To avoid serious water scarcity, future biomass plantations for energy production and carbon emissions control will need sustainable water management, researchers from Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research show in a new study. Otherwise, irrigation of biomass plantations may increase global water stress more than climate change.
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Every year, an estimated 25 million tonnes of cotton textiles are discarded around the world, about a quarter of all the textiles thrown out each year. In Sweden, most of the unwanted material goes straight into an incinerator and becomes district heating. In other places, cotton clothes usually end up in landfills, but now a new process converts them to sugar.
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“When we eat, our bodies convert food into energy that fuels our lives. But what happens to the energy stored in the 80 billion pounds of food thrown away annually in America?” asks Steven Ashby, director of the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. As part of advancing sustainable energy solutions, scientists at the lab he runs are converting tons of food waste into clean, renewable biofuel that could power cars, planes and trains.
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Distance learning has become routine for many students during the COVID-19 lockdown, but for thousands of young Syrians living in refugee camps distance learning has been an impossible luxury. Yet, an innovative project established in one camp allows internally displaced schoolchildren to communicate and pursue their education using smartphones – without the need for internet or computers.
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Kenya’s national government and the country’s 47 lower level county governments are jointly establishing a plastic waste management program – one that could be scaled and replicated across the East African community and beyond. It’s just the latest step in Kenya’s evolving journey from a plastic-strewn country to one of the cleanest in Africa.
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Denmark, the EU’s largest oil producer, is taking a giant step towards total reliance on green electricity. A coalition of Danish parties announced this week that they will create the world’s first wind energy hub on a custom-built artificial island in the North Sea. Owned by a public-private partnership, the energy hub will collect electricity from offshore windfarms and distribute it to Danish households and to customer countries on the grid.
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Teaching children in a way that encourages them to empathise with others improves their creativity and can deepen their general engagement with learning, finds new research from the University of Cambridge at two inner London schools with Design and Technology students, ages 13 to 14. Co-author Dr. Helen Demetriou said, “We clearly awakened something in these pupils by encouraging them to think about the thoughts and feelings of others.”
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“We face a crisis of more than 80 million displaced people suffering all around the world,” President Joe Biden told diplomats at the U.S. State Dept. Friday, setting the stage for an about-face on U.S. refugee policy. While the previous administration imposed travel bans, separated families and built border walls, Biden signed an executive order “to begin the hard work of restoring our refugee admissions program to help meet the unprecedented global need.”
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The 2021 World Economic Forum wrapped today in Davos after five days of discussions focused on the coronavirus pandemic, affordable medical care, net-zero emissions, digital technology and the future of work. Amid the big panels on vaccines, climate and finance, a small project from India shows how compassion has opened an innovative way to handle the tons of plastic waste the virus has left across the world.
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A new climate reality is here, now. The year 2020 was one of the three warmest on record, and rivalled 2016 for the top spot, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) concludes after consolidating five international datasets. A naturally occurring climate phenomenon, La Niña, cooled things off only at the very end of the year.
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Leave the camera off during your next virtual meeting, not just to hide a messy home office, but to save the Earth, scientists from three U.S. universities advise after their new study, “The Overlooked Environmental Footprint of Increased Internet Use,” was published this week.
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The Rockefeller Foundation has announced the formation of a global coalition aimed at providing sustainable energy for one billion people within this decade. Announcing the global sustainable energy coalition, Dr. Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, said, “Our success will empower millions of people to participate in a modern economy, growing economic opportunity for us all.”
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The once impossible dream of generating useable power by simply wearing clothes has become a reality. Power enough to charge phones, tablets, laptops on the go – this wearable energy supply is made possible by a new polymer applied on fabrics such as jackets and T-shirts, turning them into solar collectors.
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The mayors of 97 of the world’s largest cities, members of the C40 global network of cities, have agreed to revitalize the post-pandemic world by creating green jobs, investing in public services, supporting essential workers, greening public spaces, and protecting struggling mass transit systems until the virus recedes and riders return.
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