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

Australia Takes Stand on Single-Use Plastic Bags

04.07.2018

Single-use plastic bags are going out of style in Australia, but shoppers aren’t thrilled by the reduction. Two major retailers, Big W and Coles, have officially ended the use of plastic shopping bags from their stores. The move effectively outlaws their use in nearly every Australian state.

After Tasmania and South Australia started by installing a plastic bag ban, national retailers voluntarily began relying on them in stores. On June 20, 2018, Woolworths stopped offering single-use bags, instead charging shoppers 11 cents for reusable plastic totes starting July 9. After sharp customer backlash, the totes will be free until July 8.

The other two retail chains pulled the plastic shopping bags off their shelves July 1. To quell community outrage, Coles brought on more staff to ensure check-out lines moved quickly as a result of the shift.

As a nation, Australia is reducing its reliance on one-use plastic products to combat ocean pollution. According to the United Nations’ Environment Program, the world produces over 300 million tons of plastic annually. Approximately 2.6 percent – eight million tons and as many as 5 trillion plastic bags – end up in the ocean, where they can poison marine life. Without reducing single-use plastic production, the UN estimates plastics could outnumber ocean fish in just over 30 years.

While the move is environmentally conscious, it isn’t popular with shoppers. According to Australian labor union SDA, around 43 percent of retail workers said they suffered “abuse” from shoppers because of the change. At least one was reportedly assaulted, leading the union to start a public service announcement campaign to educate the public about plastic pollution.

In the United States, the National Conference of State Legislatures shows only two states have instituted single-use plastic bag bans for shoppers: California and Hawaii. Six major cities, including Austin, Boston, Chicago and Seattle, have all banned single-use bags, while four states and at least six cities charge fees to shoppers who opt for plastic bags.

Source: Inhabitat

India’s Huge Solar Ambitions Could Push Coal Further into Shade

04.07.2018

solar-panels — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

India says it intends to launch a tender for 100 gigawatts of solar power, 10 times the size of the current largest solar tender in the world – another Indian project scheduled to open for bids next month.

But analysts have said the country has neither the infrastructure nor the energy demand to warrant installing so much solar capacity in one go, saying the announcement reflects the scale of India’s ambition to become a renewable energy leader.

It is one of several green power promises made by Delhi this month on the back of continually falling renewables prices, with implications for coal projects including the proposed Adani Group mine in Queensland, Australia.

The Indian power minister RK Singh flagged the 100GW tender at an event in Delhi last week. While discussing a world record 10GW solar tender set to launch in July, Singh reportedly told the audience: “Now [we] will bring out a bid of one lakh megawatts which would also include solar manufacturing and storage.”

One lakh refers to 100,000 in the south Asian numbering system, equivalent to 100GW.

His office confirmed the plan to the Guardian but declined to provide further details other than that the tender would be launched “in the near future”.

The unscheduled announcement surprised some energy policy specialists who said it was unrealistic and unnecessary.

“There are many, many operational constraints to the plan in terms of land availability, transmission connections, who’s going to buy and pay for those [transmission] towers, and so forth,” said Vinay Rustagi, the managing director of Bridge to India, a renewable energy consulting firm.

“I don’t think a 100GW tender makes a lot of sense,” said Tim Buckley, a director at the pro-renewables Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, but adding he thought the plan was a “brilliant statement of intent”.

Delhi announced this month it was raising its target for the amount of renewable energy capacity it plans to install by 2022 to more than 227GW. The previous target, already considered ambitious, was 175GW.

About 70GW have been installed so far and another 40 are under construction or being put out to tender, according to government data from June.

Buckley said on current trends India was unlikely to reach the 227GW target, but said it was setting an aspirational goal to attract investment and develop the local industry. “The idea is, aim for the moon and you’ll hit the top of the tree,” he said.

There are constraints on how fast additional capacity can be added, not least the fact that India simply does not need much more power.

“India is not a hugely starved country in terms of power supply,” said Rustagi. “The growth in demand on the whole is pretty stable at 4% to 5%, and there is already enough capacity being added to the system to cater to this incremental demand.”

More than 200 million Indians still live without regular access to electricity. But Indians are among the lowest per capita users of electricity in the world, especially those being newly connected to the grid.

“These are all relatively poor rural households with very little demand for power,” said Rustagi. “Even if all the 250 million-odd people without electricity got power in the next year, our analysis says power demand would grow by about an additional 1%.”

He chalked up the government’s big energy promises to national polls looming next year. “The election is coming up in 2019 and they are facing various economic and industrial challenges,” he said. “I think it’s more a part of putting a very positive spin on messages.”

