Updates: polution; hunting; animal slaughter; climate change

[Anthea]

German bans older diesel cars

A Berlin court on Tuesday ordered Germany’s capital to ban older diesel vehicles from some of its roads, dealing a blow to the government’s attempts to avoid such restrictions while it strives to reduce air pollution

On at least eleven stretches of road suffering from the highest levels of nitrogen oxide pollution, Berlin must ban vehicles meeting the Euro 5 or older emissions standards, the court said in a statement, adding the city-state had not done enough to keep air pollution within permitted limits.

Beyond those streets, Berlin must analyze whether further bans are needed on a total 15 kilometers of road to lower nitrogen oxide concentrations in the city to 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air on average, the court said.

Earlier this month, the federal German government outlined plans to cut pollution from diesel vehicles by asking carmakers to offer owners trade-in incentives and hardware fixes in an attempt to avert further driving bans.

Diesel bans have already been imposed in Hamburg and are planned for Frankfurt and Stuttgart, the home of Germany’s car industry.

The case in Berlin was brought by environmental lobby group DUH in the latest attempt by activists to force regional governments in Germany to improve air quality.

DUH is pursuing legal cases seeking bans in 28 cities and has said it will file suits against six more cities this month.

Pollution from diesel cars has come under intense scrutiny after Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE in 2015 admitted to using illegal software to cheat emissions tests, sparking a scandal that has cost it more than $27 billion in penalties and fines.

Environmental groups have been encouraged by a German federal court ruling in February that allowed cities to ban older diesel cars, dealing a blow to both automakers and commuters who rely on diesels to get to work.

Berlin now has until the end of March to legislate on the bans, and a further two to three months to implement them.

“This has been a good day for clean air in Berlin,” Juergen Resch, managing director of DUH, told journalists after the ruling. The ruling “shows that the government’s diesel compromise, which was not even to include Berlin, has failed.”

However, Christian Amsinck, managing director of the UVB federation of business associations in the states of Berlin and neighboring Brandenburg, said the bans would do more harm than good, especially for businesses, adding: “Every closure hurts companies.”

He urged the Berlin senate to appeal against the decision, adding: “The diverted traffic will cause more jams and emissions, which will worsen the air quality rather than improve it.”

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germa ... KKCN1MJ18N

[Anthea]

UN calls on Iraq to take
urgent climate action

The United Nations on Saturday called on Iraq to take “urgent climate action” as Baghdad is developing plans to combat climate threats to the country

“Iraq is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world. Urgent climate action is needed if we are to safeguard the environment for future generations,” read a joint statement from the UN mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Britain, France, and Italy as the 2020 Climate Action Ambition Summit launched on the fifth anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreement.

Iraq faces multiple climate threats, including water shortages, desertification, and rising temperatures. Despite these, Baghdad is just beginning to develop a climate strategy. In September, the parliament voted to accede to the Paris Agreement.

“Iraq is heading into a new era, planning on a paradigm shift toward more economic diversity; this includes support for renewable energies and access to environmentally friendly technologies,” said Iraq’s President Barham Salih at the virtual Climate Ambition Summit on Saturday.

In September, Iraq also launched a process to develop a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) to “reduce vulnerability to the negative impacts of climate change,” in partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Under the Paris Agreement, some 190 countries have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.

Iraq’s plan is to support development of renewable energies, access to environmentally friendly technology, promote the role of youth and women in economic development, and the most vulnerable sectors of Iraqi society that are “particularly exposed to the impacts of climate change and economic fluctuation,” explained Salih.

Iraqis are feeling the effects of climate change. According to a 2020 report published by National Refugee Council, an estimated 15,000 new displacements in Thi-Qar, Missan and Basra were triggered by water shortages as of January 2019.

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations called on leaders worldwide “to declare a state of climate emergency in their countries” until carbon neutrality is achieved.

“Carbon dioxide levels are at record high; today we are 1.2 degrees hotter than before the industrial revolution,” Guterres said at the summit on Saturday. “Can anyone still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?”

European Union leaders vowed to cut their net carbon emissions by at least 55% by 2030, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, announced on Friday.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/121220201

[Anthea]

Call against animal slaughter in Kurdistan

Many non-governmental organizations and organizations issued a written statement regarding the wild animal hunting in Bingöl province and its districts

Click to enlarge:


The statement reported that at the beginning of July, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry introduced a hunting tender for 7 chamoises and 7 wild goats in the districts of Bingöl province. The statement noted that the tender was halted as a result of the reactions that developed later, but on December 9, a nature activist in the Selenk region of Kiğı district filmed the moment when a mountain goat was hunted.

THE STATE SUPPORTS HUNTINGS

The statement emphasized that the nature activist informed the gendarmerie but received the answer that hunting was allowed. “Moreover, it was informed that 3 more mountain goats would be hunted. It is possible to see this information in the hunting area information of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. It was stated that ‘wild animals of this species can be hunted in the area, except jackals and foxes.’’

Click to enlarge:


The climate and wild demography of the region changed after the dams and hydroelectric power plants (HES) built in the region, the statement said.

"It should not be forgotten that the end of natural life will be the end of all of us and all living things. Irreversible damage has been done to the ecology of our region. Our animals, the true owners of the sacred Peri Valley, should not be touched", the statement added

At the end of the statement, all sensitive non-governmental organizations and institutions were called upon to say “stop” to animal slaughter.

https://anfenglishmobile.com/ecology/ca ... stan-48678

[Anthea]

Acorns to Forests

Greenhouse launch marks official start of Kurdistan Region’s million oak tree campaign

An environmental organization based in the Kurdistan Region inaugurated a greenhouse project in Erbil on December 18, as part of its plans to plant one million oak trees across the Region in the span of five years.

