globalbriefs


News and resources to inspire concerned citizens to work together in building a healthier, stronger society that benefits all.


Green Crisis One in Five Plant Species May Face Extinction


A new report from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK, has issued the first comprehensive assessment of plant life, the inaugural State of the World’s Plants, and found that one in five plants may be at risk of extinction due to invasive species, disease and changing landscapes. Researchers also have determined that just 30,000 plant species have a documented use out of hundreds of


thousands of known species. These are only the vascular plants that have specialized tissue for sucking up water through their systems. Over the years, different people and agencies have identified the same plant at both different times and locations, so they may have accumulated multiple names. The Kew researchers determined that each plant in the International Plant Names Index had, on average, 2.7 different species names. By cutting out the duplicates from more than a million different names, the Kew report was able to pare down the known species to 391,000. In the Arctic, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a doomsday bank buried in


the side of a mountain, contains more than 800,000 samples representing 5,100 different crops and their relatives.


Source: Wired


Biodegradable Bottle Algae-Based Jars Quickly Decompose


Ari Jónsson, a 32-year-old student at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, has invented an all-natural water bottle that holds its shape when full and decomposes when empty. He debuted his creation at the DesignMarch 2016 festival in Reykjavík, Iceland. The only two materials needed to create the bottle are agar, a gelatinous substance that comes from red algae, and water. “I just followed the path in what I was researching, trying to


find new ways to use materials,” says Jónsson, who combined the two ingredients, heated the mixture, poured it into a mold, and then quickly cooled it. The H2


O binds and thickens the agar when cooled,


retaining the shape of the water bottle mold, explains Jónsson. When the finished bottle is empty, “It will rot like other foods.” The bottles can sustainably decompose in soil, although


Jónsson has yet to determine exactly how long that process will take. A plastic water bottle takes more than 1,000 years to biode- grade, and in the U.S., more than 2 million tons of the containers are languishing in landfills.


Source: TakePart.com 22 Long Island Edition www.NaturalAwakeningsLI.com


Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.


~Albert Camus


Organic Rally October is Non-GMO Month


The Non GMO Project is sponsoring National Non-GMO Month in October. Observed since 2010, the program seeks to increase education and aware- ness about the growing presence of unlabeled genetically modified (GM/ GMO) food products and ingredients. People and organizations across


North America are discovering the risks GMOs pose to our health, families and environment. Non-GMO Month provides a powerful opportu- nity to coordinate voices and actions around the country as brands, retail- ers and individuals stand up for the right to know what’s in our food and to choose to avoid GMOs. Protecting consumer choice and a non-GMO food supply requires a multifaceted approach with online and boots-on- the-ground teamwork.


The Non GMO Project invites everyone to help create local events and spread the word in communities. Begin at NonGMOMonth.org.


Cherries/Shutterstock.com


Sergey Ash/Shutterstock.com


Vanatchanan/Shutterstock.com


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