

People in the Recyclers Association of Serbia say that citizens are incredibly interested in the recycling of different products.

“Citizens and companies report to our Association every day on various issues. They most often ask where and how home appliances are recycled but they are also interested in recycling bulbs, batteries, glass, rubber. There are also those who would separate household waste in four categories because, for example, they saw it while they were staying in Germany. Household managers who are interested in collecting a certain type of waste within the building contact us very often, “says Suzana Obradovic, General Secretary and adds:

“I believe that the citizens who take care of recycling are proud that they did a seemingly small thing on that day, but significant for the environment, whether they threw plastic bottles into a dedicated bin, called the recycling centre to take over the old TV or took the worn-out batteries to the stores that collect them. “

Obradovic points out that the constant education of citizens is necessary because there will always be individuals who do not pay attention to the environment without realising that they do damage to their health.

“There are still those who throw their old washing machine in the woods or a refrigerator in a canal. It is necessary that we constantly work together on educating citizens – state, media, NGOs and the recycling industry. On the other hand, in many villages, there are no regular garbage containers. This is not a justification for the existence of hundreds of wild landfills, but sometimes it takes a lot of energy for citizens to take care of the waste. Only if we have containers, dedicated bins and a generally more organised waste management system, and we educate the citizens, the results will be visible very quickly. When there is a complete system, then penalties for improper disposal of waste can be applied to each negative case.”

Due to the technology that is developing at high speed, there are more and more electronic and electrical devices that need to be replaced. The Recyclers Association of Serbia invites citizens not to throw these devices in nature and not to store them in the basement because these appliances when they are depleted, become hazardous waste as they contain substances that are harmful to the environment.

Citizens can hand over all the devices to the nearest recycling centre or call the recycling centre to take over the device at their address. If they buy new appliances, they can inquire in a store whether they can hand over their old machine for recycling. In this way, old appliances will be adequately cared for and they will not affect the environment and human health negatively.

Recycling and Circular Economy

We lived in times of uncontrolled usage of resources, high energy consumption, and nobody paid attention to the environment. Although the pressure on the environment is tremendous, changes and investments have been delayed. Now, Chapter 27 on the environment commits us to significant investments in the process of Serbia’s EU accession. Likewise, the circular economy is becoming topical, a model that completes the production process, from production, through recycling, and to reproduction.

“We are far behind European countries in the field of environmental protection since our country did not deal with these issues or it dealt only sporadically in some areas. Waste management in Serbia is at a very low level in almost all segments. However, we can now use the very best practices from countries that are far away. For example, the recycling of home appliances, tires, vehicles and others started late in our country, but when it started, the companies have acquired the most modern recycling equipment and now have the best facilities in this part of Europe, “explained the interlocutor from the Association of Recyclers of Serbia.

You can read the whole article in the twelfth issue of the Energy Portal Magazine CIRCULAR ECONOMY, September – November 2018

UK Renewable Energy Capacity Surpasses Fossil Fuels for First Time

07.11.2018

Renewable capacity has tripled in past five years, even faster growth than the ‘dash for gas’ of the 1990s.

The capacity of renewable energy has overtaken that of fossil fuels in the UK for the first time, in a milestone that experts said would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

In the past five years, the amount of renewable capacity has tripled while fossil fuels’ has fallen by one-third, as power stations reached the end of their life or became uneconomic.

The result is that between July and September, the capacity of wind, solar, biomass and hydropower reached 41.9 gigawatts, exceeding the 41.2GW capacity of coal, gas and oil-fired power plants.

Imperial College London, which compiled the figures, said the rate at which renewables had been built in the past few years was greater than the “dash for gas” in the 1990s.

Dr Iain Staffell, who undertook the research, said: “Britain’s power system is slowly but surely walking away from fossil fuels, and this quarter saw a major milestone on the journey.”

However, the amount of power from fossil fuels was still greater over the quarter, at about 40% of electricity generation compared with 28% for renewable sources.

In total, 57% of electricity generation was low carbon over the period, produced either by renewables or nuclear power stations.

In terms of installed capacity, wind is the biggest source of renewables at more than 20GW, followed by solar spread across nearly 1m rooftops and in fields. Biomass is third.

