Ranked: the environmental impact of five different soft drink containers

People are increasingly aware of the harm plastic waste causes to wildlife, and many would avoid buying single-use plastics if they could help it. But are the alternatives to plastic much better?

Let’s look at one example – fizzy drinks. You might assume that plastic bottles are the least green option, but is that always the case?

To find out, we compared five different types of pressurised drinks containers. We tested their environmental impact according to a range of criteria, including how each contributes to climate change and the pollution each produces during manufacture, use and disposal.

Here they are, ranked from worst to best.

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Fifth place: glass bottles

It might come as a surprise, but glass bottles actually ranked last in our analysis. You might instinctively reach for a glass bottle to avoid buying a plastic alternative, but glass takes more resources and energy to produce. Glass making involves mining raw materials such as silica sand and dolomite, and that can release pollution which, when inhaled, can cause the lung condition silicosis.

High temperatures are also needed to melt these materials, a process overwhelmingly powered by fossil fuels. During production, the glass itself releases carbon dioxide.

Our analysis found that glass bottle production used the most natural resources, due to the sheer amount of material used. A one-litre glass bottle can weigh up to 800g, while a similar plastic bottle weighs around 40g. That extra weight means vehicles transporting glass bottles consume more fossil fuels to deliver the same amount of liquid. For these reasons, we found that glass bottles have about a 95% bigger contribution to global warming than aluminium cans.

More weight means more emissions. Makushin Alexey/Shutterstock

Fourth place: recycled glass bottles

If a regular glass bottle is the worst, then surely those made from 100% recycled glass are much better, right? Unfortunately, no.

Some energy is saved in recycling rather than extracting, processing and transporting raw materials. But recycling glass still uses a lot of energy because of the high temperatures needed to melt it. More energy means more greenhouse gas emissions, and during the process, the glass may release carbon dioxide again.

In the UK, the recycling rate for glass is 67.6%. This would need to improve for glass bottle production to be self-sufficient by recycling alone.
Third place: plastic bottles

In third place is the plastic bottle. Plastic has ideal qualities for containing drinks. It’s strong, resistant to chemicals (so the ingredients in your drink don’t degrade the plastic), and it’s lightweight, meaning more can be transported on less emissions. That gave plastic a significantly lower impact on global warming than glass in our analysis.

But the effects of plastic waste globally are well documented. Glass and aluminium don’t break up into harmful microparticles like plastic does.

Plastic recycling requires less energy due to the lower temperatures involved in melting the raw material. But plastic, unlike glass or aluminium, cannot be endlessly recycled. Each time it’s recycled, the chains of molecules that make up plastics are shortened. All plastic reaches a point when it can no longer be recycled and so becomes destined either for landfill, incineration or the environment.
Second place: aluminium cans

In second place are aluminium cans. We found that they contribute less to global warming than glass and plastic because making them consumes less energy and resources. Cans are lighter than glass and aren’t made from fossil fuels either, like plastic.

Because of the processes involved in making them, cans also contribute less to environmental problems like acid rain and oxygen-free zones in the ocean. That’s because creating glass and plastic requires more electricity, and so it generates more sulphur dioxide pollution on average – a leading cause of acid rain. Making glass and plastic, and extracting the materials to make them (particularly soda ash for glass production), also releases more phosphates into the environment, which can overload rivers and coastal seas and deplete oxygen from the water.

But aluminium has its own environmental impacts. Making it involves refining bauxite ore, and mining bauxite can pollute water in the countries it’s sourced, including Australia, Malaysia and India. Rivers and sediment contaminated with heavy metals threaten the health of people and wildlife near mines.

Bauxite exists in the topsoil of some tropical and subtropical countries.

  Alexey Rezvykh/Shutterstock

First place: recycled aluminium cans

Recycled aluminium cans were the least environmentally damaging single-use container we looked at. Aluminium can be constantly recycled with no change in properties. Recycling an aluminium can saves 95% of the energy used to make a new can and no new material needs to be mined or transported.

But aluminium isn’t always recycled. The UK’s recycling rate for aluminium packaging is just 52%. This must be drastically improved to make recycling the main supply of new cans.

