The next time you buy or eat bushmeat, you might want to consider these facts:
1. Protected area managers in many countries across Africa say that bushmeat hunting is the biggest threat they face.
2. Zoonotic diseases have become an issue of global concern amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with the bushmeat trade seen as a possible source of new infections, as it has been the cause of lots of other infections, many of which were not detected.
3. Despite its perceived threat to African wildlife, there’s not as much research being funded to look into the bushmeat trade as there is for higher-profile threats such as ivory and rhino horn poaching. Although poaching for tusks, horns or other body parts is a well-recognized threat to Africa’s wildlife, the impact of hunting for bushmeat may pose a greater threat.
Wildlife is a primary source of protein (bushmeat or wild meat) for many rural inhabitants in poor countries, particularly for people living in or near tropical forests. However, unsustainable hunting of bushmeat can result in dramatic declines of local wild animal populations, and can also have negative effects on forest structure and regeneration, ecosystem functioning and species diversity.
In West and Central Africa, where hunting and trading of many kinds of wildlife is legal or semi-legal, researchers try to extrapolate how much hunting occurs by visiting bushmeat markets, though the informal nature of the trade and the inaccessibility of some areas makes this a challenge.
The challenge becomes greater in countries where bushmeat is strictly illegal. Hunters and consumers are often understandably reluctant to divulge their activities, making it even more challenging for researchers to understand who is hunting what and why.
As well as perceived health benefits because it’s not pumped full of chemicals like farmed animals are, bushmeat also has a nostalgic quality for many, reminding them of their youth and offering an increasingly urbanized population a way to remain connected to their heritage. And, of course, there are those that simply prefer the taste.
Therefore, it has to be understood that behavior change is very difficult to achieve, especially for people who have to unlearn decades if not generations of behavior. With this understanding, it is unrealistic to expect an immediate and total cessation of bushmeat hunting in the continent.
Dealing with bushmeat hunting in Africa is going to take time and has to be a campaign for Africans, by Africans, speaking specifically to African issues and employing sustainable solutions suited to the African environment.
Sources
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0112367
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/bushmeat-hunting-the-greatest-threat-to-africas-wildlife/
Insect Disturbance and Climate Change
Scientists have already warned that climate change likely will impact the food we grow. From rising global temperatures to more frequent “extreme” weather events like droughts and floods.
Forest insect populations are influenced by temperature and other environmental conditions, and so future climate changes can be expected to affect forest insect outbreaks.
Research is showing that climate change is expected to accelerate rates of crop loss due to the activities of insects
Some scientists at the University of Washington reports that insect activity in recent temperate, crop-growing regions will rise along with temperatures. The scientists project that this activity, in turn, will boost worldwide losses of rice, corn and wheat by 10-25 per cent for each degree Celsius that global mean surface temperatures rise. Just a 2-degree Celsius rise in surface temperatures will push the total losses of these three crops each year to approximately 213 million tons.
According to the Scientists, expected increase in crop losses due to insect activity for two basic reasons: “First, warmer temperatures increase insect metabolic rates exponentially. Second, except the tropics, warmer temperatures will increase the reproductive rates of insects. You have more insects, and they’re eating more.
In 2016, the United Nations estimated that at least 815 million people worldwide don’t get enough to eat. Corn, rice and wheat are staple crops for about 4 billion people, and account for about two-thirds of the food energy intake, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Global warming impacts on pest infestations will aggravate the problems of food insecurity and environmental damages from agriculture worldwide.
Farmers and governments could however try to lessen the impact of increased insect metabolism by shifting where crops are grown or by breeding insect-resistant crops.
Sources
https://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/insect-disturbance-and-climate-change
https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/08/30/climate-change-insects-crops/
Recycling plastics: A catalyst transforms plastic waste to valuable ingredients at low temperature.
Researchers, for the first time, have used a novel catalyst process to recycle a type of plastic found in everything from grocery bags and food packaging to toys and electronics into liquid fuels and wax.
