Good News, Planet Earth! - December 2020
This is the last Good News Tuesday of a truly life changing year. I started this project with the reminder that there will always be a balance between good and bad. Bad inspires good, and challenge leads to growth. Scrolling through good news every month reminds me that all of the negative news we’ve heard has sparked a light in so many to improve and create positive changes. 2020 was mentally challenging to say the least, but the ending of this year is the beginning of a new era. I hope 2021 helps you to choose love over fear, to be the change that we need to see, and to show compassion for the life on our world that needs it most.
Dutch Man Invents Coffin That Turns Bodies Into Mushrooms: ‘We Are Nutrients, Not Waste’
By Andy Corbley – Dec 2, 2020
Photo : Bob Hendrikx, Loop
26-year-old bio-designer Bob Hendrikx created the Living Cocoon, a coffin that’s made by growing mycelium, the underground fibrous network that makes up most of a mushroom, around a coffin-shaped frame
Mycelium, nature’s best recycler, is able to break down and decompose toxins and pollutants that other agents can’t process and turn them into nutrients that help living organisms thrive
These coffins allow people to feed the Earth after dying, since our bodies are made of nutrients, not waste
The Living Cocoon only takes one week to grow, then about 2-3 years to decompose
Their parent company, Loop, is conducting research to convince policymakers to convert polluted areas into healthy forests, using our bodies as needed nutrients for healthy soil
This Good News shows the beginnings of a new innovation that will allow for humanity to give back to Mother Earth after leaving this life by feeding the planet with nutrients for healthy soils all around the world.
Indigenous Woman Wins Goldman Environmental Prize for Protecting 500,000 Acres of Amazon Rainforest
By Good News Network – Dec 6, 2020
Image : Nemonte Nenquimo by Jeronimo Zuñiga, Amazon Frontlines – Courtesy Goldman Environmental Prize
Nemonte Nenquimo, an indigenous Amazon leader, won the world’s leading award for grassroots environmental activism for organizing the protection of Ecuador’s rainforests
Nenquimo led an indigenous campaign and took legal action that created a court ruling protecting 500,000 acres of Waorani territory in the Amazon rainforest from oil companies
This lawsuit set a legal precedent for indigenous rights in Ecuador, and now other tribes are following her leadership in protecting additional areas of the Amazon
This now-protected area overlaps with Yasuni National Park, which the Smithsonian claims “may have more species of life than anywhere else in the world”
Nenquimo, mother of a 4-year-old daughter, organized the Waorani community by holding regionwide assemblies, launched a digital campaign targeting potential investors, helped communities maintain independence by installing solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems, supported an organic chocolate and cacao production business, secured training for Waorani youth to learn filmmaking and document the activists and rainforest, and served as the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the government
She united the worlds of indigenous people with Western society, elders with youth, and indigenous tribes that were once divided
This Good News shows the impact that one person can have on the world, leading the way to help strengthen indigenous communities, and uniting so many to protect more of Earth’s most valuable ecosystems.
Island Province in China Bans All Disposable Plastics – And Rallies to Ramp Up Biodegradable Substitutes
By Andy Corbley – Dec 7, 2020
All plastic polymers that aren’t biodegradable are no longer allowed to be sold at major establishments and state-owned buildings in the Chinese island province of Hainan, including the cities of Haikou and Sanya
This new “national ecological civilization pilot zone” is meant to inform future policies across China on how to best eliminate single-use plastics
Hainan has been growing industrial-scale production methods to supply the province with biodegradable plastic
While biodegradable and reusable products are more expensive, many local residences and shopkeepers are now happy with the benefit this will have to the environment
By 2025, China expects to stop all plastic pollution from entering their beaches, oceans, and landfills, establishing a plastics management system and employing plastic substitutes across the country
This Good News shows how even the most populated country with a poor history of environmental regulation is starting to take steps towards eliminating all plastic waste within a few years, and even though it’s more expensive, many residents support the change for the sake of helping environmental health.
In ‘Huge Victory for Polar Bears’, Court Rejects Arctic Offshore Drilling Project
By Andy Corbley – Dec 12, 2020
Photo : Young Polar Bear in Alaska by Hans-Jurgen Mager
Areas of unusually-rich biodiversity in the Arctic waters of the Beaufort Sea are now protected from an offshore oil drilling project after the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against a project approved by the 2018 U.S. administration
The administration provided an inaccurate and misleading analysis of this project’s impact, but many different environmental groups filed lawsuits that led to the project’s rejection
Many different endangered marine mammals, including polar bears, three species of seals, six species of whales, sea otters, sea lions, and Pacific walruses, along with many seabirds, fish, and larger mammals, are now protected from what would have been a massive oil derrick and gravel mine with many supporting installations and high carbon emissions
This Good News is an example of environmental groups working together for the common good to stop a government from completely destroying an already-threatened area for the sake of more harmful and unsustainable energy generation, saving many different species of endangered animals and their environment.
Additive That Makes Plastic Harmless Has Potential to Be Biodegrading Game-Changer
By Andy Corbley – Dec 1, 2020
Polymateria Ltd, a new materials company, created a plastic that turns into a harmless wax that’s edible by microbes in less than a year
They’ve developed a special ingredient added to the manufacturing stage of plastic, creating a form of plastic that can be used just as standard plastic would
Unlike other biodegradable plastics, this plastic turns into organic elements like oxygen and carbon dioxide, rather than simply breaking down quickly, which may have hard-to-detect pollution effects
Big companies like Puma and others around the world are already adding this special biodegrading plastic to their operations
Many of the company’s claims of biodegrading in all types of environments (besides landfills where nothing is biodegradable) have been confirmed through rigorous testing standards by the British Standards Institution
This Good News shows the beginnings of a new alternative to plastic that brings us one step closer to a circular economy, where everything we discard is either reused or returned to the Earth to biodegrade.
