365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge

In the last few decades, a huge amount of scientific research has been done on whether global warming is caused by human activities. Despite the overwhelming evidence, a small number of scientists deny global warming and climate change, often basing their reasoning on misconceptions or research with major flaws. To reduce the negative effects of misinformation, it is important to recognize it and know how to neutralize it.  Peer-reviewing articles is an important step in this process, as it allows other scientists to check the quality.  However, many scientists who deny climate change have decided to skip this review phase and report their results directly in the media.   This can be damaging, as it keeps misconceptions alive and can increase the number of people who doubt climate change is real.  Additionally, instead of discussing these misconceptions in the scientific community, they are widely spread and often attract a lot of media attention. In this articl...

The demand for fuel, especially fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel, has never been higher. This is problematic for many reasons, including the fact that fossil fuels will run out one day and the increase in fossil fuel consumption causes even more greenhouse gas emissions, mostly CO2. These higher CO2 concentrations lead to a further rise of global temperatures, which has severe physical and mental consequences. To decrease fossil fuel use and find more environmentally friendly alternatives, biofuel is being explored. Examples of biofuels include bio-gas, bio-kerosene, and bio-diesel. To produce biofuels , for example microalgae are helpful. Microalgae are microorganisms that grow in wet areas of the world and are able to perform photosynthesis, which is the process of using sunlight, water and CO2 to create nutrients. Biofuel produced by algae is currently a promising alternative as it costs almost half compared to chemically created biofuels and reduces CO2 levels in the proce...

Climate change is caused by greenhouse gases, which are trapped in the earth's atmosphere. These gases naturally come from different sources, such as volcanoes, forest fires, permafrost, and wetlands. But unfortunately, by for example burning fossil fuels, we are adding a lot of additional greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The consequences of climate change are becoming more and more obvious, and the urgent question is what we can do about it. One of the answers is decarbonization. Decarbonization means reducing the amount of CO2 that is emitted into the atmosphere or removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Another answer is managing the sun’s and our planet’s radiation. In this article, 19 methods are explained that can help put these solutions into practice: https://medium.com/the-environment/its-getting-hot-19-strategies-that-can-help-our-planet-to-cool-down-2eaa96c29130 Reducing CO2 that is emitted into the atmosphere prevents further warming up (credit:  Anton Watman  on...

The growing population is putting a lot of pressure on the environment as we need more food. That is why current agricultural practices aim at growing crops with high yields and quality while using less land. These practices are unsustainable, as they damage the ecosystem and cause a health risk for humans. To make #agriculture more environmentally friendly, microorganisms such as endophytic fungi can be used instead of chemicals to promote plant growth. Endophytic fungi live inside the plant and provide a symbiotic relationship with the plant, providing a safe home and nutrients. They do this by 1. Improving uptake of nutrients 2. Producing plant hormones 3. Improving the self-defense system of plants 4. Protecting plants against pests and disease-causing organisms 5. Protecting against biotic and abiotic stress Learn more about how fungi can help plants grow and make agriculture more sustainable: https://medium.com/a-microbiome-scientist-at-large/how-fungi-can-help-plants-grow-and-m...

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how easily viruses can spread between humans through aerosols. Another way is via plastic pollution in surface water. This is concerning because plastic pollution is rapidly increasing, and microplastics are hard to filter out of wastewater. How well viruses survive on the surface of plastic and how likely plastic pollution spreads viral diseases depends on the virus, plastic, and environment. Learn more about these factors: https://medium.com/the-environment/how-plastic-pollution-poses-a-risk-for-spreading-viral-diseases-80875c7c0f0a Plastic pollution in the ocean is a major concern (credit:  Alones  on  Shutterstock )

The climate crisis is causing freshwater scarcity in certain areas. Last year, this was obvious in for example southern Europe. Apart from reducing water usage, desalination of saltwater using renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, or wave energy can be used to create drinking water and save lives. This can be done in many different ways. This article explains how water can be desalinated for drinking purposes using mechanical, thermal, electrical, or chemical energy: https://medium.com/climate-conscious/14-technologies-that-can-prevent-wars-over-drinking-water-85ebca54d850 Many technologies have been developed to create drinking water from saltwater (credit:  nito  at  Shutterstock )

Wildlife is more and more likely to experience a catastrophe due to climate change, man-made disasters, and urbanization. Many animals, including birds, mammals, and reptiles, are injured or orphaned due to these catastrophes. Wildlife experts treat injured animals in wildlife rehabilitation centers, providing short-term care for injured, sick, or orphaned wildlife with the goal of returning them to the wild. Their work is extremely important in contributing to conserving biodiversity . Learn more about how wildlife rehabilitation centers help wildlife and get touched in the heart when seeing wildlife being released: https://medium.com/the-environment/how-wildlife-rehabilitation-centers-help-animals-survive-a-catastrophe-f2339c5e37ae Orphaned otter in care at a wildlife rescue center (credit:  Colin Seddon  on  Shutterstock )

In the light of the many environmental crises, it is important that we do things more efficiently. Technology can help us. When developing technologies, #nature is a great inspiration. For example, octopuses have fascinating characteristics that can inspire robotics. One characteristic is that octopuses have a decentralized nervous system, meaning they have more nerve cells in the body than in the brain. This allows arms to make decisions independently, and all parts of the body communicate directly with each other. This makes it possible for the whole body to perform complex tasks, such as opening a screw top jar, moving an object through a hole in the wall, using a coconut shell as protection, or finding a prey in a transparent maze. The structure of the octopus nervous system and the way the octopus brain communicates with its arms can be used in software architectures to increase the processing speed of the whole system. Learn more about how octopuses inspire technology: https://m...