The Galápagos Got Back Its Giant Tortoises—And a Whole Lot More | Afghanistan’s terrible earthquakes | Estonia’s Skeleton Technologies raises another €108m to scale fast-charging battery tech | Indonesia's EV ambitions could help boost investments in the rest of Southeast Asia

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� � � � � � You Might Like � � � � � � � � � The Galápagos Got Back Its Giant Tortoises—And a Whole Lot More - The Atlantic    By the late 19th century, whalers, settlers, and pirates had changed the ecology of the Galápagos Islands by poaching some native species—like Galápagos giant tortoises—and introducing others, such as goats and rats. The latter species became pests and severely destabilized the island ecosystems. Goats overgrazed the plants the tortoises ate while rats preyed on their eggs. Over time, the tortoise population plummeted. On Española, an island in the southeast of the archipelago, the tortoise count fell from thousands to less than 20. Along the way, as goats ate all the plants they could, Española—once akin to a savanna—turned barren. In the following century, conservationists set out to restore the Galápagos giant tortoise on Española—and the island ecosystem. They began eradicating the introduced species, and capturing Española’s remaining tortoises and breeding them in captivity. With the goats wiped out and the tortoises in cages, the ecosystem transformed once again. This time, the overgrazed terrain became overgrown with densely packed trees and woody bushes. Española’s full recovery to its savanna-like state would have to wait for the tortoises’ return. From the time those remaining tortoises were taken into captivity, from 1963 to 1974, until they were finally released, in 2020, conservationists with the NGO Galápagos Conservancy and the Galápagos National Park Directorate reintroduced nearly 2,000 captive-bred Galápagos giant tortoises to Española. Since then, the tortoises have continued to breed in the wild, causing the population to blossom to an estimated 3,000. They’ve also seen the ecology of Española transform once more as the tortoises are reducing the extent of woody plants, expanding the grasslands, and spreading the seeds of a key species. Continued here Afghanistan's terrible earthquakes - The Economist    Afghans must think their country cursed. In the past two years they have seen the Taliban return to power, a huge cutback in Western aid that has pitched most of the population into poverty—and a series of horrific natural disasters. In recent days powerful earthquakes have devastated over a dozen villages near the western city of Herat, close to the border with Iran. Over 2,000 people are reported to have been killed and many more injured or made destitute. The epicentre of the earthquakes, which included two of magnitude 6.3 on October 7th and another on the 11th, was the district of Zinda Jan, around 40km north of Herat. Thirteen villages in the district were largely obliterated, their mud-brick buildings turned to heaps of suffocating earth. In the village of Nayeb Rafi on October 9th a crowd of volunteers could be seen helping survivors dig out their living and dead relatives. It was a terrible scene. Muhammad Amin, a 56-year-old shepherd lying on the rubble of his former house, said his six close relatives had all been killed inside it. He had been outside the village when the first earthquake struck. “I ran back but everything had been destroyed,” he said. “Collapsed houses, dust in the air, people crying and shouting for their families.” Continued here Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium Estonia's Skeleton Technologies raises another €108m to scale fast-charging battery tech - Sifted    Estonia’s Skeleton Technologies, which manufactures fast-charging batteries, has raised €108m in debt and equity.  It comes after the cleantech secured a €38m Series D last year, and brings its total funding to more than €300m. That makes it one of Europe’s top-financed deeptech startups. The round was backed by Germany's Siemens and Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, and the company will use the funds to scale production of its batteries and supercapacitors. It is building a new supercapacitor factory in Markranstädt, outside Leipzig, Germany — its second factory in the region, which will enable it to increase production 40-fold when it comes online in 2024.  Continued here Indonesia's EV ambitions could help boost investments in the rest of Southeast Asia - CNBC    Indonesia's EV-friendly policies have lured global investors to the country, but experts say they could also boost investments in Southeast Asia's automotive industry more broadly. Indonesia could be the "gateway" to the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said Anindya Novyan Bakrie, CEO and president director of Bakrie & Brothers, an Indonesian conglomerate whose electric vehicle unit VKTR manufactures electric buses as well as EV parts. The Southeast Asian country is rich in copper, nickel, cobalt and bauxite — materials essential for the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries. Indonesia is the largest nickel exporter, accounting for 22% of the world's reserves, according to a report by the ASEAN Briefing. Continued here

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