Nano-Based Sanitary Method Invented for Waste Water Treatment

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian researchers at Isfahan University came up with a type of nanoparticles that reduces the pollution caused by textile dyes through a relatively fast method.

“This research was based on nano-structural composite films of titanium dioxide, as a photocatalyst which is famous for its pollutant degradability characteristic,” Mojtaba Nasr Esfahani, the researcher in chief, told Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC).

Noting that the main purpose of the research was to tackle waste water treatment and pollution related problems, Nasr Esfahani reiterated, “We exploited the photocatalytic behavior of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and by coating the particles into composite structure, it was practical to separate (or recover) catalyst from solution easily.”

In the research, three composite film types of titanium dioxide were prepared from different commercial titanium dioxide nanopowders. Stable suspensions of nanopowders with optimal molar ratios were dispersed in TiO2 cells and coated over glass slides.

The resulted composite films with specific concentration and acidity were ready to use after oxygen saturation process in exposure of UV irradiation.

Nasr Esfahani pointed out that the prepared composite films can be used to degrade some common textile synthetic dyes such as methyl orange, solophenyl red, light yellow (X6G), tertro direct light blue.

He referred to resolution of the problems concerning separation and filtration of titanium dioxide, and improvement of photocatalytic efficiency of the nanostructural composite films (with modified superficial characteristics) as advantages of the research work.

International effort to drain dangerous Bhutan lake underlines costs and risks of climate change

Thorthormi Tsho is a glacial lake perched precariously at 4428 metres above sea level in the remote Lunana area of northern Bhutan Rated as one of Bhutan’s likeliest future catastrophes, a breach and outburst flood through Thorthormi Tsho’s unstable moraine walls would most likely spill into the also vulnerable Raphsthreng Tsho 80 metres below, with the combined flood suddenly releasing up to 53 million cubic metres of water and debris into the upper catchment of the Po Chu river.

The first phase of an international project to reduce the risk to a Bhutan valley from the threatening bursting of a growing and increasingly unstable glacial lake is emphasising the huge costs of climate change adaptation in the Himalayas.

In a valley still bearing the scars of a just one third as large 1994 Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) which took more than 20 lives and devastated villages and wrecked transport and power facilities, the prospect is frightening.

Rhino poaching surges in Asia, Africa

Rhino poaching worldwide is on the rise, according to a new report by TRAFFIC and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The trade is being driven by Asian demand for horns and is made worse by increasingly sophisticated poachers, who now are using veterinary drugs, poison, cross bows and high caliber weapons to kill rhinos, the report states.

Since 2006 the majority (95 percent) of the poaching in Africa has occurred in Zimbabwe and South Africa, according to new data.

“These two nations collectively form the epicentre of an unrelenting poaching crisis in southern Africa,” said Tom Milliken of TRAFFIC.

The report, which was submitted to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) ahead of its 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP15) in March, documents a decline in law enforcement effectiveness and an increase in poaching intensity in Africa. The situation is most serious in Zimbabwe where rhino numbers are now declining and the conviction rate for rhino crimes in Zimbabwe is only three percent. Despite the introduction of a number of new measures, poaching and illicit horn trade in South Africa has also increased.

“Concerted action at the highest level is needed to stop this global crisis of rampant rhino poaching,” said Amanda Nickson, Director of the Species Programme at WWF International. “We call on the countries of concern to come to COP 15 in March with specific actions they have undertaken to show their commitment to stopping this poaching and protecting rhinos in the wild.”

The report also raises concerns regarding the low and declining numbers as well as the uncertain status of some of the Sumatran and Javan rhino populations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

“Sumatran and Javan rhino range countries need to increase efforts to better assess the current status of many of their rhino populations – to enhance field law enforcement efforts – prevent further encroachment and land transformation in rhino areas – and improve biological management of remaining rhinos to ensure the few remaining Sumatran and Javan Rhino numbers increase,” said Dr. Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Chair of the IUCN/SSC Asian Rhino Specialist Group

Most rhino horns leaving southern Africa are destined for medicinal markets in southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam, and also China. The report highlights Vietnam as a country of particular concern – noting that Vietnamese nationals operating in South Africa have recently been identified in rhino crime investigations. In addition, concern has been expressed about the status of Vietnam’s single Javan rhino population.

However, the report does note that in some areas populations of rhinos are increasing.

