Construction/Demolition: Energy, Water, Waste, Emissions

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“The U.S. generates 136 million tons of
construction- and demolition-related wastes every
day. Demolition debris alone can contribute to up
to 40% of the country’s waste.”

“When a buildings’ energy and water requirements
are added in, it becomes clear that their
environmental impact is huge. Buildings swallow
up to 30-40% of the world’s energy and 16% of the
planet’s water requirement …”
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Environmental Science & Technology
<http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2008/may/science/rc_buildings.html>

May 21, 2008
Built to demolish, demolish to build

All things must come to the end of their lives,
and buildings are no exception. When buildings
die, they end up in heaps of rubble that make
their way into landfills. Only some parts-the
metals and some of the concrete-get recycled.
Consequently, dead and demolished buildings can
contribute up to 40% of a country’s waste
materials.

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More on the Polar Bear

Nature
21 May 2008
453, – (2008) | doi:10.1038/453432a

News

Polar bear numbers set to fall
Climate-change icon gains ‘threatened’ status from United States.

Rachel Courtland

In a long-anticipated decision hailed as a
victory by environmental groups, the United
States last week declared the polar bear (Ursus
maritimus) a ‘threatened’ species. But this
heightened protection status may have little
bearing on the animals’ ultimate fate.

The listing, announced by secretary of the
interior Dirk Kempthorne on 14 May, connects the
continuing retreat in Artic sea ice due to global
warming with large potential reductions in the
polar-bear population. Last autumn, the US
Geological Survey concluded that the animals are
likely to lose 42% of their summer sea ice
habitat by mid-century, cutting the world’s
polar-bear population – estimated at 25,000 – by
two-thirds.

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There Will Be Fire…

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“With seven years of data, it is not possible to
determine if there is an increasing trends in the
occurrence of fire, but we have significant
year-to-year differences, of the order of 20%, in
the area that is burnt.”

“Probably 95% of all vegetation fires have a human source…”

” … grass regenerates very quickly during the
wet season. From a carbon perspective, there is a
net balance due to the regenerating vegetation
acting as a carbon sink. Fires in forests are
more important as the affected area becomes a
carbon source for a number of years.”

“Fire has been a feature of the planet in the
past and under a scenario of a warmer environment
will certainly be a feature in the future”.
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EurekAlert  AAAS

University of Leicester
Public release date: 22-May-2008

Scorched Earth map shows ‘fire scars’

Dr Kevin Tansey, of the Department of Geography,
a leading scientist in an international team,
created a visual impression of the fire scars on
our planet between 2000 and 2007. The work was
funded by the Joint Research Centre of the
European Commission.

The map reveals that between 3.5 and 4.5 million
km2 of vegetation burns on an annual basis. This
is an area equivalent to the European Union
(EU27) and larger than the country of India that
is burnt every year.

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WWF Report Says Environmental Protection Is Vital to Reducing Impacts of Natural Disasters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2008
4:10 PM

 CONTACT: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Erika Viltz
erika.viltz@wwfus.org
202-778-9542
 
 
WWF Report Says Environmental Protection Is Vital to Reducing Impacts of Natural Disasters
 
BONN, GERMANY – May 20 – Environmental degradation is a key factor in turning extreme weather events into natural disasters, according to a new report from World Wildlife Fund.

Natural Security: Protected Areas and Hazard Mitigation, prepared with environmental research group Equilibrium, examines the impacts of floods in Bangladesh, Mozambique and Europe, heat waves and forest fires in Portugal, an earthquake in Pakistan, tsunamis in the Indian Ocean and Hurricane Katrina in the United States to illustrate the potential of environmental conservation to prevent and mitigate natural disasters.

“It is deforestation and floodplain development that most often link high rainfall to devastating floods and mudslides,” said Liza Higgins-Zogib of the WWF’s Protected Areas Initiative. “Extreme coastal events cause much more loss of life and damage when reefs are damaged, mangroves are removed, dune systems are developed and coastal forests are cleared.”

The World Bank estimates that more than 3.4 billion people, or more than half of the world’s population, are exposed to at least one natural hazard and according to the report, over the past 50 years the severity of impacts from natural disasters has increased, due in part to the loss of healthy ecosystems in the regions affected.

The report shows that wave energy in the Seychelles has doubled as a result of reef destruction and sea level rise, and a continued increase is predicted over the next decade. The loss of 70 percent of floodplains in the Danube River and its tributaries is contributing to an increase in the frequency and severity of floods. Changes in vegetation and land use are shown to alter natural fire regimes and increase devastation from wildfires.

“While large-scale disasters cannot be entirely avoided, the report identifies specific ways we can mitigate the devastating impact of disasters through better ecosystem management, including the establishment of protected areas”, said Jonathan Randall, senior program officer for WWF’s Humanitarian Partnerships program and co-author of Natural Security.

In one success story outlined in the report, the investment of $1.1 million in mangrove replanting saved some Vietnamese communities an estimated $7.3 million a year in sea dyke maintenance.  During typhoon Wukong in 2000, the area remained relatively unharmed, while neighboring provinces suffered significant loss of life and property.

Similarly, the report shows how managing Swiss forests can provide protective services valued at up to $3.5 billion per year, mainly for their protective functions in reducing avalanches, landslides and flooding.

WWF is working with governments to create suitable protected areas and to maintain natural ecosystems, such as coastal mangroves, coral reefs, floodplains and forests, which may help buffer against natural hazards.  Traditional cultural ecosystems, like agroforestry systems, terraced crop-growing and fruit tree forests in arid lands have an important role in mitigating extreme weather events as well.

 “We recognize that there have been many international agreements and declarations linking the preservation of ecosystem services with the mitigation of disasters, but note that in many cases it is only the permanent and well-managed setting aside of land and sea as protected areas which can provide the stability and protection so often called for,” said Randall.

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