Sure, TGL didn’t get started til late in the year, so this won’t be a truly comprehensive round-up – but there’s still plenty of stories worth revisiting if you need some good news to see you through to 2025.

We’ll be back with daily news again in January. For now, there’s still time to enter our end-of-year giveaway – jump to the bottom of this email for more on that.

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🦠 ‘Chonkus’ is here to fight climate change

Meet the new carbon-sink on the block: Chonkus, a strain of algae recently found off the coast of Sicily. Here, volcanic vents mean the waters are full of CO2, which Chonkus has grown to love chowing down on. Chonkus is highly dense, meaning it sinks naturally, and it’s fast-growing, hence the name. These qualities make it ideal for carbon sequestration in industrial environments, or for sinking large amounts of carbon to the bottom of the ocean.

💰 Pharma payouts to protect nature

At COP16 in Colombia, countries came to a landmark decision that the pharmaceutical sector will pay for the biologically-driven genetic material it uses. These payouts would come to billions, half of which will be directed to Indigenous peoples and communities who live at the sharp end of the biodiversity crisis.

🏠 The basketball legend championing sustainable building materials

Ex-Lakers player and actor Rick Fox has turned his attention to the carbon entrenched in our building materials, which account for 20% of total emissions. The company he co-founded, Partanna, has developed a cement binder made from upcycled materials that absorbs CO2 as it’s produced. After the hurricane that devastated his homeland of The Bahamas in 2019, Fox initially wanted to work on housing that could withstand extreme weather, but changed course when he learned about this innovation.

🌳 The immense climate benefit of reforesting pastures

Almost half of the world’s pasture for livestock would otherwise be covered in trees. New research shows that letting these pastures naturally return to forests could significantly lower emissions, without affecting protein production. Reducing livestock production by just 13% in some areas and letting native forests return could remove an amount of carbon equivalent to global fossil fuel emissions over the last three years.

🪸 Seeing the world’s largest coral for the first time

Scientists accidentally found the world’s biggest ever coral in the Solomon Islands – and it’s thriving. An estimated 300 years old, the coral is bigger than a blue whale and could provide key insights into the ocean’s mysteries. It was found in deeper waters than coral usually exist, which likely contributes to its survival in the face of rising temperatures.

‘Just when we think there is nothing left to discover on planet Earth, we find a massive coral made of nearly one billion little polyps, pulsing with life and colour.’ 

💎 The diamond battery that lasts millennia

A new invention encases the radioactive isotope carbon 14 in a lab-grown diamond, creating a battery that stays powered-up for thousands of years. This could be used to send rockets into space, or power pacemakers, so people won’t need to go through surgery to replace old batteries. And while this type of battery can’t yet be used for smartphones or other day-to-day uses, due to the low amount of charge, this is a hugely exciting breakthrough.