Apple today announced a "first-of-its-kind carbon removal initiative" called the Restore Fund that will make investments in forestry projects to remove carbon from the atmosphere while generating a financial return for investors. Launched with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs, Apple says the $200 million fund aims to remove at least one million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually from the atmosphere, equivalent to the amount of fuel used by over 200,000 passenger vehicles, with a viable financial model aimed at increasing investment in forest restoration. Apple says this effort is part of the company's goal to become carbon neutral across its entire "value chain" by 2030. Apple plans to directly eliminate 75 percent of emissions for its supply chain and products by 2030, while the fund will help address the remaining 25 percent of Apple's emissions by removing carbon from the atmosphere. Apple's environmental chief Lisa Jackson:Nature provides some of the best tools to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Forests, wetlands, and grasslands draw carbon from the atmosphere and store it away permanently in their soils, roots, and branches. Through creating a fund that generates both a financial return as well as real, and measurable carbon impacts, we aim to drive broader change in the future — encouraging investment in carbon removal around the globe. Our hope is that others share our goals and contribute their resources to support and protect critical ecosystems.As part of this initiative, Apple and Conservation International have partnered with local conservation organizations in Kenya to restore degraded savannas in the Chyulu Hills region. If similar efforts are scaled up across Africa, Apple says savannah restoration could remove hundreds of millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year.Tag: Apple environmentThis article, "Apple Launches $200 Million 'Restore Fund' to Remove Carbon From Atmosphere" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums...

Cliff Caines’s film about three businesses sticking with horse-drawn methods looks startling, but gets a bit bogged downThis painstakingly composed black and white documentary about jobbing horses and their employer-companions is perhaps easier to admire than love. On the plus side, the cinematography by Ryan A Randall – a mix of widescreen, immersive landscapes and startlingly stylised shots with inky backgrounds, slow-motion details, or unexpected angles – is consistently beautiful. It’s what truly draws the viewer into this up-close and personal account, directed by Cliff Caines, of three different businesses that use proper working horses, great big massive ones, to do jobs that are in two out of three cases more often done with machines.In the first study, a timberman in Canada uses his two steeds, cheeky Orlagh and stalwart Idaho, to fell and collect trunks, a logging method he insists is better for the forest. The relationship between the logger, who retires at the end of the segment, and his equine co-workers is so emotionally rich that the more workaday, people-centric subsequent sections pale in comparison somewhat. Really, this first bit works on its own as a short, but there’s still much of interest in the second part, about a farming family who use horse teams to plough their fields, and the third, about another family that put their horses through competitions to see which one can haul the most weight – which strictly speaking sounds less like work than sport. Continue reading......

Many of us will leave lockdown a few pounds heavier than we started it, but there is no shame in finding pleasure in foodYou know how people fill online baskets with clothes they never buy? I do that now with food. I see something advertised, compile an extravagant order, then don’t follow through. In the past few weeks, I have almost ordered hand-pulled noodles, oysters and something described as a “pistachio black forest gateau” (I am still thinking about that one).It’s a new iteration of emotional eating, still apparently my main hobby and way of marking the passage of time. Friday is pizza, Saturday is jumbo Hula Hoops, Easter Sunday was fistfuls of Mini Eggs, anticipated then enjoyed with the abandon of one of the worst Roman emperors. Most evenings, my husband and I stand in the kitchen rationalising that it’s perfectly reasonable to have what he calls “a proper apéritif” (he means crisps with our drinks, but wants to sound sophisticated). Continue reading......

Our bodies do so much for us, when we will we appreciate and celebrate them, rather than focus on flawsA time-lapse video of my body over lockdown would have seen the kinds of bloom and decay of a felled forest or demolished building. Not that I’m comparing it to any structure of architectural interest – let me be clear, my body is very much not “the Shard”, more “the second chicken shop you come to if you turn right out of the Shard and start walking towards Whitechapel”.I began lockdown pregnant and thoughtful, easing myself gently into cushioned chairs, my moisturised face turned to the sun. Over the following months my body softened and ruined; my makeup-less skin confused by light, mottled, then wattled; my hair choosing its own adventure every morning. Sedentary and unsatisfied, I have aged eight years in the past three months alone. I look in the mirror and see a bag for life. Continue reading......

Gaps in UK regulations mean former public figures can take up lucrative contracts without having their decisions scrutinisedWhose job is it to determine whether David Cameron’s lobbying on behalf of Greensill Capital fell on the wrong side of any ethical line? Over the past two decades the UK’s ethics landscape has blossomed – from an almost barren plain into a forest of regulators, investigators and advisers. Almost every scandal in public life led to the creation of a new post or body. And yet there is no ethical standards body with a remit to pronounce on the Cameron case. Related: How David Cameron got caught up in a classic lobbying scandal Continue reading......

Despite the potential of being mistaken for an April Fool’s joke, Feh has decided to share details of the next Fire Emblem Heroes update, Version 5.4.0, scheduled for 4th April The post Heroes: Details for Version 5.4.0, Arriving 4th April 2021 (UTC) appeared first on Serenes Forest....

The New Jersey State Park Police (NJSPP) reported last Friday that their officers had identified and “disarmed” a UFO detecting device found in Wharton State Forest. The foolish people behind this decision took responsibility for their short-sighted action in a Facebook post that, if we’re lucky enough to survive the…Read more......

Conservationists hope the return of the near-extinct herbivore – ‘a living strimmer’ – will clear the undergrowth that fuels firesAs the temperatures begin to rise, Spain is braced for another summer of the forest fires that over the past 10 years have destroyed about 741,000 hectares (1.8m acres) of forest. Last year, fires consumed 45,000 hectares according to government estimates, the year before 60,000 hectares, and there are signs that, as in California and Australia, the fires are becoming more frequent and more intense. Continue reading......

Forest Green chairman’s innovative approach continues‘We’ll recruit a person that hasn’t been recruited before’The Forest Green Rovers chairman has said he could “break some new ground” by appointing the first female manager to work in English football’s top four divisions.Dale Vince – the founder of green energy supplier Ecotricity and chairman of Forest Green since 2010 – will hold interviews in the next fortnight after receiving almost 100 applications for the position since sacking Mark Cooper on Monday. It is understood that will include female candidates after Vince said “anything was possible” for the League Two club that is known for taking an innovative approach that includes plans to build the world’s first entirely wooden stadium and a shirt made partly from recycled coffee waste. Continue reading......

Name Benny Sings Best known for Happy sad music. Current City Amsterdam. Really want to be in New York with my wife and kids chilling on our Manhattan rooftop park/forest/coastal-themed garden. Excited about The release of the new album Music and the upcoming album release livestream which…...

Discovery by Essex police on Monday is confirmed to be 19-year-old student missing since 22 MarchA body found in a lake in Epping Forest has been formally identified as missing 19-year-old Richard Okorogheye, the Metropolitan police has said.Officers from Essex police made the discovery on Monday. The Met said the student’s death is being treated as unexplained and they do not believe at this stage there was any third-party involvement. Continue reading......