Hawkar Ali is a 34-year-old teacher at the University of Kurdistan Hewler (UKH), in Erbil. In March 2019, he co-founded Hasar Organization, which aims to plant one million oaks all over the Kurdistan Region by 2025. Central to that push is the new greenhouse at Erbil’s Cihan University, where 100,000 oak seedlings are to be grown.

The idea for the oak planting project came from Omar Bradosti, a Soran preacher who has planted more than 14,000 oak trees across the Kurdistan Region over the last three years. To test the waters, Hasar planted 2,000 oak saplings in an artificial forest in Kasnazan, on the outskirts of Erbil on December 4.

Oaks are particularly important trees for the preservation of Kurdistan’s ecosystem, Ali said.

“I chose oak trees not because it’s my choice, but because it’s the ecosystem’s choice,” he said. “Okay, I know Paulownia is nice, but it’s not for me, it’s for the environment – maybe for a lizard, maybe for a snake, squirrels, who knows?”

More than 2.2 million acres of Kurdistan Region woodland was been lost between 1999 and 2018, destroyed by wildfires and deforestation. In recent years, Iranian border guards, Turkish airstrikes and Islamic State militants have set thousands of acres alight. Nearly 5,000 acres of land were burned in the Kurdistan Region by Turkish and Iranian bombs in the summer of 2020 alone, according to the Netherlands-based PAX NGO.

The organizers of the greenhouse’s inauguration know full well that planting trees is no absolute solution to the Kurdistan Region’s environmental woes.

For Hasar member Gashbin Idris, care for the environment started out while he was a student, through the simple act of cleaning his university classroom every morning.

“Being here doesn’t mean I’m only thinking of one million trees,” Gashbin said. “I’d be having a meal at home and thinking of ways to save the environment”.

For Intira Thepsittawiwat, a Thai contributor to the project now living in Erbil, “it’s about giving back to the Kurdistan Region, to make it greener."

Initra has lived in Erbil since July 2018 with her husband, the consul-general of Czech Republic in Erbil. Moving with him from one country to another, Intira would use each country’s local products to practice her love of handicrafts, provide job opportunities to locals, and – in case of the Kurdistan Region where she noticed an absence of trees when she would hike – promote environmental initiatives.

She started her non-profit Intimade project to make handmade face masks in the Kurdistan Region more than a month ago; Hasar is the first organisation she has offered her project’s support to. She donates 100 percent of her profits to planting trees through the organization.

“We should protect ourselves and protect each other, and give back to nature,” she said of her investment in Hasar.

A second greenhouse will house some more of the acorns; others will be distributed to small greenhouses at the homes of people who want to help raise seeds into saplings.

When 28-year-old Govar Kamil isn’t working at the UKH public relations department, he is a carpenter, running a workshop near his house and an online store called Darkhana - branded with a logo of a squirrel clutching an acorn.

Kamil, nicknamed Bla, contributes to the million tree project by making small greenhouses for the saplings destined for the homes of those willing to look after them, made from recycled wood.

“As a carpenter, I know that cutting wood is harmful for the environment, but we still need it for our furniture,” Bla said. “I cut a tree to make a product, but I plant two trees to replace the one I cut down.”

The minds of many in the Kurdistan Region are occupied by other, seemingly more urgent crises -- including the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But Hasar co-founder Ali believes that the global climate crisis is more dangerous than the coronavirus; climate change is slower, but with effects “more severe than coronavirus,” he added.

Earlier this month, the United Nations called Iraq “one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world”.

“Urgent climate action is needed if we are to safeguard the environment for future generations,” read a joint statement from the UN mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Britain, France, and Italy as the 2020 Climate Action Ambition Summit launched on the fifth anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreement.

“All countries should be prepared for the climate emergency,” Ali said.

“We are involved in different issues – economic crisis, internal conflict, military conflict with ISIS… the government is busy with such things, but I have time”, he said. “Our responsibility as an NGO is to help the KRG in such a crisis”.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/28122020

[Anthea]

Greta Thunberg turns 18

Greta Thunberg has said she 'doesn't care' about the jet-setting exploits of celebrities who preach about the environment in an interview ahead of her 18th birthday

The teenage activist became the face of the youth climate movement after launching a solo 'school strike' outside the Swedish parliament aged just 15.

Since then, Miss Thunberg - who will turn 18 on Sunday - has spoken at the United Nations climate summit, been nominated for a Nobel peace prize and was dubbed Time magazine's 2019 person of the year.

But she said her global superstardom won't last forever so is trying to 'use her position' to get as much done as possible 'in this limited amount of time'.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were criticised for using private jets in 2019 - including four trips in just 11 days in August - despite their eco credentials.

Miss Thunberg said: 'I'm not telling anyone else what to do, but there is a risk when you are vocal about these things and don't practise as you preach, then you will become criticised for that and what you are saying won't be taken seriously.'

The teenager - who has Asperger's syndrome - was critical of Boris Johnson's ten-point 'green industrial revolution'.

The Prime Minister launched a £12billion plan for the environment last year, saying it could create 250,000 jobs and significantly slash the country's carbon emissions.

Among the ambitious proposals are plans to ban new sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2030, install thousands of offshore wind turbines and plant 75,000 acres of trees per year.

Miss Thunberg - who will turn 18 on Sunday - has spoken at the United Nations climate summit, been nominated for a Nobel peace prize and was dubbed Time magazine's 2019 person of the year (pictured)

But Miss Thunberg said her global superstardom won't last forever so she is trying to 'use her position' to get as much done as possible 'in this limited amount of time'

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were criticised for using private jets in 2019 - including four trips in just 11 days in August - despite their eco credentials

Miss Thunberg said that while the proposals were seen as better than the Government doing nothing - she pointed out that scientists have criticised it for not doing enough to tackle climate change.

In the interview, the activist also said that she doesn't mull over criticism levied at her from world leaders.

In 2019, Miss Thunberg shouted 'How dare you?' during the UN General Assembly - claiming that country heads were failing the younger generation.

