Land reclamation is a popular urban development strategy, particularly for densely-populated cities like Hong Kong. However, land reclamation results in significant, often irreversible damages to its surrounding environment and natural habitats. Researchers are looking for alternatives to create new land without reclamation while meeting greater demands for more public space. 

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Situated on the eastern fringe of the lower estuary of the Pearl River, the third largest river in China, Hong Kong is a well-known port city, and one of the most densely populated cities on Earth with a population of over 7 million people. 

The sea surrounding Hong Kong is used for navigation, recreation, aquaculture, fishery, and supplies flushing and cooling water for domestic and industrial uses. With close to 6,000 species of animals recorded, the city’s marine habitats support a high biodiversity ranging from migratory birds to dolphins. 

Currently, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and nine other cities in the Pearl River Delta form a megalopolis of over 65 million people, known as the Greater Bay Area. The high rate of urbanisation and infrastructure construction around the delta area pose severe threats to the remaining habitats, including losing bodies of water to land reclamation.  

Hong Kong is also famously ranked highest in the world in housing costs. A parking space in a prime location in the city easily costs more than USD 1 million. The constant land shortage combined with immigrants arriving from mainland China have pushed housing prices to an unaffordable level.  While the government recognises the housing crisis and has made efforts in developing more public housing, the majority of undeveloped lands in Hong Kong that remain are protected areas with significant ecological values, as well as farmlands and brownfields owned by local villagers and property developers that cost too much to redevelop. The easiest solution for the government is to reclaim the sea. 

In 2018, the Hong Kong government announced the “Lantau Tomorrow Vision” plan, which aims to reclaim a large section of the east Lantau sea, creating several artificial islands with bridges and tunnels connecting Lantau Island to Hong Kong Island. This will form a metropolitan area that could house 400,000 households, which approximates around 1 million residents. The proposed reclamation projects received a number of criticisms from both the public and environmental groups, along with studies showing how the reclamation will cause irreversible environmental damages and destroy the natural habitat of Chinese white dolphins, pushing them to the brink of extinction. 

Furthermore, there are recent discussions of developing residential properties on the fringes of country parks. The green space surrounding country parks are set as an ecological buffer to protect the sensitive ecosystem of country parks. Building houses in those areas would cause irreversible damage to the ecosystem, lead to fragmentation of habitat and further threaten the wildlife in Hong Kong country parks.

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Can Hong Kong Create Land Without Reclamation? 

The Hong Kong government has made research on the different ways to create new land. The city looked into the potentials of cavern development and moving infrastructures such as water treatment plants within, a strategy not unlike the city’s underground transport network MTR and cavern water reservoirs and sewage treatment facilities.  This could free up an abundance of land for housing.

Another solution worth exploring is constructing a floating city. This innovative solution does not require land reclamation and the construction process could be carried out off-site and reduce environmental impacts. Small-scale floating islands have proved to be technologically possible. Island nations such as Maldives, which relies heavily on tourism to support their economy, has famously built floating resorts and hotels for tourists. The land in Maldives is scarce and reclamation would destroy their pristine atoll and coral reefs, which are the country’s main attraction for tourism. With rising sea levels, a floating island would have the ability to adapt to changing climates and potential floods. 

In the Netherlands, a country that is historically known for land reclamation using polder, has similarly developed a new method of creating new land via flotation. In 2018, the world’s first floating farm started operation in Rotterdam. The floating farm housed 32 cows and is designed to withstand future rising sea levels.  The floating farm is designed to have a circular energy system, which produces its own electricity from solar panels and supplies freshwater from a rainwater collection system. The cows can feed on grass mowed from neighbouring playing fields and golf courses, and any manure collected is then turned into organic fertilizer. Put together, the agriculture system aims to balance animal welfare and sustainability.

The utilisation of flotation land doesn’t end there. Since 2011, the Netherlands has begun working on housing projects that float along the canal. Unlike the country’s traditional houseboats, these floating houses are classified as immovable properties with postcode and address. Situated in the Ijburg District in Amsterdam, where house prices are the most expensive, floating houses could make housing more affordable.

The floating city model is no longer a conceptual idea; it has been experimented and proven to be technologically possible. In places such as Hong Kong, where the price of land is exponentially high, floating cities could provide a more economical alternative to accommodate the world’s growing population, conserve the marine environment, as well as offering more sustainable living conditions.

Featured image by: Flickr

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National air pollution action plans devised by China have seen significant reductions in pollution levels and associated health risks.

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China has lifted millions out of poverty like no other country on the planet. The price of that economic progress is demonstrated in the air pollution that has caused a public health crisis, killing more than 1.1 million people every year. It has also proved costly for the nation as the economy suffers an annual loss of $37 billion due to pollution-induced crop failure. 

China Air Pollution Solutions

After Beijing’s ‘airpocalypse’ sparked a mass outpouring of anger and frustration among citizens, China set out to clean up the air quality of its cities. The government prohibited new coal-fired power plants and shut down a number of old plants in the most polluted regions including city clusters of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Pearl and Yangtze Deltas. Large cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou restricted the number of cars on the road and started introducing all-electric bus fleets. The country reduced its iron-and steel-making capacity and shut down coal mines.  

The government also introduced aggressive afforestation and reforestation programmes like the Great Green Wall and planted more than 35 billion trees across 12 provinces. With investments of over $100 billion in such programmes, China’s forestry expenditure per hectare exceeded that of the US and Europe and became three times higher than the global average.

