''Solar-powered vacuum cleaners'': the native plants that could clean toxic soil
17 April 2024 - Indigenous groups see hope in the environmentally friendly process of bioremediation. A growing body of research suggests biology may offer a slower but more environmentally friendly and potentially cost-effective way of decontaminating soils and waterways. Called bioremediation, it involves utilizing plants, fungi, and bacteria to clean up contamination. (more)

Culture and conservation thrive as Great Lakes tribes bring back native wild rice
17 April 2024 - Wild rice or manoomin is an ecologically important and culturally revered wetland species native to the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, which once covered thousands of acres and was a staple for Indigenous peoples. In recent years, native tribes and First Nations, working with federal and state agencies, scientists, and funding initiatives, have led wild rice restoration programs that have successfully revived the species in parts of the region and paved the way for education and outreach. (more)

World's largest thermal energy storage to be built in Finland
16 April 2024 - A seasonal thermal energy storage will be built by Vantaa Energy in Vantaa, which is Finland's fourth largest city neighboring the capital of Helsinki. When completed, the seasonal energy storage facility will be the largest in the world by all standards. The operating principle of the seasonal thermal energy storage, called Varanto, is to store heat in underground caverns so that it can be used to heat buildings via the district heating network whenever it is needed. (more)

Boom times for US green energy as federal cash flows in
15 April 2024 - The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aim is to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and incentivise private investment, to encourage the growth of green industries and jobs: a new foundation for the US economy. Complementary is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which runs for five years and provides direct investment largely in the form of government grants for research and development and capital projects. (more)

US: EPA puts limits on 'forever chemicals' in drinking water
14 April 2024 - The Environmental Protection Agency announced new drinking water standards Wednesday [10 April] to limit exposure to a class of chemicals called PFAS [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances]. This is the first time the agency has set enforceable limits on PFAS in drinking water. (more)

UK: New electric conversion rules ''helping to keep classic cars on the road''
13 April 2024 - In an era where sustainability intersects with tradition, the latest electric conversion regulations for classic cars are not just a nod to environmental consciousness but a lifeline for the cherished relics of automotive history. Now the UK's Historic and Classic Vehicle Alliance (HCVA) has introduced new Minimum Professional Standards guidance aimed at demystifying the process of converting vintage vehicles to electric drivetrains. This initiative promises to safeguard the legacy of classic cars, ensuring they remain a vibrant part of our cultural landscape while embracing the future of motoring. (more)

In highly urbanized Japan, city farmers are key to achieving organic goal
12 April 2024 - The Japanese government aims to convert at least 25% of all its farmland to organic by 2050, a significant jump from just 0.5% in 2020. The pockets of agriculture in Tokyo are key examples of how Japan could achieve its goal. In recent years, Tokyo farmers, community members and administrators have been working to make such farmland a valuable part of the urban environment through promoting agroecology, such as low-carbon, circular food economies and biodiversity. (more)

US: Zero- and low-waste businesses band together against plastic pollution
11 April 2024 - Low-waste businesses are strengthening their efforts to reduce plastic pollution via the National Business Coalition for the Oceans, a nationwide organization of businesses supported by nonprofit Oceana. The coalition focuses on advancing federal, state and local policies to improve ocean health, in part by curbing single-use plastics. Businesses involved in the coalition work for plastics policy change by sending letters, signing petitions, testifying at hearings and educating customers. (more)

Takeaways from the Swiss women's climate victory
10 April 2024 - The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of more than 2,000 Swiss women on Tuesday, affirming their argument that the Swiss government violated their human rights by failing to take sufficient action on climate change. This is the first time a regional human rights court has ruled that countries can violate human rights by failing to reduce their climate-warming emissions fast enough. (more)

Rewilding Japan with clearings and crowdfunding campaigns
9 April 2024 - Rewilding is an increasingly mainstream environmental movement to allow nature to heal itself, sometimes with the aid of humans, to sustainably restore biodiversity, so wildlife can, once again, prosper in regenerated and protected wild ecosystems. Conservationists are making headway in Japan, but progress depends on reconnecting youth with nature. (more)

Canada: Inuktitut album is bringing connection with Indigenous languages
9 April 2024 - Inuktitut album immerses the audiences in songs they already love, in an ancient language that creates curiosity and alliances. (more)

Restoration is possible: the hunt for Scotland's ancient wild pinewoods
6 April 2024 - Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland hope to revive remote pockets of forgotten forest before they vanish. ...Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland have become aware of up to 50 other hitherto uncharted wild pinewoods, both from historical documents and anecdotal contemporary reports. The charities have turned tree detectives as they embark on the painstaking process of mapping -- and hopefully reviving --these remote pockets of forgotten forest before they vanish for ever. ...There are cultural clues too, such as Gaelic place names referring to pine or woodlands. (more)

