FROM CLEAN TO GREEN

In the post “LA GRANDE FINALE” I wrote about my research project “Non-state Cooperation in Environment Protection Area in Developed and Developing Countries: The Case of Waste Management in Moldova” and the collaboration with the national cleanup campaign “Hai, Moldova!” in the Republic of Moldova. The collaboration appeared to be quite fruitful: nowadays there is the updated information on the state of the waste issue in Moldova, description of about 20 good case practices in waste prevention and management and the practically applicable model of non-state cooperation available for public. And “Hai, Moldova!” itself was successful in removing about 2,800 t of illegally disposed waste, recycling approximately 31 t of plastic waste and organizing the first Eco Fashion Show in the country.
However, you can easily understand that this is not enough to solve the problems with waste in Moldova described HERE. This is why together with the NGO “Medium” that organizes “Hai, Moldova!” and some interested and very capable people - Daniela, Alexei and Anastasia - we have decided to go further from the simple cleanup activity to the education of young people about waste pollution and proper waste management, installation of waste sorting equipment in some schools in different regions of Moldova and offering the citizens of this country open access to the latest information on the waste issue here.
Thus, the environmental project GREEN (Garbage Recycling and Environmental Education Nationwide) was born. Although it officially starts in January – February 2013, we have already made the first video explaining the reasons behind its organization and its concept. You can watch it HERE:

Of course, this video is only our first piece of news about the project. More updates will be coming. So, stay tuned about the project GREEN in Moldova!
And really, let’s make Moldova both clean and GREEN!

LONGER THAN THE BODY

Date: August 2012
Place: Lahemaa, Estonia

This little fellow with antennae longer than its body exploring my hands is the flat-faced longhorn beetle (Lamiinae) from the Cerambycidae (Cipricornia) family within the Coleoptera order of insects. It came to me to see the amateur beach ball match we had been playing at the summer camp in the North-Eastern Estonia. As you see, I was quite happy about that surprise meeting.
The longhorn beetles, or longicorns, as their name suggests, can be easily identified by the very long antennae. Some representatives, for instance the male of the timberman beetle (Acanthocinus aedilis), flaunt the antennae, which are four or five times longer than their body. However, not all longhorn beetles possess such distinguishing feature; some of them, like the blackspotted pliers support beetle (Rhagium mordax) have the antennae twice as short as their body length. In general, Cerambycidae is a quite large (more than 17000 species) and cosmopolitan family. This is why there are still some controversial opinions about certain members of it.

But what is known for sure is that certain species of longhorn beetles, for example Parandra caspia, are serious pests of forests and wooden objects: their larvae feed on wood, causing extensive damage to living trees and lumber. Still, there are other insects, reptiles and birds, who find the beetles and their larvae very tasty, in this way keeping their population at the acceptable level. This is how the natural balance is maintained… and it is better not to disturb it.

UNFRIEND HUMAN?

A lot of people know what social network is. A lot of people use such applications as Facebook. Nowadays one can even track the life of a person by using it.
But what if our Earth had its own Facebook – the “Earthbook”? How would the past and present events on the planet look in such social network? And what would the Earth write us, Humans, there?
These were the questions the makers of the video “Earthbook – Project Earth: Our Future 2.0” asked themselves. And here is what they came up with:

What do you think, will the Earth “unfriend” us?
Or it is possible to build up the economy that our planet will “like”?
And if you used this “Earthbook”, what would you write and post to the Earth?

LA GRANDE FINALE

Waste and pollution by it are one of the most important environmental issues in a large number of developing countries, including the Republic of Moldova. They cause a variety of negative effects there ranging from local soil and water contamination and increase of morbidity to emissions of greenhouse gases and contribution to the global climate change. In addition, waste is an indicator of resource use inefficiency and high economic losses for the country.

