According to a study conducted at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, one kilometre of a two-lane road can use about 3 million masks, preventing 93 tonnes of medical waste from ending up in landfills. The study also reveals that the new road-making material combines single-use face masks and processed building rubble to meet engineering safety standards and provide strength.

Almost every household has generated biomedical waste during the pandemic. According to data published by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India had produced 33,000 tonnes of biomedical waste between June 2020 and January 2021.

India witnessed an increase of 46% of biomedical waste due to COVID-19, with 139 tonnes per day in April 2021 and 203 tonnes per day in May 2021. However, the percentage of biomedical waste treated declined from 92.8% to 88%.
-kezia

The study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, offers the most detailed accounting yet of how the devastating 2020 wildfire season is believed to have amplified the coronavirus outbreak.

It traces increases in infections to periods of smoke in more than 50 counties in California, Oregon and Washington.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Wildfire-smoke-linked-to-thousands-of-COVID-19-16385466.php

-Akshay

At least 90 people died fighting the flames, including 33 military personnel who received honourable funeral processions - figures far higher than ever seen before.

Despite fighting fires year after year, and boasting one of Africa's biggest military budgets, Algeria does not have amphibious firefighting airplanes.

Instead, a handful of Mi-26 helicopters equipped with 1,000-litre buckets and overloaded fire engines tried their best to snuff out the infernos.

As a result, the government had to resort to asking the European Union to help out, and, on 12 August, French President Emmanuel Macron quickly sent out two planes.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58269789

Researchers presented “the deepest record of microplastic ingestion, indicating it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by plastic pollution,” according to the paper in Royal Society Open Science.

Led by Alan Jamieson, a marine ecologist at Newcastle University, the team examined the guts of small organisms called lysianassid amphipods—colloquially known as “sea fleas”—collected from six deep ocean habitats.

Though the trenches ranged in location from Japanese to Chilean waters, all of them were within the “hadal zone,” meaning they were at least 6,000 meters under the sea. The study even includes amphipods collected at Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, which is the lowest known point in the seabed at 10,890 meters below the ocean surface.

Despite such remote habitats, Jamieson’s team found plastic and synthetic fibres such as nylon, polyethylene, and polyvinyl alcohol in the guts of most amphipods they examined. “Of the 90 individual amphipods examined, 65 individuals (approximately 72 percent) contained at least one microfibre or fragment,” the team concluded.

The researchers called hadal habitats “the ultimate sink” for any contaminants that drift down from higher levels of the ocean. Because organisms that live in depleted and isolated regions often evolve to capitalize on carrion and food particles, they may be more prone to rapidly ingesting plastics that make it to the seafloor.

Amphipods at each location faced different odds of plastic ingestion. For instance, all of the Mariana Trench organisms had microplastics in their guts, whereas only half of the amphipods found in the New Hebrides Trench were contaminated. The team is not yet certain what causes this range between various locations, but higher consumption rates seem to be correlated with deeper habitats.

What is clear, though, is that plastic pollution in the deep ocean is not only a problem for the organisms that live there. Amphipods are food for fish, crustaceans, and even birds at the ocean surface, and some of its predators are consumed by humans. Microplastics eaten by small prey species can have implications for the entire marine food web.

“Once the microplastics enter the hadal food chain, there is a strong possibility that they will be locked into a perpetual cycle of trophic transfer,” the team cautioned.

While reports of dead animals washing up on shore with their stomachs filled with plastic have become sadly common, the new study reveals that beached carcasses are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to plastic pollution in our oceans.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3mwjk/microplastics-have-been-found-in-our-deepest-ocean-animals

There had been a draft government plan for 16 low emission zones, which polluting vehicles are charged to enter, in cities outside London but the number was cut to just five on cost grounds.

Without the participation of smaller shops, and not just those employing more than 250 staff, the impact of the tax will be limited, they said.

Friends of the Earth said ministers should extend the scheme after surveys showed that convenience store owners were supportive of extending the scheme to all retailers.

English shoppers face a 5p charge for plastic carrier bags from today as part of a government scheme to reduce litter and protect wildlife.

The introduction of the 5p charge in England brings it into line with schemes already operating in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of a drive to encourage a switch away from throwaway carrier bags.

According to the government, 8.5bn thin-gauge plastic bags were used last year by customers of UK supermarkets alone. That is down from the all-time peak of 12bn in 2006, but still amounts to more than 23m a day.

In England the average person goes through nearly 12 thin-gauge bags per month, while in Wales, where there has been a 5p charge per bag since 2011, shoppers use just two per month. On the basis of charging elsewhere, the government expects bag numbers to fall by more than 70% – cutting the number ending up in landfill or in the oceans by many billions every year.

11:49 AM

in the beginning, there was a drastic increase in population shown as exponential phase. when limiting factors were implemented, it began to a transitional phase, decreasing in population. finally, it reaches a constant rate as shown as the plateau phase.

Vincent Yap

11:49 AM

over time, the population increases but stops increasing at the transitional phase, entering the plateau phase.

Arshad Mirchandani

11:49 AM

the population increases to its "carrying capacity" where resources are not enough to be shared amongst everyone

Rainald Firdaus Gunawan

11:50 AM

In some populations they rise first drastic increase in population and it becomes transitional phase and becomes constant next via the limiting factor

Desmond Clay Sutanto

11:52 AM

as time goes by, the population increases drastically coming to the what is called “transitional phase” then entering plateau phase

Adnan Akbany

11:53 AM

the population increases significantly in the beginning, however once the limiting factors were taken into account, there was a significant decrease in population instead and then reaches a stagnant motion

Dhannya Vita Chandra

11:55 AM

The curve starts with exponential growth, as no limiting factors affect it. However,  as time goes by, limiting factor is present, the growth rate slows down gradually (transitional phase) which then resulted in a population of constant size at the plateau phrase.

b) Indonesia aims to transform its forests into a carbon sink by 2030 by reducing deforestation and increasing reforestation, as the country targets going carbon neutral by 2070. Indonesia has an excellent opportunity to build on its considerable progress in reducing deforestation, restoring degraded forests and delivering a more sustainable food and land use system. Indonesia sees a good opportunity in reducing carbon footprint by the increase use of electric gas, and the development of clean energy industry, biofuel and green energy. Carbon market and price are one of the factors that needs to have fair changes to help this progress. These innovative changes may also need funds to facilitate changes and development at a faster rate. Indonesia is more than willing to get a support and contributions from international developed countries to achieve such ambitious goal by 2030.

2. First, they want to build solar farms where they can capture clean, sustainable energy. The second would be support for the development of electric vehicles, which would result in a shift away from gasoline-powered automobiles.