. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from Earth Day

Earth Day Network, the organization that coordinates Earth Day events worldwide, today [April 20] released a highlights list of Earth Day events that are taking place from Karnataka in India to Seattle in the United States of America.

“Every organization from the Smithsonian to the government of Quebec and local organizations in Rome are holding meaningful events that encompass the Earth Day spirit – global reach, local action,” said Kathleen Roger, President of Earth Day Network.

Here are just a sample of events for Earth Day 2018 that show the breath and the depth of involvement on Earth Day of government, organizations, businesses and individuals:

Earth Day The Gambia 2018, coordinated mainly by volunteers, will bring in the town of Bansang, 100 public officials, experts, teachers, extension workers, community leaders, students and citizens together to learn and develop action plans to improve waste management practices. A rally at the Bakoteh Dumpsite and a beach cleanup at Serekunda Beach are part of the program. 

On Earth Day, Sunday April 22, 2018 the Earth Day Global Broadcast will air globally on PeaceChannel.com, in collaboration with Earth Day Network. Actor and environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr. and Rachel Carson-Begley will host. 

From the 21st through the 25th of April in the Villa Borghese (Rome, Italy) an event will take place organized by Earth Day Italia and the Focolare Movement. The event will include five days of music, sport, culture and activities dedicated to the protection of the planet. The 2018 event will focus in particular on the 2030 Agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through 5 talk shows dedicated to the 5Ps of sustainability: People, Planet, Prosperity, Partnership, Peace.

Sappraiwan Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand has committed to planting 300 trees on this Earth Day.  They are partnering with the Phitsanulok Province Government to give 300 trees to the community on Earth Day and help them plant the trees. Residents may choose to plant the tree at their home or at the Sanctuary.

Tokyo, Japan joins the world in celebrating Earth Day with an array of events coordinated under the Green Room Festival that attracts thousands of people.  NGO’s and other charities are spreading the word. The events include beach clean ups, music presentation, arts exhibits and yoga classes. 

Earth Day Network has relaunched its Billion Acts of Green campaign in China for Earth Day 2018 with the theme of ‘End Plastic Pollution’. Events will the held with the participation of schools, college student associations, museums and local nonprofits to educate and activate people to prevent plastic pollution from affecting human’s health and littering our environment. As of now there are 37 events registered in 22 cities in China and they are expecting at least 20,000 participates.

The US Army Corps of Engineers has 37,000 personnel involved in Earth Day. The USACE is comprised of nine divisions and 45 districts covering the entire United States and more than 91 foreign countries. 

(continued in right column)

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

(continued from left column)

A “No-Plastic” pop-up event will take place in Karnataka State in India. The event will bring together organizations that are champions of environmental sustainability in fields including electric vehicles, solar power, and zero-waste living. The event will include workshops led by these leaders who will talk about their journey in low pollution living and equip the audience with methods through which they can start their own journeys.

Now live for Earth Day, the #StirCrazy campaign aims to eradicate plastic stirrers from the world by 2020.  It combines chains (coffee and food stores and suppliers) and the public and government including Romania and UK. 

The Native American Student Association at Mississippi Southern State University will be holding an Earth Day Fair on April 20, with tabling and live music in front of the Billingsly Student Union in Hattiesburg, MS, USA.

The Great American Clean Up will take place in Palm Beach, FL, USA to encourage citizens to get involved with efforts to remove waste from the environment and drastically improve their communities. 

The Bi-State Watershed Cleanup is an annual event taking place along the Hackensack River Watershed to clean waste and debris from the waterbodies in both New York and New Jersey, USA. The Park Ridge Green Team received the 2013 State of NJ Clean Water Award and the 2015 Collaboration Award from Sustainable Jersey. 

A zero-waste recycling expo will take place on Earth Day in Colchester, UK. Its goals are to inspire and promote the repair, reuse, and recycling of all materials to a wider audience. 

In an event titled Earth Day – A Day on Environmental Protection for the Benefit of All, in London, UK on the 22nd of April, there will be an event including world renowned speaking topics related to the preservation of our planet, global/local issues like sustainability, and plastics pollution. There will also be a panel discussion, short films, and stalls promoting local green businesses, and fun activities for all ages. 

Earth Day by the Bay will take place in San Francisco, California, USA and around the greater Bay Area. The planned event is a family friendly, sustainable and educational expo celebrating Earth Day! 

