Nov 7, 2022
Updated: Nov 23, 2022
Kick starting the week with a smorgasbord of good news nuggets.
Got $40m to Spare?
An official first printing of the U.S. Constitution is set to go up for auction on 13 December, Sotheby's New York has announced. It is one of only two such copies that are in private hands, and one of only 13 total copies known to exist. The other 11 are in public government collections. It's the first time in more than 125 years that this particular manuscript has gone up for auction. It will hit the auction block just over one year after Sotheby's auctioned off the only other known privately owned first-edition copy, known as the Goldman Constitution. It went for a staggering $43.2 million, a record for any book, manuscript or printed text sold at auction.
Whale Safe
A new buoy-to-satellite system has been switched on in San Francisco Bay to alert ships to whales in the area, allowing them to avoid fatal collisions. The Whale Safe system has already been a success in the Santa Barbara Channel, where there have been no incidents of ships striking whales since it was installed a year ago. It is expected that the system will be used around the world in channels and bays where the risk of such collisions exists.
Norway's Long Reach
Norway, the world leader in renewable energy and the country with the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, is to pay Indonesia $56 million for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation - with the aim that Indonesia’s forests (the world’s third-largest tropical forests) will turn into a major carbon sink by 2030, absorbing 140 million metric tons of CO2. Sensibly, the cash incentives are on-going.
UK Renewable Record
The UK’s onshore and offshore wind farms have set a new record. RenewableUK reports that wind provided an impressive 53 percent of the nations’s electricity last week. And in more good news, National Grid ESO reported that wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, and storage – all low emissions sources – provided a whopping 70 percent of the UK’s electricity overall.
How Many?
A 23-year-old from Quebec now holds the world record for the most trees planted in one day. Guinness World Records has confirmed that Antoine Moses planted 23,060 trees in 24 hours.
The previous world record was 15,170 trees, set in 2001. Moses was planting a tree every 3.5 seconds. "It goes around 16 trees a minute," he said. An amateur athlete, running multiple marathons and training for an upcoming Ironman, Moses says he approaches the tree planting like a sport. That should cover his lifetime's carbon footprint! But there is an easier way...
30x30
Following the election of an environment-focused new government in Australia earlier this year, there's yet more good news from Down Under as the country becomes the latest in a series of countries to join the 30x30 initiative, pledging to protect at least 30 percent of its land by 2030 so that animals and plants can live in peace there.
Space Solar
Caltech's wildly ambitious space solar project, buoyed by a $100m donation, is preparing to launch its first prototypes into orbit - to collect, convert and wirelessly send energy back to Earth. It's obvious why you'd want to harvest solar energy in space: it's 24/7. Furthermore, the energy potential in space is 8 x better per square meter of solar panel than down here. The scale of a worthwhile space solar installation is mind-boggling (and so are the costs). Undeterred, a team at Caltech has been working on the Space Solar Power Project for nearly a decade now, so it's good news that they are finally going to launch their first prototypes into orbit.
This week's OGN Daily is kindly supported by Vita Brevis
Quote of the Day
“The most important thing is to never stop questioning.”
Albert Einstein
On this Day
7 November 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Thomas E. Dewey and was elected to an unprecedented fourth term as president of the United States.
A new study has found that the world's healthiest, most biodiverse, and most resilient forests are found in Indigenous protected areas. Read on...
Mood Booster
Hollywood movies dance scenes mash up, cleverly synced to Born to be Alive.