Tonga explosion, plant-based tuna, eco-nnect TALKS 🐜
Dear fellow ants 🐜,
A friend earlier this year said “we are just ants dancing on a creme brulée🍮.” The phrase couldn’t ring more true this week after the volcanic explosion in Tonga even affected the coastlines in Peru. We are a teeny tiny vulnerable species dancing on a thin crust on top of mostly hot lava. We are so lucky for our livable layer, yet we seem to forget just how valuable it is.
Click here to support the Tongalese people during this terrible time.
eco-nnect TALKS 👄
Finally the first episodes of our podcast series are out!
eco-nnect TALKS are conversations with changemakers in the sustainability sector. Listen in for powerful stories, insightful tips and inspirational projects.
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Tonga Explosion🌋
The volcanic blast in Tonga was likely one of the loudest events on Earth in more than a century — being heard as far away as Alaska and carrying more than 500x the power of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.—NPR article
The explosion triggered Tsunami warnings across the entire Pacific, even to the US coast. Three days after the blast, Tonga remains largely cut off from the world as the explosion destroyed their undersea communications cables—most of the internet worldwide is connected via underwater cables not satellite, weird I know—the airport is completely covered in ash, preventing relief flights from landing at the capital city of Nuku'alofa.
For now the explosion and subsequent tsunami has claimed three lives and destroyed several Tongalese towns.
Why did it happen?
In late 2014 and early 2015, along the rim of that caldera, volcanic activity built a platform that rose up out of the sea, creating a new island.
The chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, James Garvin says the island's formation also probably seeded its destruction. As it rose from the sea, layers of liquid magma filled a network of chambers beneath it. He suspects the explosion was triggered by a sudden change in the subterranean plumbing, which caused seawater to flood in.—NPR article
*Fun fact: I had the pleasure of visiting Hunga Tonga in the Summer of 2017 with TBA21 Academy. Back then it was only two years old. Here’s a picture of happy floating heads in the island’s crater and what it looked liked then.
The First Sushi-Chef Approved Plant-Based Raw Tuna 🍣
Impact Foods is developing the first plant-based raw tuna alternative. The ingredients have still not been disclosed, but the three founders claim that they have the approval in terms of taste, texture and nutritional value by esteemed sushi chefs.
The company hopes to perfect their tuna recipe before developing scallop and calamari alternatives too. we can’t wait to try them!
“The biggest challenge for us has been perfecting our product, replicating the flaky and delicate texture of raw tuna as well as its aroma using plant-derived ingredients is something that has never been done before. It’s been a lot of trial and error.”—co-founder Adrian Miranda