Green+ Malaysia's Premier Eco-friendly, Sustainable and Green Business Magazine

ENERGY
China reveals magic
land treatment success
Revitalised paddy fields have proved able to produce crops
Hebie is a Chinese province
that is being progressive.
They call it bioremediation,
but essentially, the
new idea is to treat soil
that is affected by waste with degrading
bacteria such as Dehalococcoides
and other microorganisms.
Many other Chinese provinces are
also involved as the revitalised paddy
fields have proved able to produce
crops. Only 85% of contaminants and
salt are removed, but this seems sufficient,
for plants at least.
The worst pollution at the moment
in China is caused by heavy metals:
cadmium, mercury and copper,
associated also with arsenic, contaminating
50 million hectares. The
microbes are able to fix these poisons
so that they are not available to plants,
and reside in the soil just like the
miniscule amounts in rock. With many
farms closed down for this treatment,
there must be worries that the treatment
will work in the long-term, after
flooding or if other bacteria reverse
the process. However, the companies
involved are in most cases capable of
this bioengineering.
Earth Times is having a close
look at the secretive technology. The
Credit: © Shutterstock
The rice harvest is being gathered. In Hebie province, would you eat the rice if
it has not been thoroughly tested? Many international companies and Chinese
enterprises are involved but how long has the complex bacterial action been
allowed to work with so much land unavailable for agriculture?
closest we have is the rock-breathing
bacterium, that can be used for
this kind of function, although it is
better known for oil spill clean-ups.
It is related to iron bacteria, sulphur
bacteria, nitrogen bacteria and other
chemosynthesisers.
Farm production will rise by
between 15 and 80% if the crops can be
safely eaten. Even more land from oilspill
pollution could also be recovered
in a similar way. Even there, though,
there have been concerns that enough
time needs to pass before bioremediation
effectively removes enough
toxins from the environment.
New Zealand vets have reservations
about food safety there,
following oil contamination. With
12 million tonnes of rice and other
staples polluted each year, the highly
toxic heavy metals pouring into the
Yangzi and other rivers also have to be
stopped, of course.
The Chinese vice minister of land
and resources, Wang Shiyuan, said
that 3.3 million hectares of arable land
is contaminated land, in grain-producing
areas. We just hope he’s willing
to eat all his rice from there, when it
is declared safe for human consumption.
– www.earthtimes.org
Why the phrase
‘Busy as a
Bee’ may be
becoming extinct
Recently scientists have been studying the mass
occurrence of dead bees, which they believe is caused
by colony collapse disorder. In other words, their
navigation is shot, preventing them from being able to
return to their hive. The ongoing research suggests that
the problem can be heavily linked to human causes.
Factors such as climate change and pesticides are
some examples of how humans are intervening with
the natural process of pollination that the bees need to
survive. This is one account, last year of the EU’s ban on
neonicotinoids in To bee or not to bee.
Although bees are feared for their ability to sting,
they are actually essential to the life of many plants.
Bees are the main pollinators of many plants, so without
them, many fruits and vegetables we take for granted
will begin to disappear, or at least start costing more.
Without natural pollination, farmers will have to invest
in manual pollination techniques. This would increase
the price of their produce, causing an economic impact
in the grand scheme of things. Your plants you could
miss that require pollination include apples, oranges
cucumbers, bananas, tomatoes, vanilla, beans, cotton
lemons, coffee, onions and broccoli.
A company working to develop a product that works
to help the bees stated in their research notes that: In
order to produce a pound of honey, over 750 bees must
log over 55,000 miles of flying. During this extensive
flight programme, visiting over 2 million flowers to
collect nectar, the insects also pollinate the plants that
make I out of every 3 bites of food we eat.
Hady Ghassabian, an Italian designer, invented a
product called, the bee saver. The bee saver is a simple
keychain with a nectar container. The product works
by providing nectar when someone sees an exhausted
honey bee or bumble bee struggling. They can offer it the
nectar to help reenergise the bee so that it can continue
working for its hive and for us. The bee saver has not yet
been officially launched, but the company is preparing
a campaign to help spread awareness of mass deaths of
bees and promote their product.
So the next time you hear that familiar buzzing
sound around your ear, maybe you won’t freak out and
start waving your hands to kill the animal. Maybe you
will fully appreciate the little bee and let her get on with
her busy bee day! – www.earthtimes.org
46
november-december, green+.2014