In spite of these negative effects of the waste issue, the performance of waste management in Moldova is rather low. More than 90% of all waste is disposed to landfill sites, which in most cases are not managed properly and do not meet the basic environmental standards. Waste separation at the source and recycling are present only occasionally, and their efficiency is not at the desired level. The reasons of such inefficiency in waste management in the country include conservative top-down waste governance style, low administrative capacity to deal with the waste issue effectively, inefficient waste policies and legislation, weak monitoring and control over waste management, lack of source separation, small waste management market size, problem of free-riding by waste management entities, low stakeholder involvement and participation, insufficient awareness about the waste issue among the society, low demand for better waste management policies and practices, and others.

One of the ways to address the problem of inefficient waste management in such a country, as Moldova, is the involvement and synergetic cooperation of non-state actors – private companies, large CSR-oriented corporations and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Certain research literature (for example, Coskeran et al., 2006; Falkner, 2003; Joseph, 2005) shows significant gains of such solution from the economic, social, and environmental points of view. However, it does not thoroughly explain how to manage non-state cooperation in an efficient manner and thus ensure its success in improving waste management in a developing state. Closing this gap of knowledge and elaborating a practically applicable model for organizations in Moldova to use became the focus of my research project entitled “Non-state Cooperation in Environment Protection Area in Developed and Developing Countries: The Case of Waste Management in Moldova”, which was introduced and described in the post “LET’S CLEAN UP MOLDOVA… IN A SCIENTIFIC WAY!”.

After a year (June 2011 – May 2012) of intense research, expeditions, field work, interviews, etc. the main modeling and key findings of the project were compiled in Master thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark on the 27th of May, 2012. The thesis gave answer to the main research question, which was “How can one model the process of non-state cooperation development in waste management and apply the elaborated theoretic model in practice in order to improve waste management and governance in the Republic of Moldova?”, through analysis and discussions around the following seven questions:
1) Why is waste an important issue to be addressed?
2) How can waste be managed efficiently?
3) Why is waste management and governance a problem in Moldova?
4) Why should private companies and NGOs be involved in waste management?
5) How can non-state actors work together to address the waste issue?
6) How can the waste issue in Moldova be solved through non-state cooperation?
7) What are the applications and limitations of the present work?
All these questions were answered with the help of a large number of economic, business and political literature sources, different theories and research methods, existing good case practices of non-state cooperation in waste management in different countries and other resources that can be found in the specially created LinkedIn group "TripleR: Join the Waste Management Evolution!". The practical part of the thesis included the data from two expeditions and field work in Moldova, which were supported financially by the Explorers Club Exploration Fund. The model elaborated and described in the thesis was empirically applied to the 2012 edition of the national cleanup campaign “Hai, Moldova!”, thus identifying its successes and drawbacks and coming up with suggestions for capitalizing on the former and reducing the latter.
Nowadays the complete Master thesis is publicly available and can be accessed and downloaded HERE:

Still, that was not all. “La Grande Finale” of this research work took place at the University of Copenhagen on the 19th of June, 2012, when I successfully defended my Master thesis. An episode from its presentation can be viewed HERE:

Unfortunately, due to technical issues it was not possible to record the whole defence. Nevertheless, you have probably noticed that I tried to present my findings in the form of a poem. This was done in order to challenge myself in delivering a creative and innovative presentation and combining research work with one of my interests and hobbies, which is writing poetry. If you want to see how successful (or not) this idea was, you can watch the full version of the presentation HERE:

Although the Master thesis has been defended, the research project is not finished yet. Some more work consisting of preparing summary reports for project beneficiaries, publishing the obtained results in articles and presenting them at various scientific conferences should still be done. Further updates about the progress here will be published in the LinkedIn group "TripleR: Join the Waste Management Evolution!" and on this blog.

Hopefully the results of this research project will be a useful contribution in mitigating waste pollution and improving waste management and governance in the Republic of Moldova and other developing countries.

Note: There is still much research work needs to be done on the topic of non-state cooperation in environment protection area. If you are interested in cooperation within further research here, I would be glad if you contact me by e-mail: bsrcentre@gmail.com.

