Pesticides: a vicious circle.

The indiscriminate use of pesticides sets off a vicious circle: 

• natural predators are destroyed 
• emergence of pests resistant to chemicals 
• without predators, pests increase 
• new, more powerful pesticides are created 
• more predators are destroyed 
• emergence of new, more resistant strains 
• without predators, crop pests increase dramatically 
• a new pesticide is put on the market
• ...and the spiral goes on... 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

Russia-Iran: the "animal diplomacy" doesn't stop.

Russia and Iran want to reintroduce the leopards in the Caucasus. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology and the Iranian Ministry of Environment are about to sign a draft agreement for cooperation in the protection of the environment. 
The Russian vice Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Igor Maidanov, during a visit to Iran signed a document which "is regulating the cooperation between the two countries to preserve the biodiversity and to develop the protected natural territories. The parties have signed the agreement during a meeting in Teheran (on the 29th of December of 2009) between the Russian vice Minister of the Resources, Igor Maidanov, and the Deputy Director of the Iranian Organization for the environment, G. B. Saduk". 
This document disciplines the cooperation between the two countries "in the field of biodiversity conservation, development of particularly protected natural zones and Convention of Teheran". Iranians and Russians also examined the practical aspects of the programme of reintroduction of the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) in the Western Caucasus. 

The programme, which started during September of 2009, aims to restore the population of these extremely rare felines, which are at risk of extinction, in the Russian part of the Caucasus, restoring the presence of the leopards in their ancient areal. 
In September Maidanov asked the Iranian Ambassador in Moscow, Mamud Reza Sajjadi, if Iran could give some Persian leopards to reintroduce them in the Caucasus. This request concerns at least two female specimens so that they mate with the two males which were given to Russia from Turkmenistan and that are housed in a reserve near Sochi. 
The leopard project was wanted directly from Vladimir Putin as a demonstration of environmental commitment on the occasion of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Putin, who has a penchant for large carnivores, went to the city on the shores of the Black Sea to personally welcome the Turkmenain leopards. 
Iran is one of the last shelters of Persian leopards, which once populated all the forests and mountains of the Caucasus and central Asia, Small populations of these leopards resist also in Armenia, Georgia and Turkmenistan. 

The dangers of soluble fertilizers.

Chemical soluble fertilizers are manufactured in liquid, powdery or granular forms. 

In the last 50 years they have been widely used to meet the farmers' requirements for productivity. As a matter of fact, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers don't only improve plant growth but dramatically increase crop yields. If fertilizers, adequately used, are good for plant development, they're not so for soil life. Some potassium fertilizers are lethal to earthworms so, as time goes by, the soil loses its fertility. Moreover, too much potassium makes the plants walls thin and too much nitrogen causes a watery growth. Therefore, the plants become more susceptible to pests and diseases. 

Soluble fertilizers move in three different directions: downwards, sidewards and out of the farm boundaries. 

The downward movement is harmful, as fertilizers go down to the deepest layers and pollute the water tables. 

The sideward movement is also dangerous, as fertilizers reach rivers and waterways, causing the growth of water weeds and algae: the consequence is that insects and fish die. 

Fertilizers which go out of the farms can be found inside the vegetables in our diet, particularly in leafy vegetables. 

However, they shouldn't be confused with chemical pesticides and fungicides, which are highly polluting and have devastating effects on human health and the environment. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

Sea Shepherd's Vortex project and Raw for the Oceans.

In 2014 Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has launched a new project, called Vortex, in collaboration with Pharrell Williams and its eco-material company Bionic Yarn and with the Dutch denim brand G-Star Raw. 
This project consists of cleaning the Oceans of plastic debris and transform it into fashion. 

The great difference between this project and the ones carried out by other eco-friendly companies is that it will close the loop of waste by recycling the products at the end of their life cycle and manufacture new ones from them. 

In August the first material result of this project came out: "Raw for the Oceans". It is a G-Star Raw collection of garments made with Bionic Yarn and curated by Pharrell Williams. 

"I love the ocean. It's always been an inspiration to me. How it works, its depth, what it emotes, its relations to the moon, its cycles and the inhabitants of the ocean. You can never know enough. There is so much down there and in there; it's a huge inspiration to me."

-Pharrell Williams 

"Plastic is choking our Oceans and precious marine wildlife at an unprecedented rate. Straws, single-use bags, six-pack rings, drink lids and more are ensnaring marine animals or blocking their digestive systems, killing these magnificent creatures. It's time humanity takes responsibility for our actions and cleans up the mess we've made. We hope this is the first of many meaningful collaborations to come."