“Where there is political will, dedicated conservation programs and good law enforcement, rhino numbers have increased in both Africa and Asia,” said Dr Richard Emslie, Scientific Officer of IUCN’s African Rhino Specialist Group.

IUCN’s Rhino Specialist Groups and TRAFFIC were mandated to produce the report by CITES. The data collection and report writing for the report was partially funded by WWF and partners.

source: WWF

Cheap Dye sensitized Solar cells

Brazil sets example on halting forest loss

The recent announcement by Brazil – one of the world’s top emitters of greenhouse gases from deforestation – that it is adopting new emissions reduction targets could help steer negotiators in Copenhagen toward a stronger climate change deal.

Brazil’s top environment ministers said late last week the country is committing to an emission reduction target of between 36.1 and 38.9 percent by 2020. Brazil announced those figures only a day after saying new data showed the lowest deforestation rates in the Amazon in the past 21 years.

The new commitment can help unblock and steer climate negotiations toward a new global agreement in Copenhagen, which will be considered next month, said WWF-Brazil CEO Denise Hamú.

“As Brazil announces these figures, it moves from a situation where it merely holds developed countries to account to a situation where it can be a role model in the establishment of a new low-carbon development model for the world,” Hamú said.

“It should be noted, however, that the data needs to be more detailed,” she said. “We are not sure which baseline scenario was used, that is, how the Brazilian government estimated Brazil’s emission growth trends by the end of the next decade. Neither do we know how we will reach those targets.”

“No detailed information is available on all actions across the various industries and on our low-carbon plan of action. It is fundamental that all government policies be consistent with the announcement made today,” Hamú said.

As far as international climate negotiations are concerned, Brazil now has a more legitimate case to demand a clearer financial support commitment from the developed nations for the establishment of adequate actions to adapt to the effects of global warming, according to WWF.

Data released by the Brazilian government earlier this month showed that the deforestation rate in the Amazon fell between August 2008 and July 2009. Overall, the deforested region is a 45 percent smaller than Amazon land cleared the previous year, or between August 2007 and July 2008.

This is the lowest rate of deforestation in the Amazon since record-keeping began in 2000, and down from a high of more than 27,000 square kms in 2004.

However, deforestation also must be reduced in other damaged forest areas in Brazil, such as in the Cerrado, according to WWF:

Despite conservation efforts, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate – 13 million hectares per year, or 36 football fields a minute. It generates almost 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and halting forest loss has been identified as one of the most cost-effective ways to keep the world out of the danger zone of runaway climate change.

EU optimistic on climate deal after Brazil pledge

Brazil’s pledge to cut climate-warming emissions to 1994 levels over the next decade could help lead to a breakthrough at global climate talks next month, the head of the EU’s executive body said on Saturday.

“This is a potentially decisive step to achieve a global deal in Copenhagen in December and to succeed in the fight against climate change,” Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said.

The climate talks in Copenhagen aim to hammer out a new deal for battling global warming after the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Brazil said on Friday it would take its emissions back to as low as 1994 levels of 1.7 billion tonnes — a cut of between 36.1 percent and 38.9 percent from projected 2020 levels.

Among the world’s biggest carbon polluters mostly due to deforestation, Brazil has become a major player in climate negotiations after years of rejecting such talks and saying the onus was entirely on rich countries to cut emissions.

Its gesture was seen as a possible way out of the deadlock in preparatory talks for Copenhagen that has arisen because rich countries have been slow to come forward with the billions of dollars needed to help poor nations tackle their rising emissions.

“All countries in the world have set December 2009 as a deadline for reaching an international agreement, and Brazil’s timing shows that this deadline works,” Danish climate minister Connie Hedegaard, whose country will host the negotiations, said in a statement.

“We are seeing more and more countries coming forward with climate plans.”

Many industrialized nations say they will not commit to handing funding to the developing world without getting concrete pledges of emissions cuts in return.

Alaska critical habitat for polar bear declared

In a move applauded by WWF, the US Department of the Interior has announced the proposed designation of almost 52 million hectares of key polar bear habitat across Alaska. The requirement for the identification of ‘critical habitat’ was triggered by the listing of polar bears as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act in 2008.

“Designation of critical habitat affords important protections to the polar bear, a species imperiled by dramatic changes in its sea ice environment,” says Geoff York, senior program officer for Polar Bear Conservation at WWF.