The Air Pollution Action Plan released in September 2013 became China’s most influential environmental policy. It helped the nation to make significant improvements in its air quality between 2013 and 2017, reducing PM2.5 levels (atmospheric particulate matter) by 33% in Beijing and 15% in the Pearl River Delta. In Beijing, this meant reducing PM2.5 levels from 89.5µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre) down to 60. The city achieved an annual average PM2.5 level of 58µg/m³– a drop of 35%.

But even so, no cities reached the World Health Organization’s recommended annual average PM2.5 level of 10µg/m³. And as of the end of 2017, only 107 of China’s 338 cities of prefectural level or higher had reached the WHO’s interim standard of 35µg/m³.

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As part of the second phase of its battle against air pollution, in 2018, China introduced its Three-year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky War.

While the 2013 Action Plan only set PM2.5 level targets for the city clusters of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Pearl and Yangtze Deltas, the new three-year Action Plan applies to all the cities in China. It mandates at least an 18% reduction in PM2.5 levels on a 2015 baseline in as many as 231 cities that have not yet reached the government standard- an average of 35µg/m³.

The previous plan had not addressed a primary pollutant that made the air deadly in many cities: ground-level ozone- highly irritating gas created by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) reacting with nitrogen oxides released from vehicles. Although ozone in the upper atmosphere protects the Earth by blocking solar radiation, it is extremely toxic in the troposphere and could cause asthma and respiratory tract infections among residents. The new action plan focuses more on ozone pollution as it adds targets for both VOCs and nitrogen oxides: emissions reductions of 10% and 15%, respectively, by 2020. 

The air quality over major Chinese cities has improved as of the beginning of 2020, a byproduct of the Covid-19 pandemic that originated in Wuhan in the Hubei Province that saw the nation embark on the largest lockdown measures in the world. A drop in industrial and economic activities resulted in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved air quality in Wuhan over the Chinese New Year, as well as Beijing, Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region. However, emissions will no doubt rise again once the pandemic subsides.

Air pollution levels in major cities in China at the turn of this century were almost exactly at the level of London at the height of the Industrial Revolution in 1890. But China cleaned up its air twice as fast as the United Kingdom did after the Great Smog of postwar London killed 8 000 people.

Recent research suggests that China’s fight against air pollution has laid the foundations for extraordinary gains in the country’s life expectancy. The average citizen can now expect to live 2.4 years longer on average if the declines in air pollution persist.

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COVID-19 has caused a global economic depression, which- along with catastrophes like locust swarms in East Africa and the Middle East– has meant that food prices have become increasingly unaffordable for many people in less developed regions. Further, by 2030, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the number of food insecure people around the world will reach 840 million. To better prepare for and ideally avert this disaster scenario, we need to both learn to grow food in more extreme conditions and become more self-sustainable in order to maintain food security. Inspired by science fiction, more and more scientists are exploring ways to grow food in space. Research that looks at how plants can avoid heavy metals intake from Martian soil and grow in a microgravity environment, or how cosmic radiation might affect plant growth are all very exciting and useful for agriculture in space and on Earth. 

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Growing plants on the International Space Station (ISS) is not a new concept, however growing crops and being able to sustain the astronauts for a long period of time would be a challenge. Since the 20th century, there have been many calls to embark on human exploration of Mars. To reduce payload of the spaceship, space agriculture could be a  necessary way to sustain astronauts for a long period of time. Space agriculture is more than just producing food or research; it has been proven that agriculture could significantly improve the mental health for astronauts.

Already, almost half of all the experiments carried out on the ISS are related to biotechnology and the majority are on plant science, which involves growing plants in space.

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The application of space agriculture research is not limited to space only. The technology derived from space agriculture could also benefit agriculture on Earth. In space, astronauts have to use human waste to fertilise the crops they eat, including lettuce. This closed loop energy transfer system could be utilised in urban farming, which would help farmers to reduce their application of chemical fertilisers and ultimately reduce their carbon footprint. 

Food production is the biggest driver of nature loss, with about half of the world’s habitable land area already used for agriculture. Space agriculture could catalyse the development of high-yield crop production that requires less land and less energy input. Research on genetically modified crops such as C4 rice (a more efficient method of photosynthesis) and rust resistant wheat or new farming practices such as deficit irrigation, drone pollination will all be very useful in achieving the United Nation Zero Hunger goal. 

Space agriculture would also stimulate the research of alternative meat sources. A recent rise in popularity of plant-based meat substitutes may also spur a more sustainable agriculture system. Since greenhouse gas emissions have been mostly driven by agriculture (which represents 10% alone) and the natural-gas industry, changing our diet to a lower trophic level would greatly reduce methane emissions. However, according to recent research, increasing red meat consumption, especially in developing countries, has propelled a 12% increase in emissions from agriculture in 2017 alone. Another alternative to red meat would be insect-based meat, including mealworms; experiments have shown that insects are able to survive in space and it could also be a potential sustainable food source for astronauts.

Climate change will continue to threaten global food security. Development of space agriculture technology may be the way to prepare us to survive in a two degrees warmer world and become a multiplanetary species. 

Featured image by: Flickr 

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People usually associate deforestation and illegal logging with tropical rainforests in developing countries such as those in the Amazon and Southeast Asia. However, illegal logging also happens in developed regions such as Hong Kong. 

