Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information or to customize your cookie preferences.

Accept Deny

GoGreenNation news

Lights, Camera, Action: Cinema Verde's 2023 Festival Films and Sustainable Showcase are a Must-See!

News Feed
Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Cinema Verde is proud to announce its upcoming three-day Earth Day celebration, a series of events designed to inspire, educate and engage the local community in environmental stewardship. The event, which will take place from April 21st to April 23rd, includes a community clean-up, a sustainable showcase, and an awards dinner celebrating the best of green cinema. The first event, a community clean-up at Ashley Creek located just north of NW 19th Lane, will take place on April 21st from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. The event is free to attend, and all necessary supplies will be provided by Keep Alachua County Beautiful, including gloves, bags, and tools. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the impact of waste on our environment and the ways we can all make a difference. Swampboil will host a kick-off reception at 6:30 p.m. to celebrate Cinema Verde and our filmmakers. The second event, a sustainable showcase and 2023 Cinema Verde festival films screening at Cypress & Grove, will take place on April 22nd from 4 pm to 7 pm. The event is free to attend and has been organized in partnership with #UNLITTER UF. The showcase will feature organizations and vendors, all with a shared commitment to protecting the environment and promoting social responsibility. Afterward, attendees can wind down at Cypress & Grove with a screening of select 2023 Cinema Verde festival films, which will run until 10 pm. Friends and family are welcome to attend for a great night of fun and learning. The third event, the Cinema Verde Earth Day Celebration Dinner at Passions Field, will take place on April 23rd from 4 to 8 pm. The exclusive event will celebrate the talented filmmakers who showcased their inspiring work during the February Cinema Verde festival. The dinner will be hosted at a beautiful flower farm, providing the perfect setting for an elegant and sustainable dining experience. Tickets are limited, and attendees are encouraged to secure their spot at the table today. As a token of appreciation, all tickets include an annual membership at Cinema Verde valued at $60. Bring a friend, and receive a half-price discount on your second ticket. The three-day Earth Day celebration promises to be an unforgettable experience, providing a platform to raise awareness and promote sustainable practices in the local community. Cinema Verde, with its long-standing commitment to environmental conservation, hopes to inspire individuals to make positive changes and live a more sustainable lifestyle. In conclusion, the upcoming Earth Day celebration hosted by Cinema Verde is a testament to the organization's unwavering commitment to environmental conservation. Through a series of inspiring events, including a community clean-up, a sustainable showcase, and an awards dinner, the organization aims to raise awareness, educate, and encourage individuals to take action in protecting the environment. The events are free to attend, with the exception of the Celebration Dinner, and participants are guaranteed a unique and unforgettable experience. The three-day celebration is a great opportunity to learn and engage with like-minded individuals and organizations committed to environmental sustainability.

Cinema Verde is hosting a three-day Earth Day celebration from April 21-23, 2023. The celebration includes a community clean-up event, a sustainable showcase, and a celebration dinner to honor the talented filmmakers who showcased their inspiring work during the February Cinema Verde festival.

Cinema Verde is proud to announce its upcoming three-day Earth Day celebration, a series of events designed to inspire, educate and engage the local community in environmental stewardship. The event, which will take place from April 21st to April 23rd, includes a community clean-up, a sustainable showcase, and an awards dinner celebrating the best of green cinema.

Ashley Creek in Gainesville, Florida

The first event, a community clean-up at Ashley Creek located just north of NW 19th Lane, will take place on April 21st from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. The event is free to attend, and all necessary supplies will be provided by Keep Alachua County Beautiful, including gloves, bags, and tools. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the impact of waste on our environment and the ways we can all make a difference. Swampboil will host a kick-off reception at 6:30 p.m. to celebrate Cinema Verde and our filmmakers.

The second event, a sustainable showcase and 2023 Cinema Verde festival films screening at Cypress & Grove, will take place on April 22nd from 4 pm to 7 pm. The event is free to attend and has been organized in partnership with  #UNLITTER UF. The showcase will feature organizations and vendors, all with a shared commitment to protecting the environment and promoting social responsibility. Afterward, attendees can wind down at Cypress & Grove with a screening of select 2023 Cinema Verde festival films, which will run until 10 pm. Friends and family are welcome to attend for a great night of fun and learning.