-Captain Paul Watson 

Happy life, happy human beings, happy oceans. 

Why we should all be VEGETARIANS.

As you know, I am vegetarian. 
Italy has the highest rate of vegetarians in the EU: 10% of the population, 6 million people. 
In Germany the rate is 9%, 10% in Sweden, 4.5% in the Netherlands. 

In my opinion, we shoud all be vegetarians because of many reasons: 
- I think it's cruel and inhuman killing other animals to eat them, basically just on a whim and, furthermore, the way of killing the animals in the slaughterhouses is horrible.
- There are environmental reasons: over 15.000 liters of water are needed to produce a kilogramme of red meat and we all know that water is becoming more precious day by day; one third of the world's crops are used to feed the farm animals and, obviously, meat has a lower yield in terms of quantity compared to the vegetables. And we complain about World Hunger...
- There are also health reasons: it is shown that meat contains substances which are harmful and eating them increases the risk of suffering from health problems, diseases and tumors. 

What do you think about vegetarianism? Please, let me know by sending me an email to thenorthernlightsdiary@gmail.com! 

About sustainable agriculture...BIOPESTICIDES.

A growing number of farmers is realizing how important is to protect the environment, so they are starting to use biopesticides and biological control agents, such as plants, bacteria, fungi, predatory and parasitic insects. 

These methods allow to create a compendium between minimum crop losses and a greater protection of the environment. 

Of course, biopesticides are less harmful to humans and break down faster than typical agrochemicals. 

Some fungi are even good for the soil, as they liberate its nutrients which promote plant growth. 

A little known extinction...

Too often we think that the only reason tied to the man which leads a wild species to the extinction is the indiscriminate hunting and the destruction of the habitat. 
Unfortunately, a much more sneaky and hard to notice threat is represented by a wide range of animals (more or less domestic) which always accompany the men when they arrive in a new place. 

It is enormous the number of mammals, reptiles and birds that became extinct because of the arrival in their nesting places of dogs, cats and especially mice. 
Sadly, history teaches that man, even indirectly, has never been able to protect a wild place after having discovered it. 

By way of example, you may remember what happened to the Dieffenbach rail, discovered in 1843 in Chatham Island, which became extinct in less than 10 years because of the massacre of chicks by mice that had arrived with the European ships. 
The Tahiti rail, besides having been boarded on ships as "fresh food storage", became extinct mainly because of predation by cats in 1844. 
The Southern merlin became extinct in less than 60 years because of predator mammals which arrived in its habitat with the Europeans. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

Help the environment: eat 0 km!

From the very first moment a vegetable is picked, its natural sugars start converting into starch. 

Each day that those store-bought vegetables spend in transit from the fields to warehouses to store shelves, they lose their natural goodness that the earth and the sun gave them. 

It is very important, when you do the shopphing, to pay attention to the place where the food you buy comes from: you should always choose 0 km food and thus, consequently, seasonal food. 

It's preferable to buy fruit and vegetables in local market instead supermarkets: generally, they are fresher and they come from nearer places. 

0 km food is very good for the environment: it's glaringly obvious that the food that comes from the immediate vicinity requires a lower consumption of fuel that, as a consequence, provokes less pollution. 

It would be a great thing if everyone cultivated something (biologically, of course!) on their own: it would be a totally 0 km way of eating! It's not a difficult thing to do: sure, it would be better having a piece of land, but also who doesn't can cultivate some fruit or vegetables in pots (now my father has a vegetable garden, but when he didn't he grew tomatoes and Chinese mandarins on the balcony!). 

So, go and create your own vegetable garden! And then send me a photo to thenorthernlightsdiary@gmail.com , maybe. 

Arctic: we are all involved.

Gazprom and Shell have recently started to drill in the Arctic waters. 

The greenhouse effect reduces more and more the ice layer. 

We're destroying the sunshade which stands right over the heads of everyone in the world. 

The "Arctic problem" concerns us all. It is about us all. 

The Arctic is an extremely fragile ecosystem which is today threatened: we have to stop its deterioration. 

It is home to beautiful animal species like the polar bear, the walrus, the Arctic fox, the seals, the whales and the narwhal. 

Polar bears are strongly affected by the ice melting: it often happens that they swim for miles and miles before they find some stable ice...and too often they die trying. 

Please, sign the petition of Greenpeace to help things change! http://www.savethearctic.org/. 

Greenpeace also launched an initiative to make our voices heard on the Arctic problem: it consists in reaching a high point (a hill, a mountain, a skyscraper, a panoramic point...it doesn't matter what, it only has to be high), taking a photo and then sending it to Greenpeace or publishing it on Facebook or other social networks with the hashtag #ontop to #savethearctic. https://act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1844&ea.campaign.id=30943. 

