Our apologies for last week's missed edition - we've just welcomed a new crew member to Spaceship Earth, Gus's daughter, Cleo. She's had a bit of a rollercoaster start to life, so all things FC were temporarily put on on hold, but we're back up and running again now. Thank you for your patience.
If the tone of this newsletter is slightly off or a bit more on, it's because this time it was written by Tane and Amy. All the poor writing and bad jokes are Tane's fault, all the good stuff is certainly Amy's doing. Gus did cast a weary gaze over it, but as he's still in the first few days of being a new dad, you can't blame any of it on him.
Happy Earth Day! We hope you enjoy the news.
Good news
The Biden administration has become the last of the big carbon emitters to ramp up its climate goals, with a game-changing commitment to halving carbon emissions by 2030. This is the starting gun for an economy-wide sprint over the next decade to completely transform the industrial base of the US economy. Politico
Electric cars in Germany, Europe’s largest auto market and the fourth largest in the world, accounted for 13.5% of sales last year - a huge jump up from 2019’s overall share of 3%. With Volkswagen's ID.4 now rolling off the production lines, analysts expect that share to climb to over 25% by the end of 2021. Clean Technica
Nigeria is beginning its largest electrification project ever, with an ambitious initiative that will give 25 million Nigerians access to cheap solar power. Access to affordable energy is a big part of the government’s COVID-19 economic recovery plan. The rollout will begin with communities who are off the national power grid and eventually cover all 36 states. ESI
Ethiopia’s rapid economic growth over the past 15 years has resulted in poverty declining from 39% in 2004 to 19% in 2020. Growth has come from the transition from an agriculture-led to a service-led economy (services overtook agriculture in GDP in 2016) and the government is now targeting a poverty rate of 7% by 2030. IFS
A big boost for equality in Afghanistan with new legislation to include mothers’ names on children’s birth certificates and ID cards. Activists have campaigned for years for the reform, which will help women obtain documentation for their children and allow them to travel together. This is especially significant for women who are widowed, divorced, separated, or dealing with abusive partners. HRW
A school feeding program in Venezuela has started providing daily meals to 185,000 children in areas where food shortages are most severe. The program is a major step forward in tackling increasing malnutrition rates and there are plans to expand the operation to reach 1.5 million students over the next two years. Reuters
The US government has launched the most ambitious food assistance program in the country's history to help the 25 million Americans who don’t have enough to eat. The campaign has increased food stamps by more than $1 billion a month and has expanded the produce allowance for pregnant women and children. NYT
New Mexico has become the 16th US state to legalize recreational marijuana with retail sales to begin by April 2022. A legal cannabis industry could spawn a $318 million market and create over 11,000 jobs for one of America's poorer states. The reform will also clear the record for many people with past marijuana convictions. BI
An inspiring collaboration in British Colombia between an Indigenous community, lawmakers and a mining company, has permanently saved the eastern slopes of Mount Edziza from mining development. The agreement closes the book on any industrial activity in the area which is of great ecological and cultural importance. Narwhal
Good news for turtles in North Cyprus with nest counts of green turtles increasing by 162% and loggerhead turtles by 46% since 1993. Local conservation efforts began in 1983, with volunteers and scientists working tirelessly every nesting season to keep the nests safe from local predators and plastic waste. Mongabay
After nearly 20 years of negotiations, the Peruvian government has established the 10,000 km² Yavarí Tapiche Reserve for uncontacted peoples deep in the Amazon rainforest. “This constitutes a historic milestone in the protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples in a situation of isolation and initial contact.” Mongabay
Indistinguishable from magic
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity just made aviation history, and its robotic buddy Perseverance caught the otherworldly Wright Brothers moment on video. The 1.8kg chopper rose 3 metres above the floor of Jezero Crater, stayed aloft in the Red Planet's thin air for 39 seconds, and came down for a pinpoint landing at its take-off spot. Space
AI is now trying its hand at cooking. Korean researchers have taken on chefs' intuition, using a deep learning system on 1,561 flavor molecules in different foods, and combining that with over a million recipes, to come up with some sample pairings. White wine and Campbell's golden mushroom soup, anyone? Engadget
