We wish you a nice Midsummer! Wednesday is this year´s longest day. Happy winter solstice for the southern hemisphere! Time of this message is time of maximum declination. ♦ Wir wünschen einen schönen Mittsommer! Dieser Mittwoch ist der längste Tag des Jahres. Für die Südhalbkugel eine schöne Wintersonnenwende! Die Zeitangabe dieser Nachricht ist der Zeitpunkt maximaler Deklination. ♦ Desejamos-lhe um bom Solstício de Verão! Quarta-feira é o dia mais longo deste ano. Feliz solstício de inverno para o hemisfério sul! A hora desta mensagem é a hora de declinação máxima. ♦ ¡Les deseamos un buen verano! El miércoles es el día más largo de este año. ¡Feliz solsticio de invierno para el hemisferio sur! La hora de este mensaje es la hora de máxima declinación. ♦ Nous vous souhaitons un agréable solstice d'été ! Mercredi est le jour le plus long de l'année. Joyeux solstice d'hiver pour l'hémisphère sud! L'heure de ce message est l'heure de la déclinaison maximale. ∎
There is a new government in Colombia and there is a chance that they will take their stance for the Nukak. During the civil war, many Nukak fled their rainforest. They live in dire conditions on the outskirts of surrounding towns, where a mixture of malnutrition and diseases such as malaria have wiped out about half of their people up to date. In the meantime, however, their territories have been usurped for coca cultivation and cattle ranching, guerrilla brigades are still at work in some places, and anti-personnel mines remain buried. “Every day, politicians and the media talk about child rape, drug dependency, hunger, sickness and poverty among the Nukak. If they’re unable to return to their territory, they’ll always be subjected to these problems and their survival will continue to be at risk.”
What you always wanted to know about your telephone sockets and cables. How to operate modem, fax and telephone with one connection. Advantages and disadvantages of analogue and digital technology regarding quality of service and supply in case of power failure; internet & phone providers.
Pesticides are being transported dried up or with soil swirled up into high layers of air as far as across the Central North Sea, to North Greenland and Spitsbergen. There are no longer any pesticide-free places in Germany, not even in national parks like the Bavarian Forest. Some organic farmers are claiming damages, like beekeeper Sebastian Seusin, whose honey exceeded the limit value 152 times after glyphosate was applied to a nearby field. And that’s not all. According to estimates, 14% of the pesticides traded in the EU are illegal, and the penalties are usually low. In Poland, a trans-shipment centre for banned pesticides, even a traffic fine is more expensive (tagesschau article: only 40€). Increased penalties and a separate public prosecutor’s office, as in the case of doping, would be appropriate. The deaths of insects worldwide are alarming and many fruit and vegetable varieties could suffer severe losses (see this article). Pesticides banned in Germany may still be exported, except by France and Switzerland (dw article). However, fruit and vegetables re-imported from overseas are subject to much higher limits than those produced in the EU (orf.at article). The EU Commission now wants a pesticide reduction of 50% by 2030, which shall be easy to implement with crop rotation and other measures, but countries like Austria with its ÖVP-led Ministry of Agriculture are currently opposing this (Global 2000 petition). The European Court of Justice has already prevented the emergency authorisation of particularly harmful neonicotinoids there.
PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are persistent pollutants that do not degrade and consequently accumulate in the environment over time, just like DDT, PCBs or also Nonylphenol. However as yet they have not been forbidden. Now, currently the ECHA is considering a general ban on PFAS (article by DasErste). They are suspected of causing cancer, infertility, they damage the immune system and cause other health problems. PFASs are used as coatings on frying pans, in fire-fighting foam and in a variety of other products from fishing line to lubricants to tarpaulins (see also this elstel article). In Europe and Germany, some places are highly contaminated with PFAS (see also map). Remediation is not or only hardly possible. However, it is also known that PFASs spread easily and over long distances in the environment; for example, the concentrations of PFASs in breast milk are increasing worldwide. Lobby groups are already up in arms against a ban (article on tagesschau). According to expert Scheringer, PFASs could be dispensed with or easily replaced in the vast majority of products, with the exception of some special areas in medicine and semiconductor production. However a decision is not expected to take effect before 2025 anyway.
