A UN-backed ocean cleanup vessel aiming at cleaning up 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean has left San Francisco, California on its first voyage.
The giant “Dead Whale” is a reminder of the massive plastic pollution problem
The vessel consists of a 600-metre long floater that sits at the surface of the water and a tapered three-metre deep skirt attached below which catches plastic debris.
The cleanup system, designed by a 24-year-old Dutch inventor and “UN Environment Champion of the Earth”, Boyan Slat, would undergo some trials before travelling 1,000 nautical miles to what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The huge mass of marine debris, situated in the North Pacific Ocean halfway between the Californian coast and Hawaii, is estimated by Slat’s Ocean Cleanup organisation to measure 1.6 million square kilometres – three times the size of France – and contains 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic.
That amounts to 250 pieces for every person on the planet, the organisation said.
The long-awaited launch of the first deployable model of the marine litter collection system, named “System 001,” took place on Saturday at the Golden Gate Bridge following four years of research and adjustments.
The system is carried by the ocean’s currents and waves, passively catching plastic debris along the way.
Ocean Cleanup’s research indicated that a scaled-up fleet of 60 such systems could eventually clean up 50 per cent of the patch in the next five years.
The trials are taking place 240 nautical miles into the Pacific Ocean and once they are completed, the devices would be sent the remaining 1,000 nautical miles out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Slat founded Ocean Cleanup when he was 18-years-old, and he was named a “Champion of the Earth” by UN Environment the following year in recognition of his quest to find a solution to the ever-growing global problem of plastic debris in oceans.
“Champions of the Earth” is the UN’s highest environmental honour, celebrating outstanding figures from the public and private sectors and from civil society organisations whose actions have had a transformative positive impact on the environment.
Every year, at least eight million tonnes of plastic leak into the oceans, and besides washing up on beaches and shorelines, plastic marine debris accumulates in five garbage patches around the world.
Of the five garbage patches, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest.
Air pollution causes more than 400,000 premature deaths across Europe annually, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said on Tuesday, September 11, 2018.
Vehicular pollution
EU action on improving air quality is falling short on implementation, monitoring and enforcement, the report added.
These shortfalls have major human and economic repercussions, including about 400,000 premature deaths a year, according to a new ECA report.
“Air pollution is the biggest environmental risk to health in the EU,” Janusz Wojciechowski, the ECA member, who led the report, said in a statement.
“In recent decades, EU policies have contributed to emission reductions, but air quality has not improved at the same rate and there are still considerable impacts on public health,” he added.
The report comes as EU air-quality rules are getting more scrutiny.
In Germany, some cities have imposed bans on diesel-vehicle use to lower nitrogen oxide levels.
In February 2017, a Constitutional Court decision gave German cities the green light to impose such measures, as more and more have been breaching EU levels.
In this most recent report, auditors studied the EU’s 2008 directive on ambient air quality to see whether and how much member states are complying.
They found that policy compliance and enforcement, as well as national estimates of air quality, are often inconsistent across the EU.
More broadly, air quality standards have not been updated over the course of 20 years.
The report also noted that poor air quality is most severe in eastern EU member states, in cities, and in areas where consumers still use solid fuel for heating and other energy needs.
The UN says Africa is the worst hit region with climate change resulting to the biggest impact on acute food insecurity and women are more vulnerable.
Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) made this known in the 2018 global report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition released on Tuesday, September 11, 2018 in Rome, Italy and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
The report was jointly signed by five head of UN agencies.
They are José da Silva, Director-General, FAO; Gilbert Houngbo, President International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organisation (WHO); Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF; and David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP).
The report said that climate change had affected 59 million people in 24 countries and requiring urgent humanitarian action.
It identified the effects of climate variability on rainfall patterns and agricultural seasons, and climate extremes such as droughts and floods, as the key drivers of the rise in hunger, conflict and economic slowdowns.
