The Ragged Optimist 50
Things we're doing well
Down to Worthing again, just for a few days - getting ready for another adventure. I know for some people ‘adventure’ means solo travel across Asia or whatever, but for me, it’s staying somewhere different for a month. I’m going back to Margate for a while, and will be there during filming for a TV version of my friend Rosa Rankin Gee’s book Dreamland, set in the town. More about my digs next week.
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A team of researchers have developed a Sustainable Art Painting toolkit for children, which converts food scraps into watercolour paint.
Beavers have returned to a Shropshire river for the first time in 400 years. The Severn Rivers Trust introduced a pair to the River Clun last week.
Casanova, a magnificent red Luing bull, has arrived at the Rothbury Estate. He’ll graze the grassland and moorland to different heights, and trample and leave bare patches to create the right conditions for insects and wild plants to thrive – and this, in turn, will lead to a massive increase in songbirds.
Boston Metal is decarbonizing steelmaking by using electricity in an efficient, one-step process that has the potential to cut nearly 10% of the world’s carbon emissions.
Researchers at Linköping University (slogan - Change the world. Start at Linköping University.) have developed a method to recycle all parts of a solar cell repeatedly without environmentally hazardous solvents. The recycled solar cell has the same efficiency as the original one.
A new report looks at the recovery of the Kelp Forests off Sussex, and at what’s needed next. Published during the UK’s first Kelp Conference, you can read it here.
Anusha Narayanan lives in Washington DC, from where she has worked for the past decade with Greenpeace and other environmental campaigns. “The moral imperative is clear: fossil fuels are destroying life on this planet, with negative impacts disproportionately falling on women, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and low wealth people.” One of a series of interesting people working with Greenpeace.
A pilot project in Chile is looking at how to use prefabricated housing quickly to rebuild after disasters.
Third Space has given India a new type of community and culture hub. Located in Udaipur, Rajasthan, Third Space is believed to be the first building of its kind in the Indian subcontinent, a community centre with a wide range of spaces for learning and creativity.
And finally, an interesting glimpse into the secret life of seed swappers.