So...what are you waiting for?? Go take a photo! And send it to thenorthernlightsdiary@gmail.com, I'll publish it on the blog. 

If you want to, send me an email with your opinions on the Arctic situation or with your suggestions for the topics of the posts. 

Alone we can't do much...but together we are strong! 

To make this a better blog...

...I need your help! 

I have always thought that the best way to improve myself and get in touch with new realities is the contact and the exchange of information with other people. 
I see that many people from all around the world read my posts: Italians, Americans, Russians, Turkish, Germans, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Ukrainians, French. 
You would help me so much suggesting new ideas for the topics of the blog! Maybe talking me about situations of your own countries. 
You are free to write me in English, Italian, French and Spanish. 
So, if you want to, write me an email to thenorthernlightsdiary@gmail.com and help me to improve in quality and quantity this blog! 

Best wishes!

Chiara 

Acid as...rain!

Acid rain is one of the most dangerous and widespread forms of pollution. 
This international problem was first noticed by England and Canada. Later also in the USA, in the Scandinavian countries (Finland, Norway and Sweden) and in other countries like Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Austria and Northern Italy. 

This phenomenon has dramatically increased over the past few decades. 
Many living and non-living systems has become harmed and damaged as a result of the acid rain. They are caused by the smoke and gases expelled by factories, airplanes and cars. When fossil fuels burn the sulphures are combined with oxygen and are transformed into sulphur dioxide and some of the nitrogen in the air becomes nitrogen oxide. 
These pollutants bind to water and so chemicals fall back to the earth. 

When trees get damaged by the acid rain their leaves and needles turn brown and fall off. 
In the polluted lakes and rivers fish die and birds and mammals can be killed by eating them. 

The only solution to this problem is to save energy and pollute less (or to use renewable energy). When less "dirty" energy is used, less coal is burnt and so there will be less acid rain. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

Japan, stop killing Bluefin tuna!

In Japan the Bluefin tuna is particularly prized (a single large fish can fetch more than $ 100.000). 
The large demand in this country led to aggressive fishing practices and the populations today are a tenth of what they were in the 1950s. 
The decline is faster everyday because of open-ocean pens where wild juvenile tuna are put: these animals are removed from the wild before they have spawned and this is deleterious for the survival of the species. 

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/bluefin-tuna

We're destroying our source of survival. WATER POLLUTION.

As teachers have always told us since the very first years of school, water is essential for life. They taught us the water cycle, that it covers 71% of the earth's surface, that it makes up 65% of our bodies. 
Now, water is becoming increasingly polluted and this is a threat to our health, to the fertility of the soil and to the survival of wildlife. 

Water pollution is the result of human activities. 
The water we daily use in our houses and industries is taken from lakes, rivers and from the underground and, after we have used it (and contaminated it) most of it returns to these locations. 
If this waste water is not treated before it is discharged into waterways, then serious pollution will be the result. 

To prevent water pollution we should remove the pollutants before the water gets back into the environment. 
When the polluted water of the rivers arrive to the sea the nitrates and phosphates create beds of green algae and produce periodic catastrophic loss of marine life. 
In the 60s the Thames was biologically "dead"...nowadays the quality of its water is better. 

This situation is worse in the developing countries, where environmental policies are often almost non-existent and hazardous substances are used in the industrial processes and then poured out into lakes and rivers. 
Lots of people in these countries die because of the contaminated water and many ecosystems have been or are being destroyed. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post) 

GREENHOUSE effect. We have to stop it. And we have to start NOW.

125.000 years ago in Europe there were lions and elephants; at that time the temperatures were 3 Celsius degrees higher than today and forests covered Greenland. 
Soon, it may be 3 degrees hotter again but this time the change isn't happening naturally. 
This all is happening because of pollution...and it is happening very quickly. 

Pollution sends 4 main "greenhouse gases" into the atmosphere. They are: 
- Carbon dioxide (CO2)
- CFC (chloro-fluoro-carbons)
- Methane 
- Nitrous oxide 

CO2 is the most important greenhouse gas and it causes half of this problem. Nearly 6 billion tonnes of it enter the atmosphere every year from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil). An extra 1,5 billion tonnes each year come from the burning of rainforest trees; normally, trees absorb CO2 but there are less day by day. 
Methane and Nitrous oxide come from fertilizers, cow's stomachs and rubbish. 
CFC are very dangerous, each one can trap 10.000 time more heat than an atom of CO2...and they don't just stay in the atmosphere, they destroy the ozone layer! 