The UN agencies noted that changes in climate were already undermining production of major crops such as wheat, rice and maize in tropical and temperate regions.
It said that without building climate resilience, the situation was expected to worsen as temperatures increased and became more extreme.
The report showed that the prevalence and number of undernourished people tended to be higher in countries highly exposed to climate extremes.
It said that undernourishment was higher again when exposure to climate extremes was compounded by a high proportion of the population depending on agricultural systems that were highly sensitive to rainfall and temperature variability.
It said that the rising of temperatures, the late or early start of rainy seasons and the unequal distribution of rainfall within a season were affecting food production.
“Other effects include food price hikes and losses in poor farmers’ incomes.
“Temperature anomalies over agricultural cropping areas continued to be higher than the long-term mean throughout 2011 to 2016, leading to more frequent spells of extreme heat in the last five years.
“The nature of rainfall seasons is also changing, such as the late or early start of rainy seasons and the unequal distribution of rainfall within a season,’’ it said.
It indicated that harm to agricultural production contributed to shortfalls in food availability, with knock-on effects causing food price hikes and income losses that reduce people’s access to food.
The UN report noted that women worldwide were especially vulnerable to the impact of climate extremes, particularly in countries where even a semblance of gender parity remained a distance dream.
The report said that the adverse effect of climate change was being felt in many areas that included agriculture, food security, biodiversity and ecosystems, water resources and human health amongst others.
It noted that in many of these contexts, women were more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men, primarily as they constituted the majority of the world’s poor and were more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources threatened by climate change.
“Women faced social, economic and political barriers that limited their coping capacity.
“Women and men in rural areas in developing countries are especially vulnerable when they are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihood,’’ it said.
An environmental group, “Let’s Do It! Nigeria”, says it is set to stage a massive action to commemorate September 15, 2018 World Cleanup Day in 27 locations across the country.
Clean-up of the Ibeshe Waterfront
A Director in Let’s Do it! Nigeria, Mr Gafar Olorunleke, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, September 11 that the group had the mandate and vision for a waste-free Nigeria.
Olorunleke, an environmentalist, said that it had team leads across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory with over 5,000 team members who had connected with over 10,000 volunteers who were ready to execute the biggest cleanup action in the country.
He called on Nigerians to come out in their numbers to commemorate the Sept. 15 World Cleanup Day.
“We urge Nigerians to show support for the environment and come out to clean their communities on that day.
“Trash blindness is the single biggest obstacle to creating cleaner communities which is aided by our attitude toward wastes.
“Nigerians have grown so accustomed to trash that we no longer notice it nor acknowledge that waste is actually a resource and not trash,” the environmentalist said.
According to him, the group is aiming at uniting sectors across the country for a waste-free Nigeria by 2030.
“This year will witness the biggest civic action in history where Let’s Do it! Nigeria and partners will join 150 other countries of the world for World Cleanup Day on Sept. 15, 2018.
“We have a huge network of volunteers who are inspired to have a clean environment and our goal is to unite every sector of the society for a waste-free Nigeria by 2030,” he told NAN.
Olorunleke said that the group’s mandate aimed at fostering proper waste management among Nigerians and the implication of Trash Blindness on the environment.
“Our aim is to inspire Nigerians toward positive mindsets on waste management by engaging key stakeholders on achieving circular economy.
“We will unite five per cent of the country’s population for the biggest civic action in history on World Cleanup Day.”
NAN reports that the ACT Foundation, various states environment ministries and civil society organisations are partnering with Let’s do it! Nigeria to commemorate the World Cleanup Day.
The World Cleanup Day began in Estonia in 2008 when 50,000 people united to clean up the entire country in just five hours.
The World Cleanup Day is currently being celebrated in over 150 countries of the world.
The theme of previous observance of the Ozone Day on every September 16, particularly that of 2017, “Caring for all life under the sun’’, has clearly stated importance of the ozone layer to the life on earth.
