Forest Conservation

We depend on the forests for a number of resources, which is why it is so important that we do all we can to conserve the trees and plants that we still have. Forest conservation has become a worldwide concern, and if you want to know more about how you can do your part, here is some information that may help.

First, it will help to know about the types of forest conservation that is necessary for each type of forest. The places that are of great concern these days are the tropical forests, and there are several different types. The most popular type, perhaps, is the rain forest; the largest of these still remain in places like Brazil and Malaysia, but about one and a half acres are lost every second. This is due to humans using the trees and natural resources there for industrial purposes, and the pollution and air impurity also has a lot to do with why certain plants no longer grow properly in the rain forests.

It is also important to learn about forest conservation if you are planning on purchasing land or having a home built. This is another reason why trees are always being cut down, and this reduces the oxygen supply on the earth. So, as you’re planning, be sure to choose an area that will not require you to damage the ecosystem around you.

According to forest conservation experts, we lose 137 plants, insect, and animal species every day because of the damage that we are causing to the rainforest. This means that 50,000 species are permanently lost every year. This not only means that some animals are not longer in existence, but also indicates that possible cures for severe disease are lost. It has been proven that about 25 percent of Western medications are derived from plants that grow in the rainforest; however, only less than one percent of these plants have actually been tested before the medication is put on the market.

What can you do to participate in forest conservation? Doing small things like buying recycled paper to write on or use in your computer printer will help tremendously, and you can also invest in a shopping bag made of cloth so that you don’t have to ask for paper bags for your groceries each time you shop. Using recycled paper towels and toilet paper will help as well. Even recyclable building materials to will help you to do your part to preserve parts of the earth that are disappearing daily. Check out www.raintree.com to find out more about what you can to when it comes to forest conservation today.

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Britain’s prestigious scientific society, the Royal Society, has published a new study detailing five final-resort schemes to prevent global warming from destroyingthe planet.

THe Royal Society is proposing ‘geoengineering’ solutions to the problem.

“It is an unpalatable truth that unless we can succeed in greatly reducing (greenhouse gas) emissions, we are headed for a very uncomfortable and challenging climate future,” said study leader Professor John Shepherd, an earth scientist at the
University of Southampton.

The Royal Society is recommending serious consideration be given to five ideas toreduce global warming:

1) ‘Volcanic Droplets’

When volcanoes erupt they eject tiny droplets of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. The droplets reflect some of the sun’s rays reducing global warming.

The researchers are recommending that artificial droplets be released from aircraft or balloons.

But the study estimates that millions of tonnes of these droplets would need to be released annually, costing billions of dollars.

However, the researchers still think that would be cost effective.

2) ‘Seawater Mist’

Idea number 2 is to use computer-controlled ships to pump seawater mist into the air in remote areas.This would encourage low, thick clouds to form, which would reflect sunlight back into space.

Again, a large-enough fleet of such ships would cost billions of dollars. The study’s authors also think that this would be a cost-effective measure.

3) Reflective Discs

The researchers are proposing that huge mirrors or thin, reflective disks be put into orbit alongside Earth in order to block solar rays.

These approaches would be safe, with little in the way of side effects, according to the Royal Society’s study.

4) Plant More Trees

Trees absorb enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Planting more forests is probably the best way of reducing climate change. The researchers thought that natural trees could be complemented with artificial ones that collect CO2 and seqestrate it.

5) Dissolve Mountains Of Rock

Dissolving mountains of rock would speed up the natural process of rock weatheringwhich absorbs carbon dioxide.

There are problems with this approach. Large mines, consuming large amounts of energy, would be needed. Seawater would need to be chemically altered to produce an acid that would be sprayed over the
rocks. Again, this would require large amounts of energy.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

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Until the rise of the budget airlines in Europe during the Nineties, short-haul air travel was an expensive business. For journeys under about 500 miles, trains were cheaper.

Now, it’s a different story. I’ve just been looking at travel between Milan and Rome this coming July. It’s a distance of 355 miles between the two cities. Since the collapse of Alitalia, easyJet and Ryanair have been taken over domestic flights in Italy. A one-way ticket on easyJet is 23.99 euros and takes an hour. Yet on one of the fast trains, taking 4hours, roughly equivalent to the total city centre to city centre time by plane, the fare is 55 euros if you buy two weeks in advance.

And in Britain, the situation can be even crazier. Air travel can now often be the cheapest form of travel. My retired father found that it was cheaper to travel from his home in Luton by easyJet to Glasgow in Scotland than by National Express (Britain’s version of Greyhound). And that was with National Express’s Over 60’s discount included as well! The flight takes about an hour compared with ten hours on the coach. What option would you choose?

