Good News for the Biosphere at-a-Glance!
Pioneering Wind-Powered Cargo Ship Sets Sail
Before petroleum fueled engines, cargo was shipped across the seas by tapping into the power of the wind. A new wind assisted cargo ship points to new interest in this ancient technology by the cargo industry. Shipping firm Cargill, which has chartered the vessel, hopes the technology will help the industry chart a course towards a greener future. The WindWings sails are designed to cut fuel consumption and therefore shipping's carbon footprint. It is estimated the industry is responsible for about 2.1% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The Pyxis Ocean's first journey is from China to Brazil and will provide the first real-world test of the new air wing technology. Learn more here.
How Community Companies are Smashing Monopolies
The August 18th (V. 2, N.29) issue of the “Main Street Journal” shares numerous successful examples how the use of Community Capital combined with Worker Owned Cooperatives are providing options from depending on large international, industrialized monopolies for their basic needs. Community Banks, sustainable meat producers, bakeries and healthcare models are presented and discussed as alternative business models that add wealth to the community. Localizing products and services in a sustainable manner is the only way out of the mass destruction of the biosphere (loss of biodiversity, climate chaos, plastic in our bloodstreams, etc.) our current profit at the lowest unit cost economy has taken us. Learn more here.
Strong, Spirulina-Based Bioplastic Breaks Down in a Backyard Compost Bin
We use plastics in many situations because they’re durable and cheap to make. But they’re also everywhere in the environment because they persist for years when we’re done with them. While bioplastics are a step in the right direction, they often have to be processed in commercial composting facilities, which aren’t accessible to everyone.. Spirulina is a type of blue-green algae commonly used as a dietary supplement that you may have mixed into a drink as a powder or taken in a tablet when you were on a health kick. Now, researchers have used it to create a bioplastic that will degrade in your compost bin in the same amount of time it takes for a banana peel to break down. Learn more about this breakthrough here.
Promoting a Race to the Top on Human Rights
Supply chins are all the rage today in an attempt to move the needle in the right direction on climate change and human rights. Two nonprofit organizations have teamed up offer supply chain data in a manner that promotes compete in a race to the top; Know the Chain and the Business Human Rights Resource Centre recently issued their 2023 Food and Beverage Benchmark Report. It rates key human rights performance metrics of some of the major international consumer product companies to assess whether companies’ actions to address forced labor risks in their supply chains result in meaningful improvements for workers. The psychology behind their new approach is designed to incentivize companies to raise their score leading to a race to the top. Read more here.
Bonus: Follow Up on a Recent Article About Youths Sueing the State of Montana Over Climate Change. Read or listen to podcast here.
Our Biosphere - Is defined as that part of the Earth in which living organisms exist (the entire zone of life). As such, it is viewed as all the places that support life and includes the overlapping zones of the atmosphere, the upper part of the geosphere, and all of the hydrosphere. Or more simply; any place on Earth where life can exist. Not protecting our Biosphere is the root cause for most of the critical environmental, social and economic disasters we face today in the Anthropocene Era.
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Bill Stough, LLC | 616.889.0640 | PO Box 414, Byron Center, MI 49315