ENVIRONMENT

Posts in "Environment"

Sustainable Straws from Vietnam

Compostable Wild Grass Straws Are Vietnam's Newest Zero-Waste Straw Option
A Vietnam company is making compostable, chemical-free straws out of wild grass.
Tran Minh Tien is the owner of Ống Hút Cỏ, a Vietnam-based company that makes two kinds of straws out of sedge grass, which grows wild along the Mekong Delta, The Epoch Times reported. As explained in a Facebook video by VnExpress International, the sedge grass has a hollow stem, so it is naturally straw shaped. 

 

Regenerating a Carbon Drawdown Economy Through Reverse Mining and the Blockchain

This is a very exciting project! Connecting agriculture and finance in this new way is cutting edge and you are really breaking ground with this. My one caution for you is that in emphasizing the rejuvenation of the carbon cycle, you are marginalizing the rejuvenation of the hydrological cycle and the nitrogen cycle.

Link: https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/regenerating-a-carbon-drawdown-economy-through-reverse-mining-and-the-blockchain/2018/01/17

Returning the eastern quoll

In autumn 2018, we will be embarking on an ambitious program to return the eastern quoll to the wild on mainland Australia.

The story of the loss of the eastern quoll is a tragedy. In the early 1900’s a mysterious epidemic carried off vast numbers of eastern quolls, and as foxes spread across south eastern Australia, their populations were further drastically impacted, with the last mainland eastern quolls being regularly seen in the 1960s in the Sydney and Illawarra region of NSW.

Link: https://www.pozible.com/project/operation-eastern-quoll

Alaskan infant’s DNA tells story of ‘first Americans’

The 11,500-year-old remains of an infant girl from Alaska have shed new light on the peopling of the Americas.

Genetic analysis of the child, allied to other data, indicates she belonged to a previously unknown, ancient group.

Scientists say what they have learnt from her DNA strongly supports the idea that a single wave of migrants moved into the continent from Siberia just over 20,000 years ago.

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42555577

University of Arizona researchers make soil from scratch to fight global warming

The first step in making soil from scratch: Add water.

“I am from Ukraine, so I know the perfect soils are from Ukraine,” says Katerina Dontsova.

Now, home is in the middle of the dusty Sonoran Desert.

“That’s why I have to make some from scratch,” she says, laughing.

Link: https://tucson.com/news/science/university-of-arizona-researchers-make-soil-from-scratch-to-fight/article_fe5b3e35-ae09-58b8-bea2-77ef217eef57.html

Former East Burke student travels to Australia for solar challenge

A former Burke County Public Schools student recently helped test a growing and evolving piece of technology by racing it more than 1,000 miles across Australia.

Kali Smith is a junior at Appalachian State University studying environmental economics. She is a former East Burke High School student who transferred to the North Carolina School for Science and Math and recently traveled to Australia with a few other classmates to race a solar-powered vehicle in an international competition called the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

Link: https://www.morganton.com/community/former-east-burke-student-travels-to-australia-for-solar-challenge/article_4f09c7de-c886-11e7-8761-57d3271c2eb1.html

Googly-Eyed Trash Eaters May Clean a Harbor Near You

BALTIMORE’S HARBOR IS cleaner than it has been in decades thanks to two anthropomorphic trash wheels pulling debris from its waters.

Mr. Trash Wheel and Professor Trash Wheel, the latter of which was installed in December, are solar- and hydro-powered trash interceptors based in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, clearing debris before it enters the Chesapeake Bay. Over a million pounds of trash has been pulled out of the water by Mr. Trash Wheel since it was installed in May 2014.

Link:https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/mr-trash-wheels-professor-trash-wheels-baltimore-harbor-ocean-trash-pickup/

California’s Plastic Bag Ban Appears to Be Kicking Some Major Ass

Either California’s first-in-the-nation plastic bag ban is working really well or volunteer litter hunters are suddenly doing a horrible job.

Last November, California voters passed Proposition 67, upholding a ban on single-use plastic bags passed by the state’s lawmakers in 2014. A year later, preliminary data from thousands of volunteers who collected trash during California’s Coastal Cleanup Day in September appears to show a remarkable drop in plastic bag refuse.

Link:https://earther.gizmodo.com/california-s-plastic-bag-ban-appears-to-be-kicking-some-1820443038/amp

Can Carbon-Dioxide Removal Save the World?

Carbon Engineering, a company owned in part by Bill Gates, has its headquarters on a spit of land that juts into Howe Sound, an hour north of Vancouver. Until recently, the land was a toxic-waste site, and the company’s equipment occupies a long, barnlike building that, for many years, was used to process contaminated water.

Link: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/can-carbon-dioxide-removal-save-the-world