Even if some of these containers are better than others, all of them have an environmental impact. The best option would be to phase out single-use packaging entirely, and introduce a system of reusing containers. Think self-serve drinks machines in local shops, where you could fill a bottle that you bring from home, or bottle return and reuse schemes.

Reducing waste and reusing materials, where possible, should come before recycling something. By reusing bottles, we reduce the amount of single-use packaging that needs to be created, reducing waste and a whole host of global environmental problems.

November 17, 2020


Authors

Ian Williams
Professor of Applied Environmental Science, University of Southampton

Ian Williams receives funding from EPSRC and EU Horizon2020.

Alice Brock
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Disclosure statement
Alice Brock receives funding from ESRC.

Lawsuit challenges Trump's lifting of roadless rule in Alaska's Tongass forest



Yereth Rosen
December 23, 2020

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A coalition of Alaska Native tribes and environmentalists filed suit on Wednesday challenging a new Trump administration policy that opens vast swaths of the largest U.S. national forest to logging, mining and other commercial development.

The lawsuit, joined by tourism and fishing organizations, seeks to reinstate prohibitions on road-building through previously protected areas in the Tongass National Forest of southeastern Alaska, the world's largest temperate rain forest.

The Clinton-era rule, effectively banning timber harvests and mineral extraction in undeveloped areas of national forests across the country, was lifted for the Tongass in October, part of President Donald Trump's aim of easing various environmental regulations opposed by industry.

It marked a victory for state officials who petitioned for the change because they said the roadless rule - closing off 9.2 million acres (3.7 million hectares) of the 17-million-acre (6.8-million-hectare) Tongass - had cost Alaskans jobs.

But Wednesday's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Juneau, said the Trump policy imperiled indigenous tribal homelands and the ecosystem supporting southeast Alaska's fishing and tourism industries, while disregarding sound science.

“The need for this litigation is a mark of shame upon the federal government for violating the trust and responsibilities it has to the indigenous peoples of the Tongass," Robert Starbard, tribal administrator for the Hoonah Indian Association, said in a statement.

The lawsuit also said increased logging in the Tongass would undermine efforts to combat global warming because the forest is a significant natural repository for stored carbon.

“The complete removal of roadless protections on the Tongass will only worsen the climate crisis, not to mention fragment wildlife habitat and destroy salmon runs,” Andy Moderow of the Alaska Wilderness League said.

U.S. Forest Service representatives were not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit. But the agency has said its Tongass exemption plan would allow new timber production on fewer than 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares), while permitting no more than 50 additional miles (80 km) of road construction over the next century.

The national roadless rule was imposed in 2001 in the last days of President Bill Clinton's administration. It was challenged by Alaska and, at times, other states seeking exemptions. The most recent court rulings, in 2015 and 2016, upheld the rule for the Tongass.

The incoming Biden administration could reverse the Trump policy and accomplish the lawsuit’s objective, plaintiffs' attorney Kate Glover said.

(Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage, Alaska; Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney)

The UK approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. The US might not get it until April.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper and easier to distribute than other vaccines being deployed.

By Umair Irfan Dec 30, 2020, 

People line up to receive vaccinations on December 30 in London. Hollie Adams/Getty Images

The United Kingdom on Wednesday authorized its second Covid-19 vaccine for distribution. Developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, the newly approved vaccine costs less and is easier to store than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that received similar approval in the UK on December 2.

Officials said the advantages of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine could accelerate the vaccination effort as the UK contends with a new, more transmissible variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

“This approval means more people can be protected against this virus and will help save lives,” June Raine, chief executive of the UK’s health regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said in a statement.

The UK aims to vaccinate 1 million people per week and is shifting to a more aggressive vaccination schedule, according to the New York Times. The country will administer the first vaccine dose to “as many people as possible,” rather than try to keep supplies in reserve to ensure everyone receives a second dose, as other countries, including the United States, have done so far.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine’s high stability and low cost could also be a boon to less wealthy nations. If its efficacy is high — and if the vaccine is distributed quickly — it could save countless lives. However, some lingering questions about the results of clinical trials for this vaccine are holding it back from approval in the US, which is conducting its own trials of the vaccine’s effectiveness.

