Clean energy and diversity breakthroughs – waves, a dictionary, gaming

1. Brazil

A zero-tolerance drinking and driving law reduced traffic injuries and fatalities in Brazil over the last decade, a new study suggests. Car crashes are a leading cause of death for children around the world, and as many as 37% of traffic fatalities in Brazil are attributed to alcohol. The law was first approved in 2012 but was declared constitutional this year, mandating a blood alcohol level of zero and allowing police officers to test a driver’s blood alcohol level if they notice erratic driving.

Between 2012 and 2019, researchers estimate the law prevented over 400,000 hospitalizations due to traffic collisions and reduced mortality rates for pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists. Its formal ratification “set an important best-practice for other countries, and the big win here is that the law can now be fully enforced,” said Socorro Gross-Galiano of the Pan American Health Organization in Brazil. “By helping deter drink-driving, it will help save countless lives.”
Sources: World Health Organization, Nature, Correio do Povo

2. United States

Scholars are compiling the first Oxford Dictionary of African American English. While not the first attempt to document Black lexicon, this project is the largest and most far-reaching yet. Researchers from Harvard and Oxford will take inspiration from books, newspapers, flyers, music, oral histories, and social media. In addition to spelling, pronunciation, and history, entries will be illustrated with real-life quotations.

One aim of the dictionary is to do a better job acknowledging the contributions Black Americans have made to the English language. “Finally we will have a space that recognizes our language in a way that encompasses all the people within African American language communities,” said Sonja Lanehart, a linguistics professor at the University of Arizona. “And what’s going to be important about this in getting it right is listening to the people … in terms of what they say and what it means to them.”
Source: NPR

3. China

China released a detailed guide for industrial sectors to decarbonize. The nation launched a plan last year to reach peak emissions by 2030, with a long-term goal of carbon neutrality by 2060. The most recent guidelines give authorities and companies specific benchmarks to follow in the meantime.  

The industrial sectors make up about half of China’s total carbon emissions. Companies in seven industrial sectors will be affected: steel, building materials, petrochemicals, nonferrous metals, consumer goods, equipment manufacturing, and electronics. Industrial firms with an annual revenue of 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) are mandated to lower energy consumption by 13.5% by 2025 as compared with 2020, for example, and companies are encouraged to install solar photovoltaic power plants and swap out coal for natural gas.
Source: South China Morning Post

4. Australia

A wave energy converter completed a successful first year off the coast of Australia’s King Island in a first for ocean energy. The technology, designed by Melbourne company Wave Swell, mimics a natural blowhole using an oscillating water column. Rising and falling waves push air upward in the column, spinning a turbine to generate electricity hooked up to the grid with an underwater cable.