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Sahara fallout or spreading?
Sahara fallout or spreading?Gendarme profession - May 02, 2024
For some time now we have been playing the music of sand fallout from the Sahara. It's true that in the south in particular we sometimes have them, and always have.
Mirnes Ajanović, Bosnian lawyer and president of the BOSS political party, says that after the arrival of harmful Saharan dust in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But wouldn't this natural phenomenon be welcome to hide the very artificial fallout from spraying and drown out the fish?
Mirnes Ajanović, Bosnian lawyer and president of the political party BOSS, says that after the arrival of harmful Saharan dust in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a comparative analysis of sand from the Sahara Desert and fallen sand was carried out in order to determine if the dust linked to precipitation was real Saharan sand.
It was imperative to know the chemical composition of this dust and whether it contained toxic elements.
Many harmful elements and substances were found, such as arsenic, iron, manganese, copper, aluminum, etc., and very significant differences were noted between the Saharan sand and the sample from the precipitation that has very high levels of harmful substances, such as aluminum, which exceeds the concentration of Saharan sand by more than 700 times.
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The mega data center will require 600 million liters of water per year
The mega data center will require 600 million liters of water per yearFrance Evening - May 27, 2023
Zuckerberg's mega data center in Spain will require 600 million liters of water per year
The development by Meta of a large data center in the region of Toledo (Castilla-la-Mancha), is causing concern because of its estimated consumption of more than 600 million liters of drinking water in a region where the water is scarce.
Meta, the conglomerate run by Mark Zuckerberg and on which Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram depend, will install its largest data processing center in Europe in the province of Toledo.
It will be, more precisely, in Talavera de la Reina, the ancient capital of ceramics which today, despite its proximity to Madrid, is going through a period of social, economic and demographic crisis.
Economic opportunity...
The regional government of Castile-La Mancha decided a few weeks ago to continue the Meta Data Center Campus project, highlighting its impact on the territory - more than 1 jobs and 000 highly qualified direct jobs - but ignoring the fact that the infrastructure will consume more than 250 million liters of drinking water per year.
As El País explains, the “total” consumption, including “non-potable” water, could reach “120 liters per second in the data center and 33 liters per second” in the rest of the facilities. At this rate, we are talking about 4,8 billion liters of water per year. However, the company has not officially confirmed these estimates.
Meta currently has three such facilities in Sweden, Denmark and Ireland. A few months ago, a survey by the Noordhollands Dagblab media showed that Microsoft's data center in the Netherlands would consume 84 million liters of water in 2021, while the company had announced a consumption of 12 to 20 million. liters.
...but deleterious environmental impact?
This “under-declaration” is not a first. A similar pattern occurred in the Netherlands. The Middenmeer data storage and information centers, from Microsoft, consumed up to seven times more water than had been forecast when the project was launched.
Technically, water is used in abundance within data centers in order to reduce the temperature of servers or other electronic installations present (computers, storage bays, etc.).
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France Farm law, Trojan horse of agro-industry
France Farm law, Trojan horse of agro-industryReporterre - May 17, 2023
Reauthorized pesticides, support for industrialists... The bill "in favor of the Farm France" contains many environmental regressions, denounce the ecologists.
An “open letter to Father Christmas of the FNSEA”. It is in these terms that the president of UFC-Que Choisir, Alain Bazot, describes the bill "for a shock of competitiveness in favor of Farm France", which will be debated in plenary session in the Senate from May 16. Supported by Laurent Duplomb (Les Républicains), Pierre Louault (Centrist Union) and Serge Mérillou (Socialist Party), this text aims to offer “greater protection for our farmers against distortions of competition, both in Europe […] ] than outside”. It is strongly criticized by environmentalists, who fear significant health and environmental regressions.
First grievance: Article 13 of this bill, which proposes to revise the missions of the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES). Since 2015, this institution has been responsible for issuing, withdrawing or modifying marketing authorizations for pesticides. This article could clearly complicate his task. It requires the Agency to present, in each of its decisions, "a detailed balance of benefits and health, environmental and economic risks".
