New Zealand Embraces Electric Cars EVs, Hydrogen to Cut Emissions, Fossil Fuels

Good News Notes: “New Zealand will accelerate its adoption of electric vehicles and investigate hydrogen as an alternative energy source as it seeks to phase out fossil fuels and play its role in mitigating global warming. Announcing its first emissions reduction plan Monday in Wellington, the government said it will initially allocate NZ$2.9 billion ($1.8…

Scuba Divers Remove More Than 25,000 Pounds of Debris From Lake Tahoe

Good News Notes: “At more than two million years old and more than a mile above sea level, Lake Tahoe sits on the border of California and Nevada in the Northern Sierra Nevada mountains. The water is so pure that it isn’t even required to be filtered by water suppliers, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reported. Despite the remarkable purity of its…

How Israel used innovation to beat its water crisis

Good News Notes: “How did Israel, a country that is more than half desert, frequently hit with drought, and historically cursed by chronic water shortages, become a nation that now produces 20 percent more water than it needs? Water demand from Israel’s rapidly growing population outpaced the supply and natural replenishment of potable water so…

Instant Long Duration Energy Storage: Just Add Carbon Dioxide

Good News Notes: “Long duration energy storage has yet to make a significant dent in the global energy profile. To date, the only widespread form of storage technology that can last longer than a few hours is the century-old “water battery,” in the form of hydropower reservoirs and their cousins, pumped hydro reservoirs. On the plus side, hydropower dams and…

Druridge Bay former opencast mine land to get £2m for ‘rewilding’

Good News Notes: “Land on top of an old opencast mine is to get a £2m wildlife makeover. The 327-hectare site at Druridge Bay is to be made “wilder” as part of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s plan to show how nature can recover from industrialisation. It bought the site in West Chevington, which is wood…

Scotland Ends Coal Power With A Bang

Good News Notes: “Scotland recently demolished its last coal-fired power station, ending coal’s reign in the country with a literal bang – ending decades of reliance on the emissions-heavy fossil fuel. “Today’s event is a symbolic reminder that we have ended coal-fired power generation in Scotland, as we work in a fair and just way towards becoming…

Solar panels in space could be clean-energy gold mines

Good News Notes: “Solar power has been a key part of humanity’s clean energy repertoire. We spread masses of sunlight-harvesting panels on solar fields, and many people power their homes by decorating their roofs with the rectangles.  But there’s a caveat to this wonderful power source. Solar panels can’t collect energy at night. To work…

In Iceland, CO2 sucked from the air is turned to rock

Good News Notes: “At the foot of an Icelandic volcano, a newly-opened plant is sucking carbon dioxide from the air and turning it to rock, locking away the main culprit behind global warming. Orca, based on the Icelandic word for “energy,” does its cutting-edge work at the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant in southwest Iceland. It…

Indonesia leads the way in restoring coral reefs, scientists say

Good News Notes: “With wide-scale deforestation, some of the world’s most polluted cities and rivers, and wildfires so vast they often blanket neighbouring countries in smog, Indonesia is one of the world’s most high-profile environmental offenders. But when it comes to coral reefs, the rapidly industrialising Southeast Asian nation is doing more to restore the…

How travelers can help save coral reefs

Good News Notes: “Healthy marine ecosystems are essential for human well-being, and millions of people around the world rely on coral reefs for food, protection, recreation, medicine, cultural connection and economic opportunities. So, the decline of coral reefs is not just an ocean-lover’s issue; it’s also a global problem that requires collaborative action. “The situation…