Why the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is different from those developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna

In the UK, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is approved for people over the age of 18 and will normally be administered as two doses spaced four to 12 weeks apart. It costs $3 to $4 a dose and can be stored in regular refrigerators. By comparison, the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines that have received emergency use authorizations in the US cost between $15 and $25 per dose and require freezers. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in particular needs cold storage at minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit) or lower.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine also uses a different technology from the Covid-19 immunizations approved so far. The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines harness a molecule called mRNA as their platform to deliver the instructions for making a part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Oxford and AstraZeneca used a different innovative method, reprogramming another virus to transmit DNA instructions for making parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Using another virus to package and deliver genetic material helps the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine remain stable even at higher temperatures.

However, Oxford and AstraZeneca encountered some problems in their clinical trials, including a dosage mistake that led to one group receiving less than a full dose for their initial shot. So far, its efficacy seems to be less than that of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, though well above the 50 percent threshold the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency set for vaccine approval.

But the actual efficacy value remains unclear, ranging between 70 percent and 90 percent efficacy in preventing Covid-19. And Oxford and AstraZeneca have been cagey about certain details surrounding their research.

RELATED
The new UK coronavirus mutations, explained

One reason the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved in the UK but not in the US is that UK regulators evaluate clinical trial data on a rolling basis. The FDA prefers to have more complete trial data. In the US, phase 3 clinical trials of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are still being conducted.

During a press call on December 30, Moncef Slaoui, the scientific lead for the US government’s Operation Warp Speed, said it might be months before the US gives this vaccine the green light. “We project, if everything goes well, that the readout and emergency use authorization may be granted somewhere early in the month of April,” Slaoui said.

But as in the UK, having another vaccine available in the US, particularly one that’s cheaper and easier to store, would help control the spread of Covid-19. The US government has already invested $1.2 billion in the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and has committed to purchasing 300 million doses.

Strongest low in the world heading towards Alaska

It's quite the fitting ending for 2020: The strongest low in the world closing out the year and ushering in 2021.

On Wednesday, a monster storm was born across the western Pacific and caused record-breaking cold temperatures to stream east across Japan.

By Thursday, the low straddled the International Date Line as it reached peak intensity - meaning half the storm had already entered the next year, while the other half was currently stuck in 2020.

Embedded content: https://twitter.com/50ShadesofVan/status/1344729431202557954

As it crossed the date line, the storm's pressure was around 928 millibars, not far off from the record of 924 millibars, with some strengthening still expected into Thursday evening.

What that will amount to is epic winds nearing 200 km/h on the southern side of the low Thursday, whipping up the waves to possible maximum heights close to 30 metres. The swell will propagate across the Pacific, and there is the possibility that parts of western Vancouver Island could see 6 to 8 metre waves

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© Provided by The Weather Network

For reference, only two Atlantic hurricanes in 2020 had lower pressure readings, Hurricane Eta and Iota, although this comparison is apples to oranges – hurricanes extract their power from warm sea surface temperatures, while the extreme temperature gradients in the northern latitudes fuel the storms tracking across the northern Pacific.

In the case of this low, Siberian air flowing across the western Pacific has interacted with a warmer, sub-tropical flow south of Japan, creating the necessary conditions to push the atmosphere to the limit.

DOWNSTREAM IMPACTS ON CANADA

All of that energy traversing the Pacific Ocean will create some weather chaos across Canada. B.C. ski resorts will be measuring snowfall, not in centimetres, but in metres in the days and weeks to come

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© Provided by The Weather Network

The strong jet stream that creates intense storm conditions for British Columbia will keep the rest of the continent void of any consistent Arctic air through mid-January.

*Editor’s note: This article is no longer being updated. Click here to read the recent updates on this powerful low pressure system. *

‘Bomb cyclone’ builds in Aleutian Islands

Author: Jason Samenow, Andrew Freedman, The Washington Post


Computer model view of the Pacific storm, showing wind direction and speed. (Earth.nullschool.net)

A powerhouse storm explosively intensifying in the northern Pacific could rank as the strongest nontropical cyclone observed in that ocean basin.

The storm’s pressure has already dropped to 921 millibars on New Year’s Eve, which is even lower than extreme cyclones that formed in the same vicinity in 2014 and 2015. It now qualifies as the strongest storm on record to hit Alaska, according to Rick Thoman, a climate scientist at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

The lower the pressure, generally, the stronger the storm. The two northern Pacific cyclones that set records in 2014 and 2015 saw their pressures level off at around 924 millibars, which means this storm has eclipsed their intensities.

