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Anna & Brigid, Greenpeace Canada	May 31, 2019, 7:01 PM (3 days ago)
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Nelson, We have some exciting news to share and we want you to be among the first to know. Following a global search, we are delighted to announce that Christy Ferguson will be Greenpeace Canada’s new Executive Director. If Christy’s name is familiar, that’s likely because she’s been a part of Greenpeace Canada for more than 15 years. Beginning as a program assistant, Christy has played many roles in the organization: forest campaigner, Head of the Climate and Energy Campaign, Head of the Arctic Campaign, Program Director, and, for the last several months Interim Executive Director (a role that she’s performed brilliantly!). This trajectory has given Christy a rare and overarching perspective on Greenpeace’s strengths and challenges, culture and people, as well as a clear vision for our future. She’s led and contributed to some of Greenpeace Canada’s most important campaigns to protect our planet and we’re thrilled she’s bringing her empathy, passion, dedication and courage to this important role at a critical time. And it is critical a time. As we approach our 50th year of existence as an organization, Greenpeace is needed more than ever. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. The threats to climate, nature and peace are well-documented and accelerating at an alarming pace. But so too is our awareness of them, and the inspiring movement of people – particularly youth – taking action to address them. Your participation in this movement is so very key and we are incredibly appreciative of the role you play. On behalf of the Board of directors, thank you for your support and your trust. With Christy leading a dedicated and talented team, with your support and that of thousands of other courageous and compassionate people cross Canada, we can still turn this crisis around to bring about the change and solutions our planet needs. Read more about Christy here. With hope and anticipation, Brigid Rowan and Anna Crawford Co-Chairs, Greenpeace Canada

We don't accept any money from companies or governments so we can be independent and challenge anyone who threatens the planet or peace. To help us keep fighting climate change, defending our oceans and protecting ancient forests, please make a regular donation. Thank you! You can grow the movement for a green and peaceful future. Forward this email and share the signup link for our regular email updates and ways to take action. This email was sent to: human4usbillions@gmail.com. If you no longer want to be in the loop with the latest news from these emails, we'll be sad, but you can adapt your preferences or unsubscribe here. Greenpeace Canada, 33 Cecil Street, Toronto, ON M5T 1N1

Gentle People:

The claim we are attempting to destroy the economy by redirecting money towards creating sustainable products and projects, is bogus! Totally false! The idea is to protect our air and water and food production and hey! Who's money is it anyway? Money is a power coupon created by our elected governments for the purpose of maintaining an economy based on the distribution of goods and services. It was never meant to be hoarded by a few corporate moguls in order for them to dictate how we so called 'consumers' survive. In fact company executives created the concept of consumerism in the first place for the purpose of helping themselves get very rich very fast!

The title of 'successful person' today is claimed by millionaires and multi-millionaires and some politicians who have by various means, managed to accumulate more money than they need for basic survival. More than one millionaire has become rich by converting natural resources into cheap destructible consumer products without understanding or caring how the destructive nature of his or her industry creates dangerous repercussions within and to our Biosphere!

We are not trying to take away personal success! We are simply trying to survive as best we can and all we ask today is that our industrial companies around the world take responsibility for their actions!

Would it not be nicer if you became a millionaire by growing and selling millions of fruit bearing trees and vegetable plants? How about building a recycling plant that converts millions of discarded rubber car tires into powder and that powder applied to maintaining existing roads and highways? Don't forget to remove the wire from the powdered tire. Metal has value and is worth recycling!

How about building water filtration plants here and around the world to help provide clean water for the desperate poor who are running out of drinking water? You can recycle tons of plastic by making thick water distribution pipes for countries without such pipes.

One good idea now in the works is to create plastic molecules that can be easily recycled back into usable plastic so that all plastic can be recycled and reused by the company who makes a product.

