Spring equinox 2023

 

Spring is finally here, and we’re exactly halfway between mid-winter and mid-summer. There are two equinoxes every year, one in March and the other in September.

The March equinox, also known as the vernal equinox, marks the beginning of astronomical spring in the northern hemisphere. This phenomenon has been observed – and celebrated – for thousands of years, and has important implications for astronomy and agriculture, as well as cultural traditions.

The spring equinox 2023 in the northern hemisphere is on Monday 20 March. The spring equinox marks the first day of spring, and the precise time of the equinox will be at 9:24pm GMT.

How does the equinox effect the aurorae?

Aurorae and major geomagnetic storms tend to occur more frequently around the equinoxes.

The Sun's magnetic field has two poles, the same as a bar magnet. These poles flip when solar activity peaks, every 11 years. A solar wind made up of charged particles carries the magnetic field away from the surface of the Sun and through the Solar System. © NASA/ Nick Arge

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World Rewilding Day 20-03-2023

What does that mean? 

World rewilding day is a global reminder of the need to rewild parts of our planet. The purpose of this process provides benefits for people and biodiversity. On this day, people across the planet celebrate raising awareness and the importance of rewilding.

On this day, people remember rewilding. It is celebrated by more than 115 organizations from all over the world. These organizations run a number of activities in a wide variety of rewilding actions. This day was launched by the Global Rewilding Alliance during the 11th World Wilderness Congress in 2021. Since then it became an important part of the global conservation movement.

What is rewilding?

In its essence, rewilding is ecosystem restoration. The concept is built up on knowledge that nature has the power to heal itself, if we let it. If ecosystems are too heavily damaged, rewilding also includes man made restoration activities. Examples of such kinds of damage is when native carnivores are exterminated or native forests were replaced by man made pastures.

Birth of rewilding

In the early 1990s, the term “rewilding” was used by Dave Foreman, co-founder of the Wild Earth magazine and The Wildlands Project. Since then, rewilding is known as a conservation effort that drives nature restoration. The main activities are focusing on rebuilding ecosystems via nature restoration so they’re healthier and more sustainable. 

In this context, this process is often understood as the large-scale restoration of ecosystems. These activities continue to the point where spontaneous natural processes can take care of themselves. An important part of this process is that at the same time we are also restoring our relationship with the wild natural world. We are reconnecting ourselves to nature.

Rewilding seeks to reinstate natural processes. Where appropriate, it also includes reintroducing extinct species and allowing them to shape the landscape and the habitats within. 

Threats to rewilding

A great threat to successful rewilding is often the reluctance of people to change their traditional way of life. Activities such as hunting, logging and grazing, became an inseparable part of human life. They have become an integral part of human life. They are often also called traditional activities that were carried out by landowners during the past centuries.

For this reason, it is essential to carry out any rewilding activities very carefully. Close contact and consultation with the users and owners of these lands is highly recommended. In the extreme case, be ready to change the location if the owners and partners are not willing to accept the submitted proposals.

In any case, this process requires patience and extensive communication skills.

Conclusion

On 20 March 2021, people across the planet celebrated the first ever World Rewilding Day. The day continues to be held every year, and it is organised by the Global Rewilding Alliance. The aim of the day is to raise awareness of rewilding and inspire people to get involved in projects that help nature to recover.

Since then, the world rewilding became an important element of modern nature conservation. To some extent, it opened the door for systematic, long-term, objective oriented nature conservation.

Nature has the power to heal itself and to heal us, if we let it. That’s what rewilding is all about; restoring ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself and restoring our relationship with the natural world. Reconnecting with what matters. Rewilding is hope for the future.

Date: 20 March 2023

Sources/Links:

https://wilderness-society.org/world-rewilding-day/

https://rewildingeurope.com/world-rewilding-day/

https://www.rewildingeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ENGLISH-VERSION_World-Rewilding-Day-2023.pdf

https://globalrewilding.earth/

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Global Recycling Day 18-03-2023

 

THE 6TH GLOBAL RECYCLING DAY

18TH MARCH 2023

• Global Recycling Day: innovative Horizon 2020 projects for boosting Europe’s resource independence

• Why most plastic can’t be recycled...

