Inspirational and good news.
We’ve covered car sharing programs before on ThingsAreGood and I don’t think this will be the last time we mention them.
The BBC is running a good article on car sharing in the UK. Richard Ghail writes about how carpooling is a great way to meet people, save money and the environment all in one go.
He credits the congestion charge in London reinforces of environmental protection. What’s more, he points out that the economy benefits from less congestion on the road.
A group of scientists have agreed to work together to fight tropical disease by making drugs that the larger pharmaceuticals aren’t researching. The researchers met in Nairobi to solidify their relationship to improve health in Africa.
“By working together in regional, needs-driven research platforms we are not only on the way to addressing the lack of capacity but also helping in the trials for new drugs,” said Davy Koech, director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute.”
French scientists rigged a plane for a special operation that would defy gravity. The plane performed swooping maneuvers that simulate low-gravity so the doctors can gain a better understanding how surgery can be done in outer space. Their tools used magnets to stay in place while the patient was under a special tent.
This is the first time that this has been done. The reason for this test is more than just a feasibility study since there could be spin-off benefits for health care. It looks like the next test will use a remote controlled robot to perform surgery.
Any volunteers?
An economist, Mark Anielski, has looked at the benefits of keeping Canadian forests. The conclusion is that each year Canada’s forests do $93 billion in carbon regulation and tourism. Anielski says that we need to take this into consideration when we talk of chopping down trees and our overall approach to the boreal forest.
“Boreal forests regulate the climate by capturing and storing an estimated 67 billion tonnes of carbon in Canada alone – a job worth $1.8 billion, based on the price of carbon emissions from the global insurance industry.”
A concept B corporation, Greendimes will keep you off junk-mail lists while planting one tree every month for each of its subscribers at a cost of $3 per month. There are free junk mail removal services, but none that provide active protection and they definetly dont plant any trees.
Think of how many people get junk mail. Total those people and plant one tree for every person. Using a one to one ratio and dividing by the average tree density, my cookie monster calculator tells me an area about the size of the golden horseshoe could be saved in Canada alone.