Parkinson’s Research Using Massive Data Collected from 23andMe
23andMe hopes to find a cure for Parkinson’s through data mining. Parkinson’s is a degenerative neurological disorder that affects millions of people, and a cure is hard to find. The…
Adam Clare
Chile Set to Ban Plastic Bags in Coastal Cities
Chile is set to be the first country in the Americas to ban plastic bags in coastal cities. Given the extent of Chile’s coastline this can make for a very…
Nuclear Weapon Ban Signed at UN
Nuclear weapons are an existential threat to humanity. If they are used in violence it is likely that the planet would enter a period of nuclear winter – meaning that…
Living Off the Grid in a Major City
Most people think living off the grid means living the countryside with your own well, reenable energy, and food source. The truth is that style of off the grid requires…
Learn Economics for Free in the Most Effective Way
Economics is a large field filled with nuance – and assumptions. One of those assumptions is that environmental concerns and inequality are secondary to that of economic concerns. These assumptions…
Trans Fats Ban in Canada Starting in 2018
Trans fats are really bad for you and governments around the world are starting to ban them. Canada just announced that they too will be banning trans fats alongside the…
Helping Addicted Loved Ones
The opioid crisis in North America damages countless lives every year, and we may be making it worse in the way we talk about addiction. FiveThirtyEight decided to look into…
Capitalism Will End, Celebrate What Comes Next
The damage that wealthy bankers did to the economy back in 2007/08 is still with us, and that has led to a whole generation questioning the validity of modern hyper-capitalism.…
International Leaders of Geothermal Energy Agree to Work Together
Geothermal energy is very simple in principal: drill a hole into the hot earth and use the naturally occurring heat to get turbines spinning. In practice it can be very…
Saving Knowledge From Going Extinct
Ultimology is a new field of thought which may help is in the future when we need it the most and don’t realize it. It’s the study of of extinct…
Improved Air Conditioner Beams Heat Into Space
Air conditioner suck up a lot of energy in hotter months by dumping heat from inside buildings to the outside, ironically heating up neighbouring locations. A Stanford research team developed…
Mars Terraforming Earth
Mars, the company behind popular chocolate bars like Snickers and Twix has pledged $1 billion dollars to fight climate change. This isn’t a company randomly pledging money to help communities…
Wind Power: One of the Cheapest Sources of Energy
Sustainable and renewable energy sources continue to get more cost effective when compared to fossil fuel based energy. This is fantastic since the economics of scale are really kicking into…
Berlin, Sponge City
Germany’s capital is becoming a sponge to stop flooding. It might seem counterintuitive to want to gather more water in order to stay dry, but that’s exactly the plan. Currently…
Germany’s Transition Away From Coal Helped Jobs and Culture
For years Germany’s transition from coal to sustainable energy has impacted communities. Many feared that jobs would be lost during this transition so plans were put in place to help…
China Launches Major Effort to Clean Its Water
China’s amazing economic growth came at the expensive of the natural environment (amongst other pains) which the country is now trying to revitalize. The country is literally paying the price…
Chile Says Yes to Penguins, No to Mining
Chile has recently decided not to approve a mining proposal in an area that harbours endanger species, including penguins. This is really nice to see since on the other side…
How One Hawaiian Mayor is Making His Town Better
Hawaii is a beautiful part of the world and like most gorgeous parts pf this planet it’s feeling the pressures of climate change. Despite the American government’s blatant rejection of…
Saving the Ozone Layer Helped More Than We Thought
It turns out when nations of the world get together to try and save the environment they can be really good at it. The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987…