Kelley Stobie runs an amazing thoroughbred racehorse rehabilitation and rehoming facility on her farm in Puerto Rico, but as you can imagine, funding is a constant struggle. This is even more so during a global pandemic.
Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare
Luckily, a couple of organizations came together recently in a huge show of support for the work Kelley does at Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare, and it’s made a huge difference at just the right time.
Now, CTA has a five-month supply of hay and Kelley won’t have to scramble week after week to get food together for the horses she’s rehabilitating.
Kelley is known for being super resourceful—in truth she’s had to be. She was working at an equine facility in St. Maarten in 1995 when Hurricane Luis hit, and after Maria struck Puerto Rico she won awards for her bravery and dedication to saving horses at the demolished Camarero racetrack.
Over 800 thoroughbreds were left trapped in the wreckage and for weeks she got them out, arranged medical care, and coordinated emergency supplies and help from mainland USA.
Finding hay in Puerto Rico is a constant struggle. There just aren’t the rich pastures like you see in Kentucky, so Kelley is always on the lookout for five bales here and 10 bales there.
The rehabilitation facility is on her family’s farm, with an additional plot next door that her husband fenced in for them. They can only take in 20 horses at a time, so it’s always a race against the clock to get them rehabbed and rehomed.
Each time she gets a new horse, Kelley gets to work contacting other rehab organizations in Canada and the US and applying for funding to help support its care.
Recently, Kelley was awarded a $3,000 grant from After the Finish Line, a non-profit funding source for thoroughbred racehorses.
This enabled her to buy a load of hay, but she needed to find a way to get it from mainland USA to Puerto Rico. Kelley reached out to Trailer Bridge, one of the shipping and logistics companies that services the Jacksonville to Puerto Rico route, to inquire about a discount.
Ann Jones took the request right to the top of the company, to Trailer Bridge CEO Mitch Luciano, who decided that not only would they get the load there but they would provide the container and transport free of charge.
The hay funded by After the Finish Line and delivered by Trailer Bridge made it to the Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare farm last week, and it’s just such a great example of “it takes a village.”
Without the ongoing support of others in a position to make it happen, Kelley says she just wouldn’t be able to afford what it takes to keep this facility going.
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World Animal Day just passed, and to celebrate we’re sharing the good news that two elephants who spentdecades having to perform in miserable zoo conditions have finally found a new home together in a beautiful 250-acre jungle sanctuary.
Paul Heaney, Elephant Nature Park
The pandemic has been hard on lots of businesses around the world, but animal fans say it’s no bad thing that Phuket Zoo faces closure because of a lack of visitors during COVID-19.
Many groups and individuals have been celebrating, with Thailand non-profit Save Elephant Foundationtaking the charge to find a new home for the zoo’s sweet elephant pair.
Initially, it looked like they wouldn’t have the money to save both Tang Mo–the older of the elephants, she’s been at the zoo since she was two years old–and teenager San Mueang, who was taken from his mother when he was only three.
After news of their potential rescue traveled on social media, though, enough funds were raised by strangers around the globe to rescue both of these close friends.
Ry Emmerson of Elephant Nature Park says, “We believe in the healing, beautiful bond these two share and we can’t wait to see them enjoy the rest of their lives together as they remember what it feels like to be an elephant.”
The news of this relocation is a real bright spot in a difficult year.
If you’d like to donate to Elephant Nature Park, which is currently supporting almost 2,000 elephants with their daily needs as so many of Thailand’s zoos struggle without tourists during the pandemic, just head here.
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During normal election years, it’s typically retired people who step in to act as poll workers every fourth November. But many of America’s elderly are staying home to protect themselves from COVID-19, and now the country’s youth have stepped up to take the reins of civic responsibility.
Arnaud Jaegers
In a funny turn of events, a web developer in San Francisco that had originally created a website to see if people would help buy pizza for those waiting in line to vote at polling stations—the aptly named Pizza to the Polls—pivoted towards a model of recruiting poll station workers which people informed him were going to be dangerously low in number this year.
This required a change of name as well, to Power the Polls, which has so far recruited 450,000 of the “next generation of poll workers,” 200,000 above their original target of a quarter million.
The majority of people signing up are between 18-35 years of age, the opposite end of the spectrum to the normal battalion of America’s volunteer poll workers, more than 70% of whom are between 60-70 years of age.