On Thursday morning, the National Weather Service’s Ocean Prediction Center confirmed that the storm is already generating 110 mph winds. On satellite imagery, the storm appears as a giant comma-shaped swirl of clouds, a textbook appearance for a strong nontropical weather system.

At 7 a.m. Wednesday, the European model had analyzed the storm’s pressure at 972 millibars. It predicted the pressure will tumble to 921 millibars just 24 hours later, a 51-millibar drop. This plunge in pressure is double the criteria for “bombogenesis,” in which a storm’s pressure drops 24 millibars in 24 hours and earns the “bomb cyclone” moniker.

The Weather Service’s Ocean Prediction Center, which analyzed the storm at 921 mb, stated it ranks as “one of the strongest storms to ever impact the North Pacific.” The strongest wind gust recorded at Shemya Island in Alaska, located about 1,450 miles southwest of Anchorage, was 83 mph, with high winds and pounding waves battering the western Aleutian Island chain.

This 2020 Pacific bomb cyclone and its ultralow pressure represent an amazing contrast from an exceptional high-pressure zone over Mongolia, which may have set a world record on Tuesday.

At 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the mean sea-level pressure at Tsetsen-Uul, Mongolia, rose to 1,094.3 millibars, about 174 millibars higher than the projected pressure in the Pacific cyclone.

East Asia sits in the transition zone between these two extreme pressure centers, and the resulting northerly winds funneling over the Sea of Japan are predicted to cause a massive “sea effect” snowstorm for the Japanese Alps downwind.

Multiple feet of snow are forecast for the high terrain on Honshu through Saturday morning. This same region is just recovering from up to seven feet of snow earlier this month.

Rain, snowfall warnings issued ahead of next potent B.C. storm

www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topstories/rain-snowfall-warnings-issued...

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13 hours ago · Yet another low-pressure system makes its way to B.C. on Saturday ... expected to be the strongest of the forthcoming systems. This will likely be a washout for the day, as the low will bring

Meanwhile, the Pacific storm, in addition to unleashing winds topping 100 mph, is predicted to generate waves over 45 feet over the open waters.

Such storms generally go unnoticed except for meteorologists and those with maritime interests such as shipping, military and fishing. They are common in winter, although this particular storm is likely to reach the upper echelon of those ever observed in terms of its intensity.

While their pressures are extremely low, they do not fall as low hurricanes and typhoons, which have been known to drop below 900 millibars.

“Unlike hurricanes, these large and powerful storms go unnamed,” Capital Weather Gang’s severe-weather expert Jeff Halverson wrote in describing these storms in 2015. “And unlike hurricanes, they derive their energy from an entirely different process. While hurricanes extract heat from the ocean, maritime cyclones create energy by drawing together warm and cold air masses. When the warm air rises and cold air sinks, the kinetic energy of swirling wind is generated.”

Halverson continued: “The juxtaposition of warm and cold air is also what powers the polar jet stream - and indeed, maritime cyclones and the jet stream are inextricably linked - the one feeding back upon, and enhancing, the other.”

Indeed, the European model forecasts the jet stream transiting the Pacific to reach astonishing speeds of 230 mph (200 knots) at an altitude of 30,000 feet Thursday into Friday.

This rip-roaring jet stream is likely to carry weather disturbances into the Pacific Northwest and even California over the next week.

The National Weather Service is predicting four to eight inches of rain from the coast of Northern California into Washington state over the next seven days. In the high elevations, snowfall will be extreme, measured in feet.

With the jet stream bombarding the West Coast and drawing in Pacific air, the eastern United States is expected to be generally mild next week as the flow of Arctic air into the Lower 8 is4 cut off.

India’s huge farmer protests, explained

Thousands of India’s farmers have set up camp in Delhi.

By Christina Thornellchristina.thornell@vox.com  Dec 30, 2020,

In November 2020, thousands of farmers marched from the northern states of India to Delhi to protest farming reforms passed by Prime Minister Modi’s government. Those protests have continued throughout the month of December and show little sign of letting up. The farmers have set up camp in and around the capital city to pressure the government to repeal the laws, but the government won’t budge.

