Adam Clare

Germany Opens Its First Bike Highway

Germany knows that their autobahns, which are famous for not having a speed limit, can only handle so much traffic. To alleviate pressure put on their highways they have built a highway just for bikes! The 100km long bike path runs through 10 cities.

The bike path is fully lit, cleared of debris, and even has overtaking lanes for cyclists. It’s just like any major road for cars but built for environmentally friendly and healthy transportation: a bicycle.

The RS1Â cuts through the Ruhr region in North West Germany, close to the border with the Netherlands, and runs mostly along former railway tracks. The bike paths are 13 feet wide, have overtaking lanes, andÂ according to the AFPÂ are lit, and cleared of snow and other debris, just like regular roads. The inspiration for the RS1 comes from the cycle ways of the Netherlands, and also from Londonâ€™s bike superhighways, and the route usually crosses other roads via over-and-underpasses.

Floating Dam to Capture Waste in the North Sea

The world’s oceans are polluted with massive amounts of waste plastics, so much so that we’ve had to name a grouping of plastic waste because it’s so large. There are many ways to reduce our use of plastics and our production of waste (hint: don’t buy so many things); we still need to deal with what has already been dumped into the oceans.

A new effort launching soon off the coast of The Netherlands will use a floating dam to catch floating plastics. The structure will allow animals though the mess while catching waste better than previous methods.

Plastic waste is a major threat to animals in the sea, who either choke on the material or suffer from related contaminants. But most ocean waste projects try to collect plastic waste with boats that end up inadvertently endangering ocean life. The revolutionary new dam, scheduled for deployment in the second quarter of 2016, will instead use currents to round up waves of garbageâ€”bags, bottles, and other wasteâ€”while also letting sea creatures through. Passive, safe collection is the idea.

The Web Makes You Humble, Not Stupid

In the early years of the internet people worried that it would make people stupid and people would sit around not contributing to society. It turns out that the internet is not as bad as TV. Indeed, the web may make us more humble and help us realize our own ignorance.

One possibility is that the internet actually makes us more humble. “We suggested that people might be engaging in a sort of social comparison between themselves and the internet,” Amanda Ferguson, one of the study’s authors, writes me in an email. “This would reduce their ‘feeling-of-knowing’ the answer (since they’re comparing themselves to the all-knowing internet), and ultimately lead them to answer fewer questions.”

Meningitis Outbreak in Africa Will Not Happen

Meningitis has killed a lot of people, most of them in Africa in what is referred to as “the meningitis belt”. Every couple of years a meningitis outbreak flares up and ravages many countries, but not this year. This year meningitis was beaten by a cadre of countries and organizations. Many lives will be saved thanks to their efforts.

The last big outbreak was in 1996-1997. 250,000 people were infected and some 25,000 people died. Even in off years, there are low level meningitis outbreaks. Last year, 1,300 people died from the disease in Africa.

But this year, there will be no meningitis season at all.

It did not make front page headlines, but last monthÂ it was announcedÂ that cases of meningitis dropped to effectively zero in 2014 across the meningitis belt.

The disease has been effectively wiped out through a combination of technological innovation, political will, and an unusual collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry, NGOs and governments.

Environmentally Friendly Condoms

Condoms are great for your health but unfortunately aren’t so great for the environment. Condoms are made out of rubber which can be sourced from sketchy places, and now a company wants us to change where we get our rubber from for condoms.

It is good to see a company push for eco-friendly sex products. We see a ton of consumer goods trying to be made by more sustainable methods, so why not make products for the bedroom more eco-friendly?

Mother Jones: What makes your condoms environmentally friendly?

Jeffrey: If you look at the life cycle of the condom, you start with the fact that they’re made from the sap of the rubber tree, like maple syrup is from a maple tree. We were lucky enough to find the worldâ€™s only fair trade certified rubber plantation. The plantation provides free education for 1,000 people in southern India. They built a hospital that provides 100 percent free medical care to employees and a discount to the whole community. And they provide free housing. Itâ€™s the only one certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which means theyâ€™re managing the biological diversity on the plantation, the use of chemicals and pesticides. We took that through to the factoryâ€”changing the way the product is made. We reduced the protein content in the latex, which is what causes allergies. Most condoms are contaminated with a carcinogen called nitrosamine. We removed casein, which makes it ok for vegans to use. It’s the only non-GMO-certified condom in the United States. But the more important part of the story is that condoms help women plan the size of their families. When women plan the size of their families they have a better socioeconomic outcome. Thereâ€™s a lot we can do without, but we need condoms. The worldâ€™s most sustainable, responsible, condoms.