Who threw paint into the sky? The real culprit turned out to be... | Environmental Trumpet

Hello everyone, this is the 3rd issue of the Environmental Trumpet column. Our Natural Trumpet column is very popular with readers. In addition to species, we hope to bring more environmental research and news that deserve attention. In this column, you can see different topics such as climate, pollution, energy, agriculture, etc., and learn about the recent changes in our environment, as well as the good and bad news.

In this issue, we have collected the following environmental research and news worth reading:

1) Rare “rainbow clouds” appear continuously in the Arctic sky

2) The UK announced that residents' unwanted electronic waste can be recycled by retail stores

3) Extreme weather occurs frequently, and artificial intelligence helps predict the weather

4) The world's tallest wooden wind turbine begins to turn

5) Wind turbines killed thousands of birds and bats, and France closed a wind farm for the first time

6) The first national standard for green takeout is announced

Rare "rainbow clouds" appear continuously in the Arctic sky

From December 18 to December 20, 2023, due to an abnormally cold current in the atmosphere, rainbow-colored clouds, also known as polar stratospheric clouds (PSC), appeared over the Arctic and surrounding areas.

“Iridescent clouds” are also called polar stratospheric clouds | Ramune Šapailaitė

These polar stratospheric clouds are made up of tiny ice crystals and can only form at extremely low temperatures (below -85°C). The ice crystals in the clouds can refract or scatter sunlight, creating a rainbow of brilliant colors . However, the stratosphere in the Arctic rarely gets below this temperature, so these clouds only appear a few times a year.

According to NASA's climate model, due to the abnormal cold current over the Arctic at the end of last year, the temperature in the Arctic stratosphere has been low enough to form "rainbow clouds". In addition, due to the influence of the El Nino event , the Arctic vortex has expanded outward, causing the cold current to move southward, making "rainbow clouds" appear frequently in areas around the Arctic. In the next few months, "rainbow clouds" over the Arctic will continue to appear.

"Rainbow Cloud" with nose and eyes｜Branca Cristina

UK: Nowhere to throw away home appliances? Unsafe disposal?

Shop to pay

Recently, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) stated that electronic waste in consumers' homes can be collected and wait for retailers to deal with it, or they can take the initiative to bring it to retailers during shopping . These measures will take effect in two years.

The proposal mainly transfers the responsibility for electronic waste disposal from individual consumers to retailers . Retailers can have safer and more efficient ways to deal with these electronic wastes. British official Robbie Moore said that millions of household appliances in the UK end up in the trash every year instead of being recycled, which is a complete waste of natural resources and we must stop this kind of behavior.

Less than 20% of electronic waste is recycled each year｜Pixabay

With the development of technology and the popularization of the Internet, electronic products have quickly invaded every corner of the world, and the amount of electronic waste generated has increased year by year. In response to the problem of the proliferation of electronic waste, the European Union has long tried to limit the generation of electronic waste through laws, requiring that from 2024, mobile phone chargers will uniformly use universal chargers with Type-C interfaces to reduce the generation of discarded cables.

Extreme weather occurs frequently, AI weather forecast sets off a boom

On December 22, 2023, senior Indian meteorological officials said that as heavy rains, floods and droughts surged across the country, India is using artificial intelligence (AI) to build more accurate climate models and improve weather forecasts . In recent years, India has been greatly affected by frequent extreme climate events. According to the Indian Center for Science and Environment, nearly 3,000 people died in India in 2023 due to extreme climate events.

A man walks past construction vehicles covered in debris after the breach of the Rangpo Lake in Sikkim, India, October 8, 2023 | Reuters

India is not the first country to try to use AI to improve weather forecasts. People all over the world are trying to apply AI to weather forecasts. According to the journal Science, in the past year, many technology companies, including Google, Huawei, and Nvidia, have applied AI models to weather forecasts, which can predict the weather 10 days in advance, and the prediction accuracy even exceeds that of traditional models . AI can not only greatly improve the speed of weather forecasts and enhance the effectiveness of forecasts, but also mine patterns from data to improve the accuracy of forecasts.

