The world is good

2021-09-07 10:55:06

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2021-09-07 10:55:04 Mexico is first country in North America to ban animal cosmetic testing

Mexico becomes the first country in North America and the 41st country in the world to completely ban cosmetics testing on animals after Mexico’s Senate voted unanimously to do so.

This change in legislation is believed to have been influenced by the Humane Society’s International stop-motion animated film “Save Ralph,” a story of a rabbit cosmetic tester that garnered more than 150 million social media views and over 730 million tags on TikTok. The video encouraged more than 1.3 million people to sign a petition to halt cosmetic animal testing in Mexico.

Under the new law, it will no longer be permitted for cosmetic research to include testing on animals. This includes individual cosmetic ingredients or finished cosmetic products. The new law also forbids the manufacture, marketing, and import of cosmetics (either the final formulation or individual ingredients) that have been tested on animals in other countries. The bill was supported by Humane Society International/Mexico, and non-governmental organization Te Protejo.

“Beauty cannot be cruelty, and that’s why we senators are saving the animals and are issuing laws that firmly prohibit the use of animals for experiments in beauty, cosmetology, or of any type. Arriba los animales,” said bill sponsor Senator Ricardo Monreal in an announcement.

Companies in the beauty business, including established brands such as Avon, L’Oréal, Lush, P&G, and Unilever also supported the change; many are working with the Humane Society through the Animal-Free Safety Assessment (AFSA), a collaborative of corporate and non-profit leaders who are striving to come up with safe, alternative methods to animal testing. Open / Comment

2021-09-06 09:12:29 Open / Comment

2021-09-06 09:12:22 Paris lowers the speed limit on most city streets

Pedestrians and cyclists in Paris are welcoming a new policy that will restrict the speed limit on nearly all streets in the French capital to just 30 kph, down from 50 kph.

The law is the latest move by the municipality to advance the city closer to its climate targets and transform people’s relationship to their vehicles. The aim is to gradually build a culture that moves away from cars as a primary transportation option, opting for public transportation and cycling instead.

Though not as popular among car owners, most Parisians support the idea, especially as it will make streets safer and quieter. The new policy also comes at a time when an increasing number of people have taken up cycling and micromobility services as a means to move around.

The law includes exceptions for a handful of wide avenues including the famed Champs-Elysees — which is set to soon become a large community garden — and the bypass circling the historical capital. Under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the Paris city government has already restricted or banned vehicle traffic on several streets and increased the number of bike lanes. Open / Comment

2021-09-05 11:42:36 Open / Comment

2021-09-05 11:42:27 Potato milk is the newest (and perhaps greenest) plant-based option

Potatoes are highly versatile root vegetables. You can have them as hashbrowns and home fries for breakfast, French fries at lunch, chips and dip for a snack, and roasted, mashed, or baked for dinner—but now potatoes are truly proving their range and versatility by pushing their way into the plant-based milk market.

Yes, plant-based milk is on the rise as we strive to reduce our carbon footprint by shifting from dairy milk, which on average generates a hefty 3.0kg of CO2 per liter, to non-dairy options like oat milk, which averages about 0.9 CO2 per liter.

Now, Swedish company DUG’s potato milk is giving other popular plant-based milk a run for their money. In fact, DUG just won a 2021 World Food Innovations award in the Best Allergy Friendly Product Category for its vegan and nut-free potato milk.

Plant-based milk
All plant-based milk generates less CO2 and requires less water than dairy milk, however, some are more sustainable than others. Almond milk, for instance, has high water production values (around 120 liters to produce one glass). Soy milk, on the other hand, seems to be quite sustainable on paper as it boasts low CO2 and water use per liter. That said, soy is used for feeding livestock, so soy production has led to the clearing of large areas of the Amazon rainforest.

Oat milk is on top (for now) because even though it uses a tad more CO2 per kg than almonds, it requires less land and much less water.

The new spud on the block
DUG potato milk was created by Professor Eva Tornberg at Lund University. It’s produced in Sweden and is available for purchase online in three flavors: original, barista, and unsweetened. Like most plant-based milk, it’s created by blending a plant-based product (in this case potatoes) and rapeseed oil.