Plastics are essential materials but the growth of global plastic production and the rapid penetration of plastics into the society brings about mismanagement of waste plastics and this has caused serious environmental issues such as ocean pollution for example.
Polyolefinic plastics ( the most common plastics) have physical properties that make it difficult for a catalyst (responsible for inducing chemical transformation) to interact directly with the molecular elements to cause a change. Current recycling efforts require temperatures of at least 573 degrees Kelvin and end at up to 1,173 degrees Kelvin. For comparison, water boils at 373.15 degrees Kelvin and the surface of the sun is 5,778 degrees Kelvin.
Researchers looked to heterogeneous catalysts (in catalysis where the catalyst does not take part in the reaction that it increases) in an effort to find a reaction that might require a lower temperature to activate. By using a catalyst in a different state of matter than the plastics they hypothesized that the reaction would be stronger at a lower temperature.
The researchers combined Ruthenium ( a metal in the platinum family) with Cerium dioxide (used to polish glass among other applications) to produce a catalyst that caused plastics to react at 473 degrees Kelvin. While this is still high for human sensibilities, it requires significantly less energy input compared to other catalyst systems.
The researchers say that their approach acts as an effective and reusable heterogeneous catalyst and it shows much higher activity than other metal supported catalysts, working even under mild reaction conditions.
Furthermore, plastic bags and other waste plastics could be transformed to valuable chemicals in high yields. They processed a plastic bag and waste plastics with the catalyst, producing a 92% yield of useful materials including a 77% yield of liquid fuel and a 15% yield of wax.
The researchers also said that the catalyst system is expected to not only be used in suppression of plastic wastes but also in utilisation of plastic wastes as raw materials for production of chemicals.
Source: Science Daily
Biodiversity and Pest control
Biodiversity offers great potential for managing insect pests.
It provides resistance genes and anti-insect compounds; a huge range of predatory and parasitic natural enemies of pests; and community ecology-level effects operating at the local and landscape scales to check pest build-up
Pests and diseases are a natural part of any ecosystem. What farmers fear are the outbreaks or epidemics that can cause high yield losses.
Worldwide farmers lose an average of 10-16% of their annual harvest to pests and diseases, but cases vary widely by crop, region and threat – farmers can lose 100% of crops in one season to a single pest or disease. These losses take a heavy toll on local and regional food supplies whether it be wilt diseases in banana, bean fly and rust in beans, leaf blight in maize or blast in rice.
Climate change is also affecting pest and disease outbreaks. Insects already consume 5 to 20% of major grain crops. Increasing heat boosts both the number and appetite of insects, and researchers project they will destroy almost 50% more wheat than they do today with a 2°C rise, and 30% more maize.
Common pest and disease control methods include using pesticides, physical barriers, crop rotation and natural pest enemies.
However, less is understood about how crop varietal diversity could improve pest and disease management.
✅ Research shows that using agricultural biodiversity and a series of low-tech management practices are effective, cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly ways to manage pests and diseases for increased productivity and reduced loss.
Using diversity for pest and disease management also encourages farmers to maintain local diversity on their farms, an important source of genetic materials that could be used for breeding resistant varieties in future.
Source: Biodiversity international
10 WAYS YOU CAN HELP TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE
Anxious about the climate crisis, don’t know how to help?
Here are 10 ways you can help to fight climate change:
The effect of climate change has ranged from increased extreme weather events to rising sea levels, extended wildfire seasons, and prolonged droughts that put pressure on food crops. This change keeps happening right before our eyes and it seems we’re helpless. Be rest assured, there’s plenty you can do right now to make a difference. And who knows? Maybe you’ll inspire a movement of your own!
1) LEARN HOW TO RECYCLE PROPERLY
Although, it may be uneasy to know what is recyclable these days. But recycling remains an effective and important way to reduce your carbon footprint.
2) USE RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
There are plenty of ways you can reduce energy consumption: Signing up for solar panels, finding a green energy provider, and replacing all of your lightbulbs with LEDs etc.