The hole in the ozone layer has shrunk by more than 1.7 million square miles since 2,000, according to scientists. Photo credit: NASA GODDARD
Scientists posit that the layer was formed in the atmosphere around five hundred million years ago when it accumulated enough of the oxygen because of the photosynthesis to protect life under the sun.
Some scientists also observe that the theme of the 2018 Ozone Day – Keep Cool and Carry on: Montreal Protocol – is apt as a follow-up campaign in sensitising the world to the need for moderating human activities to protect the ozone layer.
Observers note that the sensitisation will be useful in that regard since the scientists have proved beyond doubt that ozone layer depletion – the wearing out of the amount of ozone in the stratosphere – is caused by human activity.
Scientists also argued that high above the ground, between 15 kilometres and 30 kilometres, lays a thin layer of ozone that absorbs direct sunlight to protect everything and everyone on the ground from exposure to the harmful direct sun radiation.
According to their findings, industries that manufacture goods such as insulating foams, solvents, soaps, air conditioners, refrigerators and some food containers emit chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that later store up in the stratosphere to affect the layer.
They argue further that human-produced chemicals are responsible for the observed depletions of the ozone layer.
In his view, Mr Abayomi Oguntunde, Director of Bio-resource, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, observes that human activities that involve the emission of fluorine, bromine, chlorine, carbon and hydrogen among others, can deplete the ozone layer.
The director said that knowing how to prevent ozone layer was important to save lives and secure clear atmosphere.
He suggested an energy efficient model when buying a refrigerator, pointing out that less CFCs would be released when fridge wear out.
“Ensure your car’s air conditioner is carefully serviced; go to a service station designed to recycle the refrigerant, otherwise, the CFCs will be vented into the atmosphere.
“Don’t use foam plastic insulation in your home, unless it is made with ozone safe agents; use fiberglass, gypsum, fiberboard, or cellulose insulation instead and don’t buy a halon fire extinguisher for home use.
“Check directions on what to do with aerosol cans; video head cleaners, boat horns, spray confetti, photo negative cleaners and drain plungers,’’ he advises.
Similarly, Prof. Babatunde Rabiu, Director Centre for Atmospheric Research of the National Space Research and Development Agency, pleads with the Federal Government to implement acts that are designed to protect the environment.
He said that diverse anthropogenic activities have contributed to the pollution of the environment, including the depletion of the ozone layer.
He explained further that the ozone layer is a region of the atmosphere that surrounds the earth and contains a particular gas known as ozone.
According to him, fossil fuel vehicles, bush burning, gas emissions especially from heavy industrial areas are all factors that pollute the environment and the loss of the ozone layer.
Rabiu said that the sun continues to emit radiation from time immemorial but human activities and technological advancement have continued to affect the ozone layer.
“Some of the gases that emitted on earth by our anthropogenic activities, human activities and incomplete combustions, affect the ozone layer.
“When these gases get to the top, they react with ozone gases and convert ozone molecules to ordinary oxygen and they are radicalised.
“When this happens, we lose the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere and so the protection that ozone offers the earth will begin to lose its value at that level.
“This is why the region is very important to us; it is a natural region in the atmosphere that protects the earth from receiving direct radiation which comes from the sun.
“We have to start thinking of the eradication of vehicles with incomplete combustion, indiscriminate burning of tyres and bush should also be stopped.
“Gas flaring has to be stopped in the Niger-Delta region, the use of stove for cooking has to reduce, the government needs to come in and see how they can reduce usage of firewood for cooking,’’ he said.
He observes that direct radiation of the sun on the earth could be harmful to humans which could lead to tanning of the skin and aid skin cancer.
Rabiu further insists that the government and stakeholders in the environment sector have the responsibility of sensitising the public to the need to protect the environment.
He says that that there is a need for the country to consider a ban on fossil fuel cars with incomplete combustion as it is being considered in some developed countries.
