Humpday open thread: A little visit with the Good News Network
Well, the week is almost over. As a palate-cleanser, I thought we'd visit our friends at the Good News Network and see what uplifting stories they have.
This ‘Floating Continent’ Could Collect and Recycle Plastic from the Ocean in Future
A large, self-sustaining, floating research lab as big as an island could be the next big thing in ocean cleanup.
The 8th Continent, as it’s called, has won the 2020 Grand Prix prize for architecture and innovation of the sea, and is designed to allow the operators to live, work, eat, sleep, and study there full-time.
Looking like something out of Thunderball, the 8th Continent is a water lily-like marine station that’s chained to the bottom of the sea, but designed to float in the ocean currents.
It’s modeled to be a “living organism that is fully self-sustainable,” the chief designer said, and to host a number of activities along with its chief mission of cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
A 900,000-square-mile area characterized by a high-density of plastic waste (think trillions of individual pieces), the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is currently being cleaned by large nets that use the currents to help them collect.
Hundreds of Solar Farms Built Atop Closed Landfills Are Turning Brownfields into Green Fields
One of the big knocks against solar panels is how much land they take up compared to how much power they generate. But what if there were a readymade source of open land nearby to cities and towns that was guaranteed not to be used for anything else?
As it turns out, landfills are becoming prime real estate for solar farms, and one nonprofit believes the U.S. could increase the nation’s solar energy capacity by 63 gigawatts, or approximately 60%, simply by building solar farms on landfills.
Solar firms are building these landfill solar farms all over the country, and while they present a bigger engineering and economic challenge then building one on flat ground, the appeal of refurbishing capped landfills and brownfields from their barren state into a new service for the community is deeply appealing.
Jaguars in Mexico are Growing in Number, a Promising Sign That Conservation Strategies are Working
The jaguar population in Mexico increased by about 800 animals from 2010 to 2018, according to the first two censuses of the elusive carnivores ever conducted in the country. The news confirms that Mexico’s national strategy to protect jaguars is working, researchers reported recently in the journal PLOS One.
“It was incredible to see jaguars in so many places where there weren’t any before,” said ecologist Gerardo Ceballos of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, founder of Mexico’s National Alliance for Jaguar Conservation and lead author of the paper.
The jaguar (Panthera onca), listed by the IUCN as Near Threatened, ranges from northern Mexico through Central America, the Amazon Basin, and into northern Argentina. Ecologists had never properly counted jaguars in Mexico before, making it difficult to design a conservation program in the iconic cat’s northernmost ranges. The alliance created by Ceballos and his colleagues used the results of the first Mexican jaguar census in 2010 to create a national strategy endorsed by government policy and scientists alike.
Although this is an open thread, please share some good news you've encountered. It's so hard to remember that this world isn't in fact a vale of tears. There's good happening all around us.