Creating stronger and better containers made from glass and metal and stronger plastic and then reclaiming the containers after a “consumer” has 'consumed' the contents” is an idea I can live with and so can you! The idea is now in progress and has been adopted by many large companies and it is called “Looping.” why not get into the loop?

How to Loop.

Remember the old milk bottle concept? Full glass milk bottles were left on door steps and empty bottles were collected for cleaning and reuse. One company was responsible for recycling and reusing the bottles. The same can be done by hundreds of companies for thousands of products around the world whether they be plastic or not.

The economy will not miss a beat and in fact will be more enjoyable for everybody. People will feel less cheated and exploited by greedy companies and that will be a good thing for everybody? The idea is to protect our air and our water and our food production. Mother Nature is delicate and is presently being beaten to death by uncaring industries around the world and all in the name of profit and success!

We can do better if we stop buying inexpensive products created to self destruct in order to keep selling more products. We can do better if we do not have a “throw away” society because products today are packaged from cheap but indestructible plastic presently found floating within our Oceans. What is less well known is that we are also breathing and eating tiny molecules of plastic carried by wind currents around the world.

Sometimes something may look like a quality product but also self destructs and rather than bothering to fight with the sales people to refund our money, we find it expedient to simply dump the broken product in a recycle bin and then go buy another cheap product. The sad fact is that the broken product does not get recycled by our local communities.

Our local municipal recycling plants and garbage dumps are full! There is no more room for our discarded products whether we try to recycle them or not using the current system.  We need the companies who make the products to take full responsibility and take back the packaging after the product they contained has been used.

If a product is made from: glass, metal, plastic or even rubber, the company who created the product, small or large, must take it back when the consumer who bought the product signals its end of use.

 It is difficult not to sound sarcastic but our so called brilliant and educated politicians and company CEO's are now sending our garbage to other countries who, by the way, will be delivering our garbage back to us.

 Here is a thought! Forget planning the quick demise of cheap products in order to maintain large profit margins. You honestly do not need millions of dollars. All that creates is jealousy! What you need is a good circle of friends and some honest love.

Thanks for reading!

Signed: Nelson Joseph Raglione

Executive director: The world friendly peace and ecology movement.

human4us2.blogspot

From Shelly Fan at Singularity Hub.

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New Progress in Stem-Cell-Free Regenerative Medicine

By

 Shelly Fan

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May 23, 2019

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Regenerative medicine and stem cells are often uttered within the same breath, for good reason.

In animal models, stem cells have reliably reversed brain damage from Parkinson’s disease, repaired severed spinal cords, or restored damaged tissue from diabetes, stroke, blood cancers, heart disease, or aging-related tissue damage. With the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), in which skin and other tissue can be reversed into a stem cell-like state, the cells have further been adapted into bio-ink for 3D printing brand new organs.

Yet stem cells are hard to procure, manufacture, and grow. And unless they’re made from the patient’s own cell supply—massively upping production costs—they’re at risk of immune rejection or turning cancerous inside their new hosts.

Thinking outside the stem cell box, two teams have now explored alternative paths towards repairing damaged tissue, both inside and outside the body. The first, published in Nature, found that a tiny genetic drug fully restored heart function in a pig after an experimental heart attack.

Pig hearts are remarkably similar to human hearts in size, structure, and physiology, to the point that they may eventually become candidates for pig-to-human xenotransplants. Although it’ll “take some time before we can proceed to clinical trials,” said lead author Dr. Mauro Giacca from King’s College London, the drug—the first of its kind—is a promising move towards repairing heart damage directly inside patients.

The second study, outlined in Nature Communications, explores a radically different approach that restores damaged lungs, which can then be used for tissue transplantation. To address the pressing need for donor lungs, Dr. Matt Bachetta at Vanderbilt University and colleagues from Columbia University developed a new protocol that not only keeps donor pig lungs alive, but also repairs any damage sustained during the extraction process so that the organs meet every single criterion for transplantation.

