This is an interesting piece of advertising from Greenpeace

Rob & James rendovous with the Ice Maiden as they complete their trip from the North Pole across Greenland.

They are now going to sail to New York on the next major leg of the trip.

….Though marine dumping is part of the problem, escaped nurdles and other plastic litter migrate to the gyre largely from land. That polystyrene cup you saw floating in the creek, if it doesn’t get picked up and specifically taken to a landfill, will eventually be washed out to sea. Once there, it will have plenty of places to go: The North Pacific gyre is only one of five such high-pressure zones in the oceans. There are similar areas in the South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. Each of these gyres has its own version of the Garbage Patch, as plastic gathers in the currents. Together, these areas cover 40 percent of the sea. “That corresponds to a quarter of the earth’s surface,” Moore says. “So 25 percent of our planet is a toilet that never flushes.”  Extract From article by Susan Casey

Charles Moore is working to highlight the danger of plastic polution.

All over the globe, there are signs that plastic pollution is doing more than blighting the scenery; it is also making its way into the food chain. Some of the most obvious victims are the dead seabirds that have been washing ashore in startling numbers, their bodies packed with plastic: things like bottle caps, cigarette lighters, tampon applicators, and colored scraps that, to a foraging bird, resemble baitfish. (One animal dissected by Dutch researchers contained 1,603 pieces of plastic.) And the birds aren’t alone.

All sea creatures are threatened by floating plastic, from whales down to zooplankton. There’s a basic moral horror in seeing the pictures: a sea turtle with a plastic band strangling its shell into an hourglass shape; a humpback towing plastic nets that cut into its flesh and make it impossible for the animal to hunt. More than a million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, and countless fish die in the North Pacific each year, either from mistakenly eating this junk or from being ensnared in it and drowning.

Bad enough. But Moore soon learned that the big, tentacled balls of trash were only the most visible signs of the problem; others were far less obvious, and far more evil. Dragging a fine-meshed net known as a manta trawl, he discovered minuscule pieces of plastic, some barely visible to the eye, swirling like fish food throughout the water. He and his researchers parsed, measured, and sorted their samples and arrived at the following conclusion: By weight, this swath of sea contains six times as much plastic as it does plankton. more…

Fast Company reports that the” race is on to build a one-stop national brand for all your clean power needs”.

The the fragmented renewable energy market is ripe for consolidation and the company that provides the simplest solution and the best pricing is set to win.

more..

There are now a number of insurance companies getting involved with carbon offset. ibuyeco offers to offset the carbon emissions that you car creates.

Save money and do your bit to save the planet - switch to ibuyeco 100% carbon neutral car insurance!

When an individual or organisation reduces to net zero their carbon emissions. This is often achieved through a combination of reduction at source and the purchase of carbon offset.

Not only will we get you the best deal on your cover, we’ll make it easy for you to offset 100% of your car’s
carbon emissions* – balancing out the impact your driving has on the environment.

The process of balancing out the carbon dioxide produced by an individual or business, often through the funding of renewable energy, energy efficiency and/or forestry projects.

Carbon Dioxide emitted into the earth’s atmosphere, caused by the burning of fossil fuels - such as petrol and diesel.

It’s a small step, that could make a big difference.

They are making it easier to make a difference.

On Saturday 26^th May at 17.10hrs BST, the team received a distressing satellite phone call from James.

They were travelling south-east towards Killorsuaq, a small community on the west coast, when Rob noticed he had dropped a mitten. They stopped and Rob went back to get it when suddenly the ice gave way and he fell through into the freezing water. His clothing quickly saturated and the freezing water paralysed him. He also hit his head on the ice edge as he fell and became unconscious. 

The hunters ran back to try to pull Rob out which proved very difficult as they did not want to risk going in themselves. Eventually after some 3 minutes they did. By this time however, Rob was already in a bad state and suffering from hypothermia. They quickly set up their tent and got the stove on to heat the inside. James got Rob’s wet kit off and put him in a sleeping bag with warm drinks. Their combined speed and actions without doubt saved Rob’s life. more

The risk and effort both Rob and James are taking to demonstrate this should be heeded by us all.

In just 27 years, based on current statistics and trends, there will be no summer sea ice in the Arctic!

With no ice to reflect the sun’s rays, the water will absorb more heat and expansion will cause it to raise sea levels globally.

Perhaps that is why the second Thames Flood Barrier is being planned now?

The Southern Ocean is one of the world’s biggest reservoirs of carbon, known as a carbon sink.

When carbon is in a sink, whether it’s an ocean or a forest, both of which can lock up carbon dioxide, it stays out of the atmosphere and scientists say it does not contribute to global warming.

The new research, published in the latest edition of the journal Science, indicates that the Southern Ocean has been saturated with carbon dioxide at least since the 1980s.

This is significant because the Southern Ocean accounts for 15% of the global carbon sink, Dr. Corinne Le Quéré of University of East Anglia says.  more…

This video paints a bleak picture regarding the point at which oil ceases to be easy to extract. 

Time to think seriously about our own response.

It is interesting to see just how the emphasis on the environment has changed in such a short time.  Global warming and all the other issue with Carbon Footprints are interesting.  But there is an issue that is as old as time.  Control of water.  This is going to be one of the biggest reasons for war in the coming century.

In an interesting article by the BBC entitled water wars it picks up on the Middle Eastern conflict between Israel and the nations in the region and focuses on the issue of water.

Middle Eastern rhetoric often portrays the issue of water as an existential, zero-sum conflict - casting either Israel as a malevolent sponge sucking up Arab water resources, or the implacably hostile Arabs as threatening Israel’s very existence by denying life-giving water.

Former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali may not have been right when he said in the 1990s that the next war in the Middle East would be about water not politics, but a future war over water is not out of the question.

While demand for water already outstrips supply, requirements are rising and current supply is unsustainable. This is not an uncommon situation and one which needs to be addressed. 

Hydrologists say joint solutions need to be found, because water requirements are interdependent and water resources cross political boundaries.

That necessitates improved conservation and recycling by both sides. Improving the political atmosphere would allow supplies to be piped from neighbouring countries. Also crucial, experts say, are investment in desalination and other technical advances.

The article summarises the situation by stating the oblivious that:

Such solutions are desperately needed in the medium to long term. In other words, Israel and the Palestinians must work together, because they cannot survive as combatants.

Let’s hope that this is not a recurring theme with other nations in the years to come, but somehow I suspect that it will be.