NATIONAL TREE WEEK 2018

Successful tree planting for Wandsworth during the National Tree Week 2018.

Thank you to St'Anne Primary School and Tree Wardens for taking part in it and helping out on the day.

 

 

THE 6,000 YEARS OLD BAOBAB

Baobabs grow in arid regions such as Madagascar, Africa, Arabia and Australia. In the early 21 century African baobabs suffered a disease which killed lots of them and dehydration cause by the global warming just accelerated the process.

Among the many Baobabs that are present in this world there are some which have a very long life, in particular in in South Africa where it is possible to find a 6 thousands years old Baobab which hold a pub inside itself. Its height 22 metres and its circumference reach almost 50 metres: it is considered the biggest ever!!

This video will explain its story in details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPeF-OqTf5g





Hope you will enjoy this view!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia

SEVERE WEATHER IN ITALY WIPES OUT THOUSANDS OF TREES

https://www.facebook.com/cnninternational/videos/308055076589228/

Very impressive images that highlight the strength of the nature!

This catastrophe happen and an area very closed to my home town and therefore very upsetting for me!!
Please share!

THE AMAZON IS IN DANGER AS NEVER BEFORE

Hello All,

Recently I read this news about the Amazon Rain Forest which denounce how trees are still being cut uncontrollably. 

I found this information VERY disturbing, and what it really upsets me is the fact that local authorities are not doing enough to protect this rare treasure.















Accordingly to the latest researches conducted by Institute for Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), it seems that in March 2018 the deforestation rate in the Amazon increased of almost 250% compared to the same period of the 2017. I personally consider this data very alarming!!

The deforestation involves the states that surround the Amazon such as Mato Grosso (which counts for almost half of the trees cutting), Roraima, Para’, Amazonas and Rondionia, and this study declares that the issues lays on private ownership. 
In fact, the lands involved in the deforestation are not State property and therefore the authorities have difficulties in controlling them.
A different evaluation conducted by Soy Moratorium, support this savage trees cutting and it reports the need to cut trees in order to create land for soybeans crops for the local residents. Also, the agrarian reforms implemented in the last few years have supported this trend. 

It seems that the local Amazon administrations consider and evaluate mainly the opinion of the INPE (National Institute for Space Research) which sustains the complete opposite and affirms that nowadays Brazil is having the lowest rate of deforestation since the last twenty years.

Despite the fact the Google Earth Engine platform helps to monitor the deforestation and the forest degradation, the Brazilian authorities do not seem to take into consideration those data. The images not only reveal that the deforestation has increase of about ten times since 2017 but also the degradation of the forest has increase of a third as well.

As a result, there is a huge discrepancy on information, data and numbers and the only one who suffer in this limbo of miscommunication is the Amazon.

I am very disappointed about this brutal exploitation of the natural resources and I urge anyone who can advise me how I can help to preserve this piece of paradise to please contact me.

I want to save this green lung!!

For further information please visit the following websites:

http://conexaoplaneta.com.br/blog/desmatamento-na-amazonia-em-marco-e-243-maior-do-que-mesmo-periodo-do-ano-passado/

https://oglobo.globo.com/sociedade/sustentabilidade/devastacao-da-amazonia-aumentou-195-em-marco-de-2015-15910480

https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/brazil-reports-lowest-rate-of-amazonian-deforestation-in-two-decades/

CREATION IS QUIET

OZONE HOLE & CHINA INSULATION: WHAT'S THE LINK?

I will report here below an article that I recently found in the BBC World News which questions the possible links between the home insulation used in China and the diminish of the ozone layer.

Very interesting reading!!

"Cut-price Chinese home insulation is being blamed for a massive rise in emissions of a gas, highly damaging to the Earth's protective ozone layer.

The Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA) found widespread use of CFC-11 in China, even though the chemical was fully banned back in 2010. Scientists have been extremely puzzled by the mysterious rise in emissions. But this report suggests the key source is China's home construction industry. Just two months ago, researchers published a study showing that the expected decline in the use of CFC-11 after it was completely banned eight years ago had slowed to a crawl. There were suspicions among researchers that new supplies were being made somewhere in East Asia. Rumours were rife as to the source. There was a concern among some experts that the chemical was being used to secretly enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

The reality it seems is more about insulation than proliferation. 

* Electric car points in all new homes planned 
*Exoskelotons promise superhuman powers
* Can we save the Lord of the Ring toad?

So why is this important? What can be done about this? What is the ozone layer and why is it important? Remind me how the hole in ozone layer came about? So what did the world do about this? I thought the ozone hole was recovering?

CFC-11 makes a very efficient "blowing agent" for polyurethane foam, helping it to expand into rigid thermal insulation that's used in houses to cut energy bills and reduce carbon emissions. Researchers from the EIA, a green campaign group, contacted foam manufacturing factories in 10 different provinces across China. From their detailed discussions with executives in 18 companies, the investigators concluded that the chemical is used in the majority of the polyurethane insulation the firms produce. One seller of CFC-11 estimated that 70% of China's domestic sales used the illegal gas. The reason is quite simple - CFC-11 is better quality and much cheaper than the alternatives. The authorities have banned CFC-11 but enforcement of the regulation is poor."We were absolutely gobsmacked to find that companies very openly confirmed using CFC-11 while acknowledging it was illegal," Avipsa Mahapatra from EIA told BBC News. "The fact that they were so blasé about it, the fact that they told us very openly how pervasive it is in the market, these were shocking findings for us." The EIA says that its estimates of the amount of the gas being used in China are in the middle of the emissions range calculated by scientists in their report in May. The scientist who first highlighted the problem with CFC-11 said the EIA findings seemed plausible, although it was difficult to be definitive.

