A NEW COMPLETELY BIODEGRADABLE REPLACEMENT FOR PLASTIC!

 In Japan, researchers have created a new, durable plastic-like material that breaks down completely in soil or seawater to components that will enrich, rather than harm, the environment, leaving no microplastics!

HELPING CITIES BREATHE WITH...CEMENT?!

 A Dutch start-up figured out how to make eco-friendly concrete that moss can grow on. This promises cooler homes, better air, increased beauty, and more! 

Word of warning: It's a great video, but the repetitive digital background music may annoy some, so feel free to turn the sound off and listen with your very own inspiring music playing in the background!

DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) Is Creating the World's Largest Protected Rainforest

Awful headlines seem to sell. But there is enormously good news that we don't hear so much about. While there are rebellions and wars that grab the headlines concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, most people do not know that this African country is creating the largest protected rainforest in the world!

 

THE USA OPENS A HUGE NEW MARINE SANCTUARY

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, the third largest in the USA, was established last week (Oct. 2024)  off the coast of southern California. Indigenous people helped design it, and all oil and gas exploration is prohibited. Thank you, NOAA!

TURNING POLLUTION IN RIVERS INTO SANDALS & FURNITURE!

Even though the Indonesian paradise of Bali has banned many plastics, such as straws, it still is estimated to produce 3 million tons of plastic waste a year. These three siblings are cleaning up Bali's rivers and turning the plastics in sandals and chairs!

WHEN PLANTS FIGHT BACK!

Plants are brighter than we have though. Behind the scenes, they actually have sophisticated means of assessing their environment, to communicate with one another, even to smell, and to defend themselves. They don't do it within our observable time-frame, though. Time-lapse photography has afforded us the remarkable ability to see how sophisticated plants actually are!

HEAR THE MUSIC PLANTS MAKE

People on this planet are doing amazing things! Several, including the man in this video, have created gadgets that allow the frequencies of plants to be translated into music. For a bit of money, one can even now purchase these devices (there are several available) to hear the sounds of plants. Take a listen!

MORE PLASTIC THAN EVER BEFORE IS BEING CLEANED UP IN OUR OCEANS!

Boyan Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup in 2013. So far it has removed over 17,000 tons of garbage in bodies of water across the globe. On Twitter (now known as X), Boyan Slat posted,  "During the first eight years of The Ocean Cleanup, we collected 314,000 kg [692 pounds] of trash. We're now collecting the same amount... every 4.5 days."

 

 

MUST-SEE MAPS OF THE WORLD!

For a change, there is no video to share on this post. Instead, you will find a link to a Bored Panda page containing 45 fascinating maps. Even people, like us, who rarely scroll through internet pages will find something of interest. Just a few of these maps contain: comparisons of things like bald eagle nests or wolf populations from past years until now, the longest train ride on the planet, where castles are in Europe, rug designs in Iran, tree density in the USA, and more and more and more.

Here it is! Enjoy! https://www.boredpanda.com/best-interesting-maps-images/

FOOD MADE OUT OF...AIR? YES, IT'S TRUE

People are making amazing discoveries!! Finnish scientists have learned how to pull protein out of thin air, and have made everything from ravioli to ice cream with it! 

FISH ARE A LOT SMARTER THAN WE THOUGHT!

It turns out that in certain areas, fish can make judgments that even surpass the ability of mammals!

Certain fish, including stingrays, can add and subtract up to five numbers.

Fish have also been found to have a range of emotion from fear and pain to joy. So much of the natural world is more sentient and intelligent than we had ever though.

CLEANING THE PLASTIC FROM OUR OCEANS

More awful things make the news than the many incredible positive steps people are taking on this planet. Have a good look, for instance, at what this team is doing. So far they have removed 45 tons (!!) of plastic waste from our oceans, and have a safety hatch so that they are only gathering up garbage and not fish. It is inspiring!

GROW A GREEN ROOF

 The newest thing to help our planet  is to install what is called a Green Roof. With extra layers of insulation, the roof helps prevent excessive water runoff, and, as reported in the Washington Post, serves as a little oasis for migrating birds, bees, and butterflies. There are lots of YouTubes showing how to make a green roof, whether on a shed or even your home. Here is one of them that we like!

HOW TO GROW A FOREST IN YOUR BACKYARD

 This is a wonderful way of restoring forests, either small or large. The results are ultra-dense, bio-diverse, and fast growing. It is even being used now to help regrow rainforests. Cudos to those who are doing this!

A HEART-LIFTING FLASH MOB

 This flash mob in Nurenburg, Germany, from a few years ago, will lift your spirits and warm your heart, and we could all use some uplifted spirits and warmer hearts, right? Blessings to you!

