Top 10 International Environment and Climate News of 2017
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From the internet! By reviewing various major environmental events and related news that occurred around the world in 2017, and by assessing and considering their impact and significance, the following ten most important environment and climate-related news stories from 2017 have been identified. 1 Severe pollution detected in Earth’s deepest ocean trench: Human pollution has reached the \"most remote corners\". Scientists have found extremely severe levels of pollution at the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench (11,095 meters deep). At the beginning of this year, researchers Alan Jamieson and his colleagues from the University of Aberdeen in the UK discovered that the levels of pollutants in isopod crustaceans living at 10,000 meters below sea level were very similar to those in Suruga Bay. And Suruga Bay is one of the most polluted industrial areas in the northwestern Pacific. Studies show that such high levels of pollution have been found in ocean trenches far from industrial areas, separated from each other by nearly 7,000 kilometers and with depths of over 10 kilometers, indicating that pollution resulting from human activities has reached the ‘farthest corners’ of the Earth.
2 Shockwaves around the world: Trump announces withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement? On June 1, U.S. President Trump said that, in order to fulfill his campaign promises and his serious duty to protect the United States and its people, he is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. This announcement had a tremendous impact and shocked the world. Trump said he would negotiate the terms for rejoining the Paris Agreement, or a completely new deal, on the condition that it be an agreement favorable to the United States and its businesses, workers, people, and taxpayers. Before withdrawal, all measures voluntarily committed to by the United States under the Paris Agreement will cease to be implemented. He said, “The Paris Agreement will cost the United States benefits and benefit other countries such as China and India.” He added, “It is an agreement that redistributes U.S. interests to other countries, putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.” As long as I am in office for a single day, I will not allow such things to happen. I’m sorry. ” This decision has introduced uncertainty into the process of global climate governance, and world public opinion has expressed criticism and regret over it. All parties also emphasized that the U.S. move will not end global cooperation on addressing climate change.
3. India’s air pollution is worse than China’s, causing 1.1 million deaths per year. In February of this year, a new global study on air pollution conducted by the Health Effects Institute in Boston, which focuses on the health impacts of air pollution, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, showed that air pollution in India is worsening rapidly, leading to approximately 1.1 million premature deaths each year. In recent years, the number of premature deaths caused by the harmful air particles PM2.5 has remained relatively stable in China, but it has risen sharply in India. Between 1990 and 2015, particulate matter caused nearly a 50% increase in premature deaths in India. India is now overtaking China to become the country with the most deadly air pollution in the world.
4 The largest wildfire in California’s history causes severe economic losses: The “Thomas Fire,” which started on December 4th in Ventura County in southern California, has become the largest wildfire in California’s history. This fire has affected 273,400 acres, or 427 square miles, of land, which is slightly more than the record set by the California forest fires in 2003, which covered 273,246 acres. The fire destroyed over 1,000 buildings, including mobile homes and middle-class neighborhoods in Ventura County, as well as luxury homes worth millions of dollars in Santa Barbara County. Additionally, according to a *official from the Ventura County Department of Agriculture, the fires destroyed local farms and avocado plantations. Moreover, the burning of grazing lands has had a significant impact on local livestock farming as well.
5 The pollution caused by industrial wastewater pits in North China is alarming. On April 19, the Chongqing Liangjiang Volunteer Service Development Center announced that multiple such pits containing industrial wastewater had been found in Tianjin and Hebei Province； Among them, the area of the seepage pit discovered in Tongjiazhuang Village, Xizhaizhuang Town, Jinghai District, Tianjin, covers 150,000 square meters; the polluted area in Nanzaofu Town, Dacheng County, Langfang City, Hebei Province is approximately 30,000 square meters. The wastewater is rust-red in color and acidic, and due to its long period of storage, a large amount of it has seeped out. The sewage ponds in North China have drawn significant attention from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and relevant local authorities. Officials from the Ministry believe that the pollution caused by these ponds involves at least two types of violations: discharging pollutants through ponds or wells in order to evade regulatory oversight ； Illegal discharge of hazardous waste. Jinghai District in Tianjin has conducted inspections of 9 enterprises located around sewage ponds, and comprehensive remediation work is currently in progress
6 WHO: Nearly 2 billion people worldwide drink polluted water? On April 13, Maria Nera, head of the WHO’s Department of Public Health, Environment and Health, said that nearly 2 billion people around the world are forced to drink water contaminated by feces, putting them at risk of contracting diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. “Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause over 500,000 deaths due to diarrhea each year, and it is also a major cause of various neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. ” On that day, the WHO released the 2017 Global Analysis and Assessment Report on Sanitation and Drinking Water prepared by UN-Water, welcoming the fact that countries have increased their financial budgets for improving water, environmental, and personal hygiene conditions by an average of 4.9% over the past three years. The report also notes that 80% of the ** stated that they cannot provide sufficient funding on their own to achieve their national goals in this area, especially since many developing ** cannot always offer safe and reliable services. Most **need to significantly increase investment in drinking water hygiene.
