environment

Climate change longer term issue than pandemic, says Hungarian President Áder

Daily News Hungary

The issues of climate change and sustainability will remain relevant even after the coronavirus pandemic is over, President Jnos Áder said on Monday, opening Hungary’s Sustainability Week, an event during which schools raise awareness of sustainability.

“Everyone can tell that something has changed in their environment,” the president said in a video message uploaded to news portal Origo.hu. Devastating wildfires, never-before-seen floods, heat records, long droughts, the extinction of certain species and locust plagues are just some of the signs of climate change, he said. Meanwhile, the speeding up of the water cycle has disrupted precipitation patterns, producing extreme rains and often devastating storms, he said.

Natural disasters like these have the potential to cause food shortages in many countries, leading to famines and eventually social tensions and political instability, Áder warned.

“It is not by chance that United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has sounded the alarm and asked developed countries to contribute 200 million dollars to the global fight against climate change,” the president added.

The planet’s rising population results in rising consumption, Áder said, noting that water consumption is growing twice and energy consumption three times as fast as the population. But these rising energy demands are for the most part still being met with the use of coal-fired plants when carbon emissions are the leading cause of climate change, he said.

As part of its fight against climate change, Hungary will be closing its last coal-fired power plant, plans to increase the capacity of its solar plants and will make 90 percent of its energy production carbon neutral within ten years, Áder said. Also, new buses used in public transport will all be electric and a new afforestation scheme will help grow hundreds of thousands of hectares of new forest across the country, he added.

rat budapest hungary
Read alsoRat invasion is causing serious problems in many Hungarian cities

Rat invasion is causing serious problems in many Hungarian cities

rat budapest hungary

Authorities across the country and in many districts of Budapest are struggling to keep up with the growing rat population, and the peaks are only expected to hit in the coming weeks.

Several major cities from all parts of Hungary have reported sightings of rats in the street and in private areas, writes Nlc. These rodents cause lots of trouble throughout the year, but October is considered a peak season in their reproduction, besides April and May. As a pest control told Blikk,

“If you see a rat somewhere, it probably means that there are many more in that area. Rats usually give birth to 9–10 pups at a time.”

It has been several weeks now that cities like Esztergom, Miskolc, and Nagykőrös have been suffering from an unusual volume of the rat population. Authorities in the city of Győr, for example, even had to perform emergency extermination in September.

In Budapest, the phenomenon is a long-standing problem. The most problematic areas are usually in the city centre (the latest sightings are from Deák Ferenc Square and Jászai Mari Square), but peripheral areas such as District 18 are also affected.

As the authorities say, extermination is very important as rats spread multiple diseases, such as tularaemia and murine typhus. They can also cause serious damage to drainage systems and the insulation of buildings. During extermination, pest control place poisoned food in sealed boxes in sewers and other critical areas, but as Blikk writes, individual protection is just as important.

Always store litter in closed garbage bags and containers, install mosquito nets, and check your doors and windows regularly for holes and cracks.

If you see rats or notice any signs that rats live in a certain area, report it to the authorities immediately. For rat sightings in Budapest, go to www.rnbh.hu/panaszbejelento, or write an email to pa******************@gm***.com with your address and phone number.

rat
Read alsoBudapest is no longer a rat-free capital city

Hungarian president addresses UN General Assembly

Hungarian-president-Áder

Hungarian President János Áder addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, warning of further crises to come unless humanity radically changes the way it influences the environment.

In his video message, Áder noted this was the first time the General Assembly had not met in person.

Áder noted the damage the novel coronavirus epidemic has wreaked on the world. He said the health crisis, which upended the rules of family life, work and living in a community, had swiftly turned into a socioeconomic crisis.

Many consider the coronavirus pandemic a prototype for crises typical of the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have the greatest impact on the planet, Áder said.

Unless humans radically change their lifestyles, they will have to face new crises after Covid, and perhaps much more severe ones,

Áder said. The question is whether humanity can learn from the crisis and act in areas where the danger is known to be imminent, he said. Putting action off would only increase the risks and costs, he added.

As yet, there is no final cure or vaccine against the coronavirus, he noted. There are, however, other fields “where we have known what to do for years,” he said, citing water management as an example.

