This is the members only edition of Future Crunch, a weekly roundup of good news, mindblowing science, and the best bits of the internet (not necessarily in that order). One third of your subscription fee goes to charity.
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
Solar is on a tear worldwide, and especially in the United States. The first three months of 2021 saw 2.5 Hoover Dams worth of capacity added to the grid, a 46% increase compared to the same period in 2020. Solar and wind accounted for 99% of all new power generation capacity in Q1. Endgame for coal and gas.
It's the same story everywhere. IRENA now estimates that over 800 GW of global coal generation is more expensive than building new wind and solar, which is very bad news for any financial entities still exposed to the coal sector.
Case in point: since 2014, Chinese companies have financed 52 overseas coal projects, worth a combined $160 billion. It's one of the worst investment decisions of all time. Only one plant has gone into operation, and 33 have been shelved or cancelled, with plenty more still to come. No new projects were announced at all in 2020. So much for those coal pipelines.
While we're on coal pipelines, India might have already hit peak coal burn. Great piece in Bloomberg on how a major new investment in renewables by the country’s largest power company signals the beginning of the end for thermal energy.
Meanwhile, in Europe, another bad week in court for fossil fuels. A Brussels court has ruled that Belgium’s failure to meet climate targets is a violation of human rights, and recognized 58,000 citizens as co-plaintiffs. The historic judgement follows similar, recent rulings in the Netherlands, Germany and France. Guardian
Two pieces of good news for the hard to decarbonize parts of the economy. Engineers in Sweden have successfully produced 100 tons of sponge iron from hydrogen, a major milestone in the race to produce green steel, and in Germany, gas for heating is down nearly 15% in the past four years, while heat pumps crossed 50% market share last year.
A rare bit of good news on the home front too. In a bid to become the 'Norway of Australia' the state of New South Wales has unveiled a massive $490 million package of new incentives, tax cuts and spending on fast-charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Here's a list of the cars that benefit the most. C'mon Victoria.
A few months after Audi announced a 2025 carbon neutrality target, the German carmaker has thrown down the electric gauntlet yet again, declaring that from 2026 it will no longer launch new combustion engine models, not even hybrids. Only pure battery vehicles will be developed. That's five years away. Der Spiegel
Good news you probably didn't hear about
Bangladesh, home to 160 million people, has been heralded a ‘development miracle’ as it celebrates its 50th year of independence. Since 1991, GDP per capita has increased seven fold, 24 million people have been lifted out of poverty, life expectancy has risen to 73 years, infant and maternal mortality rates have fallen by a factor of five and the literacy rate has increase from 35% to 74%. Daily Star
A study in The Lancet of 21 low, medium and high income countries has found that there has been no increase in suicide rates and that 12 countries actually recorded a decrease. This good news has been attributed to increased awareness, better access to mental health services, financial relief packages and new connection points within local communities.
Saudi Arabia has officially allowed single, divorced or widowed women to live independently in a house without permission from father or any other male guardian. “An adult woman has the right to choose where to live. Families can no longer file lawsuits against their daughters who choose to live alone.” Gulf News
More than 1,800 schools in the Indian state of West Bengal have installed mini-solar plants in the past two years, and there are plans to expand installations by 1,000 schools a year until the number reaches 25,000. Schools have used the savings for tree-planting, additional teachers, computer classes and sanitation upkeep. Reuters
Workers with disabilities in Hawaii will be guaranteed fair wages, after an old labour law that allowed employers to pay them less was given the boot. It's welcome news for the 26,000 people who live in Hawaii with some form of disability. Guardian
The Passamaquoddy tribe in Maine have brought back their ancestral land of Pine Island, 160 years after it was taken from them. With the help of a grant from conservation charities, the small tribe raised enough money to purchase the island back, which has been their home for over 10,000 years. The Hill
Our concept of land ownership is that nobody ‘owns’ land. Instead, we have a sacred duty to protect it. This feels like finding a lost relative - Donald Soctomah, Passamaquoddy Historic Preservation Officer
Life, uh, finds a way
Following the shutdown of coal mining in the Svalbard region of Norway, the government has started cleanup operations and expanded the boundaries of a national park by 2,914 km2 to include the former coal sites. “Our goal is for Svalbard to be one of the best-managed wilderness areas in the world." Barents Observer
Gabon has passed new laws to protect the country’s 69 species of sharks and rays. The landmark measures include new laws to fully regulate shark and ray catches, and highlight a new global initiative launched on World Ocean Day to save these endangered marine species.
Tanzania is hopeful of reaching a ‘zero-elephant-poaching’ target after making thousands of arrests, including 21 kingpins of the illegal trafficking trade. Since 2014, the elephant population has increased by 17,000, remarkable progress for a country that once had the unenviable status of the world’s elephant killing fields.
A ‘drastic times, drastic measures’ approach has proved successful for two radical conservation experiments on different sides of the globe. In Southwest America, the population of the Mexican wolf has been bolstered by a fostering program which placed captive born pups into wild dens, while in Australia, a ‘headstarting’ method has saved the bridled nailtail wallaby from extinction by giving juveniles a few years in protected areas, before released them back into the wild.
Animal rights activists in China have pulled off an incredible rescue mission, removing 101 moon bears from a bile extraction facility and transporting them over 1,200 km to a rehab centre. It took years of planning, and involved three convoys of nine trucks each, and a dedicated team of vets and carers who will continue to rehabilitate the bears as they settle into their new home.
This unprecedented, historic and momentous event has been eight years in the making. It has been the most challenging, unpredictable and emotional journey we have been on as an organisation.
