Ramblings of a 70-year old: environment

Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts

Monday, October 31, 2022

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could attend the COP27 climate summit

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of Britain, had pulled out of COP27 Climate Talks in Egypt. The reason cited was “pressing domestic commitments” related to November 17 Autumn Statement. However, he could after all make a U-turn and attend following a major Tory backlash. It seems his rival Boris Johnson, who took a leading role at last year’s COP26 in Glasgow - was planning to go. Sources in No 10 says Rishi Sunak could make it to Egypt “if he gets enough work done.” Environment Department minister Mark Spencer told a section of the media - “He’s come into office, he’s got an inbox which is full to the brim. Clearly, he wants to concentrate on the financial statement and that’s what he’s doing. But if he’s able to get through all of that, you know, COP is very important. It’s important to the government, it’s important to our future, and so we’ll send out senior ministers. That’s yet to be decided who’s going to go.” These developments came after COP26 President Alok Sharma, a Tory minister, said he was “disappointed” while ex-Chancellor George Osborne said the PM had “mishandled” the situation. Rishi Sunak could attend COP27 climate summit in major U-turn after Tory backlash.

Mr Sunak has vowed to protect the environment as he sent congratulations to left-winger Lula da Silva for triumphing in Brazil’s presidential election. The PM tweeted they would work on “growing the global economy to protecting the planet’s natural resources and promoting democratic values.” Incidentally, King Charles agreed to host a climate change reception at Buckingham Palace after he was stopped from attending a summit in Egypt. The monarch had pulled out of the COP27 meeting on the advice of the government. It takes off in Sharm El-Sheikh next weekend. However, there was an announcement that he will hold his own gathering on Friday. Its purpose would be to bring together hundreds of business leaders and climate campaigners. The reception of the King at Buckingham Palace on November 4 will be on the eve of the UN conference in Egypt. The Palace said it will "bring together over 200 international business leaders, decision makers and NGOs to mark the end of the United Kingdom's presidency of Cop26 and look ahead to the Cop27 summit in Egypt."

Monday, October 17, 2022

African elephants adapt themselves to an arid landscape of rocky mountains in northwest Namibia

African elephants usually wander among open grasslands or make their homes in forests. However, in northwest Namibia, they have fallen in love with an arid landscape of rocky mountains, sand, and gravel plains. These pachyderms have adapted to life in the desert. Incidentally, there are two populations of desert-adapted elephants in the world. In order to survive in this harsh environment, they have developed larger feet. These help them to move more easily across soft sandy terrain. These also serve as a useful tool, along with their trunks, to find water deep beneath the ground. Moreover, like other desert animals, they can survive for several days without water. In fact, they store water in a pharyngeal pouch in their throats. This helps them to collect and store. Dr Malan Lindeque is a Namibian zoologist and expert in elephant population ecology. He explained to a section of the media – “They have an excellent group memory – presumably held mostly by the adults – and knowledge of widely dispersed sources of water, which enable these elephants to move over very large areas, the largest home ranges recorded for elephants anywhere.” Desert elephants are finding friends in the drylands of Namibia.

He went on to add that while other elephants will seek food and water within a 12.4-mile radius, desert elephants can move 62 to 93 miles a day between waterpoints. This is “often in a quite straight line, demonstrating their knowledge of the location of these sites.” A conservation organization in Namibia says an estimated 62 desert dwelling elephants live in the dried up riverbeds of Namibia. This is only a fraction of the thousands that used to live in the Namib region in the 18th century. The decline is because of factors like hunting, poaching, increase in human populations and political conflict. Even now, their survival is uncertain because of a scarcity of food and water and regular conflict with another species – humans. From an estimated 3 to 5 million African elephants at the beginning of the 20th century, only 400,000 remain.

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Egypt will host COP27, the annual United Nations climate talks

Glasgow held COP26 last year but the world has changed considerably over the past year. The full form of COP is Conference of the Parties. There is now an energy crisis, the war in Ukraine, tensions over Taiwan apart from situations like the floods in Pakistan. These have changed the geopolitical concept dramatically. All eyes are now on Egypt where COP27 will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh between 6-18 November. Developing nations will look forward to Egypt, a middle-income developing nation, to provide a stronger platform to their demands. This is an annual event where leaders from almost 200 countries assemble. They put their heads together to evolve methods to tackle the crisis of climate change and its impacts. Apart from leaders, thousands of observers, civil society groups and media attend too. Incidentally, France hosted the 2015 talks. It led to the historic Paris Agreement where countries agreed the need to limit global warming to below 2°C, and ideally to 1.5°C, of warming above pre-industrial levels. COP27: Everything you need to know about the United Nations climate talks in Egypt. One of the attendees would be US President Joe Biden. King Charles, known for his focus on the environment when he was Prince of Wales, would not attend. He pulled out after discussions with Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss. As to the presence of Britain, there is no confirmation on whether the Prime Minister will attend, or whether business secretary Jacob-Rees Mogg will come instead. He supports fossil fuel expansion.

COP might not be the ideal process, but right now, it is the single biggest geopolitical forum for countries to join hands and work together to tackle a threat that has an impact on all of humanity. The violent flooding that ravaged Pakistan is a recent example of how climate change can uproot people from their homes and heap miseries on the community. A relevant issue that might come up is on whether richer countries, responsible for the vast majority of emissions, should pay reparations to poor countries. The latter suffers the worst impacts of climate change. Another contentious issue could be the untapped gas fields of Africa. In the opinion of Nick Mabey, chief executive of think tank E3G, countries could be divided over whether to exploit untapped gas or go straight from fossil fuels to clean power.

Friday, August 19, 2022

Saving the river fish in the UK as lack of rains dries up water bodies

The population of healthy fish in the UK is drying up because of lack of rains. Low level of water in many places have sent out alarms. Therefore, the Environment Agency has stepped in and it is drawing up plans to save them. The population of healthy fish is now corralled by the lowest water levels that many can remember. After waiting till the last minute, the agency has plans to rescue fish in some of the most rapidly vanishing pools and transfer them to other parts of the river. They plan to use a technique called electro-fishing. It involves passing an electric current through the water. This stuns the fish on a temporary basis. It is then collected and transferred to tanks that are full of oxygenated water. River fish being moved in struggle to survive low water levels. This is no doubt a drastic step. There are possibilities that some of the fish might not survive. They are already stressed due to a lack of oxygen and high temperatures in the small pools to which they have been confined for weeks. However, the loss might be far less than the fish that survive.

The River Wye on the Welsh/English border is home to some of our most vulnerable fish populations. These include salmon and sea trout that must migrate the length of the river. The salmon have been dying for weeks because of not just low levels of water and oxygen but also due to rising levels of pollution. Drop of water levels mean rise in concentrations of pollution. Cattle and poultry farms near the bodies of water add to existing pollution from sewage treatment works. The ongoing drought has worsened the situation.