Church of England Threatens to Withdraw Investment from Oil and Gas

10.07.2018

architecture-2666_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The Church of England has voted in favour of withdrawing investment from companies that aren’t doing enough to tackle climate change.

The General Synod, the decision-making body for the Church, said it broadly supported its ongoing strategy of engaging with companies “rather than prematurely disinvesting for them”.

However, it added companies will have to ensure they are on track to meet the aims of the Paris climate agreement by 2023, else it will withdraw investment in a crackdown on oil and gas firms.

A spokesperson for the Church of England said: “Synod’s vote makes clear that the Church must play a leading role and exercise its moral leadership on the urgent issue of climate change.

“Today’s decision, including the amendment by Giles Goddard, will allow us to continue to push for real change in the oil and gas sector and use engagement, our voting rights and rights to file shareholder resolutions to drive the change we want to see.”

Source: Energy Live News

Eating Seaweed Could Reduce Cows’ Methane Production

09.07.2018

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have found a surprising food source that could help reduce cows’ methane production: seaweed. A recent study from the university suggests bovines who eat an experimental mix of special food and a specific strain of seaweed produce less greenhouse gas than their peers.

According to Pennsylvania State University, agriculture contributes up to seven percent of America’s greenhouse gas emissions. Each day, ruminal animals (like cows) belch up to 264 gallons of carbon dioxide and methane. As much as 20 percent of agricultural methane emissions comes from animal burps alone.

To reduce those emissions, UC Davis researchers experimented with new feed combinations for cows. The cows’ hay is mixed with up to one percent of a naturally occurring red algae, Asparagopsis armata. To encourage the cows to eat the new food, molasses is added as a natural sweetener and to mask the salty taste and smell. To measure effectiveness, researchers take the livestock to a special “breathalyzer” chamber three times daily, where cows’ breath is measured for gas content in exchange for a cookie.

The cows who ate the seaweed-mixed feed saw a significant reduction in methane production. Across three two-week experiments, cows who ate the highest mix of algae saw their methane production drop by half. The research team called the findings a “dramatic reduction in methane emissions.”

But did it change the dairy cows’ milk? Although the seaweed-eating cows produced slightly less milk, the feed didn’t change the milk’s taste. A blind taste-test conducted with 25 people discovered “no off-notes” in the dairy products. Any hints of saltiness or fish did not transfer over to the cows’ milk production.

Before seaweed can become a major part of agricultural feed, the industry must overcome several hurdles. This includes changing the seaweed flavor to be palatable to cows and growing enough algae for agricultural purposes. In addition, growing feed must be economically viable for farmers.

Using feed to reduce cow emissions is part of a bigger plan to cut greenhouse gases in California. State Senate Bill 1383 mandated that farms must reduce their methane production by 40 percent over the next 12 years.

Source: Inhabitat

Deluge of Electronic Waste Turning Thailand into ‘World’s Rubbish Dump’

09.07.2018

Kompjuteri otpad reciklaža — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

At a deserted factory outside Bangkok, skyscrapers made from vast blocks of crushed printers, Xbox components and TVs tower over black rivers of smashed-up computer screens.

This is a tiny fraction of the estimated 50m tonnes of electronic waste created just in the EU every year, a tide of toxic rubbish that is flooding into south-east Asia from the EU, US and Japan.

Thailand, with its lax environmental laws, has become a dumping ground for this e-waste over the past six months, but authorities are clamping down, fearful that the country will become the “rubbish dump of the world”. The global implications could be enormous.

A factory visited by the Guardian in Samut Prakan province, south of Bangkok, which was recently shut down in a raid for operating illegally, illustrated the mammoth scale of the problem. Printers made by Dell and HP, Daewoo TVs and Apple computer drives were stacked sky-high next to precarious piles of compressed keyboards, routers and copy machines. Labels showed the waste had mainly come from abroad.

For locals, it is unclear why Thailand should be taking this waste. The Samut Prakan factory sits in the middle of hundreds of shrimp farms and there were concerns it was poisoning the landscape, with no environmental protections or oversight in place.

Paraton Gumkum, 32, who owns a nearby shrimp farm, described the smell that enveloped the area when the factory was operating. “I wish that Thailand would say no to the e-waste trash. I am worried because it contaminates the air and the water with dangerous chemicals,” he said. “We have been very worried that the chemicals will leak into our shrimp farm.”

Until the beginning of this year, China was a willing recipient of the world’s electronic waste, which it recycled in vast factories. According to the UN, 70% of all electronic waste was ending up in China.

But in January, having calculated that the environmental impact far outweighed the short-term profit, China closed its gates to virtually all foreign rubbish. It has prompted something of a global crisis, not just for e-waste but plastic waste as well.

Asian nations such as Thailand, Laos and Cambodia stepped in. Chinese businessmen have set about attempting to open about 100 plastic and e-waste recycling plants across Thailand since January.

However, after five months in which e-waste imports have increased to 37,000 tonnes so far this year (more is thought to have entered illegally), Thailand has become the first south-east Asian nation to follow China’s example and crack down on the legal and illegal e-waste coming in.

“We already have too much electronic waste here in Thailand. It is not our burden to bring this pollution from the rest of the world to the next generation of Thai people,” said Thailand’s deputy police chief, Wirachai Songmetta.

Songmetta, who has led raids on more than 26 illegal e-waste factories in recent weeks, described some of the recycling set-ups as “frightening”, with primitive and contaminating methods used to extract valuable metals from the electronics while the rest is thrown into vast incinerators that pump out toxic smoke.

“These factories have been polluting the environment because of all the heavy metals in the e-waste like lead and copper, which can poison the soil and the water,” he said. “They also burn the plastic, which brings toxic fumes into the air. So it is very dangerous for the Thai people living near these factories.”

While the word recycling implies doing good for the planet, in fact most of the e-waste recycling plants involve a dirty and toxic process to extract lead and copper that does huge amounts of environmental damage. The plastic in e-waste, such as computer screen casings, also contains high amounts of flame retardants that are poisonous if burned or recycled into cheap food packaging, as is happening in some of the factories.