Sources/Links:

https://hadea.ec.europa.eu/news/global-recycling-day-innovative-horizon-2020-projects-boosting-europes-resource-independence-2023-03-17_en

https://www.dw.com/en/why-most-plastic-cant-be-recycled/a-64978847

https://www.rts.com/blog/recycling-facts-statistics/

https://www.globalrecyclingday.com/about/

https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/creative-innovation-theme-for-global-recycling-day-2023/

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Environmental Performance Reviews: Portugal 2023

Portugal has a small, service-based economy that grew steadily between 2013 and 2019. The country was strongly hit by the pandemic but has been recovering fast since mid-2021. Yet the pace of the recovery is easing. Although Portugal has few direct trade links with these countries, Russia’s war against Ukraine is driving up energy and food prices.

Over the past decade, Portugal managed to decouple energy consumption and major air pollutant emissions from economic growth. The energy mix has shifted from oil and coal to natural gas and renewables, and air quality generally improved. However, material consumption, municipal waste generation and freshwater abstractions have grown at the same rate or faster than gross domestic product (GDP). Portugal is one of the OECD countries with the highest landfilling rates. The status of habitats and species has deteriorated, and agriculture exerts significant pressures on water bodies.

Portugal has made progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),

Overall, the country increased access to clean energy (SDG 7), and clean water and sanitation (SDG 6). Nevertheless, major challenges remain to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG 12) and protect, restore and promote sustainable use of marine and terrestrial ecosystems (SDGs 14 and 15).

Portugal has stepped up its effort to adapt to climate change

Portugal’s territory faces multiple threats related to climate change, including coastal erosion, heavy precipitation events and extreme heat days. Droughts also undermine agricultural yield and hydropower generation. Forests are particularly exposed to fire danger.

Portugal has strengthened wildfire risk prevention but faces the challenge of improving forest management practices in abandoned rural areas where land ownership is private and fragmented. Completing the land cadastre and extending payments for ecosystem services can help reduce the risks of forest fires.

Assessment and recommendations

The Assessment and Recommendations present the main findings of the OECD Environmental Performance Review of Portugal. They identify 26 recommendations to help the country make further progress towards its environmental objectives and international commitments. The OECD Working Party on Environmental Performance discussed and approved the Assessment and Recommendations at its meeting on 6 December 2022.

• Portugal has missed most of its 2020 waste targets

• Progress towards biodiversity targets has been insufficient

• Agriculture puts significant pressures on water bodies

• Upgrading environmental infrastructure requires better pricing of services

Data: 14 Mar 2023

Sources/Links:

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/environment/oecd-environmental-performance-reviews-portugal-2023_d9783cbf-en

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WWD

 Everybody is celebrating the World Wildlife Day.

The incalculable value of wildlife

 

Billions of people, in developed and developing nations, benefit daily from the use of wild species for food, energy, materials, medicine, recreation, inspiration and many other vital contributions to human well-being.

 

The accelerating global biodiversity crisis, with a million species of plants and animals facing extinction, threatens these contributions to people.

 

World Wildlife Day (WWD) is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that their conservation provides to people. At the same time, the Day reminds us of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime and human-induced reduction of species, which have wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts. Given these various negative effects, Sustainable Development Goal 15 focuses on halting biodiversity loss.

Sources/Links:

https://www.iucn.org/story/202303/world-wildlife-day-2023-inclusive-conservation-partnering-protect-incalculable-value

https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-wildlife-day

https://www.unep.org/events/un-day/world-wildlife-day-2023-and-50th-anniversary-first-signing-cites

https://www.undp.org/speeches/world-wildlife-day-3-march-2023

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Save the mad because those who claim to be normal are ending the world.

"Salvem os loucos, porque os que dizem ser normais estão a acabar com o mundo."

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COPERNICUS

 

A hand full of information for you:

https://www.copernicus.eu/en

https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/#zoom=2&lat=17.44093&lon=29.71939&layers=0BT00

https://land.copernicus.eu/

Sources/Links:

https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/#zoom=2&lat=17.44093&lon=29.71939&layers=0BT00

https://www.copernicus.eu/en

https://land.copernicus.eu/

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Did you know that?

 

2023 – UN International Year of Millets

 

The United Nations (UN) has declared 2023 the International Year of Millets to raise awareness of the crop's climate-resilience and nutritional benefits.

 

What Are Millets?

Millets are a group of grasses grown as grain crops, such as finger millet (eleusine coracana) and pearl millet (pennisetum glaucum). Millets are grown in more than 130 countries, mainly in Asia and Africa; the main producers are India, Nigeria, and China.

