Summary of the year 2008 on environmental issues

A difficult year for the environment, in which the maritime passage from the north to Canada was opened, the forests continued to thin, and natural disasters continued to strike

With the arrival of the new civil year, different summaries are published. Below is a small part of those concerning our environment:

In September 2008, the UN declared "A plan to reduce emissions from deforestation"UN Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). The plan intends to tilt the balance in favor of proper and sustainable management of the world's forests.

If the plan is accepted by the countries leading the world's economy, a situation will be possible in which developed countries will pay forested countries (mainly equatorial forests) for the maintenance of the forests, their preservation and, if necessary, the afforestation of areas they have created. The implementation of the plan will prevent a further increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. (This is, of course, on the condition that the amount of emissions will decrease, A.R.). The partners of the program are: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), as well as UNEP.

And I add that in recent years "natural disasters" have caused considerable damage, insurance companies have had to pay huge sums to compensate the victims, which has led many of the major insurance companies to understand that global warming is one of the most important causes of disasters, and to agree that human activity has an effect on the climate, which is why the insurance companies are getting involved For green activity, that is to encourage the renewal, preservation and protection of equatorial forests.

The year of the gorillas and the year of the fibers

2009 was declared by green bodies as the "year of the gorillas". The participating bodies are: UN Environment Programme's (UNEP's), Convention on Migratory Species, Great Apes Survival Partnership, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The intent of the announcement is: to shed light on the dangers that many species face through loss of habitats, diseases, poaching and many other vulnerabilities.

Another environmental announcement by the UN is that 2009 has been chosen as the year of natural fibers - linen, cotton, wool and silk will be brought to the attention of consumers to remind them of their value and help the existence of fiber producers while emphasizing sustainability.

Towards the end of his term, the Bush administration is busy with "environmental scams". For example, he worked to remove species from the list of protected animals, to give permits for drilling and mining in sensitive areas, etc. The election of Obama, who declared his inclination and intention to act for the sake of curbing emissions and for firm environmental conservation, gives new hope for the existence of international treaties and arrangements designed to build a mechanism that will enable control and curbing of polluting emissions in the entire world.

The north passage is opened

Arctic ice research experts announced that at the beginning of September a navigation corridor around the North Pole was opened, a route that allows ships to circumnavigate the Pole, a situation that has not existed for 125.000 years.

Ships have sailed between the coasts of Canada and Russia already earlier, but for the first time, cruise and fishing companies are announcing that they will send ships to the areas north of Russia already this coming summer. According to the researchers, the satellite images that testify to the formation of the passage prove that the polar ice is entering a "cycle of death" due to global warming. The researchers do not indicate a timetable for the complete disappearance of the polar ice, but note that there is no doubt about the human influence on the rapid melting.

Part of the blame lies in harming a process that has existed for thousands of years, a process in which the balance in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is maintained, through absorption by forests and oceans. Part of the process was the absorption of the DPF and its discharge in rivers and floods that washed away rotten plant material and deposited it on the ocean floor. Due to increased production of DPF since the beginning of the industrial age, nature is not able to withstand the competition and the whole process goes wrong.

In the middle of the 18th century, "spots" were identified in the sun, and since then about 24 "spot cycles" have passed, today we know that the spots are one of the causes of climate change, those huge eruptions of gases that are accompanied by "magnetic eruptions" that appear as dark spots on the surface of the sun, each spot could be bigger than the earth. In the last year, the spots disappeared, which led researchers to fear a "little ice age", a situation that recently occurred in the 17th century. The spots appear in cycles of about 11 years, multiply, grow and disappear, the fear of an "ice age" ended when in November two spots appeared that mark the beginning of another cycle.