The third event, the Cinema Verde Earth Day Celebration Dinner at Passions Field, will take place on April 23rd from 4 to 8 pm. The exclusive event will celebrate the talented filmmakers who showcased their inspiring work during the February Cinema Verde festival. The dinner will be hosted at a beautiful flower farm, providing the perfect setting for an elegant and sustainable dining experience. Tickets are limited, and attendees are encouraged to secure their spot at the table today. As a token of appreciation, all tickets include an annual membership at Cinema Verde valued at $60. Bring a friend, and receive a half-price discount on your second ticket.

‍Tickets are available for purchase via Eventbrite and must be purchased in advance.

The three-day Earth Day celebration promises to be an unforgettable experience, providing a platform to raise awareness and promote sustainable practices in the local community. Cinema Verde, with its long-standing commitment to environmental conservation, hopes to inspire individuals to make positive changes and live a more sustainable lifestyle.

In conclusion, the upcoming Earth Day celebration hosted by Cinema Verde is a testament to the organization's unwavering commitment to environmental conservation. Through a series of inspiring events, including a community clean-up, a sustainable showcase, and an awards dinner, the organization aims to raise awareness, educate, and encourage individuals to take action in protecting the environment. The events are free to attend, with the exception of the Celebration Dinner, and participants are guaranteed a unique and unforgettable experience. The three-day celebration is a great opportunity to learn and engage with like-minded individuals and organizations committed to environmental sustainability.

‍

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Related News

Flying high to enable sustainable delivery, remote care

Drone company founders with MIT Advanced Study Program roots seek to bring aerial delivery to the mainstream.