At the beginning of the decade, India had planned to power its growth almost entirely using thermal coal, with about 600GW of coal power plant projects in the pipeline in 2010. Its plan spelled disaster for global efforts to keep warming below the two-degree target set by the Paris climate accords.

But as the price of renewables has crashed, and the impact of fossil fuels on Indian air and water has become clearer, the country has sought to reinvent itself as a green energy leader.

“We have missed the first and second industrial revolutions,” Singh said at an event in Delhi on Friday. “We caught up with the digital revolution, but we need to lead this revolution towards clean energy and renewable energy.”

India has shelved or cancelled nearly 550 thermal coal projects in the past seven years, Buckley said. More projects are likely to be cancelled as the price of renewables continues to fall: a report released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance last week estimated the cost of solar and wind in India was now 50% cheaper than coal.

Singh said on Friday coal would remain a part of India’s energy mix because it was “a backbone” to the intermittent power provided by renewables.

But researchers say the proportion of energy the country derives from coal will keep falling – and that diminishing demand can easily be met by Indian mines, raising questions about the need for new projects such as the proposed Carmichael mine in the Galilee Basin of Queensland, Australia.

“The incremental demand for thermal power in India is very little,” Rustagi said. “I don’t see how it makes sense to undertake a huge international project like [the Carmichael mine] … when we have enough domestic coal available.”

Source: Guardian

Neonicotinoid Pesticides Have Been Found in Wild Turkeys

04.07.2018

Neonicotinoid pesticides have commonly been linked to the plight of honeybees.

But a new study from the University of Guelph finds that honeybees aren’t the only non-pest creatures that are coming into contact with the pesticides.

Neonicotinoids, sometimes called neonics, are pesticides chemically similar to nicotine, hence their name. There are several different varieties, with the three most common being imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and clothianidin. They’re exceedingly prevalent in the U.S. and were also used in Europe—at least before they were banned in the EU earlier this year.

Neonicotinoids have been repeatedly linked to honeybee colony collapse disorder, and concern for the pollinators is generally stated as a major reason for bans and restrictions. But research on other animals has not been as extensive; a study in 2014 found a correlation between the increase in neonicotinoid use and a decrease in insect-eating birds, but, as we all learned in high school, correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

This new study examined carcasses of wild turkeys in southern Ontario and found that nearly 25 percent of them had detectable levels of neonicotinoids in their livers. Wild turkeys are omnivores, eating basically anything they can catch or find, and it’s fairly common for them to eat seeds. Neonicotinoids are generally sold as seeds treated with the brightly colored pesticide, and corn and soy coated seeds were found in some of the birds’ digestive systems.

What this study does not examine is the effects of consuming neonicotinoids on wild turkeys (or any other animal). Last year, the EPA released an assessment finding that seed-eating birds can be harmed by consuming neonic-coated seeds; likely effects include reduced reproductive activity and migratory abilities.

Source: Eco Watch

Against All Odds, Mountain Gorilla Numbers Are on the Rise

03.07.2018

monkey-3508378_960_720 — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The news coming out of East Africa’s Virunga Mountains these days would have made the late (and legendary) conservationist Dian Fossey very happy. According to the most recent census, the mountain gorillas introduced to the world in Gorillas in the Mist, Fossey’s book and the film about her work, have grown their ranks from 480 animals in 2010 to 604 as of June 2016. Add another couple hundred apes living in scattered habitats to the south, and their population as a whole totals more than 1,000. Believe it or not, this makes the mountain gorilla subspecies the only great apes known to be increasing in number.

At first glance, 1,000 gorillas might not seem like a big deal. The International Union for Conservation of Nature still classifies the subspecies as critically endangered. Poaching and habitat destruction still threaten these giant primates with expressive faces and, as Fossey found, close-knit families. But to truly appreciate their population today, you have to go back more than half a century.

Mountain gorilla numbers were in veritable free fall during the 1960s, when Fossey began to study them closely. While she was working tirelessly to habituate the apes to her presence, livestock grazers were driving their herds ever farther into gorilla habitat. Humans were also clearing forests for charcoal and agriculture and setting snares to catch antelope and buffalo—snares that would also doom any great apes they inadvertently snagged. Meanwhile, poachers were increasingly targeting gorillas and their young for meat, trophies, and even the exotic pet trade.

The mountain gorilla population hit its nadir in 1981 when trackers counted just 242 individuals. At the time, Fossey said she didn’t expect the subspecies to survive long enough to see the new millennium. Tragically, it was Fossey who didn’t make it to the end of the century. In 1985 the world-renowned primatologist was murdered at her Rwandan research camp, Karisoke. The circumstances surrounding her death remain mysterious to this day.

