Greetings
H
ello readers, i am Ashil Hernanda, the chairperson of AEC 2019. as we know, HERO is our monthly magazine wherein every information about AEC’s programs and other interesting topics are displayed and discussed. in this April edition we will give you a lot information about the environment. We feel it is important to talk about it since we only have one earth to live in. we have to preserve it so not only us, but also our grandchildren’s generation can continue to live in a better condition. Let’s take care of our environment for the sake of our future.
Headline News
Dead sperm whale found off Italian island had 22kg of plastic in stomach Source: Channel News Asia
Marine plastic pollution costs the world up to $2.5bn a year, researchers find Source: The Guardian Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans costs society billions of dollars every year in damaged and lost resources, research has found. Fisheries, aquaculture, recreational activities and global wellbeing are all negatively affected by plastic pollution, with an estimated 1-5% decline in the benefit humans derive from oceans. The resulting cost in such benefits, known as marine ecosystem value, is up to $2.5bn (£1.9bn) a year, according to a study published this week in Marine Pollution Bulletin. Plastic waste is also believed to cost up to $33,000 per ton in reduced environmental value, the study found. An estimated 8m tons of plastic pollution enter the world’s oceans every year. Dr. Nicola Beaumont, an environmental economist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, who led the study, said the investigation was the first of its kind to explore the social and economic impact of plastics in the sea.
“Our calculations are a first stab at ‘putting a price on plastic’. We know we have to do more research to refine, but we are convinced that already they are an underestimate of the real costs to global human society,” said Beaumont. The estimates do not take into account the direct and indirect impacts on the tourism, transport and fisheries industries, or on human health, the authors warned. Plastic waste can be found all over the world – from the most populated coastlines to the most remote – and its impact on zooplankton, invertebrates, fish, turtles, birds and mammals is all negative, the study found. But authors discovered that plastics – which can remain buoyant for decades or longer, travelling distances of more than 3,000km from origin – create new habitats for bacteria and algae. These “colonies” increase the biogeographical range of bacteria and algae, thereby risking the spread of invasive species and disease, the research found.
An eight - meters sperm whale was found dead off the Italian island of Sardinia with 22kg of plastic in its belly, AP reported on Tuesday (Apr 2). The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) sounded the alarm over plastics in the Mediterranean Sea following the finding. The environmental organization said on Monday the garbage recovered in the sperm whale’s stomach included a corrugated tube for electrical works, plastic plates, shopping bags, tangled fishing lines and a washing detergent package with the brand and bar code still legible. WWF said plastic is one of the greatest threats to marine life and has killed at least five other whales around the world in the last two years. Just last month, a starving whale
with 40kg of plastic trash in its stomach died after being washed ashore in the Philippines. Activists called it one of the worst cases of poisoning they have seen. The curvier beaked whale died in the southern province of Compostela Valley where it was stranded a day earlier. In November last year, a sperm whale found dead in a national park in Indonesia had nearly 6kg of plastic waste, including 115 cups. The 9.5m whale was found in waters near Kapota Island, part of the Wakatobi National Park, south east of Sulawesi. In June, the death of a pilot whale in Thailand with 80 pieces of plastic rubbish in its stomach garnered headlines locally, but drew more attention outside the country.
Matters
Causes of Environmental Degradation Source: www.conserve-energy-future.com Some environmental life species require substantial areas to help provide food, living space, and other different assets. These creatures are called area specific. At the point when the biome is divided, the vast patches of living space don’t exist anymore. It gets to be more troublesome for the wildlife to get the assets they need in order to survive. The environment goes on, even though the animals and plant life are not there to help sustain it properly. 1. Land Disturbance: A more basic cause of environmental degradation is land damage. Numerous weedy plant species, for example, garlic mustard, are both foreign and obtrusive. A rupture in the environmental surroundings provides for them a chance to start growing and spreading. These plants can assume control over nature, eliminating the local greenery. The
result is territory with a solitary predominant plant which doesn’t give satisfactory food assets to all the environmental life. Whole environments can be destroyed because of these invasive species. 2. Pollution: Pollution, in whatever form, whether it is air, water, land or noise is harmful for the environment. Air pollution pollutes the air that we breathe which causes health issues. Water pollution degrades the quality of water that we use for drinking purposes. Land pollution results in degradation of earth’s surface as a result of human activities. Noise pollution can cause irreparable damage to our ears when exposed to continuous large sounds like honking of vehicles on a busy road or machines producing large noise in a factory or a mill.
