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By Mal Cole* To imagine the coastline without the calls of seabirds ringing out above the waves as they search for prey and protect their young would be to imagine a true climate disaster. Though this extinction scenario seems far-fetched, seabirds face more threats than any other group of birds. Dangers include competition from invasive species, commercial fishing, and especially climate change because they rely both on delicate coastal habitat (for breeding) and the open ocean (for food). Changes in either habitat can threaten their survival. Many seabird species also rely on arctic habitats, which are some of the most threatened by climate change. Some birds have long migrations that can be made more difficult by unpredictable weather events. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) now lists 31% of seabirds as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. Several seabird species—including kittiwakes, petrels, puffins, and terns—face particular threats from climate change. Kittiwakes The black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), known in the United Kingdom simply as "kittiwakes," are a species of gull reminiscent of the more common ring-billed gull, except it is smaller, with a large head in proportion to its body and black legs and feet.  Its name comes from its characteristic call that sounds like “kitti-weeeik.” Kittiwakes use several cliffside sites in the UK, such as the Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, as their breeding grounds. They typically rear one to three fluffy, grey chicks each year. Since a 2018 assessment by BirdLife, the kittiwake has been listed as “vulnerable to extinction” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which was a stark change from their 2016 assessment that placed them at “least concern.” According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RBSP), overfishing and changes in ocean temperatures have eroded the populations of sand eels, which form a large part of these nesting birds’ diets. Kittiwakes also face threats to their breeding grounds. In February 2024, the kittiwakes suffered a crushing blow to their habitat when a cliff face holding 383 kittiwake nests fell into the sea in Sussex, England. The Sussex Ornithological Society had already observed a decline in kittiwake nests on the cliff face, with numbers at their lowest since 2011. This cliff face was the only known nesting site for the kittiwakes in Sussex, and it’s unclear if they will be able to adapt and return to the area. Petrels The decline of the kittiwake population is part of a larger trend in the population decline of seabirds. A long-term study that followed Wilson’s Storm Petrels in Antarctica showed a massive 90% decline in population over a forty-year period for two colonies. Like the kittiwakes, petrels are pelagic seabirds and spend most of their lives in the open ocean. They only return to land for breeding and rely on specific nesting sites for nesting.  Petrels are also facing loss of food due to warming oceans. The melting of sea ice reduces the number of Antarctic krill that the birds rely on. (To learn more about krill, see the E&I article “Antarctic Krill: An Ecosystem Powerhouse Caught Between Humans and Nature.”) Cloudier seas may also make it difficult for pelagic seabirds to find food. Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland observed Manx shearwaters, a seabird in the petrel family with gray color and white bellies, to understand how the cloudy ocean waters affected hunting conditions. The UCC researchers found that when sunlight penetrated the water, the shearwaters were able to dive deeper and collect more prey. The study suggests that as the oceans get cloudier due to climate change, it will be more difficult for pelagic seabirds to find food. Puffins In 2016 and 2017, researchers estimated that thousands of birds, many of them tufted puffins, died of starvation in the Bering Sea. The research team suggested that warming seas impacted the availability of the birds’ traditional food sources in the molting season, a stressful season during which the birds need extra energy and lose some of their ability to fly and dive. The puffins, which are colorful seabirds with upright penguin-like postures, were not able to find enough fish to sustain themselves, and the bodies of emaciated puffins washed up on the northwestern coast of North America, including St. Paul’s Island in Alaska. More recently, the tufted puffin’s cousin, the Atlantic puffin, suffered from the effects of warming seas and heavy rains in the Gulf of Maine. A study noted that the sea surface in the gulf was warming 99% faster than the global ocean. This has led to changes in available fish for the puffins to feed their chicks. This, plus heavy rainfalls, contributed to a disastrous 2021 for the puffin population—90% of the nesting puffins on the Island of Petit Manan, a ten-acre island refuge for nesting seabirds, failed to raise chicks to adulthood. Fortunately, by 2023, these puffins saw a second year of population rebound, Popular Science reported. Terns Even subtle changes in weather and climate can have negative impacts on seabirds with long migratory routes. Arctic terns fly to both the North Pole and South Pole, the longest migration of any animal at 100,000 kilometers (over 62,100 miles). Terns rely on wind support to help with their migration, but changes in windspeeds due to climate change could negatively impact their journey. A 2023 study found that climate change could affect prevailing winds along the terns’ migration route, which may require them to change course. Due to the length of the journey, even minor wind pattern changes can have negative impacts for these long-distance avian athletes. In addition to changes in weather, disappearing sea ice may influence the arctic tern’s breeding and foraging grounds. The terns rely on Antarctic sea ice for raising their chicks, and the loss of sea ice has likely led to devastating effects on other arctic seabirds such as the Ivory gull, which has lost 70% of its Canadian population since 1980. “[C]ontaminants and illegal harvesting in Greenland during migration” are likely contributing factors. Beacuse of their sensitivity to the effects of climate change, seabirds can indicate the general health and well-being of the ecosystems they inhabit. For that reason, it’s important to protect seabirds, not just for their own sake but for the sake of marine ecosystems. A 2019 study found that 380 million seabirds would benefit if the top three threats to seabirds could be controlled: the proliferation of invasive species, bycatch (unintentional trapping as a result of commercial fishing), and climate change. Countering these threats is an intimidating, long-term task, but researchers are also working to save several individual seabird species. In 2023, conservationists made an international effort to create a new colony of threatened black-footed albatrosses on the Mexican island of Guadalupe. And Audubon’s Seabird Institute is working to restore seabird populations worldwide, including seven in the Gulf of Maine. There is hope for seabirds as long as commitment to their conservation continues. *Mal Cole is a freelance science and nature writer based in Massachusetts.

Biologist Wants People to ‘Eat the Invaders’ When University of Vermont conservation biologist Dr. Joe Roman is not studying invasive species, endangered species, and marine ecology, he is running a website called Eat the Invaders. Its premise is as simple as the website’s name: If invasive species, which have no natural predators, can become part of the human diet, it can decrease their numbers while feeding hungry diners. Roman’s website provides information for anyone interested in pigging out on wild boar or cooking up green crab or armored catfish. It offers colorful images of select invasives in the US with a brief description of each invasive, its territory and behavior, and any known history of when and how it arrived in the US. Roman is under no illusions that “invasivorism” (eating invasives) will eliminate these problems. “To be clear,” he says in a recent SciLine interview, “it’s unlikely that this type of harvest is going to result in the complete eradication of a species; we’re just not going to be able to work that hard. There’s always going to be one last animal out there.” But Roman and his allies do believe human consumption of invasive species can help reduce the $20 billion in damage they cause each year in the US. “Getting fresh-caught green crabs when they’re soft shells are easily as good as blue crabs,” Roman says “Same can be said about lionfish. It’s a firm white meat,” he adds, noting that he and others are encouraging chefs to explore using these species in dishes worldwide. There is already some proof that “eating the invaders” works, Roman notes. He cites studies on lionfish in the Bahamas that show that lionfish populations declined when efforts were focused on harvesting them for food. In addition, “the native fish biomass in the Bahamas increased as those [invasive] populations started to decline,” he says. “The key here is that eating invasives is fun, it’s delicious, it might have an impact, but it’s the last line in the sand,” Roman adds. The first line of defense is “stop the introduction of new species …  we’re not going to get anywhere if a new species comes in every year.” But “in the end, you know, when they’re here, and they’ve been here for a while, we can enjoy a good meal.” Sources: https://www.sciline.org/environment-energy/eating-invasive-species/ http://eattheinvaders.org/

World Reaches 30% Renewable Energy Milestone in 2023 In its fifth annual Global Electricity Review, London-based nonprofit and energy think tank Ember has produced the first comprehensive overview of changes in global electricity generation in 2023. A key finding is that renewable energy sources produced a record share of global electricity. Global electricity reached a record high in 2023 of 29,471 terawatt-hours (TWh), largely due to electric vehicles, heat pumps, electrolyzers, air conditioning, and data centers. The 627 TWh increase in electricity demand from 2022 was mostly from China (606 TWh) and India (99 TWh). These increases were mostly offset by decreases in the EU and US. Global electricity shares from renewables reached a record 30% in 2023, compared with 19% (15,277 TWh) in 2000. Electricity generation from solar (5.5% or 1,631 TWh) and wind (7.8% or 2,304 TWh) comprised close to half of the 30%. In 2023, global hydropower generation reached a five-year low of 4,210 TWh, partially due to droughts. Global electricity generation shares from nuclear remained unchanged in 2023 at 9.1% (2,686 TWh). Global electricity from coal increased modestly to 10,434 TWh in 2023 from 10,288 TWh in 2022. Around 95% of this increase came from countries severely affected by drought, including China, India, Vietnam, and Mexico. The world average of global electricity consumption per capita was 3.7 MWh in 2023. Canada and the US had the highest electricity consumption per capita, at 15.9 MWh and 12.7 MWh, respectively. South Korea was third at 11.8 MWh. The carbon dioxide intensity of global power generation reached a record low of 480 gCO2/kWh, down from 486 gCO2/kWh in 2022. Global power sector emissions were 14,153 million tons of carbon dioxide (MtCO2) in 2023. China had the highest emissions of 5,491 MtCO2 (39% of total), followed by the US at 1,570 MtCO2 (11% of total). In 2024, global electricity demand is projected to rise by 968 TWh (a 3.3% increase) to 30,439 TWh. Note: 1 MWh = 1 megawatt-hour; 1 TWh = 1 terawatt-hour Sources: https://ember-climate.org/insights/research/global-electricity-review-2024/supporting-material/

