hope-for-the-planet

[hope-for-the-planet]

This program will fund proposals to build not only more accessible charging infrastructure for regular electric cars, but also for heavy-duty transport like electric trucks. There is also funding available for businesses to shift their commercial vehicle fleets to electric.

Altogether ~1.5 billion dollars have been committed to this funding project.

From the article:

Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment Krzysztof Bolesta emphasised the comprehensive nature of Poland’s approach: “We care about air quality and public health, but also about the competitiveness of Polish freight operators.” Dorota Zawadzka-Stępniak, President of NFOŚiGW, highlighted the overarching objective: “These three major electromobility programmes, with a total allocation of PLN 6 billion, are designed to meet air protection challenges and implement AFIR.” Through these new funding instruments, Poland is significantly strengthening its national strategy to deploy alternative fuels infrastructure and contribute to a climate-neutral transport sector across Europe.

Thanks for an anonymous submitter for sending this in!

[hope-for-the-planet]

While COP29 is the more well-known international conference on climate change, COP16.2 concluded in February and focused on stopping biodiversity loss.

After stalled negotiations at the COP16.1 conference last year, there was significant progress at COP16.2--including countries pledging to contribute $200 billion per year to protect biodiversity and ecosystems.

This conference also saw the creation of the Cali Fund, which will receive a portion of revenue from companies that use genetic data from the natural world for commercial purposes. One stipulation of the Cali Fund is that at least 50% of its financial resources must go towards indigenous and local communities.

[hope-for-the-planet]

"Scientists in Singapore have broken a long-standing limitation on the ability to generate electricity from flowing water, suggesting that another elemental force of nature could be leveraged for renewable electricity: rain.

With the simplest and smallest scale test setup, the team could power around 12 LED lightbulbs with simulated rain droplets flowing through a tube, but at scale, their method could generate meaningful amounts that could rival rooftop solar arrays.

Singapore experiences significant rainfall throughout the year, averaging 101 inches (2581 millimeters) of precipitation annually. The idea of generating electricity from such falling water is attractive, but the method has long been constrained by a principle called the Debye Length.

Nevertheless, the concept is possible because of a simple physical principle that charged entities on the surface of materials get nudged when they rub together—as true for water droplets as it is for a balloon rubbed against the hair on one’s head.

While this is true, the power values thus generated have been negligible, and electricity from flowing water has been limited to the driving of turbines in hydropower plants.

However, in a study published in the journal ACS Central Science, a team of physicists has found a way to break through the constraints of water’s Debye Length, and generate power from simulated rain.

“Water that falls through a vertical tube generates a substantial amount of electricity by using a specific pattern of water flow: plug flow,” says Siowling Soh, author of the study. “This plug flow pattern could allow rain energy to be harvested for generating clean and renewable electricity.”

The authors write in their study that in existing tests of the power production from water flows, pumps are always used to drive liquid through the small channels. But the pumps require so much energy to run that outputs are limited to miniscule amounts.

Instead, their setup to harness this plug flow pattern was scandalously simple. No moving parts or mechanisms of any kind were required. A simple plastic tube just 2 millimeters in diameter; a large plastic bottle; a small metallic needle. Water coming out of the bottle ran along the needle and bumped into the top section of the tube that had been cut in half, interrupting the water flow and allowing pockets of air to slide down the tube along with the water.

The air was the key to breaking through the limits set by the Debye Length, and key to the feasibility of electricity generation from water. Wires placed at the top of the tube and in the cup harvested the electricity.

The total generation rate of greater than 10% resulted in about 100 watts per square meter of tube. For context, a 100-watt solar panel can power an appliance as large as a blender or ceiling fan, charge a laptop, provide for several light bulbs, or even a Wi-Fi router.

Because the droplet speeds tested were much slower than rain, the researchers suggest that the real thing would provide even more than their tests, which were of course on a microscale."

-via Good News Network, April 30, 2025

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

The study, published [...] in Environmental Science & Technology, found that California’s right-to-know law, also known as Proposition 65, has effectively swayed dozens of companies from using chemicals known to cause cancer, reproductive harm or birth defects. The results back what many of the law’s supporters believe: Labeling harmful products can benefit public health. [...] A study published last year, which was funded under the same grant, found that Californians’ exposure to chemicals listed under Proposition 65 has decreased in recent years — and that chemical exposure also went down for people across the country.

[hope-for-the-planet]

I didn't realize carbon capture was a real thing that actually worked (outside of trees, of course!)

Hi Anon!

It is a real thing and it does work! The big caveat is that it definitely isn’t a standalone solution to climate change, but it’s a real technology that has helpful applications in mitigating the climate crisis.

