Search by tag «Environment» 20 results

• International Volunteers at Yagodnoe: Results of the Ecological Raids Camp

  On August 3-17, the Yagodnoe sports and recreation center hosted the annual camp Ecological Raids, which attracted volunteers from Germany, Italy, Spain, Palestine and other countries. Together, they cleaned rubbish off the center’s territory, beautified the space and learned more about each other’s homelands. This has been the fifth time that Ecological Raids is organized, by efforts of ITMO University’s students. Here is more on the international volunteers’ expressions and this year’s camp.

  23.08.2019

• Baikal: Fighting for the Future of World’s Deepest Lake

  Lake Baikal is the world’s deepest lake and the largest natural freshwater reservoir. In 1996, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, like many other large bodies of water, is suffering from pollution. Today, a Greenpeace research team is preparing to carry out an evaluation of the lake’s water pollution levels. Continue reading to learn how the environmental organization has kept watch on Baikal for the past 24 years, which factors threaten the lake today, and what scientists know about this unique natural wonder.

  31.07.2019

• Environmental Scientist Jaana Sorvari on Sustainable Waste Management in Europe and Russia

  Jaana Sorvari, a professor at Aalto University (Finland) and researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), has come to ITMO University to deliver the intensive course “Environmental Risk Assessment in Waste Management.” During the course, Master’s students from the program Industrial Ecology and Cleaner Production learned about Europe and Finland’s experience of sustainable waste management. ITMO.NEWS spoke with Prof. Sorvari about the challenges currently faced by Europe in terms of waste management and learned why excessive consumption is an issue not only in Russia, but even in eco-friendly Scandinavian states.

  21.05.2019

• Two-Minute Beach Cleans and Plastic-Identifying AI: How Citizen Science Combats Plastic Waste in Oceans

  Plastic waste has become a global environmental threat. The production of plastic has seen exponential growth, increasing from 1.7 million tons in the 1950s to 335 million tons in 2016 (PlasticsEurope 2017). Incorrect disposal of this material leads to a stark upsurge of its presence in natural environments. Information about the rapidly escalating situation with marine waste is crucial for finding a solution to this global crisis and saving thousands of animal species. That’s why today a range of citizen science projects have emerged that aim to gather data about marine pollution and step up volunteer effort to clean away the rubbish where it is possible. This article presents some of the local projects by participating in which you can contribute to the solution of the global issue in question.

  16.05.2019

• Partying for Sustainable Development: How Festivals are Going Green

  Festivals all over the world regularly bring together thousands of people; few of them, however, are anywhere near as environmentally conscious as the Burning Man in Nevada, US, which leaves its desert venue even cleaner than it was before. Jürgen Forkel-Schubert, a senior expert on sustainable development at the Ministry for Urban Development and Environment of the City of Hamburg, explains how festivals can go green using Hamburg’s experience as an example.

  12.04.2019

• ITMO Launches New Master’s Program ‘Bioeconomics and Resource Management’

  Every year, the world’s major nations invest hundreds of millions into the green economy. In recent years, some of the biggest trends in that area have been energy-saving measures and the use of renewable energy sources. But what should one learn and which skills are necessary to work in this field? In 2019, ITMO University is launching the new Master’s program ‘Bioeconomics and Resource Management’ to train specialists in energy and resource preservation, petroleum chemistry, and biotechnologies. More about the program and its features below.

  20.12.2018

• The Secret Life of Plants

  Plant communities come and go, moss sabotages historical sights despite humans’ best efforts, a tree can be felled with a single touch, while seemingly dead, burned-out areas become home to myriads of young seedlings. Olga Vershinina, a biologist, researcher at the Komarov Botanical Institute and a member of the Russian Botanical Society, shared facts about these and other environmental changes as part of the latest session of the talk show Break Down to Atoms.

  20.11.2018

• What Future Does Climate Change Spell for St. Petersburg?

  Climate change, global warming, and other environmental issues remain constant hot topics all around the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recently published its latest assessment report, calling for immediate action against global warming. An increase of global temperature, even by a mere 1.5 degree Celsius, could have disastrous and irreversible consequences. Experts from Russia and Germany met at ITMO University to participate in a roundtable on climate change. One of the event’s speakers was Viktor Gorny, a researcher at the Scientific Research Center for Ecological Safety at the Russian Academy of Sciences (SRCES RAS), who reported how climate change would affect the citizens of St. Petersburg.

  01.11.2018

• ITMO Team Wins at RobotChallenge-2018 in Beijing

  The team, which includes school students Vasiliy Dunaev, Daniil Pavlov and Daniil Martynov, and coaches Igor Lositsky and Evgeny Zavarin, won first place in the Freestyle category. Their winning project Clean Arctic is focused on an extensive clean-up effort of the Arctic coast. Teams from 30 countries and 1,500 robots competed with each other in this year’s RobotChallenge in Beijing.

  13.08.2018

• Eco-Friendly Board Game Teaches Students to Combine Business and Sustainable Development

  Master’s students from ITMO University learned about sustainable development at a workshop on the board game Ecologic. Sustainable development is the concept of balance between humanity’s ecological, economic and social goals. This kind of balance is what Ecologic aims to inspire people to strive towards. ITMO.NEWS spoke to the game’s creators and their collaborators about what makes the game enjoyable - and beneficial to the world.

  15.03.2018