June ES Newsletter

Hello everyone, and welcome to the June edition of Easysustainability's newsletter, a monthly recap of the most influential news and information in the sustainability world.

For those who don't know yet, Easysustainability is a project that aims to promote sustainability and related topics in every area of our society. We believe that climate change news should be more direct, accessible, and easily understandable; we have decided to do this in various ways, like the publication of a sustainability bible for youth and students, which will be available soon, webinars, and this newsletter. In this edition of the newsletter, we will cover what impressed us the most during the last month regarding sustainability news.?

Thank you for choosing EasySustainability, and enjoy your reading!

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The Price of Adaptation: Assessing the Environmental Impact of Desalination

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As the summer is just getting started, and the temperatures have already significantly risen in most European countries, the looming threat of water scarcity inches ever closer. In some European countries, such as Spain, the water crisis has never felt closer to home, and governments have started thinking of a way to recycle water. When people think about the circular economy, there is significant aspect that often gets overlooked or ignored: water. However, this is about to change.

As heatwaves and drought keep going strong and freshwater reserves run out, Barcelona, a city on the coast of northeastern Spain, is turning to Europe's largest water desalination plant. This will allow the city area and around five million people to better adapt to the impact and consequences of climate change.

The desalination plant pumps water from the Mediterranean Sea to where the plant sits on an isolated stretch of beach. After travelling through many cleaning and filtering systems, the water reaches its final destination: the pipelines where any grain of salt is taken out of the water.

Although the desalination plant is currently vital for Spain and its people, it comes at high economic and environmental costs. For example, for every 0.45 litres of fresh water, around 0.55 litres of salty brine is produced as waste, which is then dumped into the sea, where the salty brine can harm the ecosystem.

The demand for water is growing, and droughts are increasingly common and severe. It is vital to find a solution to leverage the circular economy for water reuse and recycling in order to save people's lives and tackle climate change.

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-???????Symons, Angela. “Can Desalination Help Combat Europe’s Water Crisis? Drought-Struck Barcelona Is Banking on It.” Euronews, June 5, 2023. https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/05/can-desalination-help-combat-europes-water-crisis-drought-struck-barcelona-is-banking-on-i.

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Summer Heatwaves Cause Concerns: Addressing Rising Temperatures in Europe

As summer has finally arrived almost everywhere in Europe, the problem of rising temperatures becomes more evident for more and more people. In early June 2023, global-mean surface air temperatures were the highest in the ERA5 data record by a significant margin, following a May where sea-surface temperatures reached unprecedented levels for that time of year. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently published a report stating that there is a 66% probability for the annual average temperature to be more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one year until 2027. Yet, June 2023 is not the first time where temperatures surpassed the 1.5°C threshold. In December 2015, the El Nino phenomenon, which refers to the warming of the ocean surface, caused the world average temperature to briefly exceed the 1.5 C mark for the first time in the industrial era. With the current El Ni?o continuing to develop, scientists and researchers predict that, in the next twelve months, the global-mean temperature will exceed pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5°C multiple times. The 1.5°C and 2.0°C temperature limits set in the Paris Agreement are long-term targets for the average global temperature over twenty or thirty years. While surpassing these "boundaries" may not have direct consequences and immediate significance, the cumulative effects become more and more severe. It is essential to keep an eye on the rate at which these thresholds are approached to understand the pace of climate change and develop an adequate response to control it.

-???????Tracking breaches of the 1.50C global warming threshold. (n.d.). Copernicus. https://climate.copernicus.eu/tracking-breaches-150c-global-warming-threshold

-???????CBC Lite | News. (n.d.). https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/1.6879019

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A Nation in Flames: Examining the Role of Climate Change in Canada's Wildfire Crisis

As summer and the hot season have arrived, the likelihood of wildfire outbreaks has also increased. Over the past few weeks, wildfires have destroyed extensive swathes of Canada. As many news outlets worldwide have reported, the fires have burned millions of hectares of land, displaced tens of thousands of people, destroyed local wildlife, and disrupted the lives of millions. The current wildfire has been widely documented, as its smoke has reached the US, turning the New York skyline orange. However, Canada has had over 2,000 wildfires this year alone, with a burn area more extensive than the Netherlands--around 5 million hectares. In Western Canada, a region that encompasses British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, wildfires are essential for forest life, and fires are a natural part of its ecosystem. They remove waste and undergrowth from the forest floor, open the forest "roof" to sunlight, extinguish insects and diseases that harm trees and add beneficial nutrients to the ground. This year's fire season is unique, as it is not contained to a particular province and it is expanding to Eastern regions like Nova Scotia and Quebec. The dimensions and timing of the fires have also exceeded previous records. The burn area created by wildfires over the past seven weeks has already reached the ten-year average for the whole season, which spans from April to October. Climate change and human actions have played a prominent role in the fires across Canada. The question worth asking now is how do we ready ourselves to contain wildfire outbreaks and save local wildlife outbreaks and save local wildlife, as many experts have already stated that more extreme wildfire seasons will become the norm.