Thai customs officers are now pushing back 20 containers of e-waste a day that are landing in Thai ports, and in the next two months the government plans to pass legislation to bans foreign e-waste and plastic waste from entering Thailand.

But with countries such as the US and the UK already relying on south-east Asia to pick up the e-waste and plastic waste slack in the wake of China’s ban – in the past four months alone, UK exports of plastic to Thailand have risen fiftyfold – this presents a problem. In Hong Kong and Singapore, where most of the world’s e-waste is sent before it is bounced to less-developed countries, there is already a backlog of e-waste in shipping containers. If south-east Asian countries do not take it, it has nowhere to go.

Jim Puckett, of the Basel Action Network, which works globally to tackle the problem of toxic waste, said that in the short term a ban by Thailand would “inevitably lead to countries resorting to perverse ways to get rid of their e-waste, probably dumping it in terrible places and incinerating it all.” But he emphasised that in the long term a ban on e-waste imports across the region was “extremely necessary”.

“Places like America and Europe need to realise they are going to have to start recycling their own electronic waste and stop sweeping the negative effects from north to south,” he said.

“If a crisis does hit, hopefully this will make these countries think hard about how to be cleaner and more efficient about this waste we are producing on such an enormous scale, and finally take some responsibility.”

Source: Guardian

Could Swapping Rice for Other Grains Help Solve India’s Water Crisis?

08.07.2018

rice-field — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

A study published in Science Advances Wednesday offers a potential solution to India’s growing nutritional and water needs: replace rice with less thirsty, more nutrititious cereals.

The study found that by replacing the rice grown in each district with the grain that required the least water for irrigation, India could decrease water demand by 33 percent while increasing protein production by 1 percent, zinc production by 13 percent and iron production by 27 percent.

An increase in rice and wheat production beginning in the 1960s, known as the Green Revolution, helped feed the subcontinent’s growing population but had unforeseen environmental consequences in the form of water demand, greenhouse gas emissions and fertilizer pollution.

“If we continue to go the route of rice and wheat, with unsustainable resource use and increasing climate variability, it’s unclear how long we could keep that practice up,” study lead author and Columbia University Earth Institute fellow Kyle Davis said in an Earth Institute press release. “That’s why we’re thinking of ways to better align food security and environmental goals.”

The findings come as India suffers the “worst water crisis in its history,” according to a government report published in June. The report found that 200,000 Indians die because of lack of water access each year, and the problem will only grow worse. Demand will double supply by 2030 if nothing changes.

Agriculture has a role to play in the current crisis, a Reuters feature published Thursday reported. Farmers and wealthy Indians use so much groundwater that it has plunged to record lows, the report found, according to Reuters. Current trends indicate that 21 major cities, including New Delhi and Bengaluru, will run out of groundwater by 2020.

Wednesday’s study found that the grains maize, finger millet, pearl millet or sorghum would be more water efficient. Rice is the most water inefficient crop in terms of its nutritional value, and wheat has contributed the most to an increase in irrigation demands, the study found. Since the alternative grains packed in more of the nutrients the researchers studied, switching to them could also help India feed an additional 394 million people by 2050. Thirty percent of people in India are currently anemic, according to the Earth Institute, so increasing nutritional yields as the population grows is crucial.

But Davis said he was not yet ready to recommend that India switch cereals. First he said researchers needed to conduct more studies taking into account the greenhouse gas emissions, climate sensitivity and the labor and financial cost of each alternative crop, according to the Earth Institute.

Climate-change altered rainfall patterns are already contributing to the current water crisis.

Davis also wanted to study if Indian farmers and consumers could be persuaded to switch to more water efficient cereals. The country’s Public Distribution System (PDS) currently subsidizes rice and wheat, but Davis thought it could be persuaded to subsidize millets or other grains instead if they were found to be a better option for the country.

“If the government is able to get people more interested in eating millets, the production will organically respond to that,” Davis told the Earth Institute. “If you have more demand, then people will pay a better price for it, and farmers will be more willing to plant it.”

Source: Eco Watch

Electric Vehicles Mean First Responders Have to Deal with Battery Fires

08.07.2018

electric car BMW — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Last week, federal investigators reported that the battery of a Tesla Model S reignited twice after the car’s fiery crash in May. This isn’t the first time an electric vehicle battery has caught fire again after being put out. Why does this happen — and how are first responders being trained to deal with new risks from EV batteries?

The lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles are basically the same as the ones in your phone, says Joshua Lamb, a principal investigator at Sandia National Laboratories’ Battery Abuse Testing Laboratory. There’s just more of them. Unfortunately, li-ion batteries are prone to exploding anyway when they get overheated or when the wrong charger or current is used.

“There’s always a risk when you’re talking about any kind of stored energy,” says Lamb. But that doesn’t mean EVs are inherently more dangerous; after all, there are plenty of gasoline car fires, too. “We just have 100 years of trial and error with gasoline fires that we don’t have with modern electric vehicles,” he adds. “The main issue is that we don’t necessarily have the same comfort level with the different failure modes.”

So what do first responders need to do differently when they encounter an EV fire?

The first step is identify the vehicle — not only that it’s an electric vehicle, but also the model so they know where the battery is and how to shut down the vehicle, says Michael Gorin. Gorin is program manager of emerging technologies at the National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit that works with firefighters and first responders. Many EVs run silently, so there’s a risk that a firefighter won’t realize the vehicle is still on and will try to help the driver while they’re still in the car. Or the first responder who is unaware might get shocked by the voltage.

Reignition like the Tesla case is a problem, too. “With a gasoline fire, once you put the fire out, you take away the fuel,” says Lamb. “But with batteries, even once you put the fire out, there’s stored energy inside. You can have significant damage to a system without it being entirely discharged.” The undamaged cells of the battery can still get hot and discharge stored energy. Then, says Marca Doeff, a battery expert at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, all you need is oxygen from the air and heat — maybe hidden smoldering embers, maybe from the battery’s own voltage — to reignite.

