Summer Issue July 2024
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Better Living Through Well Being

During a recent three-day conference organized by the Vatican, a climate report “On The Progression Of Climatic Disasters And Their Catastrophic Consequences” was presented to Pope Francis and warmly received by him.

This report provides a well illustrated easy to follow compilation and analysis of the progression of increasing climatic and geodynamic changes on Earth over the past 30 years, as well as their relationship with man-made factors that significantly exacerbate the climate situation. It also presents a forecast of exponential growth of cataclysms. All of the analysis is based on publicly available scientific reports.

In recent years, the number of climatic catastrophes around the planet have rapidly increased. Their momentum as captured in the scientific data is characterized by exponential growth. Cataclysms occur suddenly and in places they’ve never happened before, causing massive damage and loss of human lives. Unlike large isolated events of the past, currently natural disasters exhibit a steady upward trend, synchronous nature, and expanding geographical impact.

Such a rapid and sudden increase in climate, atmospheric and geodynamic catastrophes worldwide suggests that in conjunction with the anthropogenic factor, there is a tremendous amount of additional energy inside our planet. Beneath the Earth’s crust, there is a complex thermodynamic system that has been functioning for billions of years. Thanks to its stability, life on Earth is possible. Yet, any change in one of the underground layers affects the entire system, including the surface layer, where humans live.

The anthropogenic factor -- human activities that lead to an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- play a significant role in climate change. But there are also other, often underestimated factors that significantly impact climate changes such as natural cycles in geodynamics and astronomical processes of solar activity and Earth’s orbital variations that play a long-term key role in climate cycles. These can either amplify or mitigate the anthropogenic impact on Earth’s climate system.

The report projects economic losses will increase worldwide in proportion to the increase in frequency and intensity of natural disasters. As extreme climatic events become more intense and extreme, prices will surge and the economy for the entire world will become unstable in the context of global catastrophes caused by geodynamic and anthropogenic factors described in the report.

Latest scientific research projects a probability that by 2036 the viability of Earth’s biosphere could be threatened. The key goal of this report is to provide evidence that a solution to the problem of climate collapse exists.

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Expert bird surveyors with Birds Canada are monitoring the continuing effect of regenerative agriculture-practicing farms on the natural habitat of bird species at risk. Building on last year’s encouraging results, this year’s program has expanded to include a wider diversity of regenerative agriculture systems. Farmers continuing from last year’s study point out that their regenerative agriculture farms strive to work with nature and consider bird abundance as key indicators of their overall farm health, especially healthy soil and intact habitats such as grasslands and wetlands. Improvements in forage production and biodiversity in bird populations have been observed, including a number of bird species at risk.

This is a collaboration with Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA). The MFGA’s position statement on regenerative agriculture states an ultimate goal is producer profitability resulting from healthy agricultural lands being managed with wise land use practices that vastly improve soil, water and air quality. They believe Regenerative Agriculture farms strive to be part of a larger ecosystem, shifting the paradigm from prioritizing high yields above all else to establishing cycles of regeneration that improve long term land use via profit and ecosystem health.

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A new report from IDTechEx, “Electric and Fuel Cell Buses 2025-2045: Markets, Players, Technologies and Forecasts,” shows that use of electric buses has increased throughout America, Europe, India and other key regions in their efforts to reach zero emission targets. City buses are the perfect candidates for electrification due to their use of predictable routes and confinement to single metropolitan zones. The buses can be partially recharged during scheduled stops en route, and can be completely charged again overnight while parked in depots.

The coach market by contrast is stagnant and almost completely diesel. The biggest hurdle to overcome in adapting to all electric power is the long range of coaches. The necessary highway infrastructure needs to be put in place for charging en route throughout a wide range. Also, funding of the more expensive electric coaches presents a greater challenge to regional coach transport operators who are smaller entities than large metropolitan operators.

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Other articles of interest in this TMIS eNewsletter for Summer 2024:

* Biology-mimicking design based on unique desert plant opens up the possibilities of dynamic liquid transport technology.

* Research team demonstrates key breakthrough in treatment of long COVID and widespread immune activation.

* Ag Literacy for Healthier People and Planet program builds better understanding of food systems’ impact on human health and health of the planet.

* New bottles can now be made entirely from 100 percent recovered coastal plastic.

