SOUTH AMERICA ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HEALTH NEWSLETTER

214 t h issue, January 2, 2012

ECUADOR: Galapagos Green Airport Started its Operations

After a year of construction, the Ecological Airport started its operations in the Galapagos Islands, which, it is estimated, will receive between 800 and 1,000 passengers daily. Despite that the last details aren’t finished yet; it is expected to use all excess material from the old airport as stone or wood, and thereby reuse the existing material to maximum. Ezequiel Barrenechea, Principal of the America Corporation for Latin American and the Caribbean, and President of the Galapagos’ Airport, said that with the use of solar energy, water reuse and the better use of winds, among other environmental innovations supported in technology, Galapagos will become the main place in the world where an ecological airport operates. “It is the first and only, for now, truly green and certified by the LEED Gold” confirmed Barrenechea, referring to the rating system for sustainable buildings developed by the Green Building Council of America.

The building of the terminal will be officially opened the first week of February 2013. The track and the platform are expected to be ready in August. Construction of this terminal will cost $24 million. “(…) it’s a World Natural Heritage, and icon as far for the protection of nature is concerned,” said Barrenechea. R e a d m o r e a t : h t t p : / /www.ecuadortimes.net/2012/12/21/galapagos-green-airport-started- its-operations-2/

The information contained herein was gathered from news sources from across the region, and the views expressed below do not necessarily reflect those of the Regional Environmental HUB Office or of our constituent posts.

Addressees interested in sharing any ESTH-related events of USG interest are welcome to do so.

For questions or comments, please contact us at quevedoa@state.gov.

* Free translation prepared by REO staff.

Ecuador: Galapagos

Green Airport.

Climate Change: Geo-

Engineering Against Climate Change.

Science: Four Planets in

‘Habitable Zones’.

Health: U.N.

Contemplates Ban on Vaccine Preservative.

Climate Change:

Humans Changing Saltiness of the Seas.

Science: Farm Soils

Determine Environmental Fate of Phosphorous

Peru: Will Send an

Expedition to Antarctica.

Climate Change: The

U.N.‘s Global Warming Forecasts Are Performing Badly

February 1, 2013 REO S&T School Contest Launching

February 4, 2013

World Cancer Day

March 22, 2013 World Water Day

March 23, 2013 Earth Hour

April17-19, 2013

IFT Energy Santiago, Chile

April 22, 2013 Earth Day

June 5, 2013

World Environment Day

Next events:

In this issue:

Photo by photographer23 (flickr user). Under Creative

“Walls are white and windows are huge. This way, we use a larger amount of natural light. The building is located in a zone where winds are predominant in order to reduce interior temperature, and therefore the use of air conditioned” explained Ezequiel Barrenechea, President of the Galapagos’ airport.

Regarding water, as the airport is located in a zone where there is not potable water, a desalination plant has been installed in the airport to recycle toilette water. The photovoltaic system is been designed to supply 13% of the electrical energy required, but it is expected to increase to 25%.

Read more at: http://elcomercio.pe/actualidad/1512384/noticia-primer-aeropuerto-ecologico-mundo-se-inaugurara-hoy-ecuador

Seeding the oceans with iron may not address carbon emissions.

Numerous geo-engineering schemes have been suggested as possible ways to reduce levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and so reduce the risk of global warming and climate change. One such technology involves dispersing large quantities of iron salts in the oceans to fertilize otherwise barren parts of the sea and trigger the growth of algal blooms and other pho-tosynthesizing marine life. Photosynthesis requires carbon dioxide as its feedstock and when the algae die they will sink to the bottom of the sea taking the locked in carbon with them.

Unfortunately, present plans for seeding the oceans with iron fail to take into account several fac-tors that could scupper those plans, according to Daniel Harrison of the University of Sydney Insti-tute of Marine Science, NSW. Writing in the International Journal of Global Warming, Harrison has calculated the impact of iron seeding schemes in terms of the efficiency of spreading the iron, the impact it will most likely have on algal growth the tonnage of carbon dioxide per square kilometer of ocean surface that will be actually absorbed compared to the hypothetical figures suggested by advocates of the approach.

