Dutch startup uses air bubbles to remove plastic from rivers

Publicerad denFörfattareneuezeit.at

Dutch startup “The Great Bubble Barrier” has been building “air curtains” and removing tons of plastic from rivers since 2017. The technology is simple and promising. With the help of pipes in the water, a curtain of air is formed. Fish and other river dwellers can swim through it, while plastic waste is intercepted. 
The Amsterdam-based startup has been working on the technology behind the so-called “bubble barrier” for seven years. Initial pilot tests started in spring 2017, and the first filter system has been in place on the River IJssel in the Netherlands since November of the same year. Even tiny pieces of plastic with a diameter of one millimetre can be fished out of the water with it. The startup is currently testing whether even smaller plastic particles, i.e. less than 0.05 millimetres, can be filtered with the air barrier.
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Simple technology, clean rivers, healthy people
The way the air barrier works is simple. Pipes at the bottom of a river or canal pump air into the water. Combined with the current, the plastic pollution is collected together on one bank. From there, the plastic goes into a collection system. Then the trash is separated and can be disposed of properly. The start-up’s invention would also be great outside the Netherlands, because Austria’s rivers are also full of trash.
The WWF reports that almost two-thirds of Austria’s waters need to be “cleaned up.” Only 15 percent are still in “very good” condition, the paper states. Reasons for the pollution include the heavy construction density of some regions, as well as the industrial usage – such as sewage disposal or cargo shipping – of rivers. Environment Minister Gewessler (Green Party) complained about the “littering of our environment and waters”, but the interim report of the “Action Plan Microplastics” is still pending.
A stream of air bubbles propels the trash into a collection bin (Photo: The Great Bubble Barrier®)
Nearly 80 percent of plastic pollution in the sea comes from rivers
The technology from Holland not only holds promise for cleaning up freshwater streams, but also contributes to the cleaning of the oceans. Around 80 percent of plastic in the world’s seas comes from rivers. Currently, it is estimated that there are between 100 and 150 million tons of trash in the oceans. More than three-quarters of this is plastic. Every year, rivers wash between five and thirteen million tons more into the seas. Four million tons come from just ten major streams.
“We tested for six months in Amsterdam, and during this period we removed around 85 kilograms of plastic per month from the water,” say the founders of “The Great Bubble Barrier.
Projected over a year, that’s more than a ton of plastic waste. This is good not only for the environment, but also for people. Because the trash doesn’t just stay in the water. Fish and other sea creatures eat the plastic pollution. These then get back into the human organism via food, and there the – so called – microplastics can even lead to hormonal changes. Clean oceans, intact environment, healthier people – that seems to be the promise of the air curtain technology from the Netherlands. Läs mer…

Royalties for the Environment: Musicians give Earth Songwriting Credit

Publicerad denFörfattareSpeziell.at

Brian Eno has a charity organization called Earth/Percent. It encourages musicians to donate a portion of their earnings to environmental protection. They do this by making the earth a co-writer of their songs. The resulting income is then donated directly to environmental, research and climate protection projects. 
Most people know musician Brian Eno as the co-founder of the band Roxy Music. Still others may know him as the producer of music legends such as David Bowie, Talking Heads and U2. Few may know that he composed the startup music for Windows 95 – ironically, on an Apple Macintosh. 
Brian Eno is and was many things: musician, producer, electronic music pioneer and visual artist. His latest project: the charity organization Earth/Percent.
Earth/Percent: Income from music royalties for climate protection
The charity organization campaigns for more sustainability in the music industry. It collects money to donate directly to climate protection and environmental organizations. The idea behind it is quite simple: 

Musicians make the earth the co-author or co-songwriter of their songs. How much percent they give away, they determine thereby themselves.
The Earth receives royalties, i.e. income from the rights to the songs.
The income is used to support climate protection projects and environmental organizations

The first musicians have already joined in, including Fraser T. Smith, Jacob Collier, Anna Calvi, Mount Kimbie, Erland Cooper, Rostam Batmanglij and Aurora. 
On Brian Eno’s latest single “Line in the Sand, Earth is already co-writer, alongside Hot Chip and goddess.
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Earth/Percent’s goal: $100 million for climate protection by 2030
The organization aims to raise around $100 million for climate protection by 2030. The money will be used to support not only environmental protection organizations and research, but also people who already have to live with the effects of climate change. After all, the music industry still emits too much CO₂, too. 
“Many in the music industry want to do something about the climate crisis, but don’t know how. That’s why Earth/Percent works with scientists and experts to identify and fund the most promising solutions.” Brian Eno, founder of Earth/Percent
The music industry: music streaming consumes an extreme amount of electricity
In the UK alone, live concerts cause around 405,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year. Mainly from transport, flights, consumption and waste. And platforms like Apple Music, Spotify or Pandora also consume extreme amounts of electricity to run their music streaming platforms. 
This work is licensed under the Creative Common License. It can be republished for free, either translated or in the original language. In both cases, please cite https://speziell.at/ / Ingo Geiger as the original source/author and set a link to this article on Scoop.me. https://scoop.me/musicians-credit-earth-songwriter/
The rights to the content remain with the original publisher. Läs mer…