But Mrs Adenike Aluko, a public health officer in Osun, calls on the Federal Government to invest more on the development of renewable energy technology to further reduce the effect of climate change.
According to her, the use of alternative energy, such as wind, solar and geo-thermal energy is healthier than fossil fuels because of the emission of carbon monoxide to the environment.
“Investing in renewable energy technology would be a right step in achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
“Scientific knowledge allows people to develop new technologies, solve practical problems and make informed decisions.
Aluko further urged well-meaning Nigerians to partner the government in ensuring steady funding of research on new measures to mitigate the impact of climate change.
“Without proper funding, science and technology sector cannot progress and such funding ultimately comes from the society that will reap its benefits,’’ he said.
The world agreed in Montreal in 1987 to do something about the depletion of the ozone layer and in 1994, the UN General Assembly proclaimed September 16 of every year to be the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone layer.
Scientists have also, recently, announced that the ozone hole, which has been growing since it was discovered in 1985, may have started to shrink.
According to them, if the actions of humans have brought about an ozone layer healing, the international community has proven that it can solve serious environmental problems when everyone works together.
By Gabriel Agbeja and Ijeoma Olorunfemi, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Flood submerged no less than 1,000 residential houses in Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo following a heavy down pour in the area on Monday, September 11, 2018.
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State
Hectares of farmland with cash crops and property worth millions of naira were also destroyed.
The affected produce included cassava, yam, maize, groundnuts, plantain, among others.
The communities affected are: Anegbette, Udaba, Osomegbe, Ugochi, Ofukpo, Agbaburu and Ifeko.
Some of the victims, who spoke with NAN, blamed the flood on the surge of River Niger.
The Village Head of Udaba, Chief David Inetape, expressed shock over the incident, saying that the entire communities were now flooded.
“With heavy rainfall, the situation is now having negative effects in our communities.
“We are appealing to the Federal and state governments for help,’’ Inetape said.
One of the victims, Mr Benjamin Eyiekioya, told NAN that he lost his entire property to the flood.
“The flood has wreaked havoc on our buildings; as you can see, our houses have been submerged by the flood.
“We are appealing to the relevant authorities to come to our aid,’’ Eyiekioya said.
Another victim, Mrs Rose Akinabor, said that she lost all her farm produce to the flood.
“I invested a lot of my time and finances in cultivating my farm and I am now worried that just at about harvest time, most of my crops have been washed away by the flood,’’ she said.
Mr Aliu Afomede, said he lost millions of naira worth of farm produce to the flood.
“I invested millions of naira on this farm, this year.
“As you can see, this farmland which I rely on for my daily bread is now washed away by the flood,’’ he said.
The Vice Chairman of the Local Government, Mr Ambrose Akhigbe, said the council had commenced the clean-up of the Federal Government’s resettlement camp in Oghomere with the aim of relocating the flood victims to the area.
“The council is doing all it can to relocate the victims after proper cleaning of the buildings and fumigation are completed.
“We are going to the affected communities with speed boats to evacuate them and we have reached out to relevant agencies to provide relief materials to the camp for the affected victims.
“As you can see, the borehole is set and the rooms have been tidied up to ensure that it is conducive.
“We shall also bring a very big generating set to ensure regular power supply in the camp so that the displaced persons can feel at home,’’ he said.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has advised communities in Niger and Kwara states living on downstream of Shiroro, Kainji and Jebba dams to stay away from river banks.
Shiroro Hydro Power Station
Alhaji Aliyu Kafindangi, NEMA Operational Head in charge of Niger and Kwara, gave the advice in Minna, Niger State, on Tuesday, September 11, 2018.
He said that the warning became necessary because of consistent rise in the water levels on the Niger and Benue rivers which he said could cause more spillage of water from the dams.
Kafindangi said the warning followed the recent flood alert by the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) indicating that all indices before the release of water from Lagdo Dam that caused the 2012 flood in Kogi and other states of the federation had manifested.
