Take a virtual tour of some of the World’s Peatlands

^{Peatland photo from the UN Wild for Life page.}

Peatlands are wetland ecosystems which are formed by the accumulation of layers of decaying vegetation over thousands of years.

Peatlands are found in 180 countries worldwide and play a vital role in regulating our planet’s climate as it stores twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined.

Peatlands are also home to unique animal species. For example the Norfolk Broads is home to the Swallowtail butterfly which is only found in the broads.

Indonesia is famous for its many peatlands but Brazil is the world’s leader in tropical peatland area, which sits mainly in the Amazon Basin area of Southern Brazil.

15% of Sweden’s land area is made of peatlands, which have historically been drained for timber production. However their government’s effort has ensured draining of peatlands is reduced today.  

When peatlands are drained for use as agricultural land or to plant forest, the carbon they stored is released into the atmosphere. This carbon will contribute to global warming and climate change. Drained and dried peat can also catch on fire very easily adding carbon to the atmosphere. I think these are important reasons we must stop destroying our peatlands.

I came across a great resource for getting to know more about peatlands and thought I’d share it here. Follow this link to the UN ‘Wild for Life’ campaign website to explore 12 of the planet’s peatlands and find out what makes them so unique. https://wildfor.life/peatlands-journey

Link to choose other ecosystems’ journeys https://wildfor.life/journeys

#peatlands #habitats #WorldHabitatDay

World Water Day 2021

Tags

Water, world water day

Water is essential for life and an important resource to virtually all economic activities, including food production, energy and industrial outputs. Clean water is an indispensable natural resource for a healthy life for humans and for freshwater ecosystems and, therefore, demands careful management.

I wrote a blog post to highlight World Water Day 2012. At the time  I was an environmental database editor and as such I wrote regular blogposts for our blog ‘Handpicked and Carefully Sorted’

I’m sharing here the section of the original blog I think is still relevant today to highlight #WWD2021

Some important water facts and figures

• 1 in 4 people on the planet don’t have a decent toilet of their own. 1 in 10 don’t have clean water close to home. (WaterAid)
• According to the Water Footprint Network it takes more than 200 gallons of water to produce a lunch of cheese and turkey sandwich, a bag of crisps and a can of soda.
• Of all our economy’s activities, agriculture consumes the most water, being responsible for 70% of worldwide consumption.
• Meat production is particularly costly to water resources because the livestock drinks and eats cereals grown using water. As a result, it takes 5 to 20 times more water to produce 1kg of meat than 1kg of cereal.

Everybody should be able to stop water wastage, especially if we keep in mind that while we’re taking water availability for granted, there are regions of the world where access to clean water is so limited that people, especially children, are dying of diseases acquired due to the lack of potable water.

How can we help to save water – our most precious resource?

Here are some simple starting steps:

• Turn off the taps when not in use. For example, we don’t need to leave the tap on for the whole time while brushing our teeth.
• Detect and fix water leaks around premises and homes.
• Re-use water for activities that do not require clean water.
• Eat less meat by having meat-free days or become a vegetarian for at least a period of time. If more people became vegetarians, there would be less demand for meat and, eventually, supply would reduce too and so would agricultural water use. One Drop Foundation provides data on the water footprint of our everyday foods. For example, approximately 500L of water is required to produce 100 g of cheese; 1755L to produce one sausage and 70L to produce one apple.
• Cook only the right amount of food: every food thrown away is water wasted, which could have fulfilled other needs.
• Everyone can help save water. Find out what you can do to protect this vital resource: https://lnkd.in/d6c89MB

Be also aware that water functions as the link between the climate system and human society; most natural catastrophes are water related, e.g. floods and droughts. If we manage water we can, to a large extent, manage climate variability and thus also be better prepared for climate change.