3) EAT LESS MEAT
Eating factory-farmed animals from thousands of miles away is just plain bad — for our health, the planet, and our wallets. So try incorporating more local, plant-based meals into your diet. You might be pleasantly surprised by how delicious vegetables can be!
4) KEEP CALM AND PLANT TREES
Trees help clean the air, stabilize the soil, protect biodiversity, offset carbon, and so much more. Plant a tree today!
5) USE LESS PLASTIC
But you can recycle it, right? Wrong! Greenpeace recently discovered most plastic gets baled and shipped to countries with lax environmental protection laws. It is better to avoid the use of plastics until recycling is taken more seriously.
6) SHOP MORE SUSTAINABLY
Support companies that are passionate about planting trees and sourcing sustainable materials. Small companies can have a big impact on the environment and you can support them!
7) BE WATER-WISE
It can be easy to wastewater when it flows freely from the tap, but those that live in water-stressed areas—and have to walk miles to get it—know its true worth. You can reduce your water usage by taking shorter showers, not watering your lawn, fixing leaky pipes, and even eating less meat.
8) DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS
Many schools and faith groups are divesting from fossil fuels altogether because of its adverse effect. Make sure that your workplace, pension fund, university, or bank doesn’t invest in them — and if they do, start a divestment campaign of your own!
9) SUPPORT YOUTH-LED MOVEMENTS
When it comes to climate change, young people have the most at stake. Youths need to take the extra step in fighting climate change. Alwaysfornature is one of the youth-led movements we have in Nigeria,
help them grow by joining in, listening, and offering your support
10) LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!
As an eco-conscious person, you know why climate change matters, but not everyone is as environmentally aware. We can say categorically that there’s someone in your family or social circle that falls into the latter group. So if they’re open to it, let them know why you’re so passionate about nature.
Sources:
https://onetreeplanted.org/blogs/stories/20-ways-to-stop-climate-change-2020
https://www.climatecentral.org
Discovery: A new material for separating Carbon dioxide from industrial waste gases, natural gas or biogas.
The ‘Green Deal’ presented by the European Commission in 2019 calls for the net emissions of greenhouse gases within the EU to be reduced by 2050. This requires innovative processes to be carried out to reduce the amount of those gases entering the atmosphere.
Chemists at the University of Bayreuth have developed a material that can separate the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide specifically from the industrial waste gases, natural gas or biogas and thereby made available for recycling. The separation process is both energy efficient and cost effective.
The material developed in Bayreuth has one fundamental advantage over previous separation processes: it is capable of completely removing carbon dioxide from gas mixtures without chemically binding carbon dioxide. These gas mixtures can be waste gases from industrial plants but also natural gas or biogas. In all these cases carbon dioxide accumulates in the cavities of the material solely due to the physical interaction. From there it can be released without great expenditure of energy, to be made available again as a resource for industrial production. Hence the separation process works, chemically speaking, according to the principle of physical adsorption (the adhesion in an extremely thin layer of molecules (as of gases, solute or liquids) to the surfaces of solid bodies or liquids with which they are in contact). Like a spacious storage tank, the new material can be filled with and emptied of carbon dioxide in an energy-efficient way. In the Bayreuth Laboratories it was designed in such a way as to only separate out carbon dioxide and no other gas from the most varied gas mixtures.
According to Martin Riess M.Sc, a doctoral researcher at the inorganic chemistry I research group at the university, the material fulfills two tasks at the same time. On the one hand the physical interactions with carbon dioxide are strong enough to free and retain this green house gas from a gas mixture. On the other hand, however, they are weak enough to allow the release of carbon dioxide from the material with only a small amount of energy.
The new material is an inorganic-organic hybrid. The chemical basis is clay minerals consisting of hundreds of individual glass platelets. These are only one nanometer thick each and arranged precisely one above the other. Between the individual glass plates there are organic molecules that act as spacers. Their shape and chemical properties have been selected so that the pore spaces created are optimally tailored to accumulate carbon dioxide. Only carbon dioxide molecules can penetrate into the pore system of the material and be retained there. In contrast, methane, nitrogen and the other exhaust gas components must remain outside due to the size of their molecules.
