Ozone destruction: Record in the North Pole

The ozone layer in the North Pole suffers a unprecedented level of destruction caused by exceptional weather conditions, reported today the French organization National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
Late last month, the thinning of the ozone that protects Earth from ultraviolet rays was 40% and there was a "large area", a phenomenon never before observed, the CNRS said in a statement.

The reason for this decline is "a very trust stratospheric winter and persistent" leading to ozone destruction "important" and "exceptionally long until spring."

The Ecology and the Ozone

The European Space Agency (ESA) specifies that the record in the ozone layer is due to strong winds known as 'polar vortex'. This phenomenon isolated air mass over the North Pole and prevents it from mixing with air from midlatitudes. As a result, the state-of-freezing temperatures is very similar to that occurs every winter in Antarctica. Enviasat satellite, ESA has provided data to measure ozone levels.

The destruction of the ozone layer is linked to the presence in the atmosphere of various gases, emitted by aerosols.

At 80 degrees Celsius these gases become harmful to ozone, a phenomenon "recurring" in Antarctica, where temperatures are extremely low "every winter, but less common in the North Pole, where the temperature is higher and conditions more variable weather.

"I do not always meet the circumstances to produce a significant decrease of ozone in that region, said the CNRS, noting that" extreme weather conditions are responsible for the record achieved "this year.

Ecology and the deterioration of the ozone

French scientists, supported by the data sent by monitoring stations deployed on the ground, are now trying to determine the impact this phenomenon will have when the masses of ozone-poor air moving once temperatures rise with the advancement of spring in the ecology.
The CNRS warned that the deterioration of the ozone layer would have been higher in 1987 had not signed the Montreal Protocol, which limits the use of aerosols.

These products, which emit gases rich in chlorine and bromine remain in the atmosphere for years, so that the French scientists did not rule out destruction of the ozone layer similar to this year be repeated if there are again exceptionally cold winters and the ecology .
According to the latest assessment of the ozone layer, this gas will not recover its 1980 level until the years 2045-2060 at the South Pole and one or two decades earlier in the North.

An hour of blackout for the planet's health

The  "Earth Hour 2011", an idea that is developed annually for five years to demonstrate the concern of humanity from climate change. How to join.
The blackout, which will take place today, March 26 by the end of an hour, will be developed with cascading effect on all countries, at their own time zone, between 20:30 and 21:30, and will involve, according to their organizers, more than one billion people.
Last year it began in the Chatham Islands, about 800 miles east of New Zealand, and covered step by step across six continents, from Mongolia to Antarctica, keeping pace with the rotation of the Earth.

The  Earth Hour

Globally, the action is coordinated by the World Conservation Organization (WWF, according to its acronym in English) and locally by the World Wildlife Fund.
The measure not only aims to save energy, though it entails-but above all, create a space for thinking about preserving the environment, getting people involved in these problems and promote personal actions, group and government, to curb their degradation.

"Earth Hour" was born in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 and then called two million people just in that country.
In 2008 were more than 50 million people in about 400 cities synchronized blackout, which left without lights in buildings like the Sydney Opera, the Coliseum in Rome, the City Hall in London, the Empire State Building in New York, the Tower of Sears in Chicago, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Golden Gate in San Francisco.
In 2009, more than 60 countries were involved in the blackout to combat global warming, with the message that they can act individually with small changes in everyday life, such as replacing ordinary light bulbs with fluorescent lights or low-power .

The Hour fot the Planet

2010, and had joined the blackout 1,500 cities in 128 countries on six continents, and were more than 1,300 monuments and landmarks of major cities in the world held in darkness for an hour. But this year, Earth Hour wants to beat his own record of participation and involve more than one billion people on six continents.

Environmentalists predict that, to continue the present status quo, the global warming could cause the extinction of 35% of terrestrial wildlife by 2050. Also, does carry deep floods and droughts, climate change increasingly threatening as the production performance and life of people.
For that reason and because it is necessary to engage world leaders in concrete policies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, it is expected that this time more than one billion people will join the symbolic gesture of turning off the light on Saturday, eight and a half to half past nine p.m., in the certainty that the planet is well worth it.

