In a commendable move to combat plastic pollution and poor waste management, the Lagos State Government announced a ban on the use of styrofoams and other single use plastics.
Long has the waterways and drainages in Lagos state been clogged with multiple styrofoam boxes indiscriminately disposed by residents. Styrofoams are a convenient food purchase item for most residents especially for those who are on their way to work and get their food roadside, the benevolent charities who give out meals to the less privileged, parties and so on. Some residents have voiced out their displeasure over this move by the government citing the inconvenience it would cause. For me, I believe it’s a step in the right direction. Styrofoams are not recyclable and take too long to disintegrate.
I would however advise that the government take enforcement strictly as well as educate the public on other single use plastics covered by this ban.
We concur with David Sobel, a trailblazing environmental educator who raised his children in the heart of nature that teaching the present and next generation to love nature is a precursor to saving it.
Afterall, it has been proven that people would do anything to save the things they love. If we all love nature, we would want to protect, preserve and save it.
In joyous news for environmentalists in Nigeria, President Muhammad Buhari gave presidential assent to the Climate Change Bill officially making it a Law in Nigeria.
The Bill had been rejected by the President in his first administration for inadequacies. Following the report of a Joint Review Committee, a new and more wholesome bill was developed and presented to the National Assembly.
The Bill was passed by both houses of the Assembly in July 2021. It received presidential assent on Thursday, November 18th 2021.
An overdue but commendable move by Nigeria for climate action. This comes after the President made committments at COP26 that the country would achieve net zero by 2060 particularly through the use of transition fuel from oil to gas.
Developing countries contribute the least to the climate crisis but are most vulnerable to its effects.
In addition to their obvious vulnerability, developing countries are also disadvantaged to finance access for climate mitigation and adaptation.
The UN Secretary-General call for the allocation of a 50% Share of climate finance to the most vulnerable people in developing countries is a welcome development to addressing and solving the huge gaps that exist in climate adaptation in terms of finance.
Yes you read that right. The beautiful species that are the orangutans are endangered – critically.
The orangutan has three species: Bornean, Sumatran and the Tapanuli orangutans announced in 2017.
Orangutans are highly intelligent creatures that share 96.4% of human genes. Orangutans are arboreal that is, they prefer to live in trees. As a result, they play a very crucial role as the gardeners of the forest helping in seed dispersal.
Human activities such as Deforestation and habitat loss; hunting and illegal wildlife trade alongside the naturally low reproductive rate of the females are factors that bring the species closer to the brink of extinction.
Considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world and the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion also called the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, was an explosion that occurred on April 20, 2010, on the BP Exploration & Production-operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig located in the Gulf of Mexico and its subsequent sinking on April 22, 2010.
Casualties The explosion, which resulted in the presumed death of eleven (11) people with seventeen (17) injured persons, burned for more than a day before the Deepwater Horizon sank on April 22. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), four (4) million barrels of oil from the damaged Macondo leaked into the Gulf over an 87-day period, before it was finally contained on July 15, 2010.
Impacts The spill resulted in the halt of several economic activities dependent on the route. For example, more than a third of the US federal waters in the gulf were closed to fishing for fear of contamination, tourist activities dwindled as most travellers were unwilling to face the prospect of petroleum-sullied beaches while an estimated 8,000–12,000 persons were left temporarily unemployed in the US.
While portions of the gulf began reopening to fishing in July, and majority of the closed areas were judged safe by October 2010, a study published in the journal Nature in 2020 found that fish in the Gulf of Mexico continued to show evidence of contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
A report published in January 2011 by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling faulted the Obama administration’s response to the spill siting lack of regulatory oversight by the government and negligence and time-saving measures on the part of BP and its partners.
Environmental Impacts A number of problems with birds, mammals, and sea turtles are attributed to the oil spill. A December 2013 study of living dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, found that roughly half were extremely sick; many suffered from lung and adrenal disorders known to be linked to oil exposure.
Birds such as the Brown Pelican, were most affected being particularly vulnerable to the oil’s effects. Many perished from ingesting oil as they tried to clean themselves or because the substance interfered with their ability to regulate their body temperatures. According to a 2014 study, up to 800,000 birds were thought to have died. Even individuals not directly contaminated by oil were affected. A 2012 study determined that white pelicans that had migrated from the gulf to Minnesota to breed were producing eggs that contained discernible amounts of compounds that were traceable to the BP spill. Eggs containing traces of contaminants were found in Iowa and Illinois as well.