US President Donald Trump sarcastically said of her UN Speech: 'She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see.'

Last December, President Trump told Miss Thunberg to 'work on her anger management problem' and 'get a good old-fashioned movie with a friend' after she became the youngest person to be awarded with Time magazine's Person Of The Year accolade.

After she was named Person Of The Year by Time Magazine, President Trump said Thunberg needed to 'chill' and 'work on her anger management problem'

The 17-year-old mimicked a tweet the President had directed at her last year and told him to 'chill' and 'work on his anger management problem'

In his tweet last year the President wrote: 'So ridiculous. Greta must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, chill!'

In November, Miss Thunberg threw the criticism back at him.

Taking to Twitter to reply to the President's calls to 'stop the count', the teenager wrote: 'So ridiculous. Donald must work on his anger management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill!'

Last month, the activist said she was celebrating being back in school but accused nations of ignoring climate experts, despite the pandemic showing the importance of following science.

Miss Thunberg took a gap year from 2019 in a bid to force leaders from around the world to take action on climate change.

The schoolgirl was seen at the UN headquarters last year with an enraged expression on her face as President Trump walked in

As her studies get back under way she told novelist Margaret Atwood during her guest editorship of BBC Radio 4's Today programme the coronavirus crisis has 'shone a light' on how 'we cannot make it without science'.

And she accused the world of listening to 'one type' of scientist, and ignoring others warning of climate change.

When asked if the pandemic's impact on people's appreciation of science could have an effect on climate information the teenager said: 'It could definitely have.

'I think this pandemic has shone a light on how ... we are depending on science and that we cannot make it without science.

'But of course, we are only listening to one type of scientist, or some types of scientists, and, for example, we are not listening to climate scientists, we're not listening to scientists who work on biodiversity.

'That of course needs to change.'

Earlier she had shared a picture of herself on a bike with her school rucksack over her shoulder as she celebrated returning to education.

But the environmental campaigner expressed scepticism when questioned about nations' pledges to reduce their carbon emissions, such as China which has committed to reach a net zero target by 2060.

She said: 'That would be very nice if they actually meant something.

'We can't just keep talking about future, hypothetical, vague, distant dates and pledges. We need to do things now. And also net zero ... that is a very big loophole, you can fit a lot in that word net.'

But she praised the election of Joe Biden as US president who has pledged to rejoin the Paris climate accord on the first day of his presidency.

Miss Thunberg added: 'It could be a good start of something new.

'Let's hope that it is like that, and let's push for it to become like that.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... lanet.html

[Anthea]

U.S. military is terrified of climate change

Climate change has done more damage than Iranian missiles

Among the Pentagon's fears is that weather-related catastrophes could mean it has to commit most of its resources to disaster relief missions.

In a few hours of extraordinary violence on Oct. 10, 2018, Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle was utterly devastated, with 95 percent of its buildings severely damaged or destroyed. At that time, Tyndall served as the home base for nearly one-third of the Air Force’s fleet of ultra-valuable F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. Seventeen of the irreplaceable aircraft had been crammed into a hanger in advance of the tide of destruction — only for chunks of the hangar’s roof to collapse on top of them.

For several days, it seemed like the Air Force had lost about 10 percent of its deadliest fighter aircraft in one fell swoop, though by good fortune, the Raptors all reportedly proved repairable. The Air Force is still footing a staggering $5 billion bill to rebuild Tyndall and another base and move F-22 operations elsewhere.

The damage sounds like the results of an attack in a war. But Tyndall was struck by the 150 mph winds of Category 5 Hurricane Michael, not enemy bombers. It was an early manifestation of the same extreme weather that’s wreaking havoc now in Hurricane Sally and the California wildfires.

While hurricanes and fires may be inevitable natural phenomena, scientists have repeatedly found persuasive evidence that climate change has greatly increased the severity of extreme weather events. In some cases, it is even possible to draw a direct line between global warming and a given disaster.

“Sometimes connecting climate change to a specific weather event is difficult,” CBS meteorologist Jeff Berardelli noted. “With Hurricane Michael, it's not.” He pointed out that “Earth's waters are getting warmer due to an increasing global temperature, and warmer waters fuel hurricanes.”

That fall, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico averaged 3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than usual. Reportedly, that correspondingly heightens wind velocities in storms to the point that they can be 60 to 100 percent more destructive.

The destruction at Tyndall was worse in terms of material losses than anything the U.S. military has experienced from missile attacks in the Middle East. So while the Pentagon makes plans for possible wars with foreign adversaries, it has concluded since 2010 that it also must reckon with the certainty of climate change.

The dangers include flooding, fires and storm damage to its military bases a la Tyndall, but also degrading the effectiveness of forces in the field, increasing demands to respond to environmental disasters and potentially the collapse of the infrastructure it depends upon to function. Thankfully, the U.S. military is preparing for this reality even if the federal government isn’t.

While the Trump administration appoints climate deniers, kills environmental regulations and waters down reports on climate change, the Defense Department has discretely continued studying expected effects of climate change based on projections by climate experts — and the conclusions of those studies are nothing short of terrifying.

A 2019 report by the Pentagon concluded that 79 military bases will be affected by rising sea levels and frequent flooding. The largest naval base on the planet, located in Norfolk, Virginia, may become unusable due to flooding caused by a rising sea level and more frequent hurricanes — threatening to take out the home port of six aircraft carriers. Island bases, including a missile test range and a billion-dollar air defense radar, risk becoming uninhabitable due to flooding and saltwater contamination.

In fact, an Army War College study concluded that coastal saltwater intrusion would “compromise or eliminate fresh water supplies in many parts of the world.” That poses additional challenges as troops in the field will grow increasingly dehydrated due to warming and risk experiencing water shortages.

The Defense Department also fears that climate-change-related catastrophes could inflict such widespread damage on U.S. infrastructure that the military may have to commit most of its resources to disaster relief missions unprecedented in their scale.