Along with age comes an increased susceptibility to the coronavirus, and in states like Alaska, 95% of Anchorage’s previous volunteers declined to participate this year.
Power the Polls is uniting youth volunteers, associations, and corporations to ensure the poll workers have access to personal protective equipment, training, and pay in some cases.
They’ve also relied on their corporate partners for recruitment, and their willingness to give their workers paid time off, or try and recruit poll workers from among their staff.
Civil associations like the AARP and the Association of Young Americans have also been involved, and have helped educate voters about the need for poll workers and in helping ensure that once they sign up they show up.
“There is a need for us to sound the alarm,” says John Hishta, AARP’s senior vice president of campaigns to Fast Company, “and that’s why we’re working intergenerationally with these other folks.”
Fast Company details all the things a volunteer poll station worker is responsible for, such as tidying up and helping people who have trouble, as well as keeping the machines functional and reporting polling data.
This year they will also be working with PPE the whole time, constantly sanitizing the operating space, and helping people maintain safe social distancing practices.
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Quote of the Day: “Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.” – Pericles
Photo: by Luke Stackpoole
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
In a future where most things in our everyday life are connected through the internet, devices and sensors will need to run without wires or batteries to be practical.
Uppsala University
Towards this goal, Swedish researchers have created a new type of dye-sensitized solar cell that could charge our electronics by harvesting light from indoor lamps.
The research—published in Chemical Science—promises to revolutionize indoor digital sensing for smart greenhouses, offices, shelves, packages, and many other ‘smart’ everyday objects that connect to the internet.
According to a statement from Uppsala University, it is estimated that by 2025, many facets of our lives will be mediated through 75 billion devices that connect to the internet—a majority of which will be located indoors.
Broad installation of internet-enabled devices requires them to become autonomous, meaning that they should no longer need batteries or a grid connection to operate. To achieve this, it is crucial to identify a local low-maintenance energy source that can provide power them, especially in ambient conditions.
An Uppsala research team led by Marina Freitag, assistant professor at the Department of Chemistry, has developed new indoor photovoltaic cells that can convert up to 34 per cent of visible light into electricity to power a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.
The team has designed novel dye-sensitised photovoltaic cells based on a copper-complex electrolyte, which makes them ideal for harvesting indoor light from fluorescent lamps and LEDs.
The latest promising results establish dye-sensitised solar cells as leaders in power conversion efficiency for ambient lighting conditions, outperforming conventional silicon and solar cells made from exotic materials.
“Knowing the spectra of these light sources makes it possible to tune special dyes to absorb indoor light.
While generating large amounts of energy, these indoor photovoltaics also maintain a high voltage under low light, which is important to power IoT devices,” says Freitag.
Reducing battery waste and energy consumption
In cooperation with the Technical University of Munich, the researchers have further designed an adaptive ‘power management’ system for solar-powered IoT sensors.
In contrast to their battery-limited counterparts, the light-driven devices intelligently feed from the amount of light available.
Computational workloads are executed according to the level of illumination, minimizing energy losses during storage and thus using all light energy to the maximum of its availability.
Combining artificial intelligence and automated learning, the solar cell system can thus reduce energy consumption, battery waste, and help to improve general living conditions.
In the future, scientists expect that billions of IoT devices self-powered by indoor solar cells will provide everything from environmental information to human-machine and machine-machine communications.
When 72-year-old Randy Long was cleaning out his garage not long ago, he came across some practice baseballs he used to toss around with his son and grandson.
Thinking a new generation of kids might get some use out of them, the Montgomery, Alabama senior took them to a local batting cage, where he left them along with a sentimental note that might just bring even the manliest of men to tears:
“Hope someone can use some of these baseballs in the batting cages. I found them cleaning my garage. I pitched them to my son and grandson for countless rounds. My son is now 46 y/o and my grandson is 23 y/o. I am 72 and what I won’t give to pitch a couple of buckets to them. They have both moved away. If you are a father cherish these times. You won’t believe how quickly they will be gone.
God bless
P.S. Give them a hug and tell them you love them every chance you get.”
Touched, Long’s grandson, Ethan Anderson, tweeted about his grandpa’s generous gesture. He never expected the post to go viral.
The impact of the story finally hit home when the family was contacted by the news outlets, but Anderson says while his grandfather is amazed by all the attention he’s getting, he really doesn’t have much use for social media.
“He is still not completely sure what Twitter is,” Anderson joked to ESPN. “[He] even calls hashtags ‘hashbrowns.’”