The spokesperson for the Future Generations association, François Veillerette, considers this legislative proposal “very worrying”: “It would increase the formalities, and risks dissuading ANSES from taking withdrawal decisions. “” It is very serious, confirms the environmental senator of Ille-et-Vilaine Daniel Salmon. She undermines the independence of ANSES, saying that the economic fact must be taken into account, in the face of health and environmental issues. »
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The ambivalences of vertical farming
The ambivalences of vertical farmingMr Globalization - Apr 28, 2023
Vertical farming is advantageous in terms of saving space, cultivation time and water consumption.
It can respond, in complementarity with traditional agriculture, to critical situations of current ecology. However, it also has some limitations that should not be overlooked. Halftone analysis.
Although recent, this vertical, above-ground and urban agriculture is an extension of thousand-year-old techniques such as aquaponics, aeroponics and hydroponics. However, this practice which looks more like technological innovation than ancestral knowledge. Based on the testimony of a fervent practitioner of vertical farming and the example of existing initiatives, here is an overview.
Santiago Helou campaigns for the protection of the environment. He has lived in Canada for a long time and has taken a keen interest in vertical farming in the surrounding urban centers he frequents. He also picks up his arugula at Goodleaf, a vertical farm located 70 km from Toronto, in the city of Guelph.
This type of agriculture quickly captivated him both for its dynamic aspect, in an environment where agriculture is a profession that attracts less and less labor, and for its adaptability to climatic challenges: "Agriculture vertical is one of the many solutions needed to create a more sustainable agricultural industry that is both environmentally friendly and capable of eliminating food insecurity. This is not a silver bullet and will have to be part of a larger strategy that involves a radical restructuring of the institutions of our society”.
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Noise, this invisible waste, poisons us, writes ecologist Jacques Tassin
Reporterre - Apr 24, 2023
The one who has just published "Listen to the voices of the world" believes that "our societies are sick of no longer knowing how to listen."
We live in a world interwoven with voices, which release meaning beyond the invisible of the night or the distance, and reveal the marvelous part of the world. These voices carry us and speak to us, without our even paying attention to them. Even abiotic sound productions – thunder, murmuring rain or rolling waves – remain meaningful and interpretable. Plants, we recently learned, are also sensitive to sound vibrations. Just like trees, in a way, listen. But contemporary noise, this filth of our industrious societies, blurs access to these sensitive realities of life. The Anthropocene is coupled with Thorivocene (from the Greek thóryvos, noise), an era of din and irrelation.
Noise-free zones have fallen by 50-90% since the industrial boom began in the 108th century, and cities themselves have become unlivable. In the heart of Île-de-France alone, the noise caused by transport results in a loss of eleven months of life for each inhabitant, ie an overall loss of 000 years of life in good health. More than 70% of Parisians are bothered by noise, even though double-glazed windows are closed. And in high school environments, listening to amplified music through headphones today leads one in seven final year students to have to put up with a thirty-year-old ear. Noise creeps in everywhere. And, everywhere, it alters listening.
But we are not alone in suffering. Acting like a relational switch, noise blocks the flow of life. It obstructs the free circulation of voices, multiplies the snags in the tight fabric of relationships between living beings. Anthropophony has now invaded marine spaces by multiplying the deafening snoring of ships, the repeated percussion of mining surveys and other military sonar issues. It is one of the sources of emblematic cetacean strandings.
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How low-tech can escape capitalist takeover
Reporterre - Apr 20, 2023
In “Low-Tech Perspectives. How to live, do and organize differently? Quentin Mateus and Gauthier Roussilhe wonder: can low tech retain its emancipatory potential or is it doomed to be led astray.
High-tech pollutes and alienates us; faced with them, more energy-efficient alternatives are being developed, which can be appropriated by their users and adapted to our needs: low-tech. While this idea is comforting, it is too simple to be true. This is often the case when a turnkey solution seems to have been discovered. In an exciting little book, Low-Tech Perspectives. How to live, do and organize differently? (Divergences editions), Quentin Mateus and Gauthier Roussilhe explore the ambiguities of low-tech and identify the pitfalls into which the movement risks falling.
“Nothing says that low-tech represents a miracle solution, but it helps us to understand that we are going through […] a technical crisis”, they ask straight away. The authors, respectively a long-time companion of the Low-Tech Lab and an independent researcher specializing in the environmental consequences of digital technology, had the opportunity to observe low-tech initiatives in the four corners of France and Europe, and offer in this book a stepping stone.
