Ways We Can All Live More Sustainably To Benefit The Environment

Windmills near green trees (image via Pexels)

It’s definitely come to most of our attention that the way we’re living is not the best for our environment, and in fact, it’s slowly destroying the planet. We now need to spend a bit more time and effort in order to live more sustainably and to protect the earth for as long as we can. After all, we only get this one planet, because who knows what else is out there for us to move to next? Here are some ways that we can all more sustainably to benefit the environment.

Reduce Our Energy Usage

Every one of us has a carbon footprint, and that’s how much energy and usage we have on our environment. Ideally, you want to make your footprint as small as possible, and that can only happen if you try to reduce your energy usage. The biggest will come from the household bills that you pay for every month. The gas and electric all have an impact on the environment, and the more effort you can make in reducing these, the better. Try to keep your heating off and only use it for short periods of time when needed. During the colder months, you want it on only to take the chill off the room. So for starters, you could time it to come on first thing in the morning as you’re about to wake up an hour before you’re due back from work. This means you’re waking up and coming home to a warm house. If you work from home, you can do the same and then intermittently turn it back. Keeping it on low all day is only going to continue burning through your usage, so be conscious of how much you are using. Try to reduce the amount of time spent using electrical items and practice turning everything off at the plug at the end of the day. That way, the electronics aren’t continuing to use power if they’re switched off.

Travel By More Eco-Friendly Means

We all travel for different things, whether that’s for business or pleasure. We go on annual holidays, we travel to and from work, and we take trips to see family and friends on a regular basis. All of that requires you to travel by public transport or via car. Sometimes this is necessary, but it’s important to exhaust all other options first that aren’t harmful to the environment. If you’re taking a trip to the local shop, why not walk there? If your work is within a suitable distance and you feel confident enough, then cycling to and from your work doesn’t cost you anything and it provides you with a healthy boost of fitness every day. Not only that, but it’s not harming the environment.

If you’re going on holiday, you could consider taking the train or going by boat to save on the fuel that’s used for planes. This isn’t always possible, but if you’re making a conscious effort to use these forms of transport here and there, it’ll make an overall difference. The less fuel we’re using, the better it’s going to be for the environment in the long run. There will always be a need for those who influence and hold power in the world to use organizations like the ACS, but having fewer commercial flights will save on fuel.

Reuse Rather Than Buy New

A lot of focus recently on how fashion is becoming a big contribution to waste. Fast fashion, as it’s called, is where people are buying clothes and then chucking them out once that season ends or another trend comes in. Instead of maybe reusing clothing, they’re spending more money on clothes that have to be made out of materials and therefore causing more overall waste in the world. Try to shop from more sustainable brands that are recycling and reusing materials. The same goes for a lot of things within your lifestyle. For instance, a lot of furniture that you have might be in perfectly good condition, but instead, you want to chuck it out. Look at what you can do to upgrade its appearance, either by adding to it or maybe reupholstering it if it’s a sofa or armchair. These items of furniture can still provide you with a lot of usages, and if not, then it can always go to someone else rather than being chucked away.

Grow Your Own Food

Ever wanted to grow your own food? Well, now a lot of households are adapting to the sustainable life by growing their own food sources.

Person Holding Cup With Green Plant (image via Pexels)

And pretty much most food can be grown in your own back garden or even inside your home. Herbs and foods like chilies can be grown inside the home, simply in a little pot with some soil and regular watering. When it comes to your outdoor space, you might want to create a vegetable or herb raised bed that can sit separately to the rest of your flowers and plants. Depending on the space, you can start growing pretty much anything from potatoes to strawberries, cucumber to coriander. It’s all about being attentive and patient. If you have both of those qualities, then you may find that you thrive at growing herbs and food in your garden area.

Donate Your Unwanted Things

We do tend to find that we’ve hoarded a lot of things in our lifetime, and there may come a time where a good decluttering is in order. It can be beneficial to our mental health if our space is tidier and more well-organized. With that in mind, it might be worth arranging a collection or dropping off those items that you don’t need anymore to a shelter or shop that will sell them on or give them away to those who need it. What is one man’s waste is another man’s treasure, so donate any of your unwanted things to those who can benefit from it. Always check that they’re in good condition and only throw away items that have broken to the point that they’re useless and no longer usable.