More Europeans Using ‘Plug-and-Play’ Solar Energy Systems to Electrify Their Homes *By Richard Kemeny A new green energy craze is sweeping through Germany. Tiny solar power plants are popping up on balconies across the country, giving citizens the ability to take power directly from the sun and into their homes. According to data from Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), demand is soaring for these plug-in balcony photovoltaic systems. Official figures suggest the number of registered systems has grown in the country from around 137,000 in 2022 to well over 400,000 in 2024—and the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down. This surge in balcony voltaic systems is thought to be spurred by several overlapping drivers, including climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and skyrocketing energy prices. Given the right support and conditions, this simple, effective energy source could soon become more than a German zeitgeist (“the spirit of the time”) phenomenon and spread to homes around the world. What Is Balcony Solar? Much like solar farms and rooftop panels, balcony solar devices use photovoltaic cells to capture energy from sunlight and convert it to electricity. Also known as plug-in solar devices, they consist of small solar panels installed on available balcony space, either directly onto the railings or on stands. These plug-and-play systems do not need professional installation, giving an opportunity for those living in apartments or without access to a roof or large outdoor space to join the solar revolution. The panels gather energy from sunlight to generate direct electric current. This is then converted via an inverter into the alternative current used in major energy grids. The system can then be plugged into an electrical outlet, adding solar-generated electricity straight into a household’s electrical system. Electricity created by these devices [balcony solar panels] can be used to power or charge appliances directly, which helps to bring down electricity costs. Electricity created by these devices can be used to power or charge appliances directly, which helps to bring down electricity costs. It gives everyday citizens a way to make their own lives less reliant on fossil fuels. In some cases—depending on local regulations and grid systems—electricity can even be fed back into the grid for a financial reward. What About Efficiency? Of course, the efficiency of solar panels depends on the amount of accessible sunlight. This means the energy generation capacity of balcony solar panels is necessarily limited, compared to rooftops, which can generally accommodate larger and greater numbers of panels. Solar panels are able to produce around 15 watts (W) on average per square foot. A 10-square-foot balcony could therefore produce around 150W during “peak sun hours”—where sunlight intensity is an average of 1,000W per 10.5 feet. Balcony solar systems can also be combined with battery storage packs to store excess electricity for use during cloudy weather or at night—or if the electricity grid fails. Balcony solar systems can also be combined with battery storage packs to store excess electricity for use during cloudy weather or at night—or if the electricity grid fails. There are other factors to consider. Balconies that are partially shaded by natural or man-made structures will see their energy production reduced. The orientation of an apartment can drastically affect how much sunlight it receives and how much electricity it can produce. In Germany, a 400W balcony solar system facing southwards at the right angle will generate around 320W on average; yet this would fall to half in slightly cloudy weather. As is the case with many renewable energies, shifting weather patterns affect how much electricity is generated. In British summers, which can provide around five peak hours per day, this balcony could produce 750 watt-hours (Wh) though this figure would fall dramatically during the winter. Moreover, even though solar panels on balconies may not be as exposed as on rooftops, they are still vulnerable to strong winds and must be secured. Snow and hail can affect both balcony solar panels and rooftop panels. Cost Considerations If well maintained, solar panels usually last around 25 years. Ideally, one would want to recuperate one’s investment in the balcony power plant beforehand to make it worthwhile economically. Costs for solar panels and balcony solar systems vary. But if a 360W capacity balcony solar power system costs around $2,000 in the US, it could take up to 25 years to break even, depending on energy prices and weather conditions over that period. In Germany, economic incentives appear to be a major driver behind the success of plug-in solar plants. In January 2023, the German government made balcony generators exempt from VAT (value-added tax). In Europe, the average costs of these systems can range between €1,500-3,000 (about $1,630 to $3,261), some are available for less than €300 (about $326).  Many of the costs are heavily subsidized by German states and/or municipalities (with direct subsidies of up to €500, or about $543) and can range up to €1,450 (about $1,576) per system depending on size and capacity. Another reason behind Germany’s balcony solar boom is that many citizens live in apartments, making small solar systems an enticing option. Compared with US residences, German  homes demand far less energy: On average, German families use around 3,500 kWh of electricity per year while in the US, electricity demand is roughly triple that per household. Ironically, US electricity costs are a lot less—$0.13 / kWh compared with $0.52 / kWh in Germany. Streamlining Solar Regulations Germany has relaxed legislation surrounding balcony solar systems to further boost uptake, setting an example for like-minded European countries like Austria and Switzerland. In April 2024, the German government passed “Solarpaket 1,” a set of legal reforms including a simplified grid connection procedure for balcony power systems. The energy threshold for registration of balcony plants has also been raised from 600W to 800W. The German government passed … a set of legal reforms including a simplified grid connection procedure for balcony power systems. Regulations can be more complex elsewhere, however. In the US, balcony power systems can require the same permits as large rooftop systems, making the whole process more onerous. In New York, height limits for balcony systems are set at 10 feet due to citywide building restrictions. While planning permission generally isn’t required, state and local restrictions may apply, which could be the deciding factor in whether someone chooses to invest in such a system. That being said, people wishing to install a balcony solar system in the US may be eligible for a federal solar tax credit. But the potential is staggering for an American balcony solar revolution similar to that seen in Germany. Some estimates suggest plug-in balcony systems in the US could generate over 108 million MWh/year— four times the amount generated by the country’s solar industry in 2015—and offer somewhere in the order of $13 billion per year in energy savings. The case of Germany shows how political will, funding, and the relaxation of red tape can dramatically increase uptake in this new, clean energy source. Inviting citizens into the energy creation process could transform consumers into “prosumers” who are more environmentally minded. While a country’s energy consumption profile doesn’t turn on one system, balcony solar systems could have a measurable impact if their adoption could reach a critical mass. *Richard Kemeny writes about archaeology, marine biology, oceanography, ecology, technology, and the environment

New York’s Rethink Food Solves Food Insecurity with Nutritious, Culturally Celebrated Meals Ken Baker is the Culinary Director for Rethink Food (RF), a New York City-based non-profit that delivers sustainable solutions to the city’s problems of food insecurity and food waste. A nourish-your-neighbor evangelist of sorts, chef Ken shared with E&I Editor Jerry Chesnut about his team’s success in bringing nutritious, restaurant-quality, culturally celebrated cuisine to New Yorkers in need. Together with RF Founder and CEO Matt Jozwiak and co-founder Daniel Humm (chef/owner of Eleven Madison Park), Baker and a small, innovative team have come up with a unique strategy that has already laid the groundwork—and the track record—to achieve RF’s vision of a nourished, neighborly New York. RF’s “stewardship of care” culture has led to a partnership with the city, helped raise private funding from philanthropic sources, and attracted various “restaurant partners” that raise funds for RF via each restaurant’s ongoing marketing strategies.  Earth & I: Ken, to my knowledge, Rethink Food’s approach to sustainable food security is unprecedented. How would you respond?  Ken Baker:  I'm sitting here in our beautiful, sustainable community kitchen at 116 West Houston Street [in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in lower Manhattan]. My team here makes beautiful meals to the tune of 18,900 meals a week from this space, and the balance of our meals—we do almost 400,000 meals a week as an organization—are created by our restaurant partners, these beautiful, diverse, primarily women- and minority-run small businesses that we are empowering to be micro-commissaries, just like we are in this space. We raise funds and give them to these restaurants to empower them to be of service to their communities. This creates jobs too. All that we endeavor to do is create a broader community for greater human impact. We are all culinary/hospitality professionals that know the industry, so we've leaned into the [typical] operations where restaurants, between lunch and dinner service, may only do a dozen covers [meals/customers] but still have a culinary team and staff on hand.  Earth & I: Brilliant.     Ken Baker: It's brilliant and simple at the same time. It's like, “why hasn't anyone else done this?”    Earth & I: So many of New York’s great minority-owned small restaurants serve diverse ethnic cuisines from around the world. Is partnering with them how you're able to offer a wide variety of meals?    Ken Baker:  It’s a combination of our diverse restaurant partners and the diverse team here that I have the honor to lead. We intentionally have a diversity of people that reflects the diversity of the population we're serving. The 15,450 meals that go out the door here every week—which ramped up last week to 18,900 meals—that’s all powered by just 15 individuals, including drivers, a culinary team, and management. We intentionally create a variety of meals that celebrate ethnic identity. That's our unique space. Just as people want to be spoken to in a preferred language and identified by preferred names, they also want to be eating food that's culturally celebrated, including our newest New Yorkers due to the migrant crisis.   “With our [food collection and delivery] trucks we’re capturing excess from our food ecosystem and adapting [our recipes] to what's coming off our trucks.                     We don't want to make one [meal] and blanket the city with it. This is New York and we're chefs who take pride in our ability to adapt within a sustainable model of zero excess waste production. With our [food collection and delivery] trucks, we’re capturing excess from our food ecosystem and adapting [our recipes] to what's coming off our trucks.   Our first investment in operations as an organization was into our refrigerated [delivery] fleet. That demonstrates the stewardship of care we want to ensure for our neighbors and partners, a level of dignity through intention that we here at Rethink talk about. We are very intentional about what we're doing.   If we're going to collect excess food from all these disparate partners—our retail partners, wholesale manufacturers and growers, big distributors, regular mom-and-pop restaurants, corporate cafeterias, academic cafeterias, and so on—we want to give that stewardship of care to our donors who are donating the food, particularly our retail partners like Whole Foods  and Trader Joe's  who have very high brand recognition and are incubating their brand in a certain light. We want to ensure that we can lend them that same level of stewardship that they espouse within their own operations but lend it also to our communities [who are receiving our restaurant-quality meals]. We're going to ensure stewardship of care in every process. As our logo suggests [see image above], the process starts with people and ends with people.     Earth & I: Everyone should have a beautiful life.    Ken Baker:  Absolutely. I anchor my team—as leader of all internal operations, leader of the culinary team and the trucking logistics team—to the idea that we're just people feeding people. It's that shared sacred humanity. We all have to eat. Marginalization shouldn't dictate the quality of food you receive, particularly here in New York City, a food capital with food excess and, yet, where 1 in 7 New Yorkers and 1 in 4 children are food insecure.   We exist for those unseen communities. Our location here at 116 West Houston in the Village is in the 22nd wealthiest postal ZIP Code in America. With us being in this street-facing location surrounded by all this excess and luxury, we are a lighthouse speaking for broader New York, reminding everyone that part of the magic of New York City is community, this neighborliness that we've gotten away from.   The secret sauce of how we are able to grow is stewardship of care. For instance, we're collecting all this excess, but there are entrenched stigmas around what we do. People have this notion that we're “dumpster diving” or that we are just opening up bags and cans and reheating food. No! We are curating nutrient-dense, restaurant-quality meals. That stewardship of care starts and stops with our logistic teams who have the most external engagement with our Rethink Food network.    “Capturing that excess, making meals and delivering them to New York's most needy individuals with no cost to them—it's beautiful.”    The amazing, donated abundance that we're able to get allows us to provide diverse meal applications because we're picking up and collecting from  Eleven Madison Park , for instance, our co-founder, chef Daniel Humm's famous three-star Michelin restaurant. There's something beautiful about those pristine ingredients—whatever they use in their tasting menu—that we are also utilizing.    Capturing that excess, making meals and delivering them to New York's most needy individuals with no cost to them—it's beautiful.    Earth & I: What comes to my mind is “golden rule gourmet.”   Ken Baker:  Exactly. I think what you're alluding to is making something that you would want to make [for yourself], treating people the way you would want to be treated. Our family meal where we all sit down for lunch as an organization—even our support team in our headquarters on Sullivan Street—the whole organization sits down at noon, and we have a meal comprised of the production my culinary team has been making that morning. That's our commitment to communities that we serve; if it's good enough for us chefs, then it's good enough to go out to our communities.   People often ask me what makes Rethink Food different. Our unique currency in this space is that we are delivering a nutrient-dense, restaurant-quality meal that is anchored on a protein component, a carbohydrate component, and a vegetable component that goes out to every community. We're not dumbing down food for any arbitrary KPI [key performance indicator] or arbitrary price point.  Earth & I: How do you get all those meals to all those people?   Ken Baker:  I have the honor of leading our amazing trucking logistics team. Those are the mighty men that move our mission. They're the ones collecting the excess and bringing it back here to our sustainable community kitchen on Houston Street. That allows us to make meals here, but they also move the meals to our CBO [community-based organizations] partners from either our site here or from our restaurant partners.  We lean into our delivery model of partnering with CBOs because it is hyper-efficient for our operation and allows us to have multiple impacts across the city.   “You'll hear chef Daniel [Humm]—our co-founder—always talking about the power of food and how it's this powerful language. We want our food to sing a lullaby of love and compassion and community.”   You'll hear chef Daniel [Humm] —our co-founder—always talking about the power of food and how it's this powerful language. We want our food to sing a lullaby of love and compassion and community. So, we partnered with community-based organizations—institutions like nonprofits, faith-based institutions, schools, rec centers—that have already established themselves as an anchor in their community and have credibility in the community as neighbors.      When Henry calls me up from St. John's Bread and Life  during Lent and says, “Hey, can you make our menu on Fridays reflect the Lenten traditions of fish and no meat?” “Absolutely,” we say, because that's what dignity looks like. Some of our religious CBO partners … are kosher and practicing Jews themselves. Their services are open to everybody, but they want to have the time to celebrate Passover themselves, so they call us up and say, “Hey, Ken. You know, it's Passover this week. Can you partner us with somebody who can run our services this Wednesday and Friday so that we can celebrate the Passover holidays?” “Absolutely.” That's all about the broader community we're creating; that's where we allow for the needs of the operators, mostly volunteers, of a CBO. We want to allow them to celebrate. It’s very important to me to be defensive of our vast volunteer network. We need them. That's how we amplify our impact and provide capacity for our partners.    CBO Partners Determine Service Models The CBOs dictate the unique service to the community. Some of our CBO partners will reheat our food—coming to them in hotel aluminum pans—and put it out buffet style, for instance. Others will take the pans and create individual meals, which allows them to move the meals beyond their location.   Oftentimes, CBOs will have their own logistic services. For example, one of our CBOs, North Brooklyn Angels  (NBA), retrofitted a defunct food truck to literally take the service to the community of North Brooklyn. Not being affixed in a location also allows them easy access to the church from which NBA distributes.    “We want to put ourselves in that single mom's shoes who has to work 50, 60 hours a week to be able to pay rent.”   CBOs are giving those meals out free-of-cost with no barriers to access. People often ask, “How does one qualify for a meal?” We don't do that. The moment you qualify for a meal, it feels like a government program. We want to put ourselves in that single mom's shoes who has to work 50, 60 hours a week to be able to pay rent. If she has multiple children in various schools, after she's done working overtime and then corralling all her kids from various locations, by the time she gets home, the one thing that money can't buy is time. And so, we give space for that. There's a lot of working-class people receiving our services, just trying to make ends meet. We try to eliminate barriers to access because we want to create a level of dignity because there's a lot of stigma and shame to asking for help, especially if you are working full time and can't make ends meet.    We want to create a space where mom doesn't feel bad to take her kids to St. John's Bread and Life to have a meal because she knows it will be just as good as a nutrient-dense, healthy meal that she’d prepare for her kids.    So, what I'm doing here is pulling back that veil and showing people the truth about this notion that we're back to normal, that we've gone back to this pre-COVID normalcy. This is far from the truth. Rethink Food’s culinary team makes meals it would serve at home.  ©Rethink Food Another secret to our sauce is our beautiful team. Individuals on our team are either coming from those communities or they have that same compassion. There’s Rebecca, who is the only single mom on our team, or chef Arturo, who leads the culinary team on a day-to-day managerial level. They are parents curating meals like they would for their children.    We probably have the marquee wage on the market. Those individuals on my team coming from the community, we are empowering them through our partnerships with workforce development programs like Project Renewal and giving them dignity and confidence that come with work. It's a skill set that's affecting other individuals.   “We enjoy this amazing environmental upside of collecting viable excess and saving millions of gallons of water on an annual basis. We are [also diverting] tons of CO2.”   But in all that we are doing, we enjoy this amazing environmental upside of collecting viable excess and saving millions of gallons of water on an annual basis. We are [also diverting] tons of CO2. That fleet that we are invested in that goes out and captures all this excess, brings it back here, and then moves our meals [has a carbon footprint]. We will [reduce] our carbon footprint and preserve our natural human habitat just by the work that we're doing feeding people.    Earth & I: Any last thoughts?   Ken Baker:  I often tell people that I grew up food insecure in Baltimore, but it was different. We didn't have much, but we didn't feel like it. There was a lot of love.   My grandmother is why I'm in this space. God rest her soul. The archives of history would never speak about Deborah Jones, but the impact she had on me, how she would always have a kind word for our mailman and would make him a cake or give him a plate of food. There's something very powerful about breaking bread with somebody. It breaks down the barriers of separation. That resonates with the broader sacrifice we need to have for each other. That's the secret sauce at Rethink Food. We all are centered on our four core values that guide everything that we do. First, our mission is to create a more sustainable and equitable food system, but the core values of the organization are kindness, thoughtfulness, inventiveness, and vulnerability.   That is why we exist.

