Conservationists Oppose European Wildlife Law Review

The two biggest pieces of European legislation protecting wildlife are under threat from potential weakening as a result of a decision to rewrite enironmental laws. A consortium of a hundred British conservationist groups are now battling to stave off an overhaul of core wildlife laws, stating that the ensuing threat to wildlife could be the greatest in a generation.

The EU recently launched a 12-week public consultation with the goal of streamlining the birds and habitats directives, ostensibly for the purpose of making these directives more cost-effective. Putting it bluntly, the protection of wildlife constitutes an 'administrative burden to business', and the EU may decide to deregulate legislation, allowing individual states to administer at the national level.

Concern over the erosion of the ‘Natura 2000’ protected sites, covering more than 1,000 animal and plant species, plus in excess of 200 threatened habitats currently under protection of the directives, has caused conservationists to wonder whether the EU really has the environment at heart, or whether this new initiative has a purely economic side to it.

The RSPB's Kate Jennings said, "The habitats and birds directives are the foundation of nature conservation across Europe and are scientifically proven to be effective where properly implemented. The directives deliver demonstrable benefits for nature, as well as significant social and economic benefits."

"This review is clearly part of a wider ideological deregulation agenda that is going on. In our experience, the majority of developers and the business community value regulatory certainty and the thing they least like to see are goalposts moving. The review introduces this."

And it's not just environmentalists who are concerned. Hunters, landowners, port owners, grid operators, and even development-related businesses have become involved, with Cemex, the cement-producers, signing a joint statement with conservationists.

Birdlife's Ariel Brunner said, "If the birds and habitats directives are weakened, the water framework directive will be next in line, and the national emissions ceiling directive will follow soon after."

Time will tell whether deregulation and directive streamlining will have a negative effect on wildlife and the environment; however, if the new rules are being drawn up with fiscal concerns, and not ecological ones, in mind, then the outcome is surely going to reflect this. It could be that, given the long drawn-out economic crisis, individual states, faced with setbacks to a resurgent development industry, may decide that they simply cannot afford to protect endangered species and habitats to any workable degree.

Image: Smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) via Wikimedia Commons

Water from the Dunes: Desert Beetle Inspires Mist-Harvesting Technology

The Namibian desert is one of the driest places on the planet. This arid corner of south-west Africa is characterized by soaring temperatures, harsh winds, and next to no rain. But even here, life has found a way to harvest that most precious resource, water.

Perhaps the most innovative means of obtaining drinking water known in the animal kingdom, the sequestration of ocean mist has been perfected by the Namibian Beetle (Stenocara gracilipes) through an intricate system of bumps and troughs.

Stenocara gracilipes. Picture Credit: Moongateclimber/Wikipedia Commons

Tiny bumps cover the surface of the beetle’s shell. The bumps are unique in nature in that they have water attracting tips and water repellant sides. This combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces means that water can be directed by the beetle’s forewings. By leaning into the wind, the beetle can catch the vapour and channel it down towards its mouthparts. The troughs between the bumps have a superhydrophobic waxy covering, meaning that the droplets roll unavoidably wherever they are directed. The process is a successful adaptation, with up to 12% of the beetle’s body weight being gained by fog-basking.

Scientists and entrepreneurs have spotted numerous uses to which this kind of natural technology can be put. A few of these include:

• Distillation processes
• Dehumidification
• Improved car engines
• Air conditioning
• Freshwater supply generation

So far, these ideas have remained simply that: ideas. However, some forward-thinking researchers have, apparently independantly of each other, begun development of two unique and potentially very useful products.

For instance, in a good example of biomimicry (the artificial reproduction of naturally-occurring mechanisms), a type of vapor-harvesting plastic sheeting has been created by research company QinetiQ. According to Dr Chris Lawrence, a company spokesperson: ‘What we have learnt from the beetle is an improved method for condensing liquid from a vapour. We’re intending that this will be applied to the collection of water for farming and drinking in arid regions, improvement in distillation processes and dehumidification for air conditioning and the like.’

Lawrence developed the system in collaboration with Oxford University zoologist Dr Andrew Parker. The system involves placing miniscule glass spheres into heated wax to emulate the hydrophilic peaks and hydrophobic troughs of the beetle’s shell. During testing, it was found that, by spraying the material with mist, condensation and thus water harvesting could be achieved on a large scale. As a further boon, the material is easy to mass-produce by simply stamping this design onto plastic sheets.

Dr Lawrence said: ‘This would make fog harvesting several times more efficient than current water collecting methods.’

The company’s first project will be a specially designed tent which could be use by people camping in arid climates to collect drinkable water from the air.

Another company, the start-up NBD Nano, are developing a water-collecting bottle using the same biologically-inspired technology. This self-filling vessel, according to NBD Nano, will be pull three liters of water from the air per hour, although this will no doubt depend of various environmental factors, not least of which being air humidity.

Though still only at the developmental stage for their first product, the small company has other applications in mind, including potable water for desert projects, water for greenhouses, and solutions for third world countries in which access to drinkable water is scarce.

The beetle-back material certainly has potential. Other uses could include water-harvesting roof tiles and other buidling materials, automobile paint for self-filling car tanks, polytunnel sheeting, even clothing that fills a pouch that can be drunk from whilst walking. The possibile uses for this innovative adaptation to a pervasive environmental stress could be endless.

References

Briggs, H., 2001. Water Off a Beetle’s Back. BBC Website. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1628477.stm Accessed 27^th December 2014.

Owano, N., 2012. Self-Filling Water Bottle Takes Cues from Desert Beetle. PhysOrg. http://phys.org/news/2012-11-self-filling-bottle-cues-beetle.html Accessed 27^th December 2014.

Seely, M. et al., 1983. Fog response of tenebrionid beetles in the Namib Desert. Journal of Arid Environments. 6(2): 135-143.

Uncredited, 2014. Water Vapour Harvesting: Namib Desert Beetle. Biomimicry Institute. http://www.asknature.org/strategy/dc2127c6d0008a6c7748e4e4474e7aa1#.VJ76IcAB Accessed 27^th December 2014.

Zhai, L. et al., 2006. Patterned Superhydrophobic Surfaces: Toward a Synthetic Mimic of the Namib Desert Beetle. Nano Lett. 6(6): 1213-1217.

Top picture credit: Getty Images

This article first appeared on savethewater.org