-???????Canosa, Iván Villaverde. “Canada Wildfires: An Area Larger than the Netherlands Has Been Burned so Far This Year – Here’s What Is Causing?Them.” The Conversation, n.d. https://theconversation.com/canada-wildfires-an-area-larger-than-the-netherlands-has-been-burned-so-far-this-year-heres-what-is-causing-them-207577.

-???????Yousif, By Nadine. “Canada Could See Its Worst Wildfire Season on Record.” BBC News, June 5, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65816466.

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Finding Balance in Food Production Sustainability: The Expanding Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) in Action

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Building a harmonious relationship between the environment and farming has long been a goal for conscientious growers. Traditionally, the farming industry has faced challenges in balancing the growing demands for food production and minimizing its ecological footprint. However, the imminent expansion of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) will allow the food production-sustainability balance to become a reality, paving the way for a greener and more sustainable agricultural sector.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is a program aimed at promoting and supporting sustainable agricultural practices. The SFI encourages farmers to embrace environmentally friendly techniques, improve biodiversity, enhance soil health, and mitigate the impact of farming on the environment. The program provides resources and financial support to farmers who choose to implement sustainable farming methods, such as organic farming, regenerative agriculture, precision farming, agroforestry, and more.

As stated by the British government on the 21st of June, the SFI expansion will start operating in August, offering farmers additional sustainable actions and flexibility to choose the measures they want to get paid for. Farmers will get paid for taking actions that support and boost the balance between food production, farm productivity and the environment. These measures will assist sustainable food production, but ?most importantly, they highlight the need for programs like the SFI to incentivize sustainable farming methods and practices, support farmers financially in these challenging times, and contribute to the nation's food production and environmental goals.

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-????????“Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023: Expanded Offer to Roll out from August.” GOV.UK, June 20, 2023. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sustainable-farming-incentive-2023-expanded-offer-to-roll-out-from-august.

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Sustainability Lab: Fairmont Maldives-Sirru Fen Fushi's Answer to Plastic Waste Challenges

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The Maldives arouse a wide array of alluring sights in our collective imaginary: luxurious hotels, swanky resorts, and edenic beaches awash with snow white sand and crystal-clear water. However, the South Asian archipelago is hogging the spotlight for a very different reason as of late. As eco-conscious tourism is on the rise, one of the country’s resorts, Fairmont Maldives-Sirru Fen Fushi, has seen the installation of a unique facility: the Sustainability Lab, which offers guests a front-row seat to one of the gravest challenges faced by the Maldives – plastic waste.

Opened in early 2022, the lab is one of the country's first centers of its kind. The Sustainability Lab is equipped with technical machinery that transforms plastic waste into customized souvenirs, furniture, and even supplies for local schools. The lab also recycles used fishing nets discarded by fishing boats, as they are especially deadly to sea turtles, by turning them into bracelets and luggage tags.

The resort is also home to the Coralarium, a fascinating metal sculpture made exclusively with PH-neutral materials and located a few dozen meters offshore from the main beach. The Coralarium, an artificial reef with live coral growing on it, can be described as a coral garden for local wildlife to attract and sustain marine biodiversity.

Fairmont Maldives-Sirru Fen Fushi is just one of many resorts worldwide to promote sustainability; however, it highlights the need and possibility to incorporate tourism and the local economy with respect for the environment and the willingness to fight climate change.

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-???????Cripps, Karla. “Maldives Luxury Resort Takes Fresh Approach to Waste with Ground-Breaking ‘Sustainability Lab.’” CNN, June 9, 2023. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/fairmont-maldives-sirru-fen-fushi-sustainability-lab/index.html.

-???????Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi. “Sustainable Maldives Resort | Fairmont Maldives, Sirru Fen Fushi,” February 20, 2023. https://www.fairmont-maldives.com/sustainability/.

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Thank you for reading this far, and we hope you have enjoyed the June edition of Easysustainability's newsletter. If you have any questions or feedback, we would be happy to assist you and hear your opinion!

For now, this is all; see you next month!

The Easysustainibility team.

By Aurora D'Auria