The greenhouse effect causes enormous damage to the earth and its inhabitants: the sun's rays reflected on earth can't easily get out of the atmosphere, causing a rise in the level of temperatures; this provokes the melting of the perennial ice, causing a rise in the sea levels and the desertification of lots of areas of the planet. The oceans' temperature increase causes always more frequent devastating atmospheric phenomena. The knock-on effects produced are dreadful. 

So...HOW CAN WE STOP IT? 

- Stop using fossil fuels 

- Preserve rainforests beacuse the earth needs more trees, not fewer

- Use renewable energy, now at 20%. To slow down the greenhouse effect that number must rise to 50% in the next 15 years

- Totally ban CFCs in all the countries of the world

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

Towards sustainable agriculture...

A growing movement emerged during the past two decades whose aim is to promote practices that contribute to solve many environmental and social concerns. 
Sustainable agriculture consists in reducing (but not eliminating) the use of chemical products, developing integrated farming systems. This all received considerable attention from researchers, who see it as a compromise between conventional and organic farming. 

Sustainable agriculture has within it three main goals: 
- to improve agricultural production and systems;
- to fulfil farmers' needs and lifestyle choices;
- to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. 

"Sustainable rural development must become a key priority for the European Union. Public health must not be endangered. It is more important than commercial interests." (Franz Fischler, 1996)

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post) 

Lest we forget...2010, catastrophe in the Gulf.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. 
On April 22, the rig collapsed causing the worst spill in U.S. history (and maybe the world's). 
Despite all the attempts to stop the mile-long pipeline, oil inundated delicate wetlands, smothering plants and wildlife. 
Beaches closed and fishing grounds were shut down. 
The environmental, economic and political repercussions spread well beyond the oil-slicked surface of the Gulf...

The journey of Sky, Amber and Scout: Disney Nature's "Bears".

After "Earth", Disney amazes again with an extraordinary documentary about the life of an Alaskan bears family and their incredible habitat. 

The journey of this mama-bear and her two cubs starts at the end of winter in the mountains, going down to the coast looking for food, facing the thousands of troubles and threats of the wild life. 

This documentary also shows the life of the other Alaskan bears and of other species surrounding them like wolves, American eagles, salmons ecc. 

I strongly recommend to watch it to all the people who (like me) are spellbound in front of the uncontaminated nature and the magical shows that it can give. 

INDONESIA: deforestation champion.

The magazine "Nature climate change" published a report about deforestation which revealed that Indonesia has a double deforestation rate compared to the Brazilian one and so it has become the greatest forests destroyer in the world : 840.000 hectares (compared to 460.000 hectares destroyed by Brazil) of primary and uncontaminated forests.

But there are good news... The winner of the latest political elections, Joko Widodo, has announced a plan to preserve the forests. We hope they won't remain just words...

Floating nuclear power plants in the Arctic...Imminent catastrophe.

In Pevek, a small Siberian town bathed by one of the earth's coldest seas, the Russians are completing the first prototype of floating nuclear power plant. 
This power plant is composed of 2 mini reactors of 35 megawatts, mounted on a platform which can be transported offshore. Indeed, the designers created this all to be able to transport it in the remotest regions of the Arctic Ocean. 
As if this were not enough, this power plant is going to be used to give energy to the drills of the Arctic oil platforms. The manifacturer said that other floating nuclear power plants of 1000 megawatts to be moored off the cost of Siberia are in planning, to produce energy that, through submarine cables, will be brought to the mainland. 

The power plants are using the Arctic marine water for the cooling. 
If something went wrong (which is very likely) an intervention in those seas would be almost impossible, while the destruction of the extremely fragile Arctic environment would be granted...and an enormous, shocking tragedy would be about to fall upon us all. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

82 years ago...the extinction of the Schomburgk's deer.

The Schomburgk's deer was anhelpc species which lived in Thailand. It lived in herds composed of 6-10 specimens in the low-lying and marshy areas of south-eastern Asia.
Its main characteristic were the long, tapered paws, totally different from every other American, European and Asian deer. Those paws were perfect to move in the unstable marshes in which it usually grazed the newly grown grass and shrubs.

Unfortunately, this beautiful animal was a victim of the industrial and demographic growth of its country: the rapid rise of rice request to feed an always greater population led to a total and indiscriminate reclamation of wetlands to be converted into rice fields.

As if that was not enough, the hunting of this animal exploded, to give meat to the workers who we're destroying its habitat.
The last Schomburgk's deer was probably killed on the 1st of August of 1932.

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)