The researchers have used the so-called molecular sieve effect to increase the materials selectivity for carbon dioxide. They are currently working on the development of a membrane system based on clay minerals designed to allow the continuous selective and energy efficient separation of carbon dioxide from gas mixtures.
The development of a hybrid material tailor-made for the separation and supply of carbon dioxide was made possible thanks to a special measuring system set up in the Bayreuth laboratories which allows the precise determination of quantities of absorbed gases and of the selectivity of the absorbing material. This has enabled industrial processes to be reproduced realistically.
Source: Science daily.
Happy New year of 2021
Happy New 2021!!!
It’s the new year!
2020 is done. Welcome 2021.
We wish you a very happy and sustainable New year of 2021.
Thank You for 2020.
Let’s remain together for 2021 for environmental sustainability. Keep the sustainable flag flying.
THANK YOU
THANK YOU FOR 2020.
Spreading the news on environmental sustainability has only been made possible by our readers and supporters.
It is our honest hope that we have impacted your sustainable lifestyle in one way or another.
We will all continue to try to be better humans for the planet in 2021. Part of that is environmental advocacy. Please look forward to us in 2021.
We’ll meet in the new year.
Happy New Year in advance.
Scientists take a rare chance to prove that we can quantify biodiversity by “testing the water”.
Organisms excrete DNA in their surroundings through metabolic waste, ploughed skin cells or gametes and this genetic material is referred to as an environmental DNA (eDNA).
eDNA can be collected directly from water, soil or air and can be analysed with molecular tools with no need to capture the organisms themselves, this information can then be used to report biodiversity in bulk. Eg. The presence of many fish species can be identified simultaneously by sampling and sequencing eDNA from water while avoiding harmful capture methods such as netting, trapping or electro fishing, currently used for fish monitoring.
The eDNA approach has been applied in a number of studies concerning fish diversity in different types of aquatic habitats, its efficiency in quantifying species abundance is yet to be determined. Even though previous studies conducted in controlled aquatic systems such as aquaria, experimental tanks and artificial ponds have reported positive correlation between the DNA quantity found in the water and the species abundance, it remained unclear how the results would fair in natural environments.
A research team from the University of Hull together with the Environment Agency (UK) used an invasive species eradication programme in a UK fishery to evaluate the success rate of eDNA sampling in identifying species abundance in natural aquatic habitats. Their findings were published in the Open access peer reviewed journal Metabarcoding and Metagenomics.
During the eradication the original fish ponds were drained and all fish except the problematic invasive species: the topmouth gurgaon, were placed in the new pond while the original ponds were treated with piscicide to remove the invasive fish. After the eradication the fish were returned to their original ponds. In the meantime all individuals were counted, identified and weighed by experts allowing for the precise estimation of fish abundance and biomass.
After carrying out water sampling and running genetic analysis to assess the diversity and abundance of fish genetic sequences, the scientists compared the results with the manually collected data. They found strong positive correlations between the amount of fish eDNA and the actual fish species biomass and abundance, demonstrating the existence of a strong association between the amount of fish DNA sequences in water and actual fish abundance in natural aquatic environments.
The scientists successfully identified all fish species in the ponds from the most abundant to the least abundant ones indicating high accuracy of the non invasive approach. They used different methods of eDNA capture and eDNA storage and found that results of the genetic analysis were comparable across different eDNA approaches.
This consistency allows for a certain flexibility of eDNA protocols which is fundamental to maintain results comparable across studies and at the same time choose the most suitable strategy based on location surveyed or resources available.
The scientists concluded that the opportunity of using eDNA analysis to accurately assess species diversity and abundance in natural environments will drive a step change in the future species monitoring programmes and the non invasive flexible tool is adaptable to all aquatic environments and it allows quantitative biodiversity surveillance without hampering the organisms welfare.
Source: Science Daily.
Which are you?