According to DUG, their potato milk’s environmental credentials are good enough to steal oat milk’s green crown. According to the company, growing potatoes is twice as efficient as growing oats per square meter, plus potato milk has a lower carbon footprint than any plant-based milk before it (an impressive 0.27kg CO2 per liter). Potatoes also require 56 percent less water than almonds and are rich in antioxidants and vitamins.

How does it taste?
So far, potato milk has been well received according to online reviews, however many have complained that it splits when poured into tea. That said, DUG is a new player in the plant-based milk game and will continue to refine its product with the goal of becoming the most sustainable milk the world has ever sipped. Open / Comment

2021-09-04 10:42:38

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2021-09-04 10:42:22 A group of students is using bubbles and robots to clear the world’s rivers

Ocean plastic is a persistent problem that endangers wildlife and humans. Around eight to 12 million tons of plastic end up in the sea each year, inspiring projects like The Ocean Cleanup’s trash collecting system and this floating plastic island.

However, removing plastic from the ocean is extremely tricky as the ocean is vast and deep. Plus, once waste reaches the ocean, it breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that disperse and become difficult to locate microplastics.

That’s why students at ETH Zurich University in Switzerland are trying to tackle plastic pollution at its source. The group of ambitious students has developed a scalable system using artificial intelligence, robots, and automation called the Autonomous River Cleaning, or ARC for short. Their system focuses on removing plastic from rivers around the world because there the waste is at least somewhat concentrated, so clearing rivers of plastic will prevent a lot of it from entering the ocean in the first place. Their trickiest obstacle is getting it all to a single pick-up point so that it can be retrieved.

To address this problem, the ARC team borrows techniques from mathematical modeling and fluid dynamics. To encourage the waste toward the collection point, the team will pump air into water in a similar way that whirlpools function naturally. Groups of pressurized tubes called bubble curtains will be placed at the bottom of the river, creating a constant upward flow of air bubbles which will push plastic particles to the surface, making it easier to collect them.

Though other projects have used bubbles to clear plastic from the water before, the ARC team is going above and beyond by employing an autonomous robot armed with AI that can sort through waste and separate plastic. The robotic arm is equipped with a camera that can identify different kinds of waste, retain plastic, and return biomass that’s been picked up accidentally.

The students will use floating GPS trackers to determine the amount of plastic and the types of waste that end up in rivers (which isn’t well documented yet), plus the routes that the waste travels, offering researchers invaluable monitoring abilities. Knowing the routes that waste takes into the ocean can help inform how we can further develop removal strategies.

Basically, the ARC team has developed a one-stop system that integrates waste accumulation, autonomous sorting, detection, and analysis. Right now, the team is testing their prototype in the Limmat River in Zurich and hopes to deploy the system in larger rivers in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia starting next year. Open / Comment

2021-09-03 11:25:05 Open / Comment

2021-09-03 11:24:55 Leaded gasoline has officially been globally discontinued

The health effects of leaded fuel were first questioned in 1924 when five workers died at a Standard Oil refinery, but despite concerns, the lead continued to be added to gasoline everywhere until the 1970s. Today, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has officially announced that leaded fuel has been discontinued across the entire world.

After evidence emerged that adding lead to gasoline causes ​​heart disease, cancer, and stroke, as well as delayed brain development in children, most high-income countries banned the fuel in the 1980s. Algeria was the last country to use leaded fuel, until this past July, when the country ran out and officially finalized the process of phasing out the dangerous fuel. Leaded fuel is also a toxic contaminant of air, soil, and water.

UNEP has been working with governments, private companies, and civic groups since 2002 to end the use of leaded fuel. The successful eradication of this substance offers hope for the adaptability of human societies.

Thandile Chinyavanhu, a climate campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, told BBC, “It clearly shows that if we can phase out one of the most dangerous polluting fuels in the 20th century, we can absolutely phase out all fossil fuels Open / Comment