Endangered Greek dialect is 'living bridge' to ancient world, researchers say
3 April 2024 - An endangered form of Greek that is spoken by only a few thousand people in remote mountain villages of northern Turkey has been described as a 'living bridge' to the ancient world, after researchers identified characteristics that have more in common with the language of Homer than with modern Greek. ...With its remaining speakers ageing, the dialect is now threatened with extinction, leading a University of Cambridge academic to launch a 'last chance' crowdsourcing tool to record its unique linguistic structures... (more)

It takes a village: the Indian farmers who built a wall against drought
30 March 2024 - The villagers of Surajpura have built a wall: a 15ft (4.5 metre) mud bulwark that snakes through barren land for nearly a mile, with an equally long trench dug beneath it. ...The wall passed its strength test last year when it stopped rainwater runoffs, and the trench channelled the water to parched farms in the drought-prone region of Rajasthan in north-west India, reviving them for the first time in more than two decades. (more)

Chickadees have unique neural 'barcodes' for memories of stashing away food
29 March 2024 - Black-capped chickadees have extraordinary memories that can recall the locations of thousands of morsels of food to help them survive the winter. Now scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute [United States] have discovered how the chickadees can remember so many details: they memorize each food location using brain cell activity akin to a barcode. These new findings may shed light on how the brain creates memories for the events that make up our lives. (more)

Chickadees create barcode-like memories to locate stored food, scientists find
29 March 2024 - While adults might be spending the weekend trying to remember where they have hidden a hoard of Easter eggs, the black-capped chickadee has no trouble recalling where its treats are stashed. Now researchers have discovered why: the diminutive birds create a barcode-like memory each time they stash food. (more)

'Every single work is a masterpiece': the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition of the greatest Flemish drawings
28 March 2024 - A new show brings together historic sketches from Bruegel to Rubens and more, capturing fleeting snapshots of everyday 16th- and 17th-century life. ...The exhibition brings you up close to the creative processes of those working at the height of baroque art in the Spanish Netherlands during the Counter-Reformation. There is a big emphasis on Antwerp's favourite son, Rubens. (more)

US: Enormous solar farm will replace former coal plant in Pennsylvania
27 March 2024 - Energy company Swift Current Energy (SCE) is building Pennsylvania's largest solar farm -- Mineral Basin Solar Project -- on land near where a massive coal plant once lived. ...SCE plans to add other solar farms in Appalachia in the near future, helping replace the energy and jobs once supplied by coal mining and burning. (more)

Insightful map reveals literal translations of U.S. city and state names
26 March 2024 - In an effort to unravel the meaning behind state and city names across the U.S., WordTips has created a map featuring the literal translations of their names -- opening a window to the history of each area. (more)

The scent of orange blossoms is bringing the world to a spring tradition in Morocco
25 March 2024 - Orange blossoms are among Morocco's quintessential fragrances. Moroccan women are welcoming spring by collecting the waxy white blossoms in copper pots used to distill the scent that's folded into honey-laden pastries, sprinkled on mint tea, and used in religious ceremonies as an ode to paradise. (more)

See the dozens of new species this deep-sea robot just discovered
24 March 2024 - Alien-looking lobsters, sponges, urchins, sea stars and sea lilies are among the creatures deep-sea explorers found off the coast of Chile. (more)

Drone footage captures humpback whales creating stunning fibonacci spirals in water
23 March 2024 - Humpback whales are incredible creatures, particularly when you look at their diet. These marine giants only eat for half the year and during their feeding season, they sometimes participate in extraordinary behavior to meet their dietary needs. Groups of whales come together and create extraordinary patterns on the water's surface in an act known as bubble-net feeding. (more)

Scientists identify Milky Way's ancient building blocks Shakti and Shiva
22 March 2024 - Astronomers have identified two ancient streams of stars -- named after the Hindu deities Shakti and Shiva -- that appear to be among the Milky Way's earliest building blocks, offering new insight into how our galaxy came together long ago. These structures, found using observations from the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope, may be relics of two distinct galaxies that merged roughly 12 billion years ago with the Milky Way's primordial pieces during the galaxy's infancy, the scientists said. (more)

Travel the U.S., discovering the literal meaning of states and cities
22 March 2024 - We often associate places with the historical events we know happened there and sometimes it might be the reason we travel, to commemorate and to visit these sites and museums. Places in the U.S. were also named after cities, towns, and people in the old world or sometimes they simply described the geography of a place, often in local languages. (more)