It takes at least 2,600 gallons of water to put out a battery fire, according to Gorin, and handling the battery or moving it can make it more prone to reigniting. (This is why the Tesla first responders guides suggest letting the batteries burn out.)

In truth, we still don’t have the data yet on the dangers of EVs versus regular cars. There’s a vehicle fire on a US roadway about every three minutes, Gorin says, but we don’t know how many of those are electric. But since the technology is so new, each accident merits a lot more attention and scrutiny. For what it’s worth, Tesla claims that — based on reports from their 300,000 vehicles on the road — its EV is 10 times less likely to catch fire than a gas car.

Of course, EV batteries are already engineered to protect against common causes of fire. Tesla’s batteries, for example, consist of cells divided into separate modules. These modules are each separated by a firewall to limit the risk of fire spreading, according to a company spokesperson. Plenty of researchers are trying to develop safer batteries with less flammable materials, Lamb says. But these chemical formulations don’t store as much energy, so they’re less likely to be commercialized. And accidents happen with even the most careful engineering.

For the past nine years, NPFA has run an EV safety training program for emergency responders and created guides for responding to fires in a vehicle that uses an alternative source of fuel, meaning electric cars, natural gas cars, and hybrids. They’ve worked with the US Department of Energy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other groups to travel around the country and train fire responders in person. Gorin estimates that, of the one million firefighters in the US, they’ve trained about 250,000. (A spokesperson for Tesla confirmed that its batteries comply with NPFA standards, and added that first responders can reach out to the company via a hotline.)

NPFA has done trainings in California, New York, and Florida, and is working with the DoE to identify areas that have the most alternative-fuel vehicles to continue training. Some states are aware of the need for more training but others “may not have that awareness and we’re raising that in addition to the actual training,” Gorin says.

Source: The Verge

Red List Research Finds 26,000 Global Species under Extinction Threat

07.07.2018

flying-fox — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

More than 26,000 of the world’s species are now threatened, according to the latest red list assessment of the natural world, adding to fears the planet is entering a sixth wave of extinctions.

New research, particularly in Australia, has widened the scope of the annual stocktake, which is compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and revealed the growing range of risks to flora and fauna.

Nineteen of the species previously on the list have moved to a higher level of concern. They include the precious stream toad – Ansonia smeagol – (named after Gollum in Lord of the Rings), which is being decimated by tourist pollution in Malaysia; two types of Japanese earthworm that are threatened by habitat loss, agrochemicals, and radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster; and the Bartle Frere cool-skink, a slinky Australian reptile whose habitat has shrunk – as a result of global warming – to a 200-metre band at the peak of the tallest mountain in Queensland.

The threats are not limited to faraway creatures with exotic names. Scientists have warned the loss of biodiversity is more of a threat than climate change because it erodes the earth’s capacity to provide clean air, fresh water, food and a stable weather system.

Compilers of the red list said the latest toll showed the onslaught on biodiversity.

“This reinforces the theory that we are moving into a period when extinctions are taking place at a much higher pace than the natural background rate. We are endangering the life support systems of our planet and putting the future of our own species in jeopardy,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN red list unit in Cambridge. “This is our window of opportunity to act – we have the knowledge and tools on what needs to be done, but now need everyone, governments, private sector and civil society, to escalate actions to prevent the decline and loss of species.”

Part of the rise is due to the steady expansion of the IUCN red list – which is compiled with the collaboration of thousands of experts around the world. It now includes 93,577 species, of which 26,197 are classified as vulnerable, critical or endangered.

Since last year, six species have been declared extinct, taking the total to 872. Another 1,700 species are listed as critically endangered, possibly extinct.

Among the most avoidable declines was that of the Greater Mascarene flying fox, which moved from vulnerable to endangered after the government of Mauritius carried out a cull at the request of fruit farmers who argued the bats were eating their crops. The IUCN is now working with both sides to find a compromise that will allow the species to recover without hurting livelihoods.

In the Caribbean, the tiny population of Jamaican hutia – a rodent – has been fragmented by expanding settlements. This makes it harder for the small mammal to mate and raises the risk of predation by dogs and cats. This highlights how humanity and a handful of domesticated animals are decimating other species. A recent research revealed the world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, yet have caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while pets and livestock abound.

New studies are constantly widening the range of the red list. A focus of this year’s report was Australian reptiles, 7% of which are threatened with extinction. This is mainly due to climate change and invasive species, particularly the poisonous cane toad and feral cats, which are estimated to kill about 600 million reptiles each year. Among those suffering alarming declines are the grassland earless dragon and Mitchell’s water monitor.

On a more positive note, the Quito stubfoot toad was among four amphibian species rediscovered in South America after fears they had gone extinct. Overall, however, frogs and toads have shown some of the sharpest declines along with coral and orchids.

To counter such trends, Cristiana Pașca Palmer, the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, says the world needs a global biodiversity pact equivalent in scale and stature to the Paris climate agreement. She wants nature reserves, ocean protected areas, restoration projects and sustainable land use regions to be steadily expanded by 10% every decade so that half the world is nature friendly by 2050.

But most nations are off course to meet even the Aichi targets for 2020. At a meeting of conservation policymakers in Montreal, Jane Smart, the global director of IUCN’s biodiversity conservation group, urged countries to fast track action. “Today’s update of the IUCN red list of threatened species shows that urgent action is needed to conserve threatened species.

This and other proposals will be discussed at global biodiversity talks in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt this November and then in 2020 in Beijing.

Source: Guardian

Dairy Farmers’ Excess Milk Gets a Second Life Feeding the Hungry

07.07.2018

milk-1809238_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Automation may have caused a significant surplus of dairy products and a corresponding price drop, but one non-profit has stepped up to ensure food – and farms – don’t go to waste. Philabundance, a food bank in Philadelphia, is working with cow ranchers to help sell their foods while also keeping hungry families fed in the city.

After shifting their farming focus away from traditional milk packaging and sales, Pennsylvania’s dairy farmers struggled to keep family businesses afloat. According to a study by the Center for Dairy Excellence, 120 Pennsylvania dairy farms closed their gates for good in 2016.