* Education about home segregation of waste turns it into gold.

* Pet food company uses principles of Eastern Food Therapy in providing nutritionally balanced natural foods.

* Hollywood icon joins global alliance of video games, influencers and environmental causes for unprecedented climate change collaboration.

* Global company stresses intertwined relationship between economy and environment and pressing need to support the health of the planet with better technology at 2024 Summer Davos Forum.

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I am grateful to be in a collaborative business with many talented and skilled professionals. Your feedback is always welcome.

- Mary Michele McLaughlin


From the Front Page of TMIS News
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Click on links below to view Full Stories.

Global Climate Change Research Group's President Discussed Climate Change with Pope Francis
Vatican City, Italy

Pope Francis hosted distinguished scientists and experts from various countries and disciplines at a private audience at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. The selected attendees were participants in the Three-day International Conference on 'Generative Artificial Intelligence and Technocratic Paradigm,' organized by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation (CAPP) - operating within the Secretariat of State of the Holy See and led by the esteemed Chairwoman, Dr. Anna Maria Tarantola.

Among the invited guests were Dr. A. Egon Cholakian, a National Security Expert, Washington D.C. Governmental Affairs Advisor to the Allatra International Public Movement, CAPP Foundation member; and Maryna Ovtsynova, President of the Allatra International Public Movement.

During the audience at the Vatican, the President of ALLATRA presented to Pope Francis a climate report 'On The Progression Of Climatic Disasters On Earth And Their Catastrophic Consequences.' In their personal conversation, she raised the issue of climate change as a global problem, emphasizing that it represents one of the most pressing challenges for humanity.

Full Story

Year Two MFGA Bird Survey Taking Off On the Wings of Soil Health
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Expert bird surveyors are putting their eyes and ears to work on nine regenerative agriculture-practicing farms as Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA)'s second consecutive bird survey wingspans across six different types of farming operations.

MFGA will once again join forces with the Manitoba Wildlife Branch and the Manitoba Important Bird Area (IBA) Program to survey and better understand the benefits of soil-focused, regenerative agriculture practices and intact natural habitats to birds -- with a target on species at risk such as Bobolink and Sprague's Pipit. An ongoing exchange agreement with Birds Canada remains in place to see some of the MFGA farms surveyed overlaid with a separate, ongoing Birds Canada initiative. View this short video about MFGA Regenerative Agriculture.

Four farms comprised of mixed, forage/beef, dairy and grain operations were surveyed in last year's MFGA survey. All have returned. MFGA has added bison, sheep and one more each of dairy, grain and mixed farms to this year's mix.

Full Story

As City Buses Turn Electric, IDTechEx Asks What Awaits the Electric Coach Market
Boston, Massachusetts

Electric buses are booming, with sales growing in Europe, America, India, and other key regions. Transport operators have shown themselves keen to electrify urban transport and cut greenhouse gas emissions. As emissions regulations tighten, city buses are likely to be all-electric within the next few years. IDTechEx's report, "Electric and Fuel Cell Buses 2025-2045: Markets, Players, Technologies and Forecasts", shows that over half of all city bus sales in Europe in 2023 were electric (battery and fuel cell) and that some regions are well ahead of the EU's target for 100% of new city buses to be zero emission by 2035. However, in the coach segment, only around 1% of sales were electric across the same period, so what is driving the excellent growth in the city segment, and will it be replicated for coaches?

Buses were one of the first transportation sectors to demonstrate that they could be completely electrified. In China, sales began at pace in the early 2010s and reached a peak in 2016 when almost 140,000 electric buses were sold in a single year. While the sales figures have since declined and then plateaued – the overall bus fleet is now over 77% electric. With over 3 quarters of buses electric, these are not pilot projects or early successes but established incumbent technology. Electric buses now have well over a decade of use, transporting millions of people safely and efficiently. But what are the unique aspects of city bus transport that have allowed electrification to outpace other bus sectors?

Full Story

Study reveals the mechanism of bio-inspired control of liquid flow, enlightening breakthroughs in fluid dynamics and nature-inspired materials technologies
Hong Kong, China

The more we discover about the natural world, the more we find that nature is the greatest engineer. Past research believed that liquids can only be transported in fixed direction on species with specific liquid communication properties and cannot switch the transport direction. Recently, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) researchers have shown that an African plant controls water movement in a previously unknown way -- and this could inspire breakthroughs in a range of technologies in fluid dynamics and nature-inspired materials, including applications that require multistep and repeated reactions, such as microassays, medical diagnosis and solar desalination etc. The study has been recently published in the international academic journal Science.