 

Easy Growing, Cheap, and Effective

Millets need less water than other grains and grow without regular irrigation, even in droughts. They grow in poor soils with little to no additional work. This makes millets cheap and easy to plant, grow, and harvest—especially in dry areas where people traditionally struggle to grow crops.

 

Excellent Gluten-Free Nutrition

Easy and widespread growing is not the only reason why millets are a “super crop:” They also contain more protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals than wheat and rice. Additionally, millets are rich in calcium and magnesium.

 

They can feed people without creating a nutritional deficiency and can also help fight health challenges such as obesity and diabetes, as they are gluten-free and have less effect on blood glucose levels.

 

Self-Sufficiency In a Changing Climate

The UN International Year of Millets (IYM) is an opportunity to “raise awareness of and direct policy attention to the nutritional and health benefits of millets and their suitability for cultivation under adverse and changing climatic conditions,” according to the UN. The UN also aims to promote “the sustainable production of millets while highlighting their potential to provide new sustainable market opportunities for producers and consumers.”

 

Millets are grown in more than 130 countries, mainly in Asia and Africa; the main producers are India, Nigeria, and China.

 

The Government of India sponsored the proposal for International Year of Millets (IYM) 2023 which was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

  

Millets

Millet is a common term for categorising small-seeded grasses that are often called Nutri-cereals. Some of them are sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi), little millet (kutki), foxtail millet (kakun), proso millet (cheena), barnyard millet (sawa), and kodo millet (kodon). An essential staple cereal crop for millions of smallholder dryland farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, millets offer nutrition, resilience, income and livelihood for farmers, and have multiple uses such as food, feed, fodder, biofuels and brewing.

 

 

Significance and benefits of millets

Millets are nutritionally superior to wheat and rice owing to their higher protein levels and a more balanced amino acid profile. Millets also contain various phytochemicals which exert therapeutic properties owing to their anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties. Further, besides being climate resilient, millet grains are rich sources of nutrients like carbohydrates, protein, dietary fibre, and good quality fat; minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc and B complex vitamins. Most importantly, millet production is not dependent on the use of chemical fertilizers.

 

 

Published On January 2nd, 2023

 

Sources/Links:

https://currentaffairs.adda247.com/international-year-of-millets-2023/

https://www.timeanddate.com/year/2023/millets.html

 

https://www.netmeds.com/health-library/post/kodo-millet-nutrition-health-benefits-ayurvedic-uses-and-recipes

 &:

https://vaqueirinhorepublic.blogspot.com/2022/10/ancient-grain.html

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Let's talk about Light Pollution

 

For further reading on this subject:

please visit our page: 

https://vaqueirinhorepublic.blogspot.com/p/my-eightteenth-page-distracted-by-light.html

Sources/Links:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2627884/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/heres-why-experts-agree-its-time-for-a-worldwide-lights-out-program-180981980/

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no way

 

este ano os portugueses elegeram o Eucalipto de Contige, levando a UNAC a questionar se “existe uma nova geração na opinião pública para a qual o eucalipto é encarado em pé de igualdade com as restantes árvores, sendo a sua beleza e porte alvo de atenção, justificando que há espaço para todos”. “A inclusão também chegou à floresta”, remata a entidade que promove a iniciativa. levando a UNAC a questionar se “existe uma nova geração na opinião pública para a qual o eucalipto é encarado em pé de igualdade com as restantes árvores, sendo a sua beleza e porte alvo de atenção, justificando que há espaço para todos”. “A inclusão também chegou à floresta”, remata a entidade que promove a iniciativa.

 

this year the Portuguese elected the Eucalyptus of Contige, leading UNAC to question whether "there is a new generation in public opinion for which eucalyptus is faced on an equal footing with the other trees, being its beauty and size the target of attention, justifying that there is room for all". "Inclusion has also reached the forest," concludes the entity that promotes the initiative. leading UNAC to question whether "there is a new generation in public opinion for which eucalyptus is faced on an equal footing with the other trees, being its beauty and size the target of attention, justifying that there is room for all". "Inclusion has also reached the forest," concludes the entity that promotes the initiative.

 

Sources/Links:

https://www.gazetarural.com/navigator-felicita-eucalipto-de-contige-vencedor-da-arvore-do-ano/

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contige