That’s where Philabundance came into the picture. Working with farmers across the state, the organization wanted to purchase excess dairy products to feed hungry families in Philadelphia. Traditionally, extra skim milk was dumped because farms didn’t have the equipment to turn the surplus into cheese or yogurt. In 2016, farmers across the United States discarded 43 million gallons of excess milk.

But with state funds provided by the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System and the cooperation of dairy farms, Philabundance and other food banks purchased over 60,000 gallons of excess milk destined for waste and turned it into cheese. The result was a new food source for food banks and $165,000 in revenue for farmers.

This partnership quickly turned into a much bigger idea: turning excess milk into artisan cheese. Philabundance took the lead by buying even more milk to produce the same food products, then selling them under the name “Abundantly Good.” The products went on sale through three retail partners, a direct-to-restaurant seller and an online shop. One dollar from each sale goes back to farmers, subsidizing the milk set aside for food donations. In one year, farmers sold $9,000 worth of products each and prevented further food waste.

With the success of the cheese sales and donation programs, Philabundance is testing other products for retail shelves, including drinkable yogurt. The group is also expanding its line to include foods like spiced tomato jam. Much like the dairy program, portions of the sales go back to farmers who turn their crops into soup and sauces for people in need.

This partnership closes the loop in agricultural waste. Instead of destroying products or sending food waste to the garbage, farms produce more food that goes to people in need. In turn, the farms’ bottom lines increase, keeping them sustainable well into the future.

Which is something that everybody – from farm to table – can celebrate.

Source: Inhabitat

These 5 Countries Account for 60% of Plastic Pollution in Oceans

06.07.2018

ocean-pollution — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Roughly 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every year, and according to a new study, the majority of this waste comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

It’s projected that by 2025, plastic consumption in Asia will increase by an astonishing 80 percent to surpass 200 million tons. And unless steps are taken to manage this waste properly, in ten short years the ocean could contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish, “an unthinkable outcome,” the study says.It appears that these five countries are responsible for up to 60 percent of the marine plastic entering our oceans, according to Stemming the Tide, a study released last month by the Ocean Conservancy and McKinsey Center for Business and Environment.

Why are these parts of Asia leaking so much plastic? Well, as the study suggests, these emerging countries are experiencing rapid economic growth, reduced poverty and improved quality of life. This development is, of course, fantastic. However, as these economies grow, so does the consumer use of plastic and plastic-intensive goods.

The caveat of this increased plastic demand is that these countries do not yet have waste-management infrastructures that can tackle the accompanying excess waste.

It makes sense then, as Fast Company observed from the study, that global ocean plastic clean-up efforts should initially be concentrated in these areas.

“Specifically, interventions in these five countries could reduce global plastic-waste leakage by approximately 45 percent over the next ten years,” the report says.

The study’s authors came up with the five best approaches (out of 21) to address plastic waste, customized for each country: collection services, closing leakage points in collection facilities, gasification (converting waste into fuel) and MRF-recylcing (diverting plastic from the waste stream).

“Coordinated action in just these five countries could significantly reduce the global leakage of plastic waste into the ocean by 2025,” the report says.

“This study outlines a path that can generate considerable benefits to communities, preserve the bio-productivity of the ocean, and reduce risks for industry,” the report says. “Concerted action in the form of a $5 billion annual ramp-up in waste-management spending could create a vibrant secondary resource market, trigger investment in packaging and recovery systems, and let the ocean thrive.”

“Of course, extending these interventions to other countries could have even more impact on this global issue,” the report points out.

Plastic waste in the Philippines, for instance, is having “drastic consequences on the livelihoods and health of the people of Dagupan,” said city mayor Belen Fernandez in a press release for the study.

“Our town has had a dump site on our beach for over 50 years,” he continued about the coastal Philippine city. “We’re working hard to close the dump, and increase the capacity of waste management in Dagupan. Addressing the problem of ocean plastic will have real benefits for not just the environment, but for our citizens—by improving their quality of life. I hope our city and our work will become a model for what’s possible around the world.”

Andreas Merkl, CEO of Ocean Conservancy, said in a statement that the study is the first to outline a specific path forward for the reduction and ultimate elimination of plastic waste in the oceans.

“The report’s findings confirm what many have long thought—that ocean plastic solutions actually begin on land. It will take a coordinated effort of industry, NGOs and government to solve this growing economic and environmental problem,” he said.

Source: Eco Watch

Summer Heat Waves Break Records Across Northern Hemisphere

06.07.2018

beach-1838501_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The summer of 2018 is shaping up to be one for the record books. Locations across the Northern Hemisphere have recorded their hottest temperatures ever this past week, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. While the Post points out that no single heat record can be linked to climate change, this summer’s high temperatures follow a trend of record-setting years and open a window into what will be the new normal if we don’t act quickly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Records were set across the U.S. as people prepared to kick off summer with outdoor Fourth of July celebrations. Denver tied its record of 105 degrees Fahrenheit on June 28, but while temperatures soared across the nation, it was the usually mild New England that broke the most records. On July 1, both Mount Washington, New Hampshire and Burlington, Vermont tied and set their highest low temperatures of 60 degrees and 80 degrees respectively, according to the Washington Post.

The U.S. wasn’t the only country where typically milder climes faced scorching heat. In Canada, Montreal recorded its highest temperature since it began keeping records 147 years ago. Thermometers rose to 97.9 degrees on July 2, and the city also suffered its most extreme midnight combination of humidity and heat. The heat wave in Eastern Canada has turned deadly, killing at least 19 people in Quebec, 12 of them in Montreal, RTE reported Thursday.

“My thoughts are with the loved ones of those who have died in Quebec during this heat wave. The record temperatures are expected to continue in central & eastern Canada, so make sure you know how to protect yourself & your family,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter, according to RTE.

To the west, Ottawa also recorded its most extreme heat and humidity combo July 1 but RTE said no deaths have been reported in its province of Ontario.

Eastern Canada is expected to see some relief Thursday and Friday as temperatures fall, but it can expect more of the same in years to come.

