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From worldwide hurricanes, to major floods, and massive wildfires on different continents across the earth, there is no denying that climate change is a real problem. But there are actually simple ways to naturally help the earth heal, and that’s through regenerated forests. Rather than doing mass planting, forests that are left to their own devices.

In fact, if this was practiced in Brazil, they could actually reach 150% reforestation if left to regrow on their own. Brazil’s Atlantic Forest biome has been recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, as well as a Brazilian Natural Heritage site, and is considered to have an incredibly healthy biodiversity, including golden lion tamarins and ocelots.

Sadly, a study from 2018 shows that because of logging and other agricultural expansion, it has lost almost 80% of its original area. But what this also means is that it’s an ideal location for doing restoration initiatives.

As reported by Forest News, the Atlantic Forest in Brazil is actually the ideal habitat within the country to use for natural reforestation. In fact, there was another study that looked into the Atlantic Forests for this particular purposes, mapping and quantifying their potential for this purpose. What researchers found was that from the 34.1 million hectares of current forest cover – which is equivalent to 131,000 square miles – of which 8% managed to naturally regenerate between the years 1996 and 2015.

Meanwhile, the study also shares that another 20 million hectares can also be reforested by mixing both natural and assisted strategies from now until 2035, which could actually save $90 billion in operation costs.

They explain that the savings in dollars is actually the most vital considering that efforts of natural forest regeneration only accounts for 2% of total climate change funding in the whole world. Moreover, soil preparation and tree planting can cost between $1,400 and $34,000 per hectare on average.

Allowing Nature to Take Its Course

According to the Center for International Forestry Research, they feel that it would be best to help the world’s climate change issue would be to just stop trying to do anything and allow nature to take its natural course.

A few examples of successful natural reforestation can be found in the UK and in Ireland, both nations that allow the restoration of their ecosystems. They have managed to exceed by simply allowing nature to do what it does best.

One example is the 3,500 acres of Knepp Estate, which did a rewilding project. They managed to create a vast biodiverse ecosystem within lower England. Moreover, a 1,600-acre estate named Dunsany Castle that’s over 600 years old and located in south Ireland, managed to do something similar as well.

Amazingly, by allowing natural regeneration of forests, it actually has the potential to restore way more biodiversity, especially when assisted with seed dispersion, de-weeding and other types of reforestation management approaches.

In fact, a meta-analysis looked at 133 papers on this exact topic and found that when forest areas are left alone from man-assisted agriculture and allowed to regenerate on their own, they managed to grow ‘56% greater species richness in all categories of animals, and in five measures of vegetation structure: cover, density, litter, biomass, and height.’

According to co-director of the rewilding program at Knepp Estate, Isabella Tree, “Instead of conserving with specific species in mind where you’re focusing on keeping a habitat, locking it down as it is, so that that preserves the numbers of certain species, what we’ve done here is just taken our hands of the steering wheel and just stood back and let nature take over.”

Meanwhile, another benefit that occurs from natural reforestation is that they manage to trap more carbon in the soil. One study published in Nature showed that ‘regenerated forests absorb 32% more carbon above ground, and sequester 11% more below, than is generally estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.’

Notably, if scientists and policy makers want these regenerated forests to last, they also need to prove to locals and other groups that the benefits of leaving these forests alone to regenerate are worth it, but that they need to be left alone for the long-term.

Some suggestions in the Forest News article are having a payment system for those that live within the area who choose to leave or to protect the forests. Or to grant increased access to investment capital for agroforestry production, rather than to use the trees for wood or other needs.

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A little girl made worldwide news after surviving being born three months prematurely. When she was born, she weighed just 1lb 5oz, which is around the same weight as half a bag of sugar. At the time of her birth, her parents didn’t know whether she was going to survive or not, being placed inside a sandwich bag to keep her alive. But incredibly, little Darcey Clegg defied all odds and is now about to start school.

Darcey was born on September 12, 2016 when her mom, Gill, was just 28 weeks pregnant. Her mom underwent an emergency C-section after an ultra-scan showed that Darcey was not getting enough blood because of an abnormality in her mother’s placenta. After her birth, she was kept in the neonatal unit of the Royal Oldham Hospital in Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom for a staggering 64 days. But despite the odds, baby Darcey fought hard and long for her life, finally making it home on December 30 that same year.

Now four years old, little Darcey is about to start school, and her mom – who is now 50 – is more excited than ever. Gill shared, “Darcey is amazing. She was so tiny in that little sandwich bag, I didn’t know if she would make it.”

Gill and Mark explained that it was quite a surprise when they found out that they were pregnant again. Gill said, “It was a bit of a shock but a lovely one.”

The couple have three children that are much older than Darcey as well. Karl, whose 30, Olivia who is 20, and Jack who is 18. And for all of them, Darcey is their little Christmas miracle. Gill explained, “She was the best present.”

Like many other premature babies, Darcey’s milestones were all a bit delayed. Gill shared, “She started walking a bit late, but it was an amazing moment. She is a dream.” And despite her too early start in life, she has managed to defeat all the odds and remains to be a healthy, happy little girl.

Darcey has since graduated from nursery and is now about to enter primary school. “It’s so emotional to see her start school. We’ve got her uniform and everything ready to go,” said Gill.

“I still remember looking at her tiny body in an incubator. She defied the odds.” she added.

Darcey also shared that she can’t wait until school begins, saying, “I can’t wait to go and play with lots of other kids.”

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Apparently one man still had his dreams come true even after he had sadly lost his life during the 9/11 terror attacks. 9/11 terror attack victim, 29-year old Chad Keller, was just 6 years old when he knew that his lifelong ambition was to become an astronaut and one day make it into outer space.

Unfortunately for Keller, his vision didn’t meet the military requirements needed to become a fighter pilot. So he decided to take up a degree in aerospace engineering, believing that one day he would still make it up into space.

Eventually, Keller became a satellite propulsion specialist for the U.S. Department of Defense and National Reconnaissance Office. On September 11, 2001, after a number of launch meetings at the Pentagon, he happened to be on the American Airline Flight 77 while on his way home to California, when the plane crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.

Sadly, like thousands of others, he lost his life that day. But incredibly, his dreams didn’t die with him. Despite the fact that his dream came true 20 years after his death, still, it was fulfilled all because of the kindness of one man.

Former Navy SEAL platoon commander, Chris Cassidy, had completed two tours in the Middle East after the death, destruction, and worldwide change that occurred after the terror attacks on 9/11. By the time that his second deployment was coming to an end, he started training at NASA to become an astronaut.

During his career with NASA, he was a crew member on the infamous Endeavor shuttle back in 2009, was part of 10 spacewalks, and also did two tours on the International Space station.

Cassidy explained that NASA allows astronauts to bring a couple of small items like patches, photos, or pins when they travel into space on their missions. During his first two trips, he mostly brought mementos of his family. But something changed after he visited the September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City. That’s where he saw Chad Keller and his story, as well as read about Keller’s dream to one day go into space.

So when Cassidy was set to head up into space for his last mission 2020, he knew exactly what he wanted to do, which was to make Keller’s dream come true once and for all.

Cassidy found a way to get in touch with Keller’s farther, Richard. He told him about his upcoming mission, asking if the dad would allow him to bring Chad along for the ride. Of course, Richard was ecstatic, giving Cassidy an enthusiastic “Yes!”

So in April of 2020, alongside his crew, Cassidy carried with him not only some of Keller’s ashes, but he also brought a photo of Chad and his wife, some pins from Chad’s school days at the Boeing and the University of Colorado, as well as the program from Chad’s memorial service. Moreover, he brought some commemorative items from the 9/11 museum to make it even more meaningful.

During this mission, Cassidy took photos of every item he brought, taking photos from the space station’s observatory cupola with the earth as his background. He also chose to send out messages of hope and love with the photographs he took.

Cassidy told CNN, “With each item that I pull out, I always pause for a second to think a little bit about the story to that particular item. It’s kind of special to think about the story and the path, the journey of that object from the hands that it was in to my hands to this window.”

