Sent 8 December 2017. Part of Little Blue Letter.

"You can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will."
~ Stephen King
The answer is blowing in the wind
Capturing just 2% of the world’s wind energy could meet all our electricity needs, according to a new study. Yet we still rely almost exclusively on fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas accounted for around 86% in 2015; only 1,44% came from wind).

Wind turbines are becoming ever more efficient, and we are slowly figuring out how best to store and distribute the energy that renewables produce. But at 80m tall and with blades bigger than an Airbus A380, not everybody is enthusiastic. Whereas this journalist learned to love her local offshore turbines, one UK wind farm will soon be dismantled following a campaign to remove this 'blight' from the landscape.
Nonetheless, global installed capacity hit 64GW in 2015, a 20% increase from 2014. In 2016, wind was the largest recipient of investment in the power sector - €43bn in Europe, where wind now covers 10.4% of electricity demand. Wind could be as cheap or cheaper than any other form of power generation by the 2020s, and even the more expensive offshore turbines could still be better value for money than nuclear.
Gif of the week
Sunset over a wind farm in Romania
Citizen science
Sea Watchers has developed 13 different projects, including Jellyfish Alert - spot an invasive jellyfish and take a photo; scientists then ID the species and comment on your contribution! Open Litter Map uses a similar setup to turn litter picking into a game, while also generating open data to help us understand how marine debris travels from land to sea.
One of 50-100 Pelagia noctiluca spotted on a dive
and reported to Jellyfish Alert.
Bathroom blues
Personal question: when did you last replace your toothbrush? Colgate reckons you need a new one every 3 months. Just imagine if all 7.5 billion of us chewed through 4 disposable plastic toothbrushes each year (more money for Colgate; tonnes more plastic in the ocean). Time to switch to bamboo: zero plastic, biodegradable, and looks awesome!Now, imagine a world where your socks don’t get lost in the wash and your clothes don’t shed half a million microfibres into the sea. The future is now with the GUPPYFRIEND Washing Bag.
From the editor
The UN recently announced a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, aiming to produce a whole new generation of marine scientists. The UN also passed the annual Resolution on Oceans this week. Plans to set targets for ocean plastic were scuttled by the US, China and India (even though UN Environment has 'declared war' on marine debris). Some good news though: there is now huge support for a new treaty to protect the high seas (i.e. half the planet!). More on this next week.

Little Blue Letter was curated this week by Selene Suau. Selene is a psychologist and project manager at Sea Teach in sunny Mallorca. She is passionate about bridging science, innovation and society through communication.

Editing etc. by Glen Wright. Glen is a researcher studying marine governance, the high seas, and ocean energy. He is a drinker of tea, lover of the sea, and an Oxford comma user. Glen recently published Academia Obscura: The Hidden Silly Side of Higher Education. 
 

 

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