Good News To Brighten Your Earth Week

🌎 Where: The Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Scotland & The United States

🌻 What: Floating Solar, Offshore Wind, Single-Use Plastic Ban, Green Building Material, & Air Pollution Reform

🌊 Why: Clean Energy, Waste Reduction & Climate Justice

EPA Proposes Reforms To Reduce Air Pollution

😊 The Good News - The U.S. EPA has proposed stricter limits on nearly 30 air pollutants in order to reduce pollution at chemical plants and medical equipment sterilization facilities. The reforms come after a report found that over 70 million Americans living near those sites have an elevated risk of cancer.

🥾 Follow This Path - Living near these facilities is an environmental injustice because it can lead to asthma, heart disease, cancer, and premature death for adults and children alike, and the majority of people who live in proximity are low-income and BIPOC. While these reforms cannot undo the damage already done to the people living with health issues, they will help prevent it from happening in the future — as long as these regulations are strictly enforced.

Philippines Pilots Floating Solar Farms On Lake

😊 The Good News - The Philippines has become the first country in the world to install floating solar farms, known as floatovoltaics, on a natural lake. The pilot project will be completed in 2024 and will include nearly 5,000 acres worth of solar panels across Laguna Lake, and the goal of this project is to have a better understanding of whether floatovoltaics can work on a small scale.

🥾 Follow This Path - Traditional solar farms require large amounts of land, and not every area has that. Floatovoltaics are an alternative for areas that have water but not land, and they can help provide reliable, clean energy for remote communities. Piloting small-scale clean energy projects will be vital to make the transition as equitable as possible, and I am eager to see the results from this pilot in the Philippines as I live in an area with many lakes.

United Arab Emirates Bans Single-Use Plastics

😊 The Good News - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will ban most single-use plastics starting in 2024. The ban comes after a report found that the UAE ranks as the 11th largest consumer of single-use plastics in the world, and the country has started to incentivize businesses to switch to reusables and giving out grants for research in waste reduction in preparation for the ban.

🥾 Follow This Path - We must transition from single-use plastics since they not only contribute to emissions but also to our growing global waste crisis. While it’s great that one of the top producers of oil in the world is moving away from single-use plastics, it should be noted that the UAE plans to expand oil production in the coming years. The move seems counterintuitive, but I hope the UAE starts to phase down production instead.

Scotland Installs World’s Deepest Offshore Wind Turbine

😊 The Good News - A wind turbine was recently installed at a depth of 192 feet off the Scottish coast, making it the deepest in the world. This turbine is one of the last to be installed as part of the largest offshore wind project in Scotland, and it will help generate enough energy to power 1.6 million homes across the United Kingdom.

🥾 Follow This Path - Offshore wind farms are quite controversial these days because of the incorrect assumption that they are to blame for whale deaths. In reality, they are playing a vital role in our transition to clean energy as land availability, in Europe in particular, is scarce. Almost every year, we are seeing records being broken when it comes to wind energy, and I’m eager to see what record is broken next.

New Mexico Group Builds Walls Out Of Plastic Waste

😊 The Good News - A group in New Mexico called the Repurposing Plastic Project (RPP) is turning post-consumer plastic waste into walls. The plastic waste is stuffed into metal frames and then covered in stucco to prevent off-gassing and degradation. Over 300 local residents and businesses drop their plastic off with RPP, and the group has helped divert over 20,000 lbs of waste from landfills so far.

🥾 Follow This Path - I remember learning about RPP for the first time over dinner with my friends’ family. Having seen the amount of plastic that gets dumped at landfills, I’m always excited to see new ways to keep it out of landfills. Repurposing plastic waste into building materials is absolutely one of those ways, and I hope the work RPP does becomes a model other communities can use to deal with their plastic waste.

Send me a story!

Submit it below and you just may see it in the newsletter next week.

Written in partnership with Pique Action. Tired of doom-scrolling? You've found your people. Find Pique's positive, educational climate content on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.