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There is one particular premium-priced tree called the Incense Tree (Aquilaria sinensis) that has been subjected to illegal logging for over a decade and is now endangered. The Incense Tree is native to Hong Kong and south China and while it is abundant in numbers, because of the massive amounts of logging in the past century, nowadays the largest remaining wild population of Incense Trees can only be found in Hong Kong. The tree produces a dark aromatic resin when it is injured and infected by fungus. Traditionally, farmers created artificial wounds on the tree’s bark in order to induce resin production. The resin-impregnated heartwood of the tree, also known as agarwood, has been used in traditional herbal medicines and it is also used to produce incense and perfumes. Cultivation began around the turn of the first millennium and the trees have long been a staple of traditional feng shui forests, which are woodlands preserved near rural settlements for good luck. The island became a hub for the wood’s export and earned it the name “Hong Kong,” which translates as “Fragrant Harbour”.

The Incense Tree is currently categorised as vulnerable, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List. Agarwood prices can be as high as US$ 30 000 per kilogram depending on the quality (TRAFFIC, 2012). Its high value has motivated illegal logging activities in Hong Kong, and there is an increasing trend of illegal felling of Incense Trees in Hong Kong since 2010. This illegal activity most often occurs in the New Territories, in country parks such as Tai Mo Shan and Sai Kung. 

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C.Y. Jim, a professor of geography at the University of Hong Kong has been tracking the destruction of the wild incense-tree population and found that in 2013, the Hong Kong government logged 96 theft cases, registered the damage of 168 trees and recovered 133kg of wood. Jim believes that these figures underestimate the true extent of the destruction; he believes that multiplying the recorded number of felled trees by five is a more accurate number. According to Asia Plantation Capital, the industry is worth at least US$6 billion. 

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) in Hong Kong has developed an action plan to save the remaining population of the Incense Tree. 

Under the Forests and Countryside Ordinance, a person who unlawfully fells or damages any trees on Government land is liable to a maximum penalty of HKD$25 000 fine and one-year imprisonment. Offenders involved in the illegal logging of Incense Tree are usually prosecuted under the Theft Ordinance which imposes a heavier penalty of a 10-year imprisonment. However, this has not deterred the offenders from felling. To combat the increasing trend of illegal logging, in 2018 the government increased the penalty for contravening the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance to a maximum fine of HKD$1 million and imprisonment for seven years if the offender smuggles species that are under the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) list. The penalty was previously HKD$500 000 and one year imprisonment.

The wild populations of incense trees in China have been exploited extensively and therefore offenders have extended these illegal activities to Hong Kong. In the past, poachers often injured the trees to induce resin production and would return several years later to harvest the agarwood that it turned into. With the increasing demand for agarwood, poachers nowadays indiscriminately cut down the trees and hope to find the agarwood. They usually target large mature trees because there is a higher chance of finding agarwood in it. Police have found that in some cases, incense trees are too large to cut down and are not completely cut down. The damage to the trees is often so serious that the trees can no longer survive even if they produce the resin to heal themselves. Some poachers even return to search for the agarwood from the surviving stumps.

In 2016, the AFCD and the police force set up a special task force to step up enforcement to protect the incense trees. The special task force regularly patrols the country parks (the locations of which are kept secret to protect the trees), focusing on particular areas popular for illegal logging. AFCD also uses infrared sensor camera traps as a surveillance device to record any movement of heat objects. Any movement triggers the devices and the recordings are sent to the headquarters immediately, where staff determine if the movement is caused by suspicious activities. Villagers and residents who live near the country parks often serve as informants that exchange intelligence information with the special task force for early detection of suspicious activities. 

For large incense trees that are obvious targets, the AFCD has installed metallic tree guides to protect these high-risk trees from mechanical damage. The tree guards are 2 meters tall and there is controversy as to whether these guides damage the root of the trees during installation. There is also concern as to whether these systems make the location of the trees more obvious. 

The AFCD has also been actively growing incense tree seedlings and replanting them where they once were. The AFCD says that it has been planting around 10 000 seedlings per year since 2009. This program also includes planting these trees in secured public spaces such as schools, government premises and urban parks. 

To solve the root of the illegal logging problem in Hong Kong, the AFCD has also coordinated with the relevant mainland authorities to step up the enforcement and crack down on dealers and retailers who sell agarwood from illegal sources. 

Featured image by: poida.smith

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When we talk about ozone, the image that most often springs to mind is the ozone layer in the stratosphere that protects us from harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun. The depletion of this ozone layer increases surface UV levels, making its protection vital. However, ozone pollution can also be detrimental to the health of plants. How does it do this and what does it mean for a warming planet?

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How does ozone form?

The ozone layer depletion- called the ‘ozone hole’- over the North and South Polar regions has been a pervasive problem throughout the 20th century. Caused by pollutants such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other anthropogenic pollutants such as halons- gases found in aerosols and refrigerants- more UV rays are able to reach the Earth’s surface and can increase rates of skin cancer. The Montreal Protocol signed in 1987 has greatly reduced the emission of CFCs; studies show that the global climate would be at least 25% hotter today without the Protocol and new satellite images show that the largest hole ever observed in the ozone layer over the Arctic has closed.

While these events provide a sense of hope that efforts to reduce aspects of the climate crisis are working, there is another threat associated with ozone that affects human health and particularly plants that has recently come to light- surface ozone pollution. 

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What is ozone?

Discovered by a Dutch chemist named Van Marum in 1840, ozone gas is a colourless gas that is used as a disinfectant and water treatment option because of its strong oxidative property that kills microorganisms. The gas is also used in ozone therapy, which is when ozone is injected into a patient’s body to disinfect the area around the bacteria, improving the body’s intake and use of oxygen and activating the immune system. Some have claimed that ozone therapy can be used as a treatment for the COVID-19 virus, however the Food and Drug Administration in the US has asserted that ozone is a toxic gas and ‘has no known useful medical application’. Scientists and medical professionals have asserted that ozone therapy can cause respiratory irritation, heart problems, poor circulation, strokes and other afflictions. 

