»environment«

The British government now admits failure to reach the promised reduction in CO2 greenhouse gas emissions of 20 percent by year 2010 (compared to 1990), writes the Guardian (28.3.2006) in an editorial. According to the Kyoto protocol the commitment were 12.5 percent, but prime minister Tony Blair promised to do more. Tougher regulations have to be installed to reach at least a 15 to 18 percent reduction, for instance, by a climate change levy, a CO2 tax or better home insulation. Meanwhile, the chief scientific adviser to the government, Sir David King, says in the Financial Times (27.3.2006) that "40 percent of Britain's electricity should come from nuclear generation, twice its current contribution. Sir David told the Financial Times that an 'optimal' scenario would see Britain's entire 'baseload' capacity coming from nuclear, with renewable energy sources providing a further 10 to 20 percent of electricity."

Elke Brüser reports in Süddeutsche Zeitung (13.9.2006) about the combat against mosquitos in the southern French region Camargue. It's a natural reserve and for ages the use of chemical or biological pesticides was prohibited. Thus, midges could naturally thrive with a peak spread after first rain falls in late summer. Tourists would best avoid the region that time. Now, local authorities want to monitor mosquito occurrence and spray the bacterial compound Bacillus thuringiensis israelis (Bti). It perforates the bug's gut and thus kills it. However, environmental concerned people criticize that the outcome of the measure is unsure: the midges may develop resistance, other organisms that feed on them and their larvae might suffer. The economical reason to fight the mosquitos seems to be tourism. However, if climate shifts and south France gets warmer, other types of mosquitos might invade and spread plagues like malaria.

It's a rare occasion, but sometimes it happens: Although northern Germany is -- seismologically spoken -- a quite region, in recent decades little earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 5 occurred. Horst Radermacher investigates for FAZ (5.4.2006) potential causes, and especially whether natural gas exploitation may be tracked down as a cause. A recent talk by a seismologist of a government-run institution opted for gas extraction as promoting earthquakes, however, he didn't anticipated the huge public response on the issue.

The Economist (16.3.2006) dreams of transmutation as a means of turning radioactive waste into material with half life of only some hundred years. A Japanese experiment will show by the end of this year whether the method is reasonable and feasible. Generally, nuclear power generation also yields by-products and waste that radiates for millions of years. Thus, reliable and stable disposal sites are needed - a major argument in many countries. Transmutation might give the proponents of nuclear energy an option for alternative waste treatment. However, critics are not convinced. A testing site was suggested for Italy but abandoned in 2004.

The Independent (14.12.2006) gives a special report on greenhouse gas emissions and your personal carbon footprint. Some examples explain how to reduce it.

Fred Pearce reports about ecological footprints and whether comparing such footprints on a national level is useful in global warming talks. In New Scientist (8.4.2006) he describes "the footprint is an estimate of the land used to sustain a population. Its main components are land directly built on; the fields, forests and mines employed at home and abroad to meet consumer needs; and the national amount of land needed to absorb pollutants like carbon dioxide." Generally, the footprint is used to compare the waste of resources, for instance, of industrialized countries in comparison to developing nations on a per capita basis. "This puts the superconsuming US at the top, with almost 10 hectares of land needed to supply each American. Australia is close behind, requiring almost 8 hectares per citizen. Western European states and Japan require between 5 and 6, China less than 2 and India around 1 hectare," writes Pearce. But if you put these figures in relation with the available resources of biosphere in these countries, the U.S., Canada and Australia perform quite better, and dense populated countries rise in the rankings. Well, it's a statistics trick on the grounds of a nationalist view. Now the heat is on how to interpret this point.

However, after of the heavy dispute over the EU commission's proposed Reach programme (to check and register chemicals, which has been watered down in favour of industrial demands) now a study by the Danish research and consultancy organisation DHI comes to the conclusion that by year 2017 annually 150-500 million euros will be saved in environmental costs when chemicals are surveyed according to the Reach programme. However, the chemical industry is sceptical and says that an environmental cost assessment (as done by DHI) is speculative, at best. The European chemical industry council CEFIC comments that the study didn't account for the ever strengthening environmental legislation and improving technologies. Wiebke Rögener adds in here piece for Süddeutsche Zeitung (2.3.2006) that taking into account health care costs from prevented treatments all will sum up to 30 billion euros in 30 years. Well, the industry reckons with costs of some two billion euros in a decade. That should make clear: A tight Reach scheme will bring the most benefits and savings.

About 43 percent of fish for human consumption is produced in fish farms, according to a report of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Emma Marris adds in Nature online (6.9.2006) that besides taking some pressure off over-fished wild populations, also environmental concerns raise. But according to the FAO a further rise in aquaculture is needed to meet the future demand in protein-rich food. Some 40 million tons more are necessary for the global population in 2030.

Today, 45.5m tons are produced in aquaculture, and 60m tons by wild catches. In an opinion piece for the NY Times (8.9.2006) Paul Greenberg gives some hints on seafood for consumers: "Considering what's at stake is the survival of the ecosystem of the world's oceans, I'd rather eat fewer, smaller and more expensive fish than no fish at all."

The United Nations environment programme UNEP and the Council of Europe demand more action to protect the environment and biodiversity in Europe. Actually, there's lots of paperwork (treaties, legislations, programmes) but little efforts bring them to practice. Most discrepancies are in the protection of fisheries and woods, writes Inke Suhr in Süddeutsche Zeitung (28.2.2006). In 2003 an agreement was reached to stop the sprawling of urban areas. But up to now many European countries didn't even manage to figure out how much land is lost to urbanisation. Further, to little efforts are made to prevent the introduction of alien species.

Claudia Deutsch writes in the NY Times (28.2.2006) how the chemical industry looks for alternatives of crude oil as a basis for their products. They look for processes using biomass like wood, straw or crops as a feedstock for producing principle chemical compounds. Actually, it's a challenging vision because the chemical industry has optimized processes in refineries for many decades. Substituting these processes today is not economical, and some companies even don't put research money into a field that may have no alternative in the coming decades.