Students Attend Classes in a Net-Zero Energy Building with a Hydroponics Unit Discovery Elementary School is a public K-5 school in Arlington, VA, named for astronaut and Sen. John Glenn, who once lived near the park where the school now stands. Opened in 2015, Discovery was the largest net-zero energy elementary school ever built in the United States and the first net-zero energy school of any kind in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The 97,588-square-foot school, which has around 700 students, is a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School and a National Wildlife Federation Eco-Schools USA Green Flag School. Recently, The Earth & I conducted an interview with Discovery Principal Dr. Erin Healy. E&I: Dr. Healy, you were hired as the principal one year before the opening of the Discovery Elementary School. Could you please tell us what steps you took to prepare the teachers, staff, and PTA to create a green sustainability-centered school. Dr. Healy: When we first opened, we had to build community. We were pulling students from three overcrowded elementary schools …  We had to come together and decide: “What do we want Discovery to be?” We screened a movie about some outdoor school in Europe (School’s Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten.) They have kids go outside—in the sunshine, rain, and snow—from ages two to seven. Every day, they're just outside. They're using knives, building fires, and doing all of the things that American schools are not doing. Those kids don't come inside and learn letters and how to read and write until age seven. And we're kind of forcing it on our students at age five. And it all meters out, right? It inspired the parents to think outside the box and know that active, outside play is important. We also screened another movie that was about all the plastics in the ocean. The marine biologists who created that documentary were able to interact with our students, and our students were able to ask them questions. Again, any normal elementary school might not watch a movie about plastics in the ocean, but because this is central to what we do—it becomes part of our community. E&I: Yes, education should prepare students to solve these critical problems. If they know about such issues, they can think about solutions. Dr. Healy: Yes. Our students also do research projects. Second graders, for example, are located in the “ocean” wing of our school, so everything that they see is about the ocean. When the teachers said, “Let's do a research project. What do we want to educate people about?” They decided they wanted students to learn about the importance of rainwater. So, on the caps of the public rainwater sewer system [in the school’s driveway and parking areas], they drew animals, like fish and frogs, with a paint that only shows up when it rains. When it rains, the paint shows up and you can see a frog or a fish. They were just raising awareness about the rain, what the water does, and who it affects. E&I: You mentioned the fifth-grade research project and how they created a trap for the sewers? Dr. Healy: Yes. We did a “design thinking challenge” and had every grade level do something related to the hallway that they were in. Fifth grade is in the “galaxy” hallway, so it's all about energy, but they were struggling to figure out what they should do and they came up with an idea not related to energy. They were concerned about the amount of trash that was in the school parents’ car loop and falling into the local water system because there's a huge gap where all the rainwater flows. They said we should put a net or something there to stop that, and so they designed it, built it, and set it up. It was wonderful. Then they graduated, and we were like, “Okay, goodbye fifth graders.” Four days or so later, summer school started. And then this happened on the first day of summer school: We in Arlington, Virginia, had never seen the amount of rain that fell. The first forty-five minutes were crazy. It was an absolute deluge. Well, the turf field that has the crumb rubber covering, it all lifted, came down the hill into that school parking loop, and was about to be swept away into the local sewer, but the net was there that the kids had built, and it stopped all that crumb. After the sun came out, the crumb dried up, and there was a layer of it several inches deep. The Arlington County public service system came out and was able to vacuum it up and put it back in the field. It never got into the sewer system. I was thinking, “I need to go find those fifth graders and thank them each individually” because all of it could have just polluted our sewer system. But their net system stopped it—it was just spectacular. E&I: What would you recommend to other schools who would like to develop their environmental education? Dr. Healy: I think for another school or school system to replicate this, it's really important that people have time together to plan. None of this happens without planning, but it’s all extra for our teachers on their own time—like what the art teacher and the advanced academic teacher do … running the eco-action team. There's no time in the day for them to formally plan for that, so they're doing it on their own time. We’re the only school in the county that's so focused on sustainability. Any time that we use for this is done on our own time. We don't have the time, so we make time. …  I am so grateful for all the people that do it on their own time, but it would be lovely and better for students if it could be planned and purposeful. E&I: By planned and purposeful, do you mean it would be part of the curriculum? Dr. Healy: Yes. As if the county could say, “You have this one day; how much could we actually get done in planning the different types of activities that are already happening for our students?” It's on the backs of teachers who care and love it, and it's their passion. And, if you think about the busy work week, it would be great if there was support in that area. E&I: In your networking with other schools do you see the same issues? Dr. Healy: Yes, I do. I am in communication with the principal of a school in Fairfax. They have a lovely garden system and all sorts of things, but they also struggle with finding the time for their teachers to prepare for the activities, for the students, and for outside learning—it's just hard. E&I: So, in a sense, education is backward. It has not caught up with today's needs. On another topic, are there different things in the kitchen that can save energy? Dr. Healy: Yes. Our kitchen doesn't have a deep fat fryer, which most elementary schools have. It's all electric and modular, so that every piece in the kitchen can be taken out if it doesn't work and a new element put in. I think that was new when they were building this school. One other thing I'll say is that we can feed the students with everything that we grow and produce, which is awesome. I don't know if all schools do that. “We can feed the students with everything that we grow and produce, which is awesome.” E&I: You harvest enough to be able to use it in the kitchen? Dr. Healy: We harvest enough lettuce, if you can believe it, for use in the kitchen. We also donate extra [lettuce] to the local food bank because we have so much. When the hydroponics unit is full, it overflows with lettuce. There's just so much there, and the second graders get to harvest it, which they love, and we serve it to the staff and students. And while talking about donating, every student is required to take a piece of fruit and a carton of milk at lunch. But many don’t consume them. So, we collect them and put them in a special refrigerator to be given to the food bank as well. Last year, we donated 600 pounds of food to local food banks. E&I: The school was built as a green school, but it was still within the budget, right? Dr. Healy: Yes, one of the main reasons that the county board gave VMDO Architects the bid to build the school was because they said that they could come in under budget and make the building sustainable. The architects said they could do it, and they did it. It was a win-win situation. “[W]e produce so much extra energy that the school is able to offset the cost of other schools’ electric bills. E&I: Where is your energy stored and how much does it cost to store it? Dr. Healy: We don't have the exact information right now, but from what I heard from the county energy manager, we produce so much extra energy that the school is able to offset the cost of other schools’ electric bills. [As part of Discovery’s eco-friendly elements, the school has 1,706 rooftop photovoltaic (PV) solar panels generating 496 kW of power.] Kathy Lin, who's the Arlington County Energy Manager, actually advocated at the state level to change a law to allow us to offset our energy. … [S]he advocated and helped pass a bill so that now we can offset the [electricity] cost for other schools. E&I: Another issue is character education. You said a lot about collaboration. Dr. Healy: Collaboration is the backbone of the school. If you don't believe in collaboration, don't come here. Every staff member knows that. Regarding character education, we follow something called "The Responsive Classroom." We send our teachers to a four-day training for level one and another four days for level two. It's about whole-school character education. Every classroom in Discovery starts with a morning meeting, with four components: the greeting, the sharing, the group activity, and the morning message. It’s about logical consequences, redirecting language, and it clarifies a lot of the expectations we have for students. Together, we talk about CARES. That's cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control. We're teaching all those things daily in morning meetings and in “closing circles.” E&I: One of our recent articles for the Earth & I was on Green School Bali. A couple times a day they ring a gong and have a minute or so of “mindfulness” or meditation. Dr. Healy: It's so funny that you bring that up because I was hired a year before the school was opened. I was sitting in an office, and I was thinking, “How am I going to make this a sustainable school? How am I going to do this?” I did research, and Green School Bali came up. I couldn't believe how cool it was, and I reached out to them and was in communication with their "sustainability director." I asked, "Hey, I'm in Virginia, we're opening a new school, and I've never done this before. I've never been a principal. How do we make it sustainable?" And we talked. The PTA for our building actually formed before I was hired. … It turned out that the PTA president was a roommate in college with someone who worked at Green School Bali! I thought this is kismet, this is fate, because I reached out to them just from my research indicating they're a great school. I had no idea what I was doing, and then she was telling me this—all these connections, that's what it takes. It takes learning from others, learning how to do this. I joke with my staff all the time. “We need to take a trip there. We need to do a vacation to Bali, Indonesia, because it's work related.” E&I: Thank you very much. For The Earth & I, Marion Warin Miller spoke with Dr. Healy. She is a French bilingual researcher, writer, and editor now residing in Northern Virginia.

