Eco News Round Up – Spring 2021
Greta Thunberg’s Fridays For Future campaign
Greta Thunberg releases a satire as a part of her global campaign about Mars space travel in anticipation of the arrival of NASA’s Perseverance Rover on the red planet. Specifically, the ad excites viewers about the prospect of humans travelling to the Red Planet but has a call-to-action, with the line: “And for the 99% of humans who will stay on Earth, we’d better fix climate change.” View it below:
1% – After more than 5 million years of human existence on Earth, it’s time for a change…
Source: Euronews
The UK is Building a Facility That Recycles Plastic With Steam
A new recycling plant has begun construction in the northeast of England. This is the first commercial scale plant that will recycle all types of plastic using a high pressure stream. This facility is set to start operating by the end of 2022, the plant should be able to process 80,000 metric tons of plastic waste a year. In 25 minutes, the steam system will convert plastics into the oils and chemicals they were made. This can then be used to create new plastics with no limit to the number of times that it can be recycled, compared to the current limit of one / two times.
Source: Earth.org
Spanish city will generate electricity from oranges
In Seville, the metropolitan water supply and sanitation company Emasesa, will start generating electricity from discarded orange, that the 48.000 orange trees drop every year in the streets. By collecting oranges fallen and discarded on public roads, Aqua Publica Europea member, Emasesa aims to extract their juice to form biogas. 35 tonnes of the bitter fruit is being squeezed, while their peel is being composted and transformed into fertiliser for fields. This is expected to generate about 1,500 kWh, which is equivalent to the consumption of 150 homes, and will make the water treatment plant self-sufficient. To achieve this goal, Seville will have to invest €250,000 into the project
Source: euronews.com
UN adopts landmark framework to integrate natural capital in economic reporting
For the first time, the UN will measure the contributions of nature when measuring economic prosperity and human well-being. The framework — the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting—Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) — marks a major step forward that goes beyond the commonly used statistic of gross domestic product (GDP) that has dominated economic reporting since the end of World War II. This measure would ensure that natural capital—forests, wetlands and other ecosystems—are recognised in economic reporting.
Source: UN.org
Bottom trawling ban in four protected areas proposed in UK seas
The UK government announced proposals to ban destructive bottom trawling in 4 UK marine protected areas, including Dogger Bank. Most UK marine protected areas aren’t fully protected, rather one or more of their features are under protection. The proposed byelaws will help to restore and preserve important habitats. This year is a great year for the ocean as there are multiple different international intergovernmental conferences on marine conservation and climate change taking place. Fingers crossed for more good ocean news to come in 2021.
Source: The Guardian