We are seeds as well as parasites to the earth. We can either give or take, depending on our perception of growth.
Zephyr McIntyre
What is your perception of growth? Is it such that involves the complete destruction of the environment to satisfy your wants? Or is it such that has sustainability as its watchword?
In the present world, we can no longer afford a “business as usual” approach, business as usual got us into this position with melting ice glaciers, biodiversity loss, climate change, heat waves, wildfires, deforestation, desertification and pamdemics.
At the same time, we’ve seen groups of people make astounding discoveries and inventions that only seek to benefit the earth while others are constantly drilling and degrading the earth.
However, we can’t all be scientists or inventors and we aren’t all in the oil and gas industry directly. That doesn’t mean that our inputs do not matter. Our little acts, our actions and inactions all matter when it comes to the environment. Where we choose to shop, to work, to lend support, to speak out, to keep silent. All these play into environmental sustainability whether negatively or positively.
Therefore, we must, with our actions decide if we want to be seeds or we want to be parasites.
What choice do you make today?
Have a great day and week ahead!
UN and FAO declare 2021 International Year of Fruits and Vegetables
On Tuesday December 15th, 2020 the United Nations declared the year 2021 for fruits and vegetables identifying them as the cornerstone of a healthy and varied diet.
The Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres said that we do not consume enough of fruits and vegetables despite their enormous benefits.
According to him,
“By declaring 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, we are taking a closer look at a critical sector and urging the adoption of a more holistic approach to production and consumption that benefits human and environmental health. A key moment in the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables will be the Food Systems Summit where we will call on all stakeholders to intensify efforts to make food systems more inclusive, resilient and sustainable.”
He also called for a conscious rethink of our food production and consumption habits in 2021 in order to ensure food security and that fruits and vegetables get to the most vulnerable, leaving no one behind in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Read more Here
Carbon Offsetting
This refers to investing in emission-reducing activities to make up for one’s carbon footprint. This act ranges from planting trees to funding low or zero emissions projects and everything in between.
This method is often carried out by companies who seek to reduce their future emissions. As such, they invest in such projects that is potentially capable of absorbing the amount of carbon their future act would emit. Thus, if production would cause 20% carbon emission then they could fund the planting of trees capable of sequestration of that amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
Carbon offsetting has faced a lot of criticism from critics who believe that offsetting emissions is just a way for rich people to feel better about themselves and their unsustainable ways.
On the other hand, some critics have supported the method but only if the project it is efficient and effective and the individual/company actually makes efforts to be more sustainable rather than always offset carbon.
A major challenge to carbon offsetting is that it is almost impossible to calculate the effect of the offsetting project since most of these projects are carried on in developing countries.
Thus, if a company distributes energy saving bulbs to offset their carbon debt, to really offset the debt, it must be that the energy saving bulbs is adding to already existing environmental projects on ground and is not actually replacing it. It must be that the project would not have been gotten another way.
Using trees, Nigeria pledged to plant 20 million in 2020. This is a Nigerian project. If the carbon offsetting project is to fund planting of trees, it must be that it funds trees separate from the 20 million already to be planted.
If you are already on the path of sustainability and you feel that you aren’t doing enough or that you have to must do an act that emits carbon, carbon offsetting is a great way to relief of such guilt.
Definitely, the best option is to REDUCE our carbon footprints rather than offset but as we try to reduce we can also offset.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The collection of plastic and floating trash originates from the Pacific Rim, including countries in Asia, North America, and South America.1
The patch is actually comprised of the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California.
The amount of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch accumulates because much of it is not biodegradable. Many plastics, for instance, do not wear down; they simply break into tinier and tinier pieces.
For many people, the idea of a “garbage patch” conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Microplastics can’t always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes.
