2023 on Green World: the stats, our reflections & more || wrap up

Hi,

Welcome back to Green World! This year has been amazing for our blog, so today we wanted to share some stats, personal reflections from each of the editors and some important information for 2024!

2023 in stats

52 posts

86 463 views

most viewed post: Geothermal and Hydropower Energy in Iceland || Iceland Series (part 2)

best posting month: August

worst posting month: January

2610% increase in views compared to last year!

How was it for us?

Elsie:

This year has been an incredible experience for me. I'm so grateful for all of your support and have loved writing weekly posts on topics that mean so much to me. My favourite post to write was National Parks post, it made me want to travel to all those amazing places. I've also found writing the energy comparison series really interesting because they required a lot of background knowledge and research and made me think more deeply about the complex topic of electricity production. I can't wait to see what 2024 brings us.

Freya:

I have not written as many posts for the blog this year as I had hoped I would have, but the ones I did write I am very proud of. In particular the post about the importance of nature for our mental health. I found it such an interesting topic to research and write about as it was something that I hadn't really thought that deeply about before. In the past twelve months, the blog has expanded so much, and I am so grateful to be able to be a part of it. I look forward to seeing where 2024 takes us!

Zoë:

I was, once again, not as present as I would have liked to have been on this blog this year. However, I made all the blog graphics, which I thoroughly enjoyed. What I did write for this platform, I am very proud of, such as my posts about electric cars. I've been enjoying taking more time over writing posts, and thinking of posts to write. I have several ideas which I can't wait to write in 2024! I've found making the graphics more consistent very rewarding and I can't wait to keep making them in the new year!

Important info for 2024

The vote for the replacement of the quiz series ended in a draw. The two winners are book reviews and challenges. Therefore we will be alternating these two formats, a different one each month. All other series which we have been writing will be continued into the new year!

We hope you all enjoyed this as much as we did. Thank you so much for reading and following us over the last year. See you in 2024!

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Comments

16.08.2020 Animal of the week: Elephant

Hello. On the 12th of August it was International Elephant Day, so we decided that this week's post should be about elephants. Elephants are the largest living land mammals. There are three types of elephant; the African bush elephant; the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. African elephants have larger ears, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears. Elephants use their trunks to breath, bring food and drink to their mouths and to grasp objects. Elephants' legs are like pillars. They carry the Elephant's massive weight. African bush elephants weigh 6000kg, Asian elephants weigh 4000kg and African forest elephants weigh 2700kg. Basically, they are very heavy.Elephants eat grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. Elephants can live up to 70 years old in the wild. They communicate by sight, touch and smell. Sadly, these wonderful mammals are in danger. African elephants are listed as vulne...

Energy comparison: wind turbines

Hello, Finally, we are back with another energy comparison. Today we're looking at wind turbines. Wind power is a fast-growing renewable energy source. In the US, the wind power industry currently employs 120 000 people across all 50 states. It could grow to employ hundreds of thousands of people by 2050. 9% of the electricity in the US in 2021 came from wind turbines, that’s 136 000 megawatts. The wind power industry saves 329 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. General knowledge and categorisation We should probably start off by clarifying how wind turbines actually work and what types there are. I’m not going to give an in-depth description of how wind turbines work because I don’t want this post to turn into a physics lesson. To put it very simply, the wind turns the blades, which turns the rotor. The rotor then turns the generator, which converts the kinetic energy (movement) into electricity. There are obviously a lot more...

How well do you know the Arctic and the Antarctic? - Quiz

Welcome back to Green World, As announced last week, we're starting our new monthly series: quizzes! This post contains the questions, you have to write down the answers and compare them with the solutions right at the bottom of this post. Questions: True or False? The Arctic is not actually a land mass, it's a frozen ocean. How many people live in the Arctic circle? a) 500 000 b) 4 million c) 10 million True or False? Narwals don't actually have unicorn-like horns. That's just a legend. What percentage of the world's freshwater is frozen within the Arctic's ice? a) 10% b) 15% c) 20% True or False? The Arctic covers parts of 15 different countries. Scientists exploring Antarctica have measured winds of up to... a) 100 km/h b) 150km/h c) 200km/h True or False? The driest (natural) place on Earth is in Antarctica...

Energy comparison: solar (PV) panels

Hi everyone, Today I'm looking into the first on a long list of energy sources: solar (PV) panels. Are they actually sustainable and could they become our main energy source in the near future? After all, enough energy from the sun reaches the earth in 90 minutes to cover the entire world's energy consumption for a whole year! How they work There are a couple of ways to transform energy from the sun into electricity. The one we are looking at today is solar panels also known as solar photovoltaic technology. Photovoltaic (PV) technology is the key to solar panels. A solar panel is made of many PV cells. A single PV cell will produce 1-2 watts of power. They are very thin and are normally protected by glass and/or plastics. This is the best explanation I could find (click here for the source): When the semiconductor is exposed to light, it absorbs the light’s energy and transfers it to negatively charged particles in the material calle...