For example, damage from storms and increased energy consumption linked to rising temperatures could cause the collapse of the United States' aging energy infrastructure in the next 20 years, leaving tens of millions without electricity and the air conditioning, refrigeration, internet and smartphone conveniences we take for granted in modern life. Population movement due to these disasters, and rising insect populations due to temperature changes, could then lead to more pandemics.

Flooding could also damage and destroy U.S. ports through which America receives around 80 percent of its agricultural imports and exports, causing further economic chaos. Thus the military could end up having to devote most of its resources to huge humanitarian relief operations rather than focusing on foreign threats.

The military can’t single-handedly stop climate change, of course. It can only plan to mitigate damage and build up responses. These preparations are still likely inadequate compared to the scale of the anticipated problem, but they’re a start.

Additionally, the Pentagon must do more to reduce its own carbon footprint, as it is the largest single institutional producer of greenhouse gases on the planet, having generated an estimated 766 million metric tons of CO2 emissions between 2001 and 2017. It generates more pollution annually than many small countries.

Preparatory measures undertaken by the Pentagon include building sea walls around vulnerable bases, planning to transport more water for units deployed in the field and preparing logistical capabilities that can respond to severe weather events like Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017.

The Department of Defense has also implemented a strategic sustainability plan that requires every U.S. military base to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels by a certain amount every year. New military vehicles are being designed for higher heat tolerances and greater requirements for energy efficiency.

Undoubtedly, follow-through on these policies won’t always be rapid or comprehensive enough. For example, increased flood risks at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, home of the Strategic Command that controls U.S. nuclear forces and spy planes, were known, but construction of $22 million in levee reinforcements was tied up in red tape — resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from flooding in 2019.

While the military may still not be doing enough to follow through on its reports and mitigate the effects of the oncoming tsunami of climate-change-related catastrophes, it at least is recognizing they are real, will impose tangible material hardships and risks and need to be systematically planned for. If only that could be said for the country as a whole.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/u ... cna1240484

[Anthea]

UK allows emergency use
of bee-harming pesticide

In 2018, an almost total ban was put in by the EU and UK because of the serious damage it could cause to bees

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says its use will be limited to this year only.

A spokeswoman told Newsbeat the measures "will be tightly controlled to minimise any potential risk to pollinators".

Emergency use of a product containing the chemical thiamethoxam has been allowed because a virus is threatening sugar beet seeds.

Scientific studies have long linked the use of these chemicals to the decline of honeybees, wild bees and other animals which pollinate plants.

At the time of the ban, Michael Gove, then environment secretary, said the UK was in favour as it couldn't "afford to put our pollinator populations at risk".

But according to Defra, the amount of sugar beet grown in 2020 was reduced due to the yellow virus - and similar conditions in 2021 would cause the same problems, unless it took action.

Along with the UK, 10 EU countries including Belgium, Denmark and Spain - countries with significant sugar production - have granted emergency authorisations.

Why are bees important?

Milan Wiercx van Rhijn, from the charity Bees for Development feels "disappointed" by the government's decision.

The 32-year-old says the insects play a vital role in the food chain - with around a third of the food we eat relying on pollination mainly by bees.

"If we kill the insects which are the starting blocks in the chain, we'll kill the animals higher up," he tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

"It's hard to grasp how much of an impact it'll have on us."

Milan agrees it's important to protect sugar beet - but says the government has to find another way.

Why is sugar beet important? The government tells us to cut down on our sugar intake. It also stated that many high sugar items will be removed from supermarket shelves.

Logic says less sugar = higher prices = less sugar consumption = just what the government says it wants

"If we keep thinking about these short-term solutions and rolling back, we'll never get to the point where we don't use these products."

"I thought we saw an end to these chemicals. But it's creeping back now."

He suggests a greater focus on having "strong, resilient bio-abundance" - which is letting things grow properly and "not cutting them down".

"Keep your flowers growing in the spring, as that will have food for pollinators. In every way, we should consider our effect in killing everything by using pesticides."

The Defra spokeswoman says this emergency authorisation has only happened because it's an "exceptional circumstance where diseases or pests cannot be controlled by any other reasonable means".

They added "protecting pollinators is a priority for this government".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-55566438

[Anthea]

Arctic microplastic pollution

Plastic particles have infiltrated even the most remote and seemingly-pristine regions of the planet



Households in Europe and North America are flooding the oceans with plastic pollution simply by washing their clothes, scientists said Tuesday after research found the majority of microplastics in Arctic seawater were polyester fibres.

Plastic particles have infiltrated even the most remote and seemingly-pristine regions of the planet.

These tiny fragments have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean—the Mariana Trench—peppering Arctic sea ice and blanketing the snows on the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.

But questions remain over exactly where this plastic contamination is coming from.

In the new study by the Ocean Wise conservation group and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, researchers sampled seawater from across the Arctic and found synthetic fibres made up around 92 percent of microplastic pollution.

Of this, around 73 percent was found to be polyester, resembling the dimensions and chemical identities of synthetic textiles—particularly clothing.

"The striking conclusion here is that we now have strong evidence that homes in Europe and North America are directly polluting the Arctic with fibres from laundry (via wastewater discharge)," said lead author Peter Ross, of Ocean Wise and the University of British Columbia.

He said the mechanisms for this remain unclear, but added that ocean currents appear to play a major role in transporting the fibres northwards, while atmospheric systems may also contribute.

"Plastics are all around us, and while it would be grossly unfair to specifically point our finger at textiles as the only source of microplastics to the world's oceans, we nonetheless see a strong footprint of polyester fibres that are likely to be largely derived from clothing," he told AFP.

Washing machine to ocean

Researchers collected near-surface seawater samples along a 19,000 kilometre section from Tromso in Norway to the North Pole, through the Canadian Arctic and into the Beaufort Sea, where they also analysed some samples up to a depth of around 1,000 metres.