The government says these new laws will modernize farming by liberalizing the industry, but India’s farmers say it will be their downfall. Under these new policies, farmers will have fewer government protections and will likely lose the government-regulated markets and prices they have relied on for years.

To make matters even more difficult, all this is happening as India’s farmers grapple with a shrinking share of the economy that has contributed to a suicide crisis around the country.

To understand the three farming reforms and why they have driven so many farmers into the streets, as well as the history behind the problems India’s farmers have been facing for decades, watch the video

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NOT FOR ARAB ISRAELI'S OR PALESTINIANS

Israel becomes the first country to vaccinate 10% of its population

Israel’s Channel 12 News added that a million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which have not yet been used, have already arrived, far ahead of the March target date.

By GABE FRIEDMAN/JTA, JERUSALEM POST STAFF
JANUARY 1, 2021

An Israeli man receives the coronavirus vaccine FROM AN ARAB ISRAELI NURSE
(photo credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)


Israel has vaccinated about 10% of its population against COVID-19, or approximately 950,000 people, according to data published by the Israeli Health Ministry on Friday. The United States has vaccinated less than 1%.

On Thursday, the Health Ministry that the country had beaten its target of 153,000 daily inoculations for the second straight day

Oxford University's Our World in Data, a statistics and research website, Israel far surpasses other countries of the world when compared to its population, as of Wednesday.

Israel’s Channel 12 News added that a million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which have not yet been used, have already arrived, far ahead of the March target date.

Meanwhile, frustration has mounted in the US, as the Centers for Disease Control reported this week that just over 2 million Americans have been given the first vaccine dose, far fewer than the 20 million targeted by President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed for 2020. Over 11 million doses have been shipped across the country.

In both countries, a lag in data reporting could be behind a skew in the numbers. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease specialist in the US, expressed concern to CNN on Tuesday.

“Even if you undercount, 2 million as an undercount, how much undercount could it be?” Fauci said. “So we are below where we want to be.”

Both countries are also experiencing case surges. Israel, which has enacted a third nationwide lockdown, reported 5,804 new cases on Friday, its highest total since October. In the US, California has been particularly hard hit, and the first cases of the new more contagious COVID variant first found in the United Kingdom have been discovered.

  

 

SPACE RACE 2.0

Indonesia searches for life beyond Earth

Is there life beyond Earth? Indonesian astronomers are hoping to find the answer through a new exoplanet search program at Mount Timau National Observatory in Kupang, Timor.

VIDEO Indonesia searches for life beyond Earth |

Krefeld Zoo: Overcoming the trauma of a deadly fire

On New Year's Day 2020, images of a deadly fire in a German zoo's ape enclosure went around the world. One year on, national and international support has helped employees to look to the future.


The grand baboon stone sculpture at the zoo's entrance has become a commemoration site


In late November the demolition of the ape house in Krefeld Zoo was completed. "That was a huge relief," says zoo director Wolfgang Dressen. "Not having to walk past the charred ruins anymore allows us to get some sense of closure."


Eleven months after the fire, the ruins of the Krefeld zoo's ape house had been razed to the ground

Dressen recalls his sense of helplessness as the fire raged through the night, and upon hearing that 50 animals, including 8 great apes, had perished in the flames. Then there was the immediate onslaught of accusations of negligence and of personal threats via social media. 

"It started not long after the fire had broken out," says zoo press spokesman Adam Mathea. "There were threats, accusations and conspiracy theories, which was very upsetting to our staff," he explains. In the end the zoo deleted hate speech and flagged some threatening comments to the police." 

Zoo Director Wolfgang Dressen is beginning to plan a new larger ape enclosure

Criminal investigation

The zoo rejects all accusations of negligence: The ape house, built in 1975, had its roof replaced and was found to be in accordance with fire safety requirements in 2009. The guard patrolling the zoo just happened to be in a faraway corner of the 14-hectare compound when the fire broke out.