The life of ... an alcon blue butterfly

Hi everyone, Today we are going to be looking into the life of an alcon blue butterfly (Phengaris alcon). After mating, the females lay their eggs on marsh gentian, a blue-coloured wildflower. The eggs can only be laid on these flowers, as this is what the newly hatched caterpillars will eat. Although in some alp regions, they can also be found on willow gentians, a close relative of the marsh gentian. Once the caterpillars have hatched from the eggs, their main predator and danger are the ants that swarm below. But high on their plant homes, the caterpillars are safe. However, this isn't where the alcon blue caterpillars are going to stay forever. Eventually, they drop down to the ground using silk strings. With no protection, they are soon dragged off by the ants. The most amazing part is, the alcon blue caterpillars give off the same scent and chemicals as the ant larvae. So the ants take the caterpillars back to their brood chamber, wher...

The life of ... a koala

Hello everyone, Today we're talking about koalas. Also known as koala bears, koalas are marsupials. So they're actually not bears. Koalas, phascolarctos cinereus , are tree dwelling and probably best known for spending most of the day sleeping. They live for up to 15 years in the wild although captive koalas generally live for longer. Koalas have a stout, gray body and a cream-coloured chest. They have a broad face, small yellow eyes and big fluffy ears. In adaptation to climbing, their feet are strong and clawed. Adult individuals in South Australia weigh 14kg and are 60-84cm big. Their Eastern cousins are considerably smaller. Koalas are found in Eastern and Southern Australia, where they live in eucalyptus trees. They feed on the leaves of these eucalyptus trees, eating up to 1.3kg a day. With a body weight of up to 14kg, this means they eat just under 10% of their body weight every single day. However, the le...

10 Animals on the edge of extinction - you did not know about No.2

The Kākāpō ~ New Zealand's green teddy bear-parrot The Kakapo is a bird mainly found in New Zealand. It is a rather curious creature, a pretty big, green, nocturnal parrot that cannot fly and looks like a mixture of a parrot, a penguin, an owl and a teddy bear. Kakapos are on the verge of extinction due to their peculiar breeding habits, predators, and hunters. They are flightless and nocturnal and are the biggest parrots in the world. They can also live for up to 120 years! History Like most living creatures, the number of Kakapos in New Zealand was healthy before humans arrived. They waddled across the islands like nothing else. However, when people came to New Zealand, they started hunting the Kakapo for its feathers, meat and skin. They also brought alien species such as rats, weasels or cats that posed a threat to which they were not accustomed to. Their survival "trick" (not really a new thing, maybe the Kakapos like it old-fashio...

10 animals on the edge of extinction you didn't know about no. 7 - tooth-billed pigeon

Hi everyone, We're back with another endangered animal. This time it's a pigeon, but not the kind that we're used to seeing in cities. The tooth-billes pigeon, didunculus strigirostris, is the only remaing species of the Didunculus genus and is one of the closest living relatives of the world-famous Dodo. The adults have chestnut coloured bodies and wings, a greenish head and neck with red skin around the eyes, reddish feet and an orange bill with a characteristic jagges tip (hence the name tooth-billed). They are 31-38cm long and weigh about 400g. The juveniles are duller with a brown head and a black bill. Tooth-billed pigeons are shy and are belived to live in small groups. These terrestrial birds are endemic to the islands of Upolu and Savai'i. They are Samoa's national bird and can be found on the local currency. In Samoa they are known as Manumea and are eaten on a local and national level, but not internationally. They ...

The limits of the Earth - the planetary boundary model

Hi everyone, So today we're talking about a model that was introduced in 2009 and has offered a new perspective to thinking about environmental issues. The planetary boundary model has 9 boundaries, each has a safe zone. Once the safe zone is exceeded, the stable conditions on our planet are considered at risk, and there can be severe and possibly irreversible changes. The nine boundaries are considered separate however, they greatly affect each other. Novel Entities describes the introduction and accumulation of man-made novel chemical compounds. These include pesticides, nuclear waste and microplastics. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion refers to the depletion of the ozone layer which was a major problem in the 90s. Atmospheric Aerosol Loading is air particle pollution. Ocean Acidification is self-explanatory. The boundary Biochemical Flows is composed of two separate boundaries; nitrogen and phosphorus. Both of the ele...

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