Studying and protecting mountain gorillas has often meant great personal sacrifice. Over the past 20 years, more than 170 rangers have lost their lives while protecting the animals and their habitat. Just this past April, five rangers and their driver were ambushed and gunned down in Virunga National Park in the deadliest attack in the park’s history; a local militia is thought to have been responsible.

The charcoal industry and the ever-present threat of homemade wire snares still endanger the gorillas, but those threats are seen as a consequence of people trying to survive in a region without many economic opportunities. “The local communities who live next to the gorillas are often extremely poor and reliant on the natural resources found in the national parks,” writes Tara Stoinski, president and CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.

Stoinski said this is why it’s important to loop locals into mountain gorilla recovery efforts. The Fossey Fund works to provide better access to food, water, and security, as well as education and job training, “so people are directly benefiting from the gorillas,” she said. And in Rwanda, 10 percent of the park’s entrance fees go directly toward improving the lives of local communities.

Furthermore, the slow but steady gains in mountain gorilla numbers show that quite a lot of people care about these beleaguered animals and are willing to work together to protect them. The census required cooperation from three separate governments (Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo), as well as numerous conservation organizations and locals living near the park.

Trackers spent 12 hours each day traversing ravines, climbing mountains, and generally trying to survive in the jungle, all while looking for piles of the animals’ dung. The researchers sampled the dung for DNA, allowing them to determine just how many of these primates are out there. The DNA also provided clues about individual gorillas that had been known since birth but had disappeared in the past dozen years. The census found 13 such “lost” gorillas, which the scientists see as proof that despite a small population size, the apes are still capable of dispersing, mixing with other groups, and keeping their gene pool as robust as possible. “There is hope,” said Stoinski. “The gorillas are improving despite incredible odds.”

Stoinski said the gorillas’ perseverance may inspire still more conservation efforts by showing people that they can make a difference, even when the outlook is grim. After all, the mountain gorillas never gave up—and neither have the men and women risking their lives to save them.

Source: Eco Watch

Tesla Reportedly Hits Model 3 Manufacturing Goal Hours after Its Deadline

03.07.2018

1024px-Tesla_Model_3_parked,_front_driver_side — Photo: Carlquinn

Tesla just barely missed its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 electric cars a week, according to Reuters, which says that the company reached the mark “several hours after the midnight goal,” while Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that the company manufactured 7,000 vehicles in a week.

Reuters spoke with two factory workers who say that the final vehicle completed its “final quality checks” around 5AM PT Sunday morning, just shy of the midnight deadline that Musk set in early June. According to Electrek, a Tesla employee posted a celebratory picture on Twitter after the final car was completed. Tesla is expected to officially release its numbers for its second quarter in the coming week.

“Not only did we factory gate over 5000 Model 3’s, but we also achieved the S & X production target for a combined 7000 vehicle week!,” said Musk, in an email to all employees obtained by Bloomberg. “What’s more, with the widespread productivity gains throughout Tesla and the new production lines spooling up, we are on track to reach 6K/week for Model 3 next month,” the email continues. “I think we just became a real car company.”

Tesla has a lot riding on its Model 3. The electric car company hopes the cheaper vehicle be widely adopted by consumers, and thus help bring the company to profitability and realizing Musk’s dream of wide-spread adoption of electric vehicles. It hasn’t been a smooth road for the company, however: it missed its intended goal of 5,000 vehicles per week at the end of 2017, and its first quarter goal of 2,500 vehicles a week, even after ramping up production earlier this year. Part of the problem was Tesla’s over-reliance on automation in its Fremont, California factory, which caused production bottlenecks and delays.

However, while Tesla didn’t quite reach its second quarter goal, it came closer than it has before — in April, it was only producing 2,000 of the 2,500 cars it had hoped to produce. This is due in part to huge production ramp-up that included the construction of a third assembly line outside of the plant, and continual tinkering with the vehicle’s design to optimize the vehicle’s construction.

The question now is whether or not the company can sustain and grow this pace to meet demand for its cars.

Source: The Verge

US Forest Service Allows Nestlé to Continue Taking Water from California National Forest

02.07.2018

mountain-lake-416199_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The U.S. Forest Service has offered Nestlé Waters North America a three-year permit on water rights in the San Bernardino National Forest, allowing the company to continue to take millions of gallons of water from the site. Under the proposed agreement, Nestlé would draw from the Strawberry Creek watershed “when there is water available consistent with the forest’s Land Management Plan” for its various bottled water brands, including Arrowhead. If California returns to severe drought conditions, the Forest Service could further limit natural resource access.

