This is a very difficult period of history, not only for the United States but the entire world. Day after day as I do the research and prepare SR I am always in search of good trends, positive social patterns that foster wellbeing. Not single one-off events but trends. As you know, if you read SR regularly, there are not a lot of them to be found. But today's edition is entirely about good trends and I hope it makes you as refreshingly happy as it does me.
Leo Sands and Dino Grandoni , Reporters - The Washington Post
Stephan:
As reported, "More than 190 countries have reached a landmark deal for protecting the biodiversity of the world’s oceans, agreeing for the first time on a common framework for establishing new protected areas in international waters." This is good news and a positive trend. Seventy percent of the planet is ocean, and a healthy ocean is essential to healthy humans and all the other beings on the earth. Now it is up to each of us to demand that our governments adhere to and honor this agreement.
Fish above coral on Moore Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia, in November. Credit: Sam McNeil / AP
More than 190 countries have reached a landmark deal for protecting the biodiversity of the world’s oceans, agreeing for the first time on a common framework for establishing new protected areas in international waters.
The treaty, whose text was finalized Saturday night by diplomats in New York after years of stalled talks, will help safeguard the high seas, which lie beyond national boundaries and make up two-thirds of Earth’s ocean surface. Member states have been trying to agree on the long-awaited treaty for almost 20 years.
Environmental advocacy groups heralded the finalized text — which still needs to be ratified by the United Nations — as a new chapter for Earth’s high seas. Just 1.2 percent of them are currently environmentally protected, exposing the vast array of marine species that teem beneath the surface — from tiny plankton to giant whales — to threats like pollution and overfishing.
“Two-thirds of the ocean has just been exposed […]
Not only does this show how a concerted effort can eliminate deadly toxins, it provides guidance for other such efforts, and it shows we can have a cleaner healthier world
North America’s Great Lakes. Credit: NASA
Two banned insecticides known to linger in the atmosphere have been all but eliminated from North America’s Great Lakes region, a study finds.
“For once we can report something positive,” Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University and coauthor of the study, told Environmental Health News. “A few of the chemicals we’ve been measuring for a long time are well underway to being eliminated from the atmosphere.”
Scientists analyzed data from a U.S.-Canadian monitoring program that has tracked atmospheric concentrations of insecticides at several sites in the Great Lakes region. Measurements, taken every 12 days, date back to the early 1990s. Three of the insecticides studied — DDT, chlordane, and hexachlorobenzene — have persisted in the atmosphere, while two others — lindane and endosulfan — have nearly vanished. The findings were published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
In 2006, the EPA banned the agricultural use of lindane, which has been linked to anemia, lung cancer, and lymphoma. And in 2010, the agency began to phase out the use of endosulfan, which experts say may
This is very interesting and, potentially, very positive news. Nuclear power in my estimation has been a disaster because of the waste problem, and the crises created when a nuclear reactor experiences a breakdown such as occurred in Chernobyl and Fukushima, Fusion, however, offers a very different and positive potential as we exit the carbon era.
TAE Technologies’ reactor used to carry out the hydrogen-boron fusion Photo: TAE Technologies
California-based TAE Technologies and Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science claim success testing new fuel cycle, opening door to cleaner, lower cost energy than produced by conventional deuterium-tritium-based process.
An innovative nuclear fusion technology that uses no radioactive materials and is calculated capable of “powering the planet for more than 100,000 years”, has been successfully piloted by a US-Japanese team of researchers.
California-based TAE Technologies, working with Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), have completed first tests of a hydrogen-boron fuel cycle in magnetically-confined plasma, which could generate cleaner, lower cost energy that that produced by the more common deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion process.
“This experiment offers us a wealth of data to work with and shows that hydrogen-boron has a place in utility-scale fusion power. We know we can solve the physics challenge at hand and deliver a transformational new form of carbon-free energy to the world that relies on this non-radioactive, abundant fuel,” said Michl Binderbauer, CEO of TAE Technologies.
A photovoltaic system that produces power at night. Now that is something that will change the game. I am beginning to feel modestly optimistic that in spite of the millions the carbon industries are flooding into the pockets of American congress members it will not stop or even seriously impede the transition to non-carbon power.
Chinese scientists have simulated a new photovoltaic-thermoelectric technology, based on radiative cooling and III-V solar cells, to generate electricity at night.
“The proposed system can be applied to solar photovoltaic power generation, with the thermoelectric materials using the separated solar spectrum to generate electricity,” researcher Jianfeng Guo told pv magazine. “At the same time, the combination of radiation cooling technology and thermoelectric materials can realize power generation at night.”
In the proposed ideal system configuration, the photovoltaic panel is based on heterojunction cells made of III-V materials, placed at the bottom of the hot side of the TEG to generate electricity using the temperature difference between the PV panel and radiative cooling.
“Radiative cooling needs to face the sky, so it is placed on the top,” said the scientists.
Radiative cooling occurs when the surface of an object absorbs less radiation from […]