Link to UN World Water Day website

Link to One Drop https://www.onedrop.org/en/

Link to the original blog  https://cabiblog.typepad.com/hand_picked/2012/03/world-water-day-22-march-2012.html

Link to Water Footprint Network http://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/interactive-tools/product-gallery/

World Water Day 2021

The environmental impact of the London Marathon and the measures organisers are taking to reduce it

Tags

environment, environmental impact, London Marathon, reduce reuse recycle, single use plastic

The London Marathon is one of the main marathon events which attacts thousands of people both nationally an internationally.

The main environmental impact of the London Marathon comprise carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to transportation of runners, both within the UK and those who travel from other countries, the use of generators and the amount of plastics being used and discarded.

This year the event organiser’s London Marathon Events (LME) have, for the first time, started to put measures in place to reduce the environmental impact of the London Marathon. Hugh Brasher, Event Director for LME, said:

“We are passionate about the concept of Eliminate, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and fully committed to reducing our environmental impact. We believe we run the best mass participation events in the world and we want to match that by leading the world in mass participation event sustainability.”

A team was formed to commission a full review of the event sustainability and to develop new environmental initiatives and practices, including an audit of the recycling chain and waste management processes. LME says they cannot achieve everything in one event, but they are committed to ensure there will be zero waste sent to landfill by the event by the end of 2020.

The measures in place as of this year are:

• Closed loop recycling project for plastic bottles in Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, Southwark and Canary Wharf. Bottles used in these boroughs will be collected and returned directly to a bottle reprocessing plant, where they will be recycled into new bottles. Bottles used in other boroughs will still be recycled but not through a closed loop system.
• The total number of drink stations on the route will be reduced from 26 to 19 and there will be a reduction of more than 215,000 plastic bottles on the course, compared to 2018.
• A total of 700 runners will trial new bottle belts made from 90 per cent recycled materials. LME has worked with Manhattan Portage to create the belts which are specially designed to carry the Buxton 250-ml bottle. This initiative will also monitor how much water a runner uses. Encouraging runners to carry their own water has the potential to radically change how hydration is provided at mass participation running events. The bottle belts will be collected for cleaning and reuse.
• Following successful trial, edible and biodegradable seaweed capsules will be provided at the Lucozade Sport station at Mile 23. This is the largest ever trial of Ooho seaweed.
• Following the trial of compostable cups at one Lucozade Sport station in 2018, three Lucozade Sport stations will use compostable cups rather than bottles in 2019. The cups will be collected and composted at a plant in Bedford.
• Drop zones will be introduced across the course for runners to drop their bottles. This will help speed up the clean-up process as bottles are collected for recycling and ensure every bottle is recycled. Bottles will be collected and recycled from the road.
• A total of 500 runners will trial wearing specially designed Virgin Money London Marathon capes at the start and finish so they don’t bring a kit bag. These capes will then be collected and cleaned for reuse. Extensive use of capes in future years would reduce the number of plastic kit bags produced and the need for baggage lorries to transport runners’ kit from the start to the finish.

In addition, LME will also introduce the following sustainable measures for the 2019 race:

• A campaign to encourage spectators to dispose of their waste correctly and to bring refillable bottles and use the free Refill scheme in London to keep hydrated.
• Halving the number of generators at the Start and all generators will be fitted with particulate filters.
• Eco-efficient tower lights will be used to reduce the amount of energy used and emissions.
• All clothes discarded at the start will be collected and sent for reuse or to be recycled.
• All plastic bottles used will be 100 per cent recyclable.
• All Lucozade Sport bottles used will be made from 100 per cent recycled plastic, a first for the brand, and all Buxton bottles will be made from 50 per cent recycled plastic which is a UK first.
• Recovery bags given to runners at the finish will be made from 90 per cent recycled plastic and free from unnecessary leaflets and giveaways.
• No ‘goody bags’ will be given out by LME at the Virgin Money London Marathon Running Show.
• Digital race instructions and registration materials, rather than printed.
• All branding material (scrim) which amounts to more than 30 kilometres will be collected and reused or recycled into industrial rags.

Everyone can make a difference says the organisers: our participants, spectators, contractors, volunteers and staff.”

I first published this article in LinkedIn.

Read more about this here.