Five years ago, what began as three nervous Norwegians spotting each other across a study room has evolved into a drone company enabling sustainable deliveries, elder care, and more against a backdrop of unforgiving conditions.Lars Erik Fagernæs, Herman Øie Kolden, and Bernhard Paus Græsdal all attended the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, but their paths first crossed in the MIT Professional Education Advanced Study Program lounge in 2019, while they were apprehensive about their impending English exam. From there, they each pursued different tracks of study through the Advanced Study Program: Fagernæs studied computer science, Kolden took applied physics classes, and Græsdal, robotics. Months later, when the world shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the trio’s professional trajectories intertwined.At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Fagernæs, Kolden, and Græsdal launched Aviant — a drone delivery service company. Aviant flew blood samples across Norway’s vast countryside to assist remote hospitals in diagnosing Covid. Today, their drones are delivering groceries, over-the-counter medicines, and takeout food to populations outside city centers. Capitalizing on momentumThe pandemic waned, but the need for medical sample delivery did not. Remote hospitals still require reliable and rapid sample transportation, which Aviant continues to supply through its commercial contracts. In 2021, instead of sticking with commercial-only deliveries, the Aviant founders decided to use their momentum to reach for the largest market within autonomous transportation: last-mile delivery.“Yes, you need a higher volume for the business case to make sense,” explains Fagernæs of the expansion. “Yes, it is a lot more risky, but if you make it, it’s such a big opportunity.” The Norwegian government and various venture capital firms backing Aviant agree that this risk was worth their investment. Aviant has secured millions in funding to explore the consumer market through its newest offering, Kyte. To scale operations, work still needs to be done to ingratiate drone delivery to the general population. Emphasizing the environmental benefits of aerial versus traditional road deliveries, the founders say, may be the most compelling factors that propel drones to the mainstream.So far, Aviant has flown more than 30,000 kilometers, saving 4,440 kilograms of carbon dioxide that would have been emitted through traditional transportation methods. “It doesn’t make sense to use a two- to four-ton vehicle to transport one kilogram or two kilograms of sushi or medicine,” Fagernæs reasons. “You also have cars eroding the roads, you have a lot of car accidents. Not only do you remove the cars from roads by flying [deliveries] with drones, it’s also a lot more energy efficient.”Aviant’s competitors — among them Alphabet — are spurring Fagernæs and Kolden to further improve their nicknamed “Viking drones.” Designed to sustain Norway’s harsh winter conditions and high winds, Aviant drones are well-adapted to service remote areas across Europe and the United States, a market they hope to break into soon.The unmatched MIT work ethicFagernæs and Kolden owe much to MIT: It’s where they met and hatched their company. After his time with the Advanced Study Program, Græsdal decided to return to MIT to pursue his doctorate. The professors and mentors they engaged with across the Institute were instrumental in getting Aviant off the ground.Fagernæs recalls the beginning stages of discovering the drones’ theoretical flying limit; however, he quickly ran into the hurdle that neither he nor his peers had experience deriving such data. At that moment, there was perhaps no better place on Earth to be. “We figured, OK, we’re at MIT, we might as well just ask someone.” Fagernæs started knocking on doors and was eventually pointed in the direction of Professor Mark Drela’s office. “I remember meeting Mark. Very, very humble guy, just talking to me like ‘Lars, yes, this, I will help you out, read this book, look at this paper.’” It was only when Fagernæs met back up with Kolden and Græsdal that he realized he had asked elementary questions to one of the leading experts in aeronautical engineering, and he truly appreciated Drela’s patience and helpfulness. The trio also credit Professor Russ Tedrake as being an inspiration to their current careers.Additionally, the work ethic of their fellow Beavers inspires them to work hard to this day. “I was finishing an assignment, and I think I left the Strata Student Center at 5:30 [in the morning] and it was half-full,” Kolden remembers. “And that has really stuck with me. And even when we run Aviant now, we know that in order to succeed, you have to work really, really hard.”“I’m impressed with how much Aviant has accomplished in such a short time,” says Drela. “Introducing drones to a wider population is going to make large improvements in high-value and time-critical payload delivery, and at much lower costs than the current alternatives. I’m looking forward to seeing how Aviant grows in the next few years.” “For the betterment of humankind”Drones are the future, and Kolden is proud that Aviant’s electric drones are setting a sustainable precedent. “We had the choice to use gasoline drones. It was very tempting, because they can fly 10 times farther if you just use gasoline. But we just came from MIT, we worked on climate-related problems. We just couldn’t look ourselves in the mirror if we used gasoline-driven drones. So, we chose to go for the electric path, and that’s now paid off.”In the age of automation and perceived diminishing human connections, Kolden did have a moment of doubt about whether drones were part of the dilemma. “Are we creating a dystopian society where my grandfather is just meeting a robot, saying, ‘Here is your food,’ and then flying off again?” Kolden asked himself. After deep conversations with industry experts, and considering the low birth rate and aging population in Norway, he now concludes that drones are part of the solution. “Drones are going to help out a lot and actually make it possible to take care of all people and give them food and medicine when there simply aren’t enough people to do it.”Fagernæs also takes to heart the section of the MIT mission where students are urged to “work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind.” He says, “When we started the company, it was all about using drones to help out society. We started to fly during the Covid pandemic to improve the logistics of the health-care sector in Norway, where people weren’t being diagnosed for Covid because of lacking logistics.”“The story of the success of Lars Erik, Herman, and Aviant makes us proud of what we do at MIT Professional Education.” says Executive Director Bhaskar Pant. “Share MIT knowledge that leads people to be innovative, entrepreneurial, and above all pursue the MIT mission of working toward the betterment of humankind. Kyte is a shining example of that.”

Sustainable
Business
CO2

Beat the Heat: How Self-Cooling Artificial Turf is Transforming Cities

A new artificial turf can cool itself by storing rainwater and using capillary action to reduce surface temperatures, providing a safer and more sustainable alternative...