For the twenty years after Keller’s death, his family’s mission was to scatter their beloved Chad’s ashes in places that he loved the most. And thanks to one kind-hearted astronaut, they were able to fulfill Chad’s biggest dream, which was to go into space.

Since retiring from NASA, Cassidy’s new role is to watch over the construction of the National Medal of Honor Museum and Medal of Honor Leadership Institute in Arlington, Texas, as well as the National Medal of Honor Monument located in Washington, D.C.

Despite never having met in person, Cassidy and the Keller family now share a special bond that has brought them together in a very special way. It shows that despite tragedy, there is still hope and the kindness of the human spirit where people can come together for a common goal of making dreams come true.

Cassidy also shared in the CNN report, “The world would be a better place if every human being got five minutes to look out that window of the space station. It made me more appreciative for everything that Earth offers to us. Friendships, connections, and shared experiences are all that much more meaningful to me now.”

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Gardeners and plants enthusiasts oftentimes worry about the plants they care for. While these caregivers lovingly tend to the life that’s growing abundantly, pests can attack at any time. While pesticides are readily available in the market, many are toxic enough to destroy the delicate balance of nature.

Researchers have been searching for ways to establish the perfect balance between plants and the tiny animals that live in them. They may have found the perfect solution, one that plant lovers will surely appreciate. After all, it’s all about respecting every living thing in nature while making sure that the greens thrive.

How did the researchers come up with a perfect solution? It came in the form of a diffuser that they said, “smells like fear.” This may help keep pests off garden plants for good. This statement was made in a new study.

As for the special odor itself, it is made up of compounds that are produced by ladybugs. This is a natural predator of plant-eating insects that have been known to ravage and destroy gardens and crops. Pests that catch a whiff of it will change their behavior. That’s because they’re led to believe that predators are nearby.

In reality, plant-eating insects comprise the major threat for crops all over. They are deemed dangerous because many of them can carry diseases. In the past years, they have become more and more resistant to the traditional pesticides available in the market.

Researchers that hail from Pennsylvania State University have come up with a sweet-smelling solution that’s safe for humans but deadly for pests. Study author Dr Sara Hermann shared, “It is not uncommon to use our senses to avoid risky situations. If a building was on fire, we as humans could use our senses of sight or smell to detect the threat. There is evidence for such behavioral responses to risk across taxa that suggest prey organisms can detect predation threats, but the mechanisms for detection aren’t very well understood, especially with insects.”

Aphids are particularly highly destructive. They can transmit plant diseases and they have become such a persistent problem for growers, farmers, planters, and gardeners. Fortunately, they are also the favorite food of ladybugs. These plant experts welcome the red and black insect because they are a natural form of pest-control. Once a ladybug is nearby, aphids and other plant-eating insects will stay away from fields. They simply smell the predators there. The researchers have discovered this helpful fact. That’s because the scent that is given off by ladybugs are a signal to aphids to stop reproducing as much and grow larger wings. These two behaviors are able to stave off threats altogether.

What the research team did is identify and extract the ladybugs’ “volatile odor.” They made use of gas chromatography, which is a technique that separates the different components of smell. Then, these aphids were exposed to each component individually. They wanted to see which one elicited the biggest reaction from these predators. The strength of their response was then based on the signal that was picked up by an electroantennogram machine. The said machine was specifically designed to test insects’ reactions to the different kinds of odors.

Of the several compounds that come from ladybugs, the strongest response was to a class of chemical compounds that were otherwise called methoxypyrazines. These particularly included compounds such as isopropyl methoxypyrazine, isobutyl methoxypyrazine, and sec-butyl methoxypyrazine.

A special odor blend that the scientists came up with can be placed in an essential oil diffuser. This allows the gadget to spread the scent slowly across a garden or field. According to a statement made by the researchers, they now hope to test out their diffusers outside. They will observe and see whether or not they are able to produce the same ideal results. They are further looking to measure the diffusers’ dispersal area. This is to see if the other pests and predators will be repelled to it. They will also look into the effects these have on crops.

Study co-author Dr Jessica Kansman said, “Insects rely on olfactory cues to find food, mates, and places to live, so this is a great opportunity to investigate how to use these smells to manipulate their behavior.”

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When it comes to trees, people have been searching for the perfect alternative. Most loggers chop down the wood and never replant the greens that make for great substitutes. More importantly, it takes years for some trees to fully grow and mature.

Something needs to be done now, and one man may have found the perfect solution. It’s time that we look for perfect alternatives for wood and save the forests. With great thinkers and scientists everywhere, many are hopeful about the future of the forests.

The Man Behind the Design

This year, the American James Dyson Award winner was a man named Gabe Tavas. He took on the problem of deforestation with his new invention, Pyrus. His made this with one mission in mind: Make wood without the need to cut down trees.

Gabe found a balance between nature and design. He found the means to use bacterial cellulose—the main component of wood—to form an alternative material. This new material imitates exotic woods that are found in the Amazon Rainforest. He said that he wanted to create global change because of what he calls the “immigrant influence.” His mother, now an immigration attorney, moved to the United States from Cuba as a small child. His father, on the other hand, flew in from the Philippines at the age of 17.

“I began considering entrepreneurship as a teenager and felt an urgency around solving global issues in sustainability,” Gabe said. He was born and raised in Chicago. Even then, he craved spending time in nature. He found his perfect spot at the Saint Paul Woods in Morton Grove, IL. He shared, “Growing up in the city, you don’t have many expressions of nature which can be stressful. Forests provide an escape. It’s my favorite place to meditate, and the thought of losing that because we were too short-sided pains me from a visceral level.”

Wood has two essential ingredients: Cellulose and Lignin. The former provides the basic shape and framework. The latter, on the other hand, serves as a glue for all the other components in it. Moreover, there are kombucha companies that make use of microorganisms that produce coherent sheets of cellulose found on top of the liquid. In order to make Pyrus, these sheets of cellulose are blended until they are consistent before they are embedded into a gel. As the gel dries and hardens, it is placed under a mechanical press to form a flat sheet of wood-like material. After which, the new material can be sanded, cut, and coated with resins. This is similar to the tree-based counterparts.

While there are other companies out there that create wood alternative materials, many are using sawdust for it. This means that they still need to cut down trees and damage its natural ecosystem. Moreover, sawdust poses serious health risks when you are exposed to it for long periods of time. As many can attest, sawdust is an irritant that can affect eyes, nose, and throat. In long-term exposures, this has been seen to cause cancer. With Pyrus, on the other hand, trees aren’t cut down. More importantly, no dangerous oils are used. Pyrus utilizes kombucha waste. This ingredient is both environmentally friendly and sustainably created. This can create a cellulose making wood in a sustainable fashion. The end goal of this invention is to permanently act as a substitute to expensive and fancy wood products. With Pyrus, the huge drivers of deforestation will be of no use.

In the last year, Gabe has successfully produced 74 Pyrus wood samples that come in different colors and textures. This has also been tested on several pieces of equipment that are oftentimes found in woodworking shops and makerspaces. The professional woodworkers tried it and they gave all happy feedbacks. Because the wood is also versatile, this can be made into jewelry, guitar picks, and coasters as well.

Because Gabe won the James Dyson Award, the awarding body will provide $2,600 into the project. He plans to put the prize money to good use. He will expand his production facilities and develop 3D printing processes. As the end-goal, Gabe wants Pyrus to be made into a myriad of environmentally friendly products that meet consumer needs and at the same time, are commercially sellable.

Three-time James Dyson Award judge and Technology Influencer Sam Sheffer talked about this year’s winner and shared,  “I’ve judged the JDA for several years and am always captivated by the inventions these young engineers put forward. The 2021 entries were some of the most competitive I’ve seen. Pyrus stood out because it’s solving a problem we can all relate to with waste from a product that the majority of us consume every day. I’m excited to see all the innovative ways Pyrus will evolve under Gabe’s imaginative and talented leadership.”

Gabe’s Pyrus will move on to the international stage of the James Dyson Award. The shortlist names will be announced on October 13 while the International winners will be announced on November 17.