“All the predictions illustrate that going forward in Canada, things are going to be hotter, wetter and wilder,” University of Waterloo climate scientist Blair Feltmate told Global News. “It’s not any particular year that matters. What matters is the overall, the long-term trend.”

Across the Atlantic, a heatwave in the United Kingdom also broke records. Scotland has provisionally announced its highest ever temperature of 91.8 degrees in Motherwell on June 28 and Glasgow recorded its hottest day of 89.4 degrees. Shannon, in Ireland, recorded its hottest day of 89.6 degrees, and in Northern Ireland, Belfast and Castlederg both broke their records of 85.1 degrees on June 28 and 86.2 degrees on June 29 respectively, the Washington Post reported.

The UK heatwave, which began two weeks ago, is expected to persist for two more. It is already causing wildfires in Wales and putting agriculture at risk, the Independent reported Thursday.

“It could be a bad summer for dairy farmers, with the National Farmers Union (NFU) warning that in many areas the grass has stopped growing, crops are ripening too early and milk yields and animals’ winter food supplies could be hit,” the Independent wrote.

Temperatures in Eurasia and the Middle East are also spiking. Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, broke its record July 4 when temperatures reached 104.9 degrees. The Armenian capital of Yerevan tied its record of 107.6 degrees on July 2, also breaking its record for July. Parts of southern Russia also tied or broke records June 28, according to the Washington Post.

Finally, Quriyat, in Oman, broke the world’s record for hottest low temperature with a whopping 108.7 degrees recorded the night of June 26.

Source: Eco Watch

School Dinner Campaign in the UK Puts Environmentally Intensive Foods in Detention

06.07.2018

child-eating-881200_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

A new campaign has been launched to make school lunches healthier, cheaper and less environmentally intensive.

The ‘School Plates’ scheme from food awareness organisation ProVeg UK aims to work with schools, local authorities and catering companies to increase intake of plant-based foods, which generally produce lower greenhouse gas emissions than meat.

The organisation behind the initiative is offering schools the services of a nutritionist to ensure meals are balanced and healthy, as well as a scientist who can measure the emissions savings generated.

Director of ProVeg UK, Jimmy Pierson, said: “Plant-based foods are mostly cheaper and that is great news for schools whose budgets are tightening.

“They’re healthy and good for pupils in both the short and long-term as well as helping the environment and therefore protecting the future for everyone. We call this a win-win-win-win.”

Ecotricity has launched what it claims is the world’s first “vegan electricity” tariff in the UK.

Source: Energy Live News

Scientists Grow First Test-Tube Rhino Embryo in Bid to Save Northern White Rhinos from Extinction

06.07.2018

rhino-2391543_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

When the world’s last remaining male northern white rhino (NWR) died in March, it seemed like the end of the line for the most endangered mammal on the planet.

But, in a bid to save the subspecies from extinction, scientists announced Wednesday they had created embryos in the lab containing northern white rhino DNA, AFP reported.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers explained that they had created embryos by injecting southern white rhino eggs with northern white rhino sperm. The embryos are the first ever rhino embryos produced in a test tube, according to AFP.

“Our goal is to have in three years the first NWR calf born,” study author and head of reproduction management at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin Thomas Hildebrandt told AFP.

To do this, scientists hope to extract eggs from the last two female northern white rhinos living, Najin and Fatu, who are the daughter and granddaughter of Sudan, the male NWR who died in March. They then hope to implant the eggs in female southern white rhinos who will act as surrogate mothers. The babies would then grow up with Najin and Fatu to be properly socialized.

“We now see clearly a moral obligation not only to help the NWR to somehow survive in captivity, but later even help them get back to their original range and be wild again,” study author Jan Stejskal, who works at the Safari Park Dvů r Králové in the Czech Republic, told The Guardian.

There are a few obstacles on the road to this goal. First, the research team needs to obtain permission from the Kenyan park where Najin and Fatu live to extract eggs from the two females. The procedure involves anesthesia and is not without risks.

“We are highly afraid that something unexpected may happen during this procedure which is related to the heart or something else – that would be a nightmare,” Hildebrandt told The Guardian.

Then they have to account for the lack of genetic diversity necessary to re-establish a viable population of northern white rhinos. To this end, researchers are working on making sperm and eggs from skin cells of 12 different, unrelated northern white rhinos using stem cell technology.

Terri Roth and William Swanson of the Cincinnati Zoo, who were not involved in the research, wrote a response casting doubt on its likely success.

“Impressive results in a Petri dish don’t easily translate into a herd of healthy offspring,” they said, according to The Guardian.

But the study authors expressed hope and thought their work could be a model for saving other endangered species.

“Our results indicate that [assisted reproduction technologies] could be a viable strategy to rescue genes from the iconic, almost extinct, northern white rhinoceros and may also have broader impact if applied with similar success to other endangered large mammalian species,” they wrote in the abstract.

Source: Eco Watch

Sweet! Nestlé opens new wind farm in Scotland

05.07.2018

smarties-641505_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The owner of brands such as KitKat, Smarties and Milkybar has opened a new wind farm in Scotland.

It consists of nine turbines and will generate around 125GWh of electricity a year – enough to supply half of the annual power demands of Nestlé’s UK and Ireland operations.

The company already uses 100% renewable electricity from the grid in the UK and Ireland but with the opening of the Sanquhar wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway, it will supply around 50% of its energy needs.

Stefano Agostini, CEO of Nestlé UK and Ireland said: “I’m delighted we are not only using 100% renewable electricity to run our business here in the UK and Ireland, we are now responsible for producing it too.”

The project was developed in partnership with Community Windpower.

Source: Energy Live News

Lithium-Ion Batteries Are Fast Becoming the Worlds New Oil

05.07.2018

electric-car-charging — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

For an energy source that’s been around for three decades, the lithium-ion battery is only just hitting its stride.

It’s worked its way up from primitive cellular phones to cameras and laptops before entering everyone’s pockets inside smartphones. But only now that the electric car has arrived is this energy storage system truly taking off. The latest proof: The electric-vehicle boom, which still in its early days, has already replaced gadgets as the world’s biggest source of lithium-ion battery demand.

