Construction starts on world's largest wildlife crossing to let animals roam over 10 lanes of L.A. highway
By Cheri Mossburg, CNN
Updated 1328 GMT (2128 HKT) April 23, 2022
A rendering shows how the bridge will let animals cross over traffic.
Los Angeles (CNN)Wild
animals in Southern California soon will have more turf to roam thanks
to the world's biggest wildlife crossing, which will span 10 lanes of
Highway 101 in northwest Los Angeles to close a crucial gap for habitats.
Mountain
lions, which typically wander a territory spanning 150 to 200 miles,
will be among the chief beneficiaries of the new overpass, providing a
safe passage from the Santa Monica Mountains, across the freeway, and
into the Simi Hills of the Santa Susana mountain range. This week, an
18-month-old mountain lion recently separated from its mother and
seeking its own terrain was hit and killed on the 405 freeway, Ana
Cholo, spokesperson for the National Park Service (NPS) tells CNN.
The
$87 million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is named for the
president and CEO of the Annenberg Foundation, a family foundation that
supports non-profits. More than 5,000 individual contributions were
made, said Tony Tavares, interim director of CalTrans, the California
Department of Transportation, noting the crossing also will help protect
motorists.
This cougar is often seen in the Hollywood area.
"We
can protect California's ecosystems without jeopardizing the
transportation and other infrastructure development that we need for a
growing population," said US Sen. Alex Padilla at the project's
groundbreaking ceremony Friday.
California
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was also there, promised $50 million for other
similar projects throughout the state, though they will not be of the
same size and scope. The Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is a partnership of
the National Wildlife Federation and the Santa Monica Mountains
Conservancy, and will be built by CalTrans.
"This
project is truly incredible," said Wade Crowfoot, California secretary
for natural resources. "We will look back decades from now and realize
that this project galvanized a new era of conserving and reconnecting
nature."
Because
pumas demand such a large territory, being relegated to an "urban
island" surrounded by busy freeways has led to inbreeding and lack of
genetic diversity, according to the NPS, which has been studying cougars
in the Los Angeles area for two decades.
California
Gov. Gavin Newsom, third from left, joins other dignitaries during a
groundbreaking ceremony for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing on
Friday.
"You're
hemmed in to the point where all you can do is date your cousins," Brad
Sherman said of the mountain lions, which thrive when they have a large
territory to hunt and mate. We're "putting the mountain lions back on
Tinder."
"I'm
shocked to hear of a lack of food or sex in Hollywood, but for mountain
lions, it's true," quipped Rep. Adam Schiff, whose district includes
the glitzy region.
P-22,
one of the mountain lions being tracked by the NPS, has gained fame in
the area for roaming through the Hollywood Hills, a bad bout of mange
after being exposed to rat poison, and even mauling a koala at the L.A.
Zoo in Griffith Park. With its own social media accounts, an annual P-22 Day, and branded merchandise, this cat has garnered something of a cult following.
Mountain lion known for crossing 405 killed on the same Los Angeles freeway
California's
cougars are getting the lion's share of attention for this crossing, as
their enclosure threatens their very existence, the NPS said. But it
also will provide habitat access to coyotes, bobcats, deer, snakes,
lizards, toads and even ants.
"We
can coexist side by side with all kinds of wild instead of paving it
over and choking it off," said philanthropist Wallis Annenberg at the
groundbreaking ceremony. "It is about bringing more attention to an
ingenious solution so urban wildlife and ecosystems like this one cannot
only survive, but thrive."
The
crossing will blend with the surroundings and be covered in soil and
native plants. The Santa Monica Mountains Foundation created a special
plant nursery that will grow all of the fauna to be used in covering the
crossing when it nears completion in 2025.
What a great idea and so wonderful for the wildlife,after all they were there before the road was built.
I like these kind of projects!
The blog song for today is "House of the rising sun" by the Animals
THE PLASTIC FLAMINGO – RECYCLING PLASTIC INTO ECO-LUMBERS
Founded in 2019 and also known as the plaf, the plastic flamingo is
a social enterprise that collects and transforms plastics in the
philippines into better products. the group of recyclers aims to fight
the country’s plastic waste crisis — the philippines is the
third-biggest polluter in the world — by turning bottles, soft plastics,
and sachets into planks that can be used as a building material.
By collecting post-consumer plastics, the plaf aims to compensate the material’s footprint by giving them a second-life while educating communities about the plastic crisis.
THE PLASTIC FLAMINGO COLLECTS ANY KIND OF PLASTIC WASTE IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND FROM LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Ocean plastic pollution is one of the world’s biggest environmental problems. its impact costs the world at least US$8 billion dollars per year.