Áder noted that

the UN had discussed the water crisis “unfolding before our eyes” on many occasions.

Most of the UN’s sustainability goals cannot be achieved without a sound water management policy, he added.

Currently, one-seventh of the Earth’s population have no access to clean drinking water, he said. Until that situation is remedied, productivity will continue to suffer in developing countries, and half of hospital beds in the world will be occupied by people suffering from diseases connected with contaminated water, he said.

Further, sustainable water management is key to the safe production of food, he said. Energy resources will also have to be transformed, as they currently use enough water to serve 1 billion people while increasing carbon dioxide emissions, he added.

Áder said the solution lies in a circular economy in which discarded glass, metal and plastic are considered recyclable material rather than waste.

Áder noted that Hungary has in recent years organised three Water Summits in Budapest.

“Hungary stands for action rather than futile meetings,”

he said. Therefore, is will host a sustainability expo at the end of next year, he said. The expo will look into issues around water management, food production, transport, energy and waste management, and education, he said.

Tihany Peninsula
Read alsoBalaton to become algae-infested swamp – researchers warn

Balaton to become algae-infested swamp – researchers warn

Tihany Peninsula

Dr Ferenc Jordán, the network researcher biologist of the Balaton Limnological Institute, has a gloomy outlook for the Hungarian sea if we do not start taking better care of it. The researcher has some ideas about what should be done in order to avoid the worst possible outcome.

Dr Ferenc Jordán, network researcher biologist and Director of Centre for Ecological Research, Balaton Limnological Institute (BLI) gave an interview to thevip.hu. He believes there is no real union for lake Balaton, which can lead to an ecological catastrophe.

If things do not change, Balaton can become a green, algae-infested swamp.

Universities and research centres are examining the lake on a regular basis, building a collective knowledge about the lake. Still, unfortunately, decisions are not being made with this knowledge in mind. What happens to the lake is primarily determined by a handful of people, investors, politicians, etc. Businesses and building up the shores are more important than what is best for nature.

At BLI, Tihany, researchers are constantly examining the lake from various aspects, and they all come to the same conclusion: the clearing of green spaces (forests, meadows, and reed) should be strictly forbidden. Unfortunately, it is very easy to find loopholes in the current regulations, and the fee for illegal clearing is also minimal, huge investments easily pay them. We also should not let them build up the shores.

New data reveals that the baits used for fishing also pose a severe phosphorus-loading in the lake.

Dredging (a standard remediation method that uses large excavating equipment to remove sediment from the lake and river bottoms) is a controversial method. Some researchers support it, others deem it useless, and the rest believe it does more harm than good. Jordán supports more research to be done to be sure of what is best for the lake. However, he emphasises how hard it is to research with such little data available.

It is also important not to have any constant disturbance in the lake so that the systems can harmonise with each other. The lake’s ecosystem cannot set in if there is continuous interference, contamination, and emergence of new invasive species.

Good news is that there is currently no problem with external contaminants that got into the water. The filtration and decantation systems built in the 1980s and 1990s seem to work well.

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Read alsoThese were the most special dishes at Lake Balaton this year – VIDEO

Hungarian Trabant explorer on a new journey to pick up litter on El Camino pilgrim route

hungarian on camino de santiago spain

After visiting 19 countries in his iconic Trabant, Zsolt Vadász now embarks on a different journey to raise awareness of the environmental issues of our planet.

Zsolt Vadász has earned international fame with his extraordinary road trips around the world: the Geonauta Friendship Society has been circling the globe with a 30-year-old Trabant, and so far, it has visited 19 countries on three continents, including the Budapest–Bamako route three times. You can read more about the Trabant Expedition here.

zsolt-vadász-trabant-expedition
This time Zsolt Vadász leaves his iconic Trabant behind
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/Trabant-expedició-1635252533384048

Only this time, Zsolt has taken a whole different route. With a single backpack and a trash bag in hand, he has embarked on a journey to walk through the world’s most famous pilgrimage route, El Camino de Santiago.

“The border closures and armed conflicts in Mali have made it impossible to engage in any humanitarian activity in Africa,” said Zsolt in an interview with Blikk. So, he parked the Trabant in France and started yet another project under his mission of raising awareness of environmental issues.

