Biden marks Earth Day with $7bn ‘solar for all’ investment
Earth Day today focuses on plastics.
Poll finds big majority of Americans support U.S. taking steps to reduce climate change
Russ Baker - A Dutch nonprofit is involved in trying to clean up the plastic trash in the ocean, as well as from rivers, the main route by which trash reaches the ocean. Intercepting it before it even reaches the ocean is more efficient than dealing with the consequences downstream. Apparently, out of 3 million rivers in the world, a mere thousand convey 80 percent of river trash, and this scrappy outfit is targeting every one of them. And they’re now operating in far-flung places, such as Indonesia, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, and California. ...A company In Bogota, Colombia, has been offering win-win solutions that also address the homeless population, estimated at around 10,000 in Bogota alone. Conceptos Plasticos, a firm founded in 2010, is using plastic trash to solve the housing shortage. It all came out of a graduation thesis and architect Oscar Mendez’s desire to help a friend build a house in a remote, somewhat inaccessible area. Mendez found a way to forge plastic trash into strong, “hard as rock,” bricks, which, like Lego blocks, hold together with no adhesives. Hence, anyone can assemble a modern-looking house (or school or warehouse), and in just a few days. And take one apart and move it. The blocks are adaptable to any terrain or climate — resistant to strong winds and even earthquakes — Mendez says, and can be reused after any catastrophe. And they cost at least 30 percent less than traditional materials; as a bonus, all this generates jobs in trash collection and processing. From Bogota, this practice has now spread to Africa and India. In Ireland, 22-year-old chemistry student Fionn Ferreira invented a method to remove microplastics from water using a magnetic liquid called ferrofluid, which consists of magnetic particles. The tiny (nanoscale) magnetic particles bind to microplastic particles, separating them from water. Then, larger magnets attract the magnetic-fluid-bound particles. His method produces no waste, nor does it require any filters or chemicals. MORE
1 comment:
I have celebrated Earth Day almost every year since 1970. OI am both hopeful for th activism of the young and despair for the sorry condition our planet is in. My local watershed group and as group working to save the only urban park along the river from being closed held a cleanup at the gates of the locked park. We even snuck in and cleaned the field. It was a different kind of day than I have been having recently, up at the legislature testifying on 6 or 8 bills twice a week? Tonite I go to a rally for climate justice along the Port of Providence, and in between I am editing video of local hawks, osprey, and coyotes I filmed yesterday. I try to lean towards hope, and real activism helps alot. Write a letter to a state rep today. if y0ou are not going to see one in person.
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