Researchers from The Ocean Cleanup project claimed that the patch covers 1.6 million square kilometers. 2
Some of the plastic in the patch is over 50 years old, and includes items (and fragments of items) such as “plastic lighters, toothbrushes, water bottles, pens, baby bottles, cell phones, plastic bags, and nurdles. “The small fibers of wood pulp found throughout the patch are “believed to originate from the thousands of tons of toilet paper flushed into the oceans daily.”3
The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
While oceanographers and climatologists predicted the existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it was a racing boat captain by the name of Charles Moore who actually discovered the trash vortex. Moore was sailing from Hawaii to California after competing in a yachting race. Crossing the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, Moore and his crew noticed millions of pieces of plastic surrounding his ship.
Research indicates that the patch is rapidly accumulating.[5] The patch is believed to have increased “10-fold each decade” since 1945.4 This growing patch contributes to other environment damage to marine ecosystems and species.
Marine Debris
No one knows how much debris makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is too large for scientists to trawl. In addition, not all of the trash floats on the surface. Denser debris can sink centimeters or even several meters beneath the surface, making the vortex’s area nearly impossible to measure.
80% of plastic in the ocean is estimated to come from land-based sources, with the remaining 20% coming from boats and other marine sources. These percentages vary by region, however.
A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, due largely to ocean current dynamics and increased fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean.
While many different types of trash enter the ocean, plastics make up the majority of marine debris for two reasons. First, plastic’s durability, low cost, and malleability mean that it’s being used in more and more consumer and industrial products. Second, plastic goods do not biodegrade but instead, break down into smaller pieces.
In the ocean, the sun breaks down these plastics into tinier and tinier pieces, a process known as photodegradation. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups.
Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life in the gyre. For instance, loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs.
Seals and other marine mammals are especially at risk. They can get entangled in abandoned plastic fishing nets, which are being discarded largely due to inclement weather and illegal fishing. Seals and other mammals often drown in these forgotten nets—a phenomenon known as “ghost fishing.”
Marine debris can also disturb marine food webs in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. As microplastics and other trash collect on or near the surface of the ocean, they block sunlight from reaching plankton and algae below. Algae and plankton are the most common autotrophs, or producers, in the marine food web. Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their own nutrients from carbon and sunlight.
If algae and plankton communities are threatened, the entire food web may change. Animals that feed on algae and plankton, such as fish and turtles, will have less food. If populations of those animals decrease, there will be less food for apex predators such as tuna, sharks, and whales. Eventually, seafood becomes less available and more expensive for people.
These dangers are compounded by the fact that plastics both leach out and absorb harmful pollutants. As plastics break down through photodegradation, they leach out colorants and chemicals, such as bisphenol A (BPA), that have been linked to environmental and health problems. Conversely, plastics can also absorb pollutants, such as PCBs, from the seawater. These chemicals can then enter the food chain when consumed by marine life.
What do we do?
Because the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is so far from any country’s coastline, no nation will take responsibility or provide the funding to clean it up. Charles Moore, the man who discovered the vortex, says cleaning up the garbage patch would “bankrupt any country” that tried it.
Many individuals and international organizations, however, are dedicated to preventing the patch from growing.
Cleaning up marine debris is not as easy as it sounds. Many microplastics are the same size as small sea animals, so nets designed to scoop up trash would catch these creatures as well. Even if we could design nets that would just catch garbage, the size of the oceans makes this job far too time-consuming to consider. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program has estimated that it would take 67 ships one year to clean up less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean.
Many expeditions have traveled through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Charles Moore, who discovered the patch in 1997, continues to raise awareness through his own environmental organization, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. During a 2014 expedition, Moore and his team used aerial drones, to assess from above the extent of the trash below. The drones determined that there is 100 times more plastic by weight than previously measured. The team also discovered more permanent plastic features, or islands, some over 15 meters (50 feet) in length.
All the floating plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch inspired National Geographic Emerging Explorer David de Rothschild and his team at Adventure Ecology to create a large catamaran made of plastic bottles: the Plastiki. The sturdiness of the Plastiki displayed the strength and durability of plastics, the creative ways that they can be repurposed, and the threat they pose to the environment when they don’t decompose. In 2010, the crew successfully navigated the Plastiki from San Francisco, California, to Sydney, Australia.