Source: The Guardian

Time to Finetune AI to Keep Animals Safe

07.11.2018

sam-mcghee-151898-unsplash — Photo: Unsplash

As AI-powered drones and self-driving cars slowly come to occupy our cities, a question arises: how will they behave towards the living beings they encounter on the way? While research on human safety has been proliferating, much less attention has been given to the animal kingdom. A new paper in Paladyn Journal of Behavioral Robots explores the issue and suggests some promising ways forward.

The picture of rare drone appearances in public spaces may change drastically within a matter of years as they become providers of numerous delivery services: hot pizzas, emergency medicines, holiday presents or simply anything else below 12-20kg that wants to be transported over short urban distances. But what about birds in the way, say?

Earlier cautionary tales of birds killed by wind turbines have been met with skepticism by many environmentalists, emphasizing the lives saved over the lost ones: clean energy kills many less birds than climate change. Fair enough, yet will this utilitarian maxim prove further useful as AI-powered machines increasingly populate our public air corridors? Will we further challenge animal welfare for more human convenience?

Oliver Bendel, a researcher from the University of Applied Science and Arts in Switzerland working in the field of machine ethics, highlights an urgent need for animal-friendly machines since the ones currently on the market can easily harm, injure and kill animals without any real need to do so. Decisions AI-powered machines make are based on logical trees imbued with moral reasoning of “yes – no” questions for most situations. Currently those decisions are often limited to whether the object is human or not, as well as to protection of the drone itself.

For a different system to emerge, Bendel suggests that decision trees need to accommodate animals and other living beings as well.

Three general examples he describes are self-driving cars that break when witnessing an animal, vacuum-cleaners that avoid bugs (also think of agricultural and forest harvesters) and camera-drones considering the type of animal to avoid disturbing it. Easier said than done, however, because obstacles are many. For example, researchers have for a while been struggling about decisions regarding passenger vs. pedestrian safety in extreme situations, and when it comes to animals vs. humans our moral reasoning won’t be in their favour.

Complexity also arises out of the changing seasons, shifts between day and night, geographical peculiarities and many other factors that may be impossible to predict due to the ever-evolving nature of the living world, which would require “self-learning systems capable of adjusting to the behavior of animals, and correcting and optimizing their behavior to fit the situation”, says Bendel.

While decision-trees for such uses may actually prove quite simple, developing necessary databases and software may prove costly. When no legislation pushes tech companies to behave ethically towards animals, they might not mind avoiding extra costs on a highly competitive market.

With the increasing automation of human lives and manifold applications of AI for environmental monitoring the amount of interactions between technical and natural worlds shall rise dramatically. Thus, the task of protecting animal lives becomes increasingly pertinent and now is the time for tech companies to take actions in the right direction.

Source: Suistanability Times

M&S Launches New ‘Eco Bag’ to Reduce Plastic Waste

06.11.2018

social-plastic-bag-3-_resize — Photo: M&S

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has launched a new eco-shopping bag that helps prevent waste and reduce poverty among people living in Haiti and the Philippines.

Launching in stores on 6th November, the re-usable bag is made from 75% Social Plastic©, which is plastic waste that has been collected and recycled by Plastic Bank, a social enterprise seeking to stop ocean plastic pollution.

Plastic Bank incentivises people in Haiti and the Philippines – two areas highly polluted with plastic – to collect waste and take it to one of 36 recycling centres in return for a wage. Collectors can alternatively exchange waste plastic for blockchain digital tokens that can be used to buy essential goods such as food, water, cook stoves and fuel.

With its mission to create environmental and social impact by monetising waste, Plastic Bank prevents plastic from getting into the oceans while helping to improve people’s lives. Support from companies like M&S enables Plastic Bank to roll-out the initiative to more regions, more quickly.

David Katz, CEO of Plastic Bank, commented: “M&S has powerfully responded to customer demand for sustainable products and created an immediate impact on the lives of our collectors.

“The M&S team has been incredibly committed to our partnership and thanks to their support, Plastic Bank is empowered to stop more ocean plastic, help more people out of poverty and make responsible production the standard for businesses everywhere. We couldn’t be more pleased to start our journey together.”

Recycling centres in Manila sort the plastic by type and colour and shred it to create flakes, which are exported to Vietnam where the M&S bag is made. Plastic Bank has recycled the equivalent of over 100 million plastic bottles since opening its first centre in Haiti in 2014.