How Wildlife Crossings Save Animals and People *By Alina Bradford Most people have seen a hapless turtle, deer, or skunk trying to scuttle to the other side of a road or highway. As urbanization and infrastructure expansion continue to encroach on natural habitats, man-made wildlife crossings [see video] or “green bridges” have emerged as a vital solution for wildlife. These innovative structures help ensure safe passage, thus reducing roadkill and preventing fatal or crippling collisions between animals and vehicles. Green bridges also help animals move freely, ensuring they can find food, mates, and new territories. This movement is crucial for keeping wildlife populations healthy and diverse. What Are Wildlife Crossings? Wildlife crossings are special structures designed to help animals safely cross busy roads, highways, and railways. The main goal of wildlife crossings is to reduce the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions, which can be dangerous for both animals and humans. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (US), an estimated 1 million to 2 million motorists collide with large wildlife each year. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (US), an estimated 1 million to 2 million motorists collide with large wildlife each year. These collisions cause around 200 human deaths, 26,000 injuries, and $8 billion in property damage. Wildlife crossings can take the form of overpasses, underpasses, bridges, or tunnels. Overpasses often look like natural bridges covered with soil and plants, giving animals a safe path over the road. Underpasses and tunnels that run beneath the road are perfect for smaller animals or those that prefer enclosed spaces. These crossings are often paired with fences to guide animals to the safest routes and keep them off the roads. Animal bridges aren’t just government initiatives. Conservation groups and organizations work with local governments to devise the best plans for local wildlife. One organization that is a driving force in wildlife crossings in North America is the Pacific Forest Trust. It has been preserving, restoring, and managing forests in the Cascade-Siskiyou region in Oregon for more than two decades. “Our belief in the importance of wildlife crossings has only grown stronger, especially as climate change pushes species to adapt and find cooler spots to call home,” said Laurie Wayburn, co-founder and president of Pacific Forest Trust. “Take our projects, like additions to the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument, Mountcrest Working Forest, and Mount Ashland Demonstration Forest. They're not just forests, they're lifelines for wildlife, connecting them to other protected areas and giving them safe pathways to migrate.” There are thousands of wildlife crossings globally, including over 600 green bridges in the Netherlands and over 1,000 in the United States. How Common Are Wildlife Crossings? Wildlife bridges started as just an idea in the 1950s in France and have since become increasingly common as countries recognize their benefits for both wildlife conservation and public safety. While exact numbers are hard to determine, there are thousands of wildlife crossings globally, including over 600 green bridges in the Netherlands and over 1,000 in the United States. One of the most iconic wildlife crossings is the Banff National Park's series of overpasses and underpasses in Alberta, Canada. These vegetation-covered structures blend into the natural landscape and provide safe passage for wolves, grizzly bears, elk, and other species. According to a 2007 research article, the crossings reduced large animal wildlife-vehicle collisions in the area by over 80%. Another impressive example is Utah's $5 million Parleys Canyon wildlife overpass. Spanning six lanes of Interstate 80, this overpass is specifically designed for large animals like deer and elk. In 2021 alone, the bridge had over 1,200 animal crossings. In Australia, the Christmas Island crab bridges protect millions of red crabs during their annual migrations. These unique, mesh-like crossings, which allow crabs to easily climb and walk over roads, have become an essential part of the island’s ecosystem management. Crabs on Christmas Island bridge.  ©Leah Noble (left) Sarah Coote (right). Parks Australia The Cost of Wildlife Crossings While wildlife crossings save lives, they can be quite expensive. Successful wildlife crossings include fencing to funnel animals toward the crossings, signage to alert drivers, and landscaping to make the structures more attractive to wildlife. Wildlife crossings vary in size depending on the species they are designed to accommodate. Overpasses are typically 165 to 230 feet wide, providing enough space for animals to feel safe. Underpasses come in various dimensions, but they are generally designed to mimic natural conditions to encourage wildlife use. Generally, overpasses can cost between $1 million and $7 million to construct, while underpasses range from $250,000 to $600,000. Research has shown that building these crossings is actually less expensive than the animal and car collisions that happen without them. Research has shown that building these crossings is actually less expensive than the animal and car collisions that happen without them. For example, before the construction of the wildlife crossings, the Wyoming Department of Transportation estimated that wildlife-vehicle collisions at Trapper’s Point, Wyoming, were costing over $500,000 each year. The state estimates that the wildlife crossings—which, for example, cost $2.5 million to $7 million for a double span overpass—will pay for themselves in about 17 years, according to The Center for Large Landscape Conservation in Bozeman, Montana. Effectiveness of Wildlife Crossings Wildlife crossings have proven highly effective in reducing animal-vehicle collisions. Studies show an average reduction of 80% to 90% in collisions in areas where these crossings are installed. The Interstate 5 wildlife crossing in Oregon is a prime example of a successful project from start to finish. “Since 2020, we've been working as part of the Southern Oregon Wildlife Crossing Coalition to champion safe passage for animals across Interstate 5 in the Siskiyou Crest, one of the most heavily traveled roads in the nation and a major ‘kill zone’ for wildlife in both Oregon and California,” said Wayburn. “Wildlife deaths have fallen by nearly 86% in other parts of Oregon where wildlife corridors have been built. That's why we're excited about the Interstate 5 wildlife crossing, as it will foster habitat connectivity and protect elk, deer, mountain lions and many other species, large and small.” New Developments in Wildlife Crossings Exciting developments continue in this field. For example, the Pacific Forest Trust is working on creating "wildways," natural corridors that bridge public and private lands. "While man-made wildlife crossings over roads like bridges and tunnels under highways have garnered significant attention, Pacific Forest Trust is at the forefront of a growing movement toward creating natural corridors—we like to call them ‘wildways’—that bridge public and private lands to ensure safe passage for wildlife across property ownerships,” said Wayburn. “This is especially important as wildlife are increasingly on the move due to challenges posed by climate change, such as extreme heat, wildfires, and increased fragmentation from development pressure.” The Pacific Forest Trust is working on creating "wildways," natural corridors that bridge public and private lands. An example of this approach is a project to conserve  7,500 acres of private forest on Mount Shasta's slopes that involves the landowner, forest management group, the Pacific Forest Trust, and the State of California. This project aims to protect forest health, create a climate-resilient habitat connecting public lands, and support around 250 species, including the gray wolf and Pacific fisher. “With nearly 60% of US forests being privately owned, replicating such 'super wildway' projects nationwide becomes crucial for reducing fragmentation and facilitating secure wildlife migration amid climate and environmental challenges,” said Wayburn. Going Beyond Traditional Boundaries Wildlife crossings are a crucial innovation in preserving biodiversity and enhancing road safety. As more countries and states recognize the value of these lifesaving structures, it is expected that there will be an increase in their number worldwide. “Our ideas about habitat protection need to evolve from a ‘fixed boundary’ or zoo-like approach that expects animals and plants to remain within designated places,” said Wayburn. “Public lands alone cannot protect these species,” she added. “To ensure we have this amazing diversity of plants and wildlife, we need to embrace private lands, including those managed for financial return, as part of the solution. Since biodiversity loss is closely linked with climate change and forest loss, we must integrate more active, private lands conservation into our strategies.” *Alina Bradford is a safety and security expert who has contributed to CBS, MTV, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, and more. She is currently the editorial lead at SafeWise.com.