Indistinguishable from magic
Did you know Earth has a heartbeat? A new study of ancient geological events suggests regular surges of geological activity every 27 million years. "These cyclic pulses of tectonics and climate change may be the result of geophysical processes, or alternatively astronomical cycles associated with the Earth's motions in the Solar System and the Galaxy." Science Alert
Speaking of celestial motions, we unofficially have two space stations now, after Chinese astronauts arrived at Tianhe Harmony of the Heavens, the living quarters of their new space station. Early lead for the Chinese in the space name race here. Their rocket was called Divine Vessel and the finished space station will be called Tiangong Heavenly Palace. C'mon NASA. SCMP
By studying robins, British biologists may have cracked the mystery of how birds sense the Earth's magnetic field. A molecule in their eyes called cryptochrome 4 that is sensitive to magnetism gives them an inbuilt living compass that allows them to migrate over thousands of kilometres. BBC
Scientists in New York have made a breakthrough in explaining how olfaction works, capturing the first moment when a smell actually binds to a living molecule. “Although we’ve had access to receptors as molecules for a long time, no one’s ever actually seen with their eyes what it looks like when an odour binds to a receptor.” Quanta
One for all you circular economy and recycling nerds. A Taiwanese team has created the world's first hospital ward built out of recycled materials. The walls are made from 90% recycled aluminum, the insulation from recycled polyester, and cupboard handles and clothes hooks from recycled medical waste. CNN
And here's one for the Metaverse junkies. A competition between 3D artists to recreate the same walking animation has been compiled into an amazing 9 minute montage. The range is incredible: sci-fi vistas, gods and monsters, otters in Napoleonic uniforms, a dad hauling a huge teddy bear on his back for his daughter, all set to beautiful music. Verge
The information superhighway is still awesome
This brilliant, mind-expanding essay takes Gaia theory and adds a technological flavour, arguing that Earth has very recently evolved a smart exoskeleton, a distributed sensory organ capable of calculating things. The author proposes that technology isn't unnatural, but instead an essential step on the path to planetary intelligence, an Earth that becomes, in effect, self-aware. Whoa. Neoma
Robinson Meyer has come up with a great name for something very familiar to clean energy enthusiasts, the virtuous circle by which policy scales new technology, making it cheaper, which enables more ambitious policy, which makes clean energy even cheaper. On and on it goes, the clean energy flywheel. Or, as he calls it, The Green Vortex.
What if, asks Xiaoyu He, success is the enemy of freedom? This is an old conundrum, but one worth investigating again as we emerge blinking into the post pandemic light. Human flourishing depends on exploration and openness to new experience, and yet the most successful people are the least incentivized to explore further. Fortunately, the author has a solution.
A truly world class piece of science journalism by Rowan Jacobsen. As transformational as the genetics revolution has been, at its heart has always been a mystery: proteins. Thanks to recent breakthroughs however, the mystery is clearing up and we're starting to see the first designer proteins emerge from labs. Welcome to 'the Amino Age.' SA
Kílian Jornet is the most outrageously talented mountain runner of all time, someone who once ran up and down Everest in 17 hours. Having achieved everything there is to achieve in the sport, his thoughts have now turned to climbing mountains purely for the love of it - the mountaineering equivalent of a spiritual surfer.
I want to be an 80-year-old boy. I want to experience every phase of my love for the mountains with total madness, with my eyes shining brightly, my heart beating wildly and out of control, my legs shaking from having just climbed up a mountain. Until, when I’m truly old, my body stops working for good.
Humankind
Meet Gaurav Rai AKA ‘Oxygen Man’, a 52 year old general manager in Patna, India, who turned his personal battle with COVID-19 into a live-saving mission for over 1,400 people by providing free oxygen tanks to critically ill patients.
In July 2020, Gaurav tested positive to COVID-19 and was rushed to his local hospital. Due to a shortage of beds and oxygen cylinders, he was left to wait beside the staircase of the ward, gasping for air. His wife Aruna took matters into her own hands and after five hours of searching, found an oxygen tank for her husband through a private connection. This was a turning point for Gaurav, “I realised how a small oxygen cylinder could save a life. I told my wife that I would pay it forward if I survived.”
While recovering at home, Gaurav and his wife pooled their savings to buy ten oxygen cylinders and launched an oxygen bank from their basement. Gaurav would wake every day at 5.30am, load the oxygen cylinders into his own car and deliver them to patients across the city. When cases continued to spike, the couple purchased more cylinders. However, thanks to social media, news of their small endeavour started to spread, and donations began to pour in.
Today Gaurav’s oxygen bank has over 200 cylinders and has extended across 18 districts of Bihar. Unable to personally deliver to the growing demand, Gaurav requests people collect the cylinders from his house, but he always keeps a few spares in his car for emergencies. Without a single day’s rest or any financial gain, Gaurav celebrates the recovery of each person he helps with a cake.
There’s a twist in Gaurav’s story,. In December 2019 an infection paralysed his vocal cord, and unable to speak, he felt so lost that he contemplated suicide. An unintended side effect of his COVID-19 battle seven months later was that it restored his voice and gave him a new purpose in life. “I told my wife if God makes me survive, I will do something for mankind. I was cured in a few days, and it seemed that The Almighty indeed chose this task for me."
This house is clear! Thanks for reading this week's edition, we hope you're doing alright out there. Next time you're listening to someone explain yet again why democracy/humanity/the environment/the world is doomed, remember the words of French historian, orator and statesman, Francois Guizot:
The world belongs to optimists. Pessimists are only spectators.
We'll see you next week.
Much love,
Gus, Amy and the rest of the FC team.