"If society wishes to limit the contribution of anthropogenic carbon dioxide to global warming then the need to find economical methods of carbon dioxide sequestration is now urgent," Harrison's new calculations take into account not only the carbon diox-ide that will be certainly be sequestered permanently to the deep ocean but also subtracts the many losses due to ventilation, nutrient stealing, greenhouse gas production and the carbon dioxide emitted by the burning of fossil fuels to produce the iron salts and to power their transportation and distribution at sea.

Read more at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/ip-gac121912.php

Astronomers say they have uncovered evidence for what could be four super-Earth planets orbiting within the habitable zones of two stars within 22 light-years of Earth.

Three of those candidate planets are among a tightly packed clutch of five that orbit Gliese 667C, part of a triple-star system 22 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The other possible planet is one of five orbiting tau Ceti, a sun-like star 12 light-years away in the constellation Cetus.

Taken together, the detections not only add to accumulating evidence that planets look to be more common than stars – and that planets in habitable zones could be more common than previously thought, some of researchers reporting the finds say.

The finds also illustrate the power of improved statistical tools to boldly un-cover candidate planets where no planet had been found before.

The evidence for these candidate planets requires independent confirmation, the researchers caution. Still, the tools represent "a real breakthrough," says Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of Cali-fornia at Santa Cruz and a member of the team reporting the results for tau Ceti. The approach the team took leaves only about one chance in 3 million that the detections could herald something other than a planet. Read full article at: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/1219/Four-planets-in-habitable-zones-spotted-within-spitting-distance-of-Earth

CLIMATE CHANGE: Geo-Engineering Against Climate Change By Albert Ang

Photo by Explain-that-stuff (flickr user). Under Creative Commons License.

SCIENCE: Four Planets in 'Habitable Zones' Spotted Within Spitting Distance of Earth By Pete Spotts

This diagram shows an artist's rendering comparing our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first 'habitable zone' planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The 'habitable zone' is a region where under the right conditions, liquid water can form stable pools on the surface. Credits: NASA /Ames/JPL-Caltech

CLIMATE CHANGE: World Bank Unveils 10-Year Environmental Strategy By Lisa Friedman

Concerns about a vaccine preservative long thought put to rest are roaring back to life as a United Nations program considers a worldwide ban on the additive.

The U.N. Environment Program is toiling with the idea of putting the kibosh on thimerosal, an organic mercury compound widely used as a preservative in multidose vaccines since the 1930s. More than a decade ago, a public scare that the additive could cause autism led to the eradica-tion of the ingredient from most childhood vaccines in the U.S. and Europe. But a 2004 FDA re-port quashed the argument, saying there's no link between thimerosal and autism.

Now health officials and experts find themselves again quelling that same fear. Why put forth the effort? Thimerosal plays a vital role in keeping vaccines fresh and ready to use in the developing world, where refrigeration and single-dose vials may not be an option. If the preservative goes, some experts say, disease could resurge in areas where it has been tempered by vaccines.

Read more: http://www.fiercevaccines.com/story/un-contemplates-ban-vaccine-preservative/2012-12-18#ixzz2FWsTjZny

When you hear about climate change it's most often about melting glaciers and sea ice, increasing frequency of heatwaves and powerful storms. Maybe, just maybe, you'll hear about the acidification of the oceans too. What you don't hear about is the saltiness of the seas. But that's changing too, according to a new piece of research just published in Geophysical Research Letters. The saltiness, or salinity, of the oceans is controlled by how much water is entering the oceans from rivers and rain versus how much is evaporating; what my kids recog-nize as “The Water Cycle.” The more sunshine and heat there is, the more water can evaporate, leaving the salts behind in higher concentrations in some places. Over time, those changes spread out as water moves, changing the salinity profiles of the oceans. Oceanographers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fingerprinted salinity changes from 1955 to 2004 from 60 degrees south latitude to 60 degrees north latitude and down to the depth of 700 meters in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. They found salinity changes that matched what they expected from such natural changes as El Niño or volcanic eruptions (the latter can lower evaporation by shading and cooling the atmosphere). Reat more about this topic at: http://news.discovery.com/earth/climate-change-and-sea-salt-121219.html