World's tallest wooden wind turbine begins spinning

In Sweden, a towering wind turbine tower has been built. On the surface, this 150-meter-high turbine tower is no different from an ordinary wind turbine, but in fact, this turbine tower is made of wood .

Typically, wind turbine towers are built with steel. However, due to the difficulty in transporting and erecting steel, the height of turbine towers is often limited , resulting in low efficiency of wind blades in capturing wind energy and instability at higher altitudes.

Engineers are building the world's tallest wooden turbine tower. The turbine's blades are made of fiberglass after Modivon announced a partnership with Finnish company Stora Enso to advance the production of wooden wind turbine blades | Modivon

Swedish company Modivon is trying to use wood to build wind turbine towers. Engineers used 144 layers of veneer laminated lumber to form the tower body of the turbine tower, and by changing the texture of the board, the strength and flexibility of the tower body were also guaranteed. Wood is much lighter than steel. Using wood to build turbines not only reduces the difficulty of building high towers, but also allows wind turbines to be built in areas with complex terrain and difficult transportation .

In addition, using wood to build turbine towers can also reduce carbon emissions during the construction process. Wood absorbs a lot of carbon dioxide before it is cut down, and the carbon dioxide released during wood processing is far less than the calcination of steel, so the construction of wooden wind turbine towers has achieved negative carbon construction .

Wind turbines kill thousands of animals.

France shuts down wind farm for the first time

In early December, a wind farm in the southern French city of Nimes was ordered to be dismantled because the seven turbines in the wind farm had caused the deaths of thousands of birds and bats, including an endangered golden eagle . According to the court's requirements, the developer of the wind farm, German energy company Energies Renouvelables du Languedoc-Valeco, was required to dismantle the wind farm and restore the original site within 15 months, otherwise it would face the risk of fines.

Behind wind power generation, countless birds have died｜Pixabay

As a "green energy", wind power can have a significant impact on rare and endangered species in some areas. Places with rich wind resources are often far away from cities and sparsely populated. Some wind power sites have high biodiversity and are prone to encounter with wild animals.

The speed of fan blades is so fast that many birds, especially larger birds, are easily killed by colliding with blades during flight . The air pressure difference during the rotation of the fan can easily cause bats to die from lung explosions when they pass by , and the noise from the fan can easily interfere with the bats' echolocation system.

In addition to direct demolition, some wind farms have designed some measures to reduce damage to birds. For example, the wind farm built at Cattle Hill in Tasmania, Australia, has a mechanism to prevent bird strikes - when the camera detects a wedge-tailed eagle (Australia's largest bird of prey) flying over, the computer algorithm predicts its flight direction and orders the wind turbine it is about to pass to shut down. Every day, each wind turbine at Cattle Hill shuts down an average of 400 times, each time for about two minutes.

The first national standard for green takeout is announced

In the fast-paced work and life, ordering takeout has become a daily choice. As of June 2023, the number of online takeout users in my country has reached 535 million.

Recently, the first national standard for green takeout, the Green Takeout Management Standard, was released and implemented. As a standard, it is clearly stated that takeout food business operators should reduce the use of various packaging materials and replace them with environmentally friendly materials to avoid or reduce environmental pollution .

Specifically, the standard regulates takeaway activities from three aspects: takeaway food production, takeaway food supply, and green takeaway management:

In terms of food raw material procurement, it is required to establish a traceable supply chain management system to reduce food waste;

In terms of takeaway packaging, packaging that is less harmful to human health and the ecological environment and consumes less resources and energy should be selected on the premise of meeting the functional requirements of the packaging;

In terms of food delivery, it is required to choose reasonable routes and scientific equipment to reduce energy consumption, etc.

Author: Xiao Xiaoze

Editor: Little Towel, Mai Mai

Title image source: Ramune Šapailaitė