This is the Amazon Rainforest located in South America and spanning the expanse of countries like Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
For generations long, the rainforest has been described as the Lungs of the Earth, claiming a spot as one of the largest carbon sinks on earth and the largest, most diverse tropical rainforest. The rainforest is home to several animal and plant species. However, recent research and news may suggest that the lungs of the earth may be in more trouble than was ever anticipated.
Due to the factors of deforestation and climate change, the carbon sink now appears to emit more carbon than it captures.
In a study conducted in the forests of Brazil which houses about 60% of the rainforest, bush burning for agricultural activities over the last 40 years has led to a 17% decease in rainforest. The effect of which is that the forests dry out inhibiting their ability to absorb and store carbon while increasing their vulnerability to fires.
The study researchers measured the carbon dioxide and monoxide levels in several areas of the Brazilian rainforest from 2010-2018 and have reported that on average, the forest fires produced around 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide/year while new growth could only account for the removal of 0.5 billion tonnes.
The rainforest is important to the world, not only as a carbon sink but also as a great biodiversity location. It houses a wide range of species endemic only to the area. Thus, developmental activities being carried on in the rainforest not only threatens the loss of the largest carbon sink but also a large scale of habitat and biodiversity loss.
The Brazilian President has been reported to claim that the developmental activities are a necessity due to the disproportionate opportunities available in the area to the level of poverty in Brazil. He has publicly emphasised that until and unless some sort of financial compensation is made to halt the activities, they would continue. It is important to state that financial compensation to the host countries of the rainforest has always been done and it seems that the Brazilian president is advocating for an increase in the payments.
How can you help? Consumer Activities: Market forces play a large role in global economics. As such, it is important that we as consumers, avoid products produced from the newly destroyed forests. Brazil is a major exporter of beef in the world and a conscious effort to eat less meat especially those imported from Brazil would reduce its demand and thus drive reduced bush burning for cattle grazing in the rainforest.
Education: It is likewise important to spread the word on the status of the rainforest to people. Access to more information could go a long way in driving global response to specific Brazilian issues (such as compensation and poverty) as well as emphasise the need to reduce carbon emissions globally
Carbon sinks might be declining in the world but it is not too late to reverse the trend.
New research conducted by Princeton University researchers has shown that recent climate changes are human-induced. In fact, the paper published reports that there is a less than 1% possibility that the changes occur naturally.
Climate activists have for long described climate change as anthropogenic, but climate deniers have been quick to combat the position with an argument that changes felt now are naturally induced.This recent paper goes to prove correct, several climate position papers which have posited that recent climate change is human induced. Stability in the earth’s climate relies on the delicate balance that exists from the amount of energy absorbed from the sun and emitted back into space. For years, it has been noticed that this balance has been thrown off is hinges and that is a problem. The existence of the balance has led to minor and natural climate changes which the environment can maintain. However, climate change, as it relates to the global environmental crisis, refers to those changes in the earth’s atmosphere which are as a result of human-induced activities and which the environment cannot sustainably maintain. This is called anthropogenic climate change.
Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities.
According to the IPCC, the extent of climate change effects on individual regions will vary over time and with the ability of different societal and environmental systems to mitigate or adapt to change.
It is thus important for the world to take decisive climate action. No room for climate deniers.
Chinese authorities have officially removed pandas from the endangered classification and into the “vulnerable” classification. The downgrade in their classification is as result of the pandas population reaching 1800 in the wild.
This increase is attributed to long-term conservation efforts of China. This includes an expansion of their habitat.
This new classification comes five years after the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) had already removed the animal from its endangered species list and re-labelled it as “vulnerable” in 2016.
Yet another environment day in the race to bring down the planet’s temperature below two degree celsius. In the race to halt ecosystem and habitat loss, to protect biodiversity and ensure a livable Earth.
Quite unfortunately, our generation is saddled with the responsibility of curing the environmental ills of times past. We must restore our ecosystems in order to secure our future.
Restoration begins with me and you. It begins with us spreading the word. The compilation of little acts all around the world is all we need to show that the earth remains salvageable.
We won’t be the generation that future ones will regret
We won’t be the generation who could do something but never did
We won’t be the generation who was too late
It’s NOT too late.
Let’s gather our hands together to save our Earth
We will be the generation who did all they could and succeeded
In the midst of the covid19 pandemic shaking the entire world, mankind has had to adapt to the new normal of protective wear. These include plastic gloves, face masks, face Shields, all categorised as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
In a world where dispose culture is most prominent and where PPE classifies not just as plastic waste but also as medical waste, what can be done to protect ourselves from ourselves?