My grandad left an old bucket of balls at the batting cages we used to go to with this note on them.... I’m not crying, you’re crying pic.twitter.com/zlQFwNq1R2
Anderson may be grown up, but he fondly remembers his grandpa as a thoughtful coach who helped him achieve his true athletic potential. “When I was a kid, we would usually go a few times a week to hit in the cages,” he recalled. “Many times, I didn’t even want to go, but he always wanted me to be the best player I could be.”
After the ESPN story broke, Anderson was nearly swept away by the wave of positive feedback. “I’ve had a lot of kids younger than me telling me they’ll cherish the times they have in the cages with their dads or grand-dads,” he told CNN. “How they won’t take it for granted anymore.”
Seems Anderson didn’t want to take things for granted anymore, either. “I get to go back and visit every now and then,” he said. “[I] just didn’t realize that he missed hitting in the cages.”
Although he’s since moved to Birmingham, about a two-hour drive from Long, Anderson has decided it’s time to team back up with his grandpa for a long-overdue batting-cage come back on a more regular basis.
“Love is the most important thing in the world,” legendary New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra once said, “but baseball is pretty good, too.”
This World Teachers’ Day, Qatar Airways is giving away 21,000 complimentary tickets to teachers to thank them for their vital work in educating young people worldwide during the challenges brought by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Qatar Airways
The giveaway opened this morning and runs for the next three days. Teaching professionals can register for this exclusive offer here by submitting a form to receive a unique promotion code that’s offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Teaching professionals from over 75 countries in which Qatar Airways currently operates are eligible for tickets.
Each country will receive a daily allocation of tickets staggered over the three-day campaign period—they’ll be released at 4 am Doha time (9 pm EST, -1) each day.
Teachers that successfully register will receive one Economy Class round-trip ticket to anywhere on Qatar Airways’ current network of more than 90 destinations worldwide.
Additionally, they will receive a voucher for 50 per cent off one future round-trip ticket that they can use for themselves, a family member, or a friend.
Both tickets are valid for travel up to 30 September 2021, and teachers who receive tickets will benefit from the airline’s leading flexible booking policies.
They can also rest assured that the carrier has implemented the most advanced safety and hygiene measures on board its aircraft: including full PPE suits for cabin crew and complimentary protective kits and face shields for passengers.
Let a teacher know you appreciate their efforts by sharing the giveaway details them. Just make sure to get in touch with them before the October 8 deadline!
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A fisherman has formed the unlikeliest of decade-long friendships—with a blind seal who follows every day.
Nicholas Lewis first met Shauna the seal in 2010 when she was just a pup. She poked her head out of the water looking for some food.
Ever since, the sociable seal has greeted Nicholas at the steps at Peel Bay on the Isle of Man to “say hello.”
The 41-year-old crab and lobster fisherman says he now feels like Shauna is like his own child as he sees her every day and “loves her very much.”
Shauna will spend her afternoons following one of Nicholas’ three boats around the bay before enjoying two or three mackerel a day.
The dad-of-four said, “When she was just a little pup she’d appear and we’d always feed her and she became so confident and comfortable around us. I don’t think we’d go a single morning without her coming to say hello.
“She used to come up the steps to wait for us knowing that we’d be there in the morning. It was a bit startling at first seeing a seal waiting for you like you had an appointment. I love seeing her by my boat—she’s fascinating.
Sadly, in the last year Shauna has become blind in one eye and has progressively lost sight in both eyes.
Nicholas noticed Shauna’s left eye was suddenly turning white in late 2019, and then six months later both turned fully white.
He said he has had to take extra care for his best pal in recent times, as she has become more prone to injuries.
Still, ten years on and this pair continue to be inseparable—something Nicholas says he won’t ever take for granted. For him, Shauna will always be like “family.”
(WATCH the fun friendship in the SWNS video below.)
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Enzymes produced in the stomachs of certain bacteria found during several high-profile discoveries have been combined by English scientists to create a super enzyme, reducing the time it takes for these chemicals to depolymerize, or breakdown plastic from weeks into mere hours.
The new discovery would further triple this speed at which the plastic polymers are undone, providing a serious opportunity to win the fight against plastic pollution in the next few decades, as well as opening the door for scientists to create more synthetic enzymes targeted for specific kinds of plastics.