 

 

Will children’s protests make a difference to climate change?

Tags

climate change, climate stryke, environment, Fridays for future, politics, School strike for climate, science

Image from the Independent news site.

As most of us will have seen in the news across all media last week, thousands of school children left the classrooms and went to the streets of main cities in the UK and so did others in many other countries across Europe and other continents, including France, Belgium, Germany, Australia and the USA.

This was the UK’s first Youth Strike 4 Climate event. The protest took place on Friday, when tens of thousands marched through towns and cities across Europe. The young protesters called on adults, especially politicians, to take climate change seriously.

These protests were inspired by the actions of the Swedish school girl, Greta Thunberg, who held a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament in August last year to raise climate change awareness and get governments to act to stop climate change. She has been protesting every Friday and since then some 70,000 schoolchildren each week are following her foot steps and hold protests in over 200 towns and cities worldwide. Greta made a powerfull speech in the UN COP24 last December. She now has 187K followers on Twitter  @GretaThunberg.

The Guardian online reported that ”organisers said more than 10,000 young people in at least 60 towns and cities from the Scottish Highlands to Cornwall joined the strike, defying threats of detention to voice their frustration at the older generation’s inaction on the environmental impact of climate change.”

As stated by one of the students taking part, 17-year-old, Anna Taylor “It goes some way to proving that young people aren’t apathetic, we’re passionate, articulate and we’re ready to continue demonstrating the need for urgent and radical climate action.”

Many adults don’t realise that global warming, climate change and many other environmental issues have been included in  the UK national curriculum for a while now and school children know a lot more about global warming and climate change than most adults, with the exception of climate experts.

It was estimated that approximately 3000 schoolchildren and young people gathered in London, some 2000 in Oxford and around 1000 each in Exeter and Leeds and 100s more in Brighton, Bristol, Sheffield and Glasgow.

One student from Cumbria who travelled to Manchester to protest told the Guardian “This is our future and this is making a difference. The government has to listen. I feel incredibly powerful just being here.”

They even got the backing from former UN chief, Cristiana Figueres, who said that the fact that children were so worried about their future that they were prepared to strike should make adults sit up and take notice.

Most politicians are too old to have studied environmental issues at  school and although they have experts in the civil service to advise them on just about every subject, including climate change, I think they don’t take it seriously enough because they weren’t taught these as children, when you can learn everything without bias or prejudice.

Theresa May said that the children on school strike were ”wasting lesson time” and that’s what Greta Thunberg said in a tweet in reply to Theresa May: ”That may well be the case, But then again, political leaders have wasted 30 years of inaction. And that is slightly worse” with the hash tags #schoolstrike4climate #FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrike

Many people may ask will these strikes make a difference to climate change? I believe they might! Maybe not immediately because let’s face it, most politicians only care about their careers and their political agenda. However, there are political gains to be made from caring for the planet and taking steps toward doing the right thing to reduce carbon emission. Maybe too little too late though!

Being an optimist, I believe the real change will start to happen and make a real difference to the planet when some of these kids that are protesting now become the politicians of the future. From what I have seen, these kids are absolutely serious about protecting the planet and as a former science teacher, I’ve witnessed the interest and passion many young people have for environmental issues, so I do believe in them whole-heartedly!

Link to the Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/15/uk-climate-change-strike-school-pupils-children-environment-protest

 

Is the Amazon under threat?

Tags

Amazon rainforest, Brazilian Amazon, environment, environmental threat, government, rainforest

Overview of a deforested area in the border of Xingu river, 140 Km from Anapu city in the Amazon rain forest, northern Brazil. (ANTONIO SCORZA/AFP/Getty Images)

I haven’t blogged here for over a year, but now I have a pressing blog to write and post. It is about the Amazon rainforest which I have always felt strongly about and I believe it should be always protected.

The threat: Since the election of the new Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, the Amazon rainforest appears to have come under threat. The new president is a far-right controversial individual who has said before he was elected that he has plans to reduce protections for the Amazon rainforest and plans to develop the Amazon so that resources can be recovered, including resources below the ground.

