Global Briefs.

Eating more fruits and vegetables as part of a plant-based diet is catching on. In 2019, more than one third of Americans said they plan to incorporate more plant-based foods into their diets to achieve their wellness resolutions, according to data company YouGov. For those new to “green eating”—and even for veggie-minded veterans—lots of helpful information (read more…)

In a virtual reality experiment, people recovered faster from a small electric shock when they smelled a mix of natural scents in a forest scene or grass in a park scene than when they smelled diesel or tar in an urban setting. Researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences hypothesized that natural environments would reduce stress faster than a non-natural one.

(read more…)

ICON, an Austin-based startup, built the first permitted 3D-printed house in the U.S. in its hometown in 2018. Since then, the company has built a small neighborhood in Mexico and launched its Vulcan II printer, which can produce houses measuring up to 2,000 square feet. San Francisco-based Apis Cor is another company in the 3D-printing space: It has just completed a two-story, 6,900-square-foot building in Dubai and it plans to build a demonstration house in Santa Barbara, California, this year.

(read more…)

Palau is the first country in the world to ban ecologically harmful sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate. Studies have found the ingredients cause coral DNA to mutate in the larval stage, which prevents coral from growing properly and makes it more susceptible to bleaching. (read more…)

Jose Cuervo, the bestselling tequila maker globally, has initiated an eco-friendly process of salvaging the leftover agave fibers from its distilling process and upcycling them into a more sustainable alternative to regular plastic straws. The biodegradable drinking straw will decompose (read more…)

Copenhagen has dramatically refashioned the look and function of a power station with a new state-of-the-art, waste-to-power plant that powers 200,000 homes and doubles—actually, sextuples—as a ski slope, a climbing wall, a viewing tower, a hiking and running trail network, and a bar and restaurant. Named Copenhill, “It is the cleanest waste-to-energy power plant in the world,” says architect Bjarke Ingels. (read more…)

Electric propulsion has long been a goal of aviation manufacturers to lessen the carbon footprint of air travel. On December 11, Vancouver, Canada-based Harbour Air launched the first successful test flight (read more…)

Vichy Deal/Shutterstock.com

By laundering clothes using simple ingredients and wise eco-practices, consumers can both save money and lower their carbon footprint.

Natural cleaning ingredients cited by The Eco Guide include white vinegar, baking soda, lemons, borax and castile soap, all of which “can be bought in bulk with minimal packaging and have known cleaning properties (read more…)

A drought-plagued Kenyan region is using a new, solar-powered, desalination plant from the international nonprofit GivePower to obtain clean water. Before the plant’s arrival in the town of Kiunga, villagers had completely run out of clean drinking water and had to use dirty well water and saltwater from the Indian Ocean. The new solar water farm produces enough drinking water that’s cleaner than typical desalination plants for more than 35,000 people every day.

(read more…)

A new Climate Neutral product label is joining others like Fair Trade, 100% Organic and Made in America, and has reached its funding goal on a Kickstarter to raise $100,000. The idea for the label was hatched by the founders of San Francisco-based backpack and camera equipment maker Peak Design and Brooklyn-based Biolite, which sells sustainable energy products. Participating companies (read more…)

Marrying forestry to technology, the startup Flash Forest, in Toronto, is using aerial drones to plant trees 10 times faster than human planters with a goal of 1 billion trees by 2028. Since testing prototype devices last year, it has already planted several thousand trees across Ontario using pre-germinated seed pods containing a mixture of species. The drones are capable of planting trees at just 50 cents per pod, or a quarter of the cost of typical planting methods. Funded partly by a Kickstarter campaign,

(read more…)

Alaska, which has some of the most pristine environments in the U.S., also has some of the worst air quality in its cities. According to the American Lung Association 2019 State of the Air report, Fairbanks ranked third and a section of Anchorage ranked 21st in cities with high levels of short-term particle pollution between 2015-2017, the latest years that figures are available.

(read more…)

Scientists have discovered that some trees raise and lower their branches several times in the course of the night, indicating a cycle of water and sugar transportation, but they didn’t know why. Plants need water to photosynthesize glucose, the basic building block from which their more complex molecules are formed. For trees, this entails drawing water from the roots to the leaves.

