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