The Environment Chronicle

This ambitious project started on 21 June 2010, when the radar satellite TanDEM-X set off into space to join its twin satellite, TerraSAR-X. Since then, these two German satellites have been orbiting Earth in an intricate formation and mapping its surface. Now, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is making the first elevation models of a new global topography for scientific use. Canyons in Australia's Flinders Ranges National Park, Canadian islands and the rugged volcanic landscape of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula are revealed at a level of detail 30 times greater than anything seen to date. Over 800 scientists from 31 countries have already registered to work with these highly accurate elevation models. The complete and uniform terrain model is scheduled for completion by the end of 2015.

On 15 May 2014 Ecuador declared a state of emergency on the Galápagos Islands after a freighter carrying chemicals and dangerous products ran aground 9 May 2014 as it was leaving the bay of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, on San Cristóbal island. The environment ministry said 19,000 gallons of diesel has already been removed from the ship without causing any damage to the Unesco World Heritage site.

The European Commission wants to prohibit the use of any kind of driftnets for fishing in all EU waters as of 1 January 2015. Although rules are already in place to forbid using driftnets to catch certain migratory fishes, the practice continues to be a cause of concern due to the incidental catching of marine mammals, sea turtles and sea birds which are mostly protected under EU legislation. To fight circumvention, the Commission proposal includes a full ban of driftnets fishing in the EU as well as the prohibition of keeping driftnets on board of fishing vessels. Furthermore, to avoid ambiguity, the proposal refines the current definition of a driftnet.

Glaciers exist on every continent, but until now there has been no definitive source of information on where and how large they are, or indeed how many exist. On 6 May 2014, in the Journal of Glaciology, an international group of scientists from 18 nations published the first globally-complete inventory of glaciers on Earth. This digital inventory contains details of more than 200,000 glaciers from all glaciated regions. Together these glaciers cover 730,000 square kilometres, an area as large as Germany, Switzerland, and Poland together. They contain around 170,000 cubic kilometres of ice – enough if melted to raise global sea level by 35-47 cm. The inventory is a crucial resource for glaciologists seeking to provide projections of ice-loss from glaciers during the coming century, both as a contribution to sea-level rise and as an important factor controlling the availability of water resources. The Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI), a name that arose from the location of a meeting in New Hampshire where the project was established, is the product of several years of intensive work by 70 scientists. It consists of digital outlines that can be overlaid on regional or global-scale maps.

For the first time, a woman will head the Federal Environment Agency. On 5 May 2014 Maria Krautzberger took office as the President of Germany's biggest national environment authority. On 30 April the Federal Cabinet nominated her to succeed Jochen Flasbarth, who at the end of 2013 became State Secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry. The Federal Environment Agency was founded in 1974 and has since had three presidents: Heinrich von Lersner (1974-1995), Andreas Troge (1995-2009) and Jochen Flasbarth (2009-2013)

A number of clean-up campaigns have been organised in Europe in recent years to tackle the litter problem. “Let’s Clean Up Europe!” will bring together these initiatives in a Europe-wide clean-up event to take place on the same day all over the continent, reaching as many citizens as possible. "Let's Clean up Europe" is an initiative that aims to encourage more such actions, to raise awareness about the scale of the litter and waste problems, and to encourage changes in behaviour. The event is being coordinated by the European Week for Waste Reduction. ‘Let’s Clean Up Europe!’ is a truly bottom-up event that aims to inform and mobilise the public into cleaning up their environment for themselves. The Commission is promoting the event, but the clean-ups are truly independent, local and citizen-led. In many cases local authorities, NGOs businesses and schools will be getting involved or coordinating actions. "Let's Clean up Europe" is a LIFE project coordinated by the Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and sustainable Resource management, the organisation that is also responsible for the European Week for Waste Reduction.

Rotterdam, 1 May 2014 - A group of 80 activists supported by the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior are attempting to stop the oil tanker Mikhail Ulyanov from delivering the first oil from a controversial drilling platform in the Russian Arctic. They are calling for a ban on offshore oil drilling in the Arctic and an urgent switch to new sources of energy. One group of activists has painted "No Arctic Oil" in large letters on the hull of the "Mikhail Ulyanov" tanker, while other activists in inflatables are trying to prevent the ship from mooring by putting themselves between the quay wall and the tanker.