A lot of carbon capture occurs at the emissions source, to capture the carbon dioxide and either pump and store it deep underground or run it through algae scrubbers or a chemical process to capture the carbon dioxide as biofuel, reusable plastic, or other materials.

The caveat here is that a lot of folks are rightfully worried that focusing too much on carbon capture will give the powers that be an excuse to drag their feet in cutting emissions and decarbonizing. Why worry about changing the status quo if a magical technology will come along to bail us out by pulling all those emissions right back out of the air?

Carbon capture also has a lot of significant limitations, such as the amount of energy required to fix a relatively small amount of carbon dioxide. This isn’t my area of expertise, but my understanding is that this technology will probably be most applicable to capture emissions for industries that will be particularly difficult to decarbonize—for example the creation of certain materials that are either exceptionally energy-intensive or inherently release carbon dioxide in their creation (like cement).

So very cool technology, but it’s not going to make a big enough impact on climate change without us also significantly reducing emissions. And it’s not going to replace planting and protecting trees, since nature’s carbon capture is still usually much more energy and resource efficient (as well as all the habitat and climate control benefits)!

[hope-for-the-planet]

Brush-tailed bettongs (also known as woylies) once inhabited more than 60% of mainland Australia. However, the European colonization of the country brought with it predatory feral cats and foxes, and the destruction of much of the animal’s native grassland and woodland habitats.

Between 1999 and 2010, the species’ population size declined by 90% – a drastic drop that some research suggests may have resulted from the spread of blood parasites, alongside other factors. Today, the brush-tailed bettong is limited to just a few islands and isolated mainland pockets in Southwestern Australia: a mere 1% of its former range.

Marna Banggara

“We are on a mission, if you like, to bring back some of these native species that have gone missing in our landscape since European colonization,” says Derek Sandow, project manager of Marna Banggara, an initiative dedicated to restoring some of the Yorke Peninsula’s historic ecological diversity.

Formerly known as the “Great Southern Ark,” the project, which was launched in 2019 by the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, was renamed to honor the region’s native Narungga people, who are heavily involved with the initiative.

“Marna in our language means good, prosperous, healthy, and Banggara means country,” says Garry Goldsmith, a member of the Narungga community who works on the project.

The team initially erected a 25-kilometer predator-control fence across the narrow part of the Yorke Peninsula to create a 150,000-hectare safe haven for the first species to be brought back: the brush-tailed bettong, known as yalgiri to the Narungga people. “We’ve reduced fox and cat impacts to a level that’s low enough for these yalgiri to be reintroduced and for them to actually find refuges, find food, and to survive themselves,” says Sandow.

Between 2021 and 2023, the team introduced almost 200 brush-tailed bettongs to the protected area. Sourcing these individuals from various remaining populations across Western Australia helped to “increase the genetic pool,” says Goldsmith.

EcoSystem Engineers

Brush-tailed bettongs feed on bulbs, seeds and insects, but their primary food source is fungi growing underground; to find it, they must dig. “They’re nature’s little gardeners,” says Sandow, “a single yalgiri can turn over two to six tons of soil per year.”

That’s why they’re the first species being reintroduced to the region, he says. All this digging aerates the soil, improves water filtration and helps seedlings germinate – benefitting other animals that rely on the ecosystem.

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

When rain pounds earth that contains the right mix of minerals, carbon dioxide in the air dissolves into the water and reacts to form new compounds that imprison carbon dioxide. With enough time, this natural process of literally petrifying the air will cleanse the atmosphere of the carbon dioxide pollution humanity has emitted from burning fossil fuels and other activities. The problem, though, is this natural cycle takes millennia. Kanan’s idea is to take a process that normally operates on geologic time — and speed it up. To do so, his team mixed together limestone with a crushed silicate mineral that contains magnesium — such as olivine, an olive-tinted mineral that can be found around the world. When heated to furiously high temperatures in a kiln, calcium in the limestone and magnesium in the silicate jiggle and switch sides, like participants in a square dance. The result of the chemical reaction is two compounds — magnesium oxide and calcium silicate — that both readily react with air and water to trap carbon dioxide in a matter of weeks. After accounting for emissions from heating the kilns and capturing carbon dioxide from burning limestone, each ton of material can remove one ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the researchers estimate. “We didn’t expect that it would work as well as it does,” said Yuxuan Chen, lead author of the study who worked in Kanan’s lab while getting his PhD, said in a statement.

[hope-for-the-planet]

"In an unprecedented success for conservation efforts, a tiny population of Guam kingfishers given a new home has laid its first eggs—after 40 years of the species being extinct in the wild.

Exterminated from its Guam island home by invasive brown tree snakes, the kingfisher, known by Guam locals as a ‘sihek’, has survived entirely in captivity, managed by a global collaboration of conservationists called the Shiek Recovery Program.