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Several coral reefs have already been destroyed by fisherman, boats, and tourism in general. The people have banded together to save whatever is left. They say that we need to do something about it now before it’s too late.

For instance, Australia’s great barrier reef is one of the most famous in the world. Several stories have shown how much of it has died in the last few years. Activists have now come together to see if they can bring this back to its former glory.

Just recently, the widest, and maybe even the oldest single coral in the Great Barrier Reef has been discovered. What divers also noticed is that it’s in excellent condition. The reef is large, healthy, and thriving.  These are the findings of a new paper that was published in Nature. The researchers reported how they discovered the Muga dhambi, or “big coral.” The name has its root in the language of the Manbarra people, the traditional custodians of the Palm Islands. This was where the research team came upon the coral.

The coral was discovered near Goolboodi (Orpheus Island) in March 2021. The, Muga dhambi was spherical in shape and measured 5.3 meters tall (17 feet) and 10.4 meters wide (34 feet). It’s huge enough for them to declare it as the widest and the sixth-tallest coral in the 2,900 reefs that have made up the barrier system.

Kaillash Cook, a member of the workshop team and co-author of the new paper, spoke to World at Large in an email correspondence and said, “We were running a citizen science workshop… and were interested in exploring the North Coast of Goolbodhi which is a very remote area often restricted by weather.”

Cook further said, “It was here Dr. Adam Smith found this breathtaking coral and instantly assigned people to take measurements, surveys, and coordinates for the coral.”

Muga dhambi belongs to the genus Porites and is from one of 16 common coral species that is fundamental to some of the largest and most important building blocks of nearshore corals. Adam Smith and the rest of the team behind the research have reported on the matter. And after the team consulted with the tribal elders in the area, they determined that the coral was completely unknown to the people. They found this out when they were asked to give it a name since it resided in their sea-country.

Other enormous Porites have also been seen in the American Samoa, in the reef around the Green Island off the coast of Taiwan, and Sesoko Island, Okinawa.

438 Years on Earth

Based on yearly growth models that were available, Muga dhambi was estimated at between 421 and 438 years old. This is impressive when you think about something that’s been living amidst an ecosystem that’s said to be a canary in a coal mine for climate change.

“For shallow water corals, 438 year-old corals are very hard to come by,” Cook explained. “Australian Institute of Marine Sciences has investigated 328 colonies of massive Porites corals on the Great Barrier Reef and the oldest they have found is 436 years old.”

“While the age is currently an estimate based on measurements of other corals we can safely say that Muga dhambi is one of the oldest structures on the Great Barrier Reef,” Cook further said.

“After a torrid few years, the 2020-2021 long-term monitoring program of the Great Barrier Reef has found that while COVID ran rampant above, the reef’s own pandemic, coral bleaching, was hardly noticeable, and hard coral cover increased across all three regions of the reef over the last year.”

A review has been made and this focused on the environmental events that have occurred in the past 450 years. It was seen how Muga dhambi may have survived as many as 80 major cyclones and centuries of exposure to invasive species, a total 100 coral bleaching events, low tides and human activity. The numbers are large enough to destroy living species, but this has not only survived, but thrived despite the challenges.

The researchers have seen how Muga dhambi is in very good health. The 70 percent of it live in the coral, the rest is covered with the green boring sponge, Cliona viridis, turf algae, and green algae.

“We found that about 30% of the colony was dead which is a completely natural and healthy occurrence as it supported the growth of turf algae, turtle weed, and sponge which all play important roles in the ecosystem,” stated Cook. “This diversity of benthos meant that lots of fish were attracted to hide in the coral structure, feed off the turf algae and turn Muga dhambi into a thriving microecosystem.”

According to the proud authors behind the study, “This field note provides important geospatial, environmental, and cultural information of a rare coral that can be monitored, appreciated, potentially restored and hopefully inspire future generations to care more for our reefs and culture.”

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It takes a special kind of person to save the planet from pollution. Oftentimes, scientists work tirelessly to think of ways to cleaning up the ocean and saving the endangered species that live in the areas. While many of their methods have worked, more help is undoubtedly needed.

While these scientists have years of experience under their belt, it’s more shocking to read about the younger generation doing something about pollution. This is exactly what Fionn did. He found a way to address microplastic pollution with something he had discovered.

Fionn Ferreira is young Irishman had come up with an innovative and effective method to solve the microplastic pollution problem that’s festering a lot of bodies of water. In fact, he won Google’s international science fair when he come upon the method.

What this young student did was mix magnetized iron oxide and vegetable oil together. With this, he was able to create a kind of liquid magnet that has the ability to collect microplastics. Once gathered, these microplastics can then be removed via magnetism. The method leaves the water clean and unharmed, which is something the world needs.

Fionn grew up in a pristine environment. He had been raised to put importance on the cleanliness of the planet. He hails from the south of Ireland and since he was 12 years old, he has been searching for ways for a solution for the hard-to-clean microplastics. He had seen these dangerous items accumulate in the area as he had witnessed the increasing amount of plastic garbage that washed up on the beaches he frequented while he was growing up.

Fionn prepared a video presentation for the Plastic Soup Foundation. Here, he shared how he came upon the project. He said, “I was at our beach and I saw a rock and it had oil spill residue on it, and stuck to this oil spill residue were plastic particles.”

He further said, “I asked myself why is this happening, and I found out that plastic particles are what we call non-polar, and oil is non-polar too. In chemistry likes attract likes, which means non-polar things attract non-polar things.”

Fionn had heard of something called ferrofluid. This was a kind of magnetic water made by combining vegetable oil with magnetized iron oxide powder. In the same video presentation given, he presented that oil attracted the microplastics, and the immersion of a magnet was able to collect a good amount of it.

“I started out as a lonely inventor,” Ferreira shared with BBC. “After the Google Science Fair, I could all of a sudden speak to scientists—they gave me credit for what I had done. My idea was no longer a toy invented by a child.”

A total of around 5,000 tests were made, and each had shown how his method could clean 87 percent to 93 percent of microplastics from the water. His project was able to collect a variety of microplastics from different sources such as car tires, plastic bottles, and laundry water. He then demonstrated his method at the 2019 Google Science Fair. As a result, he won a $50,000 scholarship. The money was put to good use and he went on to study chemistry at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Fionn is currently working on finding ways to fit his method into a device that can span the opening of a home waterpipe or the pipes at a wastewater plant. He hopes that by then, his device will allow the ferrofluid to continuously clean the water that moves through these passageways. He’s also looking into making a different machine that can be mounted on boats as well.

“He observed and tackled a problem he saw locally which has vast global significance,” Larissa Kelly, Ferreira’s former science teacher at Schull Community College shared with BBC. She further spoke about his invention and said, “His invention, based on very simple components, is groundbreaking. It has powerful potential to provide solutions that will contribute to the worldwide effort to remove microplastics from the environment.”

Hopefully, his invention will come to fruition and save the oceans from further damage.

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The link between human waste, sanitation technology and sustainable agriculture is becoming more and more plausible for use in the near future. New research shows that some countries are actually moving closer to the possibility of using human waste as a fertilizer, which will create more circular, sustainable economies.

This study, which is directed by civil and environmental engineering professor, Jeremy Guest, of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, describes ‘the spatial distribution of human urine-derived nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – the agricultural fertilizer demand to define supply-demand location typologies, their prevalence across the globe, and the implication for resource recovery.’

According to Prof. Guest, “The total amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium largely remains constant in our bodies, once we stop growing. Whatever comes in through food and drink must come out in our urine, feces and sweat. Knowing that, we can estimate how much of each of these nutrients is in a population’s bodily waste if we know their diet.”

Guest has done other studies that have looked at the potential of getting the nutrients from human waste from different countries around the world, while also identifying locations that have a surplus of human waste-derived nutrients that are the same as the local demand for agricultural fertilizers.