Just 20 years ago, the soils of the Amazon basin were thought unsuitable for large-scale agriculture, but then industrial agriculture — and the ability to fertilize on a massive scale — came to the Amazon. What were once the poorest soils in the world now produce crops at a rate that rivals that of global breadbaskets. Soils no longer seem to be the driver — or the limiter — of agricultural productivity. But a new Brown University-led study of three soybean growing regions, including Brazil, finds that soils have taken on a new role: mediating the environmental consequences of modern farming. Read more at: http://www.sciencenewsline.com/articles/2012121723290020.html

CLIMATE CHANGE: Humans Changing Saltiness of the Seas By Larry O’Hanlon

HEALTH: U.N. Contemplates Ban on Vaccine Preservative By Alison Bryant

Photo by Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory (flickr user). Under Creative Commons License.

Photo by Thompson Rivers University (flickr user). Under Creative Commons License.

SCIENCE: Farm Soils Determine Environmental Fate of Phosphorous By Brow University

Photo by openDemocracy (flickr user). Under Creative Commons License.

The Peruvian Government announced that next January 5, 2013, the Antar XXI Expedition will depart from Callao-Lima to the Antarctic on board the Humboldt research ship. Ambassador Nicolas Roncagliolo of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provided details on the expedition to Andina, the official news agency. The official explained that the research expedition seeks to re-establish the presence of Peru in the Antarctic, as these trips had been suspended during the last five years. “Thanks to the support of other countries, we performed our maintenance duties on the Machu Picchu Station and a few studies. This time, our country will count on its own re-sources to strengthen scientific activities and, therefore, its permanence in the Antarctic. Discussing the Humboldt itinerary. Javier Gaviola, director of Hydrography and Navigation

of the Peruvian Army, explained that the Humboldt will stop at Punta Arenas, in the south of Chile, to finish logistic operations and to wait for the best weather conditions to cross the Drake Passage. “If weather is too windy, crossing Drake Passage might take up to four days. With regular conditions, however, it takes only two days” he explained. The next stop will be Frei Air Park, the Chilean Antarctic Base, where a Peruvian Air Force airplane will carry the rest of the team, made up of researchers, military members and journalists. From there, the ship will go to Machu Picchu Station, where researchers will work until the first week of March, when they will return to Lima. The Humboldt belongs to the Institute of the Peruvian Sea (IMARPE according its initials in Spanish). It will carry 23 researchers. It was upgraded with a 6.9 million dollar investment, according to IMARPE’s President German Vasquez. Read more at: http://elcomercio.pe/actualidad/1511712/noticia-expedicion-peruana-volvera-antartida-despues-cinco-anos

For nearly a week, a leaked draft of next year’s “Fifth Assessment Report” on climate change, by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has been burning up the blogosphere. Since it’s everywhere, I’ll take my liberties and join the party. The most impressive figure shows how badly one of their most-cited series of predictions is faring. Explanation follows. The colored shading shows the projected range of global annual average surface temperature change from 1990 to 2015 for models used in the succession of IPCC assessment reports, labeled “FAR” (First Assessment Report, 1990), SAR (1995), TAR (2001) and AR4 (Fourth, 2007). The “emissions scenarios” generally cover the range from each report during the period from 1990 to 2015, and the changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration that have been observed pretty much fall within this range. The very large grey zone is irrelevant to the forecasts that were made. The three small black rectangles each year are the observed global temperature histories in common use. For every year except the last one (2011), the black “whiskers” are an estimate of the 90% confidence range for the observed temperature. Since the three records pretty much use the same data, I wouldn’t have a lot of faith in the reality of those whiskers. Data were not fully available for 2011, so any whiskers would not be comparable to the others. Quite obviously, for more than a decade, the observa-tions have fallen near or below the lower end of the IPCC projected range. Houston, we have a problem. Will this chart will be altered or disappear completely in the final IPCC report due in 2013? Consider what happened the last time around, in the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmichaels/2012/12/18/the-uns-global-warming-forecasts-are-performing-very-very-badly/

PERU: Wi l l Send an Expedit ion to the Antar ct ic After F ive Years*

Photo by Mark Brandon (flickr user). Under Creative Commons

CLIMATE CHANGE: The UN's Global Warming Forecasts Are Performing Very, Very Badly By Patrick Michaels

Photo by Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory (flickr user). Under Creative Commons License.