Good News Notes: “Corals, forecast for doom in many future climate scenarios, could be more resilient to rising temperatures and ocean acidification than scientists once thought. New research, in which scientists spent 22 months studying several types of corals in Hawaii, suggests that several species, absent other stressors, could survive even if the world warms…
Tag: United Nations
Fighting Plastic Waste with Edible Food Packaging
Good News Notes: “The use of plastic packaging for food products contributes significantly to plastic waste, of which 14 million tons end up in our oceans each year. By 2050, it is predicted that there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish, which will be a serious threat to our ecosystems and well…
University of Toronto endowment to eliminate fossil-fuel investments
Good News Notes: “The University of Toronto will eliminate fossil-fuel companies from its endowment fund, beginning immediately, according to a news release issued Wednesday. The University of Toronto Asset Management Corp., the investment manager of the C$4 billion ($3.2 billion) endowment fund, said in the release it will divest all direct investments in fossil-fuel firms…
India to ban single-use plastics but experts say more must be done to
Good News Notes: “India will ban most single-use plastics by next year as part of its efforts to reduce pollution — but experts say the move is only a first step to mitigate the environmental impact. India’s central government announced the ban in August this year, following its 2019 resolution to address plastic pollution in the country….
Little fluffy clouds may help save Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
Good News Notes: “To slow the speed at which high temperatures and warm waters bleach the corals of the Great Barrier Reef, Australian scientists are spraying droplets of ocean water into the sky to form clouds to protect the environmental treasure. Researchers working on the so-called Cloud Brightening project said they use a turbine to…
NIGERIA: Kano State launches a one million tree reforestation campaign
Good News Notes: “The government of Kano, a state in northern Nigeria, is committed to planting one million trees. The reforestation campaign aims to halt the advance of the desert in a region marked by temperatures of up to 440c. Desertification has reached alert levels in Nigeria. The West African country is experiencing land degradation…
Engineer discovers how to extract water from air and sunlight
Good News Notes: “When you have sugar in a bowl, that sugar gets a little clumpy over time,” says Cody Friesen. “Have you ever thought about why?” Friesen, who teaches materials science at Arizona State University, explains that the sugar absorbs moisture from the air around it. “The science term for that is the sugar…
Engineers Have Developed the World’s First Fully Recyclable Printed Electronics
Good News Notes: “Engineers at Duke University have developed the world’s first fully recyclable printed electronics. By demonstrating a crucial and relatively complex computer component — the transistor — created with three carbon-based inks, the researchers hope to inspire a new generation of recyclable electronics to help fight the growing global epidemic of electronic waste….
Blue Nature Alliance aims to restore 7 million square miles of ocean in five years
Good News Notes: “The ocean covers more than 70% of our planet, a total of 139 million square miles. An initiative launched on Tuesday aims to protect 5% of it in the next five years. That might sound like a drop, but at 7 million square miles, it’s a larger area than the entire continent…
The human right that benefits nature
Good News Notes: “The history behind one of Costa Rica’s most important environmental commitments reads something like a legal fairytale. It started nearly 30 years ago, with a young boy who wanted to stop the pollution in his neighborhood and ended with a constitutional reform. The impacts of the boy’s efforts are still causing ripples…