In his tour of 80 days, he is planning to pick up litter on the GR65 pilgrimage routes and other hiking trails. He collects it in large trash bags and leaves them at containers outside the cities.

Unlike most pilgrims, he lives a completely nomadic lifestyle on the route and refuses to spend any night in “comfortable hostels” – if it rains, he will seek shelter at churches or in caves. He only makes sure that his backpack of 17 kg always contains enough food for two days and beverage for one day.

el camino de compostela spain pilgrimage
Photo: Pixabay

After the first ten days, Zsolt collected more than 500 l of litter. He said that some other pilgrims liked the idea so much that they joined him in his project.

In recent years, El Camino de Santiago, the most popular pilgrimage route leading to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, has become immensely popular around the world. Every year, nearly 300,000 people decide to walk through the 800-kilometre-long route, which has a major environmental impact on the area.

To follow Zsolt’s journey on El Camino or his other adventures around the world, visit his Facebook page or YouTube channel.

hungarian national blue trail
Read alsoHungarian hiking trail among the best travel destinations in the world

All you need to know about Budapest’s newest park – PHOTOS

széllkapu new park

For a long time, this spot had been a brown stain on the map of the capital. At one point, this industrial plot was used as a parking lot, and they even planned to build a mall on top, but fortunately, the fate of this spot was different. At the end of this summer, it became a breezy, green, and exciting new public park with amazing elements of landscape architecture. It is the newest park of Budapest, the Széllkapu.

According to Index, they do not often build parks in big cities, and even if they do, it is usually not like Széllkapu. Most of the time what they call parks are small areas of grass planted in the middle of an apartment complex or some random benches put under some tree, but this one – luckily – is very different.

budapest széllkapu park
Photo: MTI/Lajos Soós

Széllkapu is a relaxation park, which implies that there are ways one can relax and recharge in this new green environment. While in many parts of the world, people enjoy sitting around in the grass having picnics or reading, Hungarians are only now learning to be able to relax like that. And this new park is perfectly suitable to do so. The park was immediately “taken over” by people on lunch breaks, high school students from the area, and families with small children. It is partly thanks to the fact that from the get-go, the park was a thick and luscious green with not just young trees.

As we mentioned, most of Széllkapu has a thick and beautiful green area with some interesting plants as well.

The hanging garden, for example, has a miniature forest at its base, which provides sufficient shade to relax in. Although the weather in early summer might have helped make this park the greenest possible, we should also highlight the works of the designers: TSPC Technical Supervision and Planning Consulting Hungary Kft. (architecture), 4D Tájépítész Iroda (landscape architecture), and Parkertech Kft. (landscaping), who have hidden some interesting elements in every inch of this new park and who have crammed the most green into this urban jungle.

budapest széllkapu park
Photo: MTI/Lajos Soós
budapest széllkapu park
Photo: MTI/Lajos Soós

The most spectacular element of Széllkapu is the huge steel frame densely overgrown by plants, which is perfect for covering the sidewall of the Mammut mall and increasing the green area of the park by a significant amount at the same time, not to mention that it has a panoramic elevator and a lookout on top.

Do not forget that this is also the largest hanging garden in Central Europe, and you can walk through this green bridge.

In the middle of the park, there are three large solar ‘trees’. These interestingly shaped structures provide shade during the day, and they provide light during the night. They also have solar panels on top, and although they might not make enough electricity to power the entire city, they definitely help the park have a smaller carbon footprint.

széllkapu new park
Photo: MTI/Soós Lajos

Families with small children might not be as interested in these structures, but for them, there is even a playground in the park, which includes an exciting ropeway surrounded by flowers, which is definitely a change compared to most of Budapest’s playgrounds. There is also a swing for the parents to enjoy.

The project in numbers:
35,000 m2 area
355 trees and 25,000 shrubs
4,000 m2 vertical green space
850 m2 playground
3 huge solar panels
a lake
an underground garage

Széllkapu Tó Lake
Photo: MTI/Demecs Zsolt

For as long as residents of the area drive cars, and for the time being many do, this underground garage could be the key to being able to create more cafés, parks, and other green areas as it moves the masses of cars from the surface underground and hide them from the eyes of people.

