Events Anniversary for 2025-04-03

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.

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.

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 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.”

On 3 April 2010 the Chinese-registered coal carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground on a reef about 70km east of Great Keppel Island, Queensland Australia, and ruptured its fuel tanks. The Vessel, which was carrying about 65.000 tonnes of coal, has 950 tonnes of oil on board.

Germany's new Nature Conservation Act, which replaces the old law of 1976, strengthens the country's nature conservation associations. Another important amendment is the introduction of a biotope network. Isolated nature reserves, at present small oases in a heavily-populated industrial nation, are to be expanded and linked with others. Each of Germany's 16 federal states must make available at least 10 per cent of its land area for that purpose.