Marine plastic: Hundreds of fragments in dead seabirds

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMlys4XyYJntT5IzcZwbMxZejrLmIVSI912GBVG8DtxxYNdcpQxF3jD4hAUs4lLkji7do6RUrNCgVvwX15ywPKhgYhjQZ5Sw6-QxGsX0Hdnp_Uxl6xOS9hkDmlKemcffJKuJKt9UZaABw/s1600/_102170815_mediaitem102170814.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="624" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMlys4XyYJntT5IzcZwbMxZejrLmIVSI912GBVG8DtxxYNdcpQxF3jD4hAUs4lLkji7do6RUrNCgVvwX15ywPKhgYhjQZ5Sw6-QxGsX0Hdnp_Uxl6xOS9hkDmlKemcffJKuJKt9UZaABw/s1600/_102170815_mediaitem102170814.jpg" /></a></div> <br /> New pictures of the devastating impact of plastic pollutants on wildlife has been captured with the aid of a bbc team.<br /> <br /> Seabirds are ravenous to loss of life on the faraway lord howe island, a team filming for the bbc one documentary drowning in plastic has discovered.<br /> <br /> Their stomachs were so complete of plastic there was no room for meals.<br /> <br /> The documentary is a part of a bbc initiative called plastics watch, tracking the impact of plastic on the surroundings.<br /> <br /> The marine biologists the group filmed are running on the island to save the birds. They captured loads of chicks - as they left their nests - to bodily flush plastic from their stomachs and "deliver them a threat to continue to exist".<br /> <br /> Commercial<br /> No room for vitamins<br /> Lord howe island<br /> The birds nest in burrows on lord howe island, which is greater than 600 kilometres off the east coast of australia. Whilst chicks wait inside the burrow, the dad and mom head out to sea and dive for small fish and squid to feed their offspring.<br /> <br /> "these birds are generalist predators," explained marine biologist jennifer lavers who works with the shearwater colony. "they will devour pretty much whatever they're given. That's what's allowed them to thrive - a loss of pickiness.<br /> <br /> "but while you put plastic within the ocean, it manner they haven't any potential to come across plastic shape non-plastic, so they devour it."<br /> <br /> Determine birds unwittingly feeding plastic to their chicks manner that the birds emerge from their burrows with stomachs full of plastic, and with inadequate nutrients to allow them set out to sea and forage for themselves.<br /> <br /> Chicks underwater<br /> Photo caption<br /> The seabirds dive underwater for meals, but often eat pieces of plastic<br /> However when the birds first head out of the burrow, the studies crew had been stepping in to help.<br /> <br /> "if the amount of plastic is not so giant, we use a system called levage, where we flush or wash the belly - with out harming the chook," explained dr lavers.<br /> <br /> The remaining (plastic) straw: who is banning them?<br /> Seaside checks address plastic 'scourge'<br /> 50 nations 'curbing plastic pollution'<br /> The bbc team filmed the crew operating with character chicks - the use of tubes to flush their stomachs with seawater and make them regurgitate the plastic.<br /> <br /> Scientists flushing plastic from a hen's stomach on lord how islandimage copyrightbbc one: drowning in plastic<br /> Picture caption<br /> Researchers use seawater to flush out a chook's belly<br /> Liz bonnin, who gives the series, stated what she noticed on lord howe island changed into one of the hardest matters she had witnessed in her profession.<br /> <br /> "it was surprising to see how plenty would pop out of one chick," she advised bbc information. "we saw, i think 90 pieces come out of one of the chicks on the second one night.<br /> <br /> "however the scientists had been telling us they from time to time pull out two hundred or 250 pieces of plastic out of dead birds or from the regurgitation.<br /> <br /> "it is obscene while you reflect onconsideration on it."<br /> <br /> Jennifer lavers brought that most of the plastic she and her colleagues have observed of their work with the birds is "absolutely preventable".<br /> <br /> Plastic on the ocean surface<br /> Image caption<br /> Some elements of the ocean now incorporate extra portions of plastic than plankton<br /> "we discover plastic clothes pegs, plastic teeth brushes. The ones should without problems be swapped out for other materials - aluminium or wooden. My own toothbrush is product of bamboo.<br /> <br /> "when we observe changes like that and scale them up across the whole human population, it could certainly make a distinction.<br /> <br /> "i so look forward to a destiny wherein i'm not pulling clothes pegs out of the bellies of child birds - that might be high-quality."

