The Environment Chronicle

On 27 June 2012, Gabon burned its burned its government-held stockpile of ivory to mark the country's commitment to combat poaching and illegal wildlife trade.

On 28 June 2012, Swiss Federal Council decided to built a second road tunnel through the Gotthard.

On 26 June 2012, the German government and federal states agreed on cuts to the country's solar feed-in tariff (FIT). Under the compromise, one-off cuts in incentives of 20 to 30 percent from April are to remain and incentives will be capped for installed capacity of 52 gigawatts. Solar power will still have to be fed into the grid, but at market prices. In addition, medium-sized plants of 10-40 kilowatts will receive compensation of 18.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

On 24 June 2012, Lonesome George, the sole remaining Pinta Island tortoise and Galapagos conservation icon, was found dead in his corral at the Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Center in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, by members of the Galapagos National Park Service. Lonesome George was found on Pinta Island in 1972, although Pinta tortoises were thought to be extinct. Since then, Lonesome George has been part of the Tortoise Program of the Galapagos National Park Service. Over the years, various efforts were made to get George to reproduce.

On 23 June 2012, a highly endangered Sumatran rhinoceros gave birth to a calf in Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park on the island of Sumatra. It is only the fifth known birth in captivity for the species in 123 years.

Based on the proposition of allergologist Prof. Dr. Kristof Nekam and Dr. Tamas Komives (President of IRS) the General Assembly of IRS (held in Ascona, Switzerland on October 6, 2011) proclaimed the first Saturday of the summer The International Ragweed Day (IRD) to increase understanding and awareness of the problem this invasive weed causes all over the world. The day was chosen because it is early in the growing season of the plant thereby gives enough time for preparations and actions.

From 20 to 22 June 2012, the UN conference for sustainable development, Rio+20,took place in Rio de Janeiro. The location of the conference has a symbolic relevance, as it is the same place where standards for global climate and environmental policies were set at the Earth Summit 20 years ago. In 1992 the international community committed itself for the first time to the general principal of sustainable development and adopted the Agenda 21 action programme. The conference also adopted the Rio declaration and the UN conventions on climate change, on biological diversity and to combat desertification.

On 20 June 2012, the National Platform for Electromobility presented its third report on electromobility in Germany.

USA forest service, Rwanda, a Brazilian coalition and indigenous groups from Mesoamerica have committed to restoring a total of more than 18 million hectares of their forest landscape. The commitments are made by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (15 Million hectares), the Government of Rwanda (2 million hectares), and the Brazilian Mata Atlantica Forest Restoration Pact—a coalition of government agencies, NGOs and private sector partners (over 1 million hectares) and the Mesoamerican Alliance of Indigenous Peoples.

The people of Munich voted against the construction of a third runway in a referendum held on 17 June 2012.

On 16 June 2012, Global Environment Facility CEO and Chairperson Monique Barbut joined other high-level dignitaries to mark the official launch of the Green Industry Platform, an initiative to mobilize action for the "Green Industry Agenda," which aims to promote green manufacturing and create green industries. In an address at the event, she expressed concern that the work accomplished by international institutions, organizations and countries does not suffice in an era where stronger ties between private and public sectors must be established for the successful development of sustainable environment initiatives. Spearheaded by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the "Green Industry Platform" is a global high-level multi-stakeholder partnership intended to act as a forum for catalyzing, mobilizing and mainstreaming action on green industry around the world. It serves as a channel which brings together governmental, business and civil society leaders.

On 14 June 2012, Environment Minister Tony Burke released the Government's final network of marine reserves which - once proclaimed under national environmental law - will increase the number of marine reserves from 27 to 60, expanding the national network to cover more than a third of Commonwealth waters. The new marine reserves take the overall size of the Commonwealth marine reserves network to 3.1 million square kilometres, by far the largest representative network of marine protected areas in the world.

On 14 June 2012, the Seveso III rules were approved by the European Parliament with 593 votes in favour, 10 against and 7 abstentions.

On 12 June 2012 Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, died at the age of 78. Ostrom received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her groundbreaking research demonstrating that ordinary people are capable of creating rules and institutions that allow for the sustainable and equitable management of shared resources.

On 12 June 2012 between 17,000 and 30,000 litres of oil leaked into the Danube in the port of the Slovakian capital Bratislava on Tuesday, local media reported. The fire brigade were able to retain most of the leaked oil in the port area, but indeterminate volumes are thought to have reached the Danube and its branch, the Little Danube.

