Weekly Environmental news update March 2020

Weekly E.C.O. roundup
Your weekly roundup of the top eco stories from the last 7 days

As always, we give you the top eco stories from this week on Sundays. We hope you enjoy!

Corona Virus cuts CO2 emissions

A huge number of public appearances, rallies, sports events and music events have been cancelled due to Covid-19. To protect spreading schools have been closing, flights cancelled and factories closed. Flight cancellations alone have reduced air traffic by 4.3% which has lead to a decrease in CO2 emissions globally.

Campaigners say governments should act with the same urgency about the climate crisis as it has towards the corona virus to stop CO2 emissions continuing to rise. It is predicted once society reopens and reschedules its events the CO2 levels will revert back the figures pre Covid-19.

University uses drones to map glacial decline

A university in Edinburgh has started to record the devastating decline of the highest glacier in South America. The Andes contribute to 70% of the worlds glacier coverage. Of that 70% there has been a 30% decrease in the last few decades.

The drones which are being used have been specifically designed to spin faster to withstand thinner air conditions as well as been fitted with thermal imaging technology to record images of the glaciers.

Bears end hibernation early due to mild winter

Russia, Finland and the US have reported sightings of bears which were not yet predicted to finish hibernating. If they emerge too early from hibernation there may not be enough food to survive as they hibernate while food is sparse during winter months.

Bears that have been sighted include Himalayan Bears in Russia, Grizzly Bears in Canada & USA and Black Bears in USA. There have been warnings to humans to warn bears might start conflict if disrupted.

UK tree plantations not helping climate crisis

More than half of trees on commercial plantations are harvested for timber, usually used for approximately 15 years then burnt. This means any carbon stored in the wood will be burnt, or used in products that have a very short life expectancy (packaging, paper, fencing).

A report shows 2018 statistics for UK’s commercial tree plantations to have been used for;
23% wood fuel
56% saw mills (of which 33% used for permanent construction (more than 15 years life expectancy), 36% fencing, 24% pallets, 4% paper (less than 15 years life expectancy).

The Committee on Climate Change has requested that 1.5 billion trees should be planted in the UK before 2050 which would require 30,000 hectares of space.

Greta Thunberg rally leaves green destroyed

On 28th February Greta Thunberg attended a school strike rally in Bristol, UK which lead to the green being trodden into a bog. Around £15,000 has been raised to repair the green and people are being told to stay off the area.

The rally was said to have had a 15,000 person turn out which was organised by Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate.

Grace has quit the 9-5 lifestyle in London to study marine conservation in Thailand. She will subsequently work as a scuba diving instructor with emphasis on teaching students about marine conservation and anthropogenic impacts to our oceans. Her favourite eco product is Oliva Olive Oil Soap.

Weekly Environmental news update February 2020

Weekly E.C.O. roundup
Your weekly roundup of the top eco stories from the last 7 days

We made it to Sunday and it’s time, as always, for our round up of the eco news from the past week.

10 and 12 year old convince Kellogg’s to reconsider palm oil use

Sisters, Asha and Jia Kirkpatrick, started a campaign in 2018 with a petition to stop Kellogg’s from using unsustainable palm oil in its products. With over 1 million signatures the cereal and snack giant has finally started to take note. They have now agreed to phase out the use of palm oil entirely by 2025 in favour of working with certified plantations.

The use of palm oil is detrimental for rainforest ecosystems in places like Indonesia which has severe consequences for animals like the orangutan whose natural homes are being destroyed for palm oil plantations. Palm oil production is said to have been responsible for about 8% of the world’s deforestation between 1990 and 2008.

Over a quarter of climate crisis denial tweets are written by bots

A research team analysed 6.5 million tweets from 2017 surrounding President Donald Trump’s decision to remove the US from the Paris climate accord. The findings have shown tweets surrounding denials of global warming and rejections of science based on our climate crisis were likely to be posted by bots.

Up to 25% of all tweets were thought to not be written by legitimate personal accounts. Tweets about “fake science” were found to have been written by bots 38% of the time and 28% of tweets about oil company Exxon were posted by bots. Bots are programs that masquerade as humans to post on apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Coral bleaching to reach all time high this year

The Great Barrier Reef is predicted to go through a widespread mass coral bleaching which could hit the entire 2,300km length of the world heritage-listed reef. If the temperature doesn’t drop in the next few weeks this will be its third mass bleaching event in the last five years.

Skirving from NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch identified a key period from 26 February to 4 March when widespread bleaching was likely to hit. He did express while the bleaching would be extensive, the intensity of the heat may not reach previous major bleaching events.

Activists to be referred to anti-radicalisation programmes in the UK

A series of reports from UK paper the Guardian exposed counter-terrorism interest in environmental groups, animal rights groups and non-violent campaign groups – namely Extinction Rebellion, PETA and Stand Up to Racism.

776 people in total have been referred to a controversial anti-radicalisation programme called Channel in the year March 2019, which is an extension of the Prevent programme. The Home Office stated that fewer than 10 people have been referred for environmental activism and fewer than 10 for animal rights activism.

Blue whales return from near extinction in South Georgia

After a 40-50 year period of seeing only two blue whales in the historical hunting epicentre, 55 whales have been sited in 23 days. During their survey scientists were able to retrieve some skin and breath samples as well as identify some through visual and acoustic methods.