 

 

FISHING FOR PLASTIC IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Environmental trailblazer Lefteris Arapakis of Greece was distressed at how the fishing boats on which he worked would always haul up great amounts of trash and plastic, and throw it back into the sea. He started a company which pays fishers to bring them the plastic they pull up out of the Mediterranean and recycles it into useful products. He was named Young Champion of the Earth in 2020!

A 17-year-old, whose invention will revolutionize electric cars!

Robert Sansone, a Florida 17-year-old, designed a motor for electrical cars that does not use the unsustainable earth-sourced materials currently necessary for such vehicles!

LISTEN TO THE SOUND OF A SPIDER WEB

Scientists a MIT have translated the vibrations of a spider web to music. As the web becomes more dense, the sounds become more complex.

MUSHROOMS: THE NEW SUSTAINABLE SOURCE OF LEATHER

Leather from animal hides is one of the most ecologically damaging substances on the planet. The demand for Brazilian leather for everything from SUV interiors to luxury handbags is one of the reasons rainforests are swiftly disappearing, cleared to make more land for cattle. But researchers have now discovered how to make equally appealing leather from mushrooms! Mushrooms are also being converted into styrofoam, bricks, and other useful and sustainable materials!

THE WORLD'S LARGEST PYRAMID IS NOT IN EGYPT!

 This ancient pyramid, the Pyramid of Choclula in Mexico, has even more mass than the great pyramid of Giza in Egypt, with five miles of subterranean tunnels! It lies buried, with a church built on top it.

FROM BARREN LAND TO RAINFOREST

Twenty years ago in Brazil, photographer Sebastião Salgado returned from an assignment to his family property and discovered that the land was barren, deforested, and devoid of animal life. Over the next twenty years, he and his wife, Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, along with others, planted 2.7 million trees. They completely restored the forest, which thus far has 283 species of plants, 15 types of amphibians, 15 of reptiles, 33 different mammals, and 172 species of birds! This remarkable couple has also founded a nonprofit institute dedicated to ecology, the Instituto Terra.

Note: While the photos in the video help tell this magnificent story, the background music is pretty atrocious. We suggest turning your volume off when watching this YouTube.

 

 

 

A VICTORY OVER MONSANTO!

Listen to this victory over Monsanto! Leydy Pech, a Mayan beekeeper, stood up to Monsanto when they were cutting down forest to plant soybeans and spray them, and she WON! She won the 2020 Goldman Environmental Award for this!

https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/leydy-pech/

BECAUSE WE ALL NEED TO SMILE JUST NOW

Smile!

WILD GOATS TAKE OVER TOWN

With the current quarantines and lockdowns across the world due to COVID-19 making people disappear behind locked doors, these happy Welsh goats have taken over a town!

SAVING THE GENETIC HERITAGE OF OUR OLD GROWTH FORESTS

We hear so much of what is wrong and cruel in our society, but rarely learn about the many magnificent undertakings of various people and groups, such as the David Milarch at Archangel Tree Archive, who are cloning ancient trees to keep their genetic heritage alive.

According to the article below, "If you strike up a conversation with Milarch, you’ll get his life story inside of 10 minutes—from his motorcycle gang days in Detroit to the revelation that set him on his current path, involving a near-death experience, angels, and a disembodied voice that dictated a plan he wrote down in the wee hours of the morning. When he woke up fully the next day, he says, 'There was an eight-page outline on that legal pad. It was the outline for this project.'”

 

Read more about this important and fascinating work here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/redwood-reforestation

THE HUMAN SPIRIT!

Quarantined due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy, people are showing the resilience and beauty of the human spirit by making music from their windows and balconies! Music is being made all over Italy; below is just one short example from Naples.

UNLIKELY COYOTE AND BADGER FRIENDSHIPS

Wildlife observers and Native Americans in times past have long known that coyotes and badgers occasionally team up and hunt together. In this unlikely interspecies friendship, they have also been known simply to enjoy hanging out together! See how playful and happy the coyote is as it greets the badger in this video.

The badger digs quickly and can scout out rodents that the coyote can then pounce upon. Each appears to be happy and, importantly, saves energy in this hunting association. They have not, however, been known to be generous about sharing the meal! (Badgers eat their prey underground, coyotes above-ground.)

Not ALL badgers and coyotes are besties, of course.

For a more in-depth story, see https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/viral-video-coyote-badger-interspecieshttps://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/viral-video-coyote-badger-interspecies

CONCRETE THAT CAN ABSORB CO2

While cement manufacturing is a massive contributor to greenhouse gasses, new technologies have been developed so that cement blocks can absorb and trap CO2 from the atmosphere! Here is just one example:

GIRAFFES HUM!

New studies have shown that giraffes, long thought to be unable to vocalize because of their long necks, spend the night humming to one another! The pitch of their hum is at such a low frequency that it is not audible to the human ear. The short video, below, has samples of their sounds!

ETHIOPIA PLANTS 350 MILLION TREES IN ONE DAY

The headline says it all!