Prof. Guest explained, “The new study is the first to describe human waste-derived nutrient supply-demand location relationships using a single mathematical equation. The quality of sanitation infrastructure varies greatly across the globe, as do people’s diets and the availability of land suitable for agriculture. Having the means to characterize and quantitatively compare a location’s nutrient-recovery potential can go a long way to better inform decision-makers when it comes to future sanitation and agriculture policy.”

The research team did a comprehensive numerical and geographic analyses of the population, sanitation, dietary and agricultural data for 107 different countries to figure out the quantitative characterization on a global scale. What they found was three different supply-demand typologies, which are the following: ‘countries with a co-located supply-demand; countries with a dislocated supply-demand; and countries with diverse supply-demand proximities.’

For countries such as Australia and the United States, they were placed under the dislocated supply-demand typology. Because of their accelerated agriculture in areas that are far away from the bigger cities, Prof. Guest said that the supply of human waste-derived is too far away from where it is actually needed.

One major issues is that despite progressive sanitation infrastructure at work, it would still mean that the nutrients would require being carried far distances, as either heavy fluids or converted into crystalline products.

Guest also explained that, economically speaking, it makes more sense to make a product that’s concentrated in order to implement a human waste-derived fertilizer for such countries.

In addition, the team also reports that for those countries that have co-located supply-demand typologies such as Nigeria, Uganda, and India, where the human populations are substantially nearer to the agricultural areas, this is what makes local reuse possible as well.

Yet, when it comes to communities that have co-located supply-demand, there is still a need for them to improve their sanitation infrastructure. Prof. Guest further explained that by implementing a human waste-derived fertilizer program, it could be incredibly favorable to both agriculture and sanitation in these particular places.

Such countries such as China, Mexico, Russia and Brazil show a ‘continuum of co-location to dislocation of nutrient supply and demand.’

The study also explains that such country policymakers would also have to approach this type of human water-derived nutrient use with much more regionalized approaches and blueprints, and a variety of local reuse, as well as transportation strategies.

Prof. Guest said, “Higher income countries in this group may have the infrastructure and economic support for various technologies, but those with limited financial resources would require prioritization of resource-recovery technology in some areas.”

The team was also shocked to discover that typologies coincided closely to the United Nations Human Development Index.

According to Guest, “Higher HDI-scoring countries like the U.S., Western Europe, and Australia tend to fall in the dislocated supply-demand typology and lower HDI-scoring countries tend to fit the co-located supply-demand typology. Of course, there are exceptions, but we did not expect to find such a strong correlation.”

The study findings can be found published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Prof. Guest also shared that what the team hopes to achieve through this research is to help figure out which are the notable economic, agricultural, and sanitation characteristics of countries around the globe so that the decision-makers can give priority to such policies, investments, and technologies that can help encourage and promote the goals for a circular economy and to find ways to provide proper sanitation for all.

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If only there was an easy way to understand when plants needed to be watered… oh wait! There might actually be a solution. An agricultural company has found to a way to ‘translate’ biochemical signals that are related to particular plant behaviors, which allows farmers to ‘listen’ to plants as they cry out for water when they’re thirsty or parched.

This new method, which is called GrowStream, has the ability to reduce water use in any type of system, from a beautifully trimmed and manicured lawn, to the most rural vegetable farms in North Africa. And when compared to drip irrigation systems that uses a similar type of idea, it has the ability to lessen water use by 30 to 50%, transforming the methods and science behind irrigation, especially with issues of warmer climates, water shortages, and longer droughts.

Called Responsive Drip Irrigation or DRI, this company has created a watering system that installs tubes below the earth that are filled with pore-like depressions called micropores. When the plants start to get thirsty, they make chemicals in their roots, which the micropores can detect. When this occurs, the system then releases a water drip that will continue to release water until it notices that the plants have had enough.

In an area near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, farmers are managing to grow vegetables in the middle of the desert, which made DRI win startup of the year for 2019 at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture. Meanwhile in Pakistan, near the drier areas around Islamabad, the system has helped them grow vegetables like tomatoes and bok choy that ‘were grown 81% faster and twice as large, respectively, than with regular drip irrigation.’

So far, DRI is being used in at least 14 countries, from areas in rural Zimbabwe to huge lawns and fields in Utah and Los Angeles within the United States.

One of the biggest obstacles that’s stopping RDI from transforming the entire farming industry is that many farm lands already have their own established methods of irrigation that companies have paid enormous amounts of money to build. This makes it hard to convince farmers to make such a big and costly change, especially in areas like California where they not only have had their irrigation systems in place for years and years, but also because their systems are already linked to a number of farm lands and orchards ‘like a spider’s web.’

Despite these challenges, the founder of Responsive Drip Irrigation, Jan Gould, told Fast Company, “wherever there’s an issue with water scarcity and food security, we want to be there.”

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If you’re not exactly sure what you are looking at, it’s the remains of a mummy with a golden tongue. Just recently, an entire set of mummies were found in Egypt, but only one of them happened to have a gold tongue.

One theory suggests that these mummies were buried when Egypt was living under the rule of Ptolemies. Although another theory suggests that they date back to the Greco-Roman period, which was after the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 B.C. when the Romans came to take over Egypt.

They were found in “wall-hole” tombs in the Temple of Taposiris, Magna, inside gilded sarcophagi, in the Classical-Era city that goes by the same name.

According to the press release by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, when found in the small chambers, the mummies were considered to be ‘in a poor state of preservation.’ What this shows is the typical characteristics surrounding the mummification processes that occurred during the Greek and Roman periods.

The gold foil amulet that was shaped like a tongue was found inside the mouth of one mummy. Notably, the site where the mummies were found also had temples that were dedicated to the god of the underworld, Osiris and Isis – who was considered a Goddess, and was the wife and sister to Osiris. It was also believed that she would help the dead in the afterlife.

The gold tongue was thought to help the deceased in the afterlife when they met Osiris, allowing them to speak to the dead. Although they aren’t sure exactly why the tongue had to be made out of gold, it was believed that it was just an “added measure” for the dead.

The Smithsonian, on the other hand, said that there is a possibility that the deceased actually had a speech impediment. Meanwhile, two of the most important of all the mummies were discovered wrapped in golden bonds of papyrus. One of them had decorations that were traits of Osiris, and another one was wearing an Atef crown, which had horns and a coiled cobra around the head, as well as a falcon design on the chest, which was to honor the god Horus.

The amazing discovery was done by a joint Egypt-Dominican team that happened to be led by Dr. Kathleen Martinez. The team also found eight marble masks portraying faces that looked to be of Roman and Greco influence within the region, as well as a female funerary mask around the size of an adult.

The Ministry’s website also states, “In the last 10 years, the mission has found several important archaeological finds that have changed our perception of the Temple of Taposiris Magna. A number of coins bearing the name and image of Queen Cleopatra VII were found inside the temple walls, in addition to many part of statues.”

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A nightclub in Glasgow, Scotland is working to become more sustainable, in the best way possible. They want to harness all the energy that comes from all the people on the dance floor as they party the night away. By using the groundbreaking system at SWG3, the club could actually save at least 70 tons of C02 annually.

With the UN COP26 climate conference coming up in November 2021 in Glasgow, BODYHEAT is hoping to utilize the energy that comes from all the dancing bodies and turn it into a source for both heating and cooling outlets.

According to a statement from the club, “We’re hugely excited to reveal our plans to introduce a state-of-the-art renewable heating and cooling system to the SWG3 complex, transforming body heat from clubbers and gig-goers into a source of energy to be used again.”

This ground-breaking innovation, BODYHEAT, is set to be installed in Scotland using heat pumps and fluids meant to capture the body heat that’s generated from the throngs of people gathered at SWG3, by ‘channeling their combined energy into twelve 150m-deep bore holes drilled beneath the venue.’ The heat that is gathered can be used to either cool the audience immediately, or it can be stored under the ground until they need it to heat the building up once again.

When a person is passively standing around, their body has the ability to radiate around 100 watts of excessive heat, and when in confined spaces, it can truly add up quickly. The massive amount of heat that is generated from people dancing at gigs or in clubs is normally just expelled as waste into the atmosphere.

