TROL VCC News
[Apr. 18, 2026] Earth is Getting Brighter Fast But Not Everywhere: In his article in the Guardian titled “Earth gets brighter every year but progression is volatile, study finds,” Richard Luscombe reports on a new study published in Nature that shows that “the nightlights of Earth are surprisingly dynamic, characterized by frequent and coexisting brightening and dimming.” This has many implications for efforts to reduce light pollution.
[Apr. 09, 2026] Satellite Mirrors Could add to Light Pollution: In her article titled “Satellite mirror plans could disrupt sleep and ecosystems worldwide, scientists say” and published in the Guardian, Linda Geddes reports on plans to add mirrors to satellites. Experts warn that these mirrors would add to light pollution and could increase impacts of this pollution on human health and ecosystem health.
Platform News
[Apr. 25, 2026] World Happiness Report Finds Positive Impacts of Collaborative Platforms: The World Happiness Report 2026 has a strong focus on the impacts of social media and the Web in general on human happiness. The results of most studies indicate that the use of most social media seems to have a negative impact on happiness, while those tools that generate trust and collaboration have a positive impact. The report sumarizes: “Internet activities fall into two groups. Communications, news, learning, and content creation are associated with higher life satisfaction. Social media, gaming, and browsing for fun are associated with lower life evaluations.” This supports the mission of Place4Us as a trust-focused collaborative platform for intercreativity and learning.
[Apr. 25, 2026] Neurodivergence VCC opened: The "Made by Neurodivergence VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[Apr. 21, 2026] SlaveryToday VCC opened: The "Fighting Modern Slavery VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[Apr. 19, 2026] Earth Energy Imbalance is Increasing Rapidly: Finally the extreme increase in the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is slowly starting to make headlines - far too late, though. The article “ What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?” by Jonathan Watts published in the Guardian explains some of the basics. Importantly, the EEI double within only 13 years. In another article by Watts also in the Guardian and titled “ Earth being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ as energy imbalance reaches record high” the author points out that the World Meteorological Organization warned that Earth is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming the oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies. Considering that Earth is more like a pool house with a very large pool than a greenhouse, the ocean is only delaying the heating of the atmosphere but not preventing it.