the Greening of the Billabong Pro in Jeffrey's Bay

Every year I attend the Association of Surfing Professionals Billabong Pro which is held in the small town of Jeffrey's Bay in South Africa. They were very proud to announce the greening of the contest with carbon footprint reduction, waste recycling, use of solar heating etc. It made me decide to produce an illustrated article on the greening of the competition and the concept made me feel good until I saw the recycling bins being emptied into the town's garbage removal truck.

Of course I got irritated and spoke to the media people and of course I didn't find the right person and decide to overdose on Billabong's coffee and photograph the surfing. The surfing was great but I couldn't let the apparently false claims of an environmentally correct event carry on. I contacted people and to my amazement got a feasable answer - the town's municipality were told their services were not required but arrived early one morning and started mixing the sorted waste in front of one confused photographer (me). Apparently they were chased away and the recycling was done in the correct way.

There is very limited recycling in South Africa and it is great that Billabong went green to reduce the impact of the event on the environment. I just wonder how the surf industry is going change the toxic materials that are used to manufacture surfboards - I did see a new board with a bamboo deck last week - so maybe things are changing for the better....

Plastic bag use halved - well almost

In May 450 million single-use plastic carrier bags were given out to shoppers . That sounds a lot but its almost half the number given out in May 2006. Last year the Government set retailers belong to the British Retail Consortium the target of a 50% cut in the number of bags, and they have almost delivered on this - missing the target by just 2%. WRAP (http://www.wrap.org.uk) estimates that in 2009, about 5.6 billion bags will be given out in the UK, down from 10.7 billion in 2006. However, there is still a way to go so other measures such as taxing bags (as planned in Wales) and encouraging shoppers to reuse their bags. Participating retailers in the agreement are: Asda, Co-operative Group, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd, Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose. Morrisons is not a member.

Cutting down on plastic bags has many benefits:

1. Plastic bags are made from oil, so reducing their use reduces the use of oil and electricity in their manufacture and transport
   
2. Plastic bags take hundreds if not thousands of years to decompose, so reductions mean fwer bags end up in landfill or littering our countryside
   
3. Plastic bags can harm wildlife, for example, they get trapped by the plastic, or they may eat it (sperm whales and turtles mistake floating plastic bags as jellyfish), so fewer bags helps wildlife
4. Plastic bags look unsightly when blowing around in the countryside, fewer bags mean less litter.
   

Below is a short piece of footage from Splashdown of a plastic bag floating in the ocean, posing a potential hazard to animals such as sperm whales and turtle, who may mistake them as jellyfish.

Buzz buzz - save the honey bee

Honey bees have a vital role in pollinating many of the country's crops but they are disappearing rapidly. Over the last two years there has been a massive decline in honey numbers and as many as one in three hives failed, but the Government seems to have little interest in this problem, despite the fact that the value of bees has been estimated at £200 million a year. This problem was highlighted recently by members of the all-party House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, who said that money for research into bee health should be ring-fenced rather than put in a general pot for research into pollinating insects. They want DEFRA to take more action, such as asking bee-keepers to register so that inspections can be made, which would give a much better picture of the health of the nation's honey bees.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the committee said "Honeybees are dying and colonies are being lost at an alarming rate. This is very worrying, and not just because the pollination of crops by honeybees is worth an estimated £200m each year to the British economy. So it is difficult to understand why Defra has taken so little interest in the problem up to now. Additional money for research into honeybee health has been announced, but the focus will include all pollinating insects," He went on to add, "We need to know what proportion of the funding is to be ring-fenced specifically for research into the causes of the decline in honeybee numbers."

One possible cause of the rapid rise in hive death (often called colony collapse disorder or CCD) is the use of a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids. These were first used in the mid 1990s, a period that coincided with the first observations of mass bee deaths. These chemicals block specific nerve pathways in the central nervous system of the insect. In bees, they interfere with communication, foraging, orientation and flight. Other countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia, have banned them but they are still legal in the UK.

