Chuyên mục: Môi trường – Environment

Bodies, individuals related to Formosa disaster made public

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Viet Nam News

Update: February, 23/2017 – 09:59

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Infringements and defects committed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Party Civil Affairs Committee and individuals involved in the Formosa fish deaths were serious and must be punished, announced the Central Inspection Commission. — VNA/VNS Photo Võ Dung

HÀ NỘI – Infringements and defects committed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Party Civil Affairs Committee and individuals involved in the Formosa fish deaths were serious and must be punished, announced the Central Inspection Commission.

In an announcement yesterday of the results of the commission’s 11th meeting from February 15-17, the commission concluded that from 2008-16 the ministry’s Party Civil Affairs Committee was irresponsible in exercising their leadership, carried out insufficient inspections and supervision and let infringements occur in assessment of environmental impacts, and adjustment of waste water discharge location and State management of the Formosa Hà Tĩnh project. Tiếp tục đọc “Bodies, individuals related to Formosa disaster made public” →

Con Sam – biểu tượng vợ chồng chung thủy – có thể bị tuyệt chủng

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Vợ chồng sam
Vợ chồng sam

 
Chào các bạn,

Trong văn hóa Việt Nam, sam là biểu tượng của vợ chồng chung thủy, dùng thường xuyên để giáo dục đạo vợ chồng. Nhưng biểu tượng này có nguy cơ tuyệt chủng vì ngày nay người ta rầm rộ quảng cáo “đặc sản sam”, “món ăn không thể bỏ qua”, “tuyệt vời gỏi trứng sam” trong các nhà hàng.

Sam (tên khoa học Tachypleus tridentatus), đôi khi được gọi là sam biển, thường sống ở các cửa biển và các khúc sông gần cửa biển, luôn đi đôi một cặp vợ chồng. Sam cái lớn hơn sam đực, đi trước. Sam đực theo sau, bám chặt vào sam cái. Nếu người ta bắt sam thì luôn luôn bắt hai con bám nhau như thế. Vì vậy, từ xưa sam đã được dùng làm biểu tượng cho vợ chồng chung thủy, để dạy chúng ta ăn ở thủy chung. Tiếp tục đọc “Con Sam – biểu tượng vợ chồng chung thủy – có thể bị tuyệt chủng” →

Vietnam to punish officials over mass fish deaths

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ 1 bình luận

ChannelNewsAsia

  • Posted 23 Feb 2017 02:53
  • Updated 23 Feb 2017 03:00

Dead fish started washing ashore in Vietnam in April after Taiwanese firm Formosa released contaminated waste into the ocean. (Photo: AFP)

HANOI: Vietnam said on Wednesday (Feb 22) it will punish 11 senior officials for misconduct over a toxic waste dump last year that killed tonnes of fish in one of the country’s worst environmental disasters.

Taiwanese steel firm Formosa was blamed for the crisis that decimated livelihoods in coastal fishing communities in central Vietnam and was forced to pay $500 million in fines.

Fishermen and activists in authoritarian Vietnam have staged rare protests since the disaster and filed lawsuits demanding a fair share of compensation. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam to punish officials over mass fish deaths” →

Japan’s ‘zero waste town’ is so good at recycling that it is attracting foreign visitors

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

South China Morning Post

Residents of Kamikatsu diligently sort their waste into 45 different categories so it can be recycled, reused or composted

A small town in western Japan has become so good at recycling that it has been attracting foreign visitors, after its efforts became widely known via YouTube.

The documentary video, titled How This Town Produces No Trash with English narration and captions, explains how the 2,000 or so residents of town of Kamikatsu in Tokushima Prefecture diligently sort and recycle their waste according to 34 designated categories, peeling off labels and removing bottle caps as they go. Since the video was produced in late 2015, the categories have been increased to 45.

Tiếp tục đọc “Japan’s ‘zero waste town’ is so good at recycling that it is attracting foreign visitors” →

Lúng túng quản lý sinh vật ngoại lai

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Ốc bươu vàng gom bên vệ đường ở đồng lúa xã Xuân Hòa, Nam Đàn, Nghệ An - 27/06/2016
Ốc bươu vàng gom bên vệ đường ở đồng lúa xã Xuân Hòa, Nam Đàn, Nghệ An – 27/06/2016

01:43 AM – 05/09/2010 TN

Như Thanh Niên đã cảnh báo, sinh vật ngoại lai (SVNL) có nguồn gốc từ các nước khác liên tiếp du nhập vào VN  gây ra những tác hại cho môi trường.