Earth Day at the Finnish Embassy co-sponsored by Earth Network, “A Dialogue on Ending Plastic Pollution – Opportunities for the Public and Private Sectors,” will take place on Monday, April 23 in Washington, DC, USA.
The National Museum of Natural History in Santiago, Chile has invited citizens to participate on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 April to celebrate Earth Day with talks on biodiversity conservation, extension and trees. 

Earth Day, New York University, and the government of Quebec event April 20 in New York, USA co-sponsored by Earth Day Network will explore ways to stem plastic pollution, especially from plastic bags.

Bullitt Foundation Earth Day 2018 – Denis Hayes, the original coordinator of Earth Day 1970 and Chair Emeritus of Earth Day Network as well as President and CEO of the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle, USA, held an Earth Day event on April 17.  

The Sierra Club has released its list of things people can do on Earth Day.

ABOUT EARTH DAY NETWORK

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN), the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, works with tens of thousands of partners in 192 countries to build environmental democracy and to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. For more information, visit  www.earthday.org

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A photo essay by Kimberly M. S. Cartier from Eos: Science policy and funding (abbreviated)

For the second year in a row, people across the United States and on all seven continents held rallies in support of science. Speakers and marchers at more than 230 events around the world advocated for increasing diversity in science, defending science from funding cuts and government interference, and promoting science literacy and trust.

Saturday’s March for Science events [April 14] may have drawn smaller crowds than last year, but the participants were as enthusiastic as ever about the advancement of science. Here are some of our favorite posters that captured the spirit of these marches.

Demonstrators holding signs at the 2018 March for Science in Washington, D. C. Credit: Peter Weiss

@WIRED Science Siyu Feng, a PhD student in biology at UCSF, is one of many participants at San Francisco’s #MarchforScience today.

Marchers in New York City, this time with a math pun. @jonathanrlarkin. Happened to stumble across the #marchforscience2018 today. Loved this sign.

Signs from Philadelphia, Pa. @guertin. So excited to have @PSUBrandywine students supporting science at @PHLScienceAct #RallyforScience! #STEMstudents #MarchForScience #Philly

In Los Angeles, Calif., a protester brings on the biology. @jaimecor_94 It’s @march4sciencela time y’all! #MarchForScience #MarchForScienceLA

Marchers in San Antonio, Texas, with a touch of magic. @MaremaAnne @ScienceMarchSA #MarchforScienceSA18

One protester in Colorado, calling out federal science agencies that have been known to censor information.@alibranscombe Baby’s first march in Colorado #MarchForScience2018

(continued in right column)

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

(continued from left column)

And in Sacramento, Calif., one demonstrator turned her attention to scientific misconduct on the international stage. Her sign translates to “No to the adjustment of science in Argentina.” @NeCesiTo1TiemP0 Make Science Great Again ! #marchforscience2018 #Sacramento

In Abuja, Nigeria, scientists and advocates marched to promote public trust in science and to emphasize that scientific advancement benefits the entire population. @ScienceAlly Standing up for science — Abuja, Nigeria. @OFABnigeria @Nigerians4GMO #marchforscience2018

Marchers of all ages in Narrandera in New South Wales, Australia, with signs saying “Science, not silence,” “Heads in books, not heads in sand,” and “Science…the spectrum of awesome.” @FionaMagic Narrandera has now been added as an official #MarchForScience location!

One marcher in London simultaneously raised awareness of rising sea levels and promoted gender diversity in science.@jfabrombacher #MarchForScience

Demonstrators at an event in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. @SPINSciPolicy Powered by science and strengthened by diversity! Speaking up for science at the #marchforscience2018 @ScienceMarchYVR today with fellow supporters!

In Quezon City in the Philippines advocates held signs proclaiming “Climate justice” and “March for science, march for the people.” In Blantyre, Malawi, supporters’ signs read “Science not silence” and “Mad scientist.” And in Chennai, India, activists marched with placards urging “Science unites! Stand up for science!” and “Defend science and scientific outlook.”@luckytran Happy #MarchforScience day! One of my favorite parts of waking up today is seeing so many photos of communities standing up for science, equity, & justice all around the world. See you in the streets! #KeepMarching

Meanwhile in Antarctica, the team of climate scientists at Neumayer Station III proclaimed, in the translated words of Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, “Knowledge and recognition are the joy and the right of humanity.”@AWI_Media
Message of support from Antarctica: overwinterer at the Neumayer Station support the #MarchForScience @ScienceMarchDC

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Samson Reiny, NASA’s Earth Science News Team

For the first time, scientists have shown through direct satellite observations of the ozone hole that levels of ozone-destroying chlorine are declining, resulting in less ozone depletion.