“As sea ice habitat shrinks, it becomes increasingly important to protect areas that are crucial for the bears’ survival.”

The critical habitat proposal announced today identifies habitat in three separate areas or units: barrier island habitat, sea ice habitat and terrestrial denning habitat. The total area proposed for designation would cover almost 52 million hectares (200,541 square miles).

Barrier island habitat includes coastal barrier islands and spits along Alaska’s coast, and is used for denning, refuge from human disturbances, access to maternal dens and feeding habitat, as well as travel along the coast. Sea ice habitat is located over the continental shelf, and includes water 300m and less in depth. Terrestrial denning habitat includes lands within 32 km (about 20 miles) of the northern coast of Alaska between the Canadian border and the Kavik River and within 8 km (about 5 miles) between the Kavik River and Barrow.

WWF works around the Arctic with local communities, scientists and governments to enhance polar bear conservation, protect their habitat, and ensure sustainable populations. WWF encourages the Department of the Interior to ensure that the views of local people are incorporated in the designation of critical habitat areas.

The world’s top scientific experts on polar bears, the Polar Bear Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), recently concluded that the IUCN Red List classification of the polar bear should be upgraded from ‘Least Concern’ to ‘Vulnerable’. That was based on the likelihood of an overall decline in the size of the total population of more than 30% within the next 35 to 50 years.. The principal cause of this decline is climatic warming as it melts away the polar bears’ important sea ice habitat.

At the Polar Bear Specialist Group Meeting this summer, the experts concluded that eight polar bear population groups are now in decline, up from five in 2005.

“Polar bears are not land animals – they evolved over thousands of years to be sea ice specialists. They need the ice to hunt for seals, their primary food. Take away the ice and you take away the bears,” added York.

In recent years, science has documented a decline in the condition and cub survival rate of some of the most southerly bear populations, and most recently significant increases in polar bear movements and home ranges as animals are forced to migrate longer distances in search of food or habitat.

“The changes we are witnessing in the Arctic do not just raise concerns about the fate of iconic species such as polar bear – our own future is at stake,” said York.

“The planet is changing in dangerous ways and the longer we wait to address the climate crisis the costlier it will be. While designation of critical habitat for polar bear is a positive step, it remains critical that the U.S. Senate pass a climate bill this year, moving us closer to reaching a global agreement in Copenhagen this December.”

Source:wwf

Nepal expands critical tiger habitat

The Government of Nepal announced today an expansion of Bardia National Park in the Terai Arc Landscape by 900 sq km, which will increase critical habitat for tigers.

WWF welcomes the announcement, which was made at the inaugural session of the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal also stated that the government would establish a National Tiger Conservation Authority as well as a Wildlife Crime Control Committee saying, “The solutions will be area specific, but the future of conservation will depend upon how we act now and how we make tiger conservation and overall biodiversity much more valuable to the livelihoods of local communities.”

“This is indeed a great conservation initiative, which will certainly help in curbing illegal wildlife trade and poaching in Nepal,” said Anil Manandhar, Country Representative of WWF Nepal. “We are confident that by embracing innovative conservation strategies Nepal will succeed in doubling its number of endangered tigers.”

Earlier this year the first ever nation-wide estimate of the tiger population revealed the presence of 121 adult tigers in the wild within four protected areas of Nepal. In order to ensure that these tiger numbers remain stable and start to increase, WWF and its partners called on the government to increase anti-poaching activities and habitat protection.

“In making these commitments at a global forum before the 12 other tiger range countries, the Government of Nepal has set an important precedent for others to follow,” said Mike Baltzer, Leader of WWF’s Tiger Initiative. “The next three days of the workshop are vital as countries and tiger experts band together to create a game-changing plan to save tigers in the wild.”

The Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop is the first in a series of political negotiation meetings occurring throughout the year and leading up to a final Heads of State Tiger Summit in September 2010, which is the Year of the Tiger.

The workshop is hosted by the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Government of Nepal, co-organized and co-sponsored by the CITES Secretariat, Global Tiger Forum, Global Tiger Initiative, Save The Tiger Fund, World Bank.

Source:WWF

Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta are topping a WWF ranking of the climate vulnerability of 11 major cities in Asia

As Heads of States gather in Singapore for the APEC summit, WWF says that developed and developing countries must cooperate to prepare these cities for a brutal climate future, highlighting that their vulnerability is yet another compelling reason for a fair, ambitious and binding deal at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December.