Since the brazilian elections, many world news media have published articles commenting on what might be the outcome of Bolsonaro’s election to world politics, finance and the Amazon rainforest. An article in the CBC radio website reported that Bolsonaro pledges to ban environmental NGO’s like the World Wildlife Fund from the country, to open up indigenous lands to resource mining, and to relax environmental laws and open up the Amazon rainforest to development.

A bit of history: The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world and it is home to plant and animal species that haven’t even been discovered by scientists. Yet, the forest which is often labelled ‘lungs of the world’ and the indigenous tribes that inhabit the forest have suffered a large amount of devastation over the years. This has brought about a lot of pressure on Brazil from pressure groups to step up their act and make sure to end devastation of the Amazon rainforest and life threats to the native people who live there. As a result, more than half of the Amazon rainforest is currently set aside as protected areas and indigenous habitat. According to the CBC, deforestation is now 70% below the historical average. However, I fear that all the progress achieved so far might be in jeapody.

What might happen: Mr Bolsonaro has previously suggested that Brazil could pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. He says its requirements compromise Brazil’s sovereignty over the Amazon region. The BBC article reports: “In the run-up to the election Bolsonaro had suggested merging the agriculture and environment ministries, saying, “Let’s be clear: the future ministry will come from the productive sector. We won’t have any more fights over this, he said.” When warned by activists that such a move would undermine the environment ministry’s controls on the commercial sector, he struck a more conciliatory tone saying he was “open to negotiation on that issue”. However, latest news reported that Mr Bolsonaro’s future chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, announced the new “super ministry” as details of the new administration began to emerge.

Let’s hope he will be open to negotiations or better still let’s hope the environmental pressure groups and the United Nations will make sure he will not destroy the Amazon rainforest further.

Since posting, an article in climatechangenews.com explained how the world’s largest asset managers could play a pivotal role in safeguarding the Amazon rainforest.

Link to BBC article

Link to CBC radio article

 

What caused the Apocalyptic red sun over the UK?

Tags

apocalyptic, environment, environmental impact, forest fires, hurricane Ophelia, red sun, science, sun

Yesterday, 16th October 2017, those living in the UK experienced the most amazing unusual sun! I was alerted by a colleague to look outside and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what I described as an apocalyptic red sun in a lighter red sky.

I later found out that the surreal event was caused by Sahara desert dust together with ashes from the recent fires in Spain and Portugal which were swept in by the remains of hurricane Ophelia. Hurricanes are more common and more intense in recent years due to climate change.

Hurricane Ophelia originated in the Azores and as it made its way northwards it dragged in tropical air from the Sahara, bringing Sahara dust with it.  However, the Met Office pointed out that the majority of the dust was from the Iberia region.

The unusual red sun was a result of scattering of dust causing shorter wavelengths to be scattered which made it appear red.

Social media went all red too, with so many pictures of the sun with the hashtags #red #redsun and #apocalyptic. I thought I was being original when I used #apocalyptic.

See more details of the event and stunning photos in this BBC article.

Photo credit: Vera Barbosa, taken from my office window.

Texas faces worst floods in half a century

Tags

climate change, CO2 emissions, flooding, floods, global warming, greenhouse gases, NOAA, Texas, weather extreme

I was in Houston, Texas, this time of the year 4 years ago and it’s sad to see how badly affected the city and its people are today by tropical storm Harvey. The BBC news just reported that this is the worst floods Texas has faced in 50 years. At least 5 people are reported to have died (New York Times). Meanwhile, the UK had the hottest August bank holiday on record today. All these extreme weather events are signs of climate change.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that “the global warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels.” Yet, the current US government, who doesn’t believe in climate change, has decided to undo any effort from previous governments to reduce the use of energy from fossil fuel.

