Environment

These Solar Farms Have A Secret Hiding Under Them: Mushrooms

https://www.fastcompany.com/40469425/these-solar-farms-have-a-secret-hiding-under-them-mushrooms

Adele Peters

FastCompany

22 September 2017

Text / Under 800 Words

As populations urbanize and the disparity between city and country grows, farmers in Japan are facing increasing economic challenges and a shortage of new farmers to work the land. But a new scheme may help farms to be more profitable by creatively doubling the productivity of their land. New projects allow farmers to grow produce or graze livestock beneath large swaths of solar panels, generating income from both energy sold to the grid as well as more traditional agricultural means.

The Machine and the Mosquito – How We Get To Next

https://howwegettonext.com/the-machine-and-the-mosquito-29205f61e811?gi=d83a30c8c05f

Greg Noone

How We Get to Next

15 September 2017

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Mosquito transmitted diseases are only becoming more prevalent due to climate change, posing a global health risk. Various methods are being tested such as genetic modification and gene drives, Project DiSARM-uses technology to map where to spray insecticide, and introduction of Wolbachia-a bacterial disease that decreases mosquitos' ability to reproduce-into the environment.

The Science of Fighting Wildfires Gets a Satellite Boost

https://www.wired.com/story/the-science-of-fighting-wildfires-gets-a-satellite-boost

Megan Molteni

Wired

11 September 2017

Mixed Media / 1500-3000 Words

Climate change is only worsening the frequency and ferocity of forest fires. Projects such as researching what makes trees more susceptible to fires, and having satellites send images of fires as they happen, in order to help forest services react most effectively, are new ideas being researched and implemented.

Wasted Bread Is Being Brewed Into Craft Beer

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/wasted-bread-is-being-brewed-into-craft-beer.htm

Tracy Staedter

HowStuffWorks

23 August 2017

Text / 800-1500 Words

To the two social entrepreneurs who founded nonprofit Feedback, the massive amounts of food waste being tossed into landfills in the UK and USA each year was a mounting challenge that required a creative solution. So they founded Toast Ale, a craft brewing company that not only reduced food waste by using unwanted bread from bakeries to brew their ales, but helps bring awareness to the issue through the brand, which is growing in popularity.

How Ljubljana turned itself into Europe's ‘green capital’

http://citiscope.org/story/2016/how-ljubljana-turned-itself-europes-green-capital

Simone D'Antonio

Citiscope

23 August 2017

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Ljubljana was once a highly crowded city but since the election of its mayor, the city has become far more green due to a clear strategic plan and efficient mayoral office. The largest impact change was making the downtown core largely car free, other changes such as reducing waste and creating urban gardens have also had an impact.

These Tree-Planting Drones Are About To Start An Entire Forest From The Sky

https://www.fastcompany.com/40450262/these-tree-planting-drones-are-about-to-fire-a-million-seeds-to-re-grow-a-forest

Adele Peters

FastCompany

10 August 2017

Text / 800-1500 Words

Villages along the Irrawaddy River delta in Myanmar have spent years replanting mangroves in at attempt to restore their ecosystem and guard against the negative effects of climate change, but it is a labor intensive and time-consuming process. Now, with the help of specially-designed tree planting drones from startup BioCarbon Engineering, as many as 10,000 trees can be planted in a single day, using technology that not only distributes seeds in special pods, but is able to calculate optimal soil conditions, locations, and species of tree most likely to survive in any given area, dramatically increasing chances of the seed's success.