Start the Climate Summit in Cancun

The thing is usually something like this. Each year, on December, more than 190 environment ministers meet in search of a deal that allows combat climate change, a final binding agreement to replace the 2012 Kyoto Protocol. At each summit will take place political speeches on how global warming is the greatest global challenge, a major global threat ... And every year, the summit ends in frustration, in a compact minimal at best, or cross-complaints blaming the blockage in the negotiations. Then the leaders return home to take care of the urgent: the depreciation of the yuan, the next election or the differential with the German bond and the Cancun Climate Summit.

The Cancun Summit that begins today in Mexico can vary somewhat. Nobody expects anything. Or almost nothing. The negotiators are content to reassemble the boat start of trading on the UN after the wreck of the Copenhagen Summit in 2009, where the presence of more than 150 Heads of State and Government did little to agree on how to reduce emissions.

Climate Summit in Cancun

Secretary of State for Climate Change, Teresa Ribera, said that the negotiators "lost innocence" in Copenhagen and this year "can not think of an international treaty out of Cancun." If anyone thought that the speeches were enough to revolutionize the global energy system is wrong. Now it is "to ensure that the contents of the Copenhagen agreement be anchored within the UN," according to Ribera, one of Europe's most experienced negotiators in the complex framework of the UN.

Copenhagen resulted in an agreement in which 120 countries committed themselves voluntarily to limit their emissions. Moreover, large emerging economies agreed to publicize their emissions and help rich countries to less developed economically to combat warming. However, the agreement did not the UN official, as Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua and the Summit opposed require unanimity. So now it is negotiating to recover, to heal the wounds and put the UN in the points of that agreement in the enviroment.

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon said in his welcome message that there is good points, as the agreement to finance rich countries to curb tropical deforestation: "There is general support for establishing a mechanism to implement projects forestry sector in developing countries, with support from various funding sources and in full respect for the rights of indigenous communities. "

Cancun Climate Summit

The problem, as explained Ribera, is that "it is possible to think that you can remember only the creation of a Green Fund and the fight against deforestation." These mechanisms are linked to the developed countries, mainly US-accept lower their emissions as major emerging economies, notably China, to allow their emissions to be audited and the Cancun Climate Summit.

The problem is that the U.S. is increasingly able to offer less. Last year, the administration of Barack Obama pledged to cut their emissions by 17% in 2020 compared to 2005. Claimed he could not go further until Congress does not approve the Climate Change Bill was pending. Today this law is stuck in the Senate. In the November elections the Republicans won a majority in the House, and many of them skeptical about the seriousness of climate change. Most analysts such as Daniel Weiss, the research center Center for American Progress, considered almost impossible that this mandate Obama will take forward this legislation and the enviroment.

So Teresa Bank considers it essential that Cancun is not a total ruin. Europe fears that if Obama returns to Washington with a new failure that gives wings to the Republicans who are winning the battle in the American public.

Warning of mercury contamination in the air

Environmentalists are up in arms against the chlorine industry, which they accuse of generating higher mercury emissions than those permitted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Ecologists in Action organization has submitted a report on measurements of mercury in Spain. According to this work made by environmentalists, there is a high degree of contamination in areas such as Pontevedra or Tarragona and the mercury contamination.. .
According to the organization declares Ecologists in Action in both Lourizán (Pontevedra) and Flix (Tarragona) have detected very high levels of mercury in air that exceed the limit set by WHO. Mercury has also been found in the soils of the orchards.
According to the organization, these results indicate that the chlorine industry emit much more mercury than officially declared, putting at risk the health of residents and the quality of the fish we eat and the mercury contamination.. .

Mercury contamination

The report "Mercury Immission clorocáustica industry 2006-2010 'presents measurements of mercury held this summer near chlorine factories that use mercury, compared with those made in 2006 and 2007. Analyses have been performed by the laboratory Biogeochemistry of heavy metals Polytechnic University School of Almaden (Ciudad Real), University of Castilla-La Mancha and the mercury contamination.. .

