HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN

SAVE THE FUTURE

gflucero
1. Bike lanes are getting a sci-fi makeover.

• This will be the year Berlin breaks ground on

the next era of bike lanes.
• If all goes to plan, two of the city's lanes will be
elevated above street level and enclosed to
regulate internal temperatures and lighting
(they'll be powered by solar panels, of course)
for safer riding conditions.
• Bike rental outposts will also be placed
throughout to entice more drivers to switch
over to cycling in the name of the planet.
2. Soon, we may be able to engineer
pollution-fighting plants.
• Researchers at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies
in San Diego are in the process of researching how
to ease global warming using plants. Plants naturally
absorb CO2 from the atmosphere during
photosynthesis, where it can be turned into a waxy,
protective shield called suberin.
• By boosting the amount of suberin a plant produces,
scientists hope to extract more carbon from the
atmosphere while making plants more resistant to
extreme weather conditions
3. Tesla isn't stopping at compact cars.
• Tesla's upcoming electric, self-driving semi
truck holds the potential to do a world of
good, as freight trucks are responsible for
nearly a quarter of the U.S. transportation
sector's greenhouse gas emission.
• Major corporations like Budweiser and
Walmart are already beginning to invest in this
glimpse of a greener future. Following the
rollout of its semi in 2019, Tesla will likely set
its sights on pickup trucks.
4. Monitors are mapping glacier loss in real
time.
• In addition to contributing to rising sea levels,
melting glaciers present a huge problem to Arctic
indigenous peoples whose livelihoods depend on
stable ice conditions.
• Enter SmartICE, a pilot monitoring system that
feeds information about ice thickness and breakage
to Inuit tribes so they can more safely plan for
fishing and transportation. Its real-time data reports
can also help scientists studying climate change in
polar regions.
5. We're engineering animal products in a lab
—and people are buying into it.
• Although it has not yet hit markets, Zoa, a leather-like
material made from fermented yeast by the
biofabrication company Modern Meadow, is already
on display in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibit as
the future of fabric.
• Lab-engineered faux hamburger, Impossible Burger is
already on upward of 50 menus around NYC, and it
raised $75 million in its last investment round. These
popular new products speak to a future that is less
dependent on the meat industry, a notorious polluter.
Biofabricated materials are animal-free,
leaving a lighter footprint on the planet.
6. A solar-powered highway
• A "regenerative highway ecosystem" called
The Ray will soon cover 18 miles of road with
solar panels that feed power into roadside EV
charging stations.
• The holistic highway model will weave through
a pollinator garden and small, sustainable
farms filled with crops that mitigate the effects
of global warming.
7. Cow supplements are the next big thing in
sustainable agriculture.
• Mootral a natural supplement made from garlic
powder and citrus extracts, has been shown to
tweak cows' digestion in a way that reduces the
amount of methane they release in the
atmosphere.
• Considering that methane gas traps even more
heat on the earth's surface than carbon dioxide,
this product—currently on pilot farms in Europe
and the U.S.—could clean up the meat industry in
a big way.
8. We are breeding super coral that can
withstand a warming world.
• As global warming continues to decimate coral
reefs around the world, researchers are
starting to pinpoint ways to selectively breed
coral that are more resilient to temperature
changes. "We can train corals to be better.
9. Zero mass water
• Develop a set of hygroscopic materials that are
porous enough to rapidly absorb water from
the atmosphere.
• Use sunlight to drive a process that takes water
back out of the materials." From there, the
water—up to 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of it a day—
is put through a mineralized filter and diverted
straight to the kitchen tap, effectively bypassing
your community's system and creating what is
referred to as water independence.
• Sources:
• https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/en
vironmental-tech-innovations
• https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/mo
otral-cow-supplement