“We are at an inflection point. Each year will beat the previous year,” said Ravi Manghani, a Boston-based storage analyst at GTM Research. “It’s definitely an ‘oh wow’ moment.”

The future of the battery is going to be driven by the car. Surging demand for lithium-ion batteries, boosted by uptake from automakers, has created efficiencies of scale that have sent prices plummeting. Last year alone, the price of battery packs fell 24 percent, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. These cost declines, in turn, are encouraging the continued expansion of battery power. Lithium-ion technology has begun popping up on electrical grids, scooters, ferries and airplanes—a proliferation that will only accelerate.

It’s all happened rather fast. Electric vehicles accounted for virtually zero lithium-ion demand a decade ago, said Christophe Pillot, a partner and director at Paris-based Avicenne Energy.

The batteries first began appearing in electric vehicles in 2006. But it took until 2014, when automobiles accounted for nearly 15,000 megawatt-hours, for vehicles to exceed a 25 percent share of the world’s total lithium-ion supply, according to Avicenne data. Between 2014 and 2017, electric vehicles’ use of lithium-ion more than quadrupled to more than 71,000 megawatt-hours, with a similar jolt forecast by 2023.

Electric vehicles reached 50 percent of lithium-ion demand in 2016, although it inched past consumer electronics for the first time the year prior, according to Avicenne data. With electric-vehicle sales rising and demand for smartphones slowing, the gap will only grow wider.

“One million cars consume the same amount of lithium-ion batteries as everything else,” Pillot said.

A chemist named Stanley Whittingham helped pioneer the rechargeable lithium-ion technology in the early 1970s while working for an unlikely battery booster: Exxon.

A reason: “The oil giant believed that in a few decades, most likely after the turn of the millennium, petroleum production would peak, and that the time to diversify was now,” wrote Seth Fletcher in a 2011 book, “Bottled Lightning,” about the birth of electric cars. At the time, lead-acid based rechargeable batteries were common.

Whittingham, who now teaches at the State University of New York at Binghamton, approached Exxon leaders for approval to proceed with battery research. “I gave an elevator speech to a subcommittee of the Exxon board of directors in New York City,” he said in recent interview. “At that point, it was still conceptual. We had only built prototypes in the lab.”

In the 1980s, material scientist John Goodenough managed to increase the voltage, and therefore the energy density. “I asked myself, and I asked my student: How much lithium do you have to take out before the oxide changes its structure?” said Goodenough, who now teaches at the University of Texas at Austin. It turned out that more than half of the lithium could be removed without changing the structure. “That was enough to be interesting, so we published. But people said you won’t get mobility.”

These efficiencies helped bring lithium-ion batteries into cellular phones of the early 1990s, and then slowly into other consumer electronics. For most consumers, lithium-ion batteries are only noticed when their iPhone drains too fast. “It’s a technology that a lot of us consciously or unconsciously are comfortable with,” said GTM’s Manghani.

That point of nonchalance hasn’t reached the automobile market yet, with sales of battery-powered vehicles still accounting for only 1.2 percent of auto sales worldwide. By 2025, however, BNEF predicts sales jumping almost tenfold to about 11 million.

Some governments, mindful of climate change and carbon-dioxide emissions, are taking steps to boost demand. California wants five million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, and the state is essentially mandating that automakers either sell EVs or pay for zero-emission credits. China wants 7 million electric cars onto the road by 2025 and modeled its electric-car mandate on California’s program; BNEF expects China to account for nearly half of the global EV market by then.

Of course, there could be setbacks on the way to even cheaper batteries. Anything that dampens the global spread of electric cars—falling oil prices, a shortage of charging infrastructure, or policy changes in Europe, China or the U.S.—could spell trouble. Without a high volume of electric-vehicle sales, price forecasts for batteries may not be realized, said Yayoi Sekine, a BNEF analyst in New York.

But greater use will create a feedback loop, making batteries more competitive in other markets. “More batteries for electric vehicles will make for cheaper batteries,” said Logan Goldie-Scot, a San Francisco-based analyst at BNEF. “That means more batteries in more things.”

Falling costs will bring more batteries onto electrical grids as well as homes that have solar panels and buildings seeking backups during power outages. BNEF forecasts more than $100 billion will be invested in energy storage by 2030, transforming how grids operate.

“As the scale of the capacity and the whole supply chain for lithium-ion has increased, the costs have come way down,” said Stephen Coughlin, chief executive officer of Fluence, a joint venture of AES Corp. and Siemens AG that deploys storage for the grid. “We in the electric sector have benefited from all of this investment.”

It turns out that Exxon was right about the future of lithium-ion batteries—just not about how it would happen or when. There’s now talk that demand for oil could peak in the next generation.

Instead, the rise of electric vehicles and renewable-energy sources may mean that some crude may stay in the ground. BP last year said battery-powered vehicles could flatten projected oil-demand growth from cars in the next 20 years if they become cool enough. The speed of that battery transformation owes a debt to the generations of consumer electronics that pushed lithium-ion technology forward.

“It’s been 30 years of gradual incremental improvements and then it took off,” said GTM’s Manghani. “We started to move towards personal devices that had to rely on a lithium-ion based power supply, and then that snowballed into more companies manufacturing batteries.”

Source: Bloomberg

What’s Worse Than Palm Oil for the Environment? Other Vegetable Oils, IUCN Study Finds

05.07.2018

suncokretovo uljr — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Banning palm oil in favor of other vegetable oils deemed less destructive to the environment could lead to greater biodiversity losses, a new report says.

The report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) comes amid mounting debate about the use of palm oil, with the European Union seeking to phase out the use of the ubiquitous commodity in biofuels by 2030, citing environmental and human rights violations in the production of the commodity.

But existing vegetable oils that could theoretically replace palm oil would be far more damaging to the environment because they would need more land, according to the IUCN report “Palm Oil and Biodiversity.”

The production of palm oil is characterized by its high yield relative to other vegetable oils, meaning more of it can be produced from a given area of farmland than other oil crops. The latter require up to nine times more land than oil palms to produce the same amount of oil.