If the European Union is serious about reducing carbon emissions from air travel, then it needs to look at ways of making longer-distance train travel within the EU cheaper and easier.

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And why am I not interested? Because I’ve just been watching the eco-movie HOME. It’s beautifully filmed in High Definition and it has an important message.

For millions of years, the Earth has been storing up the carbon that threatens the planet’s survival. Over the last fifty years in particular, human beings have been extremely efficient at releasing it to power their lifestyles. And now the planet can’t cope any more.

It made me think how irrelevant many things in modern western life are, including supercars. The Veyron is an engineering masterpiece. It took a great deal of time and money to produce a car as fast as a Formula 1 car that can also be used on the road. That’s actually quite a technological achievement. But why couldn’t Ferdinand Piech, the then head of VAG, have turned his talented engineers loose on a more environmentally-useful project?

We’re destroying this planet faster than it can renew itself. People are busily fighting wars with each other, but climate change could kill us all unless we unite to deal with it.

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Whilst most hypermiling is practised during everyday driving, it has now turned into a sport. World records were set for economy at the 2008 Maximum Fuel Economy contest held in Elkhart, Indiana. A Honda Insight, Toyota Prius and Ford escape Hybrid achieved record round trip fuel consumptions of 213 mpg, 136 mpg and 76 mpg respectively.

However, such contests have attracted criticisms on safety grounds. The figures above were achieved while rolling through all stop signs and having the vehicle tires inflated well beyond recommended specifications.

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Terrell McSweeney is Domestic Policy Advisor for the Vice President.

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So why is peat so important for the environment? Peat consists of decomposing plant material. As the plants were growing, they absorbed carbon dioxide. The CO2 was then ‘locked’ into the plant’s cell structure and stores as the plant turns to peat.

But when peat is dug up, the peat starts to decompose. It releases the CO2 back into the atmosphere again, increasing greenhouse gases.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found in 2007 that the Earth’s estimated 988 million acres of peatlands are capable of storing about two trillion tonnes of CO2. That’s about a century’s worth of fossil fuel emissions. But peatlands are relatively small compared to their importance to the Earth’s eco-system. They only account for about 3% of the planet’s total surface.

The Head of UNEP, Achim Steiner observed that, “just like a global phase out of old, energy-guzzling lightbulbs or a switch to hybrid cars, protecting and restoring peatlands is perhaps another key ‘low-hanging fruit’ and among the most cost-effective options for climate change mitigation”.

Peat is also important because it supports many different types of flora and fauna. For example, plants like the sundew thrive in these conditions. It traps insects and digests them.

But the peat bogs are under threat, but not only from their destruction for commercial purposes. Researchers at the University of Wales, Bangor found that the world’s peat bogs are haemorrhaging carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The problem is that as more CO2 is released, it stimulates further releases.

Repairing peat bogs has become more vital. For example, the National Trust in England, used a helicopter to spread heather seeds across the Bleaklow peat bog in the Peak District. It was hoped that the heather would return the bog to its previous lushness, thus turning it into a carbon storer again.

So next time you’re at the garden centre, think how amazing peat is and buy a peat-free compost.

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Terry Barker, the Centre’s Director, says that the politicians have not considered what he called ‘the rebound effect’. “The rebound effect is not very welcome to politicians because they have been thinking that energy-efficiency programmes are the answer to climate change”. He continues:” it’s not nearly as good an answer as they thought. Efficiency programmes will have to be ramped up to achieve the same targets”.

So how does the rebound effect work? Say a manufacturer makes fuel efficiencies and saves costs. This enables the manufacturer to pass on these cost savings to its customers with reduced prices. But this gives the customers more money to spend, thereby increasing production. And using more energy.

This might be simplistic. People might save the extra money, for instance. With the severe effects of the economic downturn, conspicuous consumption is rapidly becoming unfashionable. This might continue as the world’s economies recover.

But the politicians would do well to heed the Centre’s warnings. Nobody really knows what will happen.

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Whilst they might be good for the environment, these bikes aren’t slow. They’re capable of up to 150 mph around the 37.733-mile TT mountain course. They have no gears, just different power settings. If the torque of Tesla electric cars are anything to go by, the acceleration should be phenomenal.

Seventeen teams with 23 entries are taking part. They come from as far afield as India, Austria, Germany, Italy, the US, the UK and the Isle of Man itself. But the American teams that are the favourites. In particular, one US entry, Mission One, is well funded. It was founded by an engineer at Tesla and is promising 150mph top speed with 150 mile range.

It will be interesting to see how the race goes. Foe more information, go to www.ttxgp.com.

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