NOAA published the key findings of the US National Climate Assessment in their website. Some of the findings are listed below:

• Some extreme weather and climate events have increased in recent decades, and new and stronger evidence confirms that some of these increases are related to human activities.
• Human-induced climate change is projected to continue, and it will accelerate significantly if global emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to increase.
• Impacts related to climate change are already evident in many sectors and are expected to become increasingly disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond.
• Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including through more extreme weather events and wildfire, decreased air quality, and diseases transmitted by insects, food, and water.
• Infrastructure is being damaged by sea level rise, heavy downpours, and extreme heat; damages are projected to increase with continued climate change.

Carbon Brief carried out an analysis which suggests 63% of all extreme weather events studied to date were made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change. Heatwaves account for nearly half of such events (46%), droughts make up 21% and heavy rainfall or floods account for 14%. The report includes an interactive map which shows 144 extreme weather events across the globe which has been studied scientifically. The Carbon Brief analysis points out that “taking into account all modeling results, the probability of an event like the one in south Louisiana in 2016 has increased at least by a factor of 1.4 due to radiative forcing.” Link

The BBC news also reported that President Trump is to visit Houston. Hopefully, he will believe now that weather extremes are becoming comon place everywhere, including the USA, and hopefully he will begin to believe that the effects of climate change are real and think about his recent actions.

Some photos I’ve taken during my one-day stop in Houston, Texas, this time 4 years ago.

Reference

van de Wiel et al., (2017) Rapid attribution of the August 2016 flood-inducing extreme precipitation in south Louisiana to climate change. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 21, 897-921

A tale of ‘How Science can survive hostile governments’

Tags

climate change, environment, government, institutional reform, new blog, politics, science, science activism, science suppression

March for Science event in Washington D.C. in April 2017. Photo by Aaron Bernstein / Reuters

As a research scientist, I thought I should share this article titled ‘How Science can survive hostile governments’ published in The Atlantic.

The article headline states “Scientists have a history of using political attacks to galvanize support for reform.” It describes examples of how scientists under governments who were unsupportive of science development, especially climate change related science, fought those governments.

“People are outraged by the recent developments in the United States, but if you compare the experiences of scientists in different countries, you can see that there are some underlying issues that transcend administrations,” says Carlos Carroll, a conservation biologist at the Klamath Center for Conservation Research in California and the lead author of the paper.

Gibbs, another co-author of the Conservation Biology paper, says that scientists laboring under unfriendly administrations should be sure to document firsthand evidence of scientific suppression. In Canada during the Harper administration, a single anonymous photograph of a pile of scientific books and papers in a dumpster stoked national outrage about the government’s destruction of seven historic fisheries libraries—and helped turn the political tide against Harper.

Gibbs and her co-authors add that “when government scientists are silenced, scientists employed by universities and non-profit organizations can lead the fight for institutional reforms—both as individuals and through scientific societies.”

Link to the full article: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/07/science-hostile-governments/534789/

 

March for Science on Earth Day 2017

Tags

climate change, Earth Day, environment, March for Science

Today is Earth Day, which is a day when environmentalists around the world put a lot of effort into raising awareness about the vulnerabilities of our planet and how a lot more needs to be done to protect it from the effects of climate change. Previous Earth Day campaigns dealt with in the Earth Day programme include a range of issues from encouraging green cities and reforestation to adopting renewable energy sources.

Around 1 billion people are expected to participate in Earth Day around the world today, making it the largest civic observance in the world. This is because the March for Science event is also taking place today around the world.

This year we saw the new leader of one of the most powerful nations on the planet start undoing all the positive and good things done by his predecessor to protect the planet. In an article in the Washington Post today a science communicator said “We are at a critical juncture. Science is under attack. The very idea of evidence and logic and reason is being threatened by individuals and interests with the power to do real harm.”  We can guess who she’s referring to.

A YouTube star Tyler DeWitt soon took the stage and pointed out: “Experts need to learn how to explain things in a way regular folks can understand. Ditch the jargon!” he said. “Make it understandable. Make people care. Talk to them, not at them. We cannot complain about slashed funding if we can’t tell taxpayers why science matters.” I think he has a point, it is important to make sure the public know why science matters. The science curriculum in most countries includes educating kids about the importance of science and environmental issues such as pollution, global warming and climate change. However, the older generation who didn’t learn about environmental issues at school needs to be made aware in a way that is engaging and in a way they can understand.