Measurements show that the decline in chlorine, resulting from an international ban on chlorine-containing manmade chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), has resulted in about 20 percent less ozone depletion during the Antarctic winter than there was in 2005 — the first year that measurements of chlorine and ozone during the Antarctic winter were made by NASA’s Aura satellite. 

Frame from video by atmospheric scientist Susan Strahan discussing the ozone study

“We see very clearly that chlorine from CFCs is going down in the ozone hole, and that less ozone depletion is occurring because of it,” said lead author Susan Strahan, an atmospheric scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

CFCs are long-lived chemical compounds that eventually rise into the stratosphere, where they are broken apart by the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation, releasing chlorine atoms that go on to destroy ozone molecules. Stratospheric ozone protects life on the planet by absorbing potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancer and cataracts, suppress immune systems and damage plant life.

Two years after the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole in 1985, nations of the world signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which regulated ozone-depleting compounds. Later amendments to the Montreal Protocol completely phased out production of CFCs.

Past studies have used statistical analyses of changes in the ozone hole’s size to argue that ozone depletion is decreasing. This study is the first to use measurements of the chemical composition inside the ozone hole to confirm that not only is ozone depletion decreasing, but that the decrease is caused by the decline in CFCs.

The study was published Jan. 4 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

(Article continued in the right side of the page)

If we can connect up the planet through Internet, can’t we agree to preserve the planet?

(Article continued from the left side of the page)

The Antarctic ozone hole forms during September in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter as the returning sun’s rays catalyze ozone destruction cycles involving chlorine and bromine that come primarily from CFCs. To determine how ozone and other chemicals have changed year to year, scientists used data from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) aboard the Aura satellite, which has been making measurements continuously around the globe since mid-2004. While many satellite instruments require sunlight to measure atmospheric trace gases, MLS measures microwave emissions and, as a result, can measure trace gases over Antarctica during the key time of year: the dark southern winter, when the stratospheric weather is quiet and temperatures are low and stable.

The change in ozone levels above Antarctica from the beginning to the end of southern winter —  early July to mid-September — was computed daily from MLS measurements every year from 2005 to 2016. “During this period, Antarctic temperatures are always very low, so the rate of ozone destruction depends mostly on how much chlorine there is,” Strahan said. “This is when we want to measure ozone loss.”

They found that ozone loss is decreasing, but they needed to know whether a decrease in CFCs was responsible. When ozone destruction is ongoing, chlorine is found in many molecular forms, most of which are not measured. But after chlorine has destroyed nearly all the available ozone, it reacts instead with methane to form hydrochloric acid, a gas measured by MLS. “By around mid-October, all the chlorine compounds are conveniently converted into one gas, so by measuring hydrochloric acid we have a good measurement of the total chlorine,” Strahan said.
 
Nitrous oxide is a long-lived gas that behaves just like CFCs in much of the stratosphere. The CFCs are declining at the surface but nitrous oxide is not.  If CFCs in the stratosphere are decreasing, then over time, less chlorine should be measured for a given value of nitrous oxide. By comparing MLS measurements of hydrochloric acid and nitrous oxide each year, they determined that the total chlorine levels were declining on average by about 0.8 percent annually.

The 20 percent decrease in ozone depletion during the winter months from 2005 to 2016 as determined from MLS ozone measurements was expected. “This is very close to what our model predicts we should see for this amount of chlorine decline,” Strahan said. “This gives us confidence that the decrease in ozone depletion through mid-September shown by MLS data is due to declining levels of chlorine coming from CFCs. But we’re not yet seeing a clear decrease in the size of the ozone hole because that’s controlled mainly by temperature after mid-September, which varies a lot from year to year.”

Looking forward, the Antarctic ozone hole should continue to recover gradually as CFCs leave the atmosphere, but complete recovery will take decades. “CFCs have lifetimes from 50 to 100 years, so they linger in the atmosphere for a very long time,” said Anne Douglass, a fellow atmospheric scientist at Goddard and the study’s co-author. “As far as the ozone hole being gone, we’re looking at 2060 or 2080. And even then there might still be a small hole.”

To read the study, visit: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL074830/abstract