The park is very good because it is interesting. It has some small hills and a valley, there are walking trails winding through it, and there are interesting plants on every corner. It is very diverse and modern, thanks to architectural elements like the hanging garden and the three solar ‘trees’.

széllkapu new park
Read alsoBudapest’s newest park has a hanging garden – PHOTOS

Budai-Széllkapu-parkja
Read alsoExplore the map of Budapest’s defining contemporary architectural works

Shocking! Every fifth to sixth death can be attributed to environmental pollution in Hungary

pollution europe hungary

The latest report by the European Environment Agency on the effects of environmental pollution reveals significant discrepancies among European countries, and it brings no good news regarding the health conditions in Hungary, either. 

The European Environment Agency has recently published a report that reveals how environmental pollution continues to have a negative impact on the health and well-being of the European population, reports Qubit.

According to data from the WHO, 13% of all deaths in the EU were attributable to environmental factors: in 2012, various forms of pollution led to around 630,000 premature deaths.

The report reveals that the environmental factor that contributes to the highest number of deaths (400,000) is air pollution. It is followed by noise pollution with 12,000 cases, while the rest is associated with the negative impacts of climate change, with heatwaves regarded as the most dangerous among extreme weather conditions.

A divide between the West and the East

According to the report, poverty-stricken and more vulnerable areas are more severely affected, but there is also a divide between western and eastern countries on the continent. While in countries like Iceland and Norway, environmental factors are only responsible for 9% of deaths, we find the highest ratio in Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, at 27%.

Considering the European Union only, it is Romania that has the worst figures on deaths attributable to environmental pollution (19%), and sadly, the study reveals that Hungary (just before Bulgaria in second to last place) is not in a particularly good position:

although the report does not reveal all the individual results, Hungary’s classification (17% to 22%) suggests that every fifth to sixth death in our country can be attributed to poor environmental conditions.

The study also examined the contribution of PM2.5 to the number of deaths in European countries. The presence of these tiny particles in the air is the result of burning solid fuels, as well as the use of diesel and two-stroke cars. Similarly to the numbers above, these results show another striking difference between western and eastern countries.

As regards NO2 pollution, the primary cause of which is road traffic, Hungary is in a slightly better position (Spain and Italy, on the other hand, performed surprisingly badly in this comparison), but Qubit warns about the increasing trend of vehicle purchases in Hungary (the number of diesel cars, for example, increased from 740,000 in 2013 to 1.06 million in 2017).

The study also reveals to what extent the Roma people, the largest ethnic minority in Europe, have access to safe drinking water in each country. As opposed to countries with a relatively good ratio (2% for Spain and Czechia), Hungary is at the other end of the spectrum with 33% – although still far from Romania’s 68%.

The solution: more bicycles and green areas

In the report, the European Environment Agency also puts forward some proposals to mitigate the negative effects of pollution. According to the report, the most efficient way is to “expand high-quality green and blue spaces in urban areas” (e.g. parks and waters), which could bring about other positive changes for the society. Another group of measures aims to limit the volume of road traffic, which, as we have seen above, is another major contributor to environmental pollution.

Luckily, there have been several good examples of health protection measures in Europe. Several countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, have introduced low emission zones with restricted access for highly pollutant vehicles, while countries like France and Belgium have been widely promoting bicycle transport, even though many of these initiatives have been driven by the current pandemic.

health doctor resident healthcare
Read alsoNearly 40,000 die in Hungary of deaths that could have been prevented

MEPs back tougher EU 2030 climate target

climate change earth

Members of the European Parliament’s environment committee on Friday voted for tougher emissions reductions, calling for an ambitious 60 percent reduction by 2030.

The MEPs supported the European Commission’s overall aim to enshrine the climate neutrality goal by 2050 in European Union (EU) legislation but at the same time demanded a more ambitious 2030 target, the committee said in a statement.

They called for emissions to be reduced by 60 percent by 2030 compared to 1990, instead of “at least 50 percent towards 55 percent” proposed by the Commission.

The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the report on the EU climate law with 46 votes for, 18 against and 17 abstentions.

The MEPs also demanded that an interim target for 2040 is to be proposed by the Commission following an impact assessment, to ensure the EU is on track to reach carbon neutrality in 2050.

