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Author: Grace Liu ‘23

Hello and welcome back! We hope that your Thanksgiving break was restful and filled with good food. If you’re anxious about the elevated campus risk status, new covid variant, finals and projects, etc., that’s totally understandable. However, we hope that this article about potty training cows, plastic-free veggies, and coral reef recovery will boost your mood a bit.

1. Potty trained cows help fight pollution: It is an unfortunate phenomenon that cow urine produces a pollutant called ammonia which is harmful if inhaled and an indirect greenhouse gas. However, researchers have found that potty training cows to pee in a latrine called the “MooLoo” could lead to a 56% reduction in ammonia emissions. The cows trained using a combination of treats and spritzes of water show a success rate on par with children. 

2. France frees fruits of plastic: There are a growing number of grocery stores and supermarkets in Paris that sell produce without single-use plastic containers. Recently, the government announced that, starting next year, plastic packaging for produce under 1.5 kg will be banned. The plastic waste savings from this policy are estimated at over a billion units. 

3. Nobel Prize-winning economic theory helps save coral reefs: Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia are applying modern portfolio theory (MPT) to identify coral reefs with the most potential to repopulate other damaged reefs. The stock market theory was developed by the economist Harry Markowitz in the 1950s to help investors maximize returns while minimizing risk. 

Thanks for reading, and we hope that these news snippets have brightened your day a little! Please check back in next week for more positive environmental news and in the meantime, feel free to take a look at previous posts or share some good news with us!

Author: Camellia Moors ’22

Welcome to another edition of Good News Friday! To get you in a good mood for Thanksgiving break, we’re covering some positive news about emissions in the travel industry, the halting of oil leases on Indigenous lands, and the “right to repair” Apple devices.

1. Travel industry makes climate change commitments: In the wake of the COP26 negotiations, more than 300 global travel stakeholders signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. This requires all signatories to submit a concrete plan to halve their emissions by 2030 and become net zero by 2050 within 12 months. According to one study, worldwide tourism accounted for 8% of global emissions between 2009 and 2013, meaning these commitments to cuts have the potential to make a large—and needed—dent in global emissions.

2. Biden administration halts oil drilling leases: Early this week, the Biden administration announced it intends to “block new federal oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius around Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, one of the nation’s oldest and most culturally significant Native American sites.” While the move was not universally popular—the Navajo Nation, for example, said it prefers a smaller, 5-mile radius—it does reflect an (admittedly halting) trend of limiting oil leases.

3. Apple to expand customers’ ability to self-repair iPhones: This week, Apple announced it will soon sell the parts, tools, and instructions for people to perform their own iPhone repairs. Proponents of the “right to repair” argue that limits on consumers’ abilities to fix their electronic devices force them to throw them out, contributing to the massive global “e-waste” problem. With Apple selling more than 217 million iPhones in 2018 and 100-120 million phones being discarded each year, the move by the tech company represents a potentially huge, untapped means of reducing global waste.

That’s all for this week! Tune in next time for more environmental news, and until then, we hope you have a relaxing Thanksgiving break and feel free to get in touch if you have environmental news to share!

Author: Grace Liu ‘23

Welcome back to another Good News Friday! There’s been a lot happening in the climate sphere as the COP26 draws to a close. The snippets below highlight clean energy funding, carbon-neutral aviation goals, and indigenous forest conservation projects.

1. Expansion of clean energy: World leaders, representing more than 35 countries and  large firms, have pledged $400 billion to the expansion of clean and renewable energy. The commitments also aim to provide reliable energy to developing countries. The targets include cutting the number of people without access to electricity in half by 2025, achieving universal energy access by 2030, quickly transitioning to clean energy sources, and minimizing disparities in power access.

2. US targets net-zero aviation by 2030: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stated during the COP26 climate talks that the US aims to have all air travel be carbon neutral by 2050. The goal was supported by an analysis by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Given the fact that  the aviation industry accounts for 2.5% of all CO2 emissions, this pledge could have significant implications for climate change mitigation.

3. Indigenous forest conservation: During COP26, the Peoples Forest Partnership announced that the US aims to contribute $20 billion in funding by 2030 to support Indigenous community-driven forest conservation and restoration projects. According to the group’s estimates, this initiative could lead to a carbon emission reduction of at least 2 billion tons per year as well as protect approximately 500 million hectares of biodiverse tropical forests. 

There were a lot of good news articles to choose from this week. Here’s to hoping these wonderful initiatives will be successful! Check back next week for more encouraging environmental news. If you’d like to share some Good News with us, please feel free to get in touch!

Author: Camellia Moors ’22

Welcome to a post-midterm edition of Good News Friday! We hope some happy environmental news can help you destress after a hectic week. With the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) coming up later this month in Glasgow, we’re covering some recent big commitments by nations towards fighting climate change.

1. U.S. to expand offshore wind: Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that her agency will “begin to identify, demarcate and hope to eventually lease federal waters… to wind power developers” in the Gulf of Mexico and along both coasts by 2025. This came several months after the Biden administration approved the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm in May. This development is particularly promising due to the massive potential of American offshore wind: according to the Department of Energy, “U.S. offshore wind has a technical resource potential of more than 2,000 GW of capacity, or 7,200 TWh of generation per year… nearly double the nation’s current electricity use.”

2. France invests in decarbonization: French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country will invest approximately $34.6 billion over the next five years into nuclear reactors and other decarbonizing technologies. French law currently aims for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

3. Global commitments to reducing methane emissions: In a sign that political leaders around the globe are increasingly targeting the nuances of climate change, 33 countries (including the U.S.) pledged to cut their methane emissions by 30% by 2030. The move constitutes an acknowledgement of a United Nations report on how cutting methane emissions–in addition to carbon emissions–is critical to climate change mitigation efforts.

That’s all for this week! Enjoy your fall break, and as always, we welcome you to check out our previous editions of Good News Friday and to contact us if you have any positive environmental news to share!

Author: Grace Liu ‘23

It’s that time of the semester again: midterms week. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by exams, essays, and/or p-sets, we hope that a bit of happy environmental news will help lift your spirits. 

1. Jane Goodall has hope for the future: Primatologist Jane Goodall, best known as the world expert on chimpanzees, recently released a book with Douglas Abrams titled “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.” In it, she argues why hope is a “crucial survival trait,” and offers inspiring stories of human intellect and environmental resilience. Since it’s so easy to become jaded or apathetic around environmental issues, Goodall shares an important message to reignite hope and foster an ethos of sustainability.

2. Protected Peruvian crops potentially facilitate climate adaptation: The Marcapata Ccollana preserve in the Andes is the home of a Quechua-speaking Indigenous community that has preserved ancient ways of farming over 100 varieties of root vegetables. The government of Peru has recently declared this region a protected agrobiodiversity zone. This status protects food security because agricultural biodiversity is necessary for climate change adaptation.

3. Startup makes edible protein flour using bacteria: A Finnish Startup named Solar Foods has developed a process for growing protein in a bioreactor using only water, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and bacteria for fermentation. The resulting product is a white, tasteless flour that can be flavored or added to many different foods to increase the nutritional value. If production scales up to economically practical quantities, we could experience a reinvention of protein for mass consumption.

Thanks for reading and best of luck during midterms, everyone! Please tune in next week for more positive environmental news and in the meantime, feel free to take a look at previous posts or share some good news with us!