A large-scale seafloor survey off the European coast has found widespread presence of bottles, plastic bags, fishing nets, and other types of human litter at all sample locations, according to results published April 30, 2014, in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Christopher Pham from University of the Azores and colleagues from 15 other institutions.

On 28 April 2014, Taiwanese Premier Jiang Yi-huah announcedthe suspension of construction of the island’s controversial fourth nuclear power station, pending a public referendum on whether to resume work. The decision followed several large protests in Taipei. The move was announced on Sunday after a meeting of county and city officials from the governing party, the Kuomintang, which is headed by President Ma Ying-jeou.

In defiance of local protests and international opposition, UK company Soco International PLC will start on 26 April 2014, the seismic testing phase of its controversial oil exploration project in Virunga National Park, according to media reports. Residents living near the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) park say that portions of Lake Edward will be closed to fishing while Soco searches for subterranean oil reserves. If deposits are found, WWF understands that the company intends to drill exploration wells in the lake.

This study reports results from the laboratory analysis of ornamental plants sourced from garden centres, supermarkets and DIY-stores in ten European countries. The samples comprised more than 35 popular varieties like viola, bellflower and lavender which are attractive to bees. Overall, contamination with pesticides was found to be significant and relatively consistent across the samples as a whole. Of the 86 samples analysed, pesticide residues were found in 84 (97,6%) of these flowering plants. Only 2% of the samples contained no detectable residues. Insecticides regarded as of particular toxicological significance to bees were found frequently. In 68 of the 86 tested ornamental plants (79% of the samples) bee-harming pesticides were detected. The three neonicotinoid pesticides which have been restricted Europe-wide for certain agricultural uses in order to prevent exposure to bees were found in almost half of the samples: 43% of the samples contained Imidacloprid,8% Thiamethoxam and Clothianidin was found in 7% of the total, partly in high concentrations.

The Copernicus Regulation has been approved by the European Parliament and the Council and entered into force on 25 April 2014.

Gazprom sent its first shipment of oil from its controversial Russian Arctic offshore platform on 18 April 2014, a landmark event that Russian President Vladimir Putin said would contribute to economic growth.

EU countries would have to reduce the use of the most common and most polluting plastic bags by at at least 80% by 2019, under draft rules backed by Parliament on 16 April 2014. MEPs say that lightweight plastic bags thinner than 50 microns – the vast majority of plastic carrier bags used in the EU – are less reusable than thicker models and become waste more quickly. They are also more prone to littering the environment. Member states would have to at least halve their consumption by 2017 and reduce it by 80% two years later - compared to 2010 figures. They should use measures such as taxes, levies, marketing restrictions or bans to stop shops from giving out plastic bags for free, except for very light ones, used to wrap loose foods such as raw meat, fish and dairy products. Plastic bags used to wrap foods such as fruit, vegetables and confectionery should be replaced by 2019 by carrier bags made of recycled paper or biodegradable and compostable bags. Requirements for compostable and biodegradable packaging should be amended, MEPs say.

Measures to stop invasive alien species of plants animals or insects getting into the EU, or limit the ecological and economic damage caused by those that do, were backed by European Parliament on 16 april 2014. The legislation bans species declared to be of “Union concern” and requires more and better-coordinated action by member states to tackle the threat. The legislation would require EU member states to ascertain the routes of introduction and spread of invasive alien species (IAS) and set up surveillance systems and action plans. Official checks at EU borders would also be stepped up. For widespread IAS, member states would have to draw up management plans.

The chief warden of Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park, Emmanuel de Merode, has been shot in an ambush, according to a statement on the park’s official website. De Merode was attacked while travelling from the provincial capital of Goma to the park’s headquarters on 15 April 2014.

