Environmental News to Share and Comment in class

DECLINE OF GLACIERS

Most glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada and the United States would disappear in the second half of this century from ice loss, according to a new report.

Glaciers have lost more than 9 trillion tons of ice between 1961 and 2016, according to a research paper published in the journal Nature.This equates to a block of ice the size of Germany and almost 30 meters thick, or the size of the United States and 1.2 meters thick.

This loss of ice has also meant an increase in overall sea level of up to 27 millimetres in the period.This represents between 25% and 30% of the observed increase in global sea levels.

Glaciers are a consequence of climate change, the authors said, and research suggests that the loss of glaciers may be greater than previously reported.

Currently, the study found that up to 335 billion tons of ice are lost each year. This results in an increase in sea levels of almost 1 millimeter per year, according to calculations.

The main cause of this problem is the large amount of carbon dioxide that we emit into the atmosphere, what I would recommend to lessen this problem would be not to use the car so much and use public transport more.

AUTHOR: Alberto Traver

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS TO SHARE AND COMMENT IN CLASS

That`s how "El Mar Menor" died.

The major ecological tragedy in Spain happened in October of 2019. The most important lake of Mediterranean sea has been murdered, therefore human activities like intensive agriculture and the cattle industry. A lot of animals died and appeared in the seashore

Eutrophication is a phenomenon produced by fertilizers that have been used in intensive agriculture and they are flowing into the Mar Menor Lake. This fact increases the presence of nutrients in water and the seaweed grows quickly. Seaweed anaerobic bacteria consume all oxygen of water and other species like fish or mollusks died suffocated.

All this has been known by the politicians and they haven`t done anything, on the contrary, they have allowed that agriculture industries don`t obey the law.

Now the situation of El Mar Menor sea is irreversible and ecologists demand responsibilities and solutions.

Care about the environment is everyone’s job.

 Dead Fish  in San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia.

 (Source: La Vanguradia, 2019)

Elena López

Source New:

https://www.lavanguardia.com/natural/actualidad/20191021/471100486538/mar-menor-eutrofizacion-gimenez-casalduero-juan-manuel-ruiz-nutrientes.html

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS TO SHARE & COMMENT IN CLASS

Brazilian beaches affected by oil spill

Thick crude oil that has stained hundreds of miles of Brazilian beaches in recent weeks 

probably originated in Venezuela, the Brazilian government has said, in an accusation l

ikely to further strain relations between the two countries.

'Chaos, chaos, chaos': a journey through Bolsonaro's Amazon inferno
 
Brazilian authorities have been investigating the growing disaster for more than a month, 

as the oil has spread to more than 130 beaches across nine states.
On Wednesday, the country’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, told a congressional hearing 

that a study by the state oil company Petrobras had concluded that the oil “is very likely from Venezuela”.

He said that a foreign ship near Brazil’s coastline appeared to have caused the spill “accidentally or not”.

Salles said that more than 100 tonnes of oil had already been collected from the coastline since 

2 September, but said that the disaster was proving “enormously difficult to contain”.
There was no immediate response from Venezuela, but the Brazilian assertion is likely to further 

escalate tensions between the two countries. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president, is a 

longstanding critic of Venezuela’s embattled leader, Nicolás Maduro, and has close relations 

with rightwing Venezuelan groups seeking his overthrow.
Earlier this week, Bolsonaro dismissed speculation that the spill had been released by a sinking ship.

 “If it was a shipwreck, oil would still be coming up. It is more probable that something was dumped 

there criminally,” he told reporters.
Bolsonaro said he did not want to blame another country without proof, but hinted darkly: “We have

 a country on our radar screen that could be the origin of the oil.”
 

Petrobras’s chief executive, Roberto Castello, said on Tuesday that the amount of oil spilled so far – 

approximately 500 barrels – was far too much to have been from the result of a routine tank cleaning.
Social media users have shared shocking images of the spill, showing kilometers of white sand stained 

with oil blotches and dead, oil-covered turtles and dolphins. One video shows thick black oil lapping 

up against a rocky jetty.
The oil’s appearance came shortly after Brazil became the focus of international criticism over record 

wildfires and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest – both of which have surged since Bolsonaro 

came to office.
Environmentalists and indigenous leaders say that Bolsonaro’s stripping back of environmental

 legislation and protections has stoked a fresh assault on the country’s ecosystems.
“The oil spill that’s reached over 132 beaches in the north-east is criminal. Removing the residue 

from the ocean can take 10 to 20 years,” said the former environment minister Marina Silva in a tweet.

 “This is a warning that we need to strengthen and not suffocate the environmental monitoring 

institutions in the country.”

SOURCE: The Guardian. 

AUTHOR: Daniel Lerma 1ºEca

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS TO SHARE & COMMENT IN CLASS

THOUSHANDS OF FISH DIE IN THE LESSER SEA

In the lesser sea(Spain), thousands of fish die lack of oxygen, due to the great vegetation swept away by the great rains(DANA).

In Murcia, Spain is located the lesser sea is a lagoon by the sea, right now thousands of fish without oxygen are dying from cause of large waste pours and heavy rains(DANA).

Waste dumped in the lesser sea has been coming for a long time, but the administrations did not give it enough importance, these rains caused a great deal of fresh water to enter the salt lagoon, water that dragged into the same mud, soil and organic matte.

All this natural disaster has left more than 3000 fish dead with a great loss of biodiversity and affecting the trophic chain.

Mr. Arnau Cerrillo

1st ECA

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS TO COMMENT & SHARE IN CLASS

The murder of Naya, in Belgium.
AUTHOR: Elena Barberà.


Who is Naya?
Naya is a wolf native to eastern Germany that was first seen in Limburg in 2018, Belgium. There
they put a tracking collar to track their movements.

What happened to Naya?
Naya and their pupies were last seen in May 2019 at the Limburg forest. It is suspected that she was
killed by professional hunter. “the perpetradors have invaded the innaccesible area to find and kill
the wolf with her cubs in the west ” said a spokesman for the Nature and Forest Agency.

Why?
Nothing is known about Naya and her puppies since may, the traking collar has sttoped working
when the batery has run out and her male partnet (who joined her in august 2018 and was seen
bringing food to the puppies) behaves like a lone wolf.

Why is Naya so important to Belgium?
Because she is a first wolf that there are in belgium since an one hundred ago. There aren’t wolfs in
Belgium, they has been out a century ago, because they were threatened.

This newspaper talks about a group of organizations, such as Bird Protection Flanders, Animal Right
or Nature Aid Center, who are offering a good amount of money for information that leads to the
discovery of those responsable for the murder of Naya, in Belgium.


For more information acces the following link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/04/environment-groups-offer-30k-reward-to-identifywolf-
naya-killer

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NEWS TO COMMENT AND SHARE IN CLASS

BIRDS
AUTHOR  Andrew White


US and Canada have lost more than 1 in 4 birds in the past 50 years A study published today in the journal Science reveals that since 1970, bird populations in the United States and Canada have declined by 29 percent, or almost 3 billion birds, signaling a widespread ecological crisis. The results show tremendous losses across diverse groups of birds and habitats from iconic songsters such as meadowlarks to long-distance migrants such as swallows and backyard birds including sparrows

Altogether, the research team—which included collaborators at the American Bird Conservancy, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, U.S. Geological Survey, the Canadian Wildlife Service, and other institutions—analyzed the breeding population of 529 species by pooling data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service waterfowl surveys, and 10 other datasets. Domestic cats, collisions with glass and buildings, and a decline in the insects birds eat – probably because of widespread pesticide use – also contribute to the dwindling bird numbers. And climate change compounds those problems by altering birds habitats.

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