Courtney White

Wearable Algae: There are many uses of algae for climate solutions including its role in blue carbon ecosystems, dissolving carbon in seawater, neutralizing cow burps, terrestrial carbon farms, and concrete. Now we can add clothing to the list. This Bloomberg article details how researchers and start-up companies are employing bioplastic derived from algae, including Charlotte McCurdy who is hoping that nature-based materials can do for fashion what electrification is doing for vehicles. Algaeing is an Israeli company specializing in algae-based dyes and inks for textiles. They are developing a yarn as well. The need is huge. The clothing industry produces 100 billion garments a year and is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions. Here is a graphic summary of its environmental impact. Algae-based textiles are part of the solution!

 Claire Krummenacher

Minnesota Goes Clean by 2040: As a native (and current) Midwesterner, I was incredibly excited to hear that Minnesota has become the latest U.S. state to commit to 100% carbon-free electricity after Democratic legislators signed an ambitious climate action bill into law this past Thursday. After achieving its 2007 goal of requiring power utilities to obtain 25% of their energy supply from renewable sources by 2025 eight years ahead of schedule, the state has passed a new standard increasing that requirement to 55% by 2035. In addition, a new carbon-free energy standard mandates that electric utilities must obtain 80% of their power from carbon-free sources by 2030 and 90% by 2035 with the ultimate goal of reaching 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. Notably, the legislation also established minimum wage requirements for state utility workers and blocks power generated by plants located in low-income, predominantly non-white communities from being included as a renewable source, a component added as a result of strong pushback from environmental justice groups.

 Juliana Birnbaum

Call to action on regenerative agriculture: This year, Congress will write America's next farm bill governing the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed, but currently, it supports an industrial agriculture system that prioritizes commodities over communities. Project Regeneration is part of a national coalition designed to unite citizens, farmers, ranchers, landowners, non-profits, and companies in order to achieve ambitious goals to improve soil health and reform farming practice, and we're supporting an important action launched recently to support regenerative agriculture in the 2023 Farm Bill. Soil is our common ground and our common good, so please go here to sign the #PetitionToRegenerateAmerica and demand that Congress support regenerative agriculture as a key solution to our climate, health, and water crises.

 Kate Furby

Won't you be my neighbor: The pandemic brought a new focus to mutual aid and community support, at a time when some people had little else to rely on. During a time when we had to stand six feet apart, it was important to feel close. But local organizations and food systems had to grow fast, and providing aid took a lot of hard work. From disaster relief to food banks, community networks are vital ways to regenerate our collective lives. One of my personal favorite forms of community aid are the Buy Nothing Facebook groups. Created to support a less expensive and materialistic world, Buy Nothing groups on Facebook are allowing neighbors to share the literal cup of sugar or winter coat, or extra pantry items. See also fan favorites: Little Free Libraries (and the lesser-known Little Seed Libraries and Little Free Closet!). Now, a few years in, it's unclear how long-lasting the movements will be, but the sharing systems happening locally are still providing big benefits.

 Kavya Gopal

Chefs Go All-Electric: It’s clear that gas stoves are a bad choice from the perspective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But recent research also suggests that they are bad for human health–one in eight cases of childhood asthma in the U.S. can be attributed to gas stoves, and researchers suggest living at home with a gas stove is comparable to living with a smoker. Alternatives like induction or electric stovetops have been available for some time, but often barriers are cultural–which is why I really enjoyed reading this piece featuring three chefs who have embraced induction stoves in their kitchens. All of them report that electric cooking is faster and more precise and that cleaning is easier than ever, reducing working hours for staff and the money spent on harsh cleaning chemicals. Chef Kung in particular uses an induction wok, which he uses to make authentic Chinese food, even though he admits there is a small learning curve in the cooking technique. Chef Phu similarly is keen on breaking down the idea that electrification is only for professional kitchens. He advocates for low-income households in the U.S. to tap into rebates under the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce their exposure to health impacts while still eating delicious food.

 Nick Obradovich

Crack Open a Window: There's another type of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration—aside from that in Earth's atmosphere—that we'd all do well to consider: the concentration in our own homes and workspaces. That's because our bodies and minds function better when exposed to lower concentrations of carbon dioxide. While there's no reason to overly stress about indoor CO2 concentrations (as this author seems to), keeping concentrations lower, on average, is probably a good idea. Thankfully there are some straightforward steps you can take to improve indoor CO2 levels. One is simple: you can open up windows more often to exchange indoor for outdoor air (assuming the outdoor air is in good shape, which you can check first here). Another is more technical and expensive: you can purchase home CO2 monitors to keep track of concentrations. Even more complex solutions involve building 'make up air' and air transfer systems into new homes so that fresh air injections can be automated. Ultimately, if you're able to open windows occasionally to get fresh air inside, do so. You may just hear some birdsong out the window as a side benefit!

 Tim Treuer

Forests of Food: There was a lovely piece in the New York Times about food forests. It paints pictures of diverse projects from Costa Rica to Seattle, each embodying the principles of multiple, perennial crops mimicking natural forests in ways that promote healthy diets, biodiversity, and carbon drawdown. This topic is near and dear to my heart after working on an agroforestry project in Madagascar for my postdoc. We planted more than 60 acres of degraded land with a mix of native species and fruit/perennial crops ranging from cinnamon to avocado to wild pepper. As the article discusses, there can be a ton of different benefits to food forests. Our specific goals were to reduce poverty, improve food security, improve air quality (by focusing on slash-and-burn land near communities), reduce erosion/improve water quality through increased infiltration and reduced runoff, and even reduce the risk of malaria through decreased standing water and increased numbers of mosquito-eating spiders and bats. Unfortunately, a lot of our data collection got shelved because of the pandemic, but I'd love to go back someday and get some additional measurements on how our little forests are doing and the impact they're having!

 Benjamin Felser

Hawaiian sovereignty and regeneration: Pu’uhonua O Waimanalo on Oahu is a monument to coexistence, regenerative agriculture, and landscape-scale restoration. It is the home of the sovereign Nation of Hawaii. The Nation of Hawaii was granted 25 acres in response to historic protests and direct action around the 100th anniversary of Hawaii’s colonization. Inhabitants led by Dennis “Uncle Bumpy” Kanahele have since been building homes, restoring terraces and fish ponds, and designing management plans for the watershed. This system is predicated on the idea that “worrying about other people ensures that the whole system protects you.” The system combines selective logging of invasives in the mountains with terraced agriculture and an 80-acre fish pond where the river meets the sea to support more than 7,000 people. By combining modern technologies with traditional practices, the Nation of Hawaii describes their project as a model for indigenous sovereignty.

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