Overview of the water retention system below the artificial turf field. Credit: PermavoidA new artificial turf can cool itself by storing rainwater and using capillary action to reduce surface temperatures, providing a safer and more sustainable alternative for urban sports fields.The natural grass in city parks and sports fields has often been replaced with more durable artificial turf, as it allows for heavy consecutive use. However, artificial turf has its downsides, for both people and cities as a whole. It decreases soil infiltration of rain and can reach dangerously high surface temperatures, contributing to the urban heat island effect.Innovative Cooling System in Artificial TurfNow, scientists from the Netherlands have developed an artificial turf that includes a subsurface water storage and capillary irrigation system. This system, detailed in a new study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, provides a cooler, safer, and more sustainable alternative to conventional artificial turf. “Here we show that including a subsurface water storage and capillary irrigation system in artificial turf fields can lead to significantly lower surface temperatures compared to conventional artificial turf fields,” said first author Dr Marjolein van Huijgevoort, a hydrologist at KWR Water Research Institute. “With circular on-site water management below the field, a significant evaporative cooling effect is achieved.”Picture of the field site in Amsterdam with the four research plots. Credit: Joris VoetenReducing Heat on Artificial FieldsThe artificial turf and subbase system includes an open water storage layer directly underneath the artificial turf and shockpad. In this water layer, rainwater is stored. This water retention system contains cylinders that transport the stored water back up to the surface of the artificial turf, where it evaporates.“The process of evaporative cooling and capillary rise is controlled by natural processes and weather conditions, so water only evaporates when there is demand for cooling,” van Huijgevoort explained.Experimentation and ResultsConventional artificial turf can reach surface temperatures of up to 70°C on sunny days. These temperatures are high enough to cause burn injuries and trigger heat-related illnesses, ranging from mild rashes to potentially life-threatening conditions like heat stroke.In a field experiment conducted in Amsterdam, the researchers found that when conventional turf was replaced with the self-cooling turf, temperatures dropped. They reported that on a particularly hot day in June 2020, the cooled turf reached a surface temperature of 37°C – just 1.7°C higher than natural grass – whereas surface temperatures of the conventional artificial turf reached 62.5°C.Above the plots, temperatures also differed. “We found lower air temperatures 75cm above the cooled plots compared to conventional artificial turf fields, especially during the night,” said van Huijgevoort. “This is a first indication that the cooled plots contribute less to the urban heat island effect.”Environmental and Practical AdvantagesThe cooling turf combines the advantages of artificial turf and natural grass: It is durable, keeps itself cool, and offers a healthy environment to play sports. It can also store almost as much rainwater as natural grass. The field’s rainwater retention capacity also reduces stormwater drainage, which helps mitigate urban flooding. During periods when it does not rain enough, extra water can be added directly into the system. Alternatively, it could be watered like natural grass.Economic and Research ConsiderationsInstallation costs, however, can be up to twice as expensive as for conventional artificial turf. The researchers said that a full-scale cost-benefit analysis should be undertaken to find out the true value of the investment.Further research also needs to confirm how cooling turf could impact the surrounding area and cities as a whole. Learning more about the benefits of the turf in different climates and using different storage sizes, materials, and infills is also necessary to find the optimal combination, the researchers pointed out.Initial results, however, are promising. “People in urban areas, especially children, have a growing need for sport and play facilities,” van Huijgevoort concluded. “With this work we show the benefits of the subsurface water storage and capillary irrigation system without negative effects of artificial turf fields.”Reference: “Climate adaptive solution for artificial turf in cities: integrated rainwater storage and evaporative cooling” by Marjolein H. J. van Huijgevoort, Dirk Gijsbert Cirkel and Joris G. W. F. Voeten, 23 May 2024, Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2024.1399858

Sustainable
Water
Health

How sustainable is your weekly grocery shop? These small changes can have big benefits

The last thing we want to do is take the pleasure away from eating. But bite-sized changes add up to significant environmental benefits.