60% of marine plastic waste has originated from south-east asia,
particularly from china, indonesia, philippines, vietnam, sri lanka and
thailand. in fact, in the philippines, 500,000 metric tons of plastic
end up in the ocean every year.
In order to offer a solution to fight ocean plastic pollution in the philippines, the plastic flamingo collects
any kind of plastic waste in the environment and from local
communities, schools, factories, buildings, etc. the plastics are then
cleaned, dried, and shredded. the resulting plastic flakes — the main
ingredient for their upcycled products — are then extruded into posts
and planks called eco-lumbers, which can be used in fencing, decking, and even in disaster-relief shelters.
PLASTIC FLAKES ARE TURNED INTO RECYCLED BUILDING MATERIALS
To create the eco-lumbers, the plaf mixes the flakes into a formulation where they undergo an extrusion process and are molded into different shapes.
‘regarding our planks, we have done research on the constitution of
sachets and have found a formula that will make it possible to recycle
up to 30% in the mix to create the profiles,’ said the plastic
flamingo. the company is also expanding their product line and will be
revealing a larger range of products by the beginning of 2022.
By creating eco-lumbers, the plaf ‘hopes to kill two birds with one stone. ‘adressing
plastic pollution is our main mission, but by turning this waste into
eco-lumbers, we hope to contribute to the housing sector by providing
durable and maintenance-free alternatives. this country currently has an
estimated housing backlog of 6.5 million and if this is not addressed
appropriately, this can increase to 22 million within the next two
decades,’ said anne-sophie van der spek, the company’s chief product officer, in ‘planks of promise, designing for change’, a video made by their partner the alliance to end plastic waste.
Indonesia is announcing a plan to tackle plastic pollution.
The country aims to cut marine plastic waste by 70% within five years.
By 2040, Indonesia plans to be entirely plastic pollution-free.
What will it take to end plastic pollution within a generation?
For Indonesia, it all began with a radical vision.
Our beautiful nation is grappling with a serious plastic
pollution challenge. We are home to the world’s largest archipelago –
more than 17,000 islands, 81,000 kilometres of coastlines and a rich
abundance of biodiverse marine ecosystems. Our pristine natural
environment is a gift that we have treasured for thousands of years, and
one that we must pass down to future generations.
At the same time, the amount of plastic waste generated in
Indonesia each year is growing at unsustainable levels. In our cities,
our waterways and our coastlines, the accumulation of toxic plastic
waste is harming
our food systems and the health of our people. Our booming fishing
industry, the second-largest in the world, is under threat from rising
levels of marine plastic debris. By 2025, the amount of plastic waste
leaking into our oceans could increase to 800,000 tonnes – if no action
is taken.
I’m proud to announce that Indonesia will be choosing not what is
easy, but what is right. Rather than staying with a ‘business as usual’
approach, we will be embracing a sweeping, full-system-change approach
to combatting plastic waste and pollution, one that we hope will spark
greater collaboration and commitment from others on the global stage.
At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos this year,
we are presenting to the world a first look at Indonesia’s new plan for
tackling plastic pollution, which aims to cut marine plastic debris by
70% within the next five years.
The vision goes even further: by 2040, we aim to achieve a
plastic pollution-free Indonesia – one that embodies the principle of
the circular economy, in which plastics will no longer end up in our oceans, waterways and landfills, but will go on to have a new life.
Plastic
What is the World Economic Forum doing about plastic pollution?
More than 90% of plastic is never recycled, and a whopping 8
million metric tons of plastic waste are dumped into the oceans
annually. At this rate, there will be more plastic than fish in the
world’s oceans by 2050.
The Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) is a collaboration
between businesses, international donors, national and local
governments, community groups and world-class experts seeking meaningful
actions to beat plastic pollution.
In Ghana, for example, GPAP is working with technology giant SAP
to create a group of more than 2,000 waste pickers and measuring the
quantities and types of plastic that they collect. This data is then
analysed alongside the prices that are paid throughout the value chain
by buyers in Ghana and internationally.
It aims to show how businesses, communities and governments can redesign the global “take-make-dispose” economy as a circular one in which products and materials are redesigned, recovered and reused to reduce environmental impacts.
Five points of action
To successfully reach the 70% reduction target by 2025, we are
committed to leading five system-change interventions that will change
the way plastics are produced, used, and disposed of.
1) Reduce or substitute plastic usage to prevent the consumption of 1.1 million tonnes of plastic per year.[i]
We will work with industry leaders in Indonesia to transform
their supply chains by rooting out plastic materials that can be
avoided. Examples include replacing single-use packaging with reusable
packaging; embracing new delivery models, such as refill shops; and
empowering consumers to move away from single-use plastic consumption.
2) Redesign plastic products and packaging with reuse or recycling in mind.