According to Mega-Stress For Mega-Cities, many of the cities analyzed are extremely exposed to threats such as storms and flooding, while huge numbers of people and assets at stake result in worrying levels of socio-economic sensitivity. At the same time, the cities often lack capacity to protect themselves from devastating impacts.

“Climate change is already shattering cities across developing Asia and will be even more brutal in the future”, said Kim Carstensen, Leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative. “These cities are vulnerable and need urgent help to adapt, in order to protect the lives of millions of citizens, a massive amount of assets, and their large contributions to the national GDP.”

“The APEC summit this week in Singapore provides an opportunity to exploit the true win-win potential offered by low carbon growth strategies for countries in the Asia Pacific region, with benefits for both the economy and the climate.”

The WWF report covers 11 urban centers across Asia, all located in coastal areas or river deltas. Following Dhaka (9 out of 10 possible vulnerability points), other cities at high risk are Manila and Jakarta (8 each), Calcutta and Phnom Penh (7 each), Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai (6 each), Bangkok (5), and Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore (4 each).

“Asia is urbanizing rapidly, and we can be certain that urban areas will be crucial battlegrounds in the fight against climate change”, said Carstensen.

“Cities are responsible for most of the world’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but they are also pioneers when it comes to developing innovative solutions. We can’t afford to surrender them to climate change. Instead, we must empower them to become change agents and protect both rural and urban areas from devastating impacts.”

The report also includes rankings for sub-categories such as environmental exposure, socio-economic sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Poorer cities often lack sufficient adaptive capacity and generally rank higher in terms of their overall vulnerability.

“Leaders in hotspots of danger like Dhaka, Manila or Jakarta need urgent support from their counterparts in the industrialized world. Effective near-term and long-term adaptation will depend on financial support, technology cooperation, and capacity building”, said Carstensen.

According to WWF, this week’s APEC summit in Singapore provides leaders from developed and developing countries around the Pacific with a great opportunity to boost cooperation on adaptation to climate impacts as well as low carbon economic growth.

“Now we are only a couple of weeks away from the Copenhagen Climate Summit, but so far leaders have failed to clear the way for success next month in Denmark”, said Carstensen.

“APEC is the last chance before Copenhagen for leaders from a number of key countries to show that they really want to protect the planet from climate change.”

source:WWF

Cuba orders extreme measures to cut energy use

Cuba has ordered all state enterprises to adopt “extreme measures” to cut energy usage through the end of the year in hopes of avoiding the dreaded blackouts that plagued the country following the 1991 collapse of its then-top ally, the Soviet Union.

In documents seen by Reuters, government officials have been warned that the island is facing a “critical” energy shortage that requires the closing of non-essential factories and workshops and the shutting down of air conditioners and refrigerators not needed to preserve food and medicine.

Cuba has cut government spending and slashed imports after being hit hard by the global financial crisis and the cost of recovering from three hurricanes that struck last year.

“The energy situation we face is critical and if we do not adopt extreme measures we will have to revert to planned blackouts affecting the population,” said a recently circulated message from the Council of Ministers.

“Company directors will analyze the activities that will be stopped and others reduced, leaving only those that guarantee exports, substitution of imports and basic services for the population,” according to another distributed by the light industry sector.

President Raul Castro is said to be intent on not repeating the experience of the 1990s, when the demise of the Soviet Union and the loss of its steady oil supply caused frequent electricity blackouts and hardship for the Cuban public.

The directives follow government warnings in the summer that too much energy was being used and blackouts would follow if consumption was not reduced.

All provincial governments and most state-run offices and factories, which encompasses 90 percent of Cuba’s economic activity, were ordered in June to reduce energy use by a minimum of 12 percent or face mandatory electricity cuts.

The measures appeared to resolve the crisis as state-run press published stories about the amount of energy that had been saved and the dire warnings died down. The only explanation given for the earlier warnings was that Cuba was consuming more fuel than the government had money to pay for.

The situation is not as dire as in the 1990s because Cuba receives 93,000 barrels per day of crude oil, almost two-thirds of what it consumes, from Venezuela. It pays for the oil by providing its energy-rich ally with medical personnel and other professionals.

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