Global warming increases the risk of flooding

Scientists have long warned that the global temperature increase leads to changes in precipitation patterns. The basis of the argument is simple: more power means more heat in the atmosphere and it is therefore more water vapor and more activity in the system.
Experts say it is difficult to predict exactly how rainfall will change in every corner of the world, but they know that, because of the greater amount of energy in the atmosphere will become more common extreme events such as storms, hurricanes and strong temporary and the Climate change and the global warming.

Indeed, two articles recently published in the journal Nature corroborate these predictions. The authors argue that human emissions of greenhouse gases have substantially increased the likelihood of heavy rainfall and flood risk.

Climate change and the global warming

Francis Zwiers and colleagues at the Division of Climate Research Division of Toronto (Canada), have managed actual rainfall data recorded over half a century in the Northern Hemisphere to conclude that torrential downpours have more than doubled.

The researchers used the records of rainfall made by 6,000 different meteorological stations between 1951 and 1999 across the northern hemisphere. The ground covered includes North America and much of Eurasia to India. Data came from maximum rainfall in a single day each year and also recorded the maximum rainfall for a period of five days each year that are, according to them, that best reflect what is a torrential downpour Climate change and the global warming.

Global Warming

After implementing new computer systems for calculating all these databases, the researchers found that violent rainfall events have increased by two-thirds of the northern hemisphere in recent decades. In particular, records of daily maximum has increased by 65% of the stations and the maximum of five days in 61% of them.

Environmentalists call for a 'Law of Climate Change "to force to reduce CO2

The environmental organization Friends of the Earth considers essential the creation of a 'law against climate change' on Spain, which regulates and establishes the safe reduction of emissions of polluting gases into the atmosphere as the only way to tackle this serious problem.

So says the report 'Opportunities for Climate Change Law in Spain based on carbon budgets', which have submitted and which have designated as priority projects to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and the constitution legal legislative framework.

For the charge of the area of climate change Friends of the Earth, Alejandro González, is "setting annual targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases of at least 3% and force governments to fulfill their commitments."
For carbon budget, say the ecologists, the term "the establishment of an emission limit that can be released in a given period of time by a group of sectors or entities."The Kyoto Protocol, which entered into force in 2005 and ended in 2012, sets limits on emissions of greenhouse gases in industrialized countries and Spain committed (within EU) condemned Gonzalez not to increase their emissions GHG in the period beyond 15% over 1990. "

The impact of the crisis

The evolution of gas emissions in Spain has been increasing until the year 2007 that were released into the atmosphere 437.677 million tonnes of CO2, to start a drop from 2008 when they fell to 405 048 tonnes of CO2, complaint Friends of the Earth, citing figures from the administration.

The NGO attributes this reduction in 2008 "to a significant increase in renewable energy and economic wear by the economic crisis in Spain but not suffer a serious government policy."
For environmentalists, the solution lies in implementing a climate change law based on carbon budgets that help establish the foundation for climate justice. "
Since the organization is to strengthen the national and international policy framework and put a cap on GHG emissions in each sector issuers for a period of time annually.

Environmentalists call for a Law of Climate Change

Thus, there is a mechanism for secure and controlled reduction with each responsible for the emissions has a legal obligation to reduce them and agrees to budget planning in advance by creating a predictable economic scenario in the long term.
The report is part of the campaign of Friends of the Earth's climate SOS, called "The Big Ask" in Europe, demand in 18 countries national legislation to reduce GHG emissions annually.

This report is the first to introduce these concepts in Spain, "said Alejandro González and" we expect the approach to policy-makers, economic sectors and the Spanish civil society. "

Earth Heat beat his record in June

The month of June was the warmest in history since 1880 when records began climate data. The average temperature from April to June has set a new record, according to measurements carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA.

Specifically, the average temperature in June stood at 16.2 degrees Celsius. The half of the twentieth century was 15.5 °, ie, 0.60 ° below the level recorded last month.
Also, the first half of the year was, on average, the second warmest since measurements are made. The first six months of 2007 still holds the record.

The Earth Heat
NOAA notes that in various places on Earth have been recorded at higher temperatures than average over these months, as in Peru, central and eastern U.S. and eastern and western Asia.
June, a cold month in Spain.
However, in other parts of the globe has been lower temperatures than usual. In Spain, the average temperature was the coldest since 1997, according to AEMET.

