💚 Saving Our Ecosystem Engineers 🐘
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Hey fellow impactful ninja ?
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Stay impactful,
Happy Monday 👋
Elephants are one of the most iconic animals on the planet…
But did you know that they are also one of the most intelligent ones, with three times as many neurons as humans?!
It’s hard to imagine a world without them. But, this is slowly becoming a reality as all elephant species are now endangered…
Fortunately, organizations worldwide are working hard to ensure elephants can thrive for generations to come, and you can help!
Here are the impactful insights that I have for you today:
- How to save the largest land mammal in the world 🐘
- Helping Indigenous people to protect the Amazon rainforest 👨👨👧
- How new regulations to combat greenwashing 🛍️
- The innovative pipe that can transfer heat without electricity ♨️
- And more… 💚
🐘 Event of the Week: World Elephant Day
👉 Did you know that today (August 12) is World Elephant Day? This awareness event was founded to conserve the world’s largest land mammals – elephants and raise public awareness of the threats facing these magnificent animals.
1️⃣ The big picture: World Elephant Day was founded in 2012 by Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand as a global awareness initiative to protect endangered elephant species. Today, the event partners with over 100 elephant conservation organizations to give voice to the issues threatening elephants and conduct campaigns to inspire public action.
2️⃣ Why is this important: Elephants are the world’s largest-living land animals, weighing up to 7.5 tons! They are also vital ecosystem engineers, maintaining the fertility of local plant populations and creating pathways in densely forested habitats that allow passage for other animals. Yet, all our elephant species are threatened with extinction due to wildlife crime (particularly poaching), habitat loss, and climate change. For example, the total population of Asian elephants has more than halved in the last century and African elephant populations have declined by 98% since 1500.
3️⃣ How can you get involved: There are many ways you can get involved in World Elephant Day. For example, you can host your own awareness event using the educational and fundraising materials provided on the World Elephant Day website. Alternatively, you can spread the word through your social media pages or purchase the “When Elephants Were Young” documentary to support the work of World Elephant Day and learn more about what you can do to save elephants.
You can also consider donating to one or more charities that are working conserve endangered wild species around the world, including elephants:
- 10 Best Charities for Protecting Elephants
- 10 Best Charities That Fight for Endangered Animals
- 9 Best Charities to Symbolically Adopt a Wild Animal in Need
If you are looking for more inspiration, you can find a wider range of charitable causes to support in our charity support blog.
👨👨👧 Cool Earth: Providing Basic Income for Indigenous People to Protect the Amazon Rainforest as Part of The Most Impactful Advent Calendar
🎄📅 In case you missed it: We are currently creating The Most Impactful Advent Calendar for you, to provide an impactful alternative to the mainstream Advent calendars that mostly offer short-lived joy through unhealthy sweets or cheap toys!
🤝 And today, I’d like to introduce you to one of our charity partners that will do a good deed in your name: Cool Earth!
🫶 Cool Earth is a charity on a mission to help fund Indigenous communities to protect endangered rainforests in order to combat the climate crisis and protect ecosystems. They give basic income directly to rainforest communities, to fund projects that create choice, tackle the root causes of deforestation, and protect vital carbon sinks.
👉 Join the waitlist for The Most Impactful Advent Calendar today! After signing up, you’ll also be greeted with a quick questionnaire to share your feedback and input—alternatively, hit “reply” and let me know your thoughts about this project directly via email!
Related: You can also read a summary of all the latest project updates here.
📢 Three Good News
♨️ A new loop pipe can transport without electrical power:
- A team of researchers from Nagoya University, Japan, has developed a loop heat pipe (LHP) that can transport up to 10 kW of heat without the need for electricity, making it the largest heat transport capability in the world.
- Loop heat pipes are commonly used in manned space flights, electric vehicles, and home electronic appliances. However, the heat required to produce this energy has posed significant sustainability issues in these industries.
- The new loop heat pipe has improved on previous similar inventions through an 18% reduction in size, a 1.6 times increase in heat transport capacity, and a four-fold increase in heat transfer efficiency.
🛍️ The European Union updates regulations to combat greenwashing:
- The European Union has released new measures aimed at challenging companies that promote so-called sustainable products with no real evidence (also called greenwashing).
- Greenwashing is an attempt by a company to present its products as more environmentally friendly than they actually are. Common methods of greenwashing include using vague terminology and the unfounded use of an eco-label.
- The new regulations, which are due to come into effect in 2026, include a ban on certain vague wording such as ‘eco’ and ‘green’ without further specification, and introducing systematic verification of sustainability claims.
🌳 How a cloned black-footed ferret can save endangered species:
- The birth of a cloned black-footed ferret named Elizabeth Ann, and her two sisters have sparked a pilot program to preserve the tissues of hundreds of endangered species.
- Currently, more than 41,000 species are threatened with extinction around the world, including rhinos, the Amur leopard, and African forest elephants.
- Revive and Restore, alongside ViaGen Pets & Equine and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, are now teaming up with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to cryogenically store tissue from every endangered species in the US as an insurance policy against future loss of biodiversity in the wild.
🤝 Three More Important Awareness Events
🧒 August 12, International Youth Day:
- International Youth Day is a UN-designated day that promotes the power and potential of young people around the world.
- It encourages young people to take on leadership roles in their communities and build a better future for themselves.
🦌 August 12, World Hirola Day:
- World Hirola Day celebrates the unique qualities of the hirola, a rare and endangered antelope species.
- With their habitats and way of life being threatened by human activity, it is more vital than ever to protect their welfare to prevent extinction.
🐺 August 13, International Wolf Day:
- International Wolf Day spreads awareness of the ecological importance of wolves
- With many wolf species experiencing dwindling populations, this day is incredibly important for promoting their rights and eliminating the negative connotations that surround them.
Related: You can discover all the 65 most important awareness events (for the month, days, weeks) in our awareness calendar for August 2024!
📜 These Days in History
🎵 August 12, 1877: American inventor Thomas Alva Edison invented the very first phonograph. His early recordings consisted of indentations embossed into a sheet of tinfoil by a vibrating stylus.
🦖 August 12, 1990: The most complete and best-preserved skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex was found on South Dakota’s Cheyenne River Sioux reservation. It was nicknamed Sue after the paleontologist, Susan Hendrickson, who discovered the fossil.
📽️ August 12, 1881: American filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts. Throughout his life, he produced over 70 major films including The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra, and Sunset Boulevard.
💭 Quote of the Day
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.”
— Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor
Share the news with your friends to make a bigger positive impact on the world and society together!
Stay impactful 💚