Among various air pollutants, surface ozone- mostly produced photochemically from anthropogenic precursor gases such as nitrous oxide from vehicles and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from solvents- is of particular concern due to the significant harm it can pose to both human and ecosystem health. The phytotoxicity of ozone has been shown to impair photosynthesis, reduce gas exchange, induce early leaf senescence (ageing) and hamper growth in both natural vegetation and crops. 

Ozone-Sensitive Plants

As plants play a vital role in regulating the ambient environment, ozone-induced damage in plants may further accelerate environmental degradation, with severe consequences for human health. The increasing ozone trend could be the result of increased temperature and reduction of humidity in subtropical climates, which induce stress in plants and in return reduce the ozone absorption ability of plants, increasing ozone concentration in the atmosphere.

Ozone is one of the most difficult pollutants to control because it is not directly emitted. Instead, dangerous compounds and nitrous oxides released from vehicles, power plants, landfills and other biomass and fossil fuel burning facilities react with sunlight to form this secondary pollutant. According to Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department’s 2019 air quality monitoring results, the average ozone level has been increasing over the past 20 years, despite government efforts to clean the air and overall air quality and other major pollutants’ level improving steadily. 

To investigate the impact of ozone on plants, Dr. Felix Leung from the Chinese University of Hong Kong established a free-air experimental garden to monitor, quantify and understand the mechanisms of ozone damage on plants. In this experimental field, dubbed the ‘ozone garden’, the team grew cultivars of beans with different ozone sensitivities as a bioindicator of the local air pollution impacts on ecosystems. 

The beans showed a distinctive red mottled pattern on the leaves according to the level of ozone in the atmosphere. There are two genotypes of beans that show different sensitivity to ozone. Dr. Felix Leung and his team found that the ozone-sensitive genotype bean suffered higher ozone-induced foliar damage, with more red mottles and a higher death rate. This shows that ozone level in Hong Kong is high enough to cause significant damage to plants even in the countryside.

Professor Amos Tai from the Faculty of Science says, “the data obtained from this garden is essential to not only demonstrate the impacts of air pollution on plants under locally specific environmental conditions, but can also be used to derive important parameters of ecophysiology and biometeorology that can be used to build a regionally relevant earth system model for predictive purposes. Such an ozone garden has also been shown to provide great opportunities for public education. The differences in visual damage on ozone-sensitive, normal and ozone-tolerant plants are often striking, and can be used in publicity and educational events to raise awareness of pollution impacts on life and to galvanize corresponding technical and policy solutions to protect regional ecosystems and agriculture against pollution threats.”

To specifically tackle ozone pollution, the governments of Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau have committed to a 3-year joint study from 2020-2023 to better understand the origins of ozone precursors, its formation and its transportation. Hong Kong and Guangdong are also adding real-time VOCs monitoring in the regional air quality monitoring network and wind profiles at higher altitudes to track the transportation of pollutants over Hong Kong, with a view to tackle ozone pollution. 

The Hong Kong government should add more incentives to encourage the use of electric cars and convert existing public transport modes to electric. Additionally, more ozone-tolerant trees should be planted along the roadside to improve air quality. It is only through these proactive measures that ozone pollution can be tackled and mitigated; it is therefore imperative that more studies such as the one conducted at CUHK are undertaken to better understand the problem.

The post How Ozone Pollution is Destroying Plants appeared first on Earth.Org.

Extreme weather events as a result of the climate crisis have resulted in resource scarcity and famine. The Syrian civil war that began in 2011 (that is still continuing) has caused more than 5 million ‘climate refugees’ to move to Turkey and neighbouring countries. The root of this war can be traced back to the drought the country experienced before 2011. How is the climate crisis related to extremism?

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Climate Change and Extremism

Lack of food, water and other resources has created opportunities for militant and extremist groups to seize control of resources and exploit them to get recruits to join their ranks in exchange for work and food. This strategy has been found to be used in extremist groups in North Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and West Africa, which experience extreme water stress and famine. 

The MENA region is home to 6% of the global population, but only 1% of the world’s freshwater resources, according to the World Bank. Some experts believe that drought played a role in sparking Syria’s civil war. The prolonged drought led to the death of 85% of livestock in eastern Syria and widespread crop failure, which pushed 800 000 people into food insecurity and triggered mass migration, contributing to civil unrest.

A 2017 report commissioned by the German foreign office claimed that the impacts of the drought were also linked to the growing influence of ISIS in the Middle East. According to the report, ISIS ‘tried to gain and retain legitimacy by providing water and other services to garner support from local populations’ during the prolonged drought.

According to experts, the diminishing water sources are ‘flashpoints for violence‘ as communities struggle with reduced crop yields and high levels of poverty. Extremism is sometimes the only option available.

However, other researchers have disputed how much of a role drought played in the conflict.

Further south, across the Sahel region, the impact of the climate crisis is shown by the shrinking of Lake Chad. Spanning seven countries, including Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon, the lake is vital to the likelihoods of nearly 30 million people. However, the lake’s water supply has shrunk by over 90% since the 1960s, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Robert Muggah, who analyses global climate and security challenges at the Igarape Institute, a think tank in Brazil, claims that the drying of Lake Chad has bolstered recruitment efforts of groups including Boko Haram, the militant group operating in Nigeria.