Recognizing that some forms of plastics cannot be substituted with
alternative materials, we need to make sure that they do not become
mismanaged waste. We will work with manufacturers and innovators to
champion an industry-wide shift towards circular plastics – with the
ultimate goal of making all plastic waste a valuable commodity for reuse
or recycling.
3) Double plastic waste collection to 80% by 2025.
Currently, around 39% of the total plastic waste in Indonesia is
collected; in rural and remote areas, this figure is as low as 16%.[ii]
We need to aggressively invest in our waste-collection infrastructure,
both in the formal sector (government employees) and the robust informal
sector (waste pickers, many of them women, who play a significant role
in our national waste management efforts).
4) Double our current recycling capacity to process an
additional 975,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year.[iii] In 2017, only
10% of plastics generated in Indonesia were recycled. We urgently need
to close this capacity gap by directing investment into expanding
existing infrastructure facilities and building new infrastructure to
match the explosive growth in plastic production across the ASEAN region.
5) Build or expand safe waste disposal facilities to
manage an additional 3.3 million tonnes of plastic waste per year.[iv]
This is our last chance to put a safeguarding measure at the end of the
plastic lifecycle to prevent plastic waste from becoming plastic
pollution. These facilities will allow us to safely dispose of
non-recyclable plastic materials, as well as plastic waste that is
generated in remote locations without recycling facilities.
Only a fraction of plastic is recycled. Indonesia plans to lead the way in reversing that trend
Image: Our World in Data
What’s next?
We believe urgent action is needed to turn the tide of plastic
waste and pollution in Indonesia, and that all have a role to play in
driving this change.
President Joko Widodo has set the course with two crucial pieces
of legislation. The Indonesia National Waste Management Policy and
Strategy (Presidential Decree No. 97/2017) and the Plan of Action on
Marine Plastic Debris 2018-2025 (Presidential Decree No. 83/2018) have
put the fight against plastic pollution at the top of the national
agenda, creating the enabling environment that we needed as
policy-makers to deliver on this ambitious vision.
The first step in this process was to bring the right stakeholders onboard. In March last year, we joined the Global Plastic Action Partnership, a new public-private collaboration platform hosted at the World Economic Forum, as its first national partner.
We became the first country in the world to test-drive the National
Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) model – a nimble, inclusive and
solutions-driven approach to solving the challenge of plastic pollution.
The same model is now being piloted in Ghana, and soon in Viet Nam.
Through the NPAP, we have created a platform for bringing
together Indonesia’s top minds to take on plastic pollution together,
from researchers to businesses to civil society. Collectively, we have
created a national roadmap that lays out the concrete steps we need to
take – in policy-making, manufacturing, awareness-building and driving
investment – to achieve a plastic pollution-free Indonesia.
Although the full report is still in the final stages of
preparation, I feel it is crucial to share its key recommendations and
action steps at Davos, this unparalleled global convening of
decision-makers and innovators, so that all can hear the good news:
Indonesia’s unprecedented national effort to take on plastic pollution
is crossing a new frontier in what is possible. Working from the basis
of a radical idea, we have built a platform, mobilized willpower from
all sectors, and identified a clear path towards our goal: to show that
plastic pollution is not too complex or too enormous a challenge to
overcome.
As we move from incubation to implementation in the months to
come, I invite all to join us on this journey. As Indonesia puts this
plan into action, we look forward to sharing our knowledge and to
learning from others on bringing solutions and successes to scale.
Together, we will demonstrate how we can work together to end plastic
pollution and build a healthier, more sustainable future for our
children and grandchildren.
Notes on data:
[i] This figure was calculated as part of an analysis adapted
from global research by the Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ and was
carried out with the Indonesia National Plastic Action Partnership
(NPAP) Expert Panel, Indonesia NPAP Steering Board, Indonesian
government and other stakeholders. The analysis forms part of the full
Indonesia plastic action roadmap, which will be released in spring 2020.
[ii] Data from JAKSTRADA database (Indonesia Ministry of
Environment and Forestry), PUPR Waste portal (Indonesia Ministry of
Public Works and Public Housing), and What a Waste Global Database
(World Bank).
[iii] Data from analysis conducted on recovered plastics through both formal sorting centres and waste pickers.
[iv] The 3.3 million target corresponds to the remaining
amount of collected plastic that is not recycled and is not channelled
into landfills due to limited existing capacity within landfills.
Calculated using data from the JAKSTRADA database (Indonesia Ministry of
Environment and Forestry), and PUPR Waste portal (Indonesia Ministry of
Public Works and Public Housing).
When I read reports like this I am given hope that people like me are trying to make a difference and the fact that it is far away from here is even better.
The blog song for today is: "He's a rebel"by the Crystals
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