3. Overpopulation: Rapid population growth puts strain on natural resources which results in degradation of our environment. Mortality rate has gone down due to better medical facilities which has resulted in increased lifespan. More population simple means more demand for food, clothes and shelter. You need more space to grow food and provide homes to millions of people. This results in deforestation which is another factor of environmental degradation. 4. Landfills: Landfills pollute the environment and destroy the beauty of the city. Landfills come within the city due the large amount of waste that gets generated by households, industries, factories and hospitals. Landfills pose a great risk to the health of the environment and the people who live there. Landfills produce foul smell when burned and cause huge environmental degradation. 5. Deforestation: Deforestation is the cutting
down of trees to make way for more homes and industries. Rapid growth in population and urban sprawl are two of the major causes of deforestation. Apart from that, use of forest land for agriculture, animal grazing, harvest for fuel wood and logging are some of the other causes of deforestation. Deforestation contributes to global warming as decreased forest size puts carbon back into the environment. 6: Natural Causes: Things like avalanches, quakes, tidal waves, storms, and wildfires can totally crush nearby animal and plant groups to the point where they can no longer survive in those areas. This can either come to fruition through physical demolition as the result of a specific disaster, or by the long term degradation of assets by the presentation of an obtrusive foreign species to the environment. The latter frequently happens after tidal waves, when reptiles and bugs are washed ashore.
Movements
3. Greenpeace
4. WALHI (Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia)
1. WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature)
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961, working in the field of the wilderness preservation, and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. WWF is the world’s largest conservation organization with over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation and environmental projects.
2. FOEI (Friend Of The Earth International) Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 74 countries. Its advocacy programs focus on environmental issues, highlighting their social, political and human rights contexts. As per its website, the current campaign priorities of Friends of the Earth internationally are: economic justice and resisting neoliberalism, forests and biodiversity, food sovereignty and climate justice and energy (Including releasing the song “Love Song To the Earth”). The campaign priorities of FOEI are set at its bi-annual general meeting. Additionally, FOEI also plans campaigns in other fields like desertification, Antarctica, maritime, mining and extractive industries and nuclear power. In 2016, FOEI also led a campaign on the consumption and intensive meat production (Meat Atlas).
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over 39 countries and an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Greenpeace was founded in 1971 by Irving Stowe, and Dorothy Stowe, Canadian and US ex-pat environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to “ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity” and focuses its campaigning on worldwide issues such as climate change, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues. It uses direct action, lobbying, research, and ecotage to achieve its goals. The global organization does not accept funding from governments, corporations, or political parties, relying on three million individual supporters and foundation grants.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) is the largest independent, non-profit environmental organization in Indonesia. WALHI sharpens focus and priority in managing Campaigns and advocating for various issues: • Water, food and sustainability • Forests and Plantations • Energy and Mining • Coastal and Sea • Urban Issues 5. KEHATI (Yayasan Keanekaragaman Hayati Indonesia) The presence of KEHATI since January 12, 1994 was intended to collect and manage resources which were subsequently channeled in the form of grants, facilitation, consultation and various other facilities to support various biodiversity conservation programs in Indonesia and their use in a fair and sustainable manner. KEHATI acts as a catalyst to find innovative ways to sustainably, manage and utilize Indonesia’s biodiversity in a sustainable manner. The support of the various parties mentioned above is very necessary to save Indonesia’s biodiversity from extinction, so that the benefits of preserving biodiversity can be felt up to the next generation.
Documentations
Sunday Morning
Upgrading for BOC
Refreshing Day