Total Global Battery EV and Plug-In Hybrid EV Units Surpassed 40 Million in 2023 In its tenth annual Global EV Outlook released in April, the International Energy Agency provided an overview of recent developments in electric mobility, including trends in electric vehicles (EVs) and projections of EV charging infrastructure and battery demand. A key finding is that there were about 40 million electric cars on the road in 2023, a 14 million increase from the previous year. In 2023, global electric car sales (and new car registrations) neared 14 million, having increased by 3.5 million from the previous year. The most sales were made by China (60%), followed by Europe (25%) and the US (10%). The global stock of fuel cell electric vehicles reached around 87,600 at the end of 2023, an increase of 15,400 (about 20%) from the previous year. The highest stock is in Korea (almost 40%), followed by the US (about 30%) and China (just over 20%). The number of available models for electric cars was nearly 590 in 2023, with a 15% year-on-year increase. The average range of small electric cars and large higher-end models was stagnant, at around 150 km (93 miles) and 360 km to 380 km (223 miles to 236 miles), respectively. On the other hand, medium-sized electric cars and electric SUVs had improvements in their range, at around 380 km (236 miles). Sales of electric buses have been decreasing since the peak of nearly 90,000 in 2017 (aside from 2022), with almost 50,000 sold in 2023. Electric truck sales were about 54,000 in 2023, a 35% increase from the previous year. Seventy percent of these sales were made by China. Demand for electric vehicle batteries was about 750 gigawatt-hours in 2023, a 40% increase from the previous year. In 2024, the projected total electric car sales are around 17 million, with over 3 million already sold in the first quarter. Sources: https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024

Research—and common sense—affirm that the sense of touch plays an important role in human life. Now a new study concludes that there is “clear evidence” that therapeutic touch is beneficial across a large number of physical and mental health conditions and in people of all ages. It is well known that babies thrive with loving touch, and that regular, consensual hugs, kisses, and massages contribute to physical health and mental well-being throughout life. However, scientists have sought to understand the mechanics behind the healing powers of touch and how these can be harnessed for greater efficacy across various ailments. A group of scientists associated with the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience conducted a meta-analysis of dozens of studies on touch intervention therapies involving almost 13,000 people. Their study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, found that touch interventions have a “medium-sized effect” on people’s ailments. The studies all included “a touch versus no touch control intervention,” the authors said. They found that “touch treatments” were particularly effective with regulating cortisol levels; increasing newborns’ weight; and reducing pain, depression, and anxiety in adults. The scientists also looked at personal versus impersonal interventions. They found that touch interventions with “objects or robots” brought similar physical health benefits to skin-to-skin interventions. However, skin-to-skin interventions brought greater mental health benefits than other types of interventions. Regarding who was providing the touching, the meta-analysis found no difference in health benefits for adults when touch interventions were administered by a “familiar person” versus a health care professional. However, among newborns, parental touch was by far the most beneficial. The team further found that more touch interventions were positively associated with improved outcomes for depression, anxiety, and pain reduction in adults. The magnitude of their data, the scientists said, supported their conclusion that “touch interventions can be systematically employed across the population to preserve and improve our health.” Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01841-8

*By Laurie Burras The global shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic generated at least one healthy activity: They pushed more people to plant community vegetable, fruit, and flower gardens, especially in urban areas. The time-honored activity of communal gardens and farms has long spared communities from hunger during war, natural disasters, and economic downturns. But will this trend grow? Some see a bright future for community gardens. “Community gardens in the U.S. are growing faster than ever,” the nonprofit Trust for Public Land said in a pre-pandemic post in 2018. “The number of garden plots in city parks has increased 44% since we started keeping track in 2012. Today there are more than 29,000 garden plots in city parks in just the 100 largest U.S. cities—up 22% from just a year ago.” More recently, a 2024 study, based on responses from 70 community garden coordinators in 43 cities in multiple countries, found that community gardening offered “multiple social, economic, and health benefits” during the COVID-19 years. The study’s Swiss and German authors, who published their findings in January in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, cautioned that while the pandemic sparked a clear surge in shared-space gardening, “it remains unclear how it affected the overall trend in demand for community gardens.” The rise in community gardening between 2018 and 2022 “underscores the crucial role of community gardens in an urbanizing world, especially during challenging times.” However, they concluded that the rise in community gardening between 2018 and 2022 “underscores the crucial role of community gardens in an urbanizing world, especially during challenging times.” Therefore, “[i]t is essential for urban planners to prioritize meeting this increasing demand [for community gardens] as part of their efforts to make cities more sustainable,” the researchers wrote. The ‘Lowly Potato’ Staved Off Hunger Community gardens in the US and UK have been around for around 130 years when government programs were created to help feed people. A notable American episode happened in the 1890s during a national economic downturn. In Michigan, Detroit Mayor Hazen “Ping” Pingree was faced with a huge unemployed and hungry population. He asked for public approval “to use vacant land–much of it held speculatively–for gardens and potato patches,” according to an article in HistoricDetroit.org. The response was huge; applications for garden plots poured in, and people began planting vegetables, especially the “lowly potato,” the Free Press wrote in October 1935. “Pingree's potato patches broke the back of hunger,” the newspaper said, adding that the communal strategy was “nationally acclaimed and copied” in other cities. A Smithsonian Community of Gardens article, “Pingree’s Potato Patches,” gave more details: “In 1894, 975 families raised $14,000 worth of crops on 430 acres of land. By 1897, the program in Detroit reached its peak, with 1563 families participating, before tapering off by 1901 as economic conditions improved.” Famed Wartime ‘Victory Gardens’ During World War II, the legendary “Dig for Victory”  gardens in the UK were matched by American Victory Gardens—some 18 million gardens were planted in US cities and farmlands, according to the May 1943 issue of Popular Mechanics.  These patriotic gardens freed up agricultural produce and transportation resources for the war effort and helped offset shortages of agricultural workers and food supplies at home. In 1979, the grassroots, non-profit advocacy group, American Community Gardening Association, began its mission of expanding community gardens. Today, it says it has over 1,000 individual and 252 organizational members, and links 2,100 gardens across Canada and the US, “ranging from family allotments to tiny pollinator pocket parks, and from school gardens to urban farms.” The US’ Largest Community Garden Shiloh Field Community Garden (SFCG), a 14.5-acre garden in Denton County, Texas, describes itself as the largest community garden in the United States. The late Gene Gumfory started it in 2009, with a commitment to feeding farm produce to the hungry, including fresh fruit, and eggs. Nancy DiMarco, Shiloh Field’s volunteer coordinator and project manager, explained: “Shiloh is primarily a [volunteer] working farm with about 15 acres. We do have about 55 community plots that are 15 feet by 15 feet that anyone from Denton can rent for a year at no cost, as long as they are maintained. They make up a fraction of the area that is in production, though.” Training is included, although, according to Amy Proctor, a SFCG Board member, Shiloh does not have “a set training program.” Community gardening volunteers “learn the specific task they will work on that day. … We have had some groups from corporations come out and work. They seemed to love the tasks we had them do, and all had to work together as a group to complete [them],” she said. DiMarco added, “Community gardens are all about teamwork, as we’re completely volunteer driven. … We have had nearly 6,000 volunteers. … We focus on providing food to those who don’t have access. … Typically, those who receive the food don’t volunteer to work at Shiloh. All volunteers … care deeply about serving. “We partner with about 20 different food banks and kitchens throughout Denton County who feed people who need access to fresh vegetables and fruits. Once our produce is harvested, it is delivered to agencies like Our Daily Bread, Salvation Army, Cumberland Children’s Home, Freedom Food Pantry, to name a few.” Shiloh Field is an example of the many benefits of community gardening, like reducing food insecurity in the local community, fostering human collaboration, and having an “outdoor classroom” to learn about many aspects of gardening. [R]esearch … found evidence that community gardens made a substantial difference in the lives of [participating] families. A small, community-based participatory research study by academics with the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland found evidence that community gardens made a substantial difference in the lives of families. Before the 2009 gardening season began, researchers asked 38 families, representing 