“Vô tư” xâm nhập VN

Theo Tổng cục Môi trường (Bộ Tài nguyên – Môi trường), do những yếu tố khách quan về vị trí địa lý, địa hình, điều kiện khí hậu cùng quá trình hội nhập kinh tế quốc tế đã tạo nên nguy cơ xâm nhập của các SVNL xâm hại vào nước ta là rất cao. Thực tế, trong nhiều năm qua, một loạt SVNL xâm hại đã có mặt tại VN và gây ra những thiệt hại không nhỏ về kinh tế, môi trường. Tiếp tục đọc “Lúng túng quản lý sinh vật ngoại lai” →

Từ vụ phóng sinh cá chim trắng, tổng rà soát sinh vật ngoại lai có nguy cơ xâm hại

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

DT Theo thông tin từ Tổng cục Môi trường (Bộ Tài nguyên và Môi trường), cơ quan này đã tổ chức cuộc họp với các cơ quan liên quan để thảo luận về sự việc phóng sinh một lượng cá lớn, trong đó có cá chim trắng (tên khoa học là Colossoma brachypomum) là ngoại lai có nguy cơ xâm hại vào ngày 5/2 vừa qua tại bến sông trước cửa đình làng Bát Tràng, huyện Gia Lâm, Hà Nội.

 >> Đề nghị Bộ Công an làm rõ việc phóng sinh sinh vật ngoại lai xuống sông Hồng
 >> Nghi vấn thả cá “ăn thịt” xuống sông Hồng: Cá chim trắng có phải loài ngoại lai xâm hại?

Hình ảnh người dân thả cá chim trắng xuống sông Hồng ngày 5/2 (Ảnh Vietnamnet).
Hình ảnh người dân thả cá chim trắng xuống sông Hồng ngày 5/2 (Ảnh Vietnamnet).

Tiếp tục đọc “Từ vụ phóng sinh cá chim trắng, tổng rà soát sinh vật ngoại lai có nguy cơ xâm hại” →

Death in the air: Pollution-related fatalities see sharp rise in Vietnam

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

e.VnExpress   February 16, 2017 | 12:00 am GMT+7

Air pollution fatalities in Vietnam are the second highest in Southeast Asia.

A new environment study paints a very bleak picture of Vietnam, measuring its air pollution as the second deadliest in Southeast Asia in terms of the raw number of premature deaths.

Deaths attributable to dangerous air particles in Vietnam jumped 60 percent from 26,300 in 1990 to 42,200 in 2015, according to the report issued jointly on Tuesday by the Health Effects Institute, a Boston research institute focused on the health impacts of air pollution, and the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle.

In Southeast Asia, the country’s fatalities came second only to Indonesia’s, the study found. Vietnam has the third largest population in the region.

Ambient particulate matter ranks fifth among risk factors for total deaths around the world, after high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol.

Ambient air pollution is measured by the concentration of PM2.5, a fraction of the width of a human hair which is released from vehicles, industry, as well as from natural sources like dust.

Pollution in Vietnam worsened between 2000 and 2005, but improved later and thus stayed almost unchanged over the surveyed period.

Continue reading on e.VnExpress

Hope for Hanoi? New bus system could cut pollution … if enough people use it

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

ChannelNewsAsia

A new $53m BRT (bus rapid transit) system has the power to reduce Hanoi’s dreadful air pollution. Persuading residents of Vietnam’s rapidly expanding capital to ditch their motorbikes and private cars, however, will be another story

Traffic jam in Hanoi
The swarm of motorbikes and cars is the main cause of Hanoi’s air pollution. Photograph: Linh Pham/Getty Images

Saturday 18 February 2017 05.58 EST

From his high-rise office building in Hanoi, Tran Dung can barely see his city’s skyline behind the thick layer of smog. Before leaving work, the 25-year-old executive assistant checks the pollution reading on his AirVisual app, which provides real-time measurements of PM2.5 – the tiny particles found in smog that can damage your throat and lungs.

