Category: News

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Carbon footprint of the UK ghost flights during Covid

What are ghost flights?

Flying empty planes is a complete waste

These are flights that are totally empty. These flights took place because airports demanded that a certain percentage of take-off slots were filled in order for each company to retain ownership.

Why is this problematic?

The Average plane emits about 53 pounds of carbon per mile, and flies on average 500 miles. As a result, the average flight emits roughly 25000 pounds of carbon per flight. Roughly speaking, an empty plane uses 20% less fuel, so we can say that each ghost flight emitted roughly 10 tonnes of carbon. Over the 15,000 flights that flew empty, that is 150,000 tonnes of carbon – with no purpose except allowing airports to keep raking in the profits.

At a time when we are all trying to cut carbon emissions this is horrendous. Is it a large portion of our countries annual emissions? no, it is less than 1%. However, at a time when everyone is being encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible this is an absurd waste.

Alarmingly, ghost flights are not only a British thing in many countries around the world they have been a far bigger thing. What is worse, is that this was belatedly recognized by the EU reducing requirements temporarily in the middle of the epidemic.

Things must change – if in the future we have an epidemic which reduces passengers flying to zero, we must also have a reduction in the emissions and flights to zero as well.

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An arrested Sumatran politician – arrested for bribery, was found to have a pet Orangutan among a group of other exotic pets

There is a great deal of corruption in many parts of the world. In many places politicians are almost expected to give themselves extra benefits – indeed those who do not, are often quite notable for standing out.

In this case, after arresting the politician his house was raided, when the animals were found.

Keeping wild animals as pets can carry a 5 year jail sentence, in this case it must -he must not escape penalty for this
Continue reading “An arrested Sumatran politician – arrested for bribery, was found to have a pet Orangutan among a group of other exotic pets”
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Have we been underestimating emissions from deforestation? Perhaps by as much as 100%?

In a world where we are worried about global warming and carbon emissions, it is insanity that we are still cutting down trees. Recent research shows it even more insane – the carbon footprint of deforestation has been shown to have doubled in the last 2 decades.

Unfortunately, this problem is for simple reasons. Generalizing, the majority of people who are worried about global warming are in developed countries – few of these countries have an significant rainforest left, as they cut them down (often centuries ago).

In developing countries, people are less worried about global warming. Are the stupid? No, of course not. In the developed world, for the vast majority of people, we do not need to worry about where our next meal is coming from (sure there are varying levels of poverty, but on the whole dying from starvation in the west is rare). In developing countries, however, starvation is still a problem that occurs from time to time. Terrible famines have occurred within living memory, which means that the populations in these countries are more concerned with plans to stay alive, not with concerns over how difficult they are making their descendants lives.

The worlds forests contain more than a century of human carbon emissions (from fossil fuels). In other words, if we cut it all down we will blow past all possible safety points and will be well in to runaway global warming. We need to help the countries which still contain rainforest – even one off payments in the billions are not enough. The west needs to assist countries with large rainforests, particularly the Democratic republic of the Congo, Indonesia, and Brazil in growing both their economies and food production in the smallest amount of space possible, alongside significant regular payments for retaining their rainforests.

Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen. There is also significant differences between concern from individuals on the ground and the government. If this site succeeds we will create a marketplace for those living by rainforest to benefit, however if the government decides to cut down the forest this will not matter.

What is clear is that not only do we need to end deforestation, but we need to reverse deforestation in many places. This is not only necessary for global warming, but also for rainfall and the whole host of other reasons that benefit local people.

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Can the red sea teach us how to save the worlds corals?

The coral itself is actually usually quite a dull colour, the brilliant colours of coral reefs come from the algae that lives within its coral tissue. These algae’s are called Zooxanthellae and in return for their home, the algae supply most of the corals nutrients.

The problem, is that these algae are very sensitive to temperature changes, and so if the sea remains unusually warm or cold for more than a few days, the algae leaves the corals and this is called a bleaching. This bleaching has occurred more and more recently in the last few years.

As a result of this, it is feared, that up to 90% of the corals worldwide will be lost by 2050.

This is where the red sea corals become so interesting.

The red sea coral reef looks the same as any other reef, but it appears that there is a difference, that might be the key to saving reefs around the world

Just 2 years ago, researchers found some corals in the Gulf of Aqaba, a trench between Israel, Jordan and Egypt which could withstand higher temperatures for longer. Just 1 degree above normal, sustained for a week can be enough to cause bleaching. If the temperature does not fall quickly, the corals will die. Yet here, corals have been seen to survive temperature rises above 7 degrees. It is thought that these corals have developed these abilities because they regularly suffer large temperature changes.

If they can identify corals that have this ability, and translocate them into new reefs, they will cross-breed. As the heat resistant corals are heat resistant, they are likely to survive far longer and therefore be able to pass on their heat resistant trait into the whole reef.