Scientists and explorers agree that limiting or eliminating our use of disposable plastics and increasing our use of biodegradable resources will be the best way to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Organizations such as the Plastic Pollution Coalition and the Plastic Oceans Foundation are using social media and direct action campaigns to support individuals, manufacturers, and businesses in their transition from toxic, disposable plastics to biodegradable or reusable materials.5
Sources:
1. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch
To save, we must think
To halt the decline of an ecosystem, it is necessary to think like an ecosystem.
Douglas P. Wheeler
Empathy might just be the spark to sustainability.
Let’s talk biodiversity loss e.g the Rhinos. Poachers are want to paralyse then axe off the faces of the animals just to get their horns. The animals are then left to die. How would we feel if we that were human?
Marine pollution has led to harm and loss of several marine species. The coral reefs are being bleached off due to pollution affecting the habitats and breeding spots of marine dwellers.
The ecosystem needs all its components to live harmoniously with each other and that includes all biodiversity. We all have a role to play in ensuring the smooth running of the ecosystem.
Flightless birds species at risk of extinction
Studies show that birds that have lost their ability to fly are a more common phenomenon than previously assumed and they are also one of the species that have been affected by human activities.
In 126000 years, researchers have compiled a list of 581 bird species from 85 different families that have gone extinct. Based on morphological descriptions it was determined that 166 of these extinct bird species lacked the ability to fly. This is equivalent to 29% of bird species.
Currently there are only 60 living flightless bird species. If the 166 species that have gone extinct are added to the 60 living species the total is 226 of both existing and extinct flightless bird species.
The study showed that by adding these extinct birds to the global picture of bird diversity, it becomes clear that flightlessness developed at least four times as often as if the researchers only looked at living species.
The study also showed that development of flightlessness in birds is a widespread phenomenon and if humans had not caused some of these extinctions they would still share the planet with more than 150 independently developed flightless groups of birds.
The ostrich, rhea and an extinct bird called a moa are all flightless. Their wing bones are either missing or smaller for their body size than the wing bones of the tinamou. That’s a related bird that can fly. Flightless birds have a sternum (in this picture, the lower bone in the chest). But they’re missing another bone called the keel bone, where flight muscles attach. Birds that can’t fly often also have bigger bodies and longer legs than birds that fly. New research suggests that some of those differences are linked to changes in their regulatory DNA.
LILY LU
Mutations in DNA have been linked to the lack of flight in some birds. Fast evolution is said to be the cause of these mutations which particularly affected the birds’ bossy DNA from doing its job of enabling flight.
Source:
Science Daily
Waste to Wealth mechanisms by Nigerian Recyclers help reduce plastic waste
Nigerian Recyclers Reduce Plastic Waste By Exchanging Trash for Cash
Nigeria generates an estimated 32 million tons of solid waste per year, one of the highest amounts in Africa. Of that figure, plastic constitutes 2.5 million tons.
Every day in a junk yard provides an opportunity to make ends for meet for some Nigerians. Local recyclers buy plastic and aluminum waste at a low price, then converts it into reusable products, especially pots, local burners, and cookware before they are sold.
The venture is nothing more than a means of daily survival for the recyclers, but experts say local recycling has more significance.
In 2009, the government awarded contracts for the procurement and installation of recyclers in 26 Nigerian cities, including the capital, but little of what they recycle is plastic.
Solid waste management is the most pressing environmental challenge facing urban and rural areas.
Nigeria’s population is estimated to double by 2050 and that could mean more solid waste hanging around and more plastic for recycling.
We must remember however that recycling should be our last resort in waste management. Let’s practice Reducing and Reusing our waste.
Let’s refuse what we don’t need and reuse what we already have. Let’s reduce our impulsive buying culture and our throwaway culture.
There are several Rs to waste management but remember these three in their order:
1. Reduce
2. Reuse
3. Recycle
Source :
http://www.voanews.com
http://www.globalcitizen.org
Alwaysfornature 