The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added one more insect to its red list for the first time. The migrating monarch butterfly is now listed as endangered.
Finnish researchers have installed the world's first fully working sand battery, which can store green power for months. They made the device with the heat from cheap electricity from solar or wind.
Wealthy nations were responsible for generating nearly half of international food-transport emissions, despite being home to only 12% of the global population.
Here is the news in detail-
On Jul 22, 2022, AP News- The migrating monarch butterfly, which each year undertakes an epic journey from central Mexico to southern Canada, is now listed as endangered. It is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the world. In North America, millions of monarch butterflies undertake the longest migration of any insect species known to science. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has added Danaus plexippus to its red list for the first time: estimates suggest that its population in North America has declined by up to 72% in the past ten years. By planting native milkweed and reducing pesticide use, Americans may play a role in making sure this iconic insect makes a full recovery.
BBC News published on Jul 5, 2022- Finnish researchers have installed the world's first fully working sand battery, which can store green power for months. They made the device with the heat from cheap electricity from solar or wind.
Right now, lithium is the main ingredient of most batteries, and they are expensive with a large- physical footprint and can only cope with a limited amount of excess power. But a young team of Finnish engineers has completed the first commercial installation of a battery made from sand that they believe can solve the storage problem in a low-cost, low-impact way. They named the battery- Polar Night Energy. They installed the device in a power plant, which runs the district heating system for the area.
Low-cost electricity warms the sand up to 500C by resistive heating (the same process that makes electric fires work). It generates hot air and circulates in the sand using a heat exchanger. Sand is a very effective medium for storing heat and loses little over time. The developers say- that by using low-grade sand, their device could keep sand at 500C for several months.
On Jul 1, 2022, nature.com published- Food transport accounts for nearly one-fifth of carbon emissions in the food system- more than seven times the amount previously estimated. In 2017, the domestic and international movement of food added emissions equivalent to 3 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Wealthy nations were responsible for generating nearly half of international food-transport emissions, despite being home to only 12% of the global population. The inequality is driven partly by carbon-intensive refrigeration: moving fruit and vegetables generated twice the amount of CO2 produced by growing them.
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