There were also lower temperatures in Scandinavia, southern China and northwestern United States.
The surface temperature of the oceans in June stood at 0.54 º C above the average of the twentieth century, making this month in the fourth warmest June since 1880 reigstrado. The heat was most intense in the Atlantic.

The American Research Center NOAA published every month that his department analysis of weather makes temperatures recorded on Earth. Their database goes back to 1880.

Spain has two proposals to safely store mercury

Starting next March can not be used or marketed in the EU mercury. Despite its high level of toxicity, this metal has been used for many years to make fluorescent lamps, thermometers, sphygmomanometers and other measuring devices.
The EU is now seeking solutions to store surplus mercury safely and efficiently, as one of the most toxic compounds, methylmercury, can cause serious health problems in living beings and pollute the environment. It is estimated that European countries, Spain is the biggest producer will face a surplus of 8,500 tons of mercury, both from the extraction of the mine waste used by businesses.

Spain's proposals were presented Monday in Almaden (Ciudad Real). These two projects: a temporary storage system that will reuse the mercury in the event that necessary, and a final technical transforms it into a non-polluting.
"It is not known if in the future be re-used metallic mercury. This is why we also designed a system that is securely stored and will retrieve it if necessary, thus avoiding having to remove it again from the mine," Ana says Conde, project manager and head of the department of corrosion of the National Center for Metallurgical Research, CSIC.

And that, to date, there is no clear alternative in some industrial processes: "For example, companies clorocáusticas still use mercury as an electrode for the production of chlorine." In his case, the time to find alternative methods expires in 2020. Once the industry confirm that mercury is no longer necessary, final systems will be used for disposal of waste.
Double steel wall

The temporary storage system designed by researchers at the CSIC is shaped like a sphere and can store 50 tons of liquid mercury, but larger containers can be constructed.

It consists of a double wall of steel with a thickness of 8 mm: "It has followed the model of double hull tankers. If there is a break, there is another compartment that would store the mercury. The area is earthquake resistant and has an alarm system and surveillance, "says Conde. The vessel meets all standards for transport by truck can be moved if necessary, using a crane.

The second technique is final and transform the liquid mercury in an inert solid material that does not pollute, "similar to those used in the construction sector," said Aurora Lopez, a researcher in the department of primary metals and recycling of materials from center. "It's kind of brick which contains 30% mercury, with a size of 4x4x16, but can be made with any other dimension."

"We have done several studies on saline and alkaline environments to see how this material behaves when outdoors and the results have been satisfactory, presents a very good durability," says Lopez. In the future we will see if it can be used in civil engineering: "It would be an added value if we could succeed to use paving or construction of dams, although the initial objective is to develop an inert material."

The European Commission will now study the solutions provided by all countries (in Germany, for example, have proposed to put the mercury in a salt mine) and decide what is the procedure to be used on European soil.

Whales produce millions of dollars without fishing

For countries that do not hunt, the whales that come to its shores has a value that is not measured in tons of meat, but in millions of tourists and billions of dollars.

Last year, more than 13 million onlookers watched them in 119 countries, generating U.S. $ 2,000 million, on Thursday reported Australian Ecology Minister, Peter Garrett, to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Agadir (southwestern Morocco) until Friday.

This organization founded in 1946 to regulate whaling is also the only one who manages the populations of these large whales.

For 14 years, created a working group of scientists dedicated to the "whale watching" or "whale watching, tourism in full expansion to admire the whales from a boat.

According to the first study on this subject, conducted by the Fisheries Center at the University of British Columbia (Canada), the observation of whales, the IWC euphemistically called "non-lethal use of whales" - could generate 3,000 million dollars annually and 24,000 jobs worldwide.

Latin America is very active in the CBI: the observation of whales, increasing more than 11% annually since the late 1990s, three times the world average, represents $ 278 million and attracts a million and a half amateur.

"On the Peninsula Valdes (Patagonia Argentina), over 200,000 tourists come to see the whales between June and December," said Roxana Schteinbarg, director of the Whale Conservation Institute in Buenos Aires. "There is no need to kill them to take advantage of them."

