Grant’s Favourite Top 10 Happy Eco News Stories of 2021
By Grant Brown, Founder, Happy Eco News
This year in addition to the Top 25 Happy Eco News stories (as determined by what you the audience reads) we are listing our own personal favourites.
This year for me it is all about the idea of the regeneration of natural systems and using nature to help undo some of the damage of the last 100 years or so. The UN agrees, and this year at COP26, a significant focus was on promoting and protecting biodiversity and in particular, protecting the world’s forests.
Below we have my own personal Top 10 Happy Eco News stories of 2021. I hope you enjoy it!
Takeaways:
- An area the size of the United States could be restored as forests with the potential of erasing nearly 100 years of carbon emissions.
- More than half the potential to restore trees can be found in just six countries: Russia, the USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and China.
- Tropical forests have the greatest potential to store carbon and promote biodiversity.
- A mature forest takes a long time to grow, therefore it is important to protect old-growth and other mature forests as well as plant new ones.
2. A skyscraper will purify Shenzhen’s air with aquaponic gardens
Takeaways:
- Shenzhen is one of China’s fastest-growing technological hubs and has poor air quality.
- The use of aquaponics in new skyscrapers allows natural filtration of outside air for building occupants.
- In addition to helping the air quality inside the building, the plants will sequester carbon, produce oxygen, and moderate temperatures in the building and the surrounding city, reducing the amount of air conditioning and energy required to keep it cool.
3. These drones will plant 40,000 trees in a month. By 2028, they’ll have planted 1 billion
Takeaways:
- To restore forests that have already been lost, drones can work more quickly and cheaply than humans planting with shovels.
- Two drone pilots are able to plant 100,000 trees in a day compared to someone planting by hand about 1,500 per day.
- The drones first map the area and identify what types of plants will be best in a specific area or climate, mimicking natural biodiversity.
- The cost is roughly about one-quarter that of hand planting.
4. The world’s biggest carbon-sucking machine is switching on in Iceland
Takeaways:
- One of several new startups in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Climeworks is currently the biggest to go online.
- It uses zero-emission geothermal energy to power proprietary technology that captures carbon directly from the air and pumps it underground where it turns to stone.
- Tangible and verifiable carbon capture will become very valuable in the near future as many offset programs are of dubious quality.
- According to the International Energy Agency, we will need to capture 10 million tonnes per year by 2030.
5. Seafloor microbes hoover up methane, keeping global warming in check
Takeaways:
- Carbonate rock mounds on the ocean floor host communities of microbes that consume methane, a potent greenhouse gas 30x worse than CO2.
- Rock-inhabiting microbes consume methane 50x faster than microbes that live in sediment.
- These microbes therefore play a crucial role in regulating the Earth’s temperature by consuming methane before it travels up into the water column and into the atmosphere.
- Microbes in the carbonate rocks act like a methane bio filter consuming it before it leaves the ocean.
6. COP26 brings an unprecedented global pledge to halt deforestation – one which must succeed
Takeaways:
- Protection of the world’s forests is the number one way we can slow global warming.
- At the COP26 climate summit, more than 100 leaders representing 85% of the world’s forests, committed to reverse deforestation by 2030.
- The commitment is backed by $12 billion of public finance and $7 billion of private investment.
- Banking also joined in, stating that new projects will be no longer be financed if they lead to or contribute to deforestation.
7. Restoring degrading lands can help us mitigate climate change
Takeaways:
- Rehabilitation of damaged lands slows climate change, restores nature and biodiversity, protects us against pandemics, allows us to produce more food, creates jobs, reduces inequality, and builds peace.
- Restoring degrading land can do all of that quickly, at low cost, and with minimal technological requirements, allowing local indigenous peoples to engage and protect their own futures.
- Restoring forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems can fortify nature’s defence against weather extremes, at a time when climate change-linked storms, floods, and droughts are becoming the norm.
- Forest restoration can provide food and employment to people in developing nations.
8. Regenerative Agriculture To Restore Our Earth
Takeaways:
- Global food production accounts for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and uses half of the world’s habitable lands.
- In 35 years, there will be 10 billion people on earth. The environmental impacts of trying to increase production by further intensifying industrial farming are devastating, and expanding lands under cultivation destroys entire ecosystems.
- Regenerative agriculture promotes food security; restores soil, organic matter, and biodiversity to agricultural systems; and reduces atmospheric carbon.
- Regenerative agriculture provides direct benefits to farmers due to its ability to increase crop yield and produce high-quality, nutrient-rich crops at a lower cost.
- Regenerative agriculture creates healthy communities and increases farmers’ incomes.
Takeaways:
- Saalumarada Thimmakka has been listed in BBC’s most influential & inspirational 100 women.
- She is 105 years of age and is on the list for planting more than 8000 trees in 80 years.
- The word ‘Saalumarada’ means ‘row of trees’ in the Kannada language.
- A community-oriented person, Thimmakka has also played an important role in constructing a water tank to store rainwater in her village. She also dreams of constructing a hospital.
10. These 4 start-ups are using seaweed to help save the planet
Takeaways:
- Seaweed plays a crucial role in the ocean’s ability to absorb greenhouse gases.
- Seaweed is better at absorbing CO2 emissions than trees are.
- Seaweed is considered a high-value source of protein for humans and feed for livestock.
- Various uses for seaweed are being developed and many different types are being grown.