The club explains, “With this new system in place, we’ll be able to utilize that warmth, consuming minimal electricity and gas on site, and in turn minimizing our carbon emissions.”

They also share, “There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought huge challenges to the events sector around the world,” said Andrew Fleming Brown, Managing Director, “but it has also created a seismic jolt across businesses, underlining the need for a stable and sustainable future.”

“BODYHEAT is our innovative contribution to a global issue, and will help us to dramatically decrease our energy consumption, bringing us one step closer to becoming a carbon neutral venue in the not so distant future,” they added.

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Not all people realize this, but birds are highly intelligent creatures. In fact, a pair of wild Goffin’s cockatoos, which are part of the parrot family, managed to build a whole three-piece set of tools in order to get to the pit of a mango fruit.

These cockatoos were actually caught in the wild and kept in an Indonesian research aviary for some time. While they were there, they were observed and recorded expertly using tools, which proves that this particular kind of bird is considered as one of the avian group’s most clever of all birds.

According to the scientists Mark O’Hara and Berenika Mioduszewska, who happened to be at the research aviary in Tanimbar, an island in Indonesia, when they saw the Goffin’s cockatoos at work.

O’Hara, who is actually from the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna, Austria, told Science, “I’d just turned away, and when I looked back, one of the birds was making and using tools. I couldn’t believe my eyes!”

Notably, before they had managed to capture the wild birds using the tools, O’Hara and Mioduszewska had been watching them for around 900-hours, observing their feeding habits as they sat up high in the canopy, and not once did they ever use any tools. So when they finally managed to see them using the tools, it was a major highlight for the scientists.

There are other bird species such as the Hyacinth Macaw and the New Caledonian Crow that have been witnessed constructing and using stick tools and hook tools as well.

The Goffin’s cockatoos have been observed to be incredibly ‘intuitive social learners’ with the ability to solve tons of different puzzles and problems. At the Messerli Institute, researchers managed to catch one cockatoo teach his fellow birds how to make and use a certain tool as well. Although they share that it was just one tool meant for one particular purpose.

For this new observation, what they saw was considered the first time for any bird species to be seen ‘creating and using a set of tools in a specific order.’

They Call It “The Bird-Brained Bandit”

During the time researchers were observing the cockatoos, the scientists would consistently provide them with food they found on the island such as wawai – otherwise known as sea mango – a fruit that’s considered poisonous for humans but very nutritious for birds. This mango has a hard pit in the center, which protects the rather large, nutritious seed inside of it.

At first, the research team didn’t notice anything extraordinary about the birds they had taken into captivity, that was until two of them began using their talons on the pits. This is when they were discovered to have created not just one or two, but three variations of tools to get their way into the pit of the fruit.

O’Hara explains in a video abstract, “Repeated provisions of the fruit allowed us to analyze the behavior in detail, and to collect and trace some of the manufactured tools.”

He added, “Using a structure-from-motion technique we could create 3D models and gather detailed measurements such as size and volume…[of the tools used]. Based on the physical properties, the function analysis classified three types of tools; we discovered that each tool type seemed to serve a different purpose.”

The birds would take the thicker portion of the branch then use their beak to push and pry open one of the ends of the pit. Then, using the second one – which could be classified as a medium-fine implement or tool – the birds would make a tiny hole in the membrane that enveloped the pit. Then for the last device, they built a scoop-like tool they used with their mouth that allowed them to extract the nutritious seed for them to eat.

Tool making, especially developing sets of tools, is something that has only been observed in capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees, and of course humans. In fact, chimpanzees even use between two to five tools to get into beehives and termite hives.

While this isn’t the first time the parrot lineage has been observed to use tools, the scientists also share that it could possibly be a learned ability due to captivity. Research team O’Hara and Mioduszewska talk about whether this behavior is something only done in captivity or whether tool use is also done in the wild in their research paper published in Cell.

O’Hara also told Science, “If they had a genetic predisposition to use tools, all the birds would do it.”

He added, “Since only a few make these, it’s more likely they invented them independently,” something he claims is probably more likely since it was these two individual birds that had quick and major proficiency in using the tools.

What the researchers believe is that this skill is not a species-wide ability, but that this was acquired by these individuals birds due to either ‘opportunistic innovations’ or possibly by observing and learning from others. Others interesting observations that are shared it the “Discussion Section” of the paper is how the tools that were crafted were specially made knowing the specific purpose and not in a trial-and-error manner.

Moreover, the researchers also share that around the Indonesian island, they found fruit underneath the wawai-bearing trees which looked like they had already been foraged or worked on with tools. In fact, one of them already had a piece of wooden fragment pushed into the fissure of the pit, which they claim that should enough time go by, it could already be considered the first-ever “avian-archaeology” instance in history.

See the video of the birds using their tools here.

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Hurricane Ida has left a path of devastation in its wake, mostly felt by residents across the U. S. East Coast from New York to Connecticut. With more than sixty people dead, homes and vehicles swept away in flash floods, and agricultural lands left wasted, the damage has been reported to be in the billions in what is now considered to be the fifth most powerful storm to hit the United States.

While people across the East Coast have been in major need of rescuing, a town in Louisiana found that it had a whole herd of cattle that needed rescuing as well. Some cowboys from the area decided that they weren’t going to allow the cows to be left stranded after their grazing grounds were flooded by the storm. And in order to rescue the herd, they decided to use airboats to get the cattle to safety.

Lead Volunteer, Derek Billiot, shared with WGNO News, “We got about 300 head of cattle… out here that we couldn’t get out from the back pastures in the time before the storm came in, being that it was a quickly developing storm.”

This isn’t the first time that volunteer Billiot has used his airboat for rescue due to a storm. But thankfully this time, since most people managed to get out of their homes and evacuate to places of safety before the storm hit, he didn’t need to use the boat to rescue people, rather he used it to rescue livestock instead.

Since going out with his water-skimming crew, Billiot and the group managed to save at least 60 heads of cattle in the Parish Plaquemines area. While not all the cows were 100% cooperative, also since many were completely exhausted from surviving the flooding in the first place, the rescue crew took on a “no cow left behind” motto.

Unfortunately, many of the animals are stranded in mud and are trapped by the debris in the marsh. While the crew of volunteers has tried to get the cows to higher ground by coaxing them forward, a number have needed to be roped and dragged into safety.

Although this cattle drive is the doing of some good Samaritans and considered very serious business, Billiot has chosen to look at it in a humorous manner, saying “Welcome to south Louisiana,” where they do “Real rodeoing.”

Take a look at this report on Twitter that shows some of the herd that required rescuing.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, cows in Plaquemines Parish are moo-ving to higher ground thanks to good samaritans on an airboat! #cows #animals #rescue #ida #hurricaneida #severeweather @GMA @abcWNN @NewsNationNow #louisiana #cattle pic.twitter.com/Ze6yE8I4A9

— Kenny Lopez (@KennyLopez_TV) August 31, 2021

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There are hundreds of available art mediums and many of these are presented in museums where people can marvel at its beauty. These artists have gained fame and popularity because of their immense talent. Then, there are those everyday folks that surprise you with their ability to create such beauty, especially one for a good cause.

One such Italian fisherman found talent and he used it for a good cause. He What makes these works of arts different is the fact that they aren’t showcased in museums. Rather, they’re found deep underwater. Because of what he did, trawlers have stopped going to the area. Now, people flock to the river to admire what he lovingly created and put together.

Paolo Fanciulli had decided to drop 39 large marble sculptures down to the very bottom of the sea. This can be found off Tuscany’s Maremma Regional Park. He did this for good reason. He had made several attempts in the past to battle unsustainable fishing. While his previous efforts weren’t quite as effective, his first taste of the art world made significant impact.

This is an amazing story, at the heart of which is an equally amazing and charismatic man. This effort is reminiscent of the confluence of an ancient relationship between man and nature, as well as a celebration of the Mediterranean Sea as a symbol of the cradle of civilization.