Dr Branch, University of Washington, Seattle commented that the last official estimate of abundance was made in 1997 which suggested Antarctic blue whales could total about 2,280 individuals in the world. When the next assessment is released, which is likely to be at the end of 2021, it should show a further increase – as reflected in the encouraging activity at South Georgia in recent weeks.

Grace has quit the 9-5 lifestyle in London to study marine conservation in Thailand. She will subsequently work as a scuba diving instructor with emphasis on teaching students about marine conservation and anthropogenic impacts to our oceans. Her favourite eco product is Oliva Olive Oil Soap.

Weekly Environmental news update February 2020

Weekly E.C.O. roundup
Your weekly roundup of the top eco stories from the last 7 days

We hope you’re having a great weekend! Here is a round up of a few of this week’s environmental news stories which we think are worth sharing.

Earth’s largest iceberg moves towards open ocean

The iceberg named A68 broke from the Antarctic in 2017. It has now moved towards the edge of the continents sea-ice and once it enters the Southern Ocean’s rough waters is likely to break.

“With a thickness to length ratio akin to five sheets of A4, I am astonished that the ocean waves haven’t already made ice cubes out of A68,” said Prof Adrian Luckman from Swansea University, UK.

EU pressured to introduce a meat tax called ‘sustainability charge’

The ‘sustainability charge’ is aimed to cover damage to the environment the meat industry produces. It is predicted this could reduce emissions by 120 million tonnes a year and would raise €32 billion for the EU according to a report from CE Delft, an environmental research group.

They estimated the price of meat in the UK will rise the price of steak around 25%, chicken and pork will have a smaller increase due to their lower environmental impact. The report suggests such charges could reduce consumption of beef in the EU by 67%, pork by 57% and chicken by 30% by 2030.

Vegan guidelines introduced in UK fashion industry

As demand for vegan fashion sores the British Retail Consortium have introduced new guidelines for producing vegan fashion items. New guidelines have been set out by the retail business to ensure that vegan fashions are really 100% free of animal products. Now businesses must not only avoid popular materials such as leather, wool and suede but now must declare manufacturing materials including the ingredients of waxes, dyes and glues used to construct the products.

The fashion industry is trailing behind supermarkets, last year a fifth of all products launched in 2019 were vegan.

Children force their schools to be more environmentally conscious, and it’s working.

Business pitches are being presented to schools by pupils as young as five who are inspired by Greta Thunberg and the ‘Attenborough effect’. Student led campaigns have stopped plastic bottles, straws, menus for lunch, collecting rainwater, stopping engines running outside the school gates, urging for school trip destinations to be closer to home and more.

Eco-groups and leaders are being created in schools for pupils to have responsibility for choices the schools and students can make to help their school’s environmental impact.

Celebrities back Cara Delevingne’s environmental movement

A video shows a number of A-listers stating their ‘Eco Resoultion’ in support a initative created by Cara Delevingne and friend Christabel Reed. The aim of EcoResoultion is to show ways people can become more environmentally aware as well as raising issues of the climate crisis. (just like us here at E.C.O!)

Click here to see the video.

Grace has quit the 9-5 lifestyle in London to study marine conservation in Thailand. She will subsequently work as a scuba diving instructor with emphasis on teaching students about marine conservation and anthropogenic impacts to our oceans. Her favourite eco product is Oliva Olive Oil Soap.

Weekly Environmental news update January 2020

Weekly E.C.O. roundup
Your weekly roundup of the top eco stories from the last 7 days

We are coming into the end of January and here is our E.C.O. roundup for the week.

NHS to reach net zero with plea for staff to help

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) have asked their staff to help them reduce carbon emissions and air pollution by driving less and using reusable cups. They plan to switch to less polluting anaesthetic gasses and review emissions from their buildings and hospitals.

The NHS has stated it is responsible for 4-5% of the UK’s carbon footprint. They employ 1.3 million staff. Thee conditions which contribute to 36,000 deaths per year – heart disease, stokes and lung cancer are all said to be partially caused by air pollution.

Australian bush fires have caused global CO2 level to be at record high

The UK’s Met Office have blamed a fifth of the increase in CO2 levels in 2020 to be directly caused by wild fires. The Level of CO2 in the atmosphere is expected to increase 2.71 parts per million from last year.

This is also caused by the reduced amount of vegetation left after wildfires burn vegetation which would have been able to act as a ‘sink’ for some of the CO2 throughout the year.

Groundbreaking gas grid trial could reduce carbon emissions

The Keele University in the UK has used a blend of hydrogen and natural gas to heat 100 homes and 30 faculty buildings. When hydrogen is burned it produces heat and water rather than carbon dioxide.

The Guardian have said ‘Rolling the 20% hydrogen blend out across the country could save about 6m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, the equivalent of taking 2.5m cars off the road.’

Formula 1 aims to be carbon neutral by 2030

F1’s first sustainability plan was declared last year with a huge task to reach carbon neutrality in 2030. They have said their cars are among the most fuel efficient on the planet, the real problem is the races themselves.

Cars, equipment and people are shipped around the globe in mass, as well as over 500 million fans travelling to watch races live. In 2019, the sport’s 10 teams each notched up an average of 110,000 air miles says BBC news. The plan is not said to cover the fans carbon footprint.

Grace has quit the 9-5 lifestyle in London to study marine conservation in Thailand. She will subsequently work as a scuba diving instructor with emphasis on teaching students about marine conservation and anthropogenic impacts to our oceans. Her favourite eco product is Oliva Olive Oil Soap.