The field of organic enzymatic plastic recycling blew up during the second half of the 2010s, with Japanese scientists in 2016 discovering a bug that lived on plastic trash mounds which actually ate the material and disconnected the polymers of polyethylene terapthalate (PET), one of the most common plastics used in making water bottles and clothing.
Professor John McGeehan from the Center for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth would, in 2018, create a superior version of it in his lab completely by accident, that sped up the depolymerization time significantly.
Another breakthrough would come in April of this year from the University of Toulouse, where an enzyme extracted from composting leaves depolymerized PET in about 10 hours when heated to 70°C (158°F).
A French company Carbios would take this technology and lay the groundwork for a market application by 2024-2025.
Pushing the boundaries
Now McGeehan is responsible for another breakthrough in a crowded field. By combining PETase, the original enzyme based on the Japanese discovery, with MHETase, another one that converts the disconnected polymers to plastic monomers—a base material ready to be used for recycling—the resulting enzyme “cocktail” broke down plastics three times as fast, while simultaneously putting the plastic on the next step to being reused.
In order to understand how to conjoin them, McGeehan used the Diamond Light Source, a device that bombards molecules with intense beams of X-rays 10 billion times brighter than the sun, allowing the user to see individual atoms in a 3D structure.
This allowed the team to produce a detailed map of the MHETase enzyme, giving them the molecular blueprints to begin engineering a faster enzyme system.
“Our first experiments showed that they did indeed work better together, so we decided to try to physically link them, like two Pac-men joined by a piece of string,” said McGeenhan in a statement.
“It took a great deal of work on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was worth the effort—we were delighted to see that our new chimeric enzyme is up to three times faster than the naturally evolved separate enzymes, opening new avenues for further improvements.”
Improvements might include adding further enzymes to breakdown natural material as well as plastics, such as natural/artificial blended fabrics, or take-away drink cups—the plastic lining inside of which often prevents the rest of the cup from being recycled.
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Quote of the Day: “Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. Style is what you choose.” – Lauren Hutton
Photo: by Jesús García Soto, CC license (cropped, enhanced)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
With so much misery being felt in communities surrounding the West Coast wildfires, we were looking for any silver linings and wondering if these blazes might actually be beneficial to the environment. Our friends at the nonprofit EarthTalk had some answers…
Adam Wilson
On the plus side, forest fire does clear away the tinder-like overgrown understory that has resulted from years of forest management that avoided fire at all cost. Hundreds of years ago, many of the forests now on fire in California, Oregon and Washington had fewer yet larger and healthier trees. But these days, partly thanks to fire suppression regimes as well as other factors, forests are more crowded today with smaller, less healthy trees.
It’s also harder for those remaining mature, established trees to compete for nutrients and space with all the undergrowth that’s built up in recent decades. In these situations, small manageable fires (or even better, prescribed burns) cannot only be beneficial, but can help prevent larger fires down the road by clearing the weaker, smaller trees.
Another benefit of wildfire is the clearing of overgrown underbrush to make room for new grasses, herbs and regenerated shrubs that provide food and habitat for many wildlife species. Also, the removal of thick stands of shrubs increases the water supply for the remaining larger plants and trees—and also allows streams and rivers to swell, further benefiting ever-thirsty native flora and fauna.
Yet another benefit of fire is that it kills off fungi, bacteria, viruses and insects that can decimate tree and plant communities and entire forest ecosystems. According to CalFire, California’s statewide wildfire management agency, more trees die from insect infestation and disease than from wildfire; some fire actually helps keep forests devoid of such pests and healthier overall than without fire. CalFire points out that vegetation burned by wildfire provides a rich source of nutrients that nourish surviving trees and soil.
And periodic fire can be an important way to keep certain ecosystems in balance. Many trees have evolved with fire and some even require it for seed germination; a few species even sport leaves covered with flammable resins (manzanita, scrub oak, chamise) to encourage fires that help seed the next generation.
National Geographic reports that, surprisingly, wildlife casualties tend to be low during wildfire events, as animals—especially those native to the areas on-fire and evolved to respond to the threat—either burrow in the ground or flee to safer areas instinctively. But invasive plants and animals may not fare as well given lack of genetic imprinting to be on alert for the threat.
EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk. To donate, visit their website – or send questions to: [email protected].
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Over the last decade ‘Grandpa Ron’, as the students call him, has volunteered thousands of hours every year to be with local school children—but it wasn’t until classes moved online due to COVID-19, that Ron Jacobson realized his legacy.
