Author: Camellia Moors ‘22
Welcome to the third edition of our Good News Friday series! While it might be Friday the 13th, that’s no reason to focus on negative news. Here just a sample of some of the positive goings-on that have happened this week:
- Welcome Back to Paris: While the United States officially left the Paris Agreement on November 4th, President-Elect Biden has pledged to return the nation to the accord on day one of his administration. World leaders in the UK, France, and elsewhere have happily accepted this planned change in policy, which, coupled with Mr. Biden’s $1.7 trillion clean energy plan, could put the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C “within striking distance.”
- Australian Solar Power: South Australia recently became “the first major jurisdiction in the world to be powered entirely by solar energy.” For approximately an hour on Sunday, October 11, the state was able to meet all of its energy needs with a mix of rooftop and commercial solar power. While one hour might not sound like a lot, this test of solar power capacity lays the foundation for using even more solar power in the future and helps ease concerns about solar power reliability.
- Reusing Greenhouse Gases: Linggas, a Chinese industrial gas company, recently demonstrated its method for capturing and purifying the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (aka laughing gas) emitted by nylon manufacturing. Nitrous oxide’s global warming potential is approximately 300 times that of carbon dioxide and accounts for 7% of American annual total greenhouse gas emissions. This new mitigation method takes carbon (or, in this case, nitrogen) capture a step above what is normally expected, opening doors for the future of climate change mitigation.
Environmental news doesn’t always have to be doom and gloom. If you’d like to share some Good News with us, submit an article by contacting one of our Blog Editors.