In our complex, interconnected world, solutions to our biggest problems can come from the most unexpected places—such as a company that makes fish food for fish farms. The feed used for fish farms is made up of the ground-up bodies of tiny fish such as anchovies, and it’s the biggest cost of fish farming, a $232 billion global industry. The cost of fish feed is only getting more expensive as the output of the world’s overexploited oceans continues to decline. That’s where NovoNutrients comes in. NovoNutrients is a Silicon Valley-based company that has created a nutritionally complete substitute for fishmeal called Novomeal that is made from the proteins of bacteria and other single-celled organisms. This is important, because whereas fish feed made from anchovies is in limited supply, bacteria is effectively unlimited, as long as you have the nutrients to feed them. That part--the nutrients--is why this particular fish food could play such a meaningful role in determining the fate of the planet. What the bacteria that makeup Novomeal eat is CO2, lots and lots of CO2. They are saving anchovies and other fish in the ocean from being killed while sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. Basically, what NovoNutrients is doing is constructing nothing less than the infrastructure for an entirely new economy, one premised on producing food, energy, and material goods by sequestering harmful chemicals rather than by emitting them. And the most exciting thing is NovoNutrients isn't alone—more and more companies are starting to operate under this line of environmental thinking. For the full inside scoop on NovoNutrients and the economy, it’s trying to create, have a look here.

There are many benefits to living on a sheer cliff face, if you’re a very rare Hawaiian plant. Hungry goats can’t get to you. Neither can oblivious people, who are known to crush priceless plants underfoot. Nor can botanists, even though they just want to save the plants. That’s how Hibiscadelphus woodii, a relative of the hibiscus flower, wound up on the extinct species list in just shy of two decades after it was first discovered by botanist Ken Wood in 1991, in the Kalalau Valley on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The last known sighting of H. woodii was in 2009. Efforts to grow new H. woodii plants in greenhouses failed over and over; neither grafting, tip cuttings, nor attempts at cross pollination could resurrect it. The hundreds of thousands of years-worth of evolution that created its unique features—such as its tube-shaped bell, which turns from yellow to maroon as it ages, and is formed to perfectly fit the beak of its pollinator, a native species of honeycreeper bird—seemed lost forever. But on a sunny day in February 2019, a drone specialist suddenly spotted the supposedly extinct flower hiding on a steep, green cliffside, prompting celebrations amongst botanists throughout the island. If you’re curious to see footage of the drone finding this special Hawaiian flower, look no further.

Shipping accounts for 90 percent of the transported goods around the world and 3 percent of total global CO2 emissions. That number is set to rise to 15 percent by 2050 if left unchecked. The good news is that number is not being left unchecked by the world’s largest shipping company: Maersk. The shipping giant, which was the first to commit to decarbonize in line with the UN’s carbon reduction goals, is inching closer to meeting its goal of going carbon neutral by 2050 with a pilot of a biofuels-powered vessel. Teaming up with Shell and other members of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition, Maersk tested a fuel blend of 20 percent biofuel, produced from waste cooking oil, in one of its largest vessels on an expedition from Rotterdam to Shanghai. Touted as the "world’s first at this scale," Maersk reports that the 25,000-nautical-mile journey will save 1,500 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Greener options for ships to run on exist such as batteries and hydrogen, but the costs are still so high that it’s not entirely feasible. Until these technologies become a more feasible option, biofuels such as the one Maersk is testing can help reduce shipping’s carbon footprint.

This weekend, Britain showed that it’s possible in this day and age to live without coal —at least, when the conditions are right. For a stretch of time spanning more than 90 hours this Easter weekend, Britain generated no electricity at all from coal, marking the longest period since the industrial revolution. Thanks to sunny weather, the UK was able to generate a quarter of its energy from solar power while energy demand from consumers was low. Coal made up less than 10 percent of the country’s energy mix last year and will be less than that again in 2019. By 2025, Britain plans to phase out the last of its coal plants in order to reach its climate target.

Too much stress can have terrible consequences on both your mental and physical health, but what we don’t often realize is that many of the things we stress about don’t deserve all that anguish. Instead of letting those things drive you crazy, sometimes it’s better to just let go of the stress. Here are three practices from Leo Babauta (founder of Zen Habits) for letting go when you’re experiencing a moment of stress. The first practice is to drop into your body and notice how the stress feels, physically. Be present with the feeling — it’s not a problem to have stress in your body, it’s just a physical feeling. You can observe the physical sensation, be with it, and slowly let it go. This can be your whole practice, and it only has to take a few moments. The second practice is to notice your narrative about the situation that is causing stress. You probably have an ideal that is guiding that narrative, something like “they shouldn’t be acting like that.” Notice that the ideal and the narrative are causing the effect of stress and anxiety. Then realize that this narrative is completely fabricated by your mind. You created this ideal and the narrative. That’s nothing to beat yourself up about, but something worth recognizing. The good thing is that if you created it, you can let it go as well. The third practice is to let go and just be. Ask yourself what it would be like to not have the ideal and narrative. See if you can feel what it would be like, just for a moment. In that moment, you are free. You can relax, open your mind beyond your self-concern, and just be. Realize that your problem is not the end of the world, and notice how amazing it is just to be alive right now. You don’t have to be grateful and joyous in every moment, but this freedom of dropping these narratives and simply being at peace … it’s always available.