Hanoi’s PM2.5 levels typically range from 100 to 200 micrograms per cubic metre – regularly within the globally acknowledged “unhealthy” category. But on 19 December last year, they hit “hazardous levels” at 343μg/m3, which was higher than Beijing. Tiếp tục đọc “Hope for Hanoi? New bus system could cut pollution … if enough people use it” →

6 câu chuyện về môi trường và phát triển cần để mắt trong năm 2017

~ nguyenthilemy ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

 English: 6 Environment and Development Stories to Watch in 2017

Năm vừa rồi 2016 đã mang lại những cú shock chính trị lớn cho thế giới: Donald Trump đắc cử; sự lên ngôi của “tin giả mạo”; sự trỗi dậy của chủ nghĩa dân túy, làn sóng  chống lại toàn cầu hoá ở Anh, sự kiện ở Philipin và các nơi khác. Rất nhiều sự kiện này được châm ngòi bởi một số nhóm người cảm thấy rằng họ bị cướp mất các cơ hội về kinh tế.

Một câu hỏi lớn cho năm 2017 là: Tiếp tục đọc “6 câu chuyện về môi trường và phát triển cần để mắt trong năm 2017” →

‘We had to sue’: the five lawyers taking on China’s authorities over smog

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
The  Guardian

In an unprecedented legal case, a group of Chinese lawyers have charged the governments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei with failing to protect their citizens from air pollution, which is linked to a third of all deaths in the country

Pinterest
Airpocalypse now: time-lapse video of smog posted by Beijing-based Briton Chas Pope on 1 January this year

Who is responsible for China’s chronic and deadly air pollution? That depends on who you ask. Officials blame the weather or outdoor barbecues, activists blame steel companies and coal-fired power plants. But Yu Wensheng blames only one actor: the government.

The 50-year-old lawyer recently launched an unprecedented suit against the authorities in three regions in China, claiming they have failed in their responsibilities. For a government with the motto “Serve the People”, Yu feels the officials are serving other interests by allowing nearly half a billion people to choke on toxic smog. Tiếp tục đọc “‘We had to sue’: the five lawyers taking on China’s authorities over smog” →

Saiga Antelopes Are Struck Again by a Plague in Central Asia

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ 1 bình luận

By ERICA GOODE FEB. 8, 2017

The carcasses of saiga antelopes in Mongolia’s western Khovd province. Scientists have identified the culprit as a virus known as goat plague. WCS

They found the first carcasses in late December, on the frozen steppes of Mongolia’s western Khovd province.

By the end of January, officials in the region had recorded the deaths of 2,500 endangered saiga antelopes — about a quarter of the country’s saiga population — and scientists had identified a culprit: a virus called peste des petits ruminants, or P.P.R., also known as goat plague.

It was the first time the disease, usually seen in goats, sheep and other small livestock, had been found in free-ranging antelopes. For the saiga, an ancient animal that once roamed the grasslands of the world with the woolly mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger, the outbreak was potentially catastrophic.

The antelope’s numbers, once in the millions, have been severely depleted by illegal hunting, habitat loss and competition for food. The species is described as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

In 2015, 211,000 saigas in Kazakhstan — more than half of the entire antelope species — were wiped out by a bacterial infection in less than a month.

Is Vietnam in for Another Devastating Drought?

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
THE DIPLOMAT
February 08, 2017

Lessons learned from last year’s disaster can shape a climate-resilient approach in the Mekong Delta.

By Nguyen Minh Quang
Is Vietnam in for Another Devastating Drought?
A farmer burns his dried-up rice on a paddy field stricken by drought in Soc Trang province in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam (March 30, 2016).
Image Credit: REUTERS/Kham

 

The Tet Holiday (Vietnamese lunar New Year) has come to an end, marking the commencement of a new dry season in Vietnam’s lower Mekong Delta. Right now in coastal provinces around the Delta, thousands of farmers, especially those who miserably suffered during last year’s historic drought, are mobilizing to prepare for another similarly devastating drought, which is expected to arrive in the Delta in a few weeks.

