globalbriefs


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


Heave Ho Abandoned and Lost Fishing Gear Pollutes the Seas


Abandoned and lost fishing gear such as traps, crab pots and nets litter the ocean floor in coastal areas worldwide, continuing to attract, entrap and kill fish and other marine life. The Associ- ated Press reports that global non- profits, governments and companies are engaged in efforts to retrieve and recycle as many of the items as pos- sible to protect the environment, save


marine life and reduce hazards to marine navigation.


A 2009 United Nations report estimated there are 640,000 tons of discarded fishing nets deep below the ocean surface worldwide. Recommended solutions include degradable panels on traps that break down and allow trapped marine life to escape. International agreements prohibit dumping fishing equipment at sea; yet in England, small vessels can amass landfill charges of roughly $700 per year, giving them an incentive to ditch broken gear. Pascal van Erp, a Dutch diver alarmed by the amount of equipment he’s encountered, founded the Ghost Fishing Foundation to tackle the issue. He says, “It’s found in all seas, oceans and inland waters at all depths, along the beach and under the sand. I don’t think the problem can be resolved completely, but we can keep it from getting worse by showing the problem to the public and the authori- ties.” Industry experts and scientists estimate that commercial fishermen annually lose about 10 percent of their traps due to bad weather.


Free Fuel Hydrogen Conversion From Water Making Gains


Scientists at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm, report that they have finally unlocked a major barrier to exploiting a renewable energy source through extracting pure hydrogen from water. Because the best-performing catalysts for electrochemical oxidation, or “water split- ting”, are expensive precious metals, the research team led by KTH Professor Licheng Sun developed molecular catalysts for water oxidation with an efficiency approach- ing that of natural photosynthesis comprising common, abundant elements, all of which could help change the economics of large-scale hydrogen fuel production. Meanwhile, Daniel Nocera, a professor of energy at Harvard University, and


Pamela Silver, a professor of biochemistry and systems biology at Harvard Medical School, have co-created a system that uses solar energy to split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels. Their paper, whose lead au- thors include post-doctoral fellow Chong Liu and graduate student Brendan Colón, was recently published in Science. “This is a true artificial photosynthesis system,” says Nocera. “Previously, peo-


ple were using artificial photosynthesis for water-splitting, but this is a true A-to-Z system, and we’ve greatly exceeded the efficiency of photosynthesis in nature.”


18 Long Island Edition www.NaturalAwakeningsLI.com


Fungus Among Us Genetically Altered Mushrooms Approved for Consumption


Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) is a new method of editing genomes of farm animals and food crops. White button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) that have been genetically modified to delay the natural brown- ing process are the first CRISPR- edited organisms to receive approval from the U.S. Department of Agricul- ture (USDA). Yinong Yang, a plant pathologist


from Penn State University, crafted the modified mushrooms by targeting the family of genes responsible for the browning effect seen in produce when sliced and exposed to oxygen. Yang was able to reduce the brown- ing enzyme’s work by 30 percent and was granted approval from the USDA because no foreign or altered DNA was integrated into the mushroom genome. The department only as- sesses whether there’s a risk that the new modified variety of an organism could become a weed or “pest” to other plants. The mushrooms may still be


subject to Food and Drug Adminis- tration or Environmental Protection Agency regulations. The National Academies of Science, Engineer- ing and Medicine are in discussions about developing a new set of rules for the biotech industry in the next five to 10 years.


Source: Nature.com


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