Video Credit: Brandon Guenthart/Columbia Engineering

Both ideas are universal in that they can potentially be expanded to other organs. Unlike stem cell treatments, they’re also “one size fits all” in that the therapies will likely benefit most patients without individual tailoring.

A Genetic Cure for Heart Attacks

To be clear, Giacca’s new treatment isn’t gene therapy, in that it doesn’t fundamentally change a heart’s genetic code.

Rather, it relies on weird little RNA fragments called microRNAs. Similar to RNA, which carries genetic code from DNA to our cells’ protein-making factories, these molecules are made up of four genetic letters and flow freely inside a cell.

Averaging just 22 letters, microRNAs powerfully control gene expression in that they can shut down a gene without changing its genetic code. Scientists don’t yet fully understand how microRNAs work. But humans have up to 600 different types of these regulators floating around our cells, and they’ve been linked to everything from cancer and kidney problems to brain development, transgenerational inheritance—and yes—heart disease.

These mysterious genetic drugs could meet a critical clinical need. Although modern medicine has ways to reduce damage from heart attacks, surviving patients still often retain permanent damage to the heart’s structure, Giacca explained. Unlike skin or liver cells, mature heart cells are stoic little buggers in that they don’t usually replenish themselves. This causes the heart to lose its ability to properly contract and pump blood, which eventually leads to heart failure.

Giacca’s team decided to see if they could kick mature heart cells back into dividing action, rather than forming scar tissue. Using a high-volume screen, they first looked through miRNAs that can stimulate mature heart cells to divide after a heart attack in mice. One promising candidate emerged: hsa-miRNA-199a-3p (yeah, catchy, I know).

Next, the team used a virus to deliver the microRNA candidate into the hearts of 25 pigs, which were subjected to an experimental heart attack that blocked blood flow to the heart for 90 minutes. The miRNA, restricted to only the heart, immediately worked its magic and shut down several genetic pathways. Although the heart still retained damage, measured two days following the heart attack, within a month it reduced scar tissue by 50 percent. The treated hearts were also far stronger in their ability to contract compared to non-treated hearts, and grew slightly in muscle size.

Under the microscope, the team found that the miRNA forced mature heart cells back into a younger state. The cells regained their ability to divide and supplement damaged tissue. It’s not an easy surgery: the team directly jabbed the heart 20 times with the virus to ensure that the organ evenly received the genetic drug.

The therapy also comes with a potentially troubling consequence. The team followed 10 pigs after the one-month mark. Although their heart functions readily improved, seven suddenly died from heart tremors within three to four weeks without any warning. Subsequent detective work revealed that it could be due to overgrowth of new heart cells. “The treatment needs careful dosing,” they concluded.

Despite these hiccups, the miRNA therapy is a welcome new addition to the heart regeneration family. “It is a very exciting moment for the field. After so many unsuccessful attempts at regenerating the heart using stem cells, which all have failed so far, for the first time we see real cardiac repair in a large animal,” said Giacca.

Living Lung Bioreactor

Bacchetta’s lung recovery team took a different approach. Rather than trying to directly repair lungs inside the body, they tackled another clinical problem: the lack of transplantable donor lungs.

Roughly 80 percent of donor lungs are too damaged for transplantation, said Bacchetta. Although there are many sources of trauma, including injuries from ventilators or fluid buildup inside the organ, the team focused on a major cause of damage: stomach contents.

Lungs are sensitive snowflakes. They’re extremely easily scuffed up by stuff that comes out of our stomachs, such as food particles, bile, gastric juices, and enzymes. If you’ve ever had a horrific hangover over the toilet…well, you know it burns. Usually our lungs can heal; but in the case of transplantation—right after death—they often don’t have the time to self-repair.

This lung shortage led Bacchetta’s team to look for alternative ideas. “We were … searching for a way to extend the ability to provide life-saving therapy to patients,” he said, a search that took seven years of banging their heads against a wall.

