A better way to manage forests

Sustainable forest management models can be used in the fight against climate change

(Image credit: Courtesy photo)

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1. Private forest owners can play a role in curbing climate change
2. All migrant children are welcome at this elementary school in Mexico
3. Meet Elizabeth Francis, the oldest woman in Texas
4. Cargo ship testing special sails designed to reduce fuel consumption
5. Illinois Tech researchers develop green propane production method

By Catherine Garcia, The Week US

published 24 August 2023

1. Private forest owners can play a role in curbing climate change

A Working Forest Conservation Easement is just one way a private landowner can help fight climate change. Laurie Wayburn, co-founder and president of the Pacific Forest Trust, met investment banker Fred van Eck in 1997. He owned more than 9,000 acres of timber forests in Northern California and Oregon, and after bonding with Wayburn over wildlife, decided to put the land into the easement managed by Pacific Forest Trust. The forests and their resources are protected from development, and sustainable management and timber production is ensured. Van Eck was one of the first private landowners to do this and his story was featured in the new documentary "Beyond the Trees." "Conserving and managing forests to be more naturally climate-resilient and carbon-rich is the most immediate and scalable thing we can do to address climate change," Wayburn told The Week. "In five to 10 years, we can make a huge difference — literally millions of tons of increased, secure sequestration."

At the Venustiano Carranza Garza school in Tapachula, Mexico, every student in the city can get an education, whether they live there full-time or are just passing through. In 2022, more than 41,000 migrants were detained in Tapachula, waiting in the city for their visas or asylum applications to go through. But Principal Carlos García Roblero didn't want migrant children to lose out on an education, so he made his school inclusive to everyone. About 70% of the students are from outside of Mexico. In one instance, García Roblero said, 27 Haitian children who couldn't speak Spanish showed up in the middle of the year but learned how to read in just a few months. "It is a challenge to work here, but it enriches you," teacher Yaneth Pérez Castellanos told The Christian Science Monitor. "The children don't say, 'Oh, she's not the same as me.' ... All the children support each other."

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Elizabeth Francis celebrated her 114th birthday in July, with her 94-year-old daughter and 68-year-old granddaughter by her side. "I'm the oldest living person in Houston, and I'd like to thank God and all of the people who have surrounded me and loved me throughout my life," Francis told The Washington Post. "They helped get me here." On top of being the oldest Texan, it's believed that Francis is the second-oldest living supercentenarian in the U.S. Francis, who was born in Louisiana in 1909, cheekily attributes her longevity to eating whatever she wants, while her granddaughter thinks it might be because she never learned how to drive and had to walk a lot. Francis made sure to have two pieces of cake during her party, and said she plans on doing the same exact things when she turns 115.

It's full sail ahead for the cargo ship Pyxis Ocean. The vessel, now on its maiden voyage from China to Brazil, is outfitted with WindWings sails, which are 123-feet tall and made of the same material as wind turbines. This is the first real-world test of the WindWing sails, which are designed to cut fuel consumption; because the ship does not rely solely on an engine, the sails could reduce its lifetime emissions by 30%. The shipping industry generates an estimated 837 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year, and wind power "can make a difference," Dr. Simon Bullock, shipping researcher at the University of Manchester's Tyndall Center, told BBC News. As the world waits for new clean energy sources, "we have to throw everything at operational measures on existing ships, like retrofitting vessels with sails, kits and rotors," he added.

A team at the Illinois Institute of Technology has made a green energy breakthrough by developing an electrolyzer able to convert carbon dioxide into propane in a way that is economical and scalable. The research was led by Mohammad Asadi, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, who said in a statement that "making renewable chemical manufacturing is really important. It's the best way to close the carbon cycle without losing the chemicals we currently use daily." There is a critical need for innovative devices like this one, and Asadi has partnered with SHV Energy, a global propane distributor, to distribute the system. A study about the research was recently published in the journal Nature Energy.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.