The bag has been launched as part of M&S’s Plastics Plan, which includes removing 1,000 tonnes of plastic packaging in less than a year and replacing the 75 million pieces of plastic cutlery given out in its stores each year with FSC certified wood alternatives.

Natalie Tate, Product Developer at Marks & Spencer said: “With more plastic than fish predicted to be in the ocean by 2050, it’s vital that we all take action to minimise plastic waste. We’re reducing the amount of plastic we use as a business and developing smart ways to help our customers reduce the amount of plastic they use.

“This is a strong, sturdy, practical bag to help our customers with their shop, but with the added benefit of reducing poverty and preventing more plastic getting into our seas by turning waste plastic into a tangible and re-usable item.”

The bag costs £1.30 and will be available across UK stores.

Source: M&S

Ozone Layer Finally Healing After Damage Caused by Aerosols, UN Says

06.11.2018

sun-sky-clouds-ozone — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The ozone layer is showing signs of continuing recovery from man-made damage and is likely to heal fully by 2060, new evidence shows.

The measures taken to repair the damage will also have an important beneficial effect on climate change, as some of the gases that caused the ozone layer to thin and in places disappear also contribute to warming the atmosphere. Phasing them out could avoid as much as 0.5C (0.9F) of warming this century.

Recovery from the holes and thinning caused by aerosol chemicals has progressed at a rate of about 1% to 3% a decade since 2000, meaning the ozone layer over the northern hemisphere and mid-latitudes should heal completely by the 2030s, if current rates are sustained.

Over the southern hemisphere and in the more problematic polar regions, recovery will take longer, until the middle of this century in the former and about 2060 in the latter case.

The results, presented on Monday in a four-year assessment of the health of the ozone layer, represent a rare instance of global environmental damage being repaired, and a victory for concerted global action by governments. Scientific evidence of the depletion of the ozone layer over the Antarctic was first presented in 1985, and in 1987 the Montreal protocol was signed, binding world governments to reduce and phase out the harmful chemicals identified as causing the problem.

Ozone in the upper layers of the atmosphere protects the earth’s surface from most of the harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. Without it, skin and eye damage can occur, and evidence suggests a rise in skin cancers associated with the thinning of the ozone layer.

“The Montreal protocol is one of the most successful multilateral agreements in history for a reason,” said Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment. “The careful mix of authoritative science and collaborative action that has defined the protocol for more than 30 years and was set to heal our ozone layer is precisely why the Kigali amendment holds such promise for climate action in future.”

The Kigali amendment to the Montreal protocol, coming into effect at the start of next year, will help reduce future climate change, by targeting HFC gases, mostly used in refrigeration, which have a warming effect tens of thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide.

Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said: “Over the last three decades, the Montreal protocol has fulfilled its original objective to heal the ozone layer. But it didn’t stop there. Because CFCs and related gases are also super climate pollutants, phasing them out has reduced the climate problem by an amount that would have equalled the contribution of carbon dioxide today – more than half of all warming – with the Kigali amendment adding even more climate protection.”

Until recently, most major sources of ozone-harming gases were thought to have been closed down, until studies showed sites in China where gases were still emerging. The Chinese government has pledged to find and close down these sites.

Source: Guardian

The Oceans Absorb Even More Heat Than We’ve Thought and That’s Bad News

05.11.2018

ocean-sunset — Photo-illustration: Unsplash

Two thirds of the planet is covered in water and so no surprisingly oceans have an inordinate effect on the Earth’s climate. They absorb vast amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and regulate global temperatures.

But here comes bad news, courtesy of scientists in the United States who have just published their findings in the journal Nature. The oceans have been absorbing far more heat than previously thought. And by quite a large margin too: their estimate is that the actual degree is more than 60% than the figure cited in the most recent assessment by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“If we think the ocean is warming more than we thought, it means the Earth is warming more than we thought, and that means the Earth is more sensitive to our emissions,” explains the study’s lead author Laure Resplandy, an assistant professor of geosciences at Princeton University.

According to the scientists, this stronger than expected ocean warming indicates that the planet is even more sensitive to the effects of excessive fossil-fuel emissions than has been assumed. For each of the past 25 years, they explain, the planet’s oceans have absorbed an amount of heat energy that is 150 times the energy produced annually by humans.