The program introduced the birds to the Palmyra Atoll thousands of miles from Guam in order to create a wild-born population that can regain natural skills until their native island has been cleared of the invasive reptile—and the sihek can return to its ancestral home.

GNN reported in September of 2022 that 20 sihek eggs were set to be transferred to Hawaii to be born in an aviary with conditions and flora similar to that of Palmyra Atoll.

The journey to recovery would be long, complex, and in some ways unprecedented. In order to reduce the risk of foreign germs or parasites spreading to atoll, the resulting sihek chicks were going to be hand-reared until 9 of them could be transferred in cages to Palmyra.

After getting their “ticket to ride” by the vet traveling with them, they would finally be able to return to the wilderness. But the program teams didn’t know which of the available prey species the sihek will favor, didn’t know what time of year, considering the 365-day perfect temperatures, the birds will breed, or how far they would disperse.

But despite the miles and the unknowns, their remarkable release last autumn was a success by any reasonable metric. Four female and five male birds quickly explored their new home, learning how to forage and hunt new prey within the tropical forest.

Four pairs have since established territories, built nests, and laid eggs, marking the first time the species has bred in the wild since its extinction from Guam in the 1980s...

Pictured: First confirmed wild-laid sihek eggs in almost 40 years

With the mated pairs less than a year old, this is their first time incubating and caring for eggs, meaning it’s likely it will take a few rounds of egg laying for the birds to hone their skills and hatch chicks, a statement from ZSL read. Nonetheless, these eggs demonstrate both the tremendous resilience of these remarkable birds and the power of conservation to create a second chance for species on the brink of extinction.

“After many long days last year looking after these birds when they were just tiny eggs and chicks, it’s so rewarding to see them beginning their journey towards raising their own chicks in the forests of Palmyra Atoll,” Charlotte James, one of the London Zoo bird keepers who hand-reared the birds.

“It’s hard not to feel like a proud parent seeing them out there thriving and making history—and an honor to be part of the ongoing mission to bring sihek back from the brink of extinction.”

Plans are underway for more young sihek to be released at Palmyra Atoll this summer. Egg laying season is underway at participating (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) AZA-accredited institutions across the US. As they grow to maturity, these chicks will also journey to Palmyra, with the ultimate goal of establishing ten breeding pairs there. The wild sihek at Palmyra Atoll will pave the way for a growing, wild sihek population for the first time in decades.

Then maybe, just maybe, at some point in the distant future, the descendants of these birds who’ve regained their wild skills will be able to practice them on the island of their origin once again."

-via Good News Network, April 26, 2025

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

It’s part of a grand experiment to rewild the Arctic by regenerating the biodiverse latticework of reindeer habitats, which help regulate the planet’s temperatures. Quickly and quietly, 44-year-old Feodoroff is deploying dozens of Sámi negotiators to buy up strategic plots of land. She’s allying with conservationists and institutions to raise awareness about deforestation in reindeer habitats, and is pushing to redefine these forests as falling under international jurisdiction, rather than national. If Feodoroff succeeds, experts predict the repercussions will be global. Regenerating Finland’s northern taigas, part of a coniferous halo that spans 6 million square miles across the northern latitudes of Eurasia and North America, would restore one of the world’s most potent shields against climate change. “If we have one example of forest where we stopped its current damage, that now thrives, it will have a domino effect,” said Feodoroff, her gloved hand leaning on a centuries-old Scottish pine stump.

[hope-for-the-planet]

LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries can't go as far on a single charge as the nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries used by the majority of EVs, but they are less likely to catch fire, can handle more charge cycles without degrading, cost less to make, and (perhaps most importantly) are made with more commonly available materials and have a significantly lower environmental footprint.

The lower costs and reduced fire risk will also hopefully reduce barriers to EV adoption.

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

Researchers in Japan have now made a new paper-based material that could be an ideal replacement for those single-use plastics. The millimeter-thick paperboard reported in the journal Science Advances behaves like plastic, but only when needed. It is strong, transparent and shapeable, and it can hold boiling water, but it degrades within a year after settling on the ocean floor.

[hope-for-the-planet]

Hey there, I looked into the article you posted about Spain's renewable energy (because someone tagged that they lived there and that it didn't actually happen), but I can't seem to find other sources that discuss this event on April 16th. Do you know if anyone else reported on it? Are you sure it actually happened? I don't say this in a mean way, just to clarify; I'm just curious to learn more. Thank you for your time. ❤️

Hi khaire-traveler!