ShutterstockYou might think eating more sustainably requires drastic changes, such as shifting to a vegan diet. While a plant-based diet is undeniably good for the Earth, our new research shows modest changes to your eating habits can also have significant environmental benefits. We assessed how food products on Australian supermarket shelves stack up against key environmental indicators, such as carbon emissions and water use. We found swapping the most environmentally harmful foods for more sustainable options within the same food group, such as switching from beef burgers to chicken burgers, can significantly reduce carbon emissions – by up to 96% in some instances. The last thing we want to do is take the pleasure away from eating. Instead, we want to help consumers make realistic dietary changes that also help ensure a sustainable future. So read on to find out which simple food swaps can best achieve this. A simple swap, like a chicken burger instead of a beef burger, can be good for the planet. Shutterstock Informing sustainable diets The environmental impact of foods can be estimated using an approach known as a life-cycle assessment. This involves identifying the “inputs” required along the food supply chain, such as fertiliser, energy, water and land, and tracking them from farm to fork. From this we can calculate a product’s “footprint” – or environmental impact per kilogram of product – and compare it to other foods. Most studies of environmental footprints focus on the raw ingredients that make up food products (such as beef, wheat or rice) rather than the packaged products people see on shelves (such as beef sausages, pasta or rice crackers). Of the studies that do focus on packaged foods, most only consider a fraction of the products available to consumers. What’s more, a lot of research considers only the carbon emissions of food products, excluding other important measures such as water use. And some studies use global average environmental footprints, which vary significantly between countries. Our research set out to overcome these limitations. We aligned environmental footprints with the products people find on supermarket shelves, and covered a huge range of food and beverage products available in Australia. We also included many environmental indicators, to allow a more complete picture of the sustainability of different foods. The study covered a huge range of packaged food available in Australia. Shutterstock What we did Key to our research was the FoodSwitch database, which compiles food labelling and ingredient data from images of packaged food and beverages. It covers more than 90% of the Australian packaged food market. We combined the database with a mathematical method that sums the environmental impact of ingredients, to quantify the footprint of the product as a whole. From this, we estimated the environmental footprint of 63,926 food products available in Australian supermarkets. We then simulated the potential benefits of making “realistic” switches between products – that is, switches within the same food category. Read more: We gave 60,000 food products a 'planetary health' star rating – see how your favourites stack up Our findings The results show how making a small dietary change can have big environmental consequences. For a shopping basket composed of items from eight food groups, we simulate the benefits of swapping from high-impact towards medium- or low-impact food products. Our analysis assumes a starting point from the most environmentally harmful products in each food group – for example, sweet biscuits, cheese and beef burger patties. A shift to the medium-impact foods for all eight items – such as a muffin, yoghurt and sliced meat – can lead to at least a 62% reduction in environmental impact. Shifts towards the most sustainable choice for all items – bread, soy milk or raw poultry – can achieve a minimum 77% reduction. This analysis ends at the supermarket shelves and does not include additional food processing by the consumer. For example, raw meat will usually be cooked before human consumption, which will expand its environmental footprint to varying degrees, depending on the method used. See the below info-graphic for more detail. The full results are available in our study. What next? Many people are looking for ways to live more sustainably. Insufficient or complex information can fuel confusion and anxiety in consumers, leading to inaction or paralysis. Consumers need more information and support to choose more sustainable foods. Supermarkets and retailers also have an important role to play – for example, by giving sustainable products prominent shelf placement. Attractive pricing is also crucial – particularly in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis when it can be difficult to prioritise sustainability over cost. Government interventions, such as information campaigns and taxing high-impact products, can also help. Food labelling is also important. The European Union is leading the way with measures such as the eco-score, which integrates 14 environmental indicators into a single score from A to E. Apps such as ecoSwitch can also empower consumers. The diets of people in developed nations such as Australia exert a high toll on our planet. More sustainable food choices are vital to achieving a sustainable future for humanity. We hope our research helps kick-start positive change. Michalis Hadjikakou receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) as part of his role as co-investigator on the "Healthy Food, Healthy Planet, Healthy People" Centre of Research Excellence (NHMRC: 2006620). Özge Geyik previously received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) as part of her role as postdoctoral researcher on the "Healthy Food, Healthy Planet, Healthy People" Centre of Research Excellence (NHMRC: 2006620). She currently works as a Sustainability Scientist at Unilever Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre.Carla Archibald and Pankti Shah do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Sustainable
Crisis
Food