Link to Washington Post article.

Latest update from the Washington Post.

Controlling Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 7 UK hospitals using copper and silver ionisation

Tags

copper silver ionisation, environment, Water, water disinfection

Image credit: Debra Weinstein, Sao-Mai Nguyen-Mau, and Vincent Lee

This blog was first posted on my LinkedIn page on 6th February and it is about a Legionella and Pseudomonas control modality (copper and silver ionisation) which I consider to be more environmentally benign than most pathogens control modalities.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common biofilm-forming Gram-negative opportunistic bacterium with extensive metabolic diversity, which allows it to thrive in a wide variety of environments and nutrient sources. Hospital water is a recognised source of the pathogen, but it is a common cause of both community-acquired and hospital-acquired infections. P. aeruginosa is implicated in diseases especially of the lungs and thus need to be controlled in healthcare facilities, particularly in augmented units.

Copper and silver ionisation (CSI) is recognised as a technology which has been widely studied (Perez Cachafeiro et al. 2007, Dziewulski et al. 2015, Shih et al. 2010, Walveren et al. 2015) and used to successfully control Legionella in hospitals (Stout and Yu 2003). CSI has also been shown to control other pathogens including P. aeruginosa and thus this study evaluated the effectiveness of copper and silver ionisation for the control of P. aeruginosa in water outlets of seven UK hospitals over a four-year period.

Samples from outlets identified as being at risk were taken for analysis for P. aeruginosa, following procedure recommend by the DH Estates and Facilities Division and for copper and silver by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy/Mass Spectrometry.

The results showed that of 6278 samples analysed between 2012 and 2016, a total of 553 (8.8%) were positive for P. aeruginosa, with over 70 samples showing less than 100 cfu/ml. The percentage of positives for individual hospitals ranged from 1.3 to11.4% (Table 1).

Copper and silver ionisation controlled P. aeruginosa better in some of the hospitals studied than in others, nevertheless, adequate control of P. aeruginosa was achieved in all hospitals, with one hospital showing only one positive out of 125 samples analysed throughout a whole year with 9 cfu/100 ml.

Table 1 – Pseudomonas aeruginosa Summary Data for 7 Hospitals

It was concluded that copper and silver ionisation is effective for P. aeruginosa control and it is recommended that the system is regularly monitored to ensure the required concentration of ions is maintained. Monitoring should not be a difficult task since the latest version of the system can be monitored remotely.

The full version of this paper is going to be submitted and hopefully published in a peer-reviewed journal in the near future.

References

Perez Cachafeiro S, Mato Naveira I, González Garca I (2007) Is copper-silver ionisation safe and effective in controlling legionella? J Hosp Infect 67:209-216.

Dziewulski, DM, Ingles E, Codru N, Strepelis J, Schoonmaker-Bopp D (2015) Use of copper-silver ionization for the control of legionellae in alkaline environments at health care facilities. American Journal of Infection Control 43:971-6.

Shih H-Y, Lin YE (2010) Efficacy of copper-silver ionisation in controlling biofilm- and plankton-associated waterborne pathogens. Appl Environ Microb76(6):2032-2035.

Stout JE, Yu, VL (2003) Experiences of the first 16 hospitals using copper-silver ionization for Legionella control: implications for the evaluation of other disinfection modalities. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 23(8):563-568. 

Walveren N, Pool W, Chapman C (2015) The dosing accuracy of copper and silver ionisation systems: separate high purity copper and silver electrodes versus copper/silver alloys. Journal of Water Process Engineering 8:119-125.

Photo description: The above micrograph shows a false-coloured image of individual cells of P. aeruginosa (green) resting on the fibrous surface of a biofilm (purple) that helps protect cells beneath its surface. At top right, two cells incorporated within the biofilm peek out from a fissure in the film’s surface.

Link to LinkedIn post.