A round-up of this week’s environmental, green and ecofriendly news and updates.
Graphene is the strongest material known to science. Now, a UK company has included it in a very ecofriendly paint that can make your home, or any building, more energy efficient.
Graphenstone is lime-based and has superconductivity, which means it lowers the need for heating and air conditioning, because it slows hot or cold air “leaking” out through the walls. It has other benefits too:
- It’s incredibly thin so you need less paint to cover a wall,
- It’s ecofriendly because it’s made mostly from lime
- It naturally purifies the surrounding air and absorbs CO2 (carbon dioxide).
- No fumes are released as you paint.
It’s been used to coat the walls of hospitals, hotels, and schools. Hopefully it will be available worldwide soon!
Animal shelters all over the world do a fabulous job – often under very difficult circumstances.
What if you would like to help out – but don’t have much spare time, or don’t have spare money to donate?
No problem! Here are some easy things you can do which will make a difference to animals who don’t have a voice.
June’s full moon (June 9) is the smallest of 2017 as our satellite is far from the Earth. It’s known as the Strawberry moon (because the fruits ripen this month)
Look for Saturn on the evening of June 15 – it will be at its brightest. Find the constellation Scorpio and it will glow steadily close to the twinkling star Antares. But you’ll need a telescope to see its rings – the ones that the Cassini spacecraft is currently diving through.
It’s the Summer Solstice on June 21. The Northern Hemisphere will have its shortest night and longest day of the year. It’s the official start to summer in the Northern Hemisphere, but it also marks the longest night of the year and start of winter for me down here in the Southern Hemisphere.
It seems to be all “doom and gloom” when it comes to the climate and the environment at the moment. Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate added greatly to this.
So, it’s time for some good news.
A new book, Drawdown, has taken a novel approach to solving global warming. It’s a very, very interesting concept – and it means everyone can get involved.
See what the good news is all about here.
Global Green News:
Do your kids have fidget spinners? They seem like harmless entertainment – but many teachers say they distract kids rather than help conditions like ADHD. Whether they do or not – it’s best not to use them. Why? Lead tests have shown dangerously high levels of lead and mercury in some of the gadgets.
Barcelona, a beautiful city in Spain, has very little green space – and so it gets unbearably hot in summer. But how do you add green “lungs” to an already-built-up city? The city will:
- Create a garden around an existing city square where traffic used to run;
- open formerly private gardens to the public
- “green” an unused industrial area and a former military barracks
- clear a block of workshops from the 1920s
- Add green roofs and green walls
- make temporary gardens in construction sites to offset the construction mess
- replace concrete with permeable versions, so rainwater can saturate the ground
- create green corridors for pollinators like birds and insects to travel along
- double the number of trees and add bird and bat boxes and beehives on roofs
Good stuff!
US Green News:
As the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) starts shipping oil, documents show that protesters were subjected to an intrusive military-style surveillance and counterintelligence campaign – they were “treated like jihadists”. The private security company used tactics that experts say would likely be illegal if conducted by law enforcement.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
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