This strategy was also used during the Great Depression in the US in the 1930s, where Mafia leader Al Capone ran a soup kitchen for poor people in Chicago as a way to gain support from blue collar workers and recruit members into the ranks of the mafia when the government failed to give them sufficient support. In Morocco, a report found that the more tyrannical and corrupt the government, the more extremist activity that occurred. 

Ultimately the rise of extremism is the result of government mismanagement and failure to deal with a crisis. In the case of the climate crisis, many developing countries do not have the resources or technology to adapt or mitigate the impact of it, which leads to rebellion and social unrest. Further, when these climate refugees move to other countries (usually developed Western countries), clashes in ideology can also lead to extremism. 

Many leaders gearing towards extremism, like Osama bin Laden, included environmental issues in his propaganda to recruit supporters. The group used the West’s failure to act against the climate crisis through the exploitation of natural resources in developing countries as a way to recruit people. However, some militant groups also finance their activities through oil extraction, illegal logging and mining, and other environmentally destructive activities, exacerbating the climate crisis and further destabilising developing economies. 

This unending cycle has caused many people to be displaced and forced to migrate elsewhere. Host countries often view these migrants as economic migrants or asylum seekers, however if it was considered that the ultimate root cause of these migrations was climate change, perhaps the conversation around the issue would be different, one that prioritises getting to the root of the problem instead of the end result. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines two types of climate refugees: ones that are created through sudden and temporary environmental changes, such as hurricanes and floods. However, more often than not, those that are affected will return to their homes. The other type of climate refugee is the pressured environmental migrant, that is created through the long-term gradual change in environment such as droughts, desertification and sea level rise. 

Positively, there are some countries that foresee the impacts of the climate crisis and are acting to mitigate its effects. The low-lying Pacific country of Kiribati has purchased land in Fiji to prepare for the migration of its population of over 100 000 people should sea level rise render the nation uninhabitable. The majority of the land of the island is below 2 meters above sea level which, in addition to increased frequency of storms, has contaminated the atoll’s groundwater. The country has determined that it will be cheaper to relocate than to protect the island against sea level rise. A similar relocation strategy has been considered by the Maldivian government, who pledged in 2009 to become the world’s first carbon-neutral country. 

Nations that will be most affected by the crisis would be remiss not to have the same considerations. 

The climate crisis also highlights inequality, called the climate caste system, whereby poor people and nations suffer the most from the climate crisis while wealthier people and nations suffer less, while emitting the most carbon. The Climate Vulnerability Index summarises regions in the world that are most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis by calculating the development level of the region and the climate change impact. The index found that the Sahel region in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia and Latin America all have a high risk of climate vulnerability. 

Solutions?

A study found that relative to a world that did not warm beyond 2000-2010 levels, there will be reductions of 15-25% in per capita output by 2100 for 2.5-3°C of global warming implied by current national commitments, and reductions of more than 30% for 4°C warming. The IPCC found that the cost of stabilising CO2 to 445 ppm would correspond to ‘slowing average annual global GDP growth by less than 0.12%’. 

The study emphasises that the uncertainties surrounding the future impacts of the crisis include the spatial pattern of temperature change, how global and regional economic output will respond to these changes in temperature and how willing societies are to trade present for future consumption. Humanity needs to change their patterns of consumption to avoid catastrophic consequences. The cost of inaction will only increase every year, demanding immediate action. 

The climate crisis acts as a multiplier, especially in fragile countries held by weak governance, poor economic perspectives, food and water scarcity and failing local institutions. To effectively address the crisis, large consumer countries must invest significantly in sustainable alternatives and adaptation programmes, even if it opposes political and economic interests, which will reduce people’s vulnerability to extreme climatic events. The wealth gap between developed and developing nations needs to be narrowed if extremism is to be tackled.

Countries must become more climate resilient through diversifying crop production and investing in renewable energy, especially in Africa and the Middle East. Muggah says, “By strengthening and empowering local residents, the influence of extremism can be weakened.”

The post How The Climate Crisis is Fuelling Extremism appeared first on Earth.Org.

COVID-19 has spread rapidly from China to the rest of the world. Thousands of lives have been lost and the pandemic has all but crashed the global stock market. China closed its factories, transportation systems and locked down major cities to slow the spread of the virus, and the country’s GDP is expected to drop a few percentage points this year. It may be tough to be optimistic, but an unexpected benefit of COVID-19 is the decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. 

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Satellite images from NASA have shown that a drop in industrial and economic activities has resulted in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved air quality in Wuhan, the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, over the Chinese New Year. Levels also dropped in Beijing and Hebei province, as well as Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region. 

The images show that pollution dropped, and didn’t rebound after the holiday. The level of PM2.5, dangerous small pollution particles, fell by 25%, while nitrogen dioxide, produced mainly by diesel vehicles, dropped by 40%. Nitrogen dioxide produces ozone, which, on the ground, is detrimental to human health, causing asthma, lung cancer and other respiratory and pulmonary illnesses. 

PM2.5 is responsible for more than one million premature deaths in China annually and for the reduction of crop yields.

In February, during the peak of the outbreak in China, the nation’s carbon emissions dropped by about 100 million tonnes, accounting for more than 25% of carbon dioxide emissions since the outbreak began compared to the same period in 2019, roughly 6% of global carbon dioxide emissions. 