No one imagined how long and how much PPE would be needed but production has exploded and it seems now that litter is inescapable.
Study shows that globally, 65 billion gloves are used per month, 129 billion face masks per month while a another study records 3.4 billion face masks/shields discarded every day. Asia is projected to throw away 1.8 billion face masks daily,the highest of any continent with China discarding nearly 702 million face masks per day.
Apart from the fact that these PPE qualify as medical waste, they also identify as one part of the biggest waste menace the world faces-Plastic waste.
Made from multiple plastic fibres, mainly polypropylene which remain in the environment for decades as microplastics and nanoplastics, a single facemask can release as many as 173,000 microfibres per day into the seas. The presence of littered facemasks and gloves have been recorded on South American beaches, river outlets in Jakarta Bay, coast of Kenya and the inhabited Soko Islands in Hong-Kong.
The problem is confounded when it is revealed that these items are not recyclable as they contain mix of paper and polymer which cannot be separated into small streams for recycling. They are also too small for recycling machines and may cause breakdowns.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Structured monitoring for collection and disposal of PPE by government and other organisations.
Eradicate litter behaviour. Each one of us should take special care not to litter the environment even with PPE.
Reusable cloth masks are cool. Cloth masks which are washable can be used by non-medical individuals. These could be made at home instead of buying.These would reduce production of plastic and disposal.
The month of Biological Diversity. To be fair, all months are for biodiversity don’t you think? But, every May 22nd has been set as World Biodiversity Day.
This is a gentle reminder that we need to protect our biodiversity in order to be at peace with nature.
For the third year in a row, Cocacola was once again named the world’s worst plastic polluter. What an award! Competitors Nestle and PepsiCo were found to be the second and third biggest offenders by environmental group.
Cocacola’s branding was discovered on 13,834 pieces of plastic at 51 of the 55 sites surveyed which was more than the combined total of Nestle(8,633) and PepsiCo(5,155), which were the second and third world polluters.The project was undertaken by 15,000 volunteers who collected almost 350,000 bits of plastic waste of which 63% was marked with an identifiable brand.
Greenpeace accused Coca Cola, Nestle and PepsiCo of failing to adequately deal with the plastic crisis and of “teaming up” with oil companies to produce even more of the environmentally damaging materials (plastics).
According to research by Changing Markets Foundation, Coca Cola remains the biggest plastic polluter in the world with a plastic footprint of 2.9 million tonnes per year. Coca cola had said through a spokesperson that the company was making progress on the critical issue of plastic waste, the spokesperson also said that they have a commitment to get every bottle back by 2030 so that none of it ends up as litter in the oceans and the plastic can be recycled into new bottles.
A study suggests that plastic entering the marine environment is set to double by the year 2040 and unless the world acts, more than 1.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste will be dumped on land and in water bodies.
Antarctica’s ice is melting contributing to massive amounts of water to the world’s seas and causing them to rise, but that melt is not as linear and consistent as scientists previously thought as new analysis of 20 years worth of data indicates. The analysis built on gravitational field data from a NASA satellite system shows that Antartica’s ice melts at different rates each year, meaning the models scientists use to predict coming sea level rise might also need adjusting.
The researchers’ analysis is built on data from NASA’s GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) a two satellite mission that measures changes in the world’s oceans, ground water and ice sheets. Models that predict sea-level rise are typically built around the assumption that ice is melting from the world’s largest ice fields in Antarctica and Greenland at a consistent rate. But the analysis found that, because the mass of ice on the Antarctic ice sheet changes depending on the season and year, those projections are not as reliable as they could be.
Extreme snowfall one year, for example, might increase the amount of ice in Antarctica. Changes in the atmosphere or surrounding ocean might decrease it another year. One of the scientist said, overall the volume of ice in Antarctica is decreasing. But a chart of the decline on a line graph would have spiked and valleys depending on what happened in a given time period.
To understand those changes, the researchers evaluated data on the gravitational field between the satellites over Antarctica and ice on the continent. Changes to the ice’s mass -either increases from big snowfalls or decreased from melt- change the gravitational field.
From 2016 to 2018, for example, the ice sheet in West Antarctica actually grew a bit because of a massive snow. During that same time period, though, the ice sheet in East Antarctica shrank because of melting. The scientists also made it clear that Antarctica’s ice melt is an acute problem, as it is losing mass very rapidly. They also said it’s a time scale problem and a rate problem and the models that predict sea level change should reflect that.
Alwaysfornature 