7 Annual U.S. Climate Report: Record Temperatures Last Year; Has Global Warming Not Slowed Down? The annual climate report released on August 10 by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicates that 2016 set multiple records, including being the hottest year, the year with the highest sea levels, and the year with the greatest emissions of heat-trapping gases. These indicators, which had just set new records the year before last, continued to rise last year, indicating that the trend of global warming shows no sign of slowing down. This report, authored by nearly 500 scientists from around the world, emphasizes that humanity’s continued reliance on petroleum-based energy and unprecedented greenhouse gas emissions are polluting the atmosphere, preventing the Earth from dissipating heat. Emissions of the main greenhouse gases responsible for climate warming, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, have all reached new highs. The carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reached 402.9 ppm, marking the first time in modern recorded history that it has exceeded 400 ppm. Furthermore, the average sea level reached its highest level on record last year, about 82 millimeters higher than in 1993.
More than 8 countries are competing to phase out gasoline and diesel vehicles and setting timelines for banning their sales. Xin Guobin, vice minister of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revealed during a speech at the 2017 International Forum on the Development of China’s Automotive Industry held in Tianjin on September 9 that China **has already begun to work on formulating timelines for stopping the production and sale of traditional fuel-powered vehicles. Before China, India, Norway, France, and the UK have already announced that they will phase out gasoline-powered vehicles and replace them with cleaner electric or hybrid vehicles. Norway has set a deadline of 2025, India of 2030, while the UK and France have both set it at 2040. Cao He, president of Alliance Auto Dealers Investment Management (Beijing) Co., Ltd., said that, based on the timelines of several European countries, China will definitely ban the sale of fuel-powered vehicles 10 to 20 years later than those countries in the West, probably not before 2040. So far, at least 8 more **have set sales targets for electric vehicles. They are: Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea, and Spain. Although the United States does not yet have a federal policy, at least 8 states have set relevant goals.
9 Experts identify the main cause of widespread fog in China; local authorities begin to address the issue of colored smoke plumes. At the beginning of 2017, Dr. He Ping, president of the International China Environment Foundation (IFCE) based in Washington, wrote an article stating that wet flue gas desulfurization was the primary cause of the widespread fog in China, which attracted considerable attention. Subsequently, many scholars and researchers conducted investigations and analyses, confirming the views of the IFCE experts from various perspectives. On September 24, Science and Management published the results of long-term research conducted by Researcher Zhou Yong, deputy director of the Strategic Research Institute at the Shandong Academy of Sciences. By utilizing big data on PM2.5, historical meteorological data on haze and fog days, as well as experimental data, the study used irrefutable evidence to confirm that the emission of moisture from wet flue gas desulfurization (low-temperature wet smoke vapor) was the sole cause of the severe haze outbreaks in 2013, as well as the main reason why widespread haze problems in China have persisted despite efforts to address them. Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Tianjin have successively issued local environmental protection regulations to address the \"colored plumes\" caused by wet flue gas desulfurization.
10 The Bonn Climate Change Conference: Is China a key topic? The 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Bonn, Germany, from November 6 to 17. The Chinese delegation prepared a total of 5 proposals regarding the key topics of this conference ； Shenzhen in China will soon become the world’s first city to have a 100% electric bus fleet. The first large-scale project for the comprehensive recycling of straw biomass in Inner Mongolia has begun operations, and in Chongqing, the total amount of carbon emissions resulting from household waste decreased by 1.42% from the same period last year between January and August this year ； By 2020, China will invest over $360 billion in the development of alternative energy sources, with non-fossil energy accounting for 15% of the total. Espinosa, the Executive Secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, praised China as one of the leaders in addressing global climate change.
It seems this issue has been confirmed! The drive to desulfurize air has led to unexpected consequences. Following these good intentions, on September 24th, the journal Science and Management published the results of long-term research conducted by Researcher Zhou Yong, deputy director of the Strategic Research Institute at the Shandong Academy of Sciences. By using big data related to PM2.5, historical meteorological data on haze and fog days, as well as experimental data, irrefutable evidence confirmed that the emission of moisture from wet desulfurization processes (low-temperature wet smoke) is the sole cause of the severe haze outbreaks in 2013, as well as the main reason why widespread haze problems persist in China to this day. Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Tianjin have successively issued local environmental protection regulations to address the \"colored plumes\" caused by wet flue gas desulfurization.