This is Good News Friday, where we find some good economic, energy, and environmental news and share it with PP readers. Please send any positive news to dd@peakprosperity.com with subject header “Good News Friday.” We will save and post weekly. Enjoy!
Economy
Study Shows Cactus Pear as Drought-Tolerant Crop for Sustainable Fuel and Food
Could cactus pear become a major crop like soybeans and corn in the near future, and help provide a biofuel source, as well as a sustainable food and forage crop? According to a recently published study, researchers from the University believe the plant, with its high heat tolerance and low water use, may be able to provide fuel and food in places that previously haven’t been able to grow much in the way of sustainable crops.
Nasa’s Perseverance rover begins its exploration of Mars
The US space agency’s Perseverance rover has wiggled its wheels and undertaken its first Martian drive.
It didn’t move far – just 6.5m (21ft) in total. But Nasa’s deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan said it was a significant moment.
“While the rover is still doing a lot of engineering checkouts, the minute ‘the rubber’ begins to move we can consider ourselves explorers on the surface of Mars,” she told BBC News.
Hot Springs National Park Turns 100 Today—The Oldest Protected Land in America
Today, Hot Springs National Park will celebrate its centennial: having been converted from a Reservation (its 1832 designation, which “reserved” it as a recreation area, closed to development) to a National Park in 1921—about a hundred years after the Quapaw Indians ceded the land around the hot springs to the US in a treaty and moved to a reservation south of the site.
NJ plumber, family drive 22 hours to help Texas storm victims
A New Jersey plumber and his family drove for more than 20 hours to Texas to help storm victims who otherwise would have faced weeks without clean water.
Andrew Mitchell, whose dream to become a licensed plumber became a reality earlier this year, felt like “it was his calling” to go and help, his wife, Kisha Pinnock, told Fox News.
A survey of 1,000 kids aged 11-17 revealed 83% have been learning about the pandemic by watching the news—with 71% asking their parents about the virus because they’re interested.
Two-thirds have also been inspired by the hard work of the nurses and doctors working during the pandemic.
Environment
World’s oldest known wild bird has another chick at age of 70
Wisdom the albatross, the world’s oldest known wild bird, has had a chick at the age of at least 70.
The Laysan albatross hatched the chick on 1 February in a wildlife refuge in the North Pacific Ocean, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has said. Laysan albatrosses usually only live for 12-40 years. But Wisdom was first identified by researchers in 1956.
NASA Scientists Complete 1st Global Survey of Freshwater Fluctuation
To investigate humans’ impact on freshwater resources, scientists have now conducted the first global accounting of fluctuating water levels in Earth’s lakes and reservoirs – including ones previously too small to measure from space.
The research, published March 3 in the journal Nature, relied on NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2), launched in September 2018.
Researchers Stop Tissue Loss Disease in Rescued Pillar Coral
Scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) have successfully treated and rehabilitated diseased pillar coral rescued from the Florida Reef Tract.
First detected near Miami in 2014, stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) has since spread throughout the Florida Keys and much of the Caribbean. The disease is infecting and killing roughly half of the region’s hard coral species, including pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus) — a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Florida’s wild pillar coral population is now less than six percent of its known population in 2014.
Gold & Silver
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The post Daily Digest 3/5 – Good News Friday: Nasa’s Perseverance rover begins its exploration of Mars, Researchers Stop Tissue Loss Disease in Rescued Pillar Coral appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
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