“Imagine if the ocean was only 30 feet deep,” Resplandy said. “Our data shows that it would have warmed by 6.5℃ (11.7℉) every decade since 1991. In comparison, the estimate of the last IPCC assessment report would correspond to a warming of only 4℃ (7.2℉) every decade.”

The planet’s oceans has long been known to absorb around 90% of all the excess energy produced as the Earth warms so by knowing the actual amount of energy thus absorbed scientists can calculate the real degree of surface warming. “The result significantly increases the confidence we can place in estimates of ocean warming and therefore helps reduce uncertainty about climate sensitivity,” said the study’s co-author Ralph Keeling, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.

The researchers say their findings suggest that greenhouse gas production through human activities will need to be reduced by another 25% beyond previous estimates. This means that decarbonization efforts will have to be even more drastic and fast-paced in coming years if we are to keep climate change within manageable limits.

Source: Sustainability Times

Glasgow Unveils Plans to Become Scotland’s First Circular City

05.11.2018

Glasgow City Council has announced its ambitious plan become the first circular city in Scotland.

Its Circular Economy Route Map will focus on cutting food waste and engage with universities and colleges to embed circular design principles in textile design courses to reduce and reuse waste.

It has also set an ambitious target for 15% of homes to be powered by renewable energy by 2030 and will develop a community of practice around circular construction techniques in the built environment.

The city hopes to publish a strategy and action plan on addressing plastic waste by next spring while working with partners to reduce, recycle and repurpose plastic waste in the city.

Cllr Susan Aitken said: “The first minister has announced that the opportunity for Scotland in embracing the circular economy runs into the billions of pounds. I want Glasgow to be at the forefront of seizing that opportunity.”

“Our Route Map will point a way to building better homes and communities, reducing food insecurity and playing our part in dealing with the world’s addiction to single use plastic. Increasing the number of homes powered by renewable or circular energy to 15% by 2030 is an ambitious target but we will need to be ambitious in the coming years.”

Source: Energy Live News

Europe’s Largest Tidal Energy Project to Make a Splash in 2021

02.11.2018

A new joint venture has been created to deliver the project off the coast of France.

Europe’s largest planned tidal energy project will start to be built in France by 2021.

Tidal developer SIMEC Atlantis Energy is forming a joint venture with Development Agency for Normandy and investment fund Normandie Participations to create the renewable facility in Raz Blanchard, Normandie.

The joint venture will be called Normandie Hydrolienne – it will harness up to 2GW of power from waters in the Alderney Race, as well as more than 1GW from other water flows.

In combination, this is expected to provide more power than Hinkley Point C at a lower cost.

The project team will also investigate the feasibility of a multi-hundred-megawatt tidal energy facility. determine if it can be acheived more cheaply then offshore wind, prepare an application for consent to build the device and build a demonstration array.

The companies plan to have a full multi-hundred-megawatt array online by 2024.

Tim Cornelius, CEO of SIMEC Atlantis, said: “Raz Blanchard is sitting on a huge amount of renewable, predictable energy and we wish to bring our project development, financing and power production expertise to help the region of Normandie create jobs and attract a substantial amount of investment into the region.”

Source: Energy Live News

With Only 74 Left, New Protections Announced for Iconic Killer Whales

02.11.2018

With only 74 remaining in the wild, time is running out to save southern resident killer whales, especially after two died this summer.

This week, the Canadian government announced a slew of measures to save the critically endangered species. The $61.5 million (US$50 million) initiative will address three key threats to the orcas: a lack of chinook salmon, the whales’ favored prey; contaminants in the water; and vessel traffic and noise that interferes with their hunting abilities, according to a news release from the Fisheries and Oceans department.

The Canadian government is also looking to create new areas of critical habitat off the west coast of Vancouver Island for the killer whales, fisheries minister Jonathan Wilkinson told The Canadian Press on Wednesday. The Swiftsure in the Juan de Fuca Strait between Vancouver Island and Washington state, and La Perouse Bank off Tofino will be areas that the marine animals can call home, he said.

“We are in the process of consulting on those new critical habitat areas and expect to be able to move forward on them in the next couple of months,” Wilkinson explained. “We are also talking about creation of killer whale sanctuaries, which essentially are within the areas of critical habitat … which means that we can prohibit a range of different activities, not simply fisheries, where you can regulate that ships cannot go.”

