Shopping em Viana converte compras em árvores

Objectivo da iniciativa é revitalizar o pulmão no litoral Norte

O Shopping Estação Viana leva a cabo a segunda edição da campanha «Pontos de Orgulho», que consiste em converter compras em pontos que podem ser trocados para apoiar a reflorestação da Serra de Santa Luzia.
Sob o lema «a nossa tradição mantém-se», a iniciativa oferece aos aderentes um cartão que dá prémios e descontos, e permite também o apoio à reflorestação de um hectare da Serra de Santa Luzia, que tem sofrido intensos fogos ao longo dos últimos verões. Para ajudar esta reflorestação a tornar-se realidade, o Estação Viana Shopping criou o passatempo «1 hectare de Serra para reflorestar, 3 clientes que vão ganhar». Os três aderentes que mais pontos rebaterem a favor da reflorestação irão ganhar cheques oferta no valor de 25€ a 15€, e ainda eco-pontos domésticos. Cartão acumula pontos que se convertem em árvores A cada 160 pontos rebatidos pelo aderente, a Serra ganha uma árvore, revitalizando este pulmão do litoral norte. Todo o trabalho de reflorestação envolve um esforço que implica um trabalho prévio de limpeza, preparação dos solos e plantio de árvores, contribuindo assim para aumentar a zona verde. Para usufruírem dos benefícios, os visitantes do Estação Viana Shopping apenas têm de se dirigir ao Quiosque de Informações e obter gratuitamente o cartão que lhes permitirá acumular pontos, mediante compras nas lojas do Centro Comercial, excepto Supermercado. Diário

Plantar árvores para enterrar

Put the trees in the groundA solution for the global carbon dioxide problem? Of the current global environmental problems, the excessive release of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels and the related global warming is one of the most pressing. In an essay in the journal ChemSusChem , Fritz Scholz and Ulrich Hasse from the University of Greifswald introduce a possible approach to a solution: deliberately planted forests bind the CO 2 through photosynthesis and are then removed from the global CO2 cycle by burial. "For the first time, humankind will give something back to nature that we have taken away before," says Scholz. "Whereas other environmental problems can, at least in principle, be solved by the appropriate modern technology," reports Scholz, "there are no realistic solutions for the CO2 problem." At present, a daunting 32 gigatons of CO2 are released into the atmosphere every year. Previous proposals to pump the CO2 into the oceans are not practicable or are ecologically problematic. The only possible way to bind sufficiently large quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere is photosynthesis. However, the resulting biomass cannot be burned or composted, because this would release the bound CO2. The trick will be to make the biomass "disappear". Scholz recommends planting forests whose wood will subsequently be buried. Possible burial sites include open brown coal pits or other surface mines. These should be filled with wood and covered with soil. Cut off from the air in this manner, the wood would not change, even over long periods. It could in principle be dug up in the future and used. According to estimations made by Scholz and Hasse, we would have to plant a little over one billion (10^9) hectares of forest in order to bind all of the carbon dioxide produced in a year. This corresponds roughly to the surface of the virgin forest cut down in the last century. This project could be financed by an additional tax of 0.11 € per liter of gasoline or 0.003 € per kilowatt-hour of electricity. "The forests should be planted in countries that are suitable for growing forest and also have the necessary sites for burial of the wood," stresses Scholz. "Other countries, the primary consumers of fossil fuels, can pay them for it. This would produce a global trade that would benefit everyone involved."Link

###Author:

Fritz Scholz, University of Greifswald, Greifswald (Germany), mailto:fscholz@uni-greifswald.deTitle: Permanent Wood Sequestration: The Solution to the Global Carbon Dioxide ProblemChemSusChem, doi: 10.1002/cssc.200800048