Today is World Environment Day.
A PLATFORM FOR ACTION
World Environment Day (WED) is
the United Nations’ most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and
action for the protection of our environment. Since it began in 1974, it has
grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated
in over 100 countries.
THE PEOPLE’S DAY
Above all, WED serves as the
‘people’s day’ for doing something to take care of the Earth or become an agent
of change. That ‘something’ can be focused locally, nationally or globally; it
can be a solo action or involve a crowd – everyone is free to choose.
THE THEME
Each WED is organized around a
theme that focuses attention on a particularly pressing environmental concern.
WED 2016 is themed on the illegal trade in wildlife under the slogan ‘Go Wild
for Life'. The logo and other materials are available for download here.
THE HOST
Every WED has a different global
host country, where the official celebrations take place. WED highlights the
environmental challenges facing that country, and supports the effort to
address them. This year’s host is Angola.
EVERY ACTION COUNTS
Through decades of WED
celebrations, millions of people from all over the world and from all sectors
of society have taken part in environmental action. By bundling their energy,
WED has the power to generate hugely positive impacts on the planet.
Renewables Growth in Seven Charts
Global investment in renewable
energy reached record levels in 2015, according to a new report from the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
More surprisingly, perhaps, the
report shows that the $286bn poured into green energy was more than double the
spending on coal– and gas-fired power.
It also shows, for the first
time, that more renewable power capacity was added than other sources and that
renewable energy investment was mostly in developing countries.
May These Monks Burn in Hell - Even It They Don't Believe in One
Following the discovery earlier
this week of 70 dead tiger cubs, as well as tiger skins, talismans and other
wildlife parts, in a Buddhist temple in Thailand, two United Nations agencies
have said those circumstances represent only a “tiny proportion” of the extent
of an illegal trade in wildlife that is pushing species to the brink of
extinction.
“Indeed, only around 4,000
tigers are left in the wild,” said the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the
UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a joint press release. “Until the
illegal trade in wildlife is stopped, we are only likely to see more of these
types of situations.”
Nine wolf pups in Yellowstone’s Junction Butte pack.
…the Junction Butte pack has two
litters of pups! Three-year-old sisters 969F and 907F each had pups and are
rearing them in the same den.
Based on observed breeding and
denning dates, 969F’s pups were born on April 13, and 907F’s pups are 6 days
younger. We have seen 9 pups (5 blacks, 4 grays), but we’re not sure how many
each mother had.
Several times that danger has
come in the form of grizzlies! When a bear approaches the den area, all of a
sudden more adult wolves than you even knew were there pour out of the gully
and surround the bear. The wolves run in and nip at the bear’s butt and then escort
him away. One evening, the wolves even treed a hapless black bear; they
surrounded the tree trunk like a bunch of hounds!
Here’s a video of the pack taken last year.
One Billion Cicadas
Cicadas may be a nuisance to humans, and a terror for those
who aren’t big fans of flying bugs, but their emergence is actually beneficial
to the environment. Laying their eggs in the trees provides a natural pruning
that increases tree growth—though, the process can damage young trees. Cicadas’
burrows aerate the soil and their decaying bodies provide nutrients.
The invasion only lasts six weeks. Once the baby cicadas, also called
nymphs, have hatched from their eggs in the trees, they’ll fall to the ground
and burrow into the soil, not emerging for another 17 years. Underground they
survive off moisture from tree roots. Cicadas don’t eat solid food.
700 million new air conditioners in the next 14 years. Most of them in extremely energy inefficient buildings. Some
of it to off-set the impact of climate change.
Of course, all these new machines will make things worse.
…a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory lab that projects
massive growth in developing countries, where as poverty decreases, air
conditioning increases.
But as these countries boom in wealth and population, and extend electricity to more people even as the climate warms, the projections are clear: They are going to install mind-boggling amounts of air conditioning, not just for comfort but as a health necessity….
Overall, the Berkeley report projects that the world is poised to install 700 million air conditioners by 2030, and 1.6 billion of them by 2050. In terms of electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions, that’s like adding several new countries to the world.
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