Dr Stephen Montzka from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) told BBC News: "The pervasiveness of the use of CFC-11 that seems apparent in China based on their survey is quite amazing, although it is hard for me to assess the accuracy of the emission estimate they make to know if it is indeed likely that this activity can explain all or most of what we are observing in the global atmosphere."

This is a big deal because of the amount of the dodgy chemical being used and its potential to reverse the healing that's starting to take place in the ozone layer. China's polyurethane foam makes up about one-third of global production, so if they are predominantly using an ozone-depleting substance it will set back the closing of the ozone hole by a decade or more. As well as the ozone layer, CFC-11 has a warming impact. Researchers estimate that if the use of the chemical continues, it would be the equivalent of CO₂ from 16 coal-fired power stations every year! As China is a signatory of the Montreal Protocol that governs the use of ozone-depleting substances, it should be possible to put trade sanctions in place. However, since the protocol was signed in 1987, this weapon of last resort has never been used and it's not expected in this case.

What's more likely is that China will be encouraged to crack down on the production of CFC-11s and to launch a full-scale investigation with the support of the Montreal Protocol secretariat. "It is critical for the government of China not to treat these as isolated incidents," said Avipsa Mahapatra from the EIA. "We want them to clamp down but it's supremely important for them to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the sector. It has to result in seizures, it has to result in arrests so that people know there are harsh penalties for the production of CFC-11." Delegates to the Montreal Protocol are meeting this week in Vienna and they will try to come up with a plan to tackle the issue. 

Ozone is formed in the stratosphere some 15 to 30 km above the surface of the Earth by the interaction of solar ultraviolet radiation with oxygen in the air. In this location, the newly formed ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation, preventing most of it from reaching the ground. This is important because ultraviolet radiation can lead to skin cancer and eye damage in humans, can damage crops and marine life. Scientists discovered in 1985, much to their surprise, that there was a 30% drop in ozone levels over Antarctica in October of that year. By 1992, the hole was as large as North America. 

What was happening was that chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons contained in refrigeration, air conditioning, packaging, insulation, solvents, and aerosol propellants were releasing chlorine or bromine molecules when they were exposed to intense UV light in the stratosphere. When chlorine and bromine atoms come into contact with ozone, they destroy the molecules. One chlorine atom can destroy over 100,000 ozone molecules before it is removed from the stratosphere. Ozone can be destroyed more quickly than it is naturally created. For once, the world acted speedily and to good effect. Most nations, including the chemical industry, signed up to the Montreal Protocol which quickly banned most of the worst-offending chemicals. Developing countries were given much longer to replace the gases. So while most of the richer countries got rid of CFC-11 in the mid-1990s, China and others were expected to completely get rid of it in 2010. That obviously hasn't happened just yet. Back in 2014 researchers reported the first signs of a thickening in the ozone layer. At that point they said it would take a decade for the hole to start to shrink but by September 2015 scientists found that the hole was approximately 4 million sq km smaller than it was in the year 2000 - that's an area the size of India.

All this was due to the global phase out of CFCs. So it was a major surprise to ozone experts to find that the expected decline in these elements in the air had stalled. And now, according to the EIA, the reason behind the slowdown has been discovered - and it's mainly down to Chinese builders!"

Full article can be found at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44738952

KENYAN INNOVATION TAKES PLASTIC BAGS OUT OF FORESTRY

Hello All,

please find here below an article I recently found in a BBC link which was talking about plastic pollution and reforestation.
Kenya already banned the use of plastic bags in 2017, what are we waiting for?

Great highlights and new points of view form Kenya, enjoy the reading!!

"KENYAN INNOVATION TAKES PLASTIC BAGS OUT OF FORESTRY

Plastic bags are known for their environmental impact. They slowly release toxic chemicals once in the soil, for instance, and find their way into the guts of animals that often choke and die as a result.

Kenya banned the use of plastic bags in 2017. And thanks to a 43-year old Kenyan, Teddy Kinyanjui, an innovative afforestation and reforestation method for developing seedlings without using plastic bags is in place.


A resident of Nairobi and founder of Cookswell Jikos Limited, Kinyanjui has invented small, portable seed balls to grow and easily disperse seedlings. He is working in partnership with Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), which certifies seeds.This photo gallery shows Kinyanjui’s ingenuity in using the seed balls instead of the usual plastic bags.

When tree seedlings are grown in plastic bags in a nursery, he explains, the roots get squeezed and this limits their ability to grow fast. The seed ball method enables roots to adapt easily, with less disturbance.

Kinyanjui says he has engineered a method of coating each seed with charcoal dust, and corn or cassava starch, to bind each ball so the seeds are protected from prey, pests and diseases.

He says he has the capacity to make one tonne of the seed balls per day. So far, since the project’s initiation in 2016, about one million seeds of different species of certified indigenous trees have been dispersed throughout Kenya through partnerships with locals and with a germination rate of 60 per cent.

“People use charcoal every day, necessitating for more trees. Climate change has also caused community conflicts, especially among pastoralists in Northern Kenya who fight over pasture for their animals,” says Kinyajui. “Good environmental management is, therefore, crucial for peace among these communities.”

He hopes to partner with like-minded organisations and youth who herd livestock with slings to disperse more seeds in arid lands.

“We would [also] like people to see the value of this simple technology as a contributing factor in combating and adapting to effects of climate change, as this is the cheapest way to encourage tree planting, especially in arid and semi-arid areas,” adds Kinyanjui."

Full article can be found:

https://www.scidev.net/global/environment/multimedia/kenyan-innovation-takes-plastic-bags-out-of-forestry.html