Saltwater Brewery a craft brewing company in Florida promotes lifestyle that revolves around the ocean. Their goal is to maintain the world’s greatest wonder by giving back to the ocean through Ocean Based Charities (CCA, Surfrider, Ocean Foundation, MOTE).
"Our passion for making Quality Beer for you is the way we can ensure we give back to the ocean as much as possible! Come with us to "Explore the Depths of Beer","
Most plastic beer six‐pack rings end up in our oceans and pose a serious threat to wildlife. Together with WeBelievers, Saltwater Brewery ideated, designed, tested and prototyped the first ever Edible Six Pack Rings. A six‐pack packaging, made with byproducts of the beer making process, that instead of killing animals, feeds them. They are also 100% biodegradable and compostable.
On the second floor of a nondescript warehouse owned by New York City's Sanitation Department in East Harlem is a treasure trove—filled with other people's trash.
Nelson Molina, an NYC Sanitation Department employee, built up the huge collection over a 30-year career, and the department has been looking after the vast personal museum of unloved treasures ever since his retirement. Who knows what was lost and found throughout the years.
Tours are hard to arrange but not impossible. For more information on the occasional organized tours, email tours@dsny.nyc.gov.
A California artist Roxy Russel is taking plastic that normally would be thrown in the ocean and turns it into sea creatures that may illuminate their plight
“The ocean is such a boundless source of inspiration for myself and many other people, in all fields. Unfortunately, I am also very concerned about the fragile state of it’s very complex eco-system.
I wanted to bring to the surface, and illuminate the growing problem of plastic polluting our oceans in a way that makes people inspired to help. We have a floating island of plastic garbage in the Pacific that is twice the size of Texas. Up to 70 percent of this plastic is below the surface, broken down into tiny pieces,becoming a toxic part of the eco-system. Countless fish and birds die from mistaking these bits for food.
This is an opportunity to look at how we might be contributing to the problem. Most people think it’s ok to use plastic bottles because they throw them in the recycle bin or think someone else will, but what they don’t realize is that much of the plastic that is manufactured never gets recycled.
Many times when we think “eco” or “going green” we think of what’s on the surface, where we live…with this series I’d like to inspire people to look a little deeper.”
Your inspiration for these lamps came from the ocean and you express your concern about the vast amount of plastic in the ocean, yet your product for the most part consist out of plastic?
“Yes, A very good and valid question. It is made from the very element I am most concerned about clogging up our oceans! It is made of a form of PET, a recyclable plastic.
I did see the irony in this, but also the poetry.
The way I see it is this:
I don’t believe the PET is an evil material, it is the way we use it. We will never be able to completely eliminate something as versatile as plastics. The reason that they are used up to a large extent and considered ‘environmental friendly’ is because it is safe, non-toxic, doesn’t have plasticizers, and don’t contain heavy metals. Of course, the main advantages of this polymer are that these can be recycled.
We must, however put more thought into how disposable it is, and it’s role in our everyday lives. For example, we know we need to drink water everyday in order to survive, why are most people still using disposable containers to hold their water? It’s such a new thing too, for centuries we had canteen’s, animal skins etc, to hold our water. Now, we forget so easily that we are creating this waste every time we need to hydrate! I personally, always keep reusable container’s for my water needs, and always bring my own bags to stores, even when it’s not for groceries.
The lights are an example of how delicate and beautiful our ocean life is. The use of plastic in such a way shows a middle ground in the ways we use our technologies. And hopefully elevates it, in a way…
What kind of “eco” choices did you make concerning material, manufacturer and packaging?
It is not a disposable item, but it is made of materials that can be separated for recycling, as opposed to hybrid materials which cannot be broken down to recycle. (Note: I am now using a thin aluminum for the ‘crown’ pieces, instead of the original acrylic )
It is flat packed in pieces for the consumer to put together. This minimizes the amount of space used for transport.
It is very lightweight, also saving energy in transport.
It is manufactured in Los Angeles, so it supports local economy and eliminates overseas shipping in the manufacturing process.
A percentage of profits will be donated to The Ocean Conservancy
“So, I hope this help’s clarify my choices for these lamps!” It sure does, and what a great product it has become, thank you for answering my questions and for giving us some insight in this project!
Algalita's Ship-2-Shore education program aims to demystify recycling. Image courtesy Algalita.
In 1999, Algalita founder Captain Charles Moore put his small California environmental nonprofit on the map when he was the first to sample the surface waters of what is now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Since then, the California-based organization has dedicated itself to research and education about plastic pollution in the waterways with the belief that they can solve the problem with the right public outreach and in collaboration with other organizations and scientists. Considering that over 80 percent of marine debris originates from sources on land, there’s no time to waste.
Algalita’s executive director, Liesl Thomas, carries on Captain Moore’s vision of collaboration. “It was always his mentality that if anything is going to get solved, it will be by people working together,” she says from her office in Long Beach.
