ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST

https://k6f2r3a6.stackpathcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dossi%C3%AA-Imazon-ENG.pdf

From the micro to the macro level, the Amazon rainforest is grand. It houses the greatest biodiversity on Earth. Its plants contain substances used to fight diseases, such as Uncaria tomentosa, which is used against inflammatory processes. They are also used in the cosmetic industry, like the copaíba balm, a scent fixative. Apart from that, the Amazon offers countless other services to the environment. It acts upon rain formation, which directly supports agriculture and hydroelectric power generation.

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IN U.S.: AIR POLLUTION AND COVID-19

As the United States struggles to contain the coronavirus epidemic, scientists are finding that air pollution is making things even worse. In a study submitted for publication, researchers at Harvard University found that even a small increase in long-term exposure to PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, can lead to a large increase in the death rate from COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

Air Quality in a Time of Crisis

With over 460,000 cases in the United States, coronavirus-related deaths are approaching 20,000 and could reach about 60,400 by early August, according to the latest projection from the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Although the mechanisms of COVID-19 are still being investigated, the World Health Organization reported that one in seven patients develops difficulty breathing and other severe complications.

PM2.5, meanwhile, has been associated with health problems such as premature death, heart attacks, asthma, and airway irritations. However, in March, the Environmental Protection Agency said it was relaxing air pollution enforcement rules and allowing power plants, factories, and other facilities to skip pollution tests.

Scientists have long known about the effects of air pollution on public health. A severe smog event in London in 1952, for example, is believed to have caused about 12,000 deaths. Four years later, the United Kingdom’s Clean Air Act came into force and prohibited burning polluting fuels in designated areas, setting the stage for similar legislation overseas.

Researchers determined that an increase of only 1 microgram per cubic meter of PM2.5 is associated with a 15% increase in the COVID-19 death rate.

The researchers from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health noticed that many conditions known to contribute to more severe COVID-19 outcomes are also known to be caused by long-term PM2.5 exposure. Seeking possible connections, they used an environmental health data platform they had already compiled that featured nationwide PM2.5 and socioeconomic and demographic information. They then added the incoming COVID-19 outcome data to the mix.

They analyzed data from 3,080 counties in the United States; adjusted for variables including population size, number of people tested, weather, obesity, and smoking; averaged PM2.5 exposure over 2000–2016; and looked at COVID-19 deaths as the outcome. The data account for 90% of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the United States as of 4 April 2020. In the study, which has been submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers determined that an increase of only 1 microgram (μg) per cubic meter (m3) of PM2.5 is associated with a 15% increase in the COVID-19 death rate.

“We found that people living in counties in the United States that have experienced higher levels of air pollution over the past 15–20 years have a substantially higher COVID-19 mortality rate,” said study coauthor Rachel C. Nethery, an assistant professor of biostatistics at Harvard. “Based on our findings, we would expect a county with PM2.5 levels of 15 μg/m3 (highly polluted) to have approximately 4.5 times higher COVID-19 death rate than a county with PM2.5 levels of 5 μg/m3 (low pollution), assuming the counties are similar aside from the difference in pollution levels.”

Relaxing Rules the “Wrong Choice”

The results of the study, which is the first nationwide report of its kind in the United States, are not surprising given epidemiological findings on air pollution for diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), but the effect of PM2.5 on mortality could be dramatic, said University of Southern California environmental epidemiologist and biostatistician Zhanghua Chen, who was not involved with the study.

“The current EPA’s action on the relaxation of environmental rules in terms of pollutant emissions from power plants, factories, and other facilities is an obviously wrong choice and could result in more COVID incidences and deaths.”

“Even though the findings were based upon the ongoing development of the pandemic and we cannot exclude the possibility that there are potential confounders that are not adjusted for, the findings of this paper lay out straightforward information that we should make all efforts to improve air quality so that we can reduce the total number of deaths from disasters like COVID-19,” said Chen. “The current EPA’s action on the relaxation of environmental rules in terms of pollutant emissions from power plants, factories, and other facilities is an obviously wrong choice and could result in more COVID incidences and deaths.”

Nethery said many people have been asking how they can limit the harmful impacts of air pollution during the epidemic. Her team plans to examine the effects of short-term air pollution exposure in COVID-19 as well as the disease’s relationships with race and poverty.