On 12 June 2012, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is part of the World Health Organization (WHO), classified diesel engine exhaust as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1), based on sufficient evidence that exposure is associated with an increased risk for lung cancer.

An oil spill was caused by a pipeline rupture on 7 June, polluting a tributary of Red Deer River, in Alberta, south-west Canada. 475,000 litres of crude oil was spilt, threatening the drinking water supply of the 90,000 inhabitants of Red Deer. The operating company Plains Midstream Canada stopped pipeline operations and shut the valves as soon as the leak was discovered, as well as setting up floating booms.

On 6 June 2012, the European Commission presented a Communication on its renewable energy policy, outlining options for the period beyond 2020. It confirms the market integration of renewables and the need for their growth in the decades after 2020. The Communication also calls for a more coordinated European approach in the establishment and reform of support schemes and an increased use of renewable energy trading among Member States.

Increasing alarm for the fate of the two rarest rhinoceros species, and growing concern over the increased illegal hunting of rhinos and demand for rhino horn affecting all five species, has prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia to declare 5 June 2012 as the start of the International Year of the Rhino. President Yudhoyono took this step at the request of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and other conservation organisations, because the future survival of both the Javan and Sumatran Rhinos depends on effective conservation action in Indonesia.

In the run-up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20, the Federal Environment Ministry has launched an initiative Making it Happen to support interested countries on their road to sustainable development with the expertise of renowned business corporations. The companies will organise workshops for local businesses in the countries concerned, and advise the governments on how they can create incentives for more innovative and sustainable management and ensure greater consideration of social issues. Other companies from Germany and abroad are welcome to join the initiative.

On 29 June 2012 scientists were at a loss to explain the mysterious deaths of more than 70 green turtles (Chelonia mydas) that have washed up on beaches in northeast Australia over June 2012.

On 1 June 2012, the practical phase of the so-called fact-finding started with drilling into chamber 7 in a depth of 750 m. On his first visit to the Asse mine, the Federal Environment Minister, Peter Altmaier, started the drilling process with the help of which emplacement chamber 7 will be explored.

The European Commission had provisionally rejected the ECI “My Vote against Nuclear Power” launched by GLOBAL 2000/Friends of the Earth Austria and organised together with international partner organisations.

On 29 May 2012, Unit 4 at the Cattenom nuclear power plant was automatically shut following an electricity failure.

The growing erection of photovoltaic systems and the early summer weather provided Germany with a new world record for solar capacity, producing electricity at midday on 25 May 2012. According to IWR, a renewable energy institute based in Muenster, German solar systems with a capacity of more than 20,000 MW feeding environmentally friendly power into the national grid for the first time under a cloudless sky at midday on Friday. The solar power plant capacity reached 22,000 MW at midday on Friday. This is equivalent to the capacity of more than 20 nuclear power stations.

On 25 may 2012, the captain and navigation officer of container ship Rena were each jailed for seven months. Both the captain and navigation officer pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including operating a ship in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk to persons or property. The Rena grounded on Astrolabe Reef on the Bay of Plenty coast on October 5 last year, spilling fuel, cargo and other debris into the sea and causing an environmental disaster on the coast.

On 25 May 2012, President Dilma Rousseff vetoed portions of Brazil’s new Forest Code.

With the votes of the ruling Conservative/Liberal coalition, the German Bundestag (Parliament) adopted an amendment of the Combined Heat and Power Act (KWKG – ref. no. 17/8801 as amended by the Economics Committee, ref. no. 17/9617). The bill aims to increase the share of combined heat and power in the German energy mix from roughly 15% to date to 25% by 2020.

If global warming continues at its current pace, the planet will increasingly suffer irreversible damages to its biodiversity, natural resources and substantial losses of human life and territory according to a joint report published on 10 May 2012, by CARE International, Germanwatch, ActionAid and WWF at the Climate Change Conference in Bonn. The joint report called "Into Unknown Territory: The limits to adaptation and reality of loss and damage from climate impacts" concludes that adaptation to climate change alone will no longer suffice. Governments will need to take new measures to deal with extreme impacts and prepare for losses due to climate change. Unless substantial efforts are taken immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage climate resilient development, global warming could exceed 4 and even 6°C. The costs will place a massive burden even on industrialized countries, whilst massively increasing poverty and reversing development gains in poorer regions. The figures are staggering, conservative estimates show that we could risk around 2 trillion USD in economic and non-economic impacts worldwide by the year 2060 combined with potentially irreversible losses to ecosystems and biodiversity.

