Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for July 01. 2024. №68

Dear friends and co-fighters!

Welcome to the next issue of Positive News.

Let you spread it among your friends and co-fighters in your countries and around the Earth.

We will be glad to receive and publish your positive news from the fields and offices.

Welcome to send us photos of your country's Nature Reserves.

Sviatoslav Zabelin, SEU coordinator

Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for July 01. 2024. №68

Ustyurt State Nature Reserve, Kazakhstan was organized 40 years ago on July 12, 1984 to preserve the natural complex of the northern deserts of the Ustyurt plateau in its natural state. The total area of the reserve is 223,300 hectares. The landscapes in the reserve are very diverse: endless steppes and deserts with many depressions, where you can still trace the channels of ancient extinct rivers. A huge Karynzharyk depression stretches from the southwest to the northeast of the reserve. The bottom of the depression lies below sea level. It is here that you can see the most incredible combinations of shapes.

For the first time, researchers have detected a significant dip in atmospheric levels of hydrochlorofluorocarbons — harmful gases that deplete the ozone layer and warm the planet. Almost 30 years after nations first agreed to phase out these chemicals, which were widely used for air conditioning and refrigeration, scientists say global concentrations peaked in 2021. Since then, the ozone-depleting potential of HCFCs in the atmosphere has fallen by about three-quarters of a percentage point, according to findings published Tuesday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Members of the organizing committee celebrate the adoption of the Kigali Amendment on Oct. 15, 2016. Countries that signed the 1987 Montreal Protocol agreed to phase out production of CFCs. (Cyril Ndegeya/AFP/Getty Images)

Though small, that decline comes sooner than expected, scientists say — and it represents a significant milestone for the international effort to preserve the layer of Earth’s stratosphere that blocks dangerous ultraviolet sunlight. Read more

An international cohort of marine scientists discovered an ocean-borne fungus chomping through plastic trash suspended in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as detailed in a new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Dubbed Parengyodontium album, the fungus was discovered among the thin layers of other microbes that live in and around the floating plastic pile in the North Pacific. According to the study, it's the fourth known marine fungus capable of consuming and breaking down plastic waste. Researchers found that P. album was specifically able to break down UV-exposed carbon-based polyethylene, which is the type of plastic most commonly used to make consumer products, like water bottles and grocery bags — and the most pervasive form of plastic waste that pollutes Earth's oceans. Read more

The Peruvian government has formally granted conservation status to the 6,449-hectare desert oasis site Lomas y Tillandsiales de Amara y Ullujalla on the coast of Peru. Lomas are unique ecosystems relying on marine fog that host rare and endemic plants and animal species. But they have become threatened by driving, land trafficking, urban development and mining.

Image courtesy of Hudson Yonjoy©Huarango Nature

The site, the first of its kind to become protected after more than 15 years of scientific and advocacy efforts, will help scientists understand climatic and marine cycles in the area. Read more

Numbers of Iberian lynx have risen from just 94 in 2002 to over 700 this year, thanks to an ongoing captive breeding programme.  In Andalucía, Spain, the largest population of lynx has expanded, while new populations have been established in Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha, as well as Portugal, where the predator was previously extinct. As a result of the animal’s continued recovery, local reserves and communities are also benefiting from ecological restoration and economic growth. The Iberian lynx (Latin name: Lynx pardinus) was once common across much of Spain, Portugal and southern France. 

But in the 20th century, hunting and agricultural and industrial development decimated its numbers and destroyed much of its habitat, causing its population to decline by almost 90%. At the turn of the 21st century, the lynx was the most endangered feline in the world. Read more

A court in Suriname approved an injunction filed on behalf of twelve Indigenous and maroon groups concerned about losing approximately 535,000 hectares of rainforest to agricultural development.

The Tapanahoni River in Suriname. Photo courtesy of Delphinidaesy/Flickr. 

The court said the government doesn’t have the right to grant land without free, prior and informed consent, a process in which developers meet with residents to explain how projects would impact daily life. Read more

The state of Hawaii and more than a dozen climate youth activists reached a settlement Thursday both sides describe as “historic” and the first of its kind in the world — one that will legally require the state to cut its transportation sector’s planet-warming pollution and to consult with young people about its climate impact.

Fire damage is seen on Aug. 13, 2023 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

The lawsuit, Navahine v. Hawai’i Department of Transportation, which was filed in 2022, accused Hawaii’s transportation system of violating the young plaintiffs’ constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment” by being “a major and increasing contributor” to the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The case is the “world’s first youth-led constitutional climate case seeking to address climate pollution from the transportation sector,” the governor’s office and the two firms involved in the lawsuit, Our Children’s Trust and Earthjustice, said in separate statements Thursday. Read more

The climate impact of burning coal, oil and gas must be taken into account when deciding whether to approve projects, the supreme court in London has ruled. The landmark judgment, handed down on Thursday, sets an important precedent on whether the “inevitable” future greenhouse gas emissions of a fossil fuel project should be considered. Campaigners hailed the ruling as a “huge win in the fight for a livable climate” and said it gave a boost to several other domestic lawsuits challenging fossil fuel extraction.

Sarah Finch, who took the case against Surrey county council, speaks outside court in London after the landmark ruling. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

The case was initiated by the campaigner Sarah Finch, who challenged Surrey county council’s decision to extend planning permission for an oil drilling well at Horse Hill, on the Weald. She argued it should have accounted for greenhouse gas emissions from using the oil when assessing the environmental impacts of the project, not only the drilling site itself. These are known as “scope 3” or downstream emissions. The council argued it had discretion to decide what the full impact of a project would be. Read more

06.06 | В мире Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for June 5, 2024. №67

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