‘‘This time it is in a higher magnitude.
“NIHSA has warned that some parts of the country, including some states in the North would continue to experience down pour.
“Niger and Kwara are among the 12 states identified by NIHSA to experience flood based on their projections and these two states are within our jurisdiction,” he said.
The head of operation mentioned the communities to include: Gurmana, Galadima Logo, Beri, Bida, Elogi, Mokwa, Borgu and New Bussa in Niger State.
He said communities such as Patigi, and Lafiagi in Kwara State would possibly be affected as well as other communities downstream of Jebba and Kainji dams.
Kafindangi also advised the communities to restrict children and other members from swimming and fishing on the rivers.
He also said that the agency would meet on Wednesday with stakeholders in disaster management to proffer ways to reduce effects of flood disasters.
Kafindangi, however, appealed to residents of both states to desist from indiscriminate dumping of refuse in drainage and water ways to avert flooding.
The head of a major UN agency who was nominated to the post by the Trump administration said on Tuesday, September 11, 2018 that he believes climate change to be a global threat.
David Beasley
David Beasley, a former Republican Governor of South Carolina, was appointed executive director of the World Food Programme in March 2017.
He spoke at the launch of a UN report that announced a rise to 821 million in the number of hungry people in the world, and listed climate change as a key factor behind the increase.
“Climate impact is real: 22 to 23 million people alone were impacted and forcibly displaced because of changing climate,” Beasley said in a news conference in Rome.
When asked to reconcile those comments with his political allegiance, Beasley said nobody could dispute that climate change is happening, but it is debatable whether it is man-made.
“The climate is impacting people all over the world, you cannot stick your head in the sand as regards to this. What’s causing it, that’s a different discussion,” he said.
“As a former U.S. Republican, I don’t know of hardly any Republicans or Democrats (…) who disagree that climate is changing,” he added.
U.S. President, Donald Trump, has pulled of the Paris climate agreement, and in 2012, years before entering politics, he dismissed climate change as a “hoax” created by the Chinese to harm U.S. manufacturing.
Beasley deplored global indifference to rising hunger rates, suggesting that perhaps this was because “everybody is obsessed with Trump news, Brexit or whatever the case may be.’’
“Every five seconds, a child is dying from starvation, while there’s 300 trillion dollars’ worth of wealth in the world today. That’s unacceptable, it is inexcusable,” he charged.
In a presentation at the #RiseForClimate and Stop the Soot Summit in Port Harcourt, Nigeria on September 11, 2018, Nnimmo Bassey, Director of the ecological think tank, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), urged his audience to rise and take real climate action
Nnimmo Bassey
I bring you greetings of peace and a pledge to stand in solidarity with you all until the dangerous ecological problems confronting us and our children become a thing of the past. Our ecological challenges widespread and suffocating. The clearest for those of us in Port Harcourt and the Niger Delta at large, is the visibly polluted and unhealthy air that we have been forced to breathe.
We applaud our brothers and sisters that have championed and continue to champion the Stop the Soot campaign. This is one campaign that has been backed by research, competence and high-level articulation of the health and debilitating impacts of soot, or black carbon, that citizens have been condemned to breathe. The petition that has been raised on this matter should be endorsed by all citizens of Nigerians, not just residents of the Niger Delta who breathe this toxic air.
The soot is the manifestation of insidious atrocities that have gone on unchallenged in our environment. It is one that cannot be swept under the carpet. Our creeks have been dastardly polluted, indeed coated by crude oil and we have silently continued to drink the polluted water. Our lands have been heavily contaminated, our crops have wilted, rotted and we have gone home empty handed at harvest time, yet we eat our rotted tubers and continue to fall into the grip of disease. Sixty years of gas flaring has secured huge profits for oil companies and limitless revenue for politicians to fight over, but for poor communities these have meant cancers, bronchitis, asthmas, skin diseases, birth defects and acid rain, to name a few.