On 24 May 2012 Los Angeles became the largest city in the USA to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a major victory to clean-water advocates who sought to reduce the amount of trash clogging landfills, the region’s waterways and the ocean. Egged on by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and an array of environmental groups, the City Council voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic bags over the next 12 months at an estimated 7,500 stores.

The European Parliament approved, in plenary on 23 May 2012, a draft regulation that writes into EU law the new international rules designed to reduce illegal catches of bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. The new rules, which focus primarily on reducing the size of fishing fleets, extending closed seasons for purse seiners and tightening controls, were agreed at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) in November 2011.

The European Commission has adopted a framework under which Member states may compensate some electro-intensive users, such as steel and aluminium producers, for part of the higher electricity costs expected to result from a change to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) as from 2013. The rules ensure that national support measures are designed in a way that preserves the EU objective of decarbonising the European economy and maintains a level playing field among competitors in the internal market. The sectors deemed eligible for compensation include producers of aluminium, copper, fertilisers, steel, paper, cotton, chemicals and some plastics.

A newly discovered frog in Panama is bright yellow and dyes your fingers yellow if you touch it. The frog was discovered in 2010 in the mountains of western Panama by Andreas Hertz and colleagues, who are reptile and amphibian specialists at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The analysis of the new frog was published May 21 in the journal ZooKeys .

On 21 May 2012, is the 20th anniversary of two key instruments for the conservation and sustainable use of nature in the EU: the Habitats Directive and LIFE, the EU financing programme for the environment. Twenty years ago, EU Member States unanimously adopted the Habitats Directive to safeguard the most threatened species and habitats across Europe. This was in response to concerns over rapidly declining wildlife and loss of natural habitats, resulting from land-use changes, pollution and urban sprawl. To give species and habitats space to recover, the Directive set up the Natura 2000 network of protected areas and the LIFE financial instrument has provided strategic support to its development. Definitionen

On 18 May 2012, the first international "Fascination of Plants Day" will be launched under the umbrella of the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO). The goal of this activity is to get as many people as possible around the world fascinated by plants and enthused about the importance of plant science for agriculture, in sustainably producing food, as well as for horticulture, forestry, and all of the non-food products such as paper, timber, chemicals, energy, and pharmaceuticals. The role of plants in environmental conservation will also be a key message.

At its first general meeting on May 14, 2012, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) elected its board of managers and officially took up its work. Three Central German universities – University of Halle, University of Jena and University of Leipzig – are involved in the iDiv. Together with their partners, they were awarded the funds for the development of a new research centre on biodiversity by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The DFG will fund the iDiv for up to 12 years with seven million euros per year.

Catastrophic nuclear accidents such as the core meltdowns in Chernobyl and Fukushima are more likely to happen than previously assumed. Based on the operating hours of all civil nuclear reactors and the number of nuclear meltdowns that have occurred, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz and the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia have calculated that such events may occur once every 10 to 20 years (based on the current number of reactors)—some 200 times more often than estimated in the past. The researchers also determined that, in the event of such a major accident, half of the radioactive caesium-137 would be spread over an area of more than 1,000 kilometers away from the nuclear reactor. Their results show that Western Europe is likely to be contaminated about once in 50 years by more than 40 kilobecquerel of caesium-137 per square meter. Published in Atmos. Chem. Phys. 12 May 2012.

On 10 May 2012, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the European Patent Office to stop granting patents on the conventional breeding of plants and animals. The resolution was jointly tabled by Members of Parliament from several parties and was adopted with a large majority.

Map of Life — an interactive resource for global biodiversity analysis — was launched on 10 May 2012. A Yale-led research team has opened to the public a demonstration version of its “Map of Life,” an ambitious Web-based endeavor to depict how all living things on the planet, animals and plants alike, are distributed geographically. Built on a Google Maps platform, the debut version allows anyone with an Internet connection to map the known global distribution of almost all 30,000 species of terrestrial vertebrate animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and North American fresh water fish.