I didn't take it in a mean way! While it's impossible to do a massive fact check deep dive on every single article, I do try to do at least a decent once over when I'm sharing something from a new source.

pv magazine is a trade magazine that specifically reports on advancements and news in the solar and energy storage industries. So that right there is a reason they might be reporting on this story while other news outlets are not--it's relevant to their industry. Here's the original article in the Spanish version of pc magazine which seems to go into the numbers a bit more.

It's also not a particularly far-fetched claim since Spain has already met 100% of their grid demand with renewables (on a non weekday) for nine hours back in 2023. And neighboring country Portugal ran on only renewable energy for six days straight.

The article was also shared on LinkedIn by the Renewable Energy Program Manager at Climate Action Network in Europe, as well as by Fundaci��n Renovables (a renewable energy foundation based in Spain).

The fact that it's not an unrealistic claim and is being shared by folks who would definitely know much more about the state of renewable energy in Spain than I would makes me feel pretty good about the reliability of the article.

I do agree it's a bit odd that there aren't more mainstream sources reporting on it, but I've mentioned before on this blog that good news usually doesn't grab clicks in the same way that bad news does--and there's plenty of dramatic and alarming world news to report on at the moment.

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

Spain’s grid ran entirely on renewable energy for the first time on April 16, with wind, solar, and hydro meeting all peninsular electricity demand during a weekday. Five days later, solar set a new record, generating 20,120 MW of instantaneous power – covering 78.6% of demand and 61.5% of the grid mix.

[hope-for-the-planet]

I keep reading that 90-99% of the world’s coral reefs is set to disappear by 2050, and recently I’ve read that they’re set to simply go extinct by 2100. Is that true?

Hi Anon!

You've hit on a topic that has really weighed on my heart for a long time. While climate change is a big focus of this blog, the environmental issue that I started my career in, and the one that often hits me hardest, is the loss of species and ecosystems.

To lose an entire species that took millions of years to evolve is a terrible loss—to lose the entirety of one of the most diverse and beautiful ecosystems on the planet is an almost unfathomable tragedy.

While I am extremely hopeful that a lot of damaged ecosystems and species will be able to rebound and adapt with the right protection and support, for a long time I couldn’t see a world where coral reefs would be able to survive—because even in the rosiest emissions scenarios, ocean warming would pass the threshold that they could withstand.

However, recently our understanding of that seems to be evolving. The bad news is that there is probably no future where coral reefs are not irreversibly altered by climate change—we will definitely lose coral species and many reefs as they are now and that is still deeply awful. The good news is there is increasing evidence that coral reefs as an ecosystem can survive in an altered but still biodiverse and beautiful form for future generations.

This study from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology created simulated coral reefs containing a variety of common coral species as well as all the other organisms found in reef ecosystems and exposed them to different levels of warming and acidification for two years. Based on prior models and research, it was expected that all the corals would die and the mini reef ecosystems would collapse…but they didn’t. After two years, coral cover was reduced and there were changes in the amount of calcification in the corals, but the altered reef still supported high levels of biodiversity.

There have also been increased observations of coral surviving or even doing well in warming situations where they would be expected to be totally wiped out. Efforts are underway to study those reefs to see if those conditions can be replicated elsewhere, but the big takeaway seems to be pointing towards the idea that if we remove other more immediately controllable stressors from coral reefs—things like overfishing, physical damage, pollution, etc.—some or even many of them will be able to survive the warming effects of climate change.

Our understanding of how to maintain coral in human care and regrow damaged reefs in their natural habitat is also increasing at a very fast pace. This means that there is a good chance that we can keep coral species that would otherwise be driven to extinction alive either in human care or more protected areas and potentially return them to their native habitat once we have controlled other threats.

I don’t want to sugarcoat things—coral reefs are in a tough spot with regard to climate change and many big, iconic reef ecosystems will probably be unrecognizably altered. I do not want to downplay how heartbreaking that is. But life finds a way and the consensus seems to be moving in the direction of coral reefs not being as doomed as was previously thought.

If you want to learn more about this I would highly recommend this podcast from How to Save a Planet:

As well as this recent very cool interview between Hank Green and the executive director of the Coral Reef Alliance, Heather Starck (the interview starts at 2:17):

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

Montgomery Parks is expanding its solar initiative, with a goal of doubling the park system’s solar energy production over the next five years. The initiative reflects the agency’s commitment to environmental sustainability, operational efficiency, and clean energy leadership in Montgomery County in support of the county’s Climate Action Plan [...] “With this initiative, we will show how parks play an important role in reducing carbon emissions and increasing green energy production,” said Montgomery Parks Director Miti Figueredo. “Taking a leadership role in expanding solar in the county is a natural fit for us,and we look forward to announcing some upcoming solar projects in the near future.”

Thanks to an anonymous asker for submitting this story!