(read more…)

In 1969, there were only 100 South American fur seals and sea lions along the coastline of Lima, the capitol of Peru, but that has increased to more than 8,000 today, thanks to local fishermen that have realized over the intervening years that a balanced ecosystem benefits all. Once hunted almost to the point of no return for their pelts and because they ate so many fish, the sea mammals have slowly rebounded since Peru established its first marine protection area there in 1979, the Paracas Marine Reserve.

(read more…)

The 40th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), held last November, adopted a resolution that reaffirms the importance of the Earth Charter as an ethical framework for sustainable development.

(read more…)

laymanzoom/Shutterstock.com

Taking care of newborn babies in an eco-friendly way can have a significant impact on both our environment and the little ones’ health. TreeHugger reports that disposable diapers, made from a blend of plastic and wood pulp and often encased in additional plastic, remain for an estimated 200 to 500 years. A baby uses between 5,000 and 8,000 diapers before being potty-trained, generating 18 billion diapers annually in the U.S. alone. (read more…)

Eating and drinking fermented probiotic dairy products such as yogurt, kefir, cheese and sour cream reduces the risk of heart disease for women, report researchers from the Netherlands that analyzed data from nearly 8,000 Australian women over a 15-year (read more…)

A Hawaiian beach that was formed by lava from the erupting Kilauea volcano in 2018 is already littered with invisible pieces of tiny plastic. The black sand beach named Pohoiki, which stretches for 1,000 feet on Hawaii’s Big Island, was created from shards of hot lava coming in contact with seawater, (read more…)

Three cows turned up at Cape Lookout National Seashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina months after being swept out to sea by Hurricane Dorian. Local resident Paula D. O’Mally wrote on social media, “The cows are wild and have survived for decades without (read more…)

According to researchers, each airline passenger produces about three pounds of trash per flight, from disposable headphones and plastic cutlery to food scraps and toilet waste. To increase mindfulness about the trash, British design firm PriestmanGoode has refashioned the economy meal tray, replacing plastic (read more…)

Fast-growing lemna, or duckweed, a flowering green plant that blooms on the surface of still and slow-moving bodies of water that is often mistaken for algae, is finding new utility as a protein source. California-based Plantible Foods claims that duckweed, traditionally the enemy of pond owners, is superior to other alternative proteins like pea, wheat and soy. (read more…)

A 2016 study at the University of British Columbia revealed that air pollution is the fourth-leading cause of death worldwide, with at least 5.5 million air pollution-related fatalities every year. A new cultivation system developed by researchers from Imperial College London collaborating with the startup Arborea have created the world’s first Biosolar Leaf technology to purify and improve the air in London. They hope it’ll boost environmental outcomes not only in the UK, but all over the world. The process works by purifying the air through photosynthesis of microscopic plants, which removes the greenhouse gases from the environment and generates breathable oxygen at the same time.

The startup’s innovative cultivation system can facilitate the growth of microalgae, phytoplankton and diatoms on large, solar panel-like structures that can be installed on buildings and other infrastructure to improve the quality of the atmosphere. Arborea’s cultivation system also creates a sustainable source of organic biomass from which nutritious food additives can be extracted for plant-based food.

As a result of its partnership with Just Goods, Inc., the Norwegian Cruise Line will replace single-use plastic bottles across its fleet by January 1, 2020, beginning with the Norwegian Encore. The company’s ships will feature JUST, which is 100 percent spring water in a plant-based carton made of 82 percent renewable materials from trees grown in responsibly managed forests. The cap and shoulder are made from a sugarcane-based plastic. It’s refillable and recyclable. (read more…)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler has signed a directive reducing the animal testing that the agency has long required on such animals as dogs, birds, rats and fish to gauge the toxicity of chemicals before they can be bought, sold or used in the environment. The agency also authorized $4.25 million in funding for five universities to research the development and use of alternative test methods and strategies that reduce, refine or replace vertebrate animal testing. He says, “Today’s memo directs the agency to aggressively reduce animal testing, including reducing mammal study requests and funding 30 percent by 2025 and completely eliminating them by 2035.” (read more…)