The Soil Association is so concerned about these chemicals that it has started a petition calling on Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to ban neonicitinoid pesticides with immediate effect. Sign the petition today: www.soilassociation.org/bees.aspx

There is a lightbox of images at this url : http://www.ecoscene2.captureweb.co.uk/lbshow.php?lightboxid=387429465654

Ecoscene can privide photo features on the honey bee and other related stories.

Low carbon transition plan

The morning news is full of low carbon stories in advance of the UK Govenment publishing their Low Carbon Transition Plan to meet the ambitious 34% carbon reduction targets by 2020 . The aim is to reduce the country's dependency on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas which produce a lot of carbon dioxide, and to switch to renewables such as wind, solar, water and biomass. This switch is not going to be easy in a country that is so hooked on oil and coal. Renewables are not such a convenient source of energy, being much smaller in scale and by necessity being located in places that are generally away from the end consumer. Although the efficiency is getting better, the cost per unit of energy from these sources is much higher than the conventional energy sources, so the cost of electricity may rise . Other measures will probably include financial incentives to improve insulation, smart meters in every home, cycling and electric vehicle initiatives.

Several of the BBC news items featured the village of Ashton Hayes, a village near Birmingham with the ambitious plan to become Britain's first carbon neutral community. I have been following since the project was set up in 2006 and will watch the news items from the village today with interest. For more on the scheme visit their webpage http://www.goingcarbonneutral.co.uk/. If more communities follow their lead, the transition to a low carbon economy may be much easier. And mention of the word 'transition' leads me to the Transition Towns movement. The movement want to encourage communities to move towards a more sustainable future by reducing their carbon footprints and becoming more self-reliant on food, energy, health care, jobs and economics. The leading light in the UK is the town of Totnes in Devon. There websiteis an interesting read: http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org

Another energy source is nuclear - always contentious but probably a necessary evil. Although our own nuclear energy stations are being wound down, we are still dependent on nuclear energy to meet the demands. Many people are unaware that we buy in electricity from France, a country that generates about 90 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power stations.

As usual Ecoscene has a fabulous selection on images to illustrate any story on low carbon initiatives and a light box of images can be found here : http://www.ecoscene2.captureweb.co.uk/lbshow.php?lightboxid=173521027109

Watch out for updates on this story once the white paper is published.

Poaching Boom

Rhino poaching is now at a 15 year high according to a report published by the IUCN, WWF and Traffic. In South Africa and Zimbabwe alone, an estimated 69 animals have been killed since January 2009, a rate of 12 animals a month, compared with just 3-4 a month between 2000 and 2005. This spat of poaching is being driven by a soaring demand for illegal horn by traders in Thailand, China and Vietnam. Asian rhinos are also being targetted, with dehorned carcasses being found in India and Nepal. The report was presented to the 58th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Standing Committee this week in Geneva.

Dr Jane Smart, Director of IUCN's Biodiversity Conservation Group said, "Rhino populations in both Africa and Asia are being seriously threatened by poaching and illegal trade. The IUCN and its African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups are working hard to gather data and information on rhinos so that CITES parties can make informed decisions and ensure that rhinos are still here for generations to come."

A selection of images on rhinos can be found at this URL:
http://www.ecoscene2.captureweb.co.uk/lbshow.php?lightboxid=855668327452

The disappearing Maldives

The scenic beauty of one the worlds most idyllic and peaceful environment is under threat. The Maldives, a cluster of islands lying in the Indian Ocean, are threatened by rising sea levels. The islands are a popular tourist destination, with their sandy beaches and dive spots attracting more than 600,000 tourists each year. Tourism accounts for 28% of their GDP. The sea levels, which are predicted by the UN to rise 58cm by the year 2100, could see most of the 1,192 islands submerged, as the country has an average height of 1.5m above sea level - the lowest in the world. These projected rises are said to be the result of global warming, and could see most of the country’s 369,000 inhabitants made homeless. The coral reefs surrounding the islands act as a buffer to the sea, but damage to the reefs due to overfishing and too many tourists as well as global warming threatens the islands existence, as well as the two main industries of fishing and tourism. Also adding to the damage is pollution, rubbish dumping and illegal coral and sand mining, which rob the country of some vital resources.