It quickly became clear that a "sky lantern" — a small hot-air balloon made of paper — had caused the fire. An expert reconstruction of the event showed how such a lantern landed on the plexiglass roof, its highly inflammatory liquid spilling out and burning a large hole through the four layers of acrylic panes. The hole allowed the warm air from within the house to rise like a funnel and fan the flames. Firefighters managed only to prevent the fire from spreading to adjacent areas where gorillas and kangaroos were kept.

Sky lanterns are mini hot air balloons made of paper on which affectionate messages are written

The perpetrators were quickly identified: Three German women, a mother and her two adult daughters who live near the zoo, came forward on the day of the tragedy. They admitted to having set off several sky lanterns that they had bought on the internet, unaware that they had been banned in 2009 as fire hazards. They have been fined a total of around 20,000 euros for criminal negligent arson. 

The zoo director and his team feel sorry for the perpetrators, rather than angry, he says. Dressen's main focus was to support his team and help them overcome the trauma. Counsellors were on hand quickly for individual and group sessions, which continue today.
Compassion and support

The first bit of good news that came once the fire had died down was the discovery oftwo surviving chimpanzees: A young male and an elderly female managed to hide and escape the flames almost unscathed. They have been nurtured back to health in a secluded area in the zoo. Visitors can see live footage of them on a screen. 

The two surviving chimpanzees can be watched live on a screen by the undamaged gorilla enclosure

Condolence messages came from around the world. Cards arrived from zoos in the United States, where individual zoo employees each took the trouble to write personal messages.

"International media interest was huge," says zoo spokesman Mathea. "We gave interviews to stations in the US and Canada. Even a Chinese broadcaster sent a reporter to investigate whether the sky lantern had been imported from China and whether the perpetrators were Chinese." 

"The immediate tremendous outpouring of grief and support in the city was a big source of consolation," says Dressen. In the days after the fire, the entrance to the zoo turned into a sea of candles, condolence cards, flowers and toys.



On New Year's Day 2020 the entrance to the zoo was quickly flooded with candles, flowers and toys

Krefelders love their zoo

"The zoo is a point of identification for Krefeld's 230,000 inhabitants," says city spokesman Christoph Elles. "No child grows up here without visiting the zoo with parents, grandparents and on school outings."

That applies also to Krefeld native Caroline Gappel, who heads the "Friends of Krefeld Zoo" association, which has seen a surge in membership. Gappel speaks fondly of the many trips to the zoo with her grandparents. Now, her five-year-old son Maximilian is a regular there, too. "On New Year's Eve we were there," Gappel recalls. "I asked him, 'Shall we go visit the apes?' But he was tired. 'Not today, we'll go there next time,' he said. It made me so sad when just a day later the building went up in flames and I realized that there would not be a next time." Talking a five-year-old through what happened was difficult, Gappel says, but believes it has helped her come to terms with it too. 


Maximilian donated a part of his savings to the zoo for the new ape enclosure

Maximilian insisted on donating part of his savings to the zoo, as did many other Krefeld children. There was a total of well over €2 million in donations ($2.43 million) this year — a record sum.

The zoo has long been an important economic factor in the western German city, which battles high unemployment of more than 11% — almost double the nationwide average. "The zoo is comparable to a medium-sized company," city spokesman Elles explains. "It has 85 full-time employees. It attracted 320,000 visitors in 2019 from the whole region and as far afield as The Netherlands, and it makes millions through tickets and donations each year." 

Financially Krefeld Zoo would have done well in 2020, despite having to close in March and April due to coronavirus restrictions. In the summer months it saw a surge in visitor numbers. But the second shutdown, amid the new nationwide lockdown that began in early November, has taken a toll on finances and the mood of the employees, who were planning a year-end get-together.

Watch video 02:17 Mourners grieve animals killed in Krefeld zoo blaze


Grand plans for the future

The zoo was quick to decide to invest the donations into the construction of a new ape enclosure: A state of the art construction with in- and outdoor areas in accordance with the guidelines of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA.) The Krefeld Zoo director estimates that the new construction will take up to 10 years to complete and will cost over €20 million.

These plans have been met with vehement criticism from some conservationists.

Animal rights organization PETA collected 30,000 signatures against the Krefeld Zoo plans. "Rather than spending millions on the construction of a new prison for pitiable inmates, the money could have been used to protect their natural habitats in Africa and Asia for many years, which would be a more efficient way to secure the future of these species for the long-term," said PETA spokesperson Yvonne Würtz.