Similar drops in emissions were seen during the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing, when the government implemented measures to decrease air pollution. Measures included replacing high-emitting vehicles with increased public transportation options, shutting down some chemical plants in Beijing, raising the price of gasoline to discourage the use of cars and requiring power and chemical plants to decrease emissions by 30%. These measures caused a sudden and sharp decrease in air pollution levels in Beijing and nearby cities. The particulate matter in the air in the city decreased by an average of 18% during 2008. 

Italy

Italy has seen the greatest number of combined cases of COVID-19 of any country outside China. Public spaces have since been closed throughout the country. As people have stayed home, nitrogen emissions in Italy, particularly in the northern regions, have fallen. The European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite tracks air pollution in the atmosphere, and the satellite has seen a sharp decrease in emissions of nitrogen dioxide over Italy since the beginning of the year. 

“Although there could be slight variations in the data due to cloud cover and changing weather, we are very confident that the reduction in emissions that we can see coincides with the lockdown in Italy causing less traffic and industrial activities,” Claus Zehner, the mission’s manager at ESA, said in a statement. 

There have also been sightings of swans and fish in the port and canals of Venice due to the lack of gondolas, cruise ships and noise pollution in the city. 

The UK

While behind Italy in terms of the spread of the disease, roadside monitors in the UK are already showing significant reductions in levels of pollution. Road traffic accounts for about 80% of nitrogen oxide emissions in the UK and for the average diesel car, each km not driven prevents 52 mg of the substance entering the atmosphere. 

Air Pollution Likely to Increase Coronavirus Death Rate

Experts have said that the health damage inflicted on people by long-standing air pollution from greenhouse gas emissions in cities is likely to increase the death rate from COVID-19 infections. 

Dirty air can cause lung and heart damage, and is responsible for at least 8 million early deaths a year. This means that respiratory infections, such as COVID-19, may have a more serious impact on those in cities and exposed to toxic fumes than others. 

Strict confinement measures in China and Italy have led to falls in air pollution. A preliminary calculation by a US expert suggests that tens of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution may have been avoided by the cleaner air in China. 

“Patients with chronic lung and heart conditions caused or worsened by long-term exposure to air pollution are less able to fight off lung infections and more likely to die. This is likely also the case for Covid-19,” said Sara De Matteis, at Cagliari University, Italy, and a member of the environmental health committee of the European Respiratory Society. “By lowering air pollution levels we can help the most vulnerable in their fight against this and any possible future pandemics.”

Scientists who analysed the SARS coronavirus outbreak in China in 2003 found that infected people who lived in areas with more air pollution were twice as likely to die as those in less polluted places. 

According to the Global Exposure Mortality Model (GEMM) developed by Bernett et al., (2018) scientists are now able to estimate the number of premature deaths from air pollution, as well as the number of premature deaths prevented because of reduced pollution levels.  

It is estimated that the 3 weeks of reduced emissions in China during the COVID-19 outbreak may have saved 77 000 lives in the nation, mainly in the industrial region where the exposure to PM2.5 would have been highest. The actual number of lives saved may be a lot higher because people are staying at home more, which reduces their exposure to air pollutants significantly. However, it is important to note that this is difficult to quantify as it is purely statistical and associated illnesses from air pollution have long-term effects. The number of traffic accidents have also dropped. Even without the reduced emissions, the policy that made the wearing of masks in public spaces compulsory has also helped reduce exposure to pollutants; the masks also help to prevent the spread of the common cold and flu as shown by research in Hong Kong.

The experts are quick to clarify, however, that these claims are not to say that the pandemic can be seen as good for health. 

The aggressive measures taken by China and Italy to contain the COVID-19 outbreak that have resulted in reduced emissions show that it is possible to reduce emissions on a mass scale. However, the outbreak has also caused a large drop in fossil fuel demand, lowering the oil price, which may hinder the development of renewable energy. 

The post COVID-19 Reveals Unexpected Benefit: Reduced Emissions appeared first on Earth.Org.

2020 has so far seen swarms of locusts invading parts of East Africa, decimating crops and threatening food security, as well as bats in Australia, threatening the population with diseases. Is the climate crisis exacerbating these occurrences? 

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Thousands of bats have invaded the town of Ingham in Queensland, Australia. The swarms of bats now outnumber the human population by thousands, creating fear among the town’s inhabitants; bats can cause lyssavirus, a rabies-like disease caused through bites and scratches. The town wants to get rid of the bats, however they are protected under Queensland law. 

Bats are known to carry many diseases, such as Ebola, SARS, MERS and the Marburg virus. While the animal acts as a natural reservoir for the illnesses, they do not get infected themselves. This is because the body temperature of the bat is maintained at around 40 degrees Celsius, too high for the viruses to activate. Scientists that have conducted research on the special immunity system of the bat have documented that some species can live up to 40 years, rare for an animal of its size. 

Because they can fly, bats are found all around the world and are able to adapt to both tropical and temperate climates. They reproduce quickly and it is estimated that one in five mammals are bats. 

Bats rarely spread viruses directly to humans, but can do so through biting. Most of the time however, they need an intermediate host. For example, it has been found that the masked palm civet was the intermediate host of the SARS outbreak in China and camels were found to be the intermediate host of the MERS virus in the Middle East. 

However, culling bats is not the answer. Bats are important pollinators in the tropics; many fruit tree species such as the durian have a specific species of bat as a pollinator. Bats are also an important keystone species that control the population of insects. 

The Implications of Climate Change for Bats

Researchers in Australia are still investigating the unusually large swarms of bats in Ingham. One hypothesis posits that the bats are looking for a suitable habitat to set up their colony after theirs was destroyed in the bush fires. 