"We found microplastic in all but one sample, underscoring the widespread distribution of this emerging pollutant in this remote region," said Ross.

Researchers used microscopy and infrared analysis to identify and measure the microplastics, which they defined as shreds of plastic smaller than five millimetres.

With almost three times more microplastic particles found in the eastern Arctic compared to the west, the authors suggested that new polyester fibres could be being delivered to the east of the region by the Atlantic.

Ocean Wise has run tests on washing machines and estimates that a single item of clothing can release millions of fibres during a normal domestic wash.

The organisation has also warned that wastewater treatment plants are often not catching the plastic fibres, calculating that households in the United States and Canada could collectively release some 878 tonnes of microfibres annually.

"The textile sector can do much to design more sustainable clothing, including by designing clothes that shed less," said Ross, while governments could make sure wastewater treatment plants have installed technologies to remove microplastics and incentivise innovation.

The Burgundy Polyester suit that Will Ferrell wore during filming of The Anchorman. The synthetic fibre is used widely in clothing and other textiles.

Households can also play their part by choosing products made with more environmentally friendly fabrics and installing lint traps on their washing machines, Ross added.

In 2019 a study published in Science Advances concluded that a large quantity of microplastic fragments and fibres are transported by winds into the Arctic region, and then hitch a ride Earthward in snowflakes.

Several million tonnes of plastics also find their way each year directly into oceans, where they are broken down into microscopic bits over time.

In the last two decades, the world has produced as much plastic as during the rest of history, and the industry is set to grow by four percent a year until 2025, according to a 2020 report by Grand View Research.

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-arctic-mi ... ution.html

[Anthea]

Top scientists warn of mass extinction

The planet is facing a “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals” that threaten human survival because of ignorance and inaction, according to an international group of scientists, who warn people still haven’t grasped the urgency of the biodiversity and climate crises

The 17 experts, including Prof Paul Ehrlich from Stanford University, author of The Population Bomb, and scientists from Mexico, Australia and the US, say the planet is in a much worse state than most people – even scientists – understood.

“The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms – including humanity – is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts,” they write in a report in Frontiers in Conservation Science which references more than 150 studies detailing the world’s major environmental challenges.

The delay between destruction of the natural world and the impacts of these actions means people do not recognise how vast the problem is, the paper argues. “[The] mainstream is having difficulty grasping the magnitude of this loss, despite the steady erosion of the fabric of human civilisation.”

The report warns that climate-induced mass migrations, more pandemics and conflicts over resources will be inevitable unless urgent action is taken.

“Ours is not a call to surrender – we aim to provide leaders with a realistic ‘cold shower’ of the state of the planet that is essential for planning to avoid a ghastly future,” it adds

Dealing with the enormity of the problem requires far-reaching changes to global capitalism, education and equality, the paper says. These include abolishing the idea of perpetual economic growth, properly pricing environmental externalities, stopping the use of fossil fuels, reining in corporate lobbying, and empowering women, the researchers argue.

The report comes months after the world failed to meet a single UN Aichi biodiversity target, created to stem the destruction of the natural world, the second consecutive time governments have failed to meet their 10-year biodiversity goals. This week a coalition of more than 50 countries pledged to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030.

An estimated one million species are at risk of extinction, many within decades, according to a recent UN report

“Environmental deterioration is infinitely more threatening to civilisation than Trumpism or Covid-19,” Ehrlich told the Guardian.

In The Population Bomb, published in 1968, Ehrlich warned of imminent population explosion and hundreds of millions of people starving to death. Although he has acknowledged some timings were wrong, he has said he stands by its fundamental message that population growth and high levels of consumption by wealthy nations is driving destruction.

He told the Guardian: “Growthmania is the fatal disease of civilisation - it must be replaced by campaigns that make equity and well-being society’s goals - not consuming more junk.”

Large populations and their continued growth drive soil degradation and biodiversity loss, the new paper warns. “More people means that more synthetic compounds and dangerous throwaway plastics are manufactured, many of which add to the growing toxification of the Earth. It also increases the chances of pandemics that fuel ever-more desperate hunts for scarce resources.”

The effects of the climate emergency are more evident than biodiversity loss, but still, society is failing to cut emissions, the paper argues. If people understood the magnitude of the crises, changes in politics and policies could match the gravity of the threat.

“Our main point is that once you realise the scale and imminence of the problem, it becomes clear that we need much more than individual actions like using less plastic, eating less meat, or flying less. Our point is that we need big systematic changes and fast,” Professor Daniel Blumstein from the University of California Los Angeles, who helped write the paper, told the Guardian.

The paper cites a number of key reports published in the past few years including:

The World Economic Forum report in 2020, which named biodiversity loss as one of the top threats to the global economy.

The 2019 IPBES Global Assessment report which said 70% of the planet had been altered by humans.

The 2020 WWF Living Planet report, which warned the average population size of vertebrates had declined by 68% in the past five years.

A 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report which said that humanity had already exceeded global warming of 1C above pre-industrial levels and is set to reach 1.5C warming between 2030 and 2052.

The report follows years of stark warnings about the state of the planet from the world’s leading scientists, including a statement by 11,000 scientists in 2019 that people will face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless major changes are made. In 2016, more than 150 of Australia’s climate scientists wrote an open letter to the then prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, demanding immediate action on reducing emissions. In the same year, 375 scientists – including 30 Nobel prize winners – wrote an open letter to the world about their frustrations over political inaction on climate change.

Prof Tom Oliver, an ecologist at the University of Reading, who was not involved in the report, said it was a frightening but credible summary of the grave threats society faces under a “business as usual” scenario. “Scientists now need to go beyond simply documenting environmental decline, and instead find the most effective ways to catalyse action,” he said.

Prof Rob Brooker, head of ecological sciences at the James Hutton Institute, who was not involved in the study, said it clearly emphasised the pressing nature of the challenges.