Today, all the fish we eat is contaminated with mercury and the amount of mercury in the environment and our bodies continue to rise. For years the UN and the EU warn of the urgency to control this public health problem. According to Greenpeace, the situation is on high alert around the world, however, in our country, the authorities are reluctant to take action.

Mercury can form methylmercury, which collects and concentrates in aquatic ecosystems and large fish (tuna, shark, swordfish). Methylmercury is a neurotoxin that can affect the formation of the brain, which is very troubling exposure during pregnancy or breastfeeding. It can also cause damage to the cardiovascular system and increased mortality. Mercury also causes neurological and behavioral disorders and the mercury contamination..

Warning of mercury contamination

The main consumers of mercury in Spain are the chlor-alkali mercury cell, outdated technology, invented in the nineteenth century and has long been surpassed by the membrane process, clean production and consumes 30% less energy and the mercury contamination.. .

In a press conference in Madrid, the environmental asciación "demanded" not continue to allow the production of chlorine with mercury cell technology (which is not a Best Available Technology, under the IPPC Directive), which obliges companies to clean up soils and waters have been contaminated and to compensate the affected people

39% of the Spanish have breathe air

Ecologists in Action has opened an infringement procedure against the Spanish State to the European authorities for not taking measures to improve air quality. Systematically, according to the organization, both exceed the limits established by European legislation and by the World Health Organization.
The environmental group has collected data each autonomous community fragmented and city records on the air quality to produce a report on air pollution in Spain. No administration carries out this work of compilation. Environmentalists itself. And the result is negative and the Spanish breathe air.
79% of the Spanish population, ie 36.9 million people breathe air that exceeds the rates of health protection recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the 'Balance of air pollution in the Spanish State in 2009 'presented by Ecologists in Action.

Spanish breathe air

Specifically, the report notes that 14% of 6.6 million people breathe air, since in these cases is beyond the limits of pollution that makes the law. Thus, the main air pollutant is traffic in metropolitan areas. The organization stresses that, despite the "seriousness" of the situation, governments are not taking the necessary steps to solve this problem and the Spanish breathe air .

The main source of pollution in urban areas (where most of the population) is the traffic.

The study analyzes the quality of air breathed in almost all of the Spanish population (46.7 million people in January 2009). The data from those providing regional administrations from their networks to measure the contamination.

Air pollution in Spain

In any case, the report notes that the situation continues the trend of slight improvement already begun in 2008, mostly due to the effect of the crisis. As in 2008, during 2009 were markedly reduced the levels of pollution compared to previous years, which has been more circumstantial reasons for the implementation of planned measures intended to reduce this pollution and the Spanish breathe air.

Egypt makes her wilderness forests wastewater

The hand of man tries to challenge nature with the Egyptian government's initiative to irrigate the desert areas of waste water and convert forest and whose surface is equivalent to the territory of Panama.
The difference after human intervention is dramatic: the landscape was once a barren, inhospitable and now there's hot spots covered with green trees of high economic value such as poplar, eucalyptus and papyrus. And this thanks to the water they use, pollute and dispose of 80 million Egyptians every day and, ironically, is best for these so-called forest 'handmade' and the egiptian Forest in desert.

"The waste water can make you infertile, like the desert, into something rich and containing nitrogen, micronutrients and organic substances to the land rich," said the professor of 'Research Institute of Soil, Water and Environment' Nabil Kandil dedicated to the analysis of desert land suitable for afforestation.

Forest in desert

So does the teacher of the 'Department of Water Pollution Research' the Awady Hamdy, who also point out the superiority of the plants irrigated with wastewater. "The waste water has many more nutrients than normal water, so it's an extra source of nutrition that can make plants resistant to harsh climates grow faster and even with green leaves egiptian Forest in desert.

Green Egypt

Both Kandil and El Awady know well the value of matching demand with supply in a country which produces 7 million cubic meters of wastewater per year and at the same time, holds 95% of its territory covered by deserts or barren with little vegetation.