Contrary to the Commission’s proposal, the committee also wanted both the EU and all member states individually to become climate neutral by 2050 and they called for sufficient EU and member state financing. Fossil fuel subsidies should be phased out by Dec.31, 2025 at the latest, they underlined.

The European Parliament will vote on its first reading during the October plenary session, after which it is ready to start negotiations with member states.

chain bridge sunset
Read alsoClimate change – This can be expected in Hungary

Waste tire: Hungarian technology company offers solution to a global problem!

car tire-recycling-waste

Hungarian New Energy Ltd. was founded in 2003 and it specialises in waste tire pyrolysis. The company developed a method with which they can make tires and other plastic components 80−85% recyclable by decomposing them into smaller molecules.

Every year, approximately 3.5 million tonnes of car tires are produced in Europe, and only a small portion of waste tires are recycled for surfacing playgrounds or during the production of rubber bitumen, Infostart reported. In the latter case, the crumb rubber from scrap tires is blended with bitumen and the final product has improved durability, longer lifetime, lower life cycle/maintenance cost, increased permanent deformation resistance and traffic noise reduction effect compared to conventional bitumen. MOL and the University of Pannonia developed this environmentally friendly recycling technology. Nonetheless, most waste tires are burnt or used as construction material waste.

The Hungarian-owned New Energy aimed to develop a rubber recycling method that can permanently solve the environmental impact of discarded tires. After conducting pyrolysis-focused research for approximately a decade, the company found a solution for recycling tires without generating secondary pollution to the environment. During the process of pyrolysis,

the pre-shredded tires are converted into gas and distilled into oil. This oil is used as fuel or further transformed into plastic and soot, which are reused in the tire industry and the recovered steel is reused in the steel industry,

explained László Ürge, one of the Managing Directors at DBH Group. He also added that

New Energy is among the first companies in the world to create a fully circular economy for tire recycling.

Rubber waste is usually treated as a kind of plastic; thus, the technology mentioned above be applied in the case of other plastics. With this solution, a vast amount of plastic waste can be eliminated, reducing water pollution.

Nowadays, more and more leading companies are committed to working on solutions for the global plastic waste problem. BASF recently signed an uptake supply agreement with New Energy as part of the ChemCyclingTM project which was started in 2018 and focuses on chemically reprocessing post-consumer plastic waste on an industrial scale. According to the agreement, New Energy will supply BASF with up to 4,000 metric tons of pyrolysis oil per year derived from waste tires.

Tisztítószer Detergent Cleaner Takarítás Cleaning
Read alsoA Hungarian company created the world’s first recycled detergent

Featured image: video still from NewEnergy short video

LMP urges talks on nuclear waste storage

paks

Opposition LMP is calling for broad consultations on the storage of radioactive waste in Hungary.

László Lóránt Keresztes, the party’s group leader, told an online press conference on Monday that LMP expects the political players involved in such talks to make their positions on the issue of nuclear waste disposal clear.

Keresztes, who called the storage of radioactive waste and spent fuel rods “one of the greatest challenges of the coming decades”, slammed the government for “its failure to address the issue” over the past ten years.

Referring to plans to build a radioactive waste repository in the Boda area, in southern Hungary, Keresztes said the village’s proximity to the city of Pecs ruled it out as a possible waste storage site and called on experts to find alternative locations. Also, the residents of a municipality chosen as the site of a nuclear waste repository should be granted the right to veto such decisions, he added.

Like all over the world, the storage of spent fuel rods is an unresolved issue in Hungary,

Keresztes said, noting the absence of the necessary technology. Because the financing of nuclear waste storage is also not resolved, he argued, the government “acted irresponsibly when it approved the expansion of the Paks nuclear plant.”

LMP wants to use the talks on nuclear waste disposal to discuss the tasks concerning the issue as well as the responsibility of the political and professional players involved, Keresztes said. The party also aims to establish a broad consensus on any decisions made on the storage of radioactive waste.