48-year-old Massa died in the flames. He has over 100 offspring in zoos across Europe.

Zoo director Dressen disagrees: Without the direct encounter with threatened species in European zoos, he argues, many people could not be prompted to make donations supporting conservation efforts. He describes the animals in German zoos today as "ambassadors" for their respective endangered species, who generate funding for conservation efforts in other parts of the world. 

Germany has a network of more than 60 zoos, which count over 40 million visitors each year and whose donations finance partnerships with conservation projects across Asia and Africa.

All big apes in Europe's zoos are born and bred in captivity and are distributed via EAZA. The gorillas, orang-utans and chimpanzees that perished in the flames a year ago have over 100 offspring living in zoos around the world.

It is not out of the question that one of them may make his way back to Krefeld.

"That would make us very happy," says Dressen with a smile.

Date 01.01.2021
Author Rina Goldenberg

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3mru6

How Pakistan is trying to boost industrial hemp production

Pakistan's government is optimistic that hemp production could help farmers tap into the lucrative global cannabis market and earn some foreign exchange.


A commercial hemp farm

Pakistan's government announced in September that it would allow the industrial production of hemp, a type of cannabis plant containing cannabidiol (CBD) that advocates say has numerous medicinal and relaxing properties. Hemp, however, does not contain significant quantities of high-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Prime Minister Imran Khan's government has struggled to boost the country's foreign exchange coffers, which have been drained by a struggling economy, fiscal deficits and inflation.

Fawad Chaudhry, the science and technology minister, said Pakistan could rake in about $1 billion (€820 million) in revenue over the next three years by capturing a share in the booming CBD market. Chaudhry said the industrial hemp market was worth about $25 billion globally and several countries were relaxing laws targeting cannabis-based products such as CBD oils.

The government's decision came after a UN commission voted to remove the cannabis made for medicinal purposes from a category of the world's most dangerous drugs. Experts view this change as a "watershed moment" for greater medical research and legalization globally.

Watch video 01:45 CBD: Is cannabidiol a miracle cure or fad?

Cannabis's huge potential

Hemp production could open up new opportunities for farmers in Pakistan at a time when they're struggling with the slowdown in the cotton industry. Cotton accounts for 8% of the South Asian nation's GDP and 64% of exports, but production dropped by a staggering 20% in 2019, slashing growers' incomes.

Hemp grows almost as a weed in parts of Pakistan — including in great abundance in the capital, where huge bushes can be seen sprouting at traffic roundabouts.

"Hemp is highly resistant to bad weather. There are no pesticides needed in its production, which makes it eco-friendly and safe. It can also be grown in abundance on little land and requires less water than cotton," Helga Ahmed, a German environmentalist who has been living in Pakistan for the past 60 years, told DW.

Ahmed has been actively lobbying for the legalization of hemp production in the country and noted that the applications of hemp go beyond consumer products like textiles and CBD oils. She shared that greener hemp production practices can be leveraged to tackle climate change and promote sustainable social housing.

In conservative Pakistan, where the consumption of alcohol is strictly forbidden for Muslims, many people are surprisingly open to using cannabis, with the spongy, black hash made from marijuana grown in the country's tribal belt and neighboring Afghanistan the preferred variant of the drug.

Across the subcontinent people have been cultivating cannabis and smoking hash for centuries. The plant predates the arrival of Islam in the region, with reference to cannabis appearing in the sacred Hindu Atharva Veda text describing its medicinal and ritual uses.

Bureaucracy and bottlenecks

Despite its potential socioeconomic benefits, Pakistan faces bottlenecks in ramping up hemp's production. Environmentalists who have been lobbying for hemp's legalization are worried about the vertical integration model the government may adopt.

"Hemp is an inherently carbon negative plant, but if the government goes solely with vertical integration, it will become carbon positive," Mo Khan, Green Gate Global, UK, told DW. "Technology needs to be brought in but also the indigenous knowledge base of farmers that have been tending hemp over the past 2,000 years," he said.

Khan, who has been working with grassroots farmers, said allocating at least 25% of the hemp production to small-scale farmers was the only way to ensure its sustainable production. He also noted that there are significant logistical challenges involved even if the climate and landscape are ripe for hemp, pointing to the lack of adequate infrastructure and onerous licensing and certification requirements in the country.

