{"id":14762,"date":"2019-09-03T11:17:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T23:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psoda.com\/global\/?p=14762"},"modified":"2025-07-10T01:24:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T01:24:18","slug":"five-environmental-projects-that-could-help-save-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.psoda.com\/global\/2019\/09\/03\/five-environmental-projects-that-could-help-save-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"5 environmental projects that could help save the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you agree with the science or not, it\u2019s pretty clear there’s something weird going on with our planet.
\nWe\u2019ve got the Arctic burning<\/a>, plastics in every step of the food chain,<\/a> more plastics in the oceans than fish<\/a> and storms that are increasing in strength<\/a>. Not to mention the Amazon burning<\/a> at unprecedented levels, up an astounding 83% on last year and hurricane Dorian, which is one of the strongest to ever make landfall.
\nAll of this and we\u2019re using up resources faster than ever. This year\u2019s Earth overshoot day, the day that we use up our annual natural resources budget<\/a> is the earliest it has ever been.
\nThe time available to us to actually do something meaningful to reduce our effects on the planet is quickly running out. Luckily there are some dedicated and innovate people on the planet that aren\u2019t going to take it lying down.
\nIn this post, I\u2019m going to highlight five environmental projects which I think could help save the world. Some of them have made headlines, while others haven\u2019t, but they are all doing something meaningful to help reverse the damage to our home.<\/p>\n

The Ocean Clean Up<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n

The Ocean Clean Up is an ambitious project that hopes to remove large swathes of plastic from the world\u2019s oceans. They estimate that their technology can remove up to 50% of the Pacific Ocean garbage patch every five years and stop larger plastic breaking down to damaging micro plastics.<\/p>\n

For the Love of Bees<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n

Bees and other pollinators are critical to our survival. More than three quarters of all food stuffs on the planet rely on pollination, and it\u2019s estimated that bees\u2019 economic value is in the region of \u20ac 265 billion annually. Unfortunately the bees are dying \u2013 in Europe alone 45% of commercial honeybees have been lost since 2010.
\nFor the Love of Bees is an Auckland-based collective that aims to help redress that balance. They help people create biological pollinator sanctuaries so that bees and other pollinators have safe havens where they can thrive.
\nTheir website has loads of free resources as well as a list of environmental projects they\u2019ve done to give you inspiration.<\/p>\n

Forest Regeneration<\/span><\/h2>\n

Scientists have long suggested that global tree restoration is our most effective climate change solution. A recent study published in Science magazine supports this. The study looked at whether the planet could cope with a global forest regeneration programme and what impact it would have. They discovered that the planet could support an additional 0.9 billion hectares of canopy cover, which could store 205 gigatonnes of carbon in areas that would naturally support woodlands and forests.
\nThere is an important caveat to this though. There are numerous projects around the world dedicated to this important task but not all of them are effective. Who knew that you need to plant the right kind of trees? Some projects are planting only fast growing species like Eucalyptus, which although commercially viable, are poor carbon absorbers and don\u2019t provide good habitat for native species.<\/p>\n

Rainforest Connection<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n

Did you know that 50 \u2013 90% of all logging is illegal<\/a>? Rainforest Connection has built an acoustic monitoring system that passively monitors the rainforest and provides real time alerts and updates if unusual sounds are detected. This lets rangers stop the loggers in their tracks.<\/p>\n

Individual Contributions<\/span><\/h2>\n

This post wouldn\u2019t be complete if I didn\u2019t mention what I\u2019m doing to help both at home and at work. Initially I thought that there wasn\u2019t much that I could do, after all I\u2019m one person (three, if I rope my family in). Once I thought about it though, there was plenty that I could do and have done:<\/p>\n