First Wooden Satellite Will Test ‘Green’ Space Exploration

Japan’s LignoSat will test wood’s resilience in space and could lead to a new era of more sustainable, less polluting satellites

First Wooden Satellite Will Test ‘Green’ Space ExplorationJapan’s LignoSat will test wood’s resilience in space and could lead to a new era of more sustainable, less polluting satellitesBy Tim Hornyak & Nature magazineThe world's first satellite made from wood and named LignoSat, developed by scientists at Kyoto University and logging company Sumitomo Forestry, is shown during a press conference at Kyoto University in Kyoto on May 28, 2024. JiJi Press/AFP via Getty ImagesResearchers unveiled the world’s first wooden satellite last month, billing it as clearing a path for more uses of wood in outer space. The material will be more sustainable and less polluting than the metals used in conventional satellites, they say.Researchers at Kyoto University in Japan and the Tokyo-based logging company Sumitomo Forestry showed off the satellite, called LignoSat, in late May. The roughly 10-centimetre-long cube is made of magnolia-wood panels and has an aluminium frame, solar panels, circuit boards and sensors. The panels incorporate Japanese wood-joinery methods that do not rely on glue or metal fittings.Wood might seem counterintuitive for use in space because it is combustible — but that feature can be desirable. To curb the growing problem of space junk threatening spacecraft and space stations, rocket stages and satellites are deliberately plunged into the Earth’s atmosphere to burn up. But during combustion, they release particles of aluminium and other metals. Many more spacecraft launches are planned, and scientists have warned that the environmental effects of this pollution are unknown.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.When LignoSat plunges back to Earth, after six months to a year of service, the magnolia will incinerate completely and release only water vapour and carbon dioxide, says Takao Doi, an astronaut and engineer at Kyoto University, who is part of the research team. He points to other benefits of wood: it’s resilient in the harsh environment of space and does not block radio waves, making it suitable for enclosing an antenna.And there is a precedent for spacecraft with wooden parts. Launched in 1962, NASA’s Ranger 3 lunar probe had a balsa-wood casing intended to protect its capsule as it landed on the lunar surface (the probe malfunctioned, missed the Moon and began orbiting the Sun).Timber pioneersLignoSat will cost about US$191,000 to design, manufacture, launch and operate. Sensors onboard will evaluate strain on the wood, temperature, geomagnetic forces and cosmic radiation, as well as receive and transmit radio signals. The satellite has been handed over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and will be transferred to the International Space Station in September, before being launched into orbit in November.Takao Doi, an astronaut and special professor at Kyoto University, holds the world's first satellite made from wood and named LignoSat.JiJi Press/AFP via Getty ImagesGrowth has been slow for the project, which began in 2020 with speculation about the wider potential for wood in space for better sustainability.“In our first conversations, Dr Doi proposed we build wooden housing on the Moon,” says team member Koji Murata at the biomaterials-design laboratory at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Agriculture. “We have also discussed the possibility of building domes on Mars out of wood in order to grow timber forests.”Martian and lunar colonists, like all pioneers, would have to make use of local materials — regolith (rocky material on the surface), silicon dioxide and other minerals, in the case of Mars. But wood could play a part in crafting temporary or permanent shelters. Murata points to plans by JAXA and industrial partners to develop shelters made partly of wood that could be used in Antarctica or on the Moon.“The natural radiation-shielding properties of wood could be used effectively to design walls or outer shells of space habitats to provide protection,” says Nisa Salim, who specializes in engineered materials at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and is not part of the project. “Wood is an effective insulator, capable of regulating temperature and minimizing heat transfer to maintain a comfortable indoor environment. Wood is easy to work with, renewable and biodegradable, aligning with sustainability goals for space exploration.”Salim noted that the structural integrity, safety and longevity of wood need to be confirmed in space.Wood consists of cellulose held together by lignin, a kind of organic polymer. That makes it a naturally occurring member of the class of materials known as composites, says Scott J McCormack, a materials engineer at the University of California, Davis, who is not involved in the project. Composites are often used in the aerospace industry, so he does not find it surprising that their use in satellites might be explored.“Composites are ideal for the aerospace industry — and also satellites — due to their high strength-to-weight ratio,” says McCormack. But he has doubts about how wood will fare as a structural material on the Moon or Mars. “The first concern that comes to mind is galactic cosmic radiation [GCR] and how it might degrade the mechanical properties of wood over time. GCR isn’t that big of problem for us here on Earth, thanks to our atmosphere.”But Murata says that the team has studied measurements of GCR and solar energetic particles — high-energy particles that are released from the Sun — taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars, as well as the effects of gamma rays on wood on Earth. He thinks that wood on Mars could potentially last for thousands of years. “Radiation on Mars is a big problem for living organisms, including humans,” he says. “I don't think this is going to be much of an issue for wood.”This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on June 7, 2024.