“We certainly should not be in any doubt about the huge scale of the challenges we are facing and the changes we will need to make to deal with them,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... uption-aoe

[Anthea]

Duhok environmentalists build wildlife shelters

A group of Duhok environmental and animal rights activists on Monday began building shelters for animals and birds ten kilometres north of the provincial capital



Taking place in a forest close to the town of Zawita, the project aims to provide local wildlife with cover and food for the cold winter season.

“We, as an environmental protection group, have come here to hang up nests for baby birds. We are volunteers. We consider it everyone’s responsibility,” environmental activist Nura Khalid told Rudaw on Monday.

Nechirvan Abdulkhaliq, head of the Zhin Environmental Group, said they started the project “to tell people that, instead of hunting these wild animals, you can help them.”

Duhok’s environmental department has provided feed for the birds, which are put in the shelters. They plan to put feed in them every week.

“Building these nests will help save the area’s birds. We know that birds have specific importance in the environment of the area. It’s important that they be protected,” Dilshad Abdulrahman, Director of Duhok Environment Department, told Rudaw on Monday.

However, environmental scientist Korsh Ararat says such projects are not necessarily needed for the survival of birds.

“Birds don’t need such shelters because they have their own nests and shelters,” said the wildlife expert based out of the University of Sulaimani. "Putting nesting boxes in trees in an area needs to be studied based on the species of the birds and the environmental situation of the area."

“In terms of feed, the birds have their own ways to get food, bread and dough are generally not good for wild birds,” Ararat added, noting however that such projects were good for raising public awareness.

There are more than 300 bird species in the Kurdistan Region, according to figures from the Kurdistan Organization for Animal Rights Protection (KOARP).

However, at least ten are under threat of extinction due to a number of factors, including environmental destruction by human beings, hunting and climate change, according to Ararat

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/13012021

[Anthea]

Porcupines vanishing from the Kurdistan

The Kurdistan Region’s porcupine population is in decline due to overhunting, locals and an activist claim

Rasul Hariri, a resident of Erbil province’s Harir subdistrict, told Rudaw that the spikey rodent has virtually disappeared from sight in the area.

“There might be one or two porcupines left in the mountains of Harir at the moment,” he observed.

The animal is hunted in the Kurdistan Region for food and sport by locals, with the help of dogs and traps.

Bryar Latif, a 27-year-old farmer from Said Sadiq, has begun breeding the animal to make up for its disappearance in nature. Four years into his domestication project, he has bred 30 porcupines out of the three he bought for 350,000 dinars.

“Last fall, I slaughtered a 16 kilogram porcupine,” he said. “It tasted really good.”

Sarwar Qaradaghi, co-chair of the environmentalist group Nature Organization Kurdistan, verified that the animal was disappearing in the Kurdistan Region due to overhunting.

“This has really hurt the Region’s nature and endangered this animal and many other animals,” he noted of hunters.

However, police discourage both the hunting and breeding of porcupines.

“Anyone that hunts porcupines and breeds them at home to make profit, will be severely punished,” said Fouad Ahmad, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s environmental and forest police.

According to Kurdistan Region legislation, hunters will face a fine of 200,000 dinars on their first offence, and double if they offend repeatedly.

Link to Article - Videos:

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/14012021

[Anthea]

The Last Two Northern White Rhinos On Earth

What will we lose when Najin and Fatu die?


The story of Najin and Fatu, a mother and daughter at the end.

The day Sudan died, everything felt both monumental and ordinary. It was a Monday. Gray sky, light rain. On the horizon, the sun was struggling to make itself seen over the sharp double peaks of Mount Kenya. Little black-faced monkeys came skittering in over the fence to try to steal the morning carrots. Metal gates creaked and clanked. Men spoke in quiet Swahili. Sudan lay still in the dirt, thick legs folded under him, huge head tilted like a capsizing ship. His big front horn was blunt, scarred, worn. His breathing was harsh and ragged. All around him, for miles in every direction, the savannah teemed with life: warthogs, zebras, elephants, giraffes, leopards, lions, baboons — creatures doing what they had been doing for eons, hunting and feeding and scavenging, breathing and going and being. Until recently, Sudan had been a part of this pulse. But now he could hardly move. He was a giant stillness at the center of all the motion.

Sudan was the last male northern white rhinoceros on earth — the end of an evolutionary rope that stretched back millions of years. Although his death was a disaster, it was not a surprise. It was the grim climax of a conservation crisis that had been accelerating, for many decades, toward precisely this moment. Every desperate measure — legal, political, scientific — had already been exhausted.

Sudan was 45 years old, ancient for a rhino. His skin was creased all over. Wrinkles radiated out from his eyes. He was gray, the color of stone; he looked like a boulder that breathed. For months now, his body had been failing. When he walked, his toes scraped the ground. His legs were covered with sores; one deep gash had become badly infected. The previous day, shortly before sunset, he collapsed for the final time. He struggled, at first, to stand back up — his caretakers crouched and heaved, trying to help — but his legs were too weak. The men fed him bananas stuffed with pain pills, 24 pills at a time. Veterinarians packed his wounds with medical clay.

In the last years of his life, Sudan had become a global celebrity, a conservation icon. He lived, like an ex-president, under the protection of 24/7 armed guards. Visitors traveled from everywhere to see him. Sudan was a perfect ambassador: He weighed more than two tons but had the personality of a golden retriever. He would let people touch him and feed him snacks — a whole carrot, clamped in his big boxy mouth, looked like a little orange toothpick. Tourists got emotional, because they knew they were laying hands on a singular creature, a primordial giant about to slide off into the void. Many hurried back to their cars and cried.