Given the rapidly warming planet, we only have about 30 years to act. Apart from their own intrinsic value, coral reefs are also worth roughly $600,000 per square kilometre each year, through protecting coastlines, increased tourism, medication and a whole lot more effects.

This is a fantastic possible save for the worlds reefs, time will tell if it works.

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Orca have been documented killing and eating blue whales

Orca are generally regarded as the apex predator in the sea. There are obviously others that are good contenders, such as the great white shark – but when orca are nearby, great white sharks go very quiet in an attempt to not draw attention.

It would seem that nothing is too big to be food. Coordinated female lead pods of orca have been documented ramming the whale, and then eating its tongue before it dies.

It is, I suppose, not something that should be remotely surprising. Orca have developed ways of feeding on all sorts of food that would at first glance be out of reach. From rushing in towards a beach, allowing them to aquaplane up onto the beach to grab sea lions, to stunning fish with their tale – stopping them darting away, there is a fascinating range of hunting techniques that they employ.

Continue reading “Orca have been documented killing and eating blue whales”
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Chimpanzees observed treating wounds of fellow chimpanzees with crushed insects

In the coastal National park of Loango – Gabon, over the course of a study of a group of chimpanzees, 19 times chimpanzees were seen catching a spefic insect out of the air, chewing it, and then inserting it into injuries on wounded fellow members of the group.

Given the relative simplicity of the treatment, any chimpanzee can apply it, but this looks like the beginning of medical treatments

A number of insects seem to have a positive impacts when applied to skin, and it is thought that these insects have an anti inflammatory effect, allowing the injury to heal faster.

The injuries are almost always as a result of fights between different groups of chimpanzees.

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Rare black tiger photographed in the wild

Big cats have a range of colours that they can be found in. It is certainly true that their standard colour is more common, but in different parts of their range other colourings might be more helpful. For instance, an Amur tiger that was white may find it easier to creep up on its prey.

A black tiger photographed in the wild

On the Malay peninsular, as much as half of the leopards are black, as this gives them an advantage.

In this case, a black tiger was photographed. The animals was not entirely black, but having far wider stripes, its back looks more black with yellow stripes rather than the other way round. Fewer animals are taken out of the wild than in the past, when an animal like this would likely have been caught and sold to a zoo for many times the price that tigers normally fetch – as this tiger will increase visitor numbers.

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Killing for ivory is increasing the numbers of tusk-less females

Do elephants need tusks? It is a big question. Given the fact that they have them would suggest that they do have a purpose and therefore that life without them may be harder.

In Gorogosa national park in Mozambique, tuskless females became more common after ivory poaching become common during their 15 year civil war.

A natural evolution -due to our habit of hunting elephants with the biggest tusks increasing numbers are being born without

Being born tuskless, is not an unnatural affair. Indeed, some females have always been missing tusks. However, during the war 90% of the parks elephants were poached. If an elephant is chosen for its tusks over a period of 15 years, this gives elephants born tuskless a significant advantage. Importantly, with a death rate of 90% even if the tusks make life easier in some way, they are still going to loose them.

Elephants are dangerous animals that need to be treated with respect at the best of times. They can do much damage with their trunks and likewise throwing their weight around can easily overturn a car, As a result, while loss of tusks may be an impediment (and would appear to be so, as post poaching periods tusks usually return) it is clearly not a death sentence – and as in these periods, having tusks IS, it is not surprising that the few born without rapidly come to dominate the population.

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Bees killed 63 endangered penguins in south Africa

Around the planet, humans kill vast numbers of wildlife and we have pushed many to extinction.

Something we need to remember, is that we are not the only dangerous thing on earth. We need to allow each species to be able to cope with natural deaths that occur from elsewhere.

This event from a few months ago is a case in point. African penguins and African bees are both native species. It is unclear as to what caused this mass stinging event, but it is thought to be a fluke and not likely to be repeated.

While not thought of as an African species, penguins to still live in South Africa,

There are only thought to be a little more than 10,000 penguins left in South Africa, so we must watch that this does not become common, as it could push an already stressed population out of existence.

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Are the days of the Nigerian gorilla numbered?

Nigeria was once a wildlife rich country. Unfortunately as a country whose population has soared over the last few decades much of the wilderness has been lost.

Afi River forest reserve in the eastern Nigeria cross river state is an forest corridor which connects small fragments of remaining gorilla habitat. However, this may well cease to be the case in the near future, as satellite data has shown significant deforestation in this area. The problem with forest corridors, is that they do not tend to be particularly wide – which means relatively small levels of deforestation can disconnect one end from the other.

These animals are important for the functioning of the local ecosystem, as well as having the ability to attract enough tourists to greatly benefit the local population – if habitat loss can be halted
Continue reading “Are the days of the Nigerian gorilla numbered?”
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