Hello,
Welcome to the November Factfile! Finally, it is December, and Christmas is
just around the corner! Settle in, and read all the hot info from November.
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News
COP26
Quickly for everyone who does not know: COP stands for "Conference of the
Parties" and is a conference hosted by the UN, which brings together the
members of the UN to discuss climate issues and come up with agreements
regarding these issues. This year, COP was held for the 26th time-hence
COP26-in Glasgow from October 31st to November 13th. These are the main
outcomes from this conference: The nations agreed on four main topics to take
action on Mitigation, Adaption, Finance and collaboration. Apart from that,
they agreed on keeping the 1.5 degrees limit but also stated that action must
be taken immediately to make it. Mitigation is about reducing carbon emissions
greatly, by moving away from fossil fuels, reducing methane emissions,
reversing deforestation and switching to electric vehicles. Adaption is all
about getting ready for the impacts of climate change that can already be felt
all over the world. Money and resources are collected to be able to support
countries affected by climate change. 80 countries are covered in adaptation
communication or adaptation plans to battle the impacts of climate change and
many have partnered up to improve access to money and resources.
Finance is all about having lots of money available to get more sustainable
and have money ready for those in need of it when working on getting more
sustainable and towards the common goal of net zero.
Lastly, collaboration, the name makes it quite obvious. It is about the
governments working together and supporting one another. The Glasgow
breakthroughs will accelerate collaboration between governments, businesses
and civil societies to reach climate goals faster. All the while collaborative
councils and dialogues in energy, electric vehicles and shipping and
commodities will help deliver on commitments. The parties also agreed on an
"enhanced transparency framework" meaning common reports of emission and
support.
To read more about COP26, and find out all the details please read through the
"Glasgow climate pact" here: https://ukcop26.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/COP26-Presidency-Outcomes-The-Climate-Pact.pdf
Good news
China and US to work together to fight climate change
At the beginning of November, the US and China announced a new plan. They are
planning on working together to reduce CO2 emissions. This is a huge success
because China and the US are among the worst polluters in the world. We're all
excited to see what will come out of this.
Bad news
Estimated 26 000 tons more plastic in the ocean due to covid
Masks, plastic gloves, most one-way items, and empty disinfectant bottles. The
use of these items has boomed during the pandemic. But what happens to them
when they've outlived their purpose? They get chucked into the ocean. An
estimated 26 000 tons of 'covid plastic' has ended up in the ocean since the
start of the pandemic. Countless water-dwelling animals have died due to this
new wave of
plastic pollution
and it's only getting worse. The problem is, it's very hard to avoid this
covid plastic.
Not enough people are willing to change their lifestyles to save the planet
An international survey has found that although many people are alarmed by the
climate crisis, most think that they are already doing a lot more than
everyone else including the governments. They are unwilling to make bigger
drastic changes to their lifestyles. Although it is certainly good that they
are aware of the crisis, it is definitely not good that so few are willing to
change their lifestyle.
Animals and plant
Land - Arabian leopard
This is a
critically endangered
species of leopard. With only 100-250 individuals estimated to be alive in the
wild, this leopard won't last much longer if things continue as they are. They
are a lesser-known species, that lives in Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia
although its historic territories reached Jordan, Egypt and Syria.
Arabian leopards are reasonably small, so they hunt small to medium-sized
prey, including birds and insects.
So these are incredible cats.
Water - Basking shark
Basking sharks are quite scary at first sight - they have six rows of teeth on
their upper jaw and nine rows on their lower jaw! That's about 1 500 hooked
teeth. And seeing as they swim with their mouths wide open, you see all of
them straight away!
But, they are actually harmless! They are one of the three filter-feeding
shark species (whale sharks
are another one of these species). They just swim along with their mouths wide
open, filtering water as they go. They are also incredibly slow, swimming at
about 2 miles an hour (3km per hour).
Basking sharks are found off the coast of Scotland, in the northeast U.S. and
in Canada. They are currently classified as
Vulnerable.
Air - Green woodpecker
There are three subspecies of the green woodpecker, but they all have green
bodies, paler yellow underneath and a red crown. They are beautiful and very
distinctive. I've actually seen one in my garden a few times! They are found
across Europe (around 75% of them are in Europe) although not in the northern
countries and Ireland but otherwise widespread. They are also found in western
Asia. They nest in tall trees, and the same breeding hole may be used for over
10 years- though not always by the same pair. Their main food source is ants
and other insects and small reptiles.
|
| A very blurry image from my garden! |
Plant - Frankincense tree
You probably know Frankincense from the Christmas Story as one of the gifts
that were given by wise men to baby Jesus. However, Frankincense was also used
by the ancient Egyptians in their religious rites and it does originate from a
tree. It is called the Boswellia Sacra and it is a tree in the Burseraceae
family. From this tree, a sort of dried sap is harvested. It is native to the
Arabian Peninsula and Eastern Africa. It has been used as a remedy and as
noted above, is also a substance with many religious links too.
We hope you enjoyed this fact file and please don't forget to
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Green World Blog Team
Images:
Title image: This image is owned by a blog editor.
Green woodpecker: This image is owned by a blog editor.
Sources:
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