These efforts are part of a previously announced $167.4 million Whales Initiative to save the southern residents, whose population has dipped to only 74 individuals, down from 98 in 1995.

Their plight was underscored this summer when a mother whale Tahlequah, or J35, carried her dead calf for at least seventeen days and 1,000 miles in her heartbreaking “tour of grief” this August, according to the Center for Whale Research.

The next month, the ailing J50, another member of Tahlequah’s pod, was declared missing and presumed dead after a three-day search in the waters between Washington state and Canada.

Governments in Canada and the U.S. have made efforts to revive the iconic species. Earlier this year, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed an executive order to aid their recovery and the Chinook salmon they eat.

But will these efforts be enough to save the imperiled orcas? The majority of 74 southern residents left in the wild are not reproducing, meaning the opportunity to have more births than deaths is dwindling, Seattle’s King 5 reported in September. Only two males are fathering all of the calves and only a few females are reproducing.

“There’s only about four females having babies in the last decade,” Center for Whale Research founder Ken Balcomb told the news station.

What’s more, 75 percent of newborns in the recent two have not survived, and 100 percent of the pregnancies in the past three years have failed to produce viable offspring, the center notes.

“Without reproduction, there is no chance of survival,” Balcomb said. “This is what extinction looks like in slow motion.”

Source: Eco Watch

Australia Unleashes Higher EV Speed Limits

02.11.2018

electric car-electric vehicle-car — Photo-illustration: Unsplash

Australia has announced electric cars will be able to keep travelling at maximum motorway speed limits, even when other vehicles have to slow down to reduce their emissions.

The legal exception will allow electric vehicles (EVs) to keep driving at 80mph, compared to petrol and diesel cars having to drop to 62mph during IG-L warning periods, which is when air pollution is so bad the speed limit is cut to reduce emissions.

The Australian Government announced two other incentives for EV adoption – to open bus lanes to EVs and start promoting free parking for electric cars.

Federal Minister Elisabeth Köstinger said: “The exception for electric vehicles in the IG-L-Hundred is an advantage that we want to give owners of e-vehicles to internal combustion engines.”

“In the future, you can drive with an electric vehicle in an IG-L-Hundred zone at 130 km/h. This applies to a distance of 440 kilometers in total.”

Source: Energy Live News

Five Countries Hold 70% of World’s Last Wildernesses, Map Reveals

02.11.2018

banter-snaps-121940-unsplash — Photo-illustration: Unsplash

Just five countries hold 70% of the world’s remaining untouched wilderness areas and urgent international action is needed to protect them, according to new research.

Researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have for the first time produced a global map that sets out which countries are responsible for nature that is devoid of heavy industrial activity.

It comes ahead of the conference of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Egypt in November where signatory nations are working towards a plan for the protection of biodiversity beyond 2020.

Conservationists are calling for a mandated target for wilderness conservation that will preserve the planet’s vulnerable ecosystems.

The UQ and WCS study, published in the journal Nature, identifies Australia, the US, Brazil, Russia and Canada as the five countries that hold the vast majority of the world’s remaining wilderness.

The data excludes untouched wilderness in Antarctica and on the high seas that is not contained within national borders.

The paper comes after the team of scientists produced data in 2016 that charted the planet’s remaining terrestrial wilderness and in 2018 examined which parts of the world’s oceans remained free from the damaging impacts of human activity.

They found that more than 77% of land – excluding Antarctica – and 87% of oceans had been modified by human intervention.

“Two years ago we did the first analysis of wilderness on land,” lead author James Watson said.

“In this new analysis we’ve created a global map and intersected it with national borders to ask: who is responsible?”

The researchers say that the planet’s remaining wilderness can be protected “only if it is recognised within international policy frameworks”.

They’re calling for an international target that protects 100% of all remaining intact ecosystems.

“It’s achievable to have a target of 100%,” Watson said. “All nations need to do is stop industry from going into those places.”

He said the five countries responsible for most of the world’s remaining wilderness had to provide leadership and could act to protect these areas through legislation or by offering incentives to businesses that do not erode nature.

John Robinson, the executive vice-president for global conservation at WCS, said wilderness would only be secured globally “if these nations take a leadership role”.

“Already we have lost so much. We must grasp these opportunities to secure the wilderness before it disappears forever,” he said.

Source: Guardian

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