A 60-year-old fisherman named Fanciulli is a practitioner of sustainable fishing and “pescaturismo” or fishing-tourism at his home. He lives in the village of Talamone. Like anyone in the same industry, he wakes up at the crack of dawn. Then, he heads out into the calm waters off the coast of Tuscany’s Grosseto province. He and his colleague named Francesco fish. They always did what their ancient ancestors did. Instead of employing modern technology, they cast shallow nets that take mullet and bream while leaving the bottom reaches safely unperturbed and untouched.

Fanciulli’s has been fighting against the illegal or unsustainable methods of fishing. This has been documented time and again. In fact, stories about his efforts have appeared in newspapers all around the world. From 2002 to 2006, he commissioned the help of the Tuscan government and WWF-Italia to deploy a strategic formation of 126 underwater cement bollards. These were made to block any form of deep sea trawling nets. The latter have been rapidly destroying the fish stocks that he worked so hard to harvest for.

Fanciulli was aware of how these modern nets would tear up the delicate ecosystem of the seabed. He wanted to protect these seagrass meadows and stop the decapitation of the marine food-web. He was aware of how the nets were extremely expensive to replace, and the relatively-inexpensive bollards, that cost about €560 to make and transport, would last a lot longer than the poachers would.

That work that he did so carefully and meticulously took him twenty years to finish. His story has been narrated in his biography The House of the Fish. He then went on a similar project with interesting differences. He aimed to expand the protection of his beloved Mediterranean waters. This was made possible as he enlisted the help of some of the greatest marble sculptors in the world. His goal was to bring the world’s attention to the wider problem of general environmental degradation.

All about The House of the Fish

Fanciulli talked to GNN about this and said, “The importance of the project is that we need some sensible consumption of resources. However the illegal industry is devastating everything, and with this project we can send a message to the whole world to give back; not only to take.” He further explained, “But the intent of mine is also to think of the future; a better future, with more sustainable fishing, and a greater respect for the environment.”

Paolo Fanciulli went on a tour with some reporters. Along for the ride is his partner, Francesco. He, as they discovered is not just a fisherman, he’s also a philanthropist though he admitted that he has a yet a lot to learn about savvy marketing or social media managing.

So, he got the help of a childhood friend. This said new ally was a successful engineer. Fanciulli talked about his goal as he imagined a series of large marble sculptures, taken from the Carrara Quarry, the fount of a lot of the marble which Michelangelo had used to create his fine pieces of works of art. Fanciulli simply asked for just two pieces, but after meeting with the President of Grosseto region and Ippolito Turco, the president of an association who presently looks after these sculptures decided to give him a hundred.

The question now is who would sculpt them. Fanciulli needed to find generous, philanthropic, and far-sighted sculptors who could put their creativity to good use. These works would serve the sea, but he also needed sufficient funding to transport the 10 to 20 ton blocks from the north of Tuscany all the way to the south.

Then, Fanciulli came upon an artist named Massimo Catalani. He lived in Rome and worked at the famous Federici Palace, Paolo. The fisherman then went to his home and brought the morning’s catch in a large pot for dinner in order to make his point. The artist was well-connected with several important people from the world of art and architecture, and hence, this move could really help. One of whom Catalani was connected to was a woman named Emily Young. Young is considered to be one of Britain’s best living sculptor. Paolo Fanciulli then wrote about the experience and said, “It was like a film.”

The Atlantis of Tuscany

Young was among a dozen international and Italian sculptors. She was one of those who were kind enough to donate their time and effort to contribute to a project that would not be available in traditional museums. While they knew their hard work would slowly become covered in seaweed and seen only by divers as they sit like sentinels on the ocean floor, they wanted to do their part to help protect marine life.

Finally in May 2015, the first 20 stone blocks were placed. Those weren’t considered cheap. In fact, the pieces cost around thousands of dollars. These were then transported to the pier of Talamone. Once there, these loaded onto a barge and floated out until they reached the area where they were going to sit forever. A second group of 19 works were lowered down last summer.

Ippolito Turco talked to The Independent about the whole project and shared, “We’ve managed to totally stop the illegal fishing in the area. Now we’re looking at extending the project along the coast to the north. We want to put more sculptures on the seafloor. It has proved to be very effective.”

Ms. Young also said, “What you want to happen is that in time, you won’t know they are sculptures. They will be so covered in seaweed and algae that they will look like a coral reef or the remains of a wreck.” Young also added how she hopes that they will be discovered by marine archaeologists in the future. By then, these divers could hypothesize that these sculptures could actually be a part of an ancient civilization.

What the Future Looks Like

A total of 61 blocks of greyish marble are still in Turco and Fanciulli’s possession. They are currently waiting for these world-renowned sculptors to carve them into works of art. For those who are knowledgeable about the 17 contrade or guilds of Siena, a sculptor in the team has plans to make one of every animal-symbol on the guilds’ coats of arms. This is now a project that’s bound to attract major investment from the uber-patriotic city. Fanciulli also has plans to work with the people of the Grosseto Cultural Office. He wants them to help install underwater lighting among the sculptures so these are well lit during the night time hours.

“If there are artists that want to come to the House of the Fish, we are available, because the more artists we have the stronger the project,” Fanciulli said to the people of GNN. “I think if famous artists come here, there’s a bigger impact. If there are artists reading this, our sea has need of your talents.”

The La Casa dei Pesci website is one big fundraiser. This is a place where people can go to if they want to contribute in many ways to the project at hand. Here, artists looking to carve a block can post their idea as a fundraising effort. For those who contribute, they also get something in return. They could avail of a free dinner and a fishing trip with Paolo, paintings, and so much more.

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Thousands of animals have been displaced from their natural habitats in the past century. In fact, what was such a common sight in some areas years before can no longer be seen now. This is why environmentalists have been working so hard to fix the damages made.

For some countries, there have been victories. The officials from an Australian national park have been taking care of the many creatures that live and thrive there, and recently, they have been witness to something great. An animal that was once deemed extinct for centuries has found its way back.

The locally extinct bandicoots have been absent for more than a century. That is, until recently. They have finally come back to an Australian national park in New South Wales after over a hundred years. These bandicoots were considered a nationally threatened species. They were otherwise known by local Aboriginal people as ‘talpero.’ Years ago, they once ranged across inland Australia, including the area now called Sturt National Park.

These marsupials were native to the land, then they disappeared and were declared completely extinct in the region after ecosystem changes took place. Many of them had fallen victims to rabbits and predation by the feral cats and foxes roaming around the area.

Now, a brand new founding population of talpero have been reintroduced to the area by the team working at Wild Deserts. This said reintroduction is considered a major milestone that’s happened in the Wild Deserts conservation project. The same team also had reintroduced bilbies and mulgaras into the national park the previous year.

UNSW’s Dr Rebecca West, an ecologist based at Wild Deserts shared, “The season has been tremendous out here with the rains we had last year and then again in March.” She further said, “These rains have helped create a highly productive system that is excellent for the reintroduction of this species.”

Up until recently, these western barred bandicoots were considered to be part of the five subspecies in the area. But then, the groups have recently been split into five further species. Only the Shark Bay species, the species translocated to Sturt National Park, survived out of all five and the scientists from UNSW are aware of the impact of this important taxonomic task.

This remaining species has now been transferred to two islands and three fenced locations for protection. The Wild Deserts conservation reintroduction came from one of the above-mentioned locations. Their focus is on the self-sustaining population at Arid Recovery near Roxby Downs. They have also been supported by governments.

Many recognize their conservation value, and the Wild Deserts conservation reintroduction is also aware of the important role that this species complex played in the overall ecological function. The bandicoots play a vital role in the restoration of desert ecosystems.

The Wild Deserts team had managed to eradicate every last rabbit, cat, and fox from two 2,000 hectare feral-proof fenced exclosures found within Sturt National Park. This has now been considered as one of the largest feral-animal-free areas in Australia.

These exclosures in the wild serve as ‘training zones.’ This is where reintroduced vulnerable species can learn to thrive in their natural environment without having to face dangers from predators like cats and foxes. Once their populations start to live and thrive, they will be released into a second training area that have predators in it. This is where they will learn to become wise when it comes to dealing with natural predators. The biggest goal is to release a smarter generation of bandicoots and other locally extinct mammals back into the natural environment.

NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean said, “The reintroduction of this important species to the Corner Country in Sturt National Park is another huge step in our battle to halt and reverse the tide of mammal extinctions. Our aim is to re-establish ecosystems as they were before feral cats, foxes and rabbits wreaked havoc on Australian native wildlife.”

Talpero is considered to be the smallest members of the bandicoot family. They are estimated to be the size of a guinea pig. They can be distinguished from other bandicoots by their fawn-colored coat that have pale stripes found across the rump. They are also considered nocturnal marsupials who dig for their food in sandy environments. To find sustenance, they make foraging pits to search for seeds, tubers, insects, and fungi. This process changes the soil and helps it catch water and nutrients, and this contributes to the overall health of the ecosystem.

To date, the Wild Deserts team of experts has introduced 10 talpero as a founding population. Of course, they still hope to add more members to the family not too long after. Dr. West shared, “If they keep doing as well as they are, then I think we will be able to add some more characters to the mix. Hopefully that will re-establish bandicoots back into Sturt National Park into the future.”

A Recovering Ecosystem

The founding talpero population are from Arid Recovery. They are an independent non-profit conservation and research project that oversees a large feral-free safe haven found near Roxby Downs area in South Australia. The marsupials they had released into Wild Deserts’ southern exclosure, called ‘Mingku,’ a place named after the word which means happy in the Maljangapa language. The talpero joined two other recently reintroduced species in the ecosystem, which are the bilbies and mulgaras.

“This is an important step in restoring this desert ecosystem,” shared Professor Richard Kingsford. He is the head of the Wild Deserts project and the director of the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science. He also said, “We are already starting to see the beginnings of a transformation occurring in the landscape. The soil is starting to turn over, which gives great opportunities for lots of little invertebrates and catches water and nutrients. We think that’s part of how we can transform these deserts back into what they were.”

Dr John Read from Ecological Horizons, a major partner of the Wild Deserts project explained, “These energetic little diggers at Wild Deserts are important culturally, historically and ecologically and will be great for restoring the desert.” The Wild Deserts scientists will oversee the wellbeing of the animals on a daily basis. To help them with this task, they will make use of radio tracking devices to make sure that every species is adapting properly to their new home.

“We have deliberately designed the Wild Deserts project to allow us opportunities for scientific monitoring to assess our management and the success of the species,” said UNSW’s Dr. Reece Pedler, the Wild Deserts project coordinator, in a statement recently made.

“We hope to establish talpero in other parts of the Wild Deserts site—and ultimately into neighboring areas of Sturt National Park or beyond. We have already recorded recruitment of young that were translocated in pouch and other young that were born at Wild Deserts,” shared the doctor.

For those unfamiliar with Wild Deserts, they are a part of a major NSW Government initiative formed to protect threatened native mammals via the Reintroduction of Locally Extinct Mammals project and the Saving our Species initiative. For the next project, the team plan to reintroduce other threatened mammals into the Wild Deserts exclosures. Included in the list are western quolls, stick-nest rats, and golden bandicoots.

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There are millions of selfless people out there. Kind individuals who only want to help and make the world a better place. When we hear about stories of kindness and generosity, we know that there is hope for a much better world.

While everyday kindness is oftentimes overlooked, there are also those who use their popularity for a good cause. They know that they are better able to reach the people simply because they have garnered reputation. Such as the story of a Polish Olympian.

Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk was good at what she did. She worked hard for it and had gained the respect of her peers along the way. She was also fortunate enough to get drafted for the Tokyo Olympics where she took home the silver medal. This is a big achievement and while some might say that she only came in second at the games, any athlete can tell you that this was a big win, and more importantly, what she did outside the sport shows the world that she won the gold medal as a kind human being.

In just less than two weeks after stepping down from the winner’s podium and going home with pride in her heart, Andrejczyk took another extraordinary leap at life. This time, she showed others that she was the epitome of pure generosity. She decided to auction off her medal in order to raise funds for Miłoszek Małys. The latter is an 8-month-old Polish boy in dire need of help for the heart surgery he had to get.

The most touching part of the story was the fact that the athlete had never met Miłoszek nor his family. She read about his struggles while going through social media. The  25-year-old Andrejczyk could relate to his plight. She was a cancer survivor herself. Hence, she knew just how important obtaining timely medical intervention is, especially when it comes to health.

“Miłoszek has a serious heart defect, he needs an operation,” Andrejczyk posted on her Facebook page. It was her hope to reach out to those who had the ability to help. She then continued, “He also has support from above from Kubuś—a boy who did not make it on time, but wonderful people decided to donate his funds to Miłoszek. And this is how I want to help too. It is for him that I am auctioning off my Olympic silver medal.”

Andrejczyk also learned about the estimated costs for his medical expenses plus travel from Poland to California’s Stanford University. This was where the operation would be performed, and the costs amounted to a total of 1.5 million Polish zlotys (about $385,000). She also saw that half the sum had already been raised through online contributions. In order to come up with the remainding amount, she looked to her medal and thought that this could bring in the rest. She put it up for auction and the winning bid was not only enough, but it also exceeded the original fundraising goals.

“We have the winner!” Andrejczyk said. “On Friday I received this wonderful information, and due to the fact that you dears have already done wonders and joint forces have paid more than the equivalent of the initial medal to the Miłoszek account—I decided to end the auction so that our Miłoszek will receive the whole amount as soon as possible and can fly to the USA.”

While Andrejczyk didn’t really want to see her medal go as this was a reminder of her triumph, she was more thrilled to know the profits from the auction were earmarked for a cause that was not only close to her heart, but worthwhile as well.

Andrejczyk spole to the Times of London about her selfless deed and said, “The true value of a medal always remains in the heart. A medal is only an object, but it can be of great value to others. This silver can save lives, instead of collecting dust in a closet. That is why I decided to auction it to help sick children.” But the good news doesn’t just end here. The winning bidders, a Polish convenience store chain Zabka, had selfless and noble plans as well. In honor of her winning ways both on the Olympic field and off, the company refused to take her medal away from her.

“We were moved by the beautiful and extremely noble gesture of our Olympian, we decided to support [the benefit],” Zabka posted on Facebook as they talked about the win. “We also decided that the silver medal from Tokyo will stay with Ms. Maria, who showed what it means to be [a true champion].”

Silver is a precious metal that not everyone can afford, but the true triumph that’s worth its weight in gold here is the fact that people came together to help save the life of a child. In fact, the act is priceless, and the best part about this story is that everyone came out triumphant.

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While huge conglomerates and other major retail stores work towards a greener and more sustainable future, a German company has gone even further by creating cutting edge technology that will allow people to drive their electric vehicles and charge them  on the road at the same time.

In fact, that state of Indiana might be the very first one to have access to a wireless charging road that actually charges your car as you drive along the road.

While people have been given ideas and pictures in their head from movies and television shows about the future, the fact that the time has actually come at some point in this 21^st century only goes to show that innovation and growth are at an all-time high, and people might actually begin to get a taste of what it’s like to live in those very modern times.

Considering Tesla already built a self-driving vehicle and others have the ability to control their entire homes with a push of a button from their smartphones, another amazing possibility is a wireless road that make gasoline basically obsolete.

With battery charging times and range getting better each and every year, the battery is usually the most limiting issue when it comes to people choosing to buy an electric vehicle (EV).

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has chosen to get ahead of the game, burying electrified wire coils under the roads to make a magnetic field along the surface of the road. It’s meant to mimic the way wireless charging stations for phones and tablets were designed to work.

So that the roads could work, cars would be fitted with a receiver coil that can pick up the charge as they drive along the road. This would become magnetized, taking in electricity from the actual coils.

The German technology, which has been named ‘Magment’ is expected to be built in three phases, beginning in the late summer.