That legacy reached far deeper than being a school volunteer. He had become a treasured friend. And those students were now missing the hugs he given them every morning.
Back in March 2020, Jacobson had already logged 900 volunteer hours during the 2019-20 school year by the time Cle Elum-Roslyn Elementary in Ronald, Washington, closed its doors, and transition to virtual instruction.
“These kids who relied on me being there for them had suddenly lost me.” Jacobson told GNN. “When they started doing their schoolwork online, several complained to the faculty that they missed ‘Grandpa Ron.'”
The school received so many requests for Grandpa Ron that administrators added Jacobson’s contact information to the school’s online directory, allowing students to keep in touch with Jacobson. Students immediately began sending Jacobson emails and letters and even coming to his home to check up on him and offer to walk his dog.
Jacobson now responds to each of his many ‘pen-pals,’ adding a bright spot to the students’ days—and his own.
“Of course, I am happy to listen to the kids’ problems as well,” Jacobson says. “I have heard from faculty members and parents how much this regular communication has changed the kids’ attitudes.”
Because of his service to the community, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has honored Jacobson—a Vietnam veteran—by naming him a spokesman for their campaign, #StillServing, which highlights the many ways America’s veterans continue serving even after leaving active military.
“The Marine Corps taught me, the two things that are most important are: complete the mission and take care of your troops. I’m still taking care of the troops.”
The third annual Healthiest Communities rankings came out last month which rated all the major factors contributing to the physical and mental health of locations across America.
Los Alamos by Stan Y
Los Alamos County, New Mexico turned out to be the healthiest community in the U.S., according to the extensive research underwritten by the Aetna Foundation, with research by U.S. News and World Report that examined nearly 3,000 locations across the country on dozens of factors that shape community health and well-being,
Los Alamos received a perfect score for measurements including drinking water quality, affordable housing availability, park access, and number of college educated citizens.
Perhaps most notably, Colorado grabbed 6 of the top 10 spots. Three counties in Colorado ranked in the top five, including Douglas County (2nd), Broomfield County (fourth), and Routt County (5th). Falls Church, Virginia was ranked third most healthy.
They all scored above the national average in at least eight of the 10 categories—Education, Equity, Economy, Population Health, Housing, Food & Nutrition, Public Safety Infrastructure, Environment, and Community Vitality.
The project serves as a tool to inform residents, community health leaders and elected officials about policies and best practices for better health outcomes by assessing which communities offer their citizens the greatest opportunity to live a productive, healthy life.
The analysis of 84 metrics of well-being seemed to parallel how well a county was doing during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well. The No.1 ranked community, Los Alamos County, had seen just 124 cases per 100,000 residents by late August, compared with a national average more than 10 times that rate.
Based on information from sources such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the data come from a period predating the pandemic.
This year, new measures explored medical debt, census self-response rates, and eviction rates within communities.
Top 10 Healthiest Communities Overall
Los Alamos County, New Mexico
Douglas County, Colorado
Falls Church, Virginia
Broomfield County, Colorado
Routt County, Colorado
Loudoun County, Virginia
Pitkin County, Colorado
Carver County, Minnesota
Summit County, Colorado
San Miguel County Colorado
Top 5 Communities for Good Health Outcomes
San Juan County, Washington
Marin County, California
Carver County, Minnesota
Cedar County, Nebraska
Winneshiek County, Iowa
Top 5 Communities for Access to Health Care
Olmstead County, Minnesota
Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Johnson County, Iowa
Perry County, Kentucky
District of Columbia
Honolulu County, Hawaii, ranked No. 1 for the mental health category, which assessed deaths from suicide, alcohol or drugs, the rate of depression among Medicare beneficiaries and the number of poor mental health days per month
Quote of the Day: “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” – Marthe Troly-Curtin
Photo: by Daiga Ellaby
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Millions of Americans are being impacted by the economic downturn this year, with many even facing eviction.
Linh Do – CC license
To ease the strain, the Trump Administration issued an executive order on Sept. 4 that bans evictions due to non-payment through the end of the year.
The order applies to individuals who have personal income less than $99,000, or those who did not need to pay income tax in 2019, or those who received a stimulus check and are unable to pay rent due to income loss or extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses.
To be eligible for the eviction protection, you would be required to submit to the landlord or property manager this declaration attesting under oath to your inability to pay, but there may be other hurdles that renters are faced with if they cannot pay their rent this year.
