Lighthouse Eco

Striving for a sustainable Lifestyle

Year: 2021

Scientists find three new shark species that glow in the dark

The sharks face an environment with nowhere to hide, so they use counterillumination as a form of camouflage, the researchers say. The kitefin shark, the blackbelly lanternshark and the southern lanternshark were collected from the Chatham Rise, off the east…

As many corals growing in the Pacific as trees in the Amazon, new study finds

A world-first estimate of the number of corals across the expanse of the Pacific Ocean has suggested there are about half a trillion of the reef-building animals.

Beijing 2022 Olympics to be powered by 100% renewable energy

Beijing is set to power the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics with energy sourced from 100% renewable energy. Chinese utilities including new energy providers China Huadian Corporation Ltd. and Beijing Jingneng Power Co, as well as the State Grid Beijing…

Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists

Decline in system underpinning Gulf Stream could lead to more extreme weather in Europe and higher sea levels on US east coast The Atlantic Ocean circulation that underpins the Gulf Stream, the weather system that brings warm and mild weather…

How ‘tiger farms’ have turned a wild animal into a species worth more dead than alive

Tigers could once be found across much of Asia, from eastern Turkey to Siberia and Indonesia. Today, they are reduced to living in just 6% of their former range. In many of these areas tigers are no longer even valued as free-ranging…

CAN URBAN FARMING FIGHT THE CLIMATE CRISIS?

Urban farming “is growing or producing food in a city or heavily populated town or municipality.” It is an emerging phenomenon that is considered to be a part of the solution to the environmental crises that plague modern anthropocentric Earth. In July, I wrote…

EUROPEAN COMMISSION TAKES GERMANY TO COURT FOR FAILING TO PROTECT NATURE

The European Commission is taking Germany to the European Court of Justice for violating nature and conservation laws. The EU has long warned Germany that its efforts to protect nature under the Flora-Fauna-Habitats Directive were not adequate. On Thursday, it decided to…

New plant-based plastics can be chemically recycled with near-perfect efficiency

New plant-based plastics can be chemically recycled with near-perfect efficiency Derived from plant oils, the new plastics were presented in a paper published Wednesday in Nature as low-waste, environmentally friendly replacements to the conventional fossil fuel-based plastics that enter natural ecosystems at a rate…

Fire at Oil and Gas Waste Site Raises Safety Concerns Around Possible Radioactive Accidents

On the evening of February 1, a fire erupted at a West Virginia facility that processes radioactive oilfield waste generated from nearby fracking operations, injuring two workers. A video of the fire captured by local news station WTRF shows a raging nighttime inferno…

Solomon Islands: ship crew accused of dumping 1,000 tonnes of oil in sea

Government alleges bulk carrier discharged heavy fuel oil into the sea off Santa Cruz island A bulk carrier ship has deliberately dumped about 1,000 tonnes of oil into the sea off the coast of the Solomon Islands, government authorities have alleged….

The world is running out of sand — and there’s a black market for it now

If you’re planning a beach vacation, you’d better get to it soon. An alarming statistic for you: 67% of Southern California beaches? GONE by 2100. All because of sand. Even if you don’t think about the grainy stuff, you use…

400 Years After Being Wiped Out by Hunters Britain’s Wild Cranes Make a 
Comeback

Extinct for more than 400 years, common cranes are finding homes in the UK’s wetlands and waterways once again. Because of conservation efforts that began in 1979, the common crane (not seen since the 1600s) now numbers almost 200 individuals…