“It’s time to stop wasting time and dodging the issue,”

Keresztes said, adding that the budget was missing around one thousand billion forints (EUR 2.8bn) for addressing the problem.

paks
Read alsoLMP urges talks on nuclear waste storage

Watch out! Stink bug invasion is soon coming to Hungary again

stink bug invasion hungary

Every year in late September and early October, stink bugs begin to appear in our homes in search of a warmer place, and once they are in, there is no easy way to stop them.

Similarly to previous years, the first months of autumn could bring a massive stink bug invasion in Hungary, warns entomologist dr. Ottó Merkl in an article by Pénzcentrum. He says that while during the Indian summer, these bugs prefer to stay in the foliage of trees, as temperatures get lower, they will find their way into our homes and other warm places.

Stink bugs arrived in Hungary a few years ago, after rising temperatures as a result of climate change have created a pleasant environment for this species. Luckily, stink bugs are not venomous and pose no threat to humans or animals, but their presence can be very unpleasant for the pungent odour they emit when they feel in danger.

The reason stink bugs became so common is that they are not indigenous to Hungary (they were brought in from Asia) and so have no natural enemies here.

Even though several sources have reported a reduced number of stink bugs this year – presumably as a result of unfavourable weather conditions in spring –, warnings are still in place for the period between the end of September and early October, when the main stink bug invasion usually takes place.

What can you do?

Merkl argues that the key to fighting stink bugs is prevention. The best way to keep the bugs out is by keeping the doors and windows closed, and by installing insect screens. While stronger pesticides could also prove efficient, he does not recommend their use in rooms and other indoor areas. Pesticides are also better to avoid when fruits are fully ripened – which makes it very difficult to fight the invasion in the areas of agriculture.

Hungary invasion bedbug insect
Read alsoBiggest ever stink bug invasion to come in Hungary

Lord mayor Karácsony: Budapest Ring Road to receive permanent bike lane

budapest parliament bike cycle bicycle

Budapest’s Ring Road linking Petofi Bridge and Margaret Bridge, a main thoroughfare in the city centre, will be revamped to provide a permanent bike lane and two lanes for cars on the most frequented stretch, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony told a press conference on Monday.

In a compromise “designed to give everyone something”, the southern half of the Ring Road will have two lanes for cars and bike lanes on either side, but no parking area on the edge of the road, Karacsony said. From Blaha Lujza Square to northern Margaret Bridge, cars will have one lane in each direction, alongside bike lanes and parking areas, he added.

The municipality set up a

temporary bike lane on Ring Road between Vaci and Ulloi Streets in April,

during the first wave of the coronavirus lockdown. Car traffic was restricted to one lane in that area.

Karacsony said the municipality had conducted widespread consultation on cycle lanes in Budapest, adding that the number of cyclists in the city was larger than ever. The Budapest Mobility Plan, accepted during the mayoralty of Karacsony’s predecessor, Istvan Tarlos, had aimed to raise cycle traffic within the city to ten percent, he said. “We have taken big steps in that direction in recent months,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Balazs Furjes, the state secretary for the development of Budapest and the suburbs, called on Twitter for similar measures, adding that deliveries for shops and parking for the disabled should be maintained.

Samu Balogh, Karacsony’s cabinet office chief, said the changes will be implemented in the first half of September. The municipality

will start planning extensive developments along the Ring Road

this autumn in terms of its role regarding the city’s trade, culture and image, he said.

Wallets and bags made out of waste material? Coffewear makes it possible!

Hungary, Coffewear, Budapest

Following the philosophy of “nothing is trash”, the small Budapest-based brand named Coffewear aims not to let your waste go unused and is dedicated to promoting upcycling in Hungary. Founded in 2017, Coffewear works with a wide range of wasted single-use materials – mainly coffee packaging, reused plastic, tea packaging, coffee capsule packaging, and tailoring waste – to promote zero-waste products and turn them into stylish products like wallets, bags, cases, and backpacks.

Csenge first started Coffewear as a side-project while she was still a university student, reports Kafkadesk. She studied textile design in Budapest and worked in Hamburg, Germany, during the summer. Csenge explains that it was not easy to launch this and simultaneously continue her studies, and she had to dedicate almost all of her free time to this project, but fortunately, her friends were there to help her.