The Forest Service says it will work with the Swiss company to study the watershed and determine future management plans. The watershed is currently rated as Class Three “Impaired Function,” the worst watershed functionality class. An “impaired” watershed exceeds “physical, hydrological or biological thresholds,” with major changes needed to restore the watershed to functioning status.

“[The decision ensures] the water withdrawal and conveyance infrastructure is under a current permit,” U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Joe Rechsteiner explained to the Associated Press. “And it provides for protection of forest resources.”

In 2015, the Center for Biological Diversity in Oakland, Calif. sued the Forest Service to block Nestlé from using the watershed, arguing the conglomerate was operating without a valid permit. A federal judge allowed continued water collection for bottling, while regulators considered a new permit. In its permit renewal application, the company cited 70 environmental studies to support its continued watershed usage.

Arrowhead’s use of the Strawberry Creek watershed dates back to 1909, when the Arrowhead Springs Company was formed. Nestlé must accept the agreement within 60 days. In a statement to the AP, Nestlé noted they would “carefully review the specifics of the decision.”

Source: Inhabitat

World’s First Beluga Whale Sanctuary Will Welcome New Arrivals

02.07.2018

delfin-77595_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

In 2019, two beluga whales, named Little Grey and Little White, will be transported from the Changfeng Ocean World aquarium in Shanghai to the world’s first whale sanctuary in a protected bay in Iceland. Established by the SEA LIFE Trust in collaboration with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the 32,000-square-meter Beluga Whale Sanctuary site was chosen for its sub-arctic climate and seclusion. “It’s really important for Little White and Little Grey, providing them with a more natural home in which to live out the rest of their lives,” head of the SEA LIFE Trust Andy Bool told Reuters. The whales are already being prepped for their journey and the colder waters of their new home through exercises designed to increase their strength and their ability to hold their breath underwater.

With its stores of blubber and echolocation refined for finding holes in the sea ice through which to breathe, the beluga whale is well adapted to Arctic waters. The beluga is also a very social animal, typically living in groups of up to 10, though gatherings of hundreds or thousands of whales can occur in summer. While the species as a whole is not considered threatened, populations in certain regions, such as the Cook Inlet in Alaska, are endangered.

In addition to their exercise regimen, Little Grey and Little White, both 12-year-old females, will be fed increased calories and gradually eased into using a stretcher, with which they will be restrained for part of their journey to their new home. Those who have made this sanctuary possible hope that it will set an example for other wildlife entertainment parks to release their animals into the wild. Whale and Dolphin Conservation captivity campaign manager Cathy Williamson told Reuters, “We believe this will inspire other facilities to move their belugas and other whales and dolphins to sanctuaries in other parts of the world.”

Source: Pixabay

Wineries Around the World Grapple With Climate Change

02.07.2018

In our rapidly changing climate—where weather patterns are less predictable, and drought and heatwaves have become longer and more intense—the world’s wine producers can be particularly hit hard.

Vintners in South Africa, France, Australia, California and more find themselves grappling with the effects of climate change, the Associated Press reported, as a tiny swing in temperatures can change the sugar, acid and tannin content for some grape varieties, making it difficult for wineries to replicate batches produced in the past.

Spanish brand Familia Torres, which owns wineries in California and Chile, has seen how a mere rise of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit over 40 years has resulted in harvests that are now about 10 days earlier than 20 years ago, company president Miguel A. Torres told the Associated Press.

South Africa, the world’s seventh-largest producer of wine, has been hurt by drought and a water crisis and will likely see wine production dip more than 20 percent this year, according to AFP.

On the flip side, the effects of climate change have been good news for some Oregon vineyards, where increasingly milder temperatures have become more suitable to grow grapes for pinot noir.

Now, “we’re in the sweet spot,” Greg Jones, a climate change and wine expert based in McMinnville, Oregon, told the Associated Press. However, if climate trends continue, Oregon’s wine could also fall victim to the same consequences faced by other wineries around the world.

Last year’s Global Wine Index found that some of the world’s finest grapes are unlikely to survive due to natural disasters, rising temperatures and other climate change factors. The Mendoza region—Argentina’s Malbec wine country—was ranked as the most at-risk. It was followed by the Kakheti and Racha regions in Georgia, the southern Cahul region in Moldova, northwestern Slovenia in fourth place, and tied for fifth are the Yaraqui Valley in Ecuador and Nagano, Japan.

Source: Eco Watch

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