Our people on the coast line are continuously losing land to coastal erosion. Inshore and offshore fishing grounds are being lost to oil pollution and ocean acidification daily. We must ask the question: what have we gained from sixty years of crude oil extraction?
Today we are gathered to examine two issues at this summit. One is soot. The other is climate change. Our determination is to stop the soot. Our plan is to tackle the climate menace. Their root cause is one. To achieve the results, we need to and must aim at the root. That root is well known: fossil fuels.
It has long been determined that for the world to have a reasonable chance of keeping to a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise above 1750 or pre-industrial levels, at least two thirds of known fossil reserves must be left in the ground. This is a scientific fact attested to by relevant global scientific and expert bodies. We cannot wish this away. Fossil fuels must be left in the ground. We have no luxury of choice on this matter. Delay will be like the case of the emperor that was dancing shaku shaku while his domain was burning.
Some Nigerians think that if new oil or gas fields are not opened our economy will collapse. Nothing can be farther from the truth. It is not about new oil fields, it is about stopping oil theft and reckless oil pollution. It is known that industrial scale oil theft is ongoing in our nation. If we consider estimates of stolen crude that we have heard from government officials over the years and combine these with the amount of oil regularly being spilled into our environment, we can safely say that, indeed, our oil output would almost double if the stealing and the spilling are stopped.
Is it oil that is keeping our economy afloat? Now that we are pumping oil at full throttle, how many of you have public electric power supply? Our gas flares or furnaces burn without ceasing, but our people still cook with firewood. If oil is boosting our economy, how come many in the formal sector go for months without wages and over sixty per cent of Nigerians eke a living in the informal sector? Why is virtually every building having a shop at the frontage? Where is almost everyone one sort of petty trader or the other?
The soot that is choking us is from the burning of fossil fuels. The sources are well known, even though officials are shy to agree. These sources include: the aged refineries, the gas flares, the bush refineries, oil spills and stolen crude that are set on fire by security forces.
We cannot emphasise this loudly enough: the soot that is choking us is from the burning of fossil fuels. The soot is choking us and our children. The solution is for us to choke the soot. We can only choke the soot by choking all the sources of soot. Stop the gas flares. Stop the ancient refineries. Stop the burning of spilled crude as well as stolen crude and illegal refineries.
We must rise and take real climate action. This is an emergency. We cannot afford any more delay. Stop the soot. Stop the pollution. Let us think and think hard. The old mindset will not get us out of the pit. Whether we like it or not, the petrol age is drawing to a close. We must quickly close the chapter of crass pollution. Now is the time to think. It is time to act. It is time to prepare for life after oil.
Kenya on Tuesday, September 11, 2018 unveiled strategies to boost food security and help curb rising cases of malnutrition.
Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of Kenya
The documents named Kenya Food Composition Tables 2018 and Kenyan Food Recipes 2018 are produced by the ministries of health, agriculture, livestock, fisheries and irrigation with technical and financial support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Health Ministry Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki while launching the guidelines in Nairobi said they contain food composition data, which forms the basis for most aspects of food and nutrition.
“I am calling upon all food and nutrition security stakeholders to support the government in disseminating the documents to the end users who are the county governments and the implementing partners.
“My commitment is to ensure that the updating of food composition data becomes a routine activity,” said Kariuki.
She noted that while there has been some improvement to boost food production in Kenya, a majority of citizens are still food insecure and face malnutrition.
“We are currently experiencing the triple burden of malnutrition mainly under nutrition (underweight, stunting and wasting), overweight and obesity and micronutrient deficiencies.
“One in four of children under five years are stunted, 11 percent are underweight and four per cent are wasted,” she said.
“I am here to assure you that that government is committed to ensuring food and nutrition security as envisioned in the Kenya Vision 2030, the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy 2012, the Big Four Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” she said.
