All things green and planet saving.
In conjunction with washing your hands, you should also stop touching your face. Trust me, you do this more than you think you do. We all do. If you’re finding yourself struggling with this, check out the web app, Don’t Touch Ya Face, the app that will remind you not touch your. . . face.
The world runs on energy. A lot of it and we need to move away from emission causing energy sources. Hydrogen fuels have been one that researchers look towards. A new breakthrough using, of all things, rust lead to a massive production of hydrogen that is potentially safer.
We talk about the climate crisis as if it is a future event but we’re already being affected by it all over the world. You’ve no doubt heard about the warm year we just had but it’s not just the heat. We’re already seeing food shortages, floods, and other issues.
Fossil fuels are just don’t have a future with us if we want to have a future. Science is working on alternatives and as it turns out, biomass fuels are one way that we can shift the tides on climate change. These fuels, made of various plants, can actually reduce carbon.
A new law in California makes it possible for diners to bring their own take out containers to eateries and although this sounds great, it turns out letting people use their own Tupperware is quite a hassle. Still, this could cut down on one, very specific type of waste overall.
It’s not in your head, this past winter really was mild for Europe. It is the second warmest on record for the continent beat out only by the 2015/2016 year. This may seem like a good thing, after all, no one likes a bitter cold winter, but it’s not such a great trend.
Wastewater can’t be used for much of anything. In fact, it’s pretty much not able to be used for anything at all, unless it’s been treated. Forward osmosis may provide a cost effective way to clean water in the future to bring more options for wastewater that isn’t consumable.
Trees are really important in the climate crisis. The carbon sinks that tropical forests provide, specifically, have been seen as a sort of savior during climate change. The trees absorb the carbon and actually do great with the extra carbon dioxide in the air. But unfortunately they’re not doing so great with the other issues with climate change and may be putting more carbon into the air as they die.
Making plastic that degrade in the ocean isn’t impossible, it’s VERY doable in a number of different ways in fact! But it turns out that implementing such things in a cost effective manner is a bit beyond us at this time so lets not ignore immediate benefits of the Three R’s, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
Leather jackets look very cool, this is just a fact. But the production of leather has it’s drawbacks. Specifically, it’s not very sustainable. If you want the look without the waste, check out Adriano Di Marti, the company that makes leather from cactus.
If you care about the environment you have likely lowered if not all together ended eating beef. It’s been well publicized that beef production is at the root of many environmental issues but one that is often overlooked is the water shortages it causes. Watering crops for cattle consumption is really sucking US rivers dry.
If you cook you’ve probably got a jar of used oil sitting somewhere near your stove. Hopefully you’re not dumping it down the drain. Most people put it out with the trash but what if you could recycle it? Researchers from the University of Toronto have devised a way to turn used oil from McDonald’s into 3D printing resin that is biodegradable.
Climate change is a naturally occurring event. Many of the gasses we categorize as emissions are released naturally through a number of events and this has been the case since the beginning of time. The climate crisis however is something completely man made and ice tells us how long we’ve been spitting out emissions.
Environmental discussions can be extremely polarizing but one thing that nearly everyone can agree on is that air pollution is a problem that should be taken seriously. In fact, it’s more of a problem than previously thought. A new study revealed that air pollution may shorten life expectancy of almost three years globally.
It’s hard to really notice how much difference our efforts make towards a cleaner and more sustainable planet. This is especially true if they happen over a long time. It’s easy to forget what things were like when they were “bad”. Still, there are little reminders how of how much the work of environmentalism is making things better, like in this lovely tale of sighting an osprey.