Bio fuel

The attempt to show "green" together with the rise in the price of mineral fuel led US farmers to change the trend, instead of growing food they started growing "fuel". The authorities planned to divert about 45% of the corn crop to make ethanol/fuel, many countries (developed and developing) followed in the footsteps of the USA, the process resulted in a lack of food and an increase in prices that caused a global crisis that led, among other things, to protests and riots in Mexico, Egypt, Cameroon and other countries, a spokesman for the He warned of a "massacre" if the policy is not changed. A statistical calculation shows that the amount of corn needed to produce 50 liters of ethanol can feed a child for a year.

As someone who wrote and recommended (and still recommends) a transition to organic fuel, I must mention that my recommendation was for secondary use of agricultural products, that is: use of the foliage of cereals after collecting the seeds, the seeds for food, the foliage for fuel, or alternately, "growing fuel" in places and conditions in which Food cannot be grown, with the best example being jatropha.

New tactics to fight malaria

Malaria It is one of the troubles of the human population, the plague affects tens of millions and kills millions every year. Another disease that is carried and transmitted by mosquitoes is dengue.

The search for the "silver sling" means that will get us out of trouble has continued for many years without a solution, a partial solution will (perhaps) be as a result of research that has shown that it is possible to infect mosquitoes that carry malaria (and other problems) with a virus that will shorten their lives, since only adult mosquitoes transmit parasites... if the virus will be distributed and will be part of the mosquito population, the life expectancy of mosquitoes will decrease, a decrease that will bring about a significant reduction in the spread of fever.

Anti-warming patents

Global warming concerns many. One of them is Ron Ace from Maryland, who lives off of various inventions, with the help of computer models, Ron submitted a proposal to the US Patent Office for an idea he calls "practical, non-toxic, cheap and quick to implement". The idea is to curb global warming (and its consequences) by spraying sea water into the atmosphere, the spraying of millions of tons of sea water will curb the warming. When the water evaporates and steals heat near the ground, the vapors that rise will condense into clouds that will return some of their energy to space and then fall as cooling rain.

In other words, "the production of a large cooling system whose power can be multiplied hundreds of thousands of times." According to him, about a thousand sprinklers that will be placed near areas with strong wind conditions will spray sea water in an amount of about 15,000 cubic meters per second to heights between 10 and 70 meters, lowering the average global temperature by two degrees in just a few years. Scientists who have tested the proposal claim that it is feasible and the result will indeed be a gradual cooling.

Well, perhaps there is indeed something practical in the proposal, of course it must be checked how much energy must be invested to operate the system and what the level of pollution will be... There may be existence for such a project, but it is to be hoped that the project will not come at the expense of reducing emissions - that a large polluter will not come and be offset at the expense of spraying water to heaven Churchill said that: "The Americans can always be trusted to find a solution, after trying all the wrong options"}

Purchase of emission rights

The Kyoto Protocol created "The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)" which allows developed countries to offset the balance of emissions by (green) projects in developing countries.

The mechanism is a tool for activity to prevent emissions and stop global warming and an incentive for the economy of developing countries. About 4200 ventures joined the mechanism in 2008 and it is estimated that by 2012 there will be about 8000 ventures in the mechanism, worth approximately 30 billion dollars. Among the other countries is Israel with 33 future projects, worth about 72 million dollars.

And this year a celebration is expected for the scientific world: 200 years since the birth of Darwin and 150 years since the publication of "The Origin of Species" which was a milestone and cornerstone for scientific thought and the development of research in the natural sciences.

Privileges for animals

And to end with a joke. The carefree Swiss were enacting laws to protect animals,..."green"? Not exactly, since the Swiss laws state that it is forbidden to flush goldfish down the toilet... Sport fishing where the captured fish are released... It is forbidden, it is forbidden to use live bait... It is forbidden to keep pets such as parrots, hamsters alone... Keeping sheep and goats only when there is close contact between them ... Dog owners must learn how to prevent their dogs from biting... Pigs have a (legal) right to shower and freshen up after rolling around in the mud... These are just selected examples from a 175-page document that, according to the "Association for Justice to Live" is insufficient...