Palm oil is currently produced from just 10 percent of all farmland dedicated to growing oil crops, yet accounts for 35 percent of the global volume of all vegetable oils.

“Half of the world’s population uses palm oil in food, and if we ban or boycott it, other, more land-hungry oils will likely take its place,” IUCN director general Inger Andersen said in a press release.

Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s biggest producers of palm oil, accounting for a combined 90 percent of global supply. However, the expansion of oil palm estates, particularly in Indonesia, has long been criticized for driving deforestation across much of the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, as well as stoking social conflicts over land and other resources with forest and indigenous communities.

Feeding global demand for vegetable oils with other crops would only shift the damage elsewhere, to ecosystems such as the tropical forests and savannas of South America, the IUCN report said. One such oil crop widely cultivated in South America is soy, which has already had a massive negative impact on biodiversity in the region. Studies have linked the cultivation of soy to lower bird diversity in Brazil and Argentina. Much of Brazil’s soy production takes place in the Cerrado, a vast tropical savanna that’s home to rare and threatened species found nowhere else.

A recent report by the global environmental campaign NGO Mighty Earth found that 30,000 acres of forest, or about 12,100 hectares, were being cleared to plant new soy fields in northern Argentina, which supply some of the companies producing soy-based biodiesel for export to the U.S.

“When we look at soybean use of production there, we [sent] a team to Argentina, and we found tremendous damage to the forest,” Henry Waxman, chairman of Mighty Earth, said at a panel discussion at the Oslo Tropical Forest Forum in Norway on June 28.

The IUCN report emphasized that even though palm oil was the most efficient oil crop, it needed to be deforestation-free to halt the destruction of biodiversity in Southeast Asia and other regions where it’s produced. The current practice of producing palm oil remains highly destructive, leading to the decimation of tropical rainforests and the species that depend on them, the report said. Orangutans, gibbons and tigers are among the 193 threatened species on the IUCN’s Red List that would be affected by the continued expansion of oil palm plantations into forest areas—a menagerie of biodiversity representing half of the world’s threatened mammals and almost two-thirds of threatened birds.

“Palm oil is decimating South East Asia’s rich diversity of species as it eats into swathes of tropical forest,” said Erik Meijaard, the report’s lead author and chair of IUCN’s oil palm task force. “But if it is replaced by much larger areas of rapeseed, soy or sunflower fields, different natural ecosystems and species may suffer.”

The report found that by far the biggest gains for biodiversity in an oil palm context are through avoiding further deforestation, which can be achieved through improved planning of new plantations and better management of forest patches left untouched in plantations.

The report also recommended stakeholders push for greater demand for sustainably produced palm oil, thereby putting pressure on producers to improve their practices.

“With most palm oil being supplied to India, China, and Indonesia, consumer awareness in these countries needs to be raised to ensure that this demand will materialize,” the report read.

Adrian Suharto, the head of stakeholder engagement at Finland-based biodiesel supplier Neste Corporation, agreed with the report’s recommendations.

“The most important thing is that what you buy is sustainable and you educate people and help support the local government in Indonesia and Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia, and everywhere else to understand the importance of having sustainable production [of palm oil],” he said at the Oslo Tropical Forest Forum.

The European Federation for Transport and Environment, an umbrella for NGOs working in the field of transport and the environment, said the best solution would be to completely remove biofuel mandates and incentives for crop-based biofuels that force people to use biofuel. It cited as a case in point the EU’s 2009 policy requiring every EU member state to have 10 percent renewable fuels by 2020.

The EU is now revising its renewable energy policy, which will remove the incentives for crop-based fuels starting from 2020. It will also phase out the use of palm oil in biodiesel, which Laura Buffet, the manager for clean fuels at the transport and environment federation, said was a move in the right direction.

“I agree that if you keep the same drivers and the same high target, and you just remove one feedstock from the equation, it’ll be likely to be filled by something else,” she said at the Oslo forum. If those alternatives are soy or rapeseed oil, she added, “you will also look at indirect impact and deforestation, so it’s not going to solve entirely the issue.”

“That’s why we’re asking for reducing or completely removing the mandate, and that’s going to be the best solution.”

Source: Eco Watch

KLADOVO – the Green Municipality

04.07.2018

**Jovan Stingic, the Head of Municipal Administration**

Kladovo municipality is one of the four municipalities in the Bor district, with enormous cultural and historical heritage and natural resources. Kladovo has used its potential to attract tourists and investors in the field of sustainable development. we talked to Jovan Stingic, the Head of municipal administration, about the ecological and other achievements of Kladovo residents, the economic progress of the municipality and tourism development.

EP: According to the announcements from the Ministry of Agriculture, in early 2018 first calls for proposals for financial grants from the pre-accession funds of the European Union for Rural Development (IPARD) will be announced, which are primarily intended for investments in equipment and machinery for the manufacturing industry and primary production. Since domestic farmers generally do not have information regarding available resources nor are familiar with the project development at the local level, do you plan to provide some kind of system support, inform them or possibly train potential users of the IPARD funds that could help the development of the municipality?

Jovan Stingic: Although our farmers were eagerly awaiting the IPARD program, a difficulty arose with their limited absorptive capacities to use the funds. Given the previous experience of our society in the process of joining the European Union, the phenomenon is also to be expected. it is unrealistic to consider that our farmers will be prepared for the use of IPARD in the period when it was mentioned as something that is still ahead of us.

The responsibility for the program implementation lies with the Ministry of Agriculture, which should define the institutional frameworks for providing assistance to our farmers in the utilization of funds. The principle of operation in the municipal administration of Kladovo is to act as the citizen support and, when we notice that there is some gap in the system or lack of logic in the prescribed procedures for exercising some rights or interests of the citizens, we find a way to eliminate the deficiencies and make it easier for the citizens to exercise their rights and interests.

In cooperation with the agricultural advisory service from Negotin, we organized a meeting where experts filled our farmers in on the conditions and procedures for the fund’s implementation. The officials in Kladovo municipal administration in charge of agricultural affairs have also been sent on educational courses because they are the first representatives of the government that the farmers, who are interested in the program, make contact with. As an intermediary in establishing contact and creating the connection between reliable consulting organizations in Serbia and Kladovo farmers, our goal is to bring the IPARD meaning closer to the interested parties. The field that is currently a closed book to farmers opens the possibility of maneuvering and providing unprofessional services that we strive to put an end to.