If you need help or advice, there are groups and lawyers who will assist you.
Tenants who need help understanding the new moratorium, filling out their declaration form, or who have questions about eligibility, can contact the The COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, which provides free legal aid to tenants by pairing volunteer attorneys with tenants facing eviction and other housing issues related to COVID-19 hardship.
“The national moratorium on evictions, when implemented, is a first step that protects millions of Americans from becoming homeless through the December holidays,” said Zach Neumann, co-founder and Executive Director of the non-profit based in Colorado.
Wells Fargo, as part of its $175 million commitment to COVID relief, is donating $5.4 million in grants to 15 legal assistance organizations that are working to keep people housed through pro bono services and advocacy efforts for renters.
A first-of-its-kind initiative from the Wells Fargo Foundation, the grants will enable the following organizations to provide more free or low-cost legal counseling and attorney representation to people at risk of eviction.
The National Housing Law Project
Alabama – Volunteer Lawyers Birmingham
California – Bay Area Legal Aid
Colorado Legal Services
Florida – Greater Miami Legal Services
Georgia – Atlanta Legal Aid Society
Illinois – Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, in Chicago
Louisiana – Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
Maryland – Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland
Minnesota – Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid
Missouri – Legal Services of Eastern Missouri
North Carolina – Legal Aid of North Carolina
Pennsylvania – Community Legal Services, in Philadelphia
Texas – Texas Rio Grande Legal Services
Virginia – Housing Opportunities Made Equal, in Richmond
You can also visit legalfaq.org to find a community-based organization in your area that may provide legal assistance, food, healthcare, and other services.
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Rooftop microalgae panels soak up sunlight, remove CO2, and produce plant proteins. – Arborea
The mainstream media is covering the climate crisis infinitely more than they used to. However, they often report dramatically more on the negative—focusing on the new extremes in our regional temperatures, the dramatic new rainfall patterns, forest fires, and floods.
While it is crucial to relay the scope of the challenge we now face, we should not ignore the businesses and scientists who have devoted themselves to solving key aspects of the clean energy and carbon capture challenges. A rapid new influx of researchers—some funded by governments—have sped up the flow of progress more and more quickly.
Take solar energy, for example. Many casual news readers may not know that scientists and engineers have improved solar energy technology so much that new cells are now cheaper than analysts could ever have anticipated in the early years. In fact, they are now more affordable for developing communities than building new fossil fuel plants, even—while simultaneously being more efficient, more powerful, and longer-lasting.
New solar cells can also now be transparent, with functional integration for home windows, windows in skyscrapers, greenhouse rooftops, or even solar canopies lining highway roads. Advanced new solar tech can even accomplish additional things for homeowners—like one new line of panels that gather moisture from the air to generate clean drinking water while also providing off-the-grid energy, produced by Arizona-based Zero Mass Water’s SOURCE technology.
SOURCE technology from Zero Mass Water
New indoor solar cells can harvest low levels of ambient light, providing a power source for many electronics. Buoyant, floating solar pads (so-called “floatovoltaics”) can be placed on lakes and along shorelines in regions with little land to spare. Solar “thermal” cells bank the heat provided by sun and either use it as storable heat for one’s home—or turn it into electricity with a thermoelectric generator. Advanced new rooftop panels can even generate power overnight, harvesting energy from the heat dissipating from one’s rooftop back into space after a long day of sun.
In terms of wind energy, the blade length of for an advanced new turbine can reasonably be measured in units of football fields, with larger units providing more energy than ever before. Today’s models, for example, can generate roughly 100 times more power than models from the 1970s while requiring only a fraction of the cost per megawatt-hour.
Even our means of storing renewable energy have improved over time—supposedly the Achilles Heel of renewables like solar and wind. Clever engineers from around the world have crafted new systems of channeling excess energy (from when the sun or wind do happen to be around) into storable forms for use later, when the sun goes down. New battery backup systems like flow batteries and battery-like designs for stored potential energy have moved to fill niche roles in this regard. In terms of the latter, fascinating new backup power systems use excess energy produced on sunny or windy days to compress air or water into confined spaces, or raise weights, as seen below from Energy Vault—all forms of potential energy which can then be released to move turbines and generate electricity in times of need.