The RS Automotive gas station, in Takoma Park, Maryland, has been around since 1958, and Depeswar Doley has been running it for 22 years. Now, frustrated by the complicated rules, requirements and contracts of oil and gas companies, he has completely transitioned away from offering petroleum and become the country’s first exclusively electric vehicle (EV) charging station. (read more…)

A new study based on the National Land Cover Database of 3,086 of the 3,103 counties in the continental U.S. published in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening found that increases in forest and shrub cover corresponded to decreases in Medicare health care spending, even when accounting for economic, geographic or other factors that might independently influence healthcare costs. (read more…)

From mountain peaks to base lodges, many alpine ski resorts are working to reduce the environmental impact of their operations. Skiers will discover that sustainability is the watchword at a growing number of facilities, with a focus on reducing energy usage and cutting back on waste.

In Vermont, Killington Resort uses four offsite solar farms, as well as the AllEarth Solar tracking system that rotates panels using GPS technology to produce enough energy to run all the lifts for the resort and nearby Pico Mountain for the entire season. (read more…)

Farmer Cannon Michael left more than 100 acres of ripe cantaloupes unharvested last year because he couldn’t sell them for enough to cover the cost of labor, packing and shipping. According to a new study from Santa Clara University, in California, about one-third of edible produce remains unharvested in the fields, where it rots and gets plowed under. Most research on food loss and food waste has focused on post-harvest, retail and consumer levels. The new study offers a far more accurate look at on-farm food loss by relying on in-field measurements. ReFED, a coalition of nonprofits, businesses and government agencies that fight food loss and food waste, estimates that 21 percent of water, 18 percent of cropland and 19 percent of fertilizer in the U.S. are dedicated to food that is never eaten.

Phoenix, which had 128 days at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit last year, is one of the hottest and fastest-warming cities in the U.S., and most American cities are expected to drastically heat up in the next decades with heat waves and triple-digit days. In the Valley of the Sun, work and play are shifting into the cooler hours. Neighborhoods are active at dawn and dusk when residents hike, jog and paddleboard. Last year, heat caused or contributed to the deaths of 182 people in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. Ariane Middel, a professor of urban climate at Arizona State University, says, “We are almost a living laboratory. We can test strategies and see different ways to keep adapting and mitigating. By the time it gets hot in other places, they can take what we have learned here.”

Myriad companies are pledging to make their products and packaging more sustainable, including the multinational food and drink giant Nestlé, which announced in January that it is committed to using 100 percent recyclable packaging for its candy by 2025. Miniature KitKat chocolate bars from its Japan confectionery branch will be wrapped in paper instead of plastic, with instructions for how to fashion it, post-snack, into the iconic origami crane, a traditional Japanese messenger of thoughts and wishes. Nestlé hopes that this will guarantee the paper remains in use longer rather than be disposed of immediately.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is effecting significant changes that weaken how the Endangered Species Act is implemented, a move critics fear will allow for more oil and gas drilling on land that is currently habitat-protected, and will limit how much regulators consider the impacts of the climate crisis. The changes affect how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration consider whether species qualify for protections, as well as how the agencies determine what habitats deserve special protections. It could make it more difficult to factor in the impact of climate change on species.

As methane concentrations increase in the atmosphere, evidence points to shale oil and gas as the probable source, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken steps to stop regulating it. New Cornell University research published in Biogeosciences, a journal of the European Geosciences Union, suggests that the methane released by high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has different characteristics than the methane from conventional natural gas and other fossil fuels such as coal. (read more…)

California has enacted a ban on fur trapping for animal pelts, making it the first state to outlaw
a centuries-old livelihood that was intertwined with the rise of the Western frontier. The Wildlife Protection Act of 2019 prohibits commercial and recreational trapping on both public and private lands. Legislators are considering proposals to ban the sale of all fur products, including fur coats, and to outlaw the use of animals in any circus in the state, with the exception of domesticated horses, dogs and cats.

In a northern India district, regulators require that applicants for gun licenses, in addition to normal background checks, must plant 10 trees and submit selfies as photographic evidence of having done so. To mark World Environment Day in June, Chander Gaind, the deputy commissioner of the district of Ferozepur in Punjab State, had an idea. “I thought about how much Punjabi people love guns,” he says. “We receive hundreds of applications for gun licenses from this district every year. Maybe I could get them to love caring for the environment, too.” India has more than 3.3 million active gun licenses. Tajinder Singh, 47, a farmer in the district, says he wants to protect himself from wild animals and bands of armed robbers.

