Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Innovations to Heal Our Relationship to the Natural World
Eco-conscious tech advances offer the possibility of a cleaner, happier future — not only for us, but also the countless creatures and ecosystems that share our Earth.
Saving circus animals with projection technology
Germany’s Circus Roncalli recently replaced live animals with 3D holograms to deliver a grand spectacle without any of the cruelties forced on performing animals.
Founder Bernhard Paul was inspired by the 2018 Super Bowl half-time show, featuring a posthumous appearance by musician Prince in hologram form. Paul adopted the technology for his circus, which now stars digital creatures on a 360-degree display, powered by 11 high-contrast ZU850 projectors from Optoma.
Roncalli’s novel use of projection technology could start a trend that eliminates the mistreatment of circus animals that are often confined to cages and transported in small containers without food, water, or veterinary care and coerced into “behaving” with whips, electric prods and tight collars.
The efforts of Circus Roncalli highlight a positive global movement, banning the use of animals at live exhibitions. Worldwide, more than 40 countries have restricted or banned the use of wild animals at circuses or traveling shows. In the U.S., More than 150 cities or counties across 37 states, including California, have done the same.
Making sustainable, eco-friendly leather out of cactus
Desserto is a new type of cruelty-free leather that leaves no environmental footprint because it’s made from Opuntia cactus, aka prickly pear.
Desserto was founded by Adrián López Velarde and Marte Cázarez, whose work in the leather-reliant fashion, furniture and automotive industries inspired them to seek an eco-friendly alternative. After two years of R&D, they debuted a vegan cactus-based substitute last year at an international leather fair in Milan.
It’s a welcome alternative to traditional leather-making, a wasteful process that discards up to 70% of each animal hide used. Chemically, it’s even more destructive, as tanning a ton of hide produces up to nearly 3,000 cubic feet of chromium-rich waste sludge, full of other toxic compounds like sulfides. This waste finds its way into water sources, where it poisons aquatic ecosystems and, higher up the food chain, humans.
Fake leather isn’t much better. It’s made from polyvinyl chloride, aka PVC, a petroleum-based product that eats up fossil fuels in its manufacture. It’s often dyed with non-natural agents and is not biodegradable. These PVC and other synthetic fibers have already left a global mark: they’re the biggest source of plastic micro-pollution in the oceans.
But Desserto’s cactus leather is a sustainable surrogate. Workers harvest only the plants from mature cacti (grown on a ranch in Zacatecas), leaving the rest of the plant to regenerate. And there’s no need for irrigation or extra water use because Opuntia thrives on the little rainwater it receives. No pesticides are used and there’s no poisonous run-off either; the leaves are dried in the sun and “tanned” with non-toxic materials. And all organic leftovers are sold to food industries.
But sometimes it’s the animals themselves doing the ecological damage...
Combating invasive species by eating them
In the age of global transport, invasive species are spreading across the planet, ravaging local ecosystems and displacing indigenous species. Jellyfish are one example. Their numbers are booming and will continue to do so as oceans become warm and acidic and overfishing depletes their natural predators.
Mie Thorborg Pedersen, a “gastrophysicist” from the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), has developed an unconventional solution: turning the jellyfish into chips, an efficient, sustainable future-food. Jellyfish is already an established food source in Asia, but its taste, texture and appearance have not appealed to the West.
Traditional jellyfish preparation is also time and labor intensive. The fish is dehydrated with salt and alum, an aluminum salt also used in tanning leather. The process can take more than a month, as workers must continually move the jellyfish to different soaking tanks.
But the chips developed at SDU are dehydrated with alcohol (ethanol), which draws the water from the jellyfish cells and removes the gelatinous texture. The process only takes a couple of days and results in a crunchy chip without any distinct or overpowering notes.
It’s supposedly a close match to a real potato chip, a fact that should endear it to Western eaters. And the jellyfish chip boasts a significant nutritional advantage; it’s a low-calorie snack, rich in micronutrients including magnesium, iron and B vitamins.
Seeing the bigger picture
Advances like these remind us that science isn’t just about making our own lives better but improving humanity’s relationship with the planet. Science will forever supply new, creative solutions, but it’s our responsibility to enact them.