SOME HOT & HAIRY BABES

You probably expect to see here a number of photos of young Ladies in bikini or even without. Although female representatives of Homo sapiens are all indeed beautiful and truly masterpieces of the Nature, they are not the stars of this article. The “babes” I present here have eight hairy legs, eight dark eyes and a couple of poisonous fangs. You might have already guessed that these are spiders – really beautiful and amazing invertebrate creatures representing the Araneae order within the Arachnida class of animals.

 The reason for these “hot & hairy babes” being the focus here is that in June 2012 I managed to visit an interesting exhibition “Spiders” at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was aimed at showing people how beautiful and fascinating spiders really are. And indeed they are.
For example, these creatures do not have movement (extensor) muscles in their limbs and instead perform all movements by using hydraulic pressure of their inner liquids. This feature does not impede them from moving quite fast and even jumping several times their own body length. The latter ability is the characteristic of the cute jumping spiders (Salticidae), which are easily identified by four very large eyes.

A more well-known characteristic of spiders is the ability to produce silk from their spinnerets and to create wonderful, resilient and durable webs of different forms and sizes within a very short time (usually several hours). You might have heard that due to their resilience and durability spider silk and webs were used in producing clothes and tents. The exposition “Spiders” featured some examples of clothing and the golden shawl made from silk from 41000 spiders. Still, it may be a surprise for you to know that not all spiders make use of their silk-producing ability to weave webs. Some thrilled-for-hunt species use it as bolas, others, more patient ones – as fishing rods, while the most romantic “gentlemen” create a nice wrapping for gifts to their “girlfriends” from it (or even wrap the “girlfriends” themselves, if they misbehave).

Focusing on the spiders' romantic and sexual life in particular, there are some interesting features here also. For instance, their world is mostly a matriarchal one: here females are more powerful and larger than males. In some cases a male can be smaller than the cephalothorax of his “girlfriend” (such difference is called sexual dimorphism). This is why many males do not survive after copulation – they become eaten by their hungry partner, thus sacrificing themselves for organic material necessary for the development of eggs. In such circumstances spider males need to be real “gentlemen” if they wish to satisfy their “girlfriend” and stay alive after that. And in some species they are just that – always ready with a gift in form of a delicious meal or a gentle massage to make a Lady happy and relaxed. This is the spiders’ way of having a truly safe sex.

Of course, these amazing creatures have many more characteristics and features to be fascinated about. But you are probably waiting to see the photos of real living spiders to admire their beauty. So, here you have them – some “hot & hairy babes”:

To tell the truth, I have a “babe” of my own, which is shown on the photo below. This is Mashka, a cellar spider from the Pholcidae family. She lives in my bathroom and protects it from any mosquitoes or other unwanted visitors.

So, are you fascinated about spiders now? Do you want to see them with your own eyes? You still have the opportunity to do it by visiting the exhibition “Spiders”, as it is open until the 23rd of December, 2012. There you will be able to read more about these arachnids, watch some interesting videos about them, see some colourful glass sculptures of spiders, give a hug to a giant leather tarantula, and, of course, meet the “hot & hairy babes” in person. Thus, I wish you a pleasant date with them!

Note: If you still wish to see some hot & sexy human Ladies, you can check my post about the Copenhagen Carnival “BEAUTIFUL, SEXY, FUN, COLORFUL…”.

SWIMMING WITH WASTE

There are many leisure opportunities in the ocean nowadays. You can swim with dolphins. You can dive in to see the wonders of a coral reef. You can do scuba-diving into an underwater crack. However, all of them usually cost money, and quite a lot.
Still, thanks to the human inefficiency and carelessness there is now an opportunity to experience the ocean like never before. And it’s ABSOLUTELY FREE! Moreover, you can pick up some interesting and unexpected souvenirs while swimming. So, we proudly present you the marine attraction of the 21st century:
SWIMMING WITH WASTE!