Then came the winning lightbulb moment: if man-made devices aren’t enough to repair lungs outside the body, what about the eventual recipient? After all, lungs don’t work alone—they thrive in a physiological milieu chock full of molecules that activate when the body senses injury.

“I decided, look, we’ve got to use the whole body. The only way to do that … was to use the potential donor recipient essentially as a bioreactor,” said Bacchetta.

The team first poured gastric acid into the lungs of an unconscious donor pig to mimic injury. After six hours, they extracted the damaged lung and placed it carefully into a warm, humidified sterile bowl—the organ chamber—and hooked the organ up to a ventilator. They then connected the lung’s blood vessels to the recipient’s circulation. This essentially uses the recipient to help break down toxic molecules in the injured lungs while supplying them with fresh nutrients and healing factors.

Macroscopic appearance of lungs throughout 36 h of ex vivo support. Image Credit: Brandon Guenthart/Columbia Engineering.

It sounds pretty gruesome, but the trick worked. When supplemented with a wash that rinsed out stomach juices, the lungs regenerated in just three days. Compared to non-treated lungs, their functions improved six-fold. The technique restored and maintained the function of donor lungs for up to 36 hours, but Bacchetta expects to further expand the “window” to days or even weeks.

“Our work has established a new benchmark in organ recovery,” said Bacchetta. “It has opened up new pathways for translational applications and basic science exploration.”

Neither study is perfect, but they represent new pathways into regenerative medicine outside stem cells. And when it comes to saving lives, it’s never good to put all eggs inside one (stem cell) basket, especially when the need is large, pressing, and unmet.

Image Credit: sciencepics / Shutterstock.com

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SHELLY FAN

Shelly Xuelai Fan is a neuroscientist-turned-science writer. She completed her PhD in neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, where she developed novel treatments for neurodegeneration. While studying biological brains, she became fascinated with AI and all things biotech. Following graduation, she moved to UCSF to study blood-based factors that rejuvenate aged brains. She is the ...

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From the Mother Nature Network. Get in the Loop!

Loop could be the major packaging shift we've been waiting for

A new initiative pushes the responsibility back to the manufacturer.

STARRE VARTAN

January 24, 2019, 5:02 a.m.

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Instead of a use-it-once ice cream pint, Haagen Daaz containers in the Loop program are made of double-walled stainless steel, which keeps ice cream colder and available for hundreds of uses down the road. (Photo: Courtesy TerraCycle)

It's now well-known that the packaging for our food and personal products is an unsustainable, garbage-producing mess. Even stuff that's recyclable mostly isn't — especially plastics. In all the years we've been diligently recycling, the truth is we haven't gotten very far. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, just 9 percent of plastic was recycled, 16 percent of it was burned, and 75 percent was sent to landfills in 2015.

Looking at these numbers, it's easy to see why our oceans, and the animals that live there, are choked with plastics, and our beaches strewn with the stuff. Clearly the "recycle more" mantra has failed and we need another solution to packaging. Even the experts agree: "While recycling is critically important, it's not going to solve the waste problem," according to Tom Szaky, the CEO of TerraCycle, a company that has worked on issues around packaging and recycling for over a decade.

Enter Loop, a program with a mission to "eliminate the idea of waste," says Szaky. Loop takes up the first part of the mantra "reduce, reuse, recycle" by creating returnable, reusable packaging for common consumer items.

The idea for Loop was founded at the World Economic Forum by TerraCycle and some big names in the consumer products business, including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, Mars Petcare, The Clorox Company, The Body Shop, Coca-Cola European Partners, Mondelēz International, Danone, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Lesieur, BIC, Beiersdorf, RB, People Against Dirty, Nature’s Path, Thousand Fell, Greenhouse, Grilliance, Burlap & Barrel Single Origin Spices, Reinberger Nut Butter, CoZie and Preserve.

