Awesome Stories 325

/ June 24, 2017

This week Awesome Stories brings you cultural awareness, solar biogas,  auroral magic, and ocean cleanup.

Reading Around the World

I love the message from Ann Morgan about opening our minds and life by reading books from around the world. She realized that her life view was rather limited by only reading books from the UK and US. To expand her views, she decided to read a book from every country in the world and blog about it as A Year of Reading From Around the World. I love this idea so much I might join the challenge to read a book a month from another country. Ann talks about the richness she gained as she reached out to people from around the world to recommend books or help with translations. But the real gifts were the stories and realizing how diverse, interesting, and complex we are as humans.

Solar C³ITIES

The most reliable and accessible form of solar energy available to human civilization is …biogas. ~ TH Culhane

T.H Culhane has a simple solution to help families and the planet. The primary mission for Solar C³ITIES is to be an information exchange for people around the world, empowering tinkerers, researchers, and regular folks to create their own sustainable solutions. They believe solar biogas can be a key link for creating a sustainable future. Biogas is an easy, cost-effective, and sustainable way to turn waste into fuel. I love their mission to empower people around the world to provide fuel and ideas for themselves. Learn more on their FAQ page.

Auroral MagicIowa Aurora, Mike Hollingstead

Mike Hollingshead is another wonderful photographer who chases storms. His beautiful photos have been featured in many movies and magazines, including National Geographic. This photos series features a magical auroral show in Northern Iowa on June 22, 2015. Wow! I didn’t realize the auroras were visible that far south in the US. Maybe I can catch the show some year.

Ocean Clean Up

Plastic waste is a huge challenge for our oceans and environment. Beyond the 5 trillion pieces of plastic, the bigger danger is the breaking down of the plastic into small pieces that get ingested throughout the food chain, creating horrendous effects for the ecosystem. Right now, just 3% of plastic is micro sized, making it critical to act promptly. Like many of us, Boyan Slat had heard of the giant patches of plastic waste floating in the ocean, but Boyan decided to put his education and social life on hold to do something about it. He has spent two years testing a system of solar fed booms that capture the plastic to be removed and recycled. Read more about Slayton’s Ocean’s Cleanup Project. He and his team of scientists estimate that 50% of the plastic waste could be cleaned up in 5 years. I wonder if they’re accounting for continued plastic pollution?

May we learn to live in harmony with each other and mother earth, creating peace on earth.

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23 thoughts on “Awesome Stories 325”

  2. Reblogged this on Anything is Possible! and commented:
    This week’s Brad brings us Awesome Stories that are both practical and beautiful. The story about auroras in Iowa gives me hope for one of my bucket list items. Maybe I won’t have to face the freezing cold to see auroras after all.

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  4. Thank you for introducing me to Ann Morgan. Her reviews are articulate, and engaging. The concept (reading, researching, and reviewing 197 books in one year) is astounding.
    I was curious to see how easy it would be for me to play along, and based on the searching I’ve done thus far, it looks like Amazon has picked up all of the translations she shares. However, I think the limiting factor for me would be the size of my TBR pile. Still…what an interesting means of filling those perceptual gaps in my world view.
    Really great amazing story Brad. Thanks for introducing me

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  5. I love to read Brad, and those photos are amazing, and yes, plastic is a big BIG problem.. I recycle a lot, but there is far too much of it and needless wrappings which are not needed.. The Ocean Clean up project so needed… Hope you had a good weekend Brad.. Sending thoughts to you for your new week.. 🙂

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  7. As usual, friend, I derive so much inspiration from your awesome stories posts. How cool is it to read that folks are taking the environment so seriously, that folks are interested in reading books from around the world, and that beautiful photography is still to be had. Thank you so much for sharing these awesome stories as you do, I know so many of us get a kick out of them. It’s like reading the positive newspaper, with just the wonderful things that we so badly need to hear about.

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  8. Hello Brad,
    Thank you for a great and informative collection of stories.
    I am guilty of being a bit closed minded about books from all over the world. It’s such a simple and wonderful concept.

    The story about plastic is truly such an issue. We have a big push out here to banish plastic bags and certain shops are doing just that…

    The photos from Iowa are truly gorgeous and amazing.
    Wishing you a great week Brad,
    Di 🙋🏻🌹🌹

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  9. As always, I loved all your awesome stories, Brad. But the one that is closest to my heart is the ocean cleanup. We need to drastically reduce the use of plastic, full stop! This is a task we people need to take seriously before it’s too late!

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