This reflection is all the more important as the trend is reaching a tipping point: now that the myriad of low-tech initiatives are attracting public attention, can this technological path retain its emancipatory potential by spreading massively, or is it doomed to be taken over by the market and led astray?
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The Earthing Movie: The Remarkable Science of Earthing
The Earthing Movie: The Remarkable Science of EarthingGrounding - Apr 05, 2023
Documentary based on their viral short film titled 'Down To Earth' which reveals the scientific phenomenon of how we can heal our bodies by doing the simplest thing a person can do… stand barefoot on the earth.
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Dances With Films festival, the film shares the Tickell family's journey with the healing power of grounding, aka grounding, and the people they met and learned along the way; featuring grounding pioneer Clint Ober, author Deepak Chopra MD, actress/activist Amy Smart, author/activist Mariel Hemingway, cardiologist Dr Stephen Sinatra, renowned healer Dr Joseph Mercola, engineer and physicist Gaetan Chevalier, PhD. and many more.
Over 20 peer-reviewed studies have shown that grounding (grounding) reduces inflammation...one of the most damaging internal biological processes that leads to chronic disease. So get out there and put your feet on the ground, and/or increase your grounding time indoors with grounding products. Your body and mind will thank you! Learn about all studies and research at https://earthinginstitute.net
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People of Oxford: In the future, pen breeding with limited outings
People of Oxford: In the future, pen breeding with limited outingsInternational Network - March 30, 2023
It is obvious that the WEF (World Economic Forum) has taken advantage of the alleged Covid pandemic to impose significant restrictions on citizens.
But he also wants to strengthen these measures in the context of the so-called climate emergency. Lately, the concept of 15-minute cities has been making headlines.
In dystopian science fiction novels, towns or regions are sometimes divided into areas that residents cannot leave or only under certain conditions. Unauthorized crossing of the limits of these zones is generally sanctioned by drastic penalties. It is often a question, in these fictions, of keeping the workers or the poorest inhabitants away from the territory of the rich and the privileged.
Oxford, the capital of the county of Oxfordshire in England, has been overtaken by these fantasies of the future. Here, we want to divide the city into six 15-minute zones using “traffic filters” and reduce the movement of residents between these zones in a targeted manner. The idea for this traffic strategy apparently stems from the “city in 15 minutes” concept, presented in March 2022 by the World Economic Forum due to the so-called climate emergency. This concept is based on the ideas of mathematics professor Carlos Moreno, according to which all important facilities should be accessible in no more than 15 minutes, without a car. Instead of the car, it is now the bicycle that must be put forward.
At first glance, this seems like a good thing, since all the necessary infrastructure for life is nearby and there is no need to travel long distances. But such concepts become worrying when the mobility of the inhabitants is reduced. And that is precisely what the Oxford authorities are planning: from 2024, special cameras, called "Traffic Filter", will monitor the borders between areas, supposedly to reduce traffic. If a vehicle passes through the filter, the camera reads the license plate and, if it does not have an exception or residence permit, a ticket is sent to the offender. Buses and taxis can pass freely, and on foot or by bicycle, crossing the border is still allowed without fines.
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“Too many beehives in town”. When Helping Bees Disappoints Them
Mr Globalization - Feb 01, 2023
Bees in town? We see this phenomenon developing more and more in urban areas and, above all, in companies. But if the insertion of hives in the city started from an ecological intention aiming to protect pollinating insects, it is today very contested.
“If the bee were to disappear from the surface of the globe, man would only have 5 years to live”. This quote from Albert Einstein takes on its full meaning in the current environmental context. It also alerts to the importance of these insignificant insects for many of us, but ultimately vital to the survival of human and non-human species, as well as their ecosystems. How can such small living beings be of such magnitude in the face of the climate crisis we are going through?
Bees are our allies
Pollinators contribute directly to food security, the UN reminds us via its program for the environment. If this category includes animals such as monkeys, birds or rodents, it is especially known for insects.
According to beekeeping experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: 75% of global food production depends on pollinating insects. Although the wind promotes pollination, between 60% and 90% of wild plants require the help of pollinating insects, such as bees, in order to reproduce. And to speak the economic language of our current models, according to the NGO Greenpeace, pollination represents 265 billion dollars of service rendered in the world.
In fact, the global production of honey per year amounts to around 1,6 million tonnes, with around 81 million active hives around the globe (May 2019 report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES)).