Save The Water

Saving water is important because wasting it is only going to use more energy in order to help source more of it. You can help by saving water in your household. Don’t use outside taps, and instead, try to conserve any water in an outside tank system or something that will just collect rainwater. It’s not going to matter how dirty it is because you’ll only be using it for watering plants and other outdoor tasks that need doing. Try not to leave taps running for too long and turn off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth. That way, you’re not letting so much water pour down the drain while you’re busy cleaning your teeth for two minutes.

Remove Plastic From The Household

And finally, the biggest victim of the environmental clean up is plastic. Plastic is everywhere, and we use so much of it within our home. From the packaging that our goods come in, to the plastic storage tubs that we use for food and various other bits and bobs. Try to live a more plastic-free lifestyle where you can. Buy from more companies that use plastic-free or biodegradable packaging.

The more your household can do, the bigger impact it will have as more and more of us take notice of how much we’re affecting the environment. Do what you can as a little certainly goes a long way.

Maya Biosphere Watch Opposes Proposal For Jungle Train And Disney-Like Theme Park

Archaeologist Richard Hansen looks out over the Maya Biosphere he hopes to develop from a tower at El Mirador. ( Photo by Kelly McLaughlin.)

A proposal to build a Disney-like theme park in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala is under fire from a coalition of forestry and conservation groups as well as Mayan archaeologists.

"The future of the Maya Biosphere Reserve must lie in the hands of the Guatemalan people," said Teena Clipston, founder of the Maya Biosphere Watch, a coalition opposing the project. "They are the ones that need to make the decisions in what happens to their land."

The jungle theme park is the brainchild of Dr. Richard D. Hansen, an archaeologist from Rupert, Idaho, and director of the El Mirador Archaeological Project in the reserve.

"We have a real live Disneyland here," Hansen said. "We don't have to invent anything. It's all here. Animals, crocodiles, tapirs, jaguars, ruins, jungle, macaws, parrots, toucans, it's all here," Hansen said in an interview at the El Mirador archaeological site.

Though the plan has not been made available to the public, Maya Biosphere Watch reports that a 2018 executive summary documented plans for multiple hotels and a train that would traverse the rainforest, linking nine archaeological sites.

Clipston said forestry workers, archaeologists, and conservation groups in the area opposes the plan. The group believes the theme park would disrupt conservation efforts by forestry concessions and displace thousands of local residents, many of whom are descended from the ancient Maya, she said.

Hansen has hired a lobbying firm to seek out government assistance in Washington to raise the more than $100 million dollars for the project. Hansen has worked in the area for decades and has pursued this vision for at least 20 years. He believes it will be the salvation of the region, preventing deforestation, drug trafficking and halting migration to the U.S.

Conservation groups say the reserve is not in any immediate danger and insist that removing national parks and forest concessions would threaten the fragile rainforest environment. 

They point to a 2017 report by Consejo Nacional de Áreas Protegidas, a government agency, that shows a net gain in the amount of forest within the Eastern MBR over recent years.

"Like most people," Clipston said. "I was lured into the idea of this proposal being beneficial to the people and the forest, but after further investigation I was disheartened."

Dr. Tomas Barrientos, codirector of La Corona Archaeological Project in the MBR, says "The role that local communities have played in the preservation of nature must be taken into consideration."

Dr. Francisco Estrada-Belli, a Guatemalan archaeologist and director of the Holmul Archaeological Project, openly voices his disapproval. "It concerns me that those outside the academic community who currently support Hansen's project genuinely believe he is working to benefit Guatemala, while the plan appears to be more about him having control of a large portion of the country than about benefitting Guatemala or science."

Roan Balas McNab, program director of Wildlife Conservation Society in Guatemala, says Hansen's plan would "undermine the social fabric of the eastern Maya Biosphere Reserve, one of the few Mesoamerican wilderness areas that is actually increasing in size.