For the best experience we highly recommend you do the following:
- Buy or rent a boat;
- Sail to the North Pacific Gyre in the Pacific Ocean, between 135 W to 155 W and 35 N to 42 N;
- Find the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch / Pacific Trash Vortex near the Hawaiian Archipelago (you cannot miss this enormous patch of waste);
- Dive in and enjoy the swimming among colourful plastic and glass bottles, caps, aluminum cans, paper, metals, chemical sludge, and other s**t coming from our advanced and highly developed human society.
And you do not need to hurry. You can do it again and again every year. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is likely to stay there and grow more for centuries ahead.
Here is a presentation of this magnificent opportunity by one of the “customers”:



Have fun swimming in your own s**t!
And do keep polluting the environment! Or else such amazing opportunities will disappear.

Y U POLLUTE???

There is a very interesting question that whirls in my head very often. The question with a multitude of answers, but none of them satisfying my curiosity. The question so simple and logical to ask, but so difficult to find logic and rationale in its answers. The question:
WHY DO WE, HUMANS, POLLUTE OUR ENVIRONMENT?


For instance, you… yes, you… why do you pollute? Why do you produce hazardous waste, why do you contaminate soil, why do you deplete supplies of freshwater, why do you cut down forests, why do you destroy ecosystems by converting them into agricultural and urban land, why do you emit greenhouse gases that enhance climate change…? WHY?
- Because it is a natural and inevitable part of mankind’s survival, living, and development. We need food, water, shelter for survival… then technologies, transportation, infrastructure for development… then more food, water, shelter for supplying our constantly growing population… then more technologies, transportation, infrastructure for increasing our welfare and utility…, - you may reply.
But all this is possible without so much damage to the environment. Around 25% of food from your table and 30% of all your consumed goods end up in a trash bin. With each person throwing out similar share of products, it accumulates into a huge amount of polluting waste. Moreover, before ending up as a pile of garbage, these items were produced with conversion of many hectares of natural land for agricultural purpose, with large emissions of greenhouse gases, with leaching of contaminating fertilizers into groundwater, with extraction of many nonrenewable resources… should I continue?
- Well, yes, but this requires more efficient processes and technologies… And to develop them requires sufficient knowledge, innovation, time, need and demand for them…
True. However, we have knowledge – there is a gigantic amount of books and articles written about sustainable and environmentally-friendly technologies. We have innovation – come on, nowadays we are more than 7 bln units of brainpower! We have time… still… if we start doing something nowadays. Need and demand… yes, but why we do not have them?
- Because we do not experience the consequences of pollution... at least not much. We do not have enough economic and social incentives to make the environment our priority.
In other words, we need someone to reward us for good behaviour and punish us for misbehaviour, right? But can’t we stop polluting our home planet and start caring about it without this “carrot and stick” approach? Can we do it just because we want a clean home, because we care about others, because we want future generations to have a nice place to live?
- Here we talk about changing a worldview. And doing it of the whole mankind. Even if you are so eco-friendly, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to turn everyone in the eco-morale direction. Besides, why should we care about the future and our descendants, when there are many opportunities to live a happy carefree life nowadays? The descendants will find a way to deal with pollution, because they will be smarter and technologically more advanced.
But is it right? Just think about it… Though we pollute the environment in order to develop and ensure future prosperity, but we put no value on our future… Isn’t it kind of controversial? And besides, we can live a happy life without degrading the environment along the way. It does not reduce our utility to do simple actions, such as reuse goods and share them among each other, thus reducing depletion of natural resources, waste generation, and pollution…
- But who would share anything when he can own it and display it as confirmation of his welfare and power?... Ah, enough already! Stop worrying and start enjoying the life! Benefit from the so-called “Power of NOW”! And let someone else care and clean after you.


That was a shortened version of self-reflection and discussion with my other self. It was not very convincing and resultative, was it? So, I am still in search for the reasonable answer to my question.
And what about you, dear Reader?
WHY DO YOU POLLUTE?

Sources:
1. EEA, 2010. The European Environment: State and Outlook 2010. Consumption and the Environment.
2. Government Office for Science, 2011. The Future of Food and Farming: Challenges and Choices for Global Sustainability. Executive Summary. London.