If these figures are impressive by their scale, they are partly explained by a historical phenomenon of the insertion of bees. The latter, contrary to what one thinks, does not date from yesterday, because in the Middle Ages, already, the human exploited the hives in town. In recent decades, particularly due to global warming, many scientists are sounding the alarm on the urgency of conserving biodiversity. It is therefore in an ecological approach that the phenomenon of integration of bees has resumed and is increasing.
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Here are the next megacities of the world
Here are the next megacities of the worldDigital Dawn - Jan 23, 2023
By 2050, 70% of the world's population will live in cities, up from 54% in 2020, according to a new report from the Institute for Economics & Peace.
This increase is due to both population growth and a continuing trend of urbanization, particularly in “megacities”, ie metropolises with 10 million or more inhabitants.
As Anna Fleck of Statista explains, urbanization is the result of push and pull factors. The IEA describes how, in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, the factors which push people to leave rural areas include problems of violence and the general lack of security, the presence of criminal groups, the lack of policing, environmental degradation and the fact that there are too many people for the available agricultural land. On the other hand, the attraction of an increase in the standard of living could constitute a pull factor.
There are currently 33 megacities in the world. Tokyo (37,3 million), Delhi (32,3 million), Shanghai (28,7 million), Dhaka (22,6 million), São Paulo (22,5 million) and Mexico City (22,1 million) are the more populated among them. By 2050, 14 more cities are expected to join their ranks, with a total population increase of some 213 million people. The new order will then become Delhi (49,6 million), Dhaka (34,6 million), Tokyo (32,6 million), Cairo (32,6 million) and Mumbai (32,4 million).
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Energy saving certificates: how does it work?
Energy saving certificates: how does it work?Age to do - Jan 06, 2023
What is this contraption financed by individuals, but managed by companies? We try to explain energy savings certificates, which turn energy savings into a commodity listed on the stock exchange.
With energy saving certificates (CEE, or C2E), the State requires energy sellers (EDF, Engie, Total, petrol stations, etc.) to financially encourage consumers to invest in efficiency energy. To do this, these sellers have the possibility of financing funds, such as that of the “bike boost”, or of directly financing the work of individuals, or even of paying intermediaries to do it for them. But this is the heart of the gizmo: the state does not require companies to devote so many euros to these “incentives”. That would be far too simple! On the other hand, it asks them to justify the energy savings that individuals will make thanks to this financing, by presenting the State with a given number of ESCs… But how to account for energy savings that have not yet been made! ?
You think it's impossible? Well, we have to believe not: technocrats – advised by industrialists – did it! Thus, a state-of-the-art boiler will save so many kWh for 20 years even if we do not know what it is replacing. You buy 30 m² of insulation? We do not know if the insulation was properly installed, or even if it was actually installed, but we assess the energy savings generated by these 30 m² of insulation purchased. Thus, all the products and services concerned by the energy saving certificates have been counted in kWh saved. As for the bicycle boost, the energy savings “created” thanks to a repair at 50 euros is equivalent to 10 MWh, because we will take our car less…
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A million homes renovated? The reality is much less rosy
A million homes renovated? The reality is much less rosyBastamag - 18 Dec 2022
Since the launch of the MaPrimeRénov' system, the government boasts of having massively increased energy renovation. But, by financing partial improvements without checking their effectiveness, France remains far from its objectives.
“Can you name a real, strong, decisive action, which is not just communication, that you are carrying out for ecology? “To this question posed by an Internet user, Emmanuel Macron proudly answers, in a video posted on YouTube: “We have renovated more than a million dwellings from a thermal point of view thanks to MaPrimeRénov '. The figure is not false. But this presidential assertion nevertheless sounds like communication. The continuation of the remarks made by the President of the Republic is much more interesting: “There are complete and integral renovations, they are much less numerous. The devil is in the details. Because the million renovations announced are reduced to a trickle when we look at so-called "complete and efficient" renovations. “MaPrimeRénov' essentially supports 'mono-gesture' renovations”, emphasizes a report by France Stratégie. These "mono-gestures" consist just of, for example, changing the boiler, which remains ineffective if the accommodation is poorly insulated. However, “from January 2020 to June 2021, 86% of the requests for bonuses granted consist of single actions, only 12% correspond to two types of simultaneous work, and 3% to three or more types of simultaneous work”, points out France Strategy.
