Pope Francis stumbles as his walking stick snaps
Vatican City, Feb 1: Pope Francis tripped while entering the Vatican auditorium for an audience Saturday after the handle of his walking stick snapped, but he avoided falling.
The 88-year-old pope often has to use a wheelchair or a cane because of bad knees and has fallen twice in the past two months.
After Saturday’s slight stumble, two aides helped him to his chair on the stage and the audience proceeded without incident. After he recovered, someone in the audience shouted “Viva il Papa” and the audience applauded.
Earlier in January, Francis fell and hurt his right arm. It wasn’t broken, but a sling was put on as a precaution.
On December 7, the pope whacked his chin on his nightstand in an apparent fall that resulted in a bad bruise.
The pontiff has long battled health problems including long bouts of bronchitis. He uses a walker or cane when moving around his apartment in the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel.
Speculation about Francis’ health is a constant in Vatican circles, especially after Pope Benedict XVI broke 600 years of tradition and resigned from the papacy in 2013. Benedict’s aides have attributed the decision to a nighttime fall that he suffered during a 2012 trip to Mexico, after which he determined he couldn’t keep up with the globe-trotting demands of the papacy.
Francis has said that he has no plans to resign anytime soon, even if Benedict “opened the door” to the possibility. In his autobiography “Hope” released this month, Francis said that he hadn’t considered resigning even when he had major intestinal surgery. (AP)
Mexican startup tackles plastic waste by converting it to fuel
Boca Del Rio, Feb 1: A startup in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one Gulf coast city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels.
With less than 10% of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel.
Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke.
Carlos Parraguirre Díaz, chief technology officer at Petgas, said that in a week, the machine can process 1.5 tons of plastics and produce 356 gallons (1,350 liters) of fuel.
The process does require propane to initiate the heating, but once the pyrolysis begins, the gas it produces is used to keep it going, according to the company. And using fuel it produces does throw off carbon dioxide, but the company says its net impact is less than comparable fuels because their fuel is lower in sulfur.
Parraguirre Díaz said that the machine shows that “we can transform that (plastic) into a product that’s useful and has high value in the world economy.” “In place of having a dump, it’s as if we dug into the earth and found hydrocarbons that can be used by our community,” he said.
Global plastic production, already exceeding 400 million tons annually, could surge by 70% by 2040 without policy changes, according to the United Nations. China was by far the biggest exporter of plastic products in 2023, followed by Germany and the United States.
Many plastics are used for packaging. Every day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes.
Negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution concluded in Busan, South Korea in December without reaching an agreement. (PTI)