So far, there are 34 forests throughout the country, with a total of 71,400 square kilometers, equivalent to the total area of Panama or Ireland. Furthermore, in accordance with the Egyptian government, there are ten others under construction in an area that adds another 18,600 square kilometers egiptian Forest in desert.
According to Kandil, "The aim is afforested one million square kilometers, which means greening the entire country, but warns that if successful, will be" when all they have now proposed the dead. "
Most plants are now grown up trees such as poplar wood, papyrus, casuarina and eucalyptus trees, planted to meet the country's timber needs, but they have also successfully grown grains to produce biofuels such as jatropha and jojoba , or for making oils such as rapeseed, soybean and sunflower.

Wilderness forests wastewater

Get water from primary treatment plants, where solid contaminants are removed, has been the cheapest, especially as irrigation systems and pump the liquid transport are the same as Egyptian farmers have used for years egiptian Forest in desert.

Although this water requires caution because it contains pollutants and is unaware of the impacts of ecosystem change for biodiversity, the project, implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture in cooperation with the Egyptian Environmental Affairs, appears to be an entire business egiptian Forest in desert..
These hand-made forests are not only fighting the drought, desertification and erosion, said Kandil. "But also draw water from waste, maximize the benefit to farmers and meet the timber needs of Egypt generating economic benefits for the country," he adds.

California upholds the law of climate change

While all the spotlights pointed to the referendum on the legalization of marijuana, California voted controverido quietly on another issue: the law of climate change.
     Despite the rain of millions of oil companies such as Valero or Tesoro, despite the money made from Kansas by brothers David and Charles Koch, 60% of Californians are defending the law and have defeated the "skeptics" in an unprecedented referendum.
    Proposition 23, which sought to invalidate the action was climate change, has been parked at the polls. The law requires the reduction of CO2 emissions in 2020 from 1990 levels therefore remains in force at the eighth economic power in the world, but in Washington would prefer not to hear and the Law of climate change.

Law of climate change

To Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed the law in 2006, has been a personal revenge on the line. "Do not let the Texas oil decide California's energy future," said "Governatorato" in the final stretch of its mandate, nestled in the ranks of Hollywood (with James Cameron to front) and Silicon Valley (Sergey Brin, Gordon Moore) and the Law of climate change.

Neither Schwarzenegger's unpopularity, rampant unemployment and 12% have discouraged Californians, who have decided to continue down the path of renewable and send a powerful signal to the "new majority" in the Capitol.   
In the Mojave Desert, meanwhile, begins in the coming weeks to build the world's largest solar power plant with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, enough to power more than 600,000 households. As in many other occasions, despite its profound contradictions, California is ready to show the rest of the country that another future is possible and the Law of climate change.
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One in five vertebrate species are at risk of extinction

One in five species of invertebrates, ie, complex organisms such as mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, is in danger of collapsing. Says a group of 174 scientists from several countries in a special edition of 'Science Express', the online edition of the journal Science. The prestigious publication presents the work that qualifies as the most comprehensive analysis on the state of biodiversity. And the result is hopeless. 20% of vertebrates are included in the IUCN Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). And the trend is increasing and the Vertebrate species in extinction.
According to experts, the current death rate of species is between 10 and 1,000 times higher than what is known as the extinction of background, ie the average rate of disappearance observed in the fossil record.
Scientists say that life is generally declining. The paper led by Michael Hoffmann, University of Cambridge (UK) offers categorical data and the Vertebrate species in extinction. .
There are approximately 25,000 vertebrates included in the Red List. For biological groups, which are worst are amphibians, with 41% in the list. Then come the mammals, with 25%, 22% reptiles and birds with 13%. In the aquatic environment are on the red list 33% of the cartilaginous fishes and 15% of bony fish.


Vertebrate species in extinction

But despite the dark situation, use their article to note that conservation efforts such as the declaration of protected areas or the enactment of laws take effect. And that suggest that, in not taking such measures the number of species could be up to 20% higher. Conservation is useful, come to say. Invest more in it because it works and the Vertebrate species in extinction.
But there are many aspects to improve. The sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson summed up the lashes of biodiversity: habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, human overpopulation and high consumption of resources and hunting. A challenge that scientists summarized by the acronym HIPPO, and the English words of fronts (Habitat destruction, Invasive species, Pollution, Population, overharvesting) and the Vertebrate species in extinction. .