The Top 5 Happy Eco News Stories for December 27, 2021Thanks for reading the Top 5 Happy Eco News!
This week we have three blog posts! The first is by Jean Ong, the founder of Ecolover United who tells us about her 5 hacks for a sustainable Christmas. The second post is by Brigitta Gunawan an OceanEcho 30×30 participant who tells us about her relationship with the ocean and her experience at the fellowship in Indonesia. The third post is by content manager, Jamie D’Souza who tells us the ways she tries to stay sustainable during the holidays. We also have stories about a passenger train that is running on hydrogen fuel cells, a start up that is using rice hulls to solve water scarcity, landfill solar as a solution to clean energy production, COP25’s net zero commitments, and how CO2 traps could help grow plants on the moon.
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5 Secret Hacks For a Sustainable Christmas: This is Better than a Gift GuideGuest Post by: Jean Ong, founder of Ecolover United
It’s Christmas! The best time of the year! I love the holidays. I love getting lots of presents. So I feel a little tug of war with being Earth loving and celebrating this festive season. But I found 5 hacks that make this a season of joy while being Earth friendly.
- Give gifts your friends and family will love.
Picking the perfect gift for your loved ones is one tricky task. What to get her? Candle? Make-up? Handbag? Gift guides are no help at all. That’s because each person is unique and there’s no universal gift that appeals to everyone.
How familiar is this scenario? You splurge to get your loved one a gift and they don’t really appreciate it. And this happens every Christmas. So this year, why not get it right? It’s such a shame when you spend all that hard- earned cash to try to please your loved ones but they’re still not thrilled about their gift. The easiest way to gift what people actually want is to simply just ask them.
Yup, it’s that easy. Just ask. Ask them “What do you want for Christmas”. This is pretty straightforward with kids. They’ll tell you what they want…[read more].
Rewriting the Future: Marine Protected Areas and 30×30
Guest Post by: Brigitta Gunawan, OceanEcho 30×30 participant
The ocean—home to a world that serves wonders in sustaining lives; encapsulating the past, present, and future of this generation, and those to come. A resilient force of nature that connects us through the very air we breathe. Whether near or far from the coast, the ocean is a provider, a giver of more than what we could possibly comprehend.
As a little girl who took her first steps on the tropical shores of Bali, Indonesia, I am among those enthralled by the vast, majestic blue stretching far beyond the horizon. One step after another, I was enchanted by the warm grains of sand slowly moving beneath my feet and the sea sprawling endless to the unknown. I saw a future yet to be discovered. Now, as a high school student graduating in 2022, I hope to better understand the ocean I so dearly love as I pursue my studies in marine biology.
The ocean has become part of who I am. It stores memories of my childhood, sparking joy and comfort with every moment of recollection. Growing up as a competitive swimmer, I have always shared an indescribable bond with water, finding tranquility in being submerged and surrounded by a force so powerful yet so calm…[read more].
“Maybe Christmas Doesn’t Come From a Store, Maybe Christmas Perhaps Means a Little Bit More”
Guest Post by: Jamie D’Souza, Content Manager for Happy Eco News
There’s something magical about the Christmas season. I love all the Christmas songs and hymns, the Christmas food and goodies that only come out once a year, the snow that falls delicately on the ground Christmas morning (okay that one doesn’t happen much anymore, but you get where I’m going). But over the past few years, something has been getting in the way of the Christmas spirit. You can probably guess what it is because I’m sure many of you feel it too. It’s the shopping, the need to buy presents and all the stress that comes with it.
Every year, little naïve me thinks that we’ve finally gotten to a point where people are buying less and thinking more about the environment. And every year around Christmastime, I am shocked to find out how wrong I often am. Whenever I walk into a mall, I’m dizzy with the amount of things that are shoved into stores, all waiting to be purchased. And despite everything we know about waste and overconsuming, people continue to pile things into their shopping carts until they spill over and they leave the stores with bags full of stuff…[read more].
The Happy Eco News Weekly Top 5
Takeaways:
- A passenger train in Glasgow, Scotland has been retrofitted to run on hydrogen fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries
- The total capacity of the train system is 800 kilowatts which is a split between hydrogen fuel cells and batteries that can be charged in 15 minutes.
- It is estimated that renewable and low-carbon hydrogen would be able to contribute up to 20 percent of the carbon necessary to reduce global temperatures.
- According to Urban Future Lab’s managing director of cleantech initiatives “If we can improve the devices and processes that will be used to make, transport and store clean hydrogen in the future, it can become a cost-competitive fuel” …[read more].
Takeaways:
- The startup company Glanris is using rice hulls to produce a high-performance hybrid water filtration media
- Traditionally rice hulls are being burned and produces billions of pounds of greenhouse gases but Glanris found that repurposing it can sequester carbon and produce fast, efficient and cheap water filtration systems …[read more].
Takeaways:
- Closed landfills in America have started to be converted into solar sites which can generate clean energy and transform communities
- It is estimated that the 10 000 closed landfills that exist in the United States has the potential to host at least 70% of total installed US solar capacity
- Moreover by repurposing these closed landfills, it can help provide jobs and revitalized lower-income communities where many of these landfills are located…[read more].
Takeaways:
- At the end of COP26 the financial sector made a pledge to determine a clearer path to how decarbonization would take place.
- Organizations said that they would align their portfolios with science-based targets to achieve these goals
- Industries and countries that rely on carbon-intensive production will be forced to find efficient and cleaner energy options
- If these new pledges are achieved, it would cover 70% of the emissions reductions required to reach the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario by 2050… [read more].
Takeaways:
- Researchers have found that CO2 traps found in pockets in the moon could be used to grow plants in space
- This could have several benefits including being used as fuel which more mean less resources needed for launching supplies. The gas could be converted into oxygen to for astronauts to breathe, and it could be used in greenhouses… [read more].
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