Marine plastic: Hundreds of fragments in dead seabirds

New pictures of the devastating impact of plastic pollutants on wildlife has been captured with the aid of a bbc team. Seabirds are rav...

Read more »

Why does India's air look different from space?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZ0FeiLnqzSgb_bJeZxsc8m7WHOI-0pns3YXUe7b_uFNnsKvQK5EpyTljZeaqxdALRYWT4ftJKJVLKO-DHdEKhE9eZ7LJ_3vkWyuS8jye_pNvHF0X_r_OPWS6bhtoKXfE_rij6AeUD_k/s1600/_102168482_522768bc-6850-4dd3-b01c-1bbf8d02ff04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="976" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZ0FeiLnqzSgb_bJeZxsc8m7WHOI-0pns3YXUe7b_uFNnsKvQK5EpyTljZeaqxdALRYWT4ftJKJVLKO-DHdEKhE9eZ7LJ_3vkWyuS8jye_pNvHF0X_r_OPWS6bhtoKXfE_rij6AeUD_k/s1600/_102168482_522768bc-6850-4dd3-b01c-1bbf8d02ff04.jpg" /></a></div> There's something very wonderful approximately the air over india and the encircling nations in south asia.<br /> <br /> It is the presence of formaldehyde - a colourless fuel this is certainly released by means of flora however also from some of polluting activities.<br /> <br /> The extended concentrations had been observed by using europe's new sentinel-5p satellite tv for pc, which was released final october to music air excellent international.<br /> <br /> It is facts with a view to inform regulations to easy up the surroundings.<br /> <br /> Monitoring ships' grimy fumes from orbit<br /> Sentinel tracks california smoke plume<br /> New sentinel satellite tv for pc tracks grimy air<br /> Compared to the principal components like nitrogen and oxygen, the formaldehyde signal is definitely very small; in every billion air molecules just a few might be ch₂o. However it is able to be a signifier of more general pollutants problems, says isabelle de smedt from the royal belgian institute for area aeronomy (bira-iasb).<br /> <br /> Advertisement<br /> "the formaldehyde column is composed of different varieties of volatile natural compounds, and the supply may be from plant life - so, from natural foundation - however additionally from fires and pollutants," she informed bbc information.<br /> <br /> "it relies upon on the region however 50-eighty% of the sign is from a few biogenic origin. However above that you have pollutants and fire. And the hearth may be from coal burning or wildfires, but in india, sure, you have a lot of agricultural fires."<br /> <br /> India also uses sizable quantities of timber within the home for cooking and heating.<br /> <br /> When volatile organic compounds are brought collectively with nitrogen dioxide (no₂, from fossil fuel burning) and daylight, reactions will produce floor-stage ozone.<br /> <br /> That is a extreme respiratory irritant that can lead to sizable fitness troubles.<br /> <br /> Iranimage copyrightcopernicus sentinel statistics 2018/bira-iasb/dlr<br /> Picture caption<br /> Energy of tropomi: it took years to get comparable data from the preceding device<br /> Note how the himalaya mountains basically corral the air at the plains, preventing it from shifting north.<br /> <br /> The relative low in formaldehyde concentration in north-west india is focused over the desolate tract lands of rajasthan, wherein, manifestly, there may be a good deal much less plant life and less people.<br /> <br /> Sentinel-5p turned into procured and released by using the european space agency for the eu union's copernicus earth-monitoring programme.<br /> <br /> The satellite tv for pc's tropomi tool can locate the presence inside the ecosystem of a suite of trace gases in addition to formaldehyde, including nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide (so₂), methane, carbon monoxide (co) and aerosols (small droplets and debris).<br /> <br /> All affect the air we breathe and consequently our fitness, and a number of them additionally play a function in weather exchange.<br /> <br /> Worldwide mapimage copyrightcopernicus sentinel statistics 2018/bira-iasb/dlr<br /> Picture caption<br /> Formaldehyde concentrations throughout the globe, nov-2017 to june-2018: the records will help increase policies to improve air pleasant<br /> The tropomi tool itself represents a extraordinary step-alternate on the capability of its predecessor spectrometer system called omi, which nevertheless flies nowadays on an american space agency satellite.<br /> <br /> "we already had virtually good statistics, but we wished many extra days of observations, from time to time years of observations, to get this type of great," said dr de smedt.<br /> <br /> "the new (india) map includes 4 months of records. Tropomi can do in one month what omi did in six.<br /> <br /> "we now see a lot quicker the information, the small emissions, the cities - the sort of indicators we didn't see so well before. We wanted 10 years of information to look the emissions round tehran, as an instance. In this map you can see them from best four months of tropomi records."<br /> <br /> After a test and commissioning phase, s5p will cross completely operational at the end of the month for some of its information merchandise, along with nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide.<br /> <br /> Others, like formaldehyde, will must wait till the fall.<br /> <br /> Ordinary, the tropomi investigations on s5p are led from the netherlands met office (knmi). The bira-iasb heads up the ch₂o and so₂ analyses.<br /> <br /> The bus, or chassis, of the satellite became assembled with the aid of airbus within the uk, making s5p britain's biggest single industrial contribution to the sentinel series of satellites that have been procured for copernicus.<br /> <br /> S5pimage copyrightesa