If through close monitoring of the program implementation in our municipality we notice the effectiveness of the local administration, we will be ready to provide further assistance to the citizens.

EP: Kladovo is often called a green municipality. What would you highlight as the main advantages of your city, due to which this unofficial title was obtained?

Jovan Stingic: The phrase “Kladovo – green municipality” has a double meaning. The first refers to natural resources and the environment. One-third of the national park “Djerdap”, which is the largest one in Serbia, is located in our municipality. 92 kilometers of river Danube flows through Kladovo, and that part is what we consider, though immodestly, the most beautiful. There are many other sites of exceptional natural beauty, for example, the Miroc Mountain and the Blederija waterfalls.

The second meaning of the phrase refers to the production of electricity from renewable resources. The hydropower plant “Djerdap”, which has been producing more than 20 percent of Serbian electricity for nearly 50 years, uses the Danube’s power. In the last couple of years, it was joined by the solar power plant “Solaris”.

EP: The first solar power plant in private ownership of “Solaris Energy” company is evidence that the municipality continues the tradition of investing in “green” energy, which was first established with the construction of the largest hydroelectric power plant Djerdap. Has there been an increase in interest for investments in renewable energy from the companies in this region, and how is the municipality planning to attract new investors?

Jovan Stingic: We immediately noticed the great interest of the Kladovo municipality to implement this project on our territory. We were the first issuers of a solar power plant building permit in the Republic of Serbia. Since we were moving through a path no one had ever paved before us, the construction was not an easy task. The project financiers themselves helped us a lot to successfully execute this job. Everyone in Kladovo municipality is extremely proud of the successfully executed „Solaris” power plant project.

In such complex tasks, the local self-government also needs to help the potential investor in relations with representatives of other levels of government, so we have often been in contact with local distribution, fire police, and cadastre, who were also part of the team that helped in the realization of the construction.

When you ask me what the municipality does to attract donors, whether, from Kladovo or some other city, the answer is the maximum help to realize their planned investments. The financiers of the solar power plant have shared their positive experience, so we have obtained the best kind of marketing, in the spirit of our proverb that good news travels fast.

EP: How much is tourism developed in Kladovo, what are the accommodation capacities, and what is the annual number of visitors?

Jovan Stingic: Tourism is the economic sector that dominates the entire Kladovo economy. Hotels “Djerdap” and “Aqvastar Danube” have a key role in tourism development investing significant resources for improving the tourist offer in Kladovo.

In the last three years, the largest amount of money invested in tourism in our municipality was done by the Institute of Sport and Sports Medicine, which invests in the tourist village “Karatas” in order to become a national training center.

The annual number of visits, according to official data, is more than 50 thousand overnight stays. However, we believe that this number is even higher because there are many people who stay in private accommodation. As the last few years resulted in the expansion of this type of accommodation, many Kladovo residents are offering their apartments and houses which they turned into tourist apartments.

EP: What are the main tourist attractions and are there plans to organize some additional festivals, considering that, for example, the ethno-festival is exceptionally visited with a record number of 5.000 guests in 2017 coming only from Romania?

Jovan Stingic: The hydroelectric power plant “Djerdap 1” has been the most attractive tourist destination in Kladovo for the last five decades. The National Park is also important, as are many cultural and historical monuments that originate from different periods, from the first century AD to the modern times. I’m primarily referring to the legacy of the Roman Empire which is located on municipality’s territory: Trajan’s tablet, Trajan’s Bridge, the fortress “Diana”. I must admit that the accessibility of these and other cultural and historical monuments is limited and some of them are neglected. The responsibility for this lies with the Municipality and the Republic. For several years now, Kladovo has had the complete project and technical documentation for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the “Fetislam” Fortress prepared but does not have the necessary funds.

Ethno-festival is a tourist event with a 12-year tradition which attracts a large number of guests. Lately, there is a very strong visiting trend from our neighbours from Romania, not only during the Ethno festival but throughout the year. Romanians are coming in such a great number that it can be said that they are the dominant guests in Kladovo bars and represent the main market for Kladovo hospitality industry.

EP: What are further plans for the development of the municipality for 2018 and what will be the primary focus of the management?

Jovan Stingic: In 2018 the municipality of Kladovo is planning significant investments in public infrastructure. We have agreed on the following tactics: in the first half of the year, we will invest the funds in the development of the project and technical documentation, and in the second half we will announce the calls for tenders for contractors and start with construction works.

We have already started with the reconstruction of Kladovo primary school which is 1.1 million euros worth. The repair of the bridge damaged by floods in Velika Kamenica is also in progress. We also announced a public procurement for development of the project and technical documentation for the reconstruction and adaptation of the health center in Kladovo. We believe that this will be a historic job. The financier will be the Public Investment Management Office, and several millions of euros will be invested. We are also planning to develop the project-technical documentation for the aqua park or swimming pool, depending on what the feasibility study proves to be more appropriate.

EP: We know that the Implementation Agreement of the “Heritage on the Danube border” project was signed, which is co-financed by the European Union within the framework of the cross-border cooperation between Romania and Serbia from the IPA funds in the amount of 1.3 million euros. Kladovo Municipality is the leading partner on this project. What is planned to be implemented in the municipality from these funds?

Jovan Stingic: The project “Heritage on the Danube border” envisages the construction of the visitor center in the fortress “Fetislam” whose estimated value is 940 thousand euros. At the end of February, the tender procedure was completed. We expect that with the beginning of the construction season will also begin the work on the construction of this facility.

Among other project activities, we can distinguish the research and recording of the cultural heritage and customs in our region and in neighboring Romania, for that purpose we created the teams which have a task to gather as much material as possible and make audio and video recordings.

Interview by: Jelena Kozbasic

This interview was published in the new issue of the Energy portal Magazine on SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, March 2018

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