Meanwhile, swarms of locusts invading East Africa have spread south to Uganda and Tanzania, threatening the already-fragile region’s population who already suffer from malnutrition with further food insecurity. Farmers and authorities have used drones and motorised sprayers to mass spray crops with pesticides, which are harmful to people. Additionally, insects could evolve to become pesticide-resistant. Farmers should rather use biopesticides such as fungus and bacteria, which are as effective but less harmful to humans. 

Climate scientists have said that unusually heavy rains brought by a cyclone off Somalia in December caused the deserts of Oman to become wetter than usual, conditions which provide favourable breeding grounds for locusts. This causes the usually solitary form of locust, the grasshopper, to develop group behaviour. This process, called ‘gregarisation’, is triggered by the signalling of pheromones from physical contact of each individual grasshopper. 

This change from solitary to group behaviour usually follows a period of drought and vegetation flushes after periods of rainfall. The locusts reproduce very quickly and a single swarm can span up to 1 200 square kilometres and can contain more than 80 million locusts per square kilometre. 

As the climate changes, weather patterns have become less predictable. In East Africa, there is usually one cyclone that makes landfall each year but there has been an increase in the frequency and intensity of the cyclones in the Indian Ocean. This change in precipitation may lead to more frequent locust invasions. 

Another factor contributing to increasing locust invasions is the reduction of the natural enemies of locusts, such as wasps, birds, reptiles and bats. This is due to deforestation and habitat destruction in East Africa. 

Meanwhile, a study in Europe has shown that insect populations have significantly declined by up to 80% in two decades in what is being called an ‘insect apocalypse’. The study looks at the number of insects hitting car registration plates, called the ‘splatometer’. This method is able to sample the number of insects in a large geographical range. 

The study coincides with the significant decline in worker bee populations observed around the world. The overuse of pesticides and destruction of habitats are the main causes for the reduction in insect numbers. Insects, especially bees, serve a vital ecological function for humans, including pest control and pollination. More diversity of insects means that ecosystems are better able to withstand external pressure. 

As we have entered the Holocene Extinction period, also known as the Anthropocene Extinction period, the number of species becoming extinct due to human activity is predicted to increase. It will eventually reach a tipping point and cause a cascade effect, further disturbing ecosystems and increasing the likelihood of swarms of animals invading regions. 

Featured image by: Adam Baker

The post How the Climate Crisis Exacerbates Harmful Swarms of Animals appeared first on Earth.Org.

COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world. At the time of writing, the death toll is at over 14 000 with over 300 000 confirmed cases around the world. The WHO has declared it as a global health emergency, as it did with Swine Flu and Ebola. As the effects of it are made more apparent, how is the climate crisis linked to the spreading of disease? 

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The climate crisis is threatening human lives through not only the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters, but also the increasing rates of diseases and pathogens. In 2016, an anthrax outbreak in Siberia, Russia was shown to have been triggered by an unusual heat wave that thawed the permafrost in the area and with it, a reindeer carcass infected with anthrax decades previously. The outbreak killed more than 2 000 reindeer and hospitalised more than 100 people, mainly nomads in a settlement called Salekhard, close to the Arctic Circle. Anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis, a deadly bacteria that causes large lesions on skin; victims usually die from other secondary infections. It is highly transmissible as it appears as an air-borne spore and can be transmitted from animals to humans. 

Global Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases

Changing temperatures and rain patterns have increased the emergence of other new and old infectious diseases. Mosquito-borne diseases such as Malaria, Zika Virus, Yellow Fever and Dengue Fever pose the largest threat to humans; the WHO says that temperature increases of 2 to 3 degrees Celsius would increase the number of people who are at risk of contracting malaria by 3-5%, or several hundred million people. 

The wetter and warmer climates, primarily in African countries, allow mosquitoes to better survive in previously dry seasons. The changing conditions have also allowed mosquitoes to survive in places of higher elevation where they previously would have perished. Other vectors of diseases such as rodents and bats have become more active and able to spread their associated diseases to more places. The warmer climate has also altered the flowering patterns of trees and grass, increasing pollen levels in the air, resulting in the rise of hay fever. 

Humans regulate their body temperature by sweating; studies have shown that under business-as-normal scenarios of future greenhouse gas emission rates, temperatures in Southwest Asia and the Gulf regions will reach a wet-bulb temperature of 35 degree Celsius, rendering these areas uninhabitable. At this temperature, sweating is inhibited, which causes overheating and heat stroke. Other heat-associated respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, like heart failure, can severely affect vulnerable populations, especially during heatwaves; the European heatwave of 2003 caused more than 70 000 heat-associated deaths, as recorded by the WHO. Hot temperatures also lower immunity and make humans more susceptible to disease.

The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, killed almost 60% of Europe’s population in the 14th century. It has still not been completely eradicated and occasionally reemerges; the latest onset of the Plague happened in 2017 in Madagascar which killed 171 people and when four people were diagnosed with the Plague in Northern China in November 2019. 

The plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, found in fleas and then transmitted to rodents and small mammals. According to Tignor and colleagues, historians and epidemiologists suggest that climate change drove the rodents to flee from the dried-out grasslands in Asia westward to more populated areas in Europe. The spreading of the Plague is believed to have been accelerated by the Mongol conquest to Europe which happened in the 13th century when horses carried infected fleas. 

A study found that outbreaks generally follow periods of warm and/or wet conditions that are favourable for vegetation growth, and thus for increases in rodent population density. 

