Bulgaria bans camping and parking 100m from beach shoreline

Bulgaria’s National Assembly has approved the second reading of amendments to the Black Sea Coast Act that ban camping and parking 100 metres from beach shoreline, although sleeping on the beach for a night will be allowed.

Europe: Trading away its natural wealth?

At Green Week in Brussels - the biggest annual conference on European environment policy - reform to two key nature laws is being debated. Results could extend to food security in Europe. 

Japan buries more dolphins after mass beaching. There was also a mass stranding on a remote New Zealand beach on February 20

Japanese officials were burying several more dolphins on Monday as researchers tried to work out why scores of the animals beached themselves last week.

Whale beaching fuels 'unscientific' undersea quake fears in Japan

The mass beaching of more than 150 melon-headed whales on Japan's shores has fuelled fears of a repeat of a seemingly unrelated event in the country—the devastating 2011 undersea earthquake that killed around 19,000 people.

The impact of tourism on nature

Wildlife tourism generates billions of dollars in revenue every year - boosting local economies and creating employment. But what is the cost to the animals that become the star attractions? 

Israel's Greatest Ecological Catastrophe Unfolding in Arava Desert

The crude oil spill in the Arava Desert, southern Israel, is 'twice as bad as initially estimated,' according to the Israeli Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company....

"The volume of crude oil that spilled into the Arava Desert last week is 60 percent larger than the amount that was originally reported, the company responsible for the pipeline acknowledged on Sunday night," Haaretz, the Israeli news agency reported.

Oil pipeline bursts near Israel-Jordan border.(the reason for the spill was under investigation)

An oil pipeline rupture has caused thousands of cubic metres of crude oil to spill into the Arava desert in southern Israel near the border with Jordan, officials said Thursday (Dec 4). The incident took place just north of the Red Sea resort city of Eilat and 500m from the frontier. 

The spill was "a couple of kilometres long", according to an Israeli environment ministry spokeswoman who was unable to give more specific information.

Farmer leaves wheat on field to bring wild birds back

A man living in a remote village of Turkey’s Black Sea region has been planting wheat in his fields and does not harvest it, in order to feed wild birds and thus keep them in the area.

Tahir Öztürk, 29, who runs a shop for door and window restorations in the town center of Gümüşhane, decided to plant wheat in his fields in the Boyluca village four years ago in order to “hear the sounds of wild birds once again.”

Öztürk said many villagers had moved out of Boyluca and ceased to plant their fields, meaning that many birds, particularly partridges, stopped returning to the village, as they were unable to find food anymore.

Climate finance is essential to addressing climate change, Ban tells ministers in Warsaw.

20 November 2013 – The top United Nations official today called on foreign ministers to prioritize the environment in domestic politics and contribute to climate financing as a way of moving towards a new global climate change agreement by 2015.
“This can do more than anything to unlock the huge investment necessary for climate change adaptation and mitigation,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a ministerial-level meeting on the margins of the UN-led climate change talks under way in the Polish capital, Warsaw.
“We must send the right policy signals,” Mr. Ban said, adding that the development of high-impact opportunities would unlock clean energy investments, close the viability gap between green and fossil fuel-based projects and de-risk renewable energy and low-carbon investments.

In Warsaw, Ban urges climate negotiators to ‘rise to the challenge,’ reach global deal.

9 November 2013 – The world need look no further than the catastrophe in the Philippines to comprehend the profound and dangerous consequences of a warming planet, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today, urging negotiators at a United Nations conference in Warsaw to rise to the challenge “with wisdom and urgency” and pave the way to a binding climate deal by 2015.

Negotiators told ‘the world is ready’ for climate change deal, as UN conference opens in Warsaw

11 November 2013 – The United Nations Climate Change Conference opened today in Warsaw, Poland, with a call to reach a new agreement to cut climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions during what is seen as a pivotal point in the negotiating process, made all the more urgent by the devastation in Philippines from Typhoon Haiyan.
“We must win the Warsaw opportunity,” Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told participants at this 19th session.
She noted that “the world is ready” and there is a groundswell of climate action, not only for the environment, but also for security, energy, economic and governance reasons.

Climate Talks Open in Warsaw. -"We are loosing this unequal struggle of men and nature".

"Only two days ago a powerful typhoon swept through the Philippines claiming thousands of lives and leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes. A great human tragedy. Unforgettable, painful, awakening. I said awakening because it's another proof that we are loosing this unequal struggle of men and nature that beset us yet again and will continue in the future if we do not close ranks and act together to strike back."

U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres also referenced the "devastating impact'' of the typhoon in her opening speech. She urged delegates to guarantee greater climate security for the generations to come.

Δέκα φορές υψηλότερος του αναμενομένου ο κίνδυνος πρόσκρουσης αστεροειδή στη Γη./Hazardous asteroids may be more numerous than previously thought, scientists say.

Σήμα κινδύνου για την αύξηση περιστατικών όπως αυτό που συνέβη στο Τσελιάμπινσκ τον περασμένο Φεβρουάριο αφήνοντας πίσω του 1.200 τραυματίες εκπέμπει σχετική μελέτη που δημοσιεύθηκε στο περιοδικό Nature.

Όπως αναφέρουν τα μέλη της επιστημονικής ομάδας που τη συνέταξε, διαστημικοί βράχοι παρόμοιου μεγέθους με αυτόν που εξερράγη πάνω από το Τσελιάμπινσκ εμφανίζονται στην τροχιά της Γης με εκπληκτική συχνότητα.

Γι' αυτό και ζητούν την ενεργοποίηση συστημάτων έγκαιρης προειδοποίησης.

Microalgae Produce More Oil Faster for Energy, Food or Products

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Apr. 7, 2013 — Scientists have described technology that accelerates microalgae's ability to produce many different types of renewable oils for fuels, chemicals, foods and personal-care products within days using standard industrial fermentation.
The presentation was part of the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on April 7.

Mercedes Biome Concept emits pure oxygen.

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At the 2010 Los Angeles Design Challenge, the designers from the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studios in Carlsbad, California, surprised everyone with a revolutionary vision. 

Biofuel breakthrough: Quick cook method turns algae into oil

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2012) — ANN ARBOR—It looks like Mother Nature was wasting her time with a multimillion-year process to produce crude oil. Michigan Engineering researchers can "pressure-cook" algae for as little as a minute and transform an unprecedented 65 percent of the green slime into biocrude.