In response to this, President Mohammed Nasheem has pledged to make the islands carbon neutral in ten years time, by moving to solar and wind energy. Nasheed's aim is to install half a square kilometre of solar panels and 155 wind turbines, each generating 1.5 megawatts. The electricity will power vehicles as well. Boats and automobiles with gasoline engines would be slowly replaced with electric versions. The plan will cost US$1.1Billion, but the economy of the Maldives (mainly fishing and tourism), is only worth $800million a year.

It is estimated that the project will pay for itself in another decade, as the country will no longer be reliant on oil imports, so it will be totally energy self-sufficient. However, many locals are against the new plans, as they do not see why the Maldives, who contribute to less than 0.5% of the world’s carbon emissions, should have to waste money on an environmentally-friendly industry, as it is a poor developing country. But many environmentalists don’t agree, saying that if one country can become carbon neutral, then it will encourage other countries to follow; and many see it is something the Maldives can lead the world in, meaning richer countries can’t complain that going green is too expensive.

The Maldives are set to lead the way in renewable energy, and we at Ecoscene hope that this will encourage other nations to follow their lead and embrace green technology in a bid to become carbon neutral.

Save the corals

David Attenborough is the latest name to call for a reduction in carbon dioxide levels before global warming wipes out the world's coral reefs. Speaking at the Royal Society, he said "A coral reef is the canary in the cage as far as the oceans are concerned. They are the places where the damage is most easily and quickly seen. It is more difficult for us to see what is happening in, for example, the deep ocean or the central expanses of ocean."
So why should we be alarmed? These amazing marine habitats, often called the 'rainforests of the sea' are home to more than a quarter of the world's marine life, and this includes 4000 species of fish. The reefs are fish nurseries, supporting local fish populations, as well protecting coastlines from tidal surges and storm damage.

Corals are particularly vulnerable to global warming, as the slightest increase in sea temperatures can upset the fragile balance on the reef. The reef builders, the coral polyps, live with algae in a mutualistic relationship. The algae supply the coral with food while the coral provides the algae with shelter and protection. The slightest rise in water temperature cause the algae to leave the coral, causing it to become white, the so-called bleaching.

Click on this link to see a further selection of coral reef images from Ecoscene.

Splashdown – a sister company of Ecoscene has great footage of coral reefs. Below is just a taster of what is available. (If you can't see the video click on this link)

Two degrees and no more

G8 leaders have called for 80% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
They have also said that human-induced temperature rise must be kept below 2oC. Tony Blair has encouraged rich nations to use ‘clean’ technology, such as renewable energy, while he has also stated that they should pay poorer countries as an incentive to preserve their forests. Blair said that acting on these measures were “urgent”, although progress was being made. He said there was a “general acceptance” of these measures by most people. The ex-Prime Minister added that China has changed its attitude to global warming, and that they are now willing to help.
Mr. Blair also said that "practical policy making" was now needed, and technological solutions to climate change were reachable, saying only political will was needed to implement them. He finally mentioned that it was now time for the people who will have to get the job done to do it. Blair’s report was published ahead of the Major Economies Forum, being held in Italy this week. This sets out seven different policies to cut emissions.
However, critics say that these measures will be scaled back, and many question whether politicians will get the job done in these times of recession.
Also, it is said that the USA is blocking these short-term targets, and US officials have said that they simply can’t cut emissions quickly enough.
Copenhagen will host a UN climate change summit this December. Others have called for investment in "clean" energy sources such as wind and HEP, as well as carbon capture and storage, new generation nuclear plants and electric or hydrogen vehicles.


Ecoscene has prepared a lightbox of relevant images which will be perfect to illustrate your articles on global warming.
http://www.ecoscene2.captureweb.co.uk/lbshow.php?lightboxid=5271536894543

The clean tech revolution

The Carbon Trust (www.carbontrust.co.uk) has published an economic review today showing how investment in offshore wind and wave power technology could make the UK a global leader in clean energy, boosting the economy by £70 billion, creating up to 250,000 jobs and reducing carbon emissions - some pretty good reasons to push forward with green energy.