Coffewear, Hungary, Budapest
Photo: www.facebook.com/coffewear

“I had many friends working in coffee shops across Budapest and started reusing some of their packagings to create small accessories. They were mainly personal orders at the start, but I realised people really enjoyed them, and it slowly grew into the business I manage today”.

Budapest, Coffewear, Hungary
Photo: www.facebook.com/coffewear

Later, Csenge partnered with many other coffee shops in Budapest, collecting their wasted materials and upcycling them for various purposes. Their aim is to create and sell daily accessories, including wallets and small bags, but also to create decorations for public and cultural events. Coffewear will continue to expand and widen its network outside of Budapest and aims to conquer Europe in the future.

Coffewear, Budapest
Photo: www.facebook.com/coffewear

“We would very much like, and are seriously thinking about working abroad, including in Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic”.

Budapest, Hungary, Coffewear
Photo: www.facebook.com/coffewear
Willie, Walking with Willie, Youtube, Hungary
Read alsoIntroducing Willie from New York City making Hungary famous on his Youtube channel

 

Kőrös torok, Hungary
Read alsoIntroducing Körös-torok the best riverside beach of Hungary – PHOTOS

More and more tiger mosquitos hatch in Hungary

mosquito szúnyog

The weather in Hungary is very favourable for the tiger mosquitos who hide mostly in the gardens of family houses, and half a decilitre of water is already enough for dozens of them to evolve. Therefore, experts ask for the help of the people to be able to deal with the problem.

As we reported before, the Asian tiger mosquito first appeared in Hungary six years ago. Unfortunately, the species was identified last summer as well. It can spread 22 types of viruses, including yellow fever and the Zika virus. The spread of the mosquitos continued this year as well, so experts would like to involve people to be able to draw their proliferation map. According to 24, since the species is indigenous in the tropical climate, in Hungary,

only the warmest months are ideal for them to multiply. 

Thanks to the heatwave and the many heavy showers of rain in the last few weeks, the larvas could evolve quicker because a hot and wet environment is ideal for them. As a result, people detected them in many regions of the country.

Therefore, ecologists asked for the help of the people and await samples from the as-of-yet-lower-represented counties of Hungary, like Somogy, Komárom-Esztergom, Vas, Nógrád, Győr-Moson-Sopron, Tolna, and Zala. Tiger mosquitos are pushy, attack even in daylight, and can carry a lot of dangerous diseases. Furthermore, they cause stings that disappear only slowly. Therefore, effective protection against them is essential since authorities have to know where they live and screen them for the different viruses they might carry.

This information is important to

design an efficient clearing process

avoiding the spread of polluting chemicals everywhere in the country. Dr Zsolt László Garamszegi, director of the Centre for Ecological Research, added that they need photos from every region of the country to be able to monitor the spread of the bloodthirsty insects.

Dr Zoltán Soltész, a fellow scientist of the Centre for Ecological Research, said that they received 573 reports in 2020, and 35 of them were tiger mosquitos. Most of them came from Budapest and Pest County.

The larvas of the mosquito evolve mostly in the gardens of family houses where they would like to find water that is not in contact with the earth. For example, a barrel full of rainwater or objects covered with foil are ideal for them, and

dozens of them can hatch in only half a decilitre of water.

If people terminate such potential habitats, they can quickly reduce the number of all mosquitos.

This is what Szeged might look like 30 years from now

Desertification, piles of trash, water and food scarcity. According to Szeged Vision, this is what Szeged, Hungary’s third-largest city, might look like 30 years from now if we do not take action to fight climate change.

Climate change is undoubtedly one of the defining issues of our time. From shifting weather patterns and global temperature rise to rising sea levels, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale. Although we have enough money and knowledge to avert potential disasters, countless individual, social, economic and political factors are preventing us from making significant progress.

A group of Hungarian professors and scientists created Szeged Vision project to help people understand the complex problems of climate change and to initiate a discussion about the topic, Szeretlek Magyarország reported. Last week, they posted some shocking “concept designs” to draw attention to the consequences of climate change.

https://www.facebook.com/szegedvision/photos/a.107951200617427/304593390953206/?type=3&theater

The river Tisza is almost completely dried out, people are suffering from the intense heat waves, the trash is piled up on the streets, and petroleum-based fuel, clean water and food have become luxury items.

https://www.facebook.com/szegedvision/photos/a.107979557281258/302422664503612/?type=3&theater

“Szeged might look like this in 2050 if we do not take urgent action to combat climate change,” says the caption of the 360 photos.

