Thẻ: Environmental issues

Climate Change Vulnerability Mapping for Greater Mekong Sub-Region

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

01.02.2016

UNESCOBKK –  Thailand’s adaptive capacity to climate change is high among Mekong countries, while the western coastline of Myanmar and the Cambodian Mekong lowland region are the areas of the sub-region most vulnerable to the phenomenon’s effects.

These were among the key findings of the report, “Climate Change Vulnerability Mapping for the Mekong River Basin”, based on a study carried out by UNESCO Bangkok and the Water Resources and Environment Institute (WREI) of Khon Kaen University’s Faculty of Engineering in Thailand.

The study sought to identify the areas most vulnerable to climate change and climate-induced water problems in five Mekong countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The study used a framework developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which conceptualizes vulnerability to climate change by looking at the exposure to and sensitivity of a system to a climate hazard and the ability of the system to cope with, adapt to or recover from the effects of hazardous conditions.

The study finds that Mekong countries are adversely affected by major natural hazards, such as tropical cyclones, floods and droughts. The study also mapped adaptive capacity and areas that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which can be a useful tool for determining degrees of adaptation and mitigation responses at the provincial level. The findings of this study will be valuable for the five Mekong countries in ensuring sustainable adaptation to climate change.

Download PDF

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Climate Change Vulnerability Mapping for Greater Mekong Sub-Region
Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok; Khon Kaen: Water Resources & Environment Institute, Khon Kaenn University, 2015, 49p.

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Livestock – Climate Change’s Forgotten Sector: Global Public Opinion on Meat and Dairy Consumption

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Rob Bailey Research Director, Energy, Environment and Resources
Antony FroggattSenior Research Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources
Laura Wellesley Research Associate, Energy, Environment and Resources

chathamhouse– Human consumption of meat and dairy products is a major driver of climate change, but this new paper finds that there is a major lack of public awareness and understanding of the link between eating meat and dairy and climate change.

Consumption of meat and dairy produce is a major driver of climate change.

  • Greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector are estimated to account for 14.5 per cent of the global total, more than direct emissions from the transport sector.
  • Even with ambitious supply-side action to reduce the emissions intensity of livestock production, rising global demand for meat and dairy produce means emissions will continue to rise.

Shifting global demand for meat and dairy produce is central to achieving climate goals.

  • Recent analyses have shown that it is unlikely global temperature rises can be kept below two degrees Celsius without a shift in global meat and dairy consumption.
  • Reducing demand for animal products could also significantly reduce mitigation costs in non-agricultural sectors by increasing their available carbon budget.

However, there is a striking paucity of efforts to reduce consumption of meat and dairy products. Tiếp tục đọc “Livestock – Climate Change’s Forgotten Sector: Global Public Opinion on Meat and Dairy Consumption” →

Vietnam: Problems in enforcing environmental law and ensuring environmental rights for legal aid beneficiaries

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Rights of legal aid beneficiaries and environmental rights: Article 34 of Decree No. 7/CP dated 12/1/2007 on guidelines for implementing 2006 Law on legal aid stipulates: poor people, policy supported groups and other marginalized groups are entitled to legal aid services in eight fields, including environmental law

Dr Truong Thi Quoc Khanh - permenant Deputy of the National Assembly’s Commission on Science, Technology, and Environment - presented at the workshop

Dr Truong Thi Quoc Khanh – permenant Deputy of the National Assembly’s Commission on Science, Technology, and Environment – presented at the workshop

IUCN – Legal aid beneficiaries are entitled to, represention by counsel in order to lodge a complaint, to conduct negotiations or during legal proceedings. All of these activities shall be provided at no cost, and be followed-up, monitored by the state legal aid center, lawyers, or legal counselors.

The aim of providing legal aid services for the poor and marginalized groups is to protect their rights and interests, and to improve their legal knowledge. It also aims to avoid needless loss of business. Thus, legal aid plays an important role in raising people’s awareness on environment, and poverty eradication. Environment is closely linked with poverty, thus poverty can induce vulnerable communities (who are heavily dependant on local natural resources) to increase use of natural resources, causing overexplointation and the exhaustion of these resources. Poverty will lead to the lack of investment on environment. In additions, the growth at no costs strategy and population boom in Viet Nam will suplement to this, causing the serious environmental problems. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam: Problems in enforcing environmental law and ensuring environmental rights for legal aid beneficiaries” →

Consumer goods giants under fire for poor palm oil record

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Italian confectionery maker Ferrero is leading the consumer goods industry on sustainable palm oil procurement while household names Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson&Johnson, and PepsiCo are the biggest laggards, according to a new scorecard by Greenpeace International.

deforestation indonesia palm oil
Deforestation in Borneo to make way for palm oil plantations. Several palm oil growers and consumer goods companies have made no-deforestation pledges in recent years. Image: Rich Carey / Shutterstock.com
By Vaidehi Shah

Sunday 6 March 2016

Eco-business: Greenpeace International on Thursday released a new report slamming consumer goods giants such as Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson&Johnson, and PepsiCo for failing to cut deforestation out of their palm oil supply chain.
The scorecard ranked the 14 global companies which have made no-deforestation promises in recent years on their performance in three key areas: responsible sourcing of palm oil; transparency about their supply chain; and their support for wider industry reform. 

