Some companies are returning to an old concept, sail-powered cargo ships, to reduce the amount of carbon used to ship goods across the ocean.
From PBS NewsHour: “Eighty percent of all global trade travels by sea, and the ships carrying those goods account for 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Now, some shipping companies are taking a new tack as they try to navigate the industry to sustainability on the high seas.”
“Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison journeys with the UN World Food Programme to the country of Niger in the African Sahel to see an innovative land recovery project within the Great Green Wall of Africa that is harvesting rainwater, increasing food security, and rehabilitating the ecosystem.”
Virtually all the UK’s rivers have been physically altered in one way or another – straightened, dammed, dredged or restrained by barriers in some way along their course. Which is why the National Trust decided to do a radical experiment, to see if it is possible to the ecological equivalent of a complete reboot.
Learn how a “constructed wetland” system can treat waste water.
Many of us have been led to believe that just planting trees is a solution to the climate crisis and saving our environment. This is not the case. To have true impact, ecosystems have to be restored and consumption habits changed.
From Planet Wild: “Human activity has turned most of Scotland’s beautiful and ancient forests into monoculture plantations. This pushes endless animals and species out of their natural habitat, drastically reducing biodiversity. That’s why in our twelfth Planet Wild mission, we’re transforming monoculture plantations into real forests, using an unusual reforestation technique. Spoiler alert: not a single tree was planted.”
How can you see this
Our throw-away culture is creating mountains of electronic waste that is simply toxic to the planet and ourselves. Small (extremely small) efforts are underway to try to and make changes, but a huge effort is needed to change our mindset and manfucturing approaches to electronics to make them more robust, last longer and easier to repait.
DW’s report examines the issues around this in India. It’s an excellent overview of the challenges we face when trying to reduce e-waste and change our relationship with electronics.
From DW: “Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing types of rubbish on the planet. India, which is becoming ultra digital, is trying an old trick in new ways to deal with its growing and dangerous dump yards.”
“As the planet gets hotter, more people use air conditioners to keep cool. Running these takes lots of energy, which means emissions that then further speed up global warming. Rethinking our architecture and using more efficient cooling technologies could help us break this vicious circle.”
From the YouTube description: “Last Christmas they sold these stone pine cones in the supermarket so I bought one to try to see if i could grow something from the seeds. And it turned out to be one of my favorites this year. Definitely keeping this one going for longer so there will most likely be an update video coming end of next year.
‘The stone pine, botanical name Pinus pinea, also known as the Italian stone pine, Mediterranean stone pine, umbrella pine and parasol pine, is a tree from the pine family (Pinaceae). The tree is native to the Mediterranean region, occurring in Southern Europe and the Levant. The species was introduced into North Africa millennia ago, and is also naturalized in the Canary Islands, South Africa and New South Wales.’”
In August of 2021, the brilliant Beau Miles planted 1440 trees. His aim was to plant a tree a minute for 24 hours and he did it! He created a short film, “A tree a minute” to document the event and promised to make a follow up film two years later. Here is his update, which shows a fledgling patch of forest.
If he can do it, so can you (minus the a tree a minute part)!
As climate change accelerates, finding clean alternatives to fossil fuels is more urgent than ever. Social entrepreneur Vaitea Cowan believes green hydrogen is the answer. Watch as she shares her team’s work mass producing electrolyzers — devices that separate water into its molecular components: hydrogen and oxygen — and shows how they could help make green, carbon-free fuel affordable and accessible for everyone.