The szegedvision.hu interactive website also offers a glimpse into a drastically different cityscape. If people decide to use their knowledge and the technology to reduce the human influence on the climate system, the Aradi Vértanúk tere (Arad Martyrs Square) in Szeged can become an important transport hub with electric busses, smart bus stops, automated tram-trains and smart city sensors.

https://www.facebook.com/szegedvision/photos/a.107979557281258/307773003968578/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/szegedvision/photos/a.107951200617427/307945690617976/?type=3&theater
  • Can the Hungarian emerald tree resolve global climate problems? CLICK HERE to read our article.
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Read alsoThe Great Hungarian Plain will be a desert if nobody acts ASAP – says a Hungarian researcher

Featured image: www.facebook.com/szegedvision

EU imports of electric and hybrid cars increase significantly in 2019

bmw electric car

The European Union (EU)’s imports of electric and hybrid electric cars more than tripled between 2018 and 2019, showed the figures released Tuesday by Eurostat, the EU statistical office.

The imports more than doubled between 2017 and 2018 (104 percent), said the Eurostat.

Imports increased from 1.8 billion euros in January-April 2019 to 3.1 billion euros in January-April 2020.

After the pandemic hit Europe, the imports in April 2020 increased only slightly compared with April 2019.

The statistical office said the bloc exported 8.2 billion euros and imported 7.1 billion euros worth of electric and hybrid electric cars in 2019, resulting in a trade surplus of 1.1 billion euros.

The exports of electric and hybrid cars increased to 2.9 billion euros in January-April 2020 from 2.5 billion euros in January-April 2019.

April 2020 was an exception as the exports collapsed to only 0.3 billion euros, down from 0.8 billion euros in April 2019, most likely due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Eurostat said.

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Read alsoHungarian government to rethink EV subsidies

Ozone concentration high in several Hungarian cities, towns

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High concentration of ozone in the air could result in poor air quality and breathing difficulties for parts of the population in several cities and towns around Hungary, the chief medical officer said on Facebook on Saturday.

A map of monitoring stations in the country showed the following cities and towns affected: Budapest, Mosonmagyarovar, Szombathely, Sarrod, Ajka, Veszprém, Székesfehérvár, Százhalombatta, Tokol, Esztergom, Vác, Kecskemét, Salgótarján, Eger, Szolnok and Debrecen.

Read alsoUnique in Europe: Budapest’s air is more polluted than it was before the coronavirus

Children, elderly people and those suffering from chronic respiratory diseases could airway irritation, difficulty breathing or coughing, the statement said. Those sensitive to high concentration of ozone are advised to avoid intensive physical work and sport activities outside around mid-day and in the early afternoon.

Staying indoors is recommended, and those that go outside should apply protection against UV radiation.

The concentration of ozone is not expected to change in the next few days, the chief medical officer said.

Read alsoRecord setting lack of ozone measured over Hungary

The national weather service said UV-B radiation could be extremely high on Saturday.

Hungarian emerald tree to resolve global climate problems?!

emerald tree climate protection

“We hope it will be the tree for the future” – this is how the emerald tree is described by the Hungarian company Sunwo Ltd., according to whom the special tree could be used to purify the air that would serve as an appropriate solution for global climate problems.

Emerald trees absorb 100 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare per year, while its roots clean the soil. It has a special resistance; therefore, it can survive in extreme conditions as well. Thanks to a Hungarian patent, it requires half as much water as a traditional forest. The emerald tree grows so fast that the plantation can be cut three times within thirty years. Furthermore, it serves as an excellent raw material.

The company established the first carbon climate plantation at Lake Balaton.

As Hungarian news portal Szeretlek Magyarország reports, the special tree has been developed based on serious scientific experiments, in which 8 countries, 2 academies, 6 universities, and several research institutes were involved.

Beyond industrial utilisation, it can contribute to global climate protection as well.

Based on the fact that more and more African countries are interested in the Hungarian emerald tree, the company hopes that soon it will gain greater popularity domestically and internationally as well.

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