Liquid transport is an unsung miracle of nature. Tall trees, for example, have to lift huge amounts of water every day from their roots to their highest leaves, which they accomplish in perfect silence. Some lizards and plants channel water through capillaries. In the desert, where making the most of scarce moisture is vital, some beetles can capture fog-borne water and direct it along their backs using a chemical gradient.

Full Story

Chronic virus found in long COVID gut up to 2 years post-infection
Medford, Massachusetts

Research published in Science Translational Medicine and supported by the PolyBio Research Foundation shows that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can chronically persist in the gut of patients with long COVID for over 2 years. The findings, published by a UC San Francisco team known for previous innovation in HIV research, also documented T cell immune activation across the bodies and brains of people after COVID. This T cell activation was particularly elevated in the spinal cord and gut wall of participants with long COVID.

"Long COVID is not a mystery," says Michael Peluso MD, an infectious disease researcher in the UCSF School of Medicine who co-led the study. "Our findings provide clear evidence of virus persistence and sustained immune activation after COVID-19. We must use this information to test treatments that might get people better."

Two potential drivers of long COVID were identified. Tens of millions of people across the globe are sick with long COVID: debilitating chronic symptoms that can last for years after initial infection. The new study findings provide compelling evidence for two potential causes of long COVID: persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection and aberrant T cell activation.

More specifically, the team used an advanced imaging method called whole-body positron emission tomography with a special tracer injected by vein to map activated T cells throughout the bodies of study participants from 27 to 910 days following COVID infection. Post-COVID study participants showed increased T cell activation in sites across the brain and body, including the brain stem, bone marrow, cardiac tissues, and the gut wall compared to people who were never infected with the virus.

Full Story

Financial Gift Launches Critical Agricultural Literacy Program with University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta

The Simpson Centre for Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy has announced a $1 million donation from BMO to launch a ground-breaking program to change how society perceives and interacts with the food system. The program, Ag Literacy for Healthier People and Planet, will help build understanding about the complexities of the agricultural system in a world where the food we eat plays a crucial role in both our health and the health of our planet.

The Simpson Centre and its strategic academic partners – 13 universities across Canada, as well as Stanford University in the U.S. -- will conduct outreach and research on food systems over a period of approximately five years, to foster a deeper understanding of the food choices we make and inform the design of agricultural policies. Through targeted outreach and research, the Centre will work to promote positive change in food habits and agricultural policies.

"BMO is a proud partner of Ag Literacy for Healthier People and Planet to help broaden the understanding and importance of sustainable innovation within the agricultural food system and how our communities interact with it," said Helen Seibel, Head, Employee & Community Giving, BMO. "Supporting agricultural excellence in next generations of students across Canada and the U.S. aligns with BMO's Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life and demonstrates how we are driving progress for a sustainable future."

Full Story

method bottles now made with 100% recycled recovered coastal plastic
San Francisco, California

Since its founding, method has been on a mission to increase the sustainability of its product, including innovative packaging. Now, method is making all its clear plastic bottles from recycled recovered coastal plastic*, sourced through a partnership between SC Johnson and Plastic Bank. To date, the SC Johnson and Plastic Bank partnership has recovered the equivalent of 3 billion bottles that are recycled and turned into consumer product packaging, and method is excited to begin to contribute to these efforts.

From its inception, method has made innovative, strikingly designed packaging from recycled plastics sourced from curbside recycling programs. In 2012, method first introduced recycled recovered coastal plastic into limited edition hand soap and dish soap bottles, and now is advancing sustainable packaging by utilizing more recycled recovered coastal plastic across several home cleaning, hand soap, and specialty cleaner products. Recycled recovered coastal plastic is plastic that has been collected on land, within 31 miles of the coast, to stop it from ending up in the ocean or a landfill. Since 2018, SC Johnson has worked with Plastic Bank to create over 550 plastic collection locations across Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Brazil, where collection members are compensated for gathering plastic.