Sustainable
Agriculture
Cosmos

Will a diet that's good for the planet also help you live longer? Here's the evidence

The more people followed environmentally sustainable diets that emphasized nutrients from plants, the lower their risk of death from cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and a variety of other causes, a new study finds.

A new study finds that the more people followed environmentally sustainable diets that emphasized nutrients from plants, the lower their risk of death from cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and a variety of other causes. (J.M. Hirsch / Associated Press) Every time you scoop up a spoonful of overnight oats or sink your teeth into a cheeseburger, you’re eating for two — for the sake of your own health and the health of the planet.Researchers estimate that about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 40% of land use and 70% of freshwater use is tied to the production of food. The strain will only grow as Earth’s population climbs toward the 10 billion mark by 2050.Will it be possible to provide all those people with a nutritious diet in a way that’s environmentally sustainable? That question prompted an international group of scientists to create a “planetary health diet” that’s heavy on plants — including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, legumes and unsaturated oils from sources like olives and canola — along with with modest amounts of dairy, poultry, fish and other foods derived from animals. It also allows for a little bit of red meat, refined grains and sugar. (You can even have a burger about once a week.) If the whole world were to embrace a diet like this — along with adopting better agricultural practices and reducing food waste — greenhouse gas emissions would be cut roughly in half, the scientists calculated when they introduced their eating plan in 2019. They also projected that the number of premature deaths around the world would fall by up to 24%. “That amounts to about 11 million deaths per year” that wouldn’t happen, said Dr. Walter Willett, a co-chair of the group known as the EAT-Lancet Commission.Now Willett and his colleagues at Harvard University have checked their work against real-world data. The Harvard team created a Planetary Health Diet Index, which quantifies the degree to which a person’s diet adheres to the goals put forth by the commission. There are 15 food groups, and people were scored on a 5-point or 10-point scale for each one. The maximum possible score was 140, which would signify perfect alignment with the ideal eating plan.The researchers assigned PDHI scores to more than 200,000 people enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. All of the participants gave detailed information about their diets when they joined the studies in the 1970s and 80s, and they updated that information at least once every four years for more than two decades. The women in the two Nurses’ Health Studies improved their diets over time: The average index score for participants in NHS1 increased from 75.7 in 1986 to 84.5 in 2010, while the average for women in NHS2 jumped from 70.4 in 1990 to 85.9 in 2015. However, the average score for men in HPFS held steady at around 78.By the time the tracking periods came to an end in 2019, 54,536 people in the three studies had died.The researchers hypothesized that the higher a person’s PDHI score, the lower their risk of being among the deceased. And after accounting for demographic factors such as age, race and neighborhood income as well as health issues like a family history of cardiovascular disease or cancer, that’s exactly what they found.“We did see a very strong, very clear inverse relationship,” said Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Right down the line, everything we looked at was lower for people who adhered most closely to the planetary health diet.”Compared to the 20% of people with the lowest index scores, the 20% with the highest scores were 23% less likely to die for any reason during the study period. They were also 14% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease, 10% less likely to die of cancer, 47% less likely to die of a respiratory ailment, 28% less likely to die of a neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s, and 22% less likely to die of an infectious disease.Among all the men and women, eating more whole grains, fruit, poultry, nuts, soy and unsaturated fats were each associated with a lower risk of death. On the other hand, eating more starchy vegetables like potatoes, red or processed meats, eggs, saturated fats, added sugar or sugar from fruit juices were each associated with a higher risk of death.Willett and his collaborators also consulted a database that tallied the environmental impacts of various foods to see whether healthier diets were better for the planet. Compared to the diets of people with the lowest PDHI scores, the diets of those with the highest scores required 21% less fertilizer, 51% less cropland and 13% less water and produced 29% fewer greenhouse gas emissions.Willett said he was “surprised by the strength of some of these findings,” adding that the relationship goes both ways. For instance, when fewer acres are farmed, there’s less particulate matter in the air, and when fewer animals are raised in close quarters, the risk of antibiotic resistance declines.“There are lots of very important indirect effects on health that are mediated by a better environment,” he said.The results were published Monday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.This isn’t the first study to link planetary health diets to a reduced risk of premature death — researchers have seen the connection in the United Kingdom and in Sweden. But the new work is the first to apply a more precise diet index to a large sample of Americans and use it to assess their risk of death. That is an “important” advance, said Zach Conrad, a professor at William & Mary who specializes in nutritional epidemiology and food systems.However, he said more work is needed to show that planetary health diets are as good for the Earth as they are for Earthlings.“It has yet to be demonstrated that healthy diets are also more environmentally sustainable,” said Conrad, who was not involved in the new study. “It is important that we move away from inferring a link between diet quality and sustainability, and instead move toward measuring it.”