Concrete blocks are hoisted for potential energy storage for later use. – Energy Vault
This is all entirely aside from the new developments in safer, sustainable forms of 24/7 clean energy like nuclear. Often mistaken to be more dangerous than it is, scientists around the world have worked to make nuclear energy even safer with new innovations in heat storage and reactor coolants, fuel substitutes for dangerous uranium—and rapid new progress in nuclear fusion, a potential civilizational game-changer that some engineers are projecting for completion as early as 2025. To say nothing of other new advancements in 24/7 clean energy rarely mentioned in these conversations—like rapidly-deployed geothermal energy units, so-called “microhydro” river-based energy systems, tidal energy systems that take advantage of the Earth’s never-ending tidal movements—and more.
Every aspect of how we currently conduct our lives in the postindustrial West is being examined for energy savings and carbon-light alternatives. And the good news is that scientists from around the world have again produced significant new developments in both, creating new ways of manufacturing plastics, refining metals, making clothes and other products. Thanks to new advancements in biotechnology, engineered yeast strains and algae colonies can produce anything from more sustainable phone casings to greener winter skis.
Our global food system is also under scrutiny, given the immense carbon costs for how we currently source and consume our food. But brilliant scientists have again stepped up to the challenge, developing advanced fertilizers that are now saving croplands, fortified crops to withstand the ravages of our changing climate—and modern engineering marvels like indoor, vertical farms micromanaged by AI stand to revolutionize just how local and sustainable our food can be.
This is just a small sample of the many new developments out there inching us further toward solving our climate woes. We even have labs working on mitigating what life will be like on a warming planet in the meantime. Engineers are now developing “smart clothes” that direct heat away from the body to keep cooler on hot days. New cooling technology exists in nanoscale coatings for building surfaces to redirect more sunlight away and slightly reduce our dependency on AC. Radiative cooling panels exist to recycle and cool a building’s air and water, reducing AC needs further.
Beyond all the negative news we’re used to, in this dialogue, our cities are proactively being “greened” with more plant life to lower local temperatures, absorb more local CO2 and absorb more floodwaters.
Energy harvesting systems are popping up everywhere—within our sidewalks with compression-based energy tech, in solar energy-lined windows for skyscrapers, and in the smarter grids connecting them all together. In this dialogue, we have Roomba-like aquatic drones scavenging oceans and rivers for all the garbage our species has left behind (no joke, we really do have aquatic Roomba-like machines patrolling our waterways for trash).
In this solution-based dialogue, we have new biodegradable clothes manufactured by algae strains. We have distributed wireless energy pads in parking lots and loading zones for electric vehicles to charge on the spot, just like we use wireless charging for our phones now—but allowing drivers to charge without cords and potentially even while driving on highways. And so much more.
In short, the dialogue of human progress toward climate solutions and sustainable technology is crucial for a complete picture of where humanity is right now in the climate crisis challenge.
Marc Schaus is a Canadian author and research specialist. His new book, Our Livable World: Creating the Clean Earth of Tomorrow, explores the crucial new innovations in science and technology that will finally help us slow global warming and reverse climate change—due out October 13th.
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New organ donation records were set in 2019 for the tenth consecutive year in the United States.
Health care teams across the country performed nearly 40,000 transplants from both deceased and living organ donors. This marks an 8.7% increase over 2018.
One of the big drivers remains the Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV is the primary source for state donor registration by providing people the opportunity to easily register to be a donor and have their intentions indicated on their driver’s license.
The unprecedented growth in organ donation is “growth that has made the U.S. donation system the world’s leader in lifesaving organ transplant rate,” said Tom Mone, chief executive officer of OneLegacy, the not-for-profit organ procurement organization serving seven Southern California counties.
He called California the nation’s largest registry, which has grown to 16.8 million registered donors and has helped grow US registered-donors to 156 million.
Mone calls the growth in people registering to be a donor is a “wonderful demonstration of the generosity of all of those who help to make the gift of life possible.”
The 10 years of growth in organ donation has, for the first time ever, reduced the national transplant waitlist from more than 120,000 to under 109,000.
During pandemic transplants are still saving lives
This year, according to The United Network for Organ Sharing, donations plummeted at the outset of the pandemic, but by May transplants nationwide began to increase again and numbers reached close to pre-pandemic levels, they said in June.
Their data which records every organ transplant in the US shows the rate is steady and in line with 2019.
“Our thanks go out as well to donor hospitals and their staff who despite the current pandemic have been incredible in continuing to recognize the importance of enabling donation and in fulfilling the wishes of the donor patient.”