Image
Najin (left) and her daughter, Fatu.
Credit...Jack Davison for The New York Times

Although Sudan was the last male, he was not, actually, the last of his kind. He still had two living descendants, both female: Najin, a daughter, and Fatu, a granddaughter. As Sudan declined, these two stood grazing in a nearby field. They would live out their days in a strange existential twilight — a state of limbo that scientists call, with heartbreaking dryness, “functional extinction.” Their subspecies was no longer viable. Two females, all by themselves, would not be able to save it.

In his final moments, Sudan was surrounded by the men who loved him. His caretakers were veterans of the deep bush — not, on any level, strangers to death. They had survived close encounters with lions and elephants and buffalo and baboons. But this was something new. We expect extinction to unfold offstage, in the mists of prehistory, not right in front of our faces, on a specific calendar day. And yet here it was: March 19, 2018. The men scratched Sudan’s rough skin, said goodbye, made promises, apologized for the sins of humanity. Finally, the veterinarians euthanized him. For a short time, he breathed heavily. And then he died.

The men cried. But there was also work to be done. Scientists extracted what little sperm Sudan had left, packed it in a cooler and rushed it off to a lab. Right there in his pen, a team removed Sudan’s skin in big sheets. The caretakers boiled his bones in a vat. They were preparing a gift for the distant future: Someday, Sudan would be reassembled in a museum, like a dodo or a great auk or a Tyrannosaurus rex, and children would learn that once there had been a thing called a northern white rhinoceros. Living creatures would look at the dead one and try to imagine it alive. But they wouldn’t be able to, not really. We can never reconstruct all the odd little moments, boring and thrilling, that make a creature a creature, that make life life.

Sudan’s death inspired a media frenzy. A photo of him being caressed by one of his caretakers went viral, collecting millions of likes on social media. The rhino area was overrun. And then, inevitably, the world’s attention moved on.

In May 2019, just over a year after the death of Sudan, the United Nations issued an apocalyptic report about mass extinction. One million plant and animal species, it warned, were at risk of annihilation. This, obviously, was a horror. Mass extinction is the ultimate crisis, doom of all dooms, the disaster toward which all other disasters flow. What could humans do that would be worse than killing the life all around us, irreversibly, at scale? One million species. A number so large exceeds the mind — it becomes, as Albert Camus puts it in “The Plague,” “a puff of smoke in the imagination.”

And yet we cannot allow ourselves to forget the reality concealed by that puff of smoke. One million is not just a number — it contains countless living creatures: individual frogs, bats, turtles, tigers, bees, eels, puffins, owls. Each one as real as you or me, each with its own life story and family ties and collection of habits. Together, these animals make up a vast, incredible archive: a collection of evolutionary stories so rich and complex that our highly evolved brains can hardly begin to hold them. Modern humans, for no good reason, have lit that archive on fire. We are destroying the vaquita, a tiny porpoise that glides around in the Gulf of California. The Christmas Island shrew, which scurries (or scurried — there may be none left) through rainforests on a speck of land out in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

And, of course, the northern white rhinoceros.



Zacharia Mutai, head rhino caretaker at the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, with Najin.
Credit...Jack Davison for The New York Times

The evolutionary story of the rhinoceros stretches back roughly 55 million years, to an alien epoch when Europe was a cluster of tropical islands, when cat-size horses galloped across North America, when wolflike carnivores were just beginning to wade into the ocean to start the very strange process of turning into whales. All over the planet, mammals were feeling out what it meant to be mammals, groping toward their best forms. Some early kinds of rhinos looked like hippos or tapirs; one especially huge relative had such a long neck that it is sometimes called the “giraffe rhinoceros.”

At some point, rumbling across the eons, the rhino settled into the basic form we know today: massive and thick and front-loaded, with small eyes set behind a menacing horn, often two. Although rhinos look dangerous, their life mission has always been peaceful: to munch on plants and reproduce. For many millions of years, rhinos fulfilled their goals with great success. Without many predators, without any prey, they flourished across Asia and North America, Africa and Europe.

Humans put an end to that. With primitive weapons, we hunted the rhinoceros. Over time, those weapons grew so strong that the rhino’s natural armor stood no chance. The very assets that made them prehistorically indestructible — size, horns — turned out to be liabilities. Size made rhinos easy targets. Horns were coveted for all kinds of reasons: as trophies, as tools reputed to detect poison and ease childbirth, as the raw material for decorative Yemeni dagger handles. And perhaps most notorious, as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, whose practitioners believe that powdered rhino horn can perform a long list of marvels: It can cool the blood, ease headaches, stop vomiting, cure snakebites and much more.

Alongside the acute violence of hunting, there is the chronic violence of habitat loss. Strip malls, soccer fields, farms, highways, factories — these, too, are weapons. Big wild animals need big wild spaces, and modern humanity has left almost nothing untouched.

This has resulted in almost unfathomable loss — a holocaust of rhinos. The Javan rhinoceros, which once roamed all over Southeast Asia, is now confined to a single national park in Indonesia, its tiny population (74) concentrated so dangerously that conservationists worry it could be wiped out by the eruption of a nearby volcano. The Sumatran rhino — a small, hairy, adorable loner — is in a similarly poor state; today there are fewer than 80.

Image
Credit...Jack Davison for The New York Times

No rhino, however, is doing worse than the northern white. Its native habitat, in Central Africa, was roiled by civil wars in the late 20th century, making conservation basically impossible. By the 1970s, a population of thousands was reduced to just 700. By the mid-1980s, only 15 northern whites remained in the wild. By 2006, that number was four — and they seem to have disappeared by 2008, almost certainly the victims of poachers. The northern white rhinoceros had been eliminated from its native range.

Fortunately, there was a backup plan: In the 1970s, a small reserve supply of northern whites had been captured and relocated to a zoo, as a kind of biological life-insurance policy. Unfortunately, these animals were dying off faster than they could reproduce. In 2009, the only remaining eligible breeders — Sudan and Suni and Najin and Fatu — were brought back to Africa, to a wildlife conservancy in Kenya. It was a moonshot: a hope that their native continent might stir something deep in the biology of the final four, that it might produce a miracle.