163 people, about their food concerns. They found that 31.2% of families were worried they would not have enough money for food. After the gardening season, the households were polled again, and the number of households with food security concerns dropped to 3.1%—a 90% decline, said the 2012 study published in the Journal of Community Health. “A community gardening program can reduce food insecurity, improve dietary intake and strengthen family relationships,” the Oregon researchers concluded. A Communal Farm in San Francisco At 3.5 acres, Alemany Farm is San Francisco’s largest urban farm. It is organized as a communal production farm, managed by paid staff and community volunteers, with the purpose of providing community members with free food, opportunities to volunteer, and participate in hands-on education. Alfredo Hernández, executive director of the Friends of Alemany Farm, points out the differences between a communal farm and a community garden: “We are an open harvest farm, not a community garden. Volunteers work Monday and Saturdays.” Communal farms produce more food than community gardens, promoting even more food security. “We bring in teams of folks as apprentices to flip beds of lettuce or other produce. We have a food pantry that we deliver to weekly. We also donate to free farm stands. We give [annually] 13 tons of food all for free. This huge farm is run by volunteers and a handful of paid employees on government grants and corporate donations.” Experienced Alemany Farm volunteers teach other volunteers as they work. Volunteers are invited to take fresh produce home with them. Interns who work alongside Alemany Farm managers help in all aspects of growing food and maintaining the 3.5-acre organic farm. The farm offers workshops, internships, and team-building opportunities for corporate groups. On the East Coast, the District of Columbia’s Department of Parks and Recreation has community gardens, communal farms, and non-profit partner urban farms. “During the [COVID-19] pandemic, the [Washington DC] mayor deemed them [communal farms] essential. … The volunteers grow produce and do as much as possible.” Joshua Singer, a farm manager for the DC Communal Farm program, explained some of the differences: “Community gardens have individual plots… Sometimes you can’t get a plot, or you have to be on a waiting list for a long time.” In contrast, he said, “Communal farms have no waiting list. We offer classes and produce. During the [COVID-19] pandemic, the [DC] mayor deemed them essential. … The volunteers grow produce and do as much as possible.” “Then we have non-profit farms,” Singer said. “They’re run by non-profits. We give them the [city] land and they run them for free.” An example in Southeast District is the Virginia Avenue Community Garden (VACG). It is a community garden with individual plots that opened in 2004 to serve local families. Gardeners grow everything from organic produce to flowers. VACG garden manager Kimberly Hahn estimated that 88 garden plots “provide food to at least twice as many people, as plots are often worked by couples, friends, and families with children.” In addition to the benefits of their own plots, gardeners must help maintain the common land. All VACG gardeners “are required to attend two community cleanup days where they learn about and help maintain shared resources like compost bins or blackberry brambles.” VACG gardeners planted and maintain over 15 fruit trees, all along the garden’s fence so that the surrounding community can pick fruit from outside of the garden. Excess fruits and vegetables have been provided to community organizations, such as SOME (So Others Might Eat) and to the homeless; and funds have been raised by the garden members and donated to SOME on an annual basis. The garden has made plots available to schools, scouts, and other organizations, without charge, and VACG members have taught classes on gardening and assisted in starting gardens at various schools. “Instead of classes, education on gardening and maintaining the common areas takes place informally.” Hahn explained that “[m]embers join with a range of gardening experience. Instead of classes, education on gardening and maintaining the common areas takes place informally.” Gardeners get educated about “the nuts and bolts—where and when to plant, how to address a particular problem—[it] happens mainly through individual conversations between gardeners.” “Gardeners can also join teams that focus on certain areas to learn more about them. For example, they’ll learn about native pollinator plants on the east flower garden team, or how to keep soil acidic on the blueberry patch team.” Benefits Beyond Food Research on community gardens has found additional benefits that are not solely food related. For instance, community gardens contribute to the beauty of a neighborhood, and research shows that they reduce littering, and overall crime. Gardening has been shown to aid mental and physical health, decreasing feelings of isolation and boosting self-esteem. Community gardens offer space for people to connect and to work together. Finally, community gardens help restore ecosystems. Gardens add green space, reduce storm water runoff, and provide habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. Improved soil quality from gardens increases plant biodiversity and improves water filtration. The number of community gardens and farms is expected to increase in the next few years putting a dent in the issue of food insecurity and helping to turn food deserts into food oases. *Laurie Burras is a former news editor for an international academic magazine. She studied at the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and currently resides in Philadelphia.

Scientists Find New Method to Extract Vital Metals from E-Waste Rare earth minerals are essential for modern devices, such as computers, cell phones, and wind turbines, but there is growing concern about the environmental pollution and human health risks associated with mining these minerals. There are currently recycling practices to collect rare earth materials from electronic waste, but these separation methods are costly and time-consuming. A breakthrough technology may be at hand. As recently reported, the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) announced that researchers have developed a new way to separate critical rare earth minerals from e-waste. PNNL material separation scientists Qingpu Wang, Chinmayee Subban, and Elias Nakouzi presented their findings at the 2024 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting on April 25, 2024, in Seattle. In their MRS presentation abstract, the scientists said their process showed “great potential” for “urban mining,” a term for the process of capturing critical minerals from e-waste sites. Advances in urban mining could both boost e-waste recycling and reduce the need for conventional rare earth mineral mining. In their abstract, the trio added that using their e-waste technology would require “a paradigm shift” from current practices. According to Science Daily, the PNNL team has already succeeded in “selectively recovering manganese, magnesium, dysprosium, and neodymium,” each being critically important to the electronics industry. The team’s novel method exploits the different reactions of various metals to being submerged in a chemical reaction chamber with two different liquids continuously flowing through it. In their model, metals form solids “at different rates over time,” allowing for them to be separated and purified for reuse. Describing their process in the journal RSC Sustainability, the team said, “Simply by placing a mixed salt solution on top of a hydrogel loaded with a precipitating agent, we obtained spatially separated precipitates [minerals] along the reactor.” This one-step process, they said, is expected to be broadly adaptable to material separation from complex waste streams with diverse chemistries, thus "enabling more sustainable materials extraction and processing” in the future. Sources: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/su/d3su00403a https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/critical-minerals-recovery-electronic-waste https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/04/240423184756.htm https://www.mrs.org/meetings-events/spring-meetings-exhibits/2024-mrs-spring-meeting/symposium-sessions/presentations/detail/2024_mrs_spring_meeting/2024_mrs_spring_meeting-4009789

High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Lines Seen as Crucial to Bring Renewable Energy to the Grid *By Rick Laezman The growth of renewable energy is not only reshaping the way society consumes power, it is disrupting conventional thinking in the energy industry on many levels, including storage, grid management, and distribution. A sea change in the method of long-distance power transmissions is one example. Traditionally, transmission of electric power has been performed by high voltage lines carrying alternating current or HVAC (High Voltage Alternating Current). Increasingly, that role is being usurped by lines carrying high voltage direct current, or HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current), because of their superior ability to transmit power generated by renewables. This shift has been so significant that many in the energy industry believe a large-scale conversion to an HVDC transmission grid is essential. Fully assessing the strengths and weaknesses of HVDC and taking the necessary steps to properly expand its use is likely to become a strategic imperative in the fight against climate change. What is High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC)? Electricity, invisible to the human eye, is a fascinating and mysterious phenomenon. On a very basic level, it is typically perceived as tiny electrons, like little balls of energy, travelling along wires to form a current that turns on homes’ lights and powers household appliances. But the concept gets more complex. There are two very different forms of electrical current. A current can flow in one direction from the source (power plant) to the receptor (device or appliance). It flows through and out of that receptor, returning to the source again—always in the same direction in a continuous circular movement. This is referred to as direct current or DC. Somewhat counterintuitively, electricity may also flow in a back-and-forth motion, or alternating current, also known as AC. This flow travels from the source to the receptor, and back, also on a loop. But instead of always travelling the loop in one direction, it switches its direction once it completes one round and then travels in the opposite direction in the loop repeatedly and rapidly, back and forth, constantly alternating its direction. A device or appliance harnesses the energy from that current by connecting to and drawing power from the back-and-forth motion on the receiving end. What does all this have to do with renewable energy and high voltage transmission lines? When the nation's electric transmission infrastructure was first being built, DC power systems were more expensive and more complex to install. Consequently, AC became the predominant and standardized form of high voltage transmission, and most power from utilities is currently transmitted over HVAC lines. With advanced technology, high voltage direct current (HVDC) is increasingly recognized as superior to transmit renewable energy over long distances. However, because of the rapidly expanding capacity of renewable energy, the role and the value of HVDC is also rapidly expanding. With advanced technology, HVDC is increasingly recognized as superior to transmit renewable energy over long distances, and many see it as an indispensable tool for meeting the larger goal of bringing sufficient supply of renewable power online to meet carbon reduction goals. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), HVDC is more efficient and less expensive at long distances and can connect asynchronous systems or grids that operate on different frequencies. The reasons for this can be found in the distinct and unique characteristics of AC and DC power. Disadvantages of High Voltage Alternate Current (HVAC) The alternating nature of AC creates phenomena that do not exist in DC power. For example, the back-and-forth motion of alternating current generates a type of energy called reactive power. It is an essential element of AC current, although it is not part of the power that is consumed by appliances and devices on the receiving end. This reactive power leads to losses of power in an AC system and causes it to not travel well over long distances. Reactive power in HVAC lines also creates a magnetic field between the lines and the ground below. This magnetic field, or capacitance, also contributes to a loss of power, which is referred to as capacitance line loss. In addition, AC current creates a so-called corona discharge, which involves the casting off of electrons into the air surrounding a conducting wire (audible sometimes along overhead long-distance HVAC lines as a humming sound). This also leads to power loss. And finally, AC is affected by the so-called “skin effect,” in which power travels only at or near the surface of a conducting wire. HVAC lines require larger, bundled lines to compensate for the loss of power. These larger, thicker wires also add to the cost. Consequently, HVAC lines require larger, bundled lines to compensate for the loss of power. These larger, thicker wires also add to the cost. Moreover, HVAC lines are typically installed high above ground to minimize capacitance line loss, although this leaves the lines vulnerable to outages caused by high winds. Advantages of HVDC In contrast, reactive power and the skin effect do not occur in DC, and the corona discharge is much less significant. HVDC lines also do not need to be installed high above ground because they do not experience capacitance. All these factors make HVDC transmission lines more efficient, less expensive, and able to carry more energy over longer distances than their AC counterpart. Because DC power does not operate on a frequency, it can connect multiple asynchronous power systems without disrupting the frequency of either one. The DOE notes that the US power grid is divided into three such AC systems: the Eastern interconnection, the Western interconnection, and the Texas interconnection. Transferring power between these grid regions without disrupting the frequency of either system is only possible with direct current (DC) links. HVDC and Green Power All HVDC’s advantages make it ideally suited to transmit power generated by renewable energy sources. Most renewables, such as utility-scale solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal, generate power in remote locations that are far removed from populated areas and thus have the greatest need for power. These generating sites require sufficient transmission infrastructure to carry power over long distances—and over large bodies of water and land masses—to meet the targeted consumer demand. The nation's existing transmission infrastructure is insufficient to meet this challenge. In some cases, adequate infrastructure does not exist near renewable generating sites and needs to be built from scratch. In other situations, existing HVAC lines are not up to the task, so they need to be replaced or upgraded. In some cases, adequate infrastructure does not exist near renewable generating sites and needs to be built from scratch. HVDC transmission technology has improved over the years, and the costs have been greatly reduced. It is now widely recognized as the superior technology to get more renewable energy capacity to the grid where it can meet consumer demand and help cut carbon emissions. Because HVDC does not experience capacitance line loss, transmission lines can be installed underground and even under the water, dramatically reducing the cost of their installation and making the renewable generating sites feasible and cost-effective. HVDC Installations Around the Globe Developers recognize these advantages, and projects are underway across the globe. Some have been completed and are operational. One such project was an international collaboration: NordLink was developed jointly by Norwegian power company Statnett, Norwegian and German grid company TenneT, and German investment bank KfW. The NordLink transmission line travels over 623 kilometers (about 387 miles) between a hydropower facility in Tonstad, Norway, to wind power facilities in Wilster/Nortorf, Germany. Most of the transmission line, about 516 kilometers (320 miles), travels under the North Sea. The project, which became operational in 2021, creates a unique and vital link between the two countries. It has the capacity to transmit 1,400 MW (megawatts) of renewable energy, enough to power about 3.6 million households. Perhaps more importantly, it can transmit power both ways. The transmission line consists of a double cable made of positively and negatively poled cables. With this setup, NordLink can transmit power from the Norwegian hydropower station to Germany or from the German wind farms to Norway, according to supply and demand. This allows the Norwegian hydroplant to act as a sort of battery that stores power for the wind farm that can be discharged when the wind is not blowing. It also allows both countries to dramatically increase their access to renewable power sources. Another project, the Champlain Hudson Power Express® (CHPE), will deliver 1,250 MW of clean power to more than a million homes in New York City. Renewable energy generated by existing hydropower facilities in Canada will travel over nearly 340 miles of HVDC transmission cables that will be installed along the route. When completed, the lines will run along waterways, roads, and railroad rights-of-way to achieve the most direct route and minimize visibility. They will also run underground and underwater, through Lake Champlain, and along and under the Hudson River. This $6 billion project will help New York meet its clean energy goals. The city has been striving to increase its access to renewable energy ever since the nearby Indian Point nuclear power plant was retired in 2021. The CHPE project owner, Transmission Developers, says the project will have many benefits. Environmentally, the project will help New York City access cleaner renewable power. In doing so, it will reduce carbon emissions and displace fossil fuels. Economically, the project will help lower electricity costs for consumers, as well as increase jobs, economic activity, and tax revenues for the region it serves. The project is not without critics. Opponents argue that the route may harm local fish populations and Native American communities. The Future of HVDC Many more HVDC transmission projects have been completed or are underway, and future expansion is expected worldwide. However, HVDC does have its disadvantages. The most significant of these is high capital costs caused by the need to invest in expensive converter stations that transform AC power to DC before it can be transmitted. For this reason, HVDC is only cost-effective for distances that exceed certain break-even points, such as more than 60 km (or 37 miles) for lines underwater and 200 km (or 124 miles) for overhead lines. It’s at these points that the advantages of HVDC outweigh its costs. As the DOE notes, transitioning from AC systems will require “adjustments to grid planning standards and modeling techniques to adequately plan for the technical differences of HVDC systems.” Nevertheless, the benefits of HVDC and its potential role in helping the world transition to more green power generation cannot be overlooked. Developers recognize this and appear to have embraced the technology. The market research firm DNV projects at least 46 new HVDC projects to be installed around the world over the next decade, equating to a 94.3 GW addition of HVDC transmission capacity and at least 18,000 km (close to 11,200 miles) of HVDC cable. The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACRE)  asserts that the US is “lagging behind” in the deployment of enough HVDC lines to meet increased demand. It argues that a combination of misconceptions, lack of standards, supply chain challenges, and regulatory hurdles combine to impede progress. It recommends collaboration among grid planning authorities, transmission owners, equipment manufacturers, industry groups, the DOE, and others to address these challenges and remove barriers so that the industry can properly expand. *Rick Laezman is a freelance writer in Los Angeles, California, US. He has a passion for energy efficiency and innovation. He has covered renewable power and other related subjects for over ten years.