Europe | Peter Schulte

Lego plans to make half the plastic in bricks from renewable materials by 2026

By Peter Schulte / August 28, 2024 / Good news links

The toymaker hopes gradually to bring down the amount of oil-based plastic it uses by paying up to 70% more for certified renewable resin, the raw plastic used to manufacture the bricks, in an attempt to encourage manufacturers to increase production. In the long term, Lego plans to switch entirely to renewable and recycled plastic by 2032, in a green push that has resulted in the company testing more than 600 alternative materials.

Egypt recovers 3 ancient artifacts found in the Netherlands

By Peter Schulte / August 27, 2024 / Good news links

The items retrieved include a mummified head from the Hellenistic period, a ceramic funerary figurine dating to Egypt’s New Kingdom era (664-332 B.C.), and part of a wooden tomb bearing an inscription of the goddess Isis from 663-504 B.C., the Egyptian embassy in The Hague said in a statement. The head was found in good condition, showing remnants of teeth and hair. Dutch police and the cultural heritage inspection unit retrieved the figurines and parts of the tomb after determining that they were smuggled out of Egypt.

World-first lung cancer vaccine trials launched across seven countries

By Peter Schulte / August 23, 2024 / Good news links

Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8 million deaths every year. Now experts are testing a new jab that instructs the body to hunt down and kill cancer cells – then prevents them from ever coming back. Known as BNT116 and made by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease. The phase 1 clinical trial, the first human study of BNT116, has launched across 34 research sites in seven countries: the U.K., U.S., Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Turkey.

U.K. fee leads to 80% drop in plastic bag litter on beaches

By Peter Schulte / July 29, 2024 / Good news links

A new survey, undertaken by the Marine Conservation Society, found just one plastic bag, on average, for every 100 meters of coastline, down from five plastic bags in 2014. It was roughly a decade ago that governments began requiring retailers to charge consumers for single-use plastic bags.

Denmark to pioneer CO2 tax on farms in a global first

By Peter Schulte / July 8, 2024 / Good news links

The CO2 tax proposal, first proposed by government-commissioned scientists in February, is part of Denmark’s ambitious ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. The agriculture sector, which is the country’s greatest producer of CO2 emissions, is the main focus of this project.

Big Ben with bridge over Thames and flag of England against blue sky in London

British voters elect record number of women to Parliament

By Peter Schulte / July 5, 2024 / Good news links

After the recent elections, there will now be at least 242 female Members of Parliament in the new U.K. government. The previous record was set in 2019 when 220 women were elected to the House of Commons. Before that in 2017, it was 207 and 196 in 2015. New Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet will also have the highest number of female ministers in history, as Rachel Reeves became the first female chancellor ever.

E.U. surpasses 50% renewable power share for first time ever in first half of 2024

By Peter Schulte / July 1, 2024 / Good news links

Electricity industry association Eurelectric has released figures showing that 50% of public electricity generation in the E.U. came from renewables for the first time in history earlier this year. The association said Europe was decarbonizing at an unprecedented pace, with just over 50% coming from renewable energy and nearly 75% coming from non-fossil-fuel sources, up from 68% last year.

Iberian lynx no longer endangered after numbers improve in Spain and Portugal

By Peter Schulte / June 21, 2024 / Good news links

Less than a quarter of a century after the Iberian lynx was feared to be only a whisker away from extinction, populations of the animal have recovered enough across Spain and Portugal for it to be moved from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the global red list of threatened species. According to the latest census, the lynx population on the peninsula has risen from just 94 in 2002 to 2,021 last year.

Atlantic sturgeon reintroduced in Sweden for the first time after “functional extinction”

By Peter Schulte / June 18, 2024 / Good news links

The Atlantic sturgeon – a keystone species – was driven to functional extinction in Europe in the middle of the twentieth century. Supported by a grant from Rewilding Europe’s European Wildlife Comeback fund, a pioneering initiative has seen this iconic fish reintroduced in a Swedish river for the first time. A total of 100 juvenile sturgeon were translocated from a breeding facility in the village of Born auf dem Darß, on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, which is operated by the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Research Center for Agriculture and Fisheries in Rostock.

U.K. researchers identify and treat major cause of inflammatory bowel disease

By Peter Schulte / June 6, 2024 / Good news links

For the first time, a major trigger in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and related conditions has been identified, and existing drugs can stamp it out, in what scientists call a “massive step” in successfully treating these debilitating chronic conditions. Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, in collaboration with University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London (ICL), have uncovered a problem gene enhancer that stimulates action along a specific biological pathway that causes IBD inflammation.