Scotland makes historic first ‘loss and damage’ payment to climate change-stricken Malawi

Publicerad denFörfattareHarry Markham

Scotland has become the first nation to provide ‘loss and damage’ funding having pledged a total of £7 million to date. The decision comes after an agreement between 200 nations at last year’s COP27 summit to give financial help to developing nations most impacted by climate change. Differing from immediate emergency aid, the money is intended to rebuild resilient communities which have been devastated by climate disasters.
Scotland have already provided hundreds of thousands of pounds from a £2 million pot to Malawi, with the money being used to build resilience in the most vulnerable communities, and have pledged a further £5 million to similar projects from April 2023.
The ‘loss and damage’ breakthrough
November 2022’s COP27 summit, while criticised by many climate activists for not producing radical enough agreements, is credited with at least one big win for climate justice. That victory is the recognition of the concept of loss and damage and the agreement between 200 nations to compensate those who have fallen foul to climate disasters. While money has long been funnelled towards methods of mitigation such as preparing vulnerable nations for higher temperatures and rising sea levels, little has been done to compensate communities who have already lost everything to climate change. This is why the agreement among wealthy nations to compensate poorer nations for loss and damage is hailed as ‘historic’.
The agreement to deliver money to those affected areas is not only financially important, it is symbolic of an acceptance of the fact that developed nations are disproportionately responsible for the damage caused by climate change. While it appears that these payments amount to reparations, actually using the term makes developed nations uneasy and is perhaps too direct of an acceptance of guilt. They prefer, regardless of the reality, to frame these more as solidarity payments.
A popular – and valid – criticism of international organisations and agreements is their tendency to make promises without any meaningful follow-up action, or as Greta Thunberg put it:
“we have now had thirty years of blah blah blah, and where has that led us?”
The first nation that has stopped talking and started acting with respect to loss and damage payments is Scotland, who have pledged a total of £7 million in funding. The first nation to receive funding is Malawi, a country that has suffered greatly from the effects of climate change.
Climate change is devastating Malawian communities
One of the great injustices of climate change is the disproportionate damage caused to developing nations. Despite carbon footprints that often pale in comparison to their developed counterparts, such nations tend to be warmer and drier, and therefore more susceptible to climate disasters with less money available to combat the fast-growing issue. One such example is the south African nation of Malawi. Malawi is particularly prone to long periods of drought and devastating floods.
In 2015 flooding hit the Malawian village of Mambundungu – a recurring problem for those living in the area. Village Chief Isaac Mambundungu looked around him and saw homes submerged, children being swept away, and reported that:
“Even the crocodiles that are found in the river would come and attack the people. So when we saw this, we decided to move to higher grounds.”
So villagers rebuilt elsewhere, with less fertile land available for crops, and tried to defend their new homes as best they could with what resources they had available, but more flooding came and the new location suffered a similar fate. This is a story repeated across the nation in which 80% of people live and work off of the land.
Scotland pays loss and damage reparations to climate change-stricken Malawi
The Scottish government, led by a left-wing Scottish National Party and Green Party coalition, has dedicated funding to a mixture of projects across the country. A large proportion is going towards rebuilding villages across Malawi such as Mambundungu. Elsewhere, around £500,000 has been dedicated solely to rebuilding the Mphatso preschool in Ngabu, which was partially destroyed by flooding in 2022. In addition, seven-kilometres of flood embankments are being rebuilt along the Phalombe River. Money is also being used to build flood defences around the Mbenje cemetery, where floods frequently wash away graves and those buried within them. Residents of Mbenje tell that this is a relatively new problem, and one which they have faced with much distress. Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera commented:
“It has made huge differences in the people and their livelihoods because they are given a hand up, so the resilience we talk about becomes a practical issue.”
And emphasised:
“Describing the money as aid is wrong, it should instead be seen as countries taking responsibility for climate change together.”
But how is this any different to aid which is already provided by NGOs? Ben Wilson, a representative of one of the charities chosen by the Scottish government to deliver the allocated funds, stated:
“Often that aid and those aid workers then leave because they go on to the next disaster – and there always is a next disaster. This money is coming in at a later stage when the communities have already received that immediate support. But it’s giving them what they need to build back, to build that resilience, but also to get their lives back on track.”
Loss and damage funding is long overdue
But this should not be perceived as an act of benevolence. Regardless of hesitance from developed nations to frame the loss and damage agreement as a vessel for reparations, that is what it is. Scotland, along with the rest of Britain, was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. They set the ball rolling which led us to where we are now, and profited greatly in the process. The industrial revolution is also intrinsically linked to colonialism, a practice which ravaged much of what is now the developing world and left it ill-prepared for the challenges it faces today. So it is only right that these payments be made, and crucial that other developed nations follow suit. Läs mer…