Why does India's air look different from space?

There's something very wonderful approximately the air over india and the encircling nations in south asia. It is the presence of fo...

Read more »

UN signals 'end' of throwaway plastic

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4p_ifm327VG8xc1p3oMya9U6L2yncOAf4PhNEVN1vuHFFjEfWSlARYvqfsBLQhJrXkKXSbLeV-Zm5trcYWJLnSump1ndEkBHrzR2nRE2B0bS-aMqkoFFEfUc2GldnQK0U6MjL95wLSI/s1600/_99066511_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="660" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4p_ifm327VG8xc1p3oMya9U6L2yncOAf4PhNEVN1vuHFFjEfWSlARYvqfsBLQhJrXkKXSbLeV-Zm5trcYWJLnSump1ndEkBHrzR2nRE2B0bS-aMqkoFFEfUc2GldnQK0U6MjL95wLSI/s640/_99066511_1.png" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> The cease of the technology of throwaway plastic has been signalled via un environment ministers meeting in kenya.<br /> They signed off a report stating that the waft of plastic into the ocean need to be stopped.<br /> Scientists welcomed the statement, but had been unhappy the agreement turned into simplest based totally in principle, without a company targets or timetables.<br /> Ministers say it is a milestone as it shows governments, enterprise and the general public that a prime exchange is wanted.<br /> Vidar helgesen, norway's environment minister, has been leading the un debate on plastic pollutants.<br /> He instructed bbc news: "what we got here right here with become the need for movement. The place to begin was aiming for zero emission of marine litter. So it is efficaciously a step forward for zero emission of plastic into the ocean."<br /> He admitted that this became absolutely simplest the start of movement in opposition to plastic litter.<br /> Li lin from wwf international advised bbc information: "nowadays we've got visible quite properly development on marine muddle and micro-plastics."we might much like to peer this settlement carried out through governments, business, ngos and clients as quickly as viable. Because this trouble is urgent."<br /> We recognise plastics are already unfavourable existence within the sea, but we don't know how plenty greater harm it is able to take earlier than complete ecosystems begin to be affected.<br /> The seas in the end are also beset with climate trade, acidification, lifeless zones, and a couple of kinds of pollution.<br /> Delegates here hope governments might be brought on to move quicker with their own country wide rules to clamp down on waste plastic, as opposed to just looking ahead to un resolutions.<br /> But preventing plastic clutter would require new era - and new attitudes from the general public. Some of the many pollutants demanding situations dealing with mankind, that is arguably one of the toughest.

UN signals 'end' of throwaway plastic

The cease of the technology of throwaway plastic has been signalled via un environment ministers meeting in kenya. They signed off a re...

Read more »