Mid-week smorgasbord of tasty good news nuggets to help perk up the day.
Monarch Boost
North America’s monarch butterfly has been upgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable,” reports Science.The surprising reversal follows a researcher’s challenge to existing population models, concluding that although the insect’s population had fallen in Mexico, it had increased in other places and overall is in fact “doing really well.”
Stellar Performance
Solar is a major contributor to the renewable energy mix, and now there's the Stella Terra - the first off-road solar-powered car, which recently completed a test drive of 620 miles across north Africa - without recharging! Students from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands designed the two-seater, which crossed a variety of landscapes during the test. “With Stella Terra, we want to demonstrate that the transition to a sustainable future offers reasons for optimism and encourages individuals and companies to accelerate the energy transition,” said Wisse Bos, team manager of Solar Team Eindhoven.
New Framework
The UN has agreed to new rules to protect people and planet from hazardous chemicals and waste, reports Deutsche Welle. The Global Framework on Chemicals sets out 28 concrete guidelines including: phasing out highly dangerous pesticides in agriculture by 2035, better access to information about potential risks and a system for classifying and labelling chemicals. "Everyone on this planet should be able to live and work without fear of falling sick or dying from chemical exposure," said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme who organized the conference.
No Longer Toxic Forever: PFAS are known as 'forever chemicals' because there has been no way of getting rid of them. Until now...
Geography Game
GeoGuessr, originally a pastime for bored homebound users, has transformed into a competitive platform for showcasing encyclopedic knowledge of global geography through analyzing Google Street View images. The game took off during the pandemic, giving people (especially high school kids) a fun way to feel like they were anywhere but stuck inside their homes. It now has 65 million users. Want to give it a go? There's a basic option that's free and one with all the bells and whistles, that isn't. GeoGuessr
No Lawns Community
Americans use more than 7 billion gallons of water a day on their lawns. Over half of that doesn’t even help lawns. And lawns are no help to pollinators. Reddit’s r/NoLawns community is a safe haven for people who have bravely shirked the traditional green-grass lawn in favor of something more wild and free. One user’s before-and-after photos show the genuine glory that can come of rewilding your yard, in just 18 months. How about you? It would be great news for pollinators.
Why Clover Lawns Are Much Better Than Grass: Is it time for a rethink? Clover has a secret superpower...
Clean Fusion Energy
Tokamak Energy has been at the forefront of developing fusion energy reactors in the private sector. They made headlines last year by reaching temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius in their high-field spherical tokamak device called the ST40 - marking a significant milestone towards realizing fusion power plants that can generate clean commercial fusion energy. Since then, Tokamak Energy has been making upgrades to its ST40 device to improve the understanding and development of high-performance diverted plasma scenarios. Speaking of their last upgrades, the company said in a press release: "We're delighted with these latest machine enhancements and results, and proud of how ST40 continues to expand our understanding, further validating future power plant designs on our path to delivering clean, secure and affordable fusion energy in the 2030s." Let's hope so!
“One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going.”
J.B. Priestley
On this Day
18 October 1867: After much opposition, a deal negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State William Seward for the U.S. purchase of the Russian colony of Alaska was approved. The price of $7.2 million amounted to about two cents per acre.
Research shows that the famous 2,500-year-old Parthenon sculptures in Athens were originally painted. What a relief...
Former LA Lakers star has built a house out of cement-less and carbon-negative alternative concrete. Partanna...
Power of Positivity: People with mild cognitive impairment can reverse symptoms if they think positively about ageing. Ageing well...
Mood Booster
Childrens' choirs across the globe sing What a Wonderful World, featuring Grandpa Elliott.