Junaid Zaman, the CEO of Shamanic Biohacker, launched a successful CBD e-commerce venture in 2020. His operation does not have a local supply chain, and the CBD extract used is sourced internationally through reputable biotech lab partners that adhere to the US Food and Drug Administration regulations.

The carrier oil used in the finished product, however, is sourced and made locally. Zaman plans on moving this supply chain in-house once the locally grown crop is available in March next year in Pakistan.

But such startups worry that major contracts will be allotted to existing big players. "As per my understanding, the approved license to grow industrial hemp as a crop in three districts has gone to existing and established players from the tobacco industry," Zaman told DW. "The multinational organizations concerned will this year apparently grow the crop instead of tobacco in those districts with the approval."

Observers, however, remain optimistic and believe that Pakistan has the potential to emerge as an industry leader in this sector if the government avoids repeating the mistakes of other countries and actively engages local and foreign experts to ensure sustainability.

Genetic mutations that cause malaria drug resistance common in Asia, Africa


Genetic mutations that cause drug resistance in malaria may be more common than previously thought. File Photo by Mycteria/Shutterstock

Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Genetic mutations that fuel resistance to a drug intended to prevent malaria in pregnant women and children are common in countries that are fighting the disease, according to a PLOS Genetics analysis.

Mutations of a gene linked with resistance to the drug sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in the parasite that causes malaria were discovered in one-fourth of the samples collected in southeast Asia and one-third of those obtained in Africa, the researchers said.

The growth in the number of malaria parasites with mutations to the gene pfgch1 are concerning because they may increase resistance to the drug, they said.

"We need to understand how these mutations work and monitor them as part of malaria surveillance programs," study co-author Taane Clark, a professor of genomics and global health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in a statement.

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Malaria causes more than 400,000 deaths worldwide annually, with most occurring in young children in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

Efforts to control the disease have been hampered by the rise of drug-resistant strains of the parasite species that causes the disease, according to Clark and his colleagues.

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, once a first-line anti-malaria treatment, now is used primarily to prevent infection in pregnant women and children because the parasite Plasmodium falciparum has become resistant to it, the researchers said.

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Malaria is spread when female Anopheles gambiae mosquitos carrying the parasite bite humans and feed on their blood, according to the researchers.

For the study, Clark and colleagues analyzed genome sequences from 4,134 blood samples of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite collected from 29 countries in which malaria is endemic.

They discovered at least 10 different versions of the gene in the samples, which they said indicates that strains carrying the mutations may be on the rise.

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The growth in these mutations could threaten efforts to use sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine to prevent malaria in communities at high-risk for severe disease, the researchers said.

However, with the identification of these mutations, researchers may be able to monitor their presence in parasite populations to understand where the drug can be used effectively and where rates of drug-resistance already are too high.

That may be particularly crucial given that a separate analysis, also published Thursday by PLOS Pathogens, found that multiple bouts of blood feeding by malaria-carrying mosquitos shorten the incubation period for the virus and increase its transmission potential.

An additional blood feed three days after infection with Plasmodium falciparum accelerates the growth of the malaria parasite, shortening the incubation period required before transmission to humans can occur, the researchers said.

Given that mosquitoes feed on blood multiple times in natural settings, malaria transmission potential is likely higher than previously thought, making disease elimination more difficult, they said.

In addition, parasite growth is accelerated in genetically modified mosquitoes with reduced reproductive capacity, suggesting that control strategies using this approach, with the aim of suppressing Anopheles populations, may inadvertently aid malaria transmission, according to the researchers.

The parasites can also be transmitted by younger mosquitoes, which are less susceptible to insecticides, the researchers said.

The findings could help to more accurately understand malaria transmission potential and better estimate the true impact of current and future mosquito control measures, according to the researchers.

"We wanted to capture the fact that, in endemic regions, malaria-transmitting mosquitoes are feeding on blood roughly every two to three days," study co-author W. Robert Shaw said in a statement.

"Our study shows that this natural behavior strongly promotes the transmission potential of malaria parasites, in previously unappreciated ways," said Shaw, a research scientist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.