On 17 April 2014, the European Parliament endorsed a Directive for Maritime Spatial Planning which should help Member States develop plans to better coordinate the various activities that take place at sea, ensuring they are as efficient and sustainable as possible. With rapidly increasing demand for maritime space for new activities, from renewable energy to aquaculture installations, better and coherent planning of maritime activities at sea is indeed needed. The Directive sets minimum requirements for the drawing up of national maritime spatial plans. These plans will identify all existing human activities, taking into account land-sea interactions, and the most effective way of managing them.

On 13 April 2014 the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented the third part of its report in Berlin. The report makes it clear that the internationally agreed target of limiting temperature change to a maximum of 2°C can still be met through ambitious climate policy. The scientists have illustrated a range of options on how this can be achieved. According to the report, further delays in implementing ambitious mitigation measures would drastically reduce the number of technological options available and significantly increase mitigation costs.

On 11 April 2014, 2.4 million residents in the capital of Gansu province were warned by the government not to use tap water after tests showed excessive levels of carcinogenic benzene in the city's water supply. Tests on Friday showed benzene levels had reached 200 micrograms per litre - 20 times the national safety standard.

On 3 April 2014, the United States Justice Department announced the biggest environmental cash settlement in history, securing a $5.15 billion deal with Anadarko Petroleum to clean up dozens of sites across the country and compensate more than 7,000 people living with the effects of the contamination. The agreement resolves claims stemming from the toxic legacy of one of the oil firm’s subsidiaries, Kerr-McGee, which operated a range of U.S. chemical, energy and manufacturing businesses over 85 years.

On 3 April 2014, BirdLife Partners DOPPS (Slovenia) and NABU (Germany) submitted three formal complaints to the European Commission, asking for legal action against their respective governments. In both countries, evidence shows widespread loss of farmland birds, even in protected areas such as Natura 2000 sites. This is part of an EU wide crisis involving the massive conversion of biodiversity rich grasslands to maize fields and the ever more intensive use of grasslands for fodder. Heavy subsidies for biogas production drive this crisis and subsequently increase the further intensification of livestock production.

On 3 April 2014 the roughly 2.3-ton, four-metre-high, two-and-a-half-metre-wide satellite Sentinel-1A was launched from the European Spaceport in French Guiana at 23:02 CEST (18:02 local time). The launch of Sentinel-1A also marks the start of the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA) Earth observation programme called Copernicus. The mission is the first of six families of dedicated missions that will make up the core of Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring network. Copernicus will provide operational information on the world’s land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere to support environmental and security policymaking and the needs of individual citizens and service providers. “The launch of the first Sentinel-1 satellite marks a change in philosophy for our Earth observation programmes,” said Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes. “In meteorology, satellites have been providing reliable data for weather forecasts for over 35 years. satellites have been providing reliable data for weather forecasts for over 35 years. With the Copernicus programme, we will now have a similar information source for environmental services as well as for applications in the security and disaster management domain.”

An international team of researchers headed by Potsdam scientist Dr. Markus Rex from the Alfred Wegener Institute has discovered a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon over the South Seas. Over the tropical West Pacific there is a natural, invisible hole extending over several thousand kilometres in a layer that prevents transport of most of the natural and manmade substances into the stratosphere by virtue of its chemical composition. Like in a giant elevator, many chemical compounds emitted at the ground pass thus unfiltered through this so-called “detergent layer” of the atmosphere. Scientists call it the “OH shield”. The newly discovered phenomenon over the South Seas boosts ozone depletion in the polar regions and could have a significant influence on the future climate of the Earth – also because of rising air pollution in South East Asia.

For the first time, monthly concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million (ppm) in April 2014 throughout the northern hemisphere. This threshold is of symbolic and scientific significance and reinforces evidence that the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities are responsible for the continuing increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gases warming our planet. All the northern hemisphere monitoring stations forming the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch network reported record atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the seasonal maximum. This occurs early in the northern hemisphere spring before vegetation growth absorbs CO2.

Climbers scaling Mount Everest will have to bring back 8kg (17.6lb) of rubbish under rules designed to clean up the world's highest peak. The rule, one of several new measures for mountaineering in Nepal, will apply to climbers ascending beyond Everest's base camp from April 2014 , said tourism ministry official Madhusudan Burlakoti on 3 March 2014. Authorities would take legal action against climbers who failed to comply, Burlakoti said.