Full Story

Transforming Waste into Wealth: The Art of Living's Environmental Revolution
Bangalore, India

In India, half the waste produced by households is wet waste, often destined for landfills where it contributes to environmental degradation. Similarly, vast quantities of floral offerings from places of worship end up polluting water bodies and posing health risks. However, these under-utilised resources hold tremendous potential. The Art of Living, under guidance from the world renowned spiritual leader and humanitarian, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, is tapping into this potential to foster a cleaner and healthier environment.

The Art of Living has initiated a revolutionary change by setting up waste separation facilities and management plants at major places of worship and urban centres across India.  Beyond waste management, this initiative promotes economic independence among community members. Unemployed youth are trained in the operation and maintenance of waste management machinery, enabling them to become environmental entrepreneurs. 

The organisation's strategy begins with a comprehensive assessment of the required facilities, considering factors such as the volume of solid waste generated, including peak demands. Following agreements with the place of worship authorities or the city's municipal corporation, the project's capital funding is secured. The civil infrastructure for the composting unit is built and waste collection and segregation facilities are established. Training is provided to staff for machinery operation and maintenance.

Full Story

Bringing Balance to Pet Nutrition
Clinton, Connecticutt

A pioneer and stand-alone presence in holistic pet nutrition, Side by Side is the only company committed to enhancing pet health using the principles of Eastern Food Therapy (EFT).  By providing nutritionally balanced, natural foods that align with the ancient wisdom of EFT, Side by Side recipes ensure happier and healthier lives for our furry family members. 

Our main focus at Side By Side is a back-to-basics approach that focuses on Food Energetics using only whole foods. A diet rich in whole foods allows dogs to efficiently absorb all the nutrients they need without the need for synthetic vitamins and minerals commonly found in commercial pet products. Each of our ingredients is thoughtfully selected to deliver important species-appropriate nutritional benefits. When the body is nourished with REAL nutrients from REAL food, it makes a difference.

At Food Energetics we formulate our batches using the time-tested method of Eastern Food Therapy, a proven practice for over 5000 years that each ingredient has energetic properties that can either negatively or positively impact your pet’s internal organs. When combined correctly, food can both nourish and aid in healing. We Nourish and Balance from the Inside Out.

Full Story

David Hasselhoff makes Green Tuesday Moves with PlanetPlay to help fight climate change with video games
London, England

Legendary actor and singer David Hasselhoff – AKA 'The Hoff' – has joined the world's leading video game studios in supporting not-for-profit PlanetPlay's ever-growing Make Green Tuesday Moves (MGTM) initiative – which enables players to make a real-world impact in the fight against climate change.

Starting Tuesday July 2nd 2024, each participating game is launching specially created green items featuring The Hoff, which will be exclusive to the MGTM movement and remain live until the next monthly activation begins.

Proceeds from the sale of The Hoff's content – which can comprise new and/or upcycled DLC goods such as characters, skins and items – will be invested into fully certified sustainability projects by PlanetPlay's eco-donate platform.

Watch these exclusive video messages from The Hoff, explaining how MGTM works and why he's backing the initiative: Video #1 | Video #2 | Video #3

Full Story

Bloomage Chairperson Zhao Yan Speaks on Sustainable Innovation at the 2024 Summer Davos Forum
Parsippany, New Jersey

Zhao Yan, Chairperson and CEO of Bloomage, attended the 15th Annual Meeting of the New Champions (Summer Davos Forum) organized by the World Economic Forum to offer insights on navigating the current uncertainties in the global economy. This year's Summer Davos Forum focused on "The New Frontiers of Future Growth." Among its six main discussion points, the interconnection between climate, nature, and energy was a hotly debated topic. The event welcomed 1,600 attendees from nearly 80 countries and regions.

Through this forum, Bloomage spoke with global governments and enterprises to identify future growth trends. The company also connected with partners to raise awareness about sustainable industry development.

During interviews with the media, Zhao Yan revealed that amid current uncertainties challenging the ever-complex global economy, scientific innovation remains the most reliable way to discover opportunities and growth while staying eco-conscious. Elaborating on this, Zhao Yan stressed the intertwining relationship between the economy and the environment, emphasizing the pressing need to support the health of the planet with better technology.

Full Story


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January 9, 1951 – November 19, 2023

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