Kick starting the week with some good news snippets.
Good new for the Galapagos Islands as Ecuador’s president set to expand islands’ marine reserve, seen as vital to protect world heritage site from fishing industry.
Right to repair has been a hot topic lately as France and the broader EU implement sustainable policies to make fixing old electronics more feasible. Starting this summer, consumers in the UK can also feel more confident in their appliances as a new law mandates that producers make spare parts available for all appliances for at least 10 years after their distribution.
Regrowing your body: Researchers are astonished to discover that when their captive slugs spontaneously discarded their bodies, they immediately started growing them back.
Good news for Disney: Netflix is forecast to lose its crown as the world’s biggest video streaming provider within three years, amid explosive growth at Disney after the launch of its rival on-demand service only 16 months ago. The Walt Disney Company announced earlier this month that its flagship Disney+ platform, launched in late 2019, had passed 100 million global subscribers – a feat that took its arch-rival, Netflix, a decade to achieve.
Europe doubles down on cycle lanes: Success of schemes in the last year or so is encouaging cities to vastly expanded bike networks.
Canada’s new Dark Vessel Detection programme is using cutting-edge satellite technology to find illegal fishing vessels that attempt to hide in plain sight stealing fish from waters around the world. “Dark” vessels switch off their location transmitters to avoid detection so they can engage in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, called IUU. The technology has already led to significant fines on five foreign vessels.
In world-first trial, Japan-Australia venture starts producing hydrogen from dirty coal. Run by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and located in the state of Victoria, home to a quarter of the world’s known brown coal reserves, the project is key to helping Japan meet its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Environmentalists hail 'fantastic news' for the state's turtles, whales and seabirds. Queensland has become the second Australian state to pass laws banning single-use plastics including straws and cutlery that are blighting the state's waterways and beaches and endangering wildlife. The legislation will come into effect on 1 September.
Navajo reaches Mars: NASA is naming landmarks and geological features on Mars in the Navajo language in an effort to reinvigorate interest in the language and culture of the Navajo Nation. It worked in WWII, so hopfully will again - but less secretly.
Cheers! Brits are planning to “eat, drink and be merry” once lockdown lifts, with many pubs and restaurants already fully booked for several months. Those keen to make up for lost time have inundated venues in England with bookings for tables in beer gardens for when they are scheduled to reopen on 12 April.
We've been going through the video archives at OGN Daily and, now that we're nearly out of the woods, we thought you may enjoy our most popular soundtrack of 2020 - the Coronvirus Rhapsody. First published in April 2020.