On 31 March 2014, the International Court of Justice in The Hague announced their binding decision today in the landmark case of Australia v. Japan, ruling that Japan’s JARPA II whaling program in the Antarctic is not for scientific purposes and ordering that all permits given under JARPA II be revoked.

On 31 March 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the second part of their fifth assessment report „Climate change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability“ in Yokohama. The focus of this second part lies on the effects that climate change has on the ecosystems of our planet, as well as on how humans, animals and plants can adapt.

The Sixth Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety was held from 24 March to 4 April 2014 at the IAEA Headquarters, in Vienna, Austria.

On 24 March the Council triggered a series of measures affecting the trade in fisheries products and other fisheries- related activities with Belize, Cambodia and Guinea in or der to put a stop to commercial benefits stemming from illegal fishing activities. Ultimately, fisheries products caught by vessels from these countries will be banned from being imported into the EU(6262/14).

On 23 March 2014, the gates of Morelos Dam on the Arizona-Mexico border were lifted to allow a "pulse flow" of water into the final stretch of the Colorado River. Officials and scientists hope the water will help restore a landscape that has long been arid but that once supported a rich diversity of life. As agreed upon by the U.S. and Mexico, the total amount of flow over the period will be 105,392 acre-feet of water (130 million cubic meters). This is the first time that water has ever been released into Mexico for environmental purposes.

On 19 March 2014 , the Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) project launched its Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, a visually attractive and interactive online mapping platform detailing around 1000 environmental conflicts (and growing). It allows users to search and filter across 100 fields and to browse by commodity, company, country and type of conflict.

On 18 March 2014, around 60 activists from environmental group Greenpeace occupied France’s oldest nuclear power station Fessenheim. The activists who include nationals from several European countries broke into the Fessenheim plant in the early hours of the morning. Some of them climbed up to the roof of part of the plant next to one of the nuclear reactors to unfurl a banner reading “Stop risking Europe”. French police arrested 57 Greenpeace activists.

17 March 2014 marked the start of regular reduced carbon permit auctions in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) under the backloading plan.

On 17 March 2014 Paris instituted a one-day car ban. By government decree, half the cars in the city were not allowed to hit the streets, lest their owner be hit with a €22 fine.

On 13 March 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency and BP executed an agreement resolving all suspension and debarment actions against BP that barred the company from doing business with the federal government following the company’s guilty plea in the Deepwater Horizon disaster of April 2010. The administrative agreement will be in place for five years.

A proposed update of EU law to make environmental impact assessments clearer, ensure they take account of biodiversity and climate change and involve the public, was backed by the European Parliament on 12 March 2014 in Strasbourg. This update, already informally agreed with the Council of Ministers, was approved by 528 votes to 135, with 15 abstentions.

An Italian judge has ordered the shutdown of a coal-fired power plant that has been blamed for at least 442 deaths. On 11 March 2014, police followed the judge’s orders and shut down the two 330-Megawatt coal-fired units of the Vado Ligure plant.

EU states would have to reduce the consumption of most common and polluting plastic bags by 80% by 2019, under draft rules backed by the Environment Committee on 10 March 2014. To this end, MEPs recommend using economic instruments such as taxes and levies, marketing restrictions or bans.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have identified four new human-made gases in the atmosphere. New research published on 9 March 2014 in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals that more than 74,000 tonnes of three new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) have been released into the atmosphere. Scientists made the discovery by comparing today’s air samples with air trapped in polar firn snow – which provides a century-old natural archive of the atmosphere. They also looked at air collected between 1978 and 2012 in unpolluted Tasmania. Measurements show that all four new gases have been released into the atmosphere recently – and that two are significantly accumulating. Emission increases of this scale have not been seen for any other CFCs since controls were introduced during the 1990s. But they are nowhere near peak CFC emissions of the 1980s which reached around a million tonnes a year.

On 5 March 2014, Greenpeace activists from national and regional offices took action across Europe to highlight the risk of ageing nuclear reactors. Greenpeace activists broke into the grounds of nuclear plants in six European countries Wednesday, urging governments to close down ageing reactors on safety grounds.