Mone said that it reflects an increased understanding that “donation is really about life, not death, as the act of donation leaves a legacy of life” by saving and healing the lives of strangers and friends.
You can help save a life by registering to be an organ donor at the National Donate Life Registry, which ensures your donor registration travels with you, no matter where you live or move across the U.S.
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Quote of the Day: “I have never known any trouble that an hour’s reading would not dissipate.” – Charles de Montesquieu
Photo: by Dan Dumitriu
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
As hard as it sometimes is to say, “I’m sorry,” it can be harder still to say, “I forgive you.” If a coalition of Finnish peacemakers has its way, however, the process may get a whole lot easier because the quality of forgiveness might just be getting its very own emoji.
Spaynton, CC license
The #forgivemoji campaign was the brainchild of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. “In our modern digital communication culture, emojis are an essential way of expressing human feelings beyond words,” church spokesman Tuomo Pesonen told The Guardian.
The internet cartoon symbols known as emojis made their debut back in 1999. Before that, we had simple emoticons, a series of keyboard characters typed in sequence to signify a variety of emotional responses.
The very first emoticons, the smiley face :- ) and its evil twin “frowny” face :- ( were the idea of Carnegie Mellon professor Dr. Scott Fahlman. Smiley and Frowny celebrated their 38th birthdays on September 19.
While some might consider emojis frivolous, Harvard linguist Steven Pinker thinks otherwise. Emojis convey a person’s emotion and tone in a way simple text cannot, making them vital to ensuring communication is understood as intended.
“[As with] a question mark or an exclamation point, they are there to convey some communicative force that would not be obvious just from the arrangement of words on the page,” he explained in an interview with Business Insider.
While there are literally thousands of emojis these days, only a handful are recognized by the Unicode Consortium, the group responsible for overseeing the collection of preset symbols programmed into smart devices worldwide. Out of the current crop, not having a forgiveness emoji seemed a glaring omission. The #forgivemoji campaign was envisioned as a way to fix that oversight.
“We urgently need to learn better how to reconcile,” Antti Pentikäinen of the non-profit Deaconess Foundation, a founding #forgivemoji campaign member, explained. “These skills are needed everywhere. Different ways to encourage apologizing and forgiveness are an essential part of it, and this includes the social media environment.”
Former Finnish president Tarja Halonen selected the winning emoji in February—two hands giving a thumbs-up sign beneath a big red heart—from a field of competitors that had been winnowed down to six finalists via an online vote.
“The current climate of discussion can often be very polarized. I would like for online conversations to have more empathy, moderation, and a willingness to acknowledge one’s mistakes. As emojis are nowadays an inseparable element of communication between people, so that is why the world needs an emoji that says ‘I forgive you,’” Halonen said in a statement to The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
We’ll be sure to put up a smiley face or two if the new forgiveness symbol joins Unicom’s approved emoji pantheon in the coming years, but until then, here are a few inspiring quotes on the subject to keep the positive mojo flowing.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.—Mahatma Gandhi
“Let us forgive each other. Only then will we live in peace.”—Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.”—Hannah Arendt
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”—Martin Luther King Jr.
“To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.”—Confucius
“Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.”—Emma Goldman
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”—Mark Twain
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”— Alexander Pope
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At an ancient burial ground south of Cairo, archaeologists have just uncovered 27 Egyptian coffins.
Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
The wooden sarcophagi are exquisitely painted and still bear their original hieroglyphs.
The most exciting part for Egyptologists, though, is that an initial analysis shows these caskets—thought to be more than 2,500 years old—have not been opened since they were buried.
For more than 3,000 years, this vast necropolis was where Egyptians living in the ancient capital of Memphis buried their dead.
Archaeologists are currently working to determine the origins of these caskets.
More details are expected to be announced by the Ministry this month.
Further excavations are currently taking place at this vast burial ground and UNESCO World Heritage Site, so you can also expect more unveilings to be announced soon.
Watch the Ministry’s video of the unearthing in the tweet below.
شعور لا يقارن كلما تشهد كشف اثري جديد، انتظروا الاعلان عن كشف اثري جديد بسقارة، شكرا لزملائي بالوزارة. An indescribable feeling when you witness a new archeological discovery. Stay tuned for the announcement of a new discovery in Saqqara Thank you to my colleagues in the ministry pic.twitter.com/RpgK6TmREo