According to a statement from the company’s CEO, Mauricio Esquerra, “This project is a real step forward towards the future of dynamic wireless charging that will undoubtedly set the standard for affordable, sustainable, and efficient transportation electrification.”

According to SingularityHub, considering that copper was at an all-time high cost earlier in spring, Magment chose to ditch the copper wire coils and use recycled ferrite instead. They believe that this will give them a better chance to  “achieve transmission efficiency of up to 95% and be built at standard road-building installation costs.”

If they manage to get the savings they want, they plan to start production soon after the two lab tests are completed.

A Charging Electrified Field

As the project pushes through, it will be the very first electrified charging road within the United States, which is truly a testament to the way the world is moving forward in this manner. In fact, researchers working on the charging road at the University of Cornell projected that the project would take between 5 to 10 years to complete and provide the desired technology.

The Indiana project, which would be the main representative, will be the best example of this capability since it will be able to cater to all EVs. Sweden, on the other hand, already has electric rails in some of their highways, but they only allow the biggest vehicles on the road to charge using an electric arm on their undercarriage, which draws it capacity and power from the rail.

An Israeli firm called ‘Electreon’ has also built their own prototype – alongside Volkswagon – having 70 kilowatt-hours of charging speed on the road. It’s located between the Italian cities of Milan and Brescia, which tends to be one of the more densely congested and populated long-distance commutes.

Meanwhile, another German corporation, Siemens, is also attempting to build wires and cables ‘above a three-mile stretch of road outside Frankfurt’ that will let cars charge as they drive close by the city trams. Many are looking forward to the day this a actually happens, with most believing that the world of motor vehicles will never be the same again. And they’re absolutely right.

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While finding a variety of fossilized animals, bones, and eggs are hardly surprising in the scientific world, finding an egg that has the fossilized remains of an embryo inside of it, is. That’s exactly what happened when a couple of paleontologists were working in a Northern portion of China.

This area is fairly known to be a hotspot for finding dinosaur bones, but apparently a local farmer from that region had quite the number of incredible discoveries sitting around inside a box which he had found over the years.

While the farmer just thought that he had a collection of interesting pieces and oddly shaped orbs, it was upon the inspection of scientists Haishui Jiang and Fenglu Han of one of the objects that had them examining it much more closely.

Inside the eggshell, the scientists found bony remains, which is what gave them a bit of a clue as to where it was actually from. When they asked the farmer where he found it, he led the two to a particular area, which is where they found over specimens that had unfortunately, not fared too well over the years.

With the egg, the two scientists decided to inspect it much more closely, using micro-computed tomography. This allowed them to look through the eggshell’s exterior. What they noticed were bones in disarray, but other consultants theorized that what they found looked a lot like the embryo of a turtle.

Incredibly, it seemed to belong to an extinct species of giant land tortoises known as the Nanhsiungchelyidae that were alive during the Cretaceous period. This was also the period when the age of dinosaurs basically came to an end.

According to the study authors, the finding “is one of the largest and thickest shelled Mesozoic turtle eggs known.” They published their work in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Considering what kind of egg they found and the turtle that laid it would also mean that it was one of the biggest turtles to have ever walked the earth, managed to grow as big as an adult human man from the tip of the shell to the shell tail.

Although scientists are not exactly sure just how these turtles lived day to day, they do know that they were herbivores, or plant eaters, while the inner portion of its eggshell also shares a bit about the type of habitat it survived in 144 to 66 million years ago.

In the paper, the study authors share, “The thick-shelled, spherical eggs of nanhsiungchelyids may have been an adaptation, at least in part, to incubation in harsh arid environments.”

They also wrote, “Among [living] turtles, a calcified rigid shell limits the movement of water outside the eggshell to prevent excess water loss of the egg during incubation. Spherical eggs can also reduce water loss and thickened eggshell in some reptiles may be an adaptation to an arid climate.”

In National Geographic, the scientists discuss how these baby turtles would have to be incredibly strong to break through the thick shells they are born in. Although these nanhsiungchelyids turtles managed to go extinct, with the other non-flying dinosaurs, their aquatic relatives, on the other hand, managed to continue to survive alongside snakes, crocodiles and other animal species.

Nanhsiungchelyids can actually be compared to the giant Galapagos tortoises that are indeed a national treasure, that manage to bring thousands of people to their shores each and every year. But given that these humongous reptiles were plant eaters, had they lived during the time after the asteroid came and killed off the dinosaurs – as well as most of the plant life – scientists believe that they wouldn’t have survived either.

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There is no denying just how formidable IKEA is in the home furnishing division all across the world. This Swedish conglomerate was founded back in 1943, and the world hasn’t been the same ever since, in a good way of course.

Considering that the company is highly influential, while earning approximately $50 billion annually, many want to know exactly what they are doing in terms of sustainability and how they are actually helping the planet.

Much like Apple, Walmart and other massive corporations, IKEA has decided to work towards becoming more environmentally friendly by cutting their emissions at least 50 percent by the year 2030. Furthermore, they promise to move towards carbon neutrality by the year 2050.

In the meantime, the company will “fill the gap with clean energy.” How you ask? The plan is to allow customers to ‘buy wind and solar electricity and infrastructure’ from them. Pretty impressive, right?

How the company estimates their responsibility in emissions is by calculating how much comes from their electrical appliances sales, while factoring in how much electricity it takes to power those said appliances. Then, the outcome is the figure that they apply to their future climate targets.

Jan Gardberg, who happens to be the New Retail Business Manager of the Ingka Group, said in a statement, “At IKEA, we want to become fully circular and climate positive by 2030, built on renewable energy and resources. We believe the future of energy is renewable and we want to make electricity from sustainable sources more accessible and affordable for all.”

The Ingka Group has managed 367 of the 423 IKEA stores found worldwide since 2016. The group has also invested at least €2.5 billion, which is equivalent to $2.76 billion, in renewable energy, which includes ‘two solar parks in the U.S., a wind farm in Romania, and 534 wind turbines in 14 countries.’

Moreover, the group has installed almost a million solar panels in most of their stores, while also marketing IKEA-brand solar panels to another 11 markets worldwide. Aside from how they use this renewable energy to power their business, it can even be bought by the company’s customers.

IKEA customers that live in Sweden can use the STRÖMMA offer to buy electricity generated via solar and wind, where they use an app to track their electricity usage. And for those customers that purchased the IKEA solar panels, they can even use the app to track their own solar production, which they can sell back to the company if they don’t use it all up.

Currently, customers that want to avail of the IKEA solar power are only those that live in Sweden. But due to the fact that the company has 100 wind turbines more than the number of stores they own, it won’t come as a surprise if they begin selling utilities in other countries as well.

The Race to Zero Initiative

IKEA isn’t the only brand working towards a more sustainable future. Other corporations like H&M, Patagonia and the Kingfisher Group are all part of the “Race to Zero” initiative as well, which aims to take the retail industry forward when it comes to lessening global warming ‘to below levels outlined by the IPCC.’

Much like IKEA’s own targets towards emissions, the Race to Zero initiative promises to cut emissions in half by the year 2030, eventually becoming neutral by the year 2050. This is a difficult challenge for any retail company, especially when that company depends on cheap production costs and keeping their prices low.

CEO of Ingka Group I IKEA, Jesper Brodin said, “At IKEA, we have committed to becoming climate positive by 2030 and as part of that, we are also committed to the 1.5°C goal in the Paris Agreement. This movement seeks to engage the retail sector and by working together and acting with speed, focusing on what makes real impact, we can truly make a difference. For people and the planet.”

Moreover, their website also shared, “Engagement in the Race to Zero Breakthroughs: Retail Campaign is an opportunity for retailers to help the retail sector accelerate a whole-economy transition for a health, resilient, zero-carbon future. Retailers will receive sector-specific guidance, access to networks and a ready-made strategic template to achieve net-zero emissions.”

Although the fight towards zero emissions is still a couple of decades away, IKEA has already been working towards making big changes, like buying up forest lands to help with the continued absorption of CO2, as well as buying back their old furniture so that they don’t end up in landfills that add to the global garbage pandemic.

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