Most countries in the region, he added, observing adopted rules. To be heard, one hundred American and Caribbean operators presented at the initiative of Argentina, a statement to the CBI claiming to maintain the moratorium on commercial whaling, the enforcement of whale sanctuaries and the creation of a new sanctuary in South Atlantic.

In New Zealand, where he sails to see blue whales and sperm whales, "produces more than 80 million dollars," said Karena Lyons, a member of the delegation. "This ensures maximum benefit for local communities and a minimum effect on the whales".

On Thursday, the Commission gave its approval for a five-year strategic plan to observe the whales, whose objective is to frame the development of this activity and reduce impacts on cetaceans.

"The five-year plan estimated Ridoux Vincent, a French expert scientific committee of the CBI, should be possible to assess the discomfort in the different sites and the impacts of the accumulation of these problems."

It should also help the small teams in the best possible conditions. In the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, with 25,000 tourists on board a season, is best placed.

The Pacific states are also great applicants and more than a dozen of them created whale sanctuaries.

"This activity could be a billionaire, estimated Sue Taei, the Pew Environment Group of Samoa. "But there is in Fiji and whale watching in Tonga, boats queuing because there are not enough whales due to intensive poaching led by the Russians."

The Posidonia alert our sea pollution

Spanish researchers have studied the chemical composition of the marine plant Posidonia oceanica to determine changes in pollution of the Mediterranean in the last 30 years.

Antonio Tovar-Sanchez, lead author and researcher in the Department of Global Change Research at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (CSIC-UIB), claims in science news portal SINC that the Posidonia is "capable of reflecting the different degrees local and regional pollution "of our sea, to identify the metals deposited in the Mediterranean for several decades.

The Posidionia can live for several decades and stored grow metals (nutrients and toxic) in their tissues. "Thus, a Posidonia 30 or 40 years of age provides us with information of the last three or four decades," said Tovar-Sanchez.

The CSIC team has done a complete collection of more than 50 oceanic Posidonia Balearic archipelago. The analysis of metal concentrations in Posidonia oceanica has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences shows the index of aluminum, cadmium, copper and silver, among others, present in the Mediterranean.

The study has led to a temporary record of historical environmental changes on a large scale, key to addressing climate change in general.

Inventor Wins solar cells Finnish technology

Michael Graetzel Federer won the Millennium Technology Prize for inventing low-cost solar cells used in the generation of renewable energy.
Innovation "provides a more cost effective to use solar energy" and led to the development of windows generating solar electricity and phones, said the Finnish Academy of Technology in granting the award of 800,000 euros ($ 960,000).

The academy said that finding ways to replace the diminishing fossil fuel reserves is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, adding that the Sun "is the most obvious source of energy."
"The limitation of solar energy has traditionally been cost. Graetzel cells will provide a more cost effective to use it," said Ainomaija Haarle, president of the academy. "The innovation of Graetzel almost certainly going to have an important role in low-cost solutions and large scale to produce renewable energy."

It was the fourth time in Finland awards the biennial Millennium Technology Prize, which was launched by the government and industry in 2004. It is awarded for achievements in energy and environment, communications, and information, new materials and processes, and health and life sciences.
The previous winner, in 2008, was the American professor Robert Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for developing biomaterials used in combating cancer and heart disease.
Other winners were the Japanese Shuji Nakamura's inventions laser and LED technology, and Tim Berners-Lee, an MIT scientist who is credited with creating the Internet.

The earthquake in Chile reduced the duration of the day and shifted the axis of the Earth

The earthquake of 8.8 degrees on the Richter scale occurred on Saturday in Chile, which has left at least 700 dead, very slightly reduced the length of day and shifted the axis of the earth in eight centimeters, according to agency data Space Administration (NASA).

In an article published in 'Business Week, the Geophysical Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Richard Gross, said that earthquakes can move hundreds of kilometers of rock in very confined spaces, which changes the distribution of mass on the planet, affecting Earth's rotation.