A team of French engineers have designed a yacht called ‘The Manta’ that feeds on plastic waste for power — the 56m catamaran scoops up plastic and converts it into fuel to power the boat. The vessel uses other several renewable technologies too, including solar cells and wind turbines. Take that Waterworld! Interesting Engineering
Imagine wearing high-tech body armour that makes you super strong and tireless. Sounds like something out of the Iron Man series of superhero movies? Yet exoskeletons are increasingly being worn in real life around the world, improving strength and most importantly reducing injury. BBC
Plans to perfect an artificial retina able to mimic the functions of the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye have taken flight… to space. Testing is now happening on the International Space Station to determine whether manufacturing in low gravity results in successful treatment options for patients with blinding eye diseases. Ophthalmology Times
Say hello to Porg the Pterosaur, who soared through the skies above Jurassic China. The big-eyed, pint-sized and arrestingly cute critter is a newly described species of pterosaur named Sinomacrops bondei, apparently evolution’s answer to the question, “what is frog, but also bat, but also dragon?” Gizmodo
Information superhighway
Only 24 people have journeyed far enough to see the whole Earth against the black of space. The images they brought back changed our world. Here is a selection of the most beautiful photographs of Earth — iconic images and unknown gems —
digitally restored to their full glory. Time to put one of these up on the wall at home? Tony Ord
If you know anyone concerned that computers will become smarter than humans, Ted Chiang’s essay in the New Yorker might allay their fears. A deep-dive into the workings of human intelligence, concluding that major breakthroughs don’t happen in isolation but rather through our uniquely human ability to collaborate and build on existing ideas.
“If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.”
Co-founder of the Narwhal, Emma Gilchrist’s deeply personal account of how our interest in family ancestry can lead to the disorienting experience of stumbling upon a biological truth they never went looking for. As DNA ancestry testing becomes the norm, Emma explores how the truth may set us free, but that we need to be prepared for a rocky road to get there. Maison Neuve
Everyone loves a nature doco, but Emma Marris argues that the hyper-real, hyper-produced experience may unintentionally dull real life. The careful editing out of the human world is a fantasy, misleading us into thinking that there are more untouched HD wildernesses on the planet than there actually are. Atlantic
A small but devoted tribe of humans called Seasteaders believe that the answer to all the world’s problems is to ditch the land and build new places to live in the ocean. As with all utopias and frontiers, the dreams end up repeating scaled-down versions of the world’s core problems. The world might change, but human nature stays the same. Hakai
In the Arizona desert, James Turrell is racing against Time and Death to complete one of the most ambitious artworks in recent human history, a 45 year old series of tunnels and chambers inside a volcano, designed to capture the light of the moon and the stars. A certain American rapper recently pitched in $10 million to speed things up. Smithsonian
Humankind
Meet Rekha Mishra, a 35 year old policewoman in Mumbai who, in six years of service with the Railway Protection Force, has rescued more than 950 runaway and trafficked children. Her daring actions have not only saved lives but empowered young woman across India to break free from cultural expectations and choose their own path.
For Rekha, joining the police force was a dream she worked hard for her whole life. She was inspired by her father, an army officer who encouraged his daughters to take up a life of service. The day she passed her exams to become a sub-inspector, her father saluted her with the words “always work for a cause, not the applause.”
In 2015 Rekha was posted to Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to help prevent the trafficking of women and children. Working 12–14-hour days, she has rescued hundreds of destitute, kidnapped and runaway children but her service goes beyond the physical rescue. Rekha has made it her mission to counsel and feed the children and to take all precautions to ensure they end up in safe hands, especially if they’ve escaped from abusive families.
Despite her incredible achievements, Rekha faces constant criticism over her suitability for the job and her failure as a wife. These challenges have only fuelled Rekha’s determination to change the system and she’s a passionate advocate for more women in the police force. NDTV
"I just hope that through what I do, girls everywhere realize that they can be the heroine of their lives and that they have the power within them to write their own stories.”
We'll see you next week.
Peace, love and porgs,
Amy and Tane