Liesl Thomas Executive Director, Algalita
Algalita continues to partner with other organizations, biologists, and even graduate students at local universities to undertake research and education projects. They teamed up with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where master’s students produced a 256-page report, “Reducing Plastic Debris in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel River Watersheds.” The report is the foundation of a new prevention campaign, which will include education on reducing litter and improving recycling savvy. “We realized that if we really wanted to make prevention happen, we needed to start smaller and look at a more local level,” Thomas says.
On the recycling education front, Algalita has partnered with the nationwide program Recycle Across America, whose goal is to get standardized recycling labels on all recycling bins across the country.
Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg set out and accomplished something that still seems impossible today: the First Round-The-World Solar Flight, powered only by the sun, with no fuel or polluting emissions. In line with the Piccard Family tradition of scientific exploration and protection of the environment, Solar Impulse wanted to demonstrate that clean technologies can achieve impossible goals. The record breaking solo flight of 5 days and 5 nights without fuel from Nagoya to Hawaii gives a clear message : everybody could use the plane’s technologies on the ground to halve our world’s energy consumption, save natural resources and improve our quality of life. This message will continue to be spread by the pilots to the general public, students, key decision-makers and entrepreneurs all over the world.
The three record-breaking solo flights of André Borschberg from Nagoya to Hawaii and Bertrand Piccard from Hawaii to San Francisco and later New York to Seville give a clear message: everybody could use the same technologies on the ground to halve our world’s energy consumption, save natural resources and improve our quality of life.
As another coal-fuelled ‘airpocalypse’ engulfs northern China, Nut Brother hopes his ‘smog bricks’ will raise awareness
His idol is Subcomandante Marcos, the masked Mexican rebel; his weapon of choice a 1,000-watt vacuum cleaner.
Meet Nut Brother, the Chinese activist-artist attempting to vanquish toxic smog by sucking it up through a black plastic nozzle.. As the latest coal-fuelled “airpocalypse” engulfed northern China this week and world leaders gathered in Paris to debate the fight against climate change, Nut Brother hit the streets of Beijing hoping to raise awareness of his country’s deadly smog crisis.
For the last 100 days, the activist, whose real name is Wang Renzheng, has used the industrial appliance to extract dust and other lung-choking pollutants from the city’s atmosphere before transforming them into a dark brown “smog brick”.
“I want to show this absurdity to more people,” Wang, 34, said on Tuesday as pollution levels in the Chinese capital soared to levels 40 times higher than those deemed safe by the World Health Organisation.
“I want people to see that we cannot avoid or ignore this problem [and] that we must take real action.”
The Goldman Environmental Prize honors grassroots environmental heroes from the world’s six inhabited continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands & Island Nations, North America, and South & Central America. The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. The Goldman Prize views “grassroots” leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them.
A public interest lawyer and mother of two, Zuzana Caputova spearheaded a successful campaign that shut down a toxic waste dump that was poisoning the land, air and water in her community, setting a precedent for public participation in post-communist Slovakia.
In one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental activists, Leng Ouch went undercover to document illegal logging in Cambodia and exposed the corruption robbing rural communities of their land, causing the government to cancel large land concessions.
A subsistence farmer in Peru’s northern highlands, Máxima Acuña stood up for her right to peacefully live off her own property, a plot of land sought by Newmont and Buenaventura Mining to develop the Conga gold and copper mine.
In a community whose environmental rights had long been sidelined to make room for heavy industry, Destiny Watford inspired residents of a Baltimore neighborhood to defeat plans to build the nation’s largest incinerator less than a mile away from her high school.
Luis Jorge Rivera Herrera helped lead a successful campaign to establish a nature reserve in Puerto Rico’s Northeast Ecological Corridor—an important nesting ground for the endangered leatherback sea turtle—and protect the island’s natural heritage from harmful development.
Edward Loure led a grassroots organization that pioneered an approach that gives land titles to indigenous communities—instead of individuals—in northern Tanzania, ensuring the environmental stewardship of more than 200,000 acres of land for future generations.
When magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners reach the end of their lifetime, hospitals have to deal with a large piece of electronic waste, stuffed with potentially dangerous parts. Unless a physics lab can make use of them.
In the photo above you can see an old MRI magnet, one of the most valuable part of a discarded medical device. But this one won’t end up in a landfill, but find a new home in instruments used in high-energy and nuclear physics experiments. Argonne National Laboratory explains what will happen:
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory recently acquired two decommissioned magnets from (MRI) scanners from hospitals in Minnesota and California. The two new magnets have a strength of 4 Tesla, not as strong as the newest generation of MRI magnets but ideal for benchmarking experiments that test instruments for the g minus 2 (“g-2”) muon experiment currently being assembled at the DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The Muon g-2 experiment will use Fermilab’s powerful accelerators to explore the interactions of muons, which are short-lived particles, with a strong magnetic field in “empty” space.
The deal unites all the world's nations in a single agreement on tackling climate change for the first time in history.
Coming to a consensus among nearly 200 countries on the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions is regarded by many observers as an achievement in itself and is being hailed as "historic".