Alas, it did not. Suni died, then Sudan. Suddenly, there were only two northern whites left. They were still out there in the field, doing the things their ancestors had always done: eating grass, wallowing in mud holes, taking naps in the shade of trees. But now everything was different. They lumbered around in a world between life and death, both here and not-here. Every mouthful of grass they ate was one mouthful closer to the last that would ever be eaten.

After Sudan died, I could not stop thinking about the last two. What were they like? What did they do all day? I found their existence strangely cheering. Although their story was almost unbearably tragic, they themselves were not tragic — they were just rhinos. To meet them would be a chance to look mass extinction in the face.

[Anthea]

Erbil province highlanders seeing
least snowfall in living memory

Less than a week remains of Bafranbar, the Kurdish name for the month of the year that sees the most snowfall



So far, only 40 centimeters of snow have fallen on the mountains of Haji Omaran subdistrict, Erbil province – almost four times less than this time last year, locals say.

Salim Ahmed is a 63-year-old resident of the area. He says this is the least snow he’s ever seen during Bafranbar.

I don’t think there has ever been so little snow. I also haven’t heard from my forefathers. This snow fell in November. In previous years, there were two, three meters of snow in January.

The Kurdistan Region’s rivers need mountain snowfall to replenish their volume.

“The springs are drying out. There isn’t much water in the river, as you’ve seen,” said Sleman Baby, a mukhtar in the Haji Omaran village of Shiwarash.

However, winter has not ended, and it has happened that snow has fallen in the spring season.”

In Pirzha, in Erbil’s Choman district piles of snow 10 meters deep sit in the valley most years. The snow usually remains in the valleys all year round.

“There used to be more than ten avalanches of snow in Pirzha every year, and all the snow used to pile up in the valley. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen even one this year,” said Abdullah Hamad, mukhtar of Choman’s Weza village.

Unfortunately, we haven’t seen even one this year.

“I haven’t seen such a situation in my life, to see so little snow that you can easily drive to Pirzha [town] in the middle of January.”

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/17012021

[Anthea]

Halabja villagers cut down 100-year-old tree

Villagers in Halabja’s Khurmal sub-district cut down a nearly 100-year-old mulberry tree in the grounds of a mosque on Sunday, claiming it blocked the mosque’s water source

“I am 80 years old. The tree had always been there. It’s roots had cut off the water … so we were forced to either cut off the mulberry tree or break off the cement and install another pipe, and that will only damage the people,” Muhammed Mustafa, a resident of Nawe village told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat on Monday.

“We pray, we need water,” said Mustafa, adding that "nearly 200" people pray in Nawe’s mosque on Fridays.

“This mulberry tree was in the way, its roots were blocking the water and it has also broken the pipe. We used to clean it two or three times a year for the past five years, but it kept breaking it and damaging it. That’s why we cut it,” said villager Akram Ahmed.

Khurmal forest police have filed a legal complaint, saying that “there could have been other solutions if they had informed us or the relevant authorities.”

“Removing the tree is a disaster,” said the head of Khurmal Forest Police Bahman Mohammed.

“It’s not just an incident. It’s a disaster for the environment, for the culture of the area, because when you plant a tree, it needs six to seven years of care and attention… it wasn’t bothering anyone,” he told Rudaw’s Shahyan Tahsin in an interview on Monday.

According to Ibrahim Hama Saaid, a mullah from Halabja, “destroying the environment and burning it” is a “sin” mentioned by the Prophet Mohammed.

“Cutting off one tree will land the perpetrator’s head in hellfire,” he added.

According to the board of Environmental Protection and Improvement of the Kurdistan Region, those rooting out trees and saplings, plants and grass on public property face a jail sentence and fines between 150,000 to 200 million Iraqi Dinars (103 to 1,373 USD).

Nearly 32.5 square kilometers (32,413 dunams) of land were burned in Erbil governorate and 546 people arrested for cutting or burning trees in 2020, according to the provincial forestry police.

More than 2.2 million acres of Kurdistan Region woodland was lost between 1999 and 2018, destroyed by wildfires and deforestation. In recent years, Iranian border guards, Turkish airstrikes, and Islamic State militants have set thousands of acres alight.

Initiatives have now begun to plant new oak trees in the area.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/19012021

[Anthea]

Chicken deaths a nightmare for Duhok farmers

Thousands of chickens are dying in Duhok, causing a nightmare for local farmers trying to make a living



At a farm in Duhok’s village of Bakhurni, 6,000 chickens have died in the past four days.

“1,500 have died since last night. If it continues like this, it will be a disaster and there will be none left in the barn,” farmer Vadar Mohammed told Rudaw on Tuesday.

“So far I have lost about 30 million Iraqi Dinars ($20,570). If it continues this way, we will lose about 60-70 million Iraqi Dinars ($41,153- 48,012),” he added.

Mevan Mohammed had about 18,000 chickens in his farm. He says half of them have died in a month due to a respiratory disease known as infectious bronchitis (IB).

“When we visit the veterinarians, they say it is because of IB [respiratory disease]. We don’t know if it is because of IB or bird flu. We had about 18,000 chickens and we have lost 45-50 percent of them,” he said.

Bird flu, or avian influenza, killed 110,000 chickens in Iraq’s Samarra last week.

However, vets at the University of Duhok say the virus is not the Kurdistan Region.

“We don’t have bird flu yet in Duhok province. We heard the agricultural minister saying yesterday that we don’t have this disease in the Kurdistan Region. This virus can be classified into 44 sub-groups, and they are not all dangerous. There are some which aren’t harmful,” said Dr Luqman Taib Barwari, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

In an interview with Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on Sunday, Begard Talabani, the Kurdistan Region’s minister of agriculture and water resources, said no cases of bird flu have been confirmed in the Region’s farms.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/20012021