During last year’s dry season, the record drought, followed by saltwater intrusion, cost Vietnam VND 15 trillion ($669 million) due to the heavy toll on agricultural production. It also caused dire humanitarian and other economic impacts: almost half a million households lacked fresh drinking water and experienced food shortages and thousands of affected people had to migrate to urban areas in search of jobs. The drought was mainly caused by Mekong upstream dams built by China in connection with El Nino effects. Tiếp tục đọc “Is Vietnam in for Another Devastating Drought?” →

Hundreds of whales wash up dead on New Zealand beach

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

ChannelNewsAsia

  • Posted 10 Feb 2017 08:24
  • Updated 10 Feb 2017 08:30

More than 400 whales were stranded on a New Zealand beach. (Photo: Twitter/ @Quad_Finn)

WELLINGTON: More than 400 whales were stranded on a New Zealand beach on Friday (Feb 10), with hundreds already dead as volunteers tried to refloat the survivors, the Department of Conservation said.

Andrew Lamason, spokesman for the department, said it was one of the largest mass beachings recorded in New Zealand, where strandings are relatively common.

Lamason said 416 pilot whales beached themselves overnight at Farewell Spit in the Golden Bay region at the northern tip of South Island.

He said about 70 per cent had perished and attempts were underway to get the remaining whales offshore at high tide but the outlook was gloomy.

“With that number dead, you have to assume that the rest are in reasonably poor nick as well,” he told Radio New Zealand. “So we’re sort of preparing ourselves for a pretty traumatic period ahead.”

Taiwanese woman jailed for shark fins’ haul in Costa Rica

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

ChannelNewsAsia

  • Posted 10 Feb 2017 05:07
  • Updated 10 Feb 2017 06:45

Shark fins fetch a high price in Asia, where they are often used in soups served on special occasions. (AFP/CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

SAN JOSE: A Costa Rican court has sentenced a Taiwanese business owner to prison over a fishing haul of illegally hacked-off shark fins destined for sale abroad, officials and environmentalists said on Thursday (Feb 9).

The businesswoman, identified by her last name of Tseng, was ordered to spend six months behind bars. The verdict was handed down on Monday by the court in the western port city of Puntarenas.

It was the first criminal sentence in the country against the practice of shark finning, which involves slicing off a shark’s fins before dropping the live fish back in the sea. Unable to swim effectively, the wounded creature faces a grim future: suffocating, starving or being eaten.

Shark fins fetch a high price in Asia, where they are often used in soups served on special occasions.

Tseng’s was “a historic sentence,” said Gladys Martinez, lawyer for the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA).

Her case began in October 2011, when her fishing boat, the Wan Jia Men 88, was found with 151 sharks aboard. Their fins had been chopped off.

She was initially acquitted in 2014, but the matter went to appeal, and the Puntarenas court this week found her responsible for damage to Costa Rica’s natural resources.

The Central American country, known for its biodiversity, has ratified several treaties for the protection and sustainable use of marine resources.

– AFP/de

‘Irrational’ Coal Plants May Hamper China’s Climate Change Efforts

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By EDWARD WONG FEB. 7, 2017

The China Kingho Energy Group’s coal-to-gas plant in Chuluqay, Xinjiang, China, in 2014. Benjamin Haas/Bloomberg

YINING, China — When scientists and environmental scholars scan the grim industrial landscape of China, a certain coal plant near the rugged Kazakhstan border stands out.

On the outside, it looks like any other modern energy plant — shiny metal towers loom over the grassy grounds, and workers in hard hats stroll the campus. But in those towers, a rare and contentious process is underway, spewing an alarming amount of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas accelerating climate change.

The plant and others like it undermine China’s aim of being a global leader on efforts to limit climate change.

The plant, in the country’s far west, converts coal to synthetic natural gas. The process, called coal-to-gas or coal gasification, has been criticized by Chinese and foreign scholars and policy makers. For one thing, it is relatively expensive. It also requires enormous amounts of water, which exacerbates the chronic water crisis in northern China. And worst of all, critics say, it emits more carbon dioxide than traditional methods of energy production, even other coal-based ways.