Dental floss, that little everyday staple in our medicine cabinets, has been taking on a bad name environmentally. The smooth, slippery flosses that are the top choice among both dentists and consumers are made with a Teflon-like product containing toxic PFAs and PFCs. The wax coatings and flavors of ordinary nylon flosses are typically made with petroleum products that may be endocrine disrupters. (read more…)

The Amazon rainforest is in a critical state of near-collapse with a record number of fires in Brazil this year—twice as many as in 2018—as the Brazilian government allows it to happen. The fires have been deliberately set to deforest the Amazon and displace its indigenous populations to make way for soybean and cattle farming and oil drilling, actions encouraged by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. The Amazon is known as the as the “lungs” of our Earth; its oxygen is an essential, irreparable link that holds the global ecosystem within balance. Scientists say that with another 5 percent burned, the Amazon could reach the tipping point of ecosystem collapse. (read more…)

The endangered Florida panther has been saved from extinction thanks to the introduction of female Texan pumas, reports a 10-year study conducted by the University of Florida and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The pumas, which like the panthers, are a sub-species of cougar, were brought to Florida in 1995 to counter the effects of habitat loss and health issues caused by panther inbreeding, including heart defects, infertility and other genetic problems. The panther population has since rebounded from a low of 20 to 30 cats to between 120 and 230.

The Makhonjwa Mountains of South Africa harbor some of the planet’s oldest rocks, including meteorites that have been striking the Earth for eons. According to the peer-reviewed journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, researchers using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy have discovered a 3.3 billion-year-old layer (read more…)

Twenty-four scientists from around the world published a letter entitled, “Stop Military Conflicts From Trashing Environment,” in the journal Nature, urging the United Nations International Law Commission to create protections for the environment in armed conflicts. It reads, “We call on governments to incorporate explicit safeguards for biodiversity, (read more…)

Askwsar Hilonga, Ph.D., a chemical engineer and public health scientist in Tanzania, grew up dealing with waterborne diseases such as cholera that made him ill. According to the World Health Organization, he has used his scientific expertise and local knowledge to develop a purification system based on nanomaterials. While the filter is still under study, stations have been set up throughout Tanzania, mostly managed by women, to help those that otherwise would not have safe drinking water.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the algae-choked “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi River spanned 7,829 square miles this summer, roughly the size of Massachusetts and considerably above the 6,000-square-mile five-year average. The largest recorded Gulf dead zone to date was 8,776 square miles in (read more…)

Overfished and struggling widow rockfish are returning to the Pacific coast. Legal protections since 2001 had made it illegal to take the fish commercially, and fisheries managers implemented “catch share” regulations as the fishing fleet dwindled from 400 to 50 trawlers. But the fish have made a faster comeback (read more…)

A new analysis links climate change to the recent global rise of a multidrug-resistant fungal superbug, Candida auris. A decade after it was discovered in 2009, the superbug has popped up in many genetically distinct strains in more than 30 countries on three continents. Mystified, scientists say that (read more…)

A wood-treating process for telephone poles that caused soil and groundwater contamination prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to designate 47 acres in Bellingham, Washington, as a Superfund site in 1997. The cleanup, including removal of 28,000 tons of contaminated soil to a repository, reestablishment (read more…)

Natural Awakenings senior writer Linda Sechrist credits her 15 years of researching and interviewing spiritual luminaries with putting her on the path to her own spiritual awakening, which is detailed in one chapter of All You Need Is Love: The Importance of Transcending Spiritual Clichés and Living Their Deeper Wisdom. The new book offers a candid, fresh look at the way many New Age concepts have been trivialized and commercialized, when they’re “guaranteed to deliver overnight abundance, soulmates and enlightenment in easy 5-step workshops.” (read more…)

Pollution More Deadly Than Cigarettes

Toxic air is killing more people in Europe than tobacco smoking, according to new research published in the European Heart Journal. The number of early deaths caused by air pollution is double previous estimates (read more…)