Sustainable
Animals
Health

Suggested Viewing

Coding for Crayfish

Communities in the red and a fishery on the brink of collapse. Coding for Crayfish explores the notion of Rethinking Sustainability through technology, told through the Story of traditional fisher David Shoshola.

Culture
Sustainable
Technology

Una Perla de la Revolucion (A Pearl of the Revolution)

A documentary short that focuses on a sustainability project in Cojímar, Cuba

Sustainable
Business
Documentary

Wake Up People!

Environmental activists have been camping in Sodros for more than four months with the purpose of stopping the trees from being cut down. In the past few days Chinese company CRBC workers have been showing up at the site accompanied by the police and gendarmerie forces. The activists have been requesting to see the permits and the documentation for the work they are planning to conduct from the CRBC workers. The CRBC workers haven’t shown any of the permits. Also, the work has begun without a construction board being clearly visible, which is mandatory by law.

Sustainable
Social Justice
Nature

Inside The Grand Canyon

This guerrilla style documentary film captures a Colorado River rafting expedition through the Grand Canyon. Exhilarating and sometimes dangerous expeditions like this are not often considered when discussing global climate change but could be helpful to enlighten more folks about the changes to our planet. This rafting trip will soon be a thing of the past with record draughts continuing due to ongoing global climate change caused largely by humans. This is just a tiny slice of natures many warning signs of things to come. We find ourselves in a world of ongoing disbelief and hesitation in lieu of planning for the clear and present dangers from climate change. The Colorado River has already reached devastating levels for communities that depend on the water and electrical power resource. Government study in 2022 showed that Lake Powell could reach ""dead pool"" by 2023. There is no plan to mitigate the catastrophe that will leave over a million and a half people with no electricity.

Water
Climate
Sustainable

Fallow Land Bears Sweet Fruit - Part 1

In part one, filmed near Qingdao in 2015, Tang Guanhua and Xingzhen experiment with a self-sustainable lifestyle. They describe their rationale for pursuing such a life and introduce their dream of building an intentional community. Is this an important new direction for Chinese society, or a self-indulgent escape for a privileged few?

Culture
Solutions
Sustainable

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

Our team is always growing.
Become a partner, volunteer, sponsor, or intern today.
Let us know how you would like to get involved!

CONTACT US

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Subscribers receive a free day pass for streaming Cinema Verde.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.