A huge variety of products are already part of the Loop roll-out, from shelf-stable foods, to personal-care items. (Photo: Courtesy TerraCycle)

How did TerraCycle come up with this large-scale reusable packaging concept? Szaky says he and his team dug deep and looked at some hard truths over several years: "If recyclability is not the foundational answer [to our waste problems], what's the root cause? The root cause of waste is disposability," says Szaky. And while it's easy to say "use fewer disposable items" — something many of us have dedicated serious time to, the truth is that all the rah-rah-reuse enthusiasm and personal changes it may have engendered hasn't been even close to enough. Our waste has increased over the past decade.

It's time to get real: "Disposability is easy to vilify, but we also need to look at why disposability won — because it's cheap and convenient. That speaks to why consumers want it — they're willing to sacrifice the environmental negatives for the cheapness and convenience," said Szaky. It's not pretty to hear, but it's true.

So, instead of trying to change the behavior of billions, TerraCycle looked at how to solve the root cause of waste, while still maintaining the virtues of disposables, like affordability and convenience.

The birth of a circular system

Loop works by creating a circular system — rather than a linear one — for packaging. (Photo: Courtesy TerraCycle)

Loop takes some of its DNA from AirBnB and Uber, by understanding that consumers have no interest in owning a package, or having to deal with its disposal. Just like many people don't want to own a car, they just want to get from A to B, so Loop shifts the packaging responsibility back to the companies that make the products we want (the ice cream, olive oil or deodorant that's inside the packages).

Szaky says some of the cues for this came from the past: "In the milkman model, the package wasn't owned by the consumer, but owned by manufacturer — so they were motivated to make it long-lasting. When packaging was shifted to become the property of consumer, it was all about making it as cheap as possible, to drive price down," says Szaky.

How does Loop work exactly? You order from the Loop store, and your stuff will be shipped to you. On the first transaction, there's a deposit for the container — say 25 cents for a Coca-Cola. Once it's returned to the store, or sent back in the reusable shipping container, "no matter what state it's returned in (even if broken, because the container is the manufacturer's responsibility), you get your deposit back in full," says Szaky.

Durability becomes a goal again

Deodorant in reusable containers means you pay what you always did for the product, but it looks much higher-end in your bathroom vanity. (Photo: Courtesy TerraCycle)

If you sign up for auto-refills timed to your schedule for personal care stuff (or, let's face it, ice cream!) the deposit stays in your account and you simply get your deodorant, toothpaste or razors refilled automatically — with literally no waste. You get what you want — the product inside — and the package is the company's to deal with. (Yep, you can even return dirty packages.)

The huge boon to a new packaging model isn't just for the consumer or the planet we all share. It benefits the companies that make our stuff, too. When Pepsi owns the package, and the consumer owns the contents, the number of times the package can be reused becomes more important than its cheapness — and a durable package could even cost the company less in the long run if designed well — a win-win for the company and the environment.

Durable, reusable packaging also allows companies to make containers that are more functional (like the Haagen Daaz container that keeps ice cream colder, longer). It also allows for way more fun, interesting and marketable design possibilities.

Even Pampers gets a circular packaging upgrade in the Loop program. (Photo: Courtesy TerraCycle)

Imagine: Instead of ugly, wasteful plastic bottles, what if we used high-design glass ones for our mouthwash? In the age of Instagram, it's actually a genius PR move for companies to make their product containers beautiful as well as functional.

In France, Carrefour grocery stores have partnered with Loop, and a pilot program at Tesco in London will debut sometime later in 2019. About 125 products will be available for U.S. consumers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York via the Loop store, starting in May. (There is also a small box in the bottom right corner of the Loop website if you want to reserve your spot in line for the program.)

Some of the biggest ocean-plastic polluters (see the Greenpeace list here) are the same companies that have invested in Loop. We've asked for a change, and they're giving it to us.

This container sure looks a lot prettier than a disposable plastic one. (Photo: Courtesy TerraCycle