This small change is enclosed "in larger changes due to other causes, such as air mass moving over the Earth," the dean of Geophysics, National Central University in Taiwan, Benjamin Fong Chao.
Based on calculations made using computerized methods, NASA has found that because of the earthquake in Chile, the Earth's axis has moved three inches and that "the day length should be shortened 1.26 microseconds (millionths of second).

It is not the first time that similar changes are detected after an earthquake. The day fell by 6.8 microseconds in late 2004 because of the 9.1-degree earthquake registered off Sumatra that caused the biggest 'tsunami' of history.
The effect of ice skater

David Kerridge, at the helm Geological Survey Edimburgoe UK British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, explains: "When a skater goes up their arms when turning to go get more and more speed. It's the same idea: Earth is spinning and if you change the distribution of mass, time of rotation changes.
According to Professor at the University of Liverpool Andreas Rietbrock, who has been studying the area where the earthquake hit Chile, the island of Santa Maria, near Concepcion (second largest city and one of the most damaged by the earthquake) could have been raised about two meters due to the tremor.

It could also be true. According to CNN collected, based on scientific estimates, if the Three Gorges Dam in China was filled, adding 40 cubic kilometers of water, produce, due to their weight, an increase in day length of 0.06 microseconds.

The 'reincarnation' of plastic bags

The smell is detected long before through the door. It is dense. to waste. Inside, tons of containers of all colors and shapes fall from the trucks, including thousands, millions of plastic bags, those films that are caught as easily on the shelves for the most trivial objects and only 13 % ends up in a yellow container to be reincarnated in a container or a pipe.

We are in the plant selection and the recycling of plastics Amorebieta, just outside Bilbao, one of the largest in the country.

The Spanish are still primary pupils in the subject of recycling, but slowly we are passing exams. From 1997 to extend have recovered 10 million tons of packaging his life turned into something else. It is the equivalent of 10 stadiums like the Bernabeu clogged.
Of these, eight million were recycled, because there is a 25% of the waste (unfit, they are called) that goes wrong and located at home. Still, this simple gesture of separating waste meant a saving of 7.7 million tonnes of CO2 or annual water consumption of four million people.

"It is therefore important to select good household waste, but so is reducing the containers used or that companies take steps to save on raw material and do: since 1996 have managed to save 75,000 tonnes saving measures, explains Antonio Barron, director of communications Ecoembes, a nonprofit company that manages recycling.
Population not in containers

With 12,400 associates, Ecoembes ensures that covers 90% of the packaging market, all bearing the green dot indicates that they can be recycled and therefore pay a fee.

However, for this conversion takes place must be near a yellow container. Adolfo, who lives in Guardo (Palencia) is part of 1.5% of the population who, according Ecoembes, does not. "It's a shame, not even paper," he complains. So their plastics are not among that 38% is recycled.

The Arctic will be navigable in the summer of 2020

The Arctic ice could melt in the summer of 2020, which would allow its navigation, as affirmed an expert from the University of Cambridge, which considers that this may be the most visible impact of climate change. "It's as if the man was removing the cap from the northern part of the planet," said the British media physics professor Peter Wadhams.
This is one of the conclusions of the study conducted Wadhams, the Polar Ocean Physics Group at Cambridge, having considered the measures of the ice collected by the British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless' in 2007 and those taken this year by an expedition led by polar adventurer Pen Hadow.

According to Wadhams, freighters do not have to rely on boats to break the ice to cross the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean through the so-called Northwest Passage. This route will be ice free for several months a year, which will reduce the over 4,800-km route to do the boats that are in the Far East to Europe via the Suez Canal, the study adds.
"The North Pole will be exposed in ten years. One can navigate in a Japanese freighter car through the North Pole and into the Atlantic. The ice will retreat to an area north of Greenland and Ellesmere Island in 2020" Wadhams said. According to the expert, "the change in the Arctic ice in summer will be the biggest impact that global warming will have on the physical appearance of the planet."

The explorer Pen Hadow and his two teammates-Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley-spent 73 days between 1 March and 7 May of this year walking 450 kilometers in the Arctic while taking measurements. They made holes and 1500 found that the average thickness of ice floes was only 1.8 meters. Hadow said the newspaper 'The Times', techniques for future expeditions to the Arctic during the summer will have to be modified to adapt to frequent open water areas.