The Top 5 Happy Eco News Stories for February 14, 2022
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This week we have a guest post by Dr. Thea Bechshoft, Staff Scientist at Polar Bears International and Field Technique Advisor to the Polar Bear Research Council who discusses the role zoos play in polar bear conservation. We also have stories about Denmark’s new energy island, Del Monte’s development in sustainable packaging, Rihanna’s $15 million donation to climate justice, the return of a California Redwood forest, and ways to trick your brain into climate action.
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The Role of Zoos in Polar Bear Conservation
Guest Post By: Dr. Thea Bechshoft, Staff Scientist at Polar Bears International and Field Technique Advisor to the Polar Bear Research Council.
As a field biologist, I know first-hand that studying polar bears in the wild can be logistically demanding and even dangerous. Working far out on the sea ice—in extreme cold, in a setting that looks like the moon—is both challenging and awe-inspiring. Such fieldwork yields important insights and is a critical part of polar bear conservation, but it also has its limits, and that’s where zoos can play a critical role.
Some research, like those focusing on reproductive studies or on the development of minimally invasive monitoring methods, would be impossible to conduct with polar bears in the wild. Also, it’s extremely rare for field researchers to handle the same wild bear multiple times during any given year, meaning that field data often gives us a precious but single snapshot in time of what is happening with an individual bear…[read more].
The Happy Eco News Weekly Top 5
Takeaways:
- By 2030, Denmark will have completed the world’s first “energy island”
- This artificial landmass will be located far off the country’s western coast and will channel green electricity from a vast network of wind turbines.
- The electricity generated will be transmitted to the mainland and is said to be enough to eventually power 3 million homes. It will also produce one and half times Denmark’s energy’s needs which would allow them to export some to neighbouring countries…[read more].
Takeaways:
- Del Monte is looking to make all of its plastic packaging 100% recyclable by 2030.
- They are working to develop a compostable fruit cup including beverage and fruit cups that contain post-consumer recycled content.
- The company has already eliminated 11.4 million pounds of plastic and 34.5 million pounds of metal in its packaging since 2009…[read more].
Takeaways:
- Singer/songwriter Rihanna has donated $15 to a climate justice movement through her Clara Lionel Foundation.
- The money will be distributed among 18 climate justice organizations that are doing work in seven Caribbean nations and the United States.
- These organizations are focused on groups with female, LGBT, and Black and Indigenous leaders because their communities are at the greatest risk.…[read more].
Takeaways:
- Save the Redwoods League, a conservation group is returning guardianship of hundreds of acres of redwood forestlands to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council.
- The forest will be renamed ” Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ ” which means “fish run place” in the Sinkyone language.
- The Native tribes plan to protect the environment using a mix of Indigenous place-based land guardianship principles, conservation science, climate adaption, and fire resiliency… [read more].
Takeaways:
- A recent study suggests that a failure of intergenerational mentalizing (i.e. making sacrifices for the future of others) is a factor that contributes to climate action.
- The findings found that stimulating a brain region called the temporoparietal junction can make people more likely to make sustainable decisions.
- “To motivate people for sustainability, it could be important to make sure they understand that their behaviour (be it voting decision, consumption patterns or travel choice) actually has an impact on the wellbeing of other human beings,” said Benedikt Langenbach, a psychologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Duisberg-Essen in Germany..…[read more].
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