—Tim Hornyak (@robotopia), Science Writer

DEADLY OLIVE TREE DISEASE ACROSS EUROPE COULD COST BILLION

As reported on :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52234561

They've modelled the future worst impacts of the Xylella fastidiosa pathogen which has killed swathes of trees in Italy.
Spread by insects, the bacterium now poses a potential threat to olive plantations in Spain and Greece.
The disease could increase the costs of olive oil for consumers.
■   Olive tree killer still threatens EU
■   Revealed: The secret life of the spittlebug
■   Olive killer disease reaches Spain
Xylella is considered to be one of the most dangerous pathogens for plants anywhere in the world. At present there is no cure for the infection.
It can infect cherry, almond and plum trees as well as olives.
It has become closely associated with olives after a strain was discovered in trees in Puglia in Italy in 2013.
The organism is transmitted by sap-sucking insects such as spittlebugs.
The infection limits the tree's ability to move water and nutrients and over time it withers and dies.
In Italy, the consequences of the spread of the disease have been devastating, with an estimated 60% decline in crop yields since the first discovery in 2013.
"The damage to the olives also causes a depreciation of the value of the land, and to the touristic attractiveness of this region," said Dr Maria Saponari, from the CNR Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection in Italy.
"It's had a severe impact on the local economy and jobs connected with agriculture."
As well as in Italy, the Xylella bacterium has now been found in Spain, France and Portugal.
Tackling it at present involves removing infected trees and trying to clamp down on the movement of plant material and the insects that spread the disease.
But if these measures fail, what will be the financial impact of the infection?
In this new study, researchers modelled different scenarios including what would happen if all growing ceased due to tree death.
They also compared this worst case with a scenario where replanting with resistant varieties occurred.
The team made projections for Italy, Spain and Greece, which between them account for 95% of European olive oil production.

[…]

PLASTICS POLLUTION: THE SOLUTION...AT LAST?!

As reported in THE GUARDIAN - Environment 

Billions of tonnes of plastic waste have polluted the planet, from the Arctic to the deepest ocean trench, and pose a particular risk to sea life. Campaigners say reducing the use of plastic is key, but the company said the strong, lightweight material was very useful and that true recycling was part of the solution.

The new enzyme was revealed in research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The work began with the screening of 100,000 micro-organisms for promising candidates, including the leaf compost bug, which was first discovered in 2012.

“It had been completely forgotten, but it turned out to be the best,” said Prof Alain Marty at the Université de Toulouse, France, the chief science officer at Carbios.

The scientists analysed the enzyme and introduced mutations to improve its ability to break down the PET plastic from which drinks bottles are made. They also made it stable at 72C, close to the perfect temperature for fast degradation.

The team used the optimised enzyme to break down a tonne of waste plastic bottles, which were 90% degraded within 10 hours. The scientists then used the material to create new food-grade plastic bottles.

'Plastic recycling is a myth': what really happens to your rubbish?

Carbios has a deal with the biotechnology company Novozymes to produce the new enzyme at scale using fungi. It said the cost of the enzyme was just 4% of the cost of virgin plastic made from oil.

[But...important warning!]:

Waste bottles also have to be ground up and heated before the enzyme is added, so the recycled PET will be more expensive than virgin plastic. But Martin Stephan, the deputy chief executive at Carbios, said existing lower-quality recycled plastic sells at a premium due to a shortage of supply.

[…]

SOUTHEAST ASIAN UNDER WATERSHED IN THEIR HISTORY OF EATING WILD ANIMALS

As reported on BBC News- Environment


Coronavirus: Putting the spotlight on the global wildlife trade https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52125309

Coronavirus: Putting the spotlight on the global wildlife trade https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-Conservation experts say the coronavirus pandemic, which likely originated at a market selling wild animals in China, is a watershed moment for curbing the global wildlife trade, which can drive extinction and spread disease.

THE SIZE OF AMAZONIAN FOREST FRAGMENT MAY BE CRITICAL

Reproduced from

FRAGMENT FOREST FACES BLEAK FUTURE
(www.newscientist.co.uk — by Fred Pearce, 8 November 2003)

A study of forest fragments in the Brazilian Amazon show the importance of
preserving large natural areas. But it is also a major blow to conservationists trying to mend
the damage to habitats that are increasingly broken into small pieces by human invasions.
Ecologists knew that large chunks of forest can conserve many more species than
smaller chunks. But the new study quantifies the relationship and adds a new dimension:
time. It reveals how fast species disappear in forest fragments of a given size.
Researchers from the US and Brazil’s National Institute for Amazonian Research in
Manaus spent 13 years catching birds in patches of undisturbed Amazon rainforest. The
fragments, which varied in size from 1 hectare to 100 hectares, were cut off from each other
by cattle pasture. During the study, the number of bird species declined in all the fragments.
But the ‘half-life’ for biodiversity, the number of years it took for half the species to
disappear, was dramatically shorter in small forest patches than in larger patches (see
Graph).

The size of forest fragments is more critical for some species than others. It was
concluded in the article (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science) that certain
species seemed much more likely to disappear than others although some species do
relatively well in patchy landscapes. Even in a fast-growing rainforest, it takes 20 years for
the semblance of a new forest to emerge and a hundred years for full regrowth. So the paper
concludes that to be successful, rainforest conservation generally requires fragments larger
than about 10 square kilometres. The findings suggest there is little point in trying to link
small patches because most of the species in them will have disappeared before the new
forest in the gaps has had a chance to grow.