The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 set emission cutting targets for a handful of developed countries, but the US pulled out and others failed to comply.
However, scientists point out that the Paris accord must be stepped up if it is to have any chance of curbing dangerous climate change.
Pledges thus far could see global temperatures rise by as much as 2.7C, but the agreement lays out a roadmap for speeding up progress.
What are the key elements?
To keep global temperatures "well below" 2.0C (3.6F) and "endeavour to limit" them even more, to 1.5C
To limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100
To review each country's contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge
For rich countries to help poorer nations by providing "climate finance" to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy.
Image copyrightReutersImage captionA participant takes a rest during the Paris talksImage copyrightAPImage captionCampaigners take to the streets of Paris to warn that failure to act to curb temperature rises will cross a red line
What's in and what has been left out?
The goal of preventing what scientists regard as dangerous and irreversible levels of climate change - judged to be reached at around 2C of warming above pre-industrial times - is central to the agreement.
The world is already nearly halfway there at almost 1C and many countries argued for a tougher target of 1.5C - including leaders of low-lying countries that face unsustainable sea levels rises in a warming world.
The desire for a more ambitious goal has been kept in the agreement - with the promise to "endeavour to limit" global temperatures even more, to 1.5C.
Dr Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, says the objective is "remarkable".
"It is a victory for the most vulnerable countries, the small islands, the least developed countries and all those with the most to lose, who came to Paris and said they didn't want sympathy, they wanted action."
Meanwhile, for the first time, the accord lays out a longer-term plan for reaching a peak in greenhouse emissions "as soon as possible" and achieving a balance between output of man-made greenhouse gases and absorption - by forests or the oceans - "by the second half of this century".
"If agreed and implemented, this means bringing down greenhouse-gas emissions to net zero within a few decades. It is in line with the scientific evidence we presented," says John Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Some have described the deal as "woolly" because some of the targets were scaled down during the negotiations.
"The Paris Agreement is only one step on a long road, and there are parts of it that frustrate and disappoint me, but it is progress," says Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo.
"This deal alone won't dig us out the hole we're in, but it makes the sides less steep."
What about money?
Money has been a sticking point throughout the negotiations.
Developing countries say they need financial and technological help to leapfrog fossil fuels and move straight to renewables.
Currently they have been promised US $100bn (£67bn) a year by 2020 - not as much as many countries would like.
The agreement requires rich nations to maintain a $100bn a year funding pledge beyond 2020, and to use that figure as a "floor" for further support agreed by 2025.
The deal says wealthy countries should continue to provide financial support for poor nations to cope with climate change and encourages other countries to join in on a voluntary basis.
Dr Ilan Kelman of UCL, London, says the lack of time scales are "worrying".
"The starting point of $100bn per year is helpful, but remains under 8% of worldwide declared military spending each year."
What happens next?
Only elements of the Paris pact will be legally binding.
The national pledges by countries to cut emissions are voluntary, and arguments over when to revisit the pledges - with the aim of taking tougher action - have been a stumbling block in the talks.
The pact promises to make an assessment of progress in 2018, with further reviews every five years.
As analysts point out, Paris is only the beginning of a shift towards a low-carbon world, and there is much more to do.
"Paris is just the starting gun for the race towards a low-carbon future," says WWF-UK Chief Executive David Nussbaum.
Prof John Shepherd of the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, says the agreement includes some welcome aspirations but few people realise how difficult it will be to achieve the goals.
"Since the only mechanism remains voluntary national caps on emissions, without even any guidance on how stringent those caps would need to be, it is hard to be optimistic that these goals are likely to be achieved."
Can the solar-powered cars of 50 global teams survive the 1,864-mile stretch of the World Solar Challenge?
Since major developments in the late 2000s greatly reduced the cost of producing panels, solar energy has made some of the largest leaps forward of all alternative energy sources. One example of the growing acceptance of solar is Australia’s World Solar Challenge where 50 teams will test their models for fully-functioning solar cars against one another and the rugged environment of the Outback.
Judges of the competition are looking for the most efficient and drivable vehicles. To that effect, the competition limits cars to no more than five kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy storage. The rest of the vehicles’ power must come from solar energy generated while out in the sun-scorched field.
Tucked in the woods 30 miles
north of Washington is a plant packed with energy-guzzling machines that
can make even an environmentalist’s heart sing — giant conveyor belts,
sorters and crushers saving a thousand tons of paper, plastic and other
recyclables from reaching landfills each day.
The 24-hour
operation is a sign that after three decades of trying, a culture of
curbside recycling has become ingrained in cities and counties across
the country. Happy Valley, however, it is not.
Once a profitable
business for cities and private employers alike, recycling in recent
years has become a money-sucking enterprise. The District, Baltimore and
many counties in between are contributing millions annually to prop up
one of the nation’s busiest facilities here in Elkridge, Md. — but it is
still losing money. In fact, almost every facility like it in the
country is running in the red. And Waste Management and other recyclers
say that more than 2,000 municipalities nationwide are paying to dispose
of their recyclables instead of the other way around.
