Welcome to my round-up of the week’s causes for optimism, as noticed in the media. Plus some links to debunking of alarmist claims, and to more general opinion articles on optimism vs. pessimism.
* The University of Chicago has demonstrated a simple genetic modification that will allow plants to yield far more abundant crops, while also growing much better roots and having greatly increased drought-tolerance. They added a protein to rice and potatoes and saw real-world field tests yield a ~50% bigger crop. The researchers added… “it worked with almost every type of plant we tried it with so far, and it’s a very simple modification to make.”
* The River Thames runs through London, and was almost dead within living memory. Yet the mighty river is now ‘full of life’. The latest research is from the Zoological Society of London, in which its annual spotting survey found the river alive with breeding seals… “2,866 grey seals and 797 harbour seals [were counted] following the most recent pupping season.” There has been a slight dip in seal numbers in recent years, but such populations naturally fluctuate and spotting has been disrupted by lockdowns. The once-famous London eel is however faring much worse, and has nearly disappeared from the Thames. This is probably due to… “the illegal export market [in] European eel smuggling, [an illicit industry that sends eels to China and] may be worth as much as £2.5 billion”.
* In Country Life magazine, “The tale of how London Zoo survived and thrived through the lockdowns”.
* The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has moved the Atlantic bluefin tuna from “critically endangered” to “endangered” as its ocean stocks recover. This is the massive fish that is famously made into sushi. Stock conservation programmes are credited. Two other commercial tuna species, albacore and yellowfin tuna are now classified as of “least concern”.
* Bjorn Lomborg is in The Wall Street Journal this week, describing how “The World Is Getting Safer From Floods”. The article is part of his new series there. His slightly earlier article in his WSJ series observed that… “despite what you may have heard, Atlantic hurricanes are not becoming more frequent. In fact, the frequency of hurricanes making landfall in the continental U.S. has declined slightly since 1900.”
* University College London has made a scientific breakthrough in finding the causes of rheumatoid arthritis, a common disease of older people. The… “researchers have found, for the first time, that damage to the lining of the gut plays a key role in disease by making it leaky. This allows bacteria to cross the gut lining into the body, intensifying inflammation in the stomach and the joints.” This opens the way to a treatment, says the article, perhaps in as little as four years.
* Japanese car firm Nissan has made a “Breakthrough On Recycling Rare Earth Metals”. No need for complex manual disassembly of the scrap or reject motors, it seems. Just melt the whole motors at 1,400 degrees, add a common element and some new flux, and the valuable Rare Earth Elements all float to the top of the bubbling cauldron.
* The staid architectural profession is “Still making dystopia”, according to a pithy article in the latest edition of The Critic. Despite cogent criticism and growing alternatives, too many architects more or less deliver the same old modernist boxes that are… “a standardized, very cheap way of bulk building that totally ignores the emotion and psychology of the user.”
* GBNews worries that a significant number of the next generation are being intensively raised “to view the world as a fearful, dangerous place”. Some are even being deliberately inculcated with fear, in the hope that their sprog will become ‘the next Greta’.
* There had been growing optimism about an ice-free summer sea-route for shipping in the high Arctic. However, the U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center’s latest newsletter throws cold water on that. They baldly state that… “The Northern Sea Route appears closed off in 2021, despite being open each summer since 2008”.
* And finally, The Spectator decides that “Covid has been great for drawing”… “Confined to quarters, artists have turned to pen, pencil and biro, as this year’s Drawing Biennial shows … While coronavirus has put other arts in a chokehold, it’s a shot in the arm for drawing.”
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