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5. EKOenergy comic: 10 language versions online
 Hurray for the volunteer translators of the EKOenergy network! In less than four weeks, more than 40 translators from over 20 countries managed to translate our comic 'EKO-Sofia, an Introduction to Green Energy', into 17 languages. Ten of these are layouted and online: Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician (thanks to PerMondo), German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Scheduled for this week are Hungarian, Serbian and Swedish.
See http://www.ekoenergy.org/extras/ekoenergy-comic/
Furthermore, many of the translators continue updating the 30 language versions of the EKOenergy website. Lately, a lot of work has happened on the Czech, Polish and Slovenian websites. |
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6. As scary as climate change: ocean acidification
 The global economy could be losing as much as one trillion dollars annually by the end of the century if countries do not take urgent steps to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere, says the report "An Updated Synthesis of the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Marine Biodiversity", issued in Pyeongchang at the 12th meeting of the countries which have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity. Yes, you read it well: $1,000,000,000,000 per year! And this figure only reflects the economic loss for industries linked to coral reefs alone, which are some of the most vulnerable species to this phenomenon.
"It is now nearly inevitable that within 50 to 100 years, continued anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions will further increase ocean acidity to levels that will have widespread impacts, mostly deleterious, on marine organisms and ecosystems, and the goods and services they provide. Marine calcifying organisms seem particularly at risk, since additional energy will be required to form shells and skeletons, and in many ocean areas, unprotected shells and skeletons will dissolve."
"Ultimately, only the reduction of atmospheric CO2 levels provides the “solution†to ocean acidification." |
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Last week, we welcomed Erasmus trainee Guillermo Solano de la Asunción. Guillermo will stay with us for 6 months and will help pave the way for EKOenergy in Spain.
The Latvian EKOenergy members (Latvian Fund for Nature, Latvian Green Movement and the organisation Green Liberty) took a further step towards the launch of EKOenergy in Latvia.
The Mustionjoki river is situated in Southern Finland. There are four hydroelectric power plants on the river preventing upward fish migration. The endangered freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) needs migrating salmonoids to bring its larvae upstream. As a result, the youngest mussels living in the Mustionjoki river are between 40 and 50 years old: exactly as old as the dams.
The Finnish artist Lauri Tervo (left) painted what the Vantaankoski river in Helsinki could look like if there weren't a dam at its mouth.