As people travel further and more frequently, the spread of disease can reach a different continent in less than a week. In 2003, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS) outbreak lasted for four months and affected more than 8 000 people around the world, killing 774. Researchers found that the vector of the virus was horseshoe bats which are common in the Yunnan province in China. The area was identified as a natural reservoir of the syndrome, which was first spread by people coming into contact with the animals through eating and handling them at a bush meat market in Guangzhou.

The Ebola virus outbreak in Western Africa from 2013-2016 that killed more than 11 000 people was also caused by the handling of bats. 

Scientists have suggested that climate change plays a role in Ebola outbreaks. Dry seasons followed by heavy rainfalls that produce an abundance of fruits have coincided with outbreaks. When fruit is plentiful, bats and apes may gather together to eat, providing opportunities for the disease to be transmitted between species. Research has also showed that half of the Ebola outbreaks are directly linked to bush meat consumption. 

Timeline: History of Disease

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In 2019, the African Swine Fever impacted the pig farming industry in China, as well as those in Poland, South Africa, North Korea, Mongolia, Cambodia and Vietnam. The virus originated in Africa in the early 1900s and spread to Europe, then Asia. Spread from ticks, warmer winters have allowed virus-borne ticks to survive and spread. 

Although the virus cannot infect humans, more than 40 million pigs have been killed in China, either from the disease or preventative culling. The surge in pork prices has resulted in more people consuming bush meat. 

Most bush meat is from the wild. Hunting wild animals can upset the balance of ecosystems and cause an ecological disaster; decreasing predators causes a surge in populations of prey. 

As the climate crisis worsens, humanity will see the reemergence of diseases and pathogens thought to have been eliminated. It is imperative that governments implement policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or humanity will face illnesses that it is not prepared for. 

The post How the Climate Crisis is Linked to Disease appeared first on Earth.Org.

While commercial whaling is banned, it is estimated that at least 1 500 large whales are killed each year. While the problem of dwindling whale numbers is oft-discussed, what is less known about whales is the role they play in mitigating global warming. 

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Whales are hunted for their blubber, meat and bones. The blubber is used in whale oil, which was widely used in cars as an automatic transmission fluid as well as a lubricant. However, whales are worth much more as a biofuel and they play a vital role in the global ecosystem to mitigate global warming.

 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated the value of a single great whale at more than US$2 million, amounting to more than US$1 trillion for the current stock of great whales. This amount was determined based on each whale’s contribution to carbon capture, the fishing industry and the whale-watching sector. 

Whales and the Carbon Cycle

Whales are capable of capturing a significant amount of carbon from the atmosphere. A great whale’s diet consists largely of phytoplankton, a microscopic plant that converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and by extension, oxygen. A single whale can- over a lifespan of around 60 years-  accumulate around 33 tonnes of CO2 on average. By comparison, a tree can absorb up to 22kgs of CO2 a year. 

When whales defecate, the nutrients (iron and nitrogen) released from their fecal plumes stimulate phytoplankton growth which attracts fish and other organisms, a phenomenon known as ‘whale pump’. 

Phytoplankton contribute at least 50% of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere and capture an estimated 37 billion tonnes of all CO2 produced. This is equivalent to the amount of CO2 captured by 1.7 trillion trees, four times the number of trees in the Amazon Rainforest. The IMF study also stated that a 1% increase in phytoplankton productivity linked to whale activity could mean the capture of the equivalent of planting 2 billion mature trees. 

Even the (natural) death of a whale serves a crucial function. Whale carcasses sink to the seafloor, and the carbon stored in the carcasses is able to support deep-sea ecosystems and become marine sediments, with carbon being locked away for hundreds of years.

Whaling and the Environment

Whaling has been a tradition in many cultures since 3000 BC. Since industrialisation in the 1860s, the intensity of whaling reached its peak in the 1960s, with a maximum of more than 90 000 whales caught a year during this decade. Many species of whales became critically endangered during this time, such as the humpback and right whale.

Solutions to Whaling

In 1982, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and International Whaling Commission (IWC) passed a vote to ban commercial whaling. All commercial whaling activities are banned but member nations can issue ‘scientific permits’ for whaling. There is an ongoing issue of Japan abusing the system by using lethal methods to conduct what they call research on whales, whose meat is still widely available on the market in Japan. 

In 2018, IWC members discussed and rejected a proposal by Japan to renew commercial whaling. Through the Florianopolis Declaration, it was concluded that the purpose of the IWC is the conservation of whales and that they would safeguard the marine mammals in perpetuity to allow for the recovery of all whale populations to pre-industrial whaling levels. In response to this, Japan announced that it believed that the IWC had failed in its duty to promote sustainable hunting. It withdrew its membership from the IWC and resumed commercial hunting in its territorial waters in July 2019, but claimed that it would cease whaling activities in the Southern Hemisphere. 

The whaling industry in Japan has this year received a subsidy of US $47 million from the government to continue whaling. This controversial decision has been criticised by environmental and conservation NGOs such as the Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace and WWF. 

Besides whaling, other threats facing whale populations include overfishing, collisions with  ships and interference with their communication systems caused by noise from large ships.  

If whales were to return to their pre-whaling numbers of 4- to 5 million (up from 1.3 million today), researchers say they could capture 1.7 billion tonnes of CO2 annually. 

Meanwhile, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing rapidly. The levels of CO2 is currently at just over 411 parts per million. 

A recognition of the contribution that whales make in the fight against global warming and climate change could be a valuable alternative to high-tech solutions or expensive programmes. Humanity needs to change its attitudes to recognise that all organisms serve an important role in the global ecosystem.  

Featured image by: Dr Louis M. Herman

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