The 14 corporations were: Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Ikea, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Mars, Mondelez, Nestle, Orkla, PepsiCo, P&G and Unilever. Tiếp tục đọc “Consumer goods giants under fire for poor palm oil record” →

Lessons from Fukushima

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
7 March 2016
Author: Editors, East Asia ForumAs we approach the 5th anniversary of the 11 March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown which devastated Japan’s Tohoku region, how has the Japanese state absorbed the lessons of that triple disaster?

eastasiaforum_ The scale of the disaster was massive: a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the most powerful to hit Japan in recorded history, which triggered a 40-metre-high tsunami that took out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Over 20,000 perished, an evacuation zone carved out around Fukushima Daiichi will remain uninhabitable for tens of thousands of years, and 100,000 people from the evacuation zone and surrounding areas are still living as nuclear refugees. Tiếp tục đọc “Lessons from Fukushima” →

Hanoi’s persistent air pollution reaches hazardous level

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Related:

Unclean air: Study finds pollution at dangerous level in HCMC’s new urban areas

Vietnam’s air quality among the worst in the world: study

Hanoi most polluted city in Southeast Asia: expert

Smog begins to blanket Saigon as air pollution soars

Urban dilemma: Fast-growing Ho Chi Minh City misses most environmental targets

HANOI – Saturday, March 05, 2016 13:11

Bike riders ride past a dusty road in Hanoi. Photo: Le Hieu/Zing
thanhniennews – Air pollution in Hanoi is worsening and has reached dangerous levels this week, according to official data.

Many locals are worried that the capital city is becoming another Beijing while environment officials said the situation is bad, but not that bad.

The Real-time Air Quality Index on aqicn.org on recent days ranked the pollution in Hanoi as “unhealthy” and “very unhealthy,” which means outdoor exertion should be limited for everyone.

Aqicn.org uses data collected from Vietnam Center for Environment Monitoring from the environment ministry, the United Nations International School of Hanoi and the US Embassy in Hanoi.

The index in Hanoi on Tuesday morning reached the “hazardous” 388, a level in which everyone may experience more serious health effects and everyone should avoid all outdoor exertion, according to the site.

The peak index has prompted several local media outlets to compare Hanoi with Beijing, whose air pollution usually scores above 300.
Tiếp tục đọc “Hanoi’s persistent air pollution reaches hazardous level” →

Greenpeace launches high tech investigation into radiation impacts of Fukushima disaster on Pacific Ocean

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Press release – 25 February, 2016

greenpeace – Tokyo, 25 February 2016 – Greenpeace Japan today announced it is conducting an underwater investigation into radiation contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. The survey will be conducted from a Japanese research vessel using a one of a kind Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), fitted with sensitive gamma radiation spectrometer and sediment sampler.

On the opening day of the investigation, Mr Naoto Kan, the former Prime Minister of Japan and leader at the time of the nuclear accident, joined the crew of the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior. As the country nears the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster Mr. Kan called for a complete phase out of nuclear power.

“I once believed Japan’s advanced technology would prevent a nuclear accident like Chernobyl from happening in Japan. But it did not, and I was faced with the very real crisis of having to evacuate about 50 million people at risk from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. I have since changed my mind,” said Mr. Kan on board the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior. “We do not need to take such a big risk. Instead we should shift to safer and cheaper renewable energy with potential business opportunities for our future generations.”

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has produced over 1.4 million tonnes of radioactive contaminated water in an effort to cool the hundreds of tonnes of molten reactor fuel in Fukushima Daiichi reactor units 1, 2 and 3 [1]. In addition to the initial releases of liquid nuclear waste during the first weeks of the accident and the daily releases from the plant ever since, contamination  also flows from land, particularly the forests and mountains of Fukushima, and will continue to contaminate the Pacific Ocean for at least 300 years.(2)

“The Fukushima disaster is the single largest release of radioactivity into the marine environment in history. There is an urgent need to understand the impacts this contamination is having on the ocean, how radioactivity is both dispersing and concentrating and its implications,” said Shaun Burnie, Senior Nuclear Specialist with Greenpeace Germany.

“TEPCO failed to prevent a multiple reactor meltdown and five years later it’s still an ongoing disaster. It has no credible solution to the water crisis they created and is failing to prevent the further contamination of the Pacific Ocean.”

Tiếp tục đọc “Greenpeace launches high tech investigation into radiation impacts of Fukushima disaster on Pacific Ocean” →

Four billion people affected by severe water scarcity

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Date:February 15, 2016

Source:University of Twente
Summary: There are four billion people worldwide who are affected by severe water scarcity for at least one month a year. That is the conclusion after many years’ extensive research. This alarming figure is much higher than was previously thought.

FULL STORY

Sciencedaily – There are four billion people worldwide who are affected by severe water scarcity for at least one month a year. That is the conclusion of University of Twente Professor of Water Management, Arjen Hoekstra, after many years’ extensive research. This alarming figure is much higher than was previously thought. His ground-breaking research was published in Science Advances.

Professor Hoekstra’s team is the first research group in the world to identify people’s water footprint from month to month and to compare it to the monthly availability of water. “Up to now, this type of research concentrated solely on the scarcity of water on an annual basis, and had only been carried out in the largest river basins,” says Hoekstra.

He defines severe water scarcity as the depletion of water in a certain area. “Groundwater levels are falling, lakes are drying up, less water is flowing in rivers, and water supplies for industry and farmers are threatened. In this research, we established the maximum sustainable ‘water footprint’ for every location on earth, and then looked at actual water consumption. If the latter is much greater than what is sustainable, then there can be said to be severe water scarcity.”

More than previously thought

Until now, it had always been assumed in the scientific community that 2 to 3 billion people were affected by severe water scarcity. “Previous research looked at the availability of water on an annual basis, but that paints a more rosy and misleading picture, because water scarcity occurs during the dry period of the year,” explains Hoekstra. In his research, he describes for each place the number of months in a year that people are affected by severe water scarcity. That varies from zero to twelve months per year. Tiếp tục đọc “Four billion people affected by severe water scarcity” →

How Can We Create a World Where Plastic Never Becomes Waste?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

01/23/2016 09:00 am ET | Updated 4 days ago

Christophe Launay via Getty Images

huffingtonpost -Today nearly everyone, everywhere, every day, comes into contact with plastics. Plastics have become the ubiquitous workhorse material of the modern economy — combining unrivalled functional properties with low cost. And yet, while delivering many benefits, the current plastics economy has drawbacks that are becoming more apparent by the day.

Significant economic value is lost after each use, along with wide-ranging negative impacts to natural systems. How can we turn the challenges of our current plastics economy into a global opportunity for innovation and value capture, resulting in stronger economies and better environmental outcomes? Tiếp tục đọc “How Can We Create a World Where Plastic Never Becomes Waste?” →

Malaysia to Ban Bauxite Mining for 3 Months to Cut Pollution

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
January 6, 2016 — 8:33 AM GMT Updated on January 6, 2016 — 10:52 AM GMT
  • Country supplied more than 40% of China’s imports last year
  • Suspension starts Jan. 15 as government seeks to tighten rules

bloomberg – Malaysia, the biggest shipper of bauxite to China, will stop mining ore for three months to cut river and sea pollution, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Jaafar said.

The ban takes effect from Jan. 15 in Pahang, the largest producing state, Wan Junaidi told reporters. Exports will be allowed during the moratorium to reduce port inventories, and after the suspension the government will limit bauxite production to the capacity to ship the material, he said on Wednesday.

Malaysia supplied more than 40 percent of China’s imports of the aluminum-making raw material last year after Indonesia imposed a ban on shipments in January 2014. China produces about half the world’s aluminum used in everything from aircraft to door frames and drink cans. The country’s exports of the metal and its products surged 36 percent in November from the previous month, helping push global prices down 19 percent in 2015. Tiếp tục đọc “Malaysia to Ban Bauxite Mining for 3 Months to Cut Pollution” →

Indigenous peoples must benefit from science

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

To drive sustainable development, Dyna Rochmyaningsih argues, science must empower rural communities — not just serve industry and governments.

20 October 2015

Nature – The sun has been pale for months here in Sumatra and the skies are grey all day — choked with pollution from the massive fires that rage across the Indonesian island. Since the late 1990s, the haze caused by these annual fires has posed a significant threat to the health of Sumatra’s rural communities. This year’s haze is especially bad and has affected major cities, both here and abroad; consequently, the fires have again made headlines around the world.

Related stories

Many of these news stories blame the big palm-oil companies for the fires. Slash-and-burn techniques remain the cheapest way to clear forest for new plantations. But scientific evidence suggests that this simple narrative is not absolutely true. A number of surveys have found that the bulk of these fires are started outside the official oil-palm concessions. Small-scale farmers seem to be more to blame.

The haze in Indonesia is not just an environmental issue; it is a complex socio-economic problem that is driven partly by conflict over land ownership between palm-oil companies and rural communities — a struggle that the companies usually win. Tiếp tục đọc “Indigenous peoples must benefit from science” →