England: families forced to live alongside garbage mountain

The residents of Cornwall Drive in St Paul's Cray, Brombley, near London, are forced to live next to a mountain of garbage for three years. The pile of trash is located down the street and reaches more than 12 feet tall and more than 18 meters wide â€" piling up a total of 18,000 tons of garbage.

During the summer, residents are prevented from enjoying their gardens or open the Windows to ventilate the House due to the unbearable smell that emanates from the mountain of garbage. The houses on the street have already lost business value, and the residents fear for their health and for their children.

Residents accuse the company that manages the location of fails to deliver payments to that trash can be sent for treatment or for recycling. "It's a nightmare. The dust, the trucks and their noises. The smell is sometimes nauseating, like burning plastic. Sometimes enters into the House. I've been sick several times because of it, "says Alan Cowburn, a resident of the street.

Currently, the case is in court, but still nothing has been decided about the future of the mountain of garbage.

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The fish have feelings too

Fish are the most common pet and, currently, are more sought after as food than meat. For years it was argued â€" in particular the scientific community â€" that the fish do not feel pain the same way as mammals, do not possess physical structures to do so.

However, a new study comes to disprove this theory. The investigation, conducted by Culum Brown of Macquarie University in Sydney, concluded that the fish not only feel pain the same way as mammals are also capable of relatively complex social interactions.

"A review of the evidence for the perception of pain indicates strongly that fish experience pain in a manner similar to the rest of the vertebrates," said the study, quoted by Dodo. "If we look at the fishes ' pain receptors is striking similarities with the same human receptors on pain receptors in all vertebrates are derived from a common ancestor to the fish," says the study.

The review also cites scientific studies that reveal complex cognitive capacity in fish: since long-term memories, traditions rooted, cooperation with other animals and the use of tools. Fish can recognize other animals of the same species and some researchers argue that the fish if they can recognize themselves.

Foto:  dbnunley / Creative Commons

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Marine pollution causes damage of €9,5 billion per year

Marine pollution caused by plastic particles dispersed in the oceans represents a financial loss of €9,5 billion per year ($ 28.6 billion), according to the document Valuing plastic, presented during the historic United Nations Environment Meeting.

The document covers marine pollution by plastics, above all the microplásticos were, and is more a warning about the dangerous plastic waste that sail by ocean currents and form islands floating in the oceans.

The study points out that the cost of natural capital in the use of plastic, each year is €55 billion ($ 165 billion). This account includes the impacts caused by the pollution of the seas, sea and other sources.

"The plastic plays a crucial role in modern life, but its environmental impacts cannot be ignored," explained or under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive director, Achim Steiner.

In addition to the financial losses, there are several other damage caused by plastic waste: death or diseases of marine animals, like turtles, damage to critical habitats, such as coral reefs, chemical contamination, dispersal of invasive species in plastic fragments, which causes losses to the fishing industry and tourism. Finally, there are several reports of animals that get stuck in the plastic, like whales and dolphins.

Read the full report of the study on Unep's website (opens PDF).

Foto: DanCentury / Creative Commons

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Italian police released images of the interior of the Costa Concordia

The January 13, 2012, the Italian coast suffered one of the most severe attacks on its sustainability: the sinking of the Costa Concordia, a cruise ship that sank off the island of Giglio, Tuscany.

In the disaster, 32 of the 4,200 passengers eventually died, and the ship turned out to be, until today, in the waters of Giglio. Now, at a time that the ship will be sent finally to Genoa, to be dismantled and sold, the Italian police have released some images of the interior of the infrastructure.

The images are creepy and show what's left â€" that's too-luxurious ship: furniture, various possessions, books, papers, clothes, flowers, vases, shops and cafés.

The last 30 stabilization devices were placed today and the ship will be ready for the five-day trip to Genoa. A journey that, incidentally, is being heavily criticized by organizations such as Greenpeace, which allege that she is dangerous. "Drag the ship to Genoa are five days at sea. Environmental risks are huge, since there are dangerous fluids that can be released. And the structure itself may collapse, "explains Luca Lacoboni, Greenpeace Italy.

"We cannot allow another disaster and there is closer to ports, which can be accessed with less risk," he concluded.

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New Riverside Park of Póvoa de Santa Iria was built with recycled materials

Since July of 2013 that the Póvoa de Santa Iria, Vila Franca de Xira, has two new urban parks: the urban park of Póvoa de Santa Iria and the Linear Park Tagus estuary Riverside.

Linear Riverside Park of Tejo estuary stretches for about 70 hectares and integrates the call fishermen area, providing space for leisure activities, picnic area, sports area, environmental interpretation Center and landscape, solarium and cafeteria trays. The construction of the Park allowed to rehabilitate an old industrial zone of sand deposits.

The construction of the area, which also has several footpaths and cycle tracks, was the responsibility of the atelier Topiaris and the atelier Architecture diffuser, which used recycled pallets and old tires to build some of the spaces. At night, the space is lit with electricity generated completely from photovoltaic panels that were installed in the Park, referred to in Inhabitat.

This work on the Riverfront of the Póvoa de Santa iria represented a public investment of €6,5 million and in addition to allow the refurbishment of a degraded area of the city allowed to re-establish the link with the river Tagus.

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City +: the event that joint citizenship, environment and sustainability at the port

Between 7 and 13 July the city of Porto will be the stage of the CITY +, an event that seeks to "celebrate the citizenship, the environment and sustainability in the urban context". The event is divided into two parts, with the first, the Warm-up, elapses between 7 and 9 July in various locations the city iconic.

The objective of this first phase of the event is to revive and disseminate these city spaces and promote sustainable projects and initiatives that exist in the city. The second part of the CITY + takes place exclusively at the Crystal Palace and concentrates a broad range of activities between 10 and 13 July.

Among the various activities scheduled there are conferences, workshops, working sessions, open lessons, shows, corporate square, and networking. All activities are free entry. The CITY is organized in a partnership between + the Câmara Municipal do Porto, Porto Lazer, Root port and Bio Ruma.

Foto:  dabrantes / Creative Commons

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Salt tofu can make solar panels more safe and cheap

Solar panels are a device that generates renewable solar energy without carbon dioxide emissions. However, the manufacturing process of the panels is not as sustainable as the function they perform, for use in his composition toxic materials that harm the planet and human health, especially the cadmium chloride, which is used to improve the efficiency of solar cells but which is quite toxic.

However, researchers at the University of Liverpool believe they have found a replacement for cadmium chloride which is much safer: a salt that is used to make tofu, magnesium chloride.

This chemical compound is a common salt which is also used in bath salts and to remove the ice from the roads â€" and who now might have another application. The magnesium chloride is extracted from seawater and is fairly cheap and secure than cadmium chloride â€" €0,0007 per gram, compared with €0,2 per gram of cadmium chloride.

Millions of solar panels throughout the world have cadmium chloride in their composition, since the compound helps the efficiency of solar cells. According to the University of Liverpool, cheaper solar cells on the market are based on a thin film of insoluble cadmium telluride. Only with this compound, the solar cells are able to convert less than 2% of the solar energy into electricity, but in the presence of cadmium chloride efficiency increases to 15%.

According to Jon Major, principal investigator and physically, the application of magnesium chloride allows the same efficiency of the cells but with a greater degree of security and makes the manufacture of cheaper panels. "We have to handle the cadmium chloride in a laboratory hood, but we created solar cells using a new method that can be accomplished under the laboratory bench with a spray gun purchased at a drugstore," explains the researcher, quoted by Tree Hugger. "Cadmium chloride is toxic and expensive, and stopped using it. Replace it with a natural compound may enable big savings to renewables industry ", indicates.

Many other researchers are also finding more natural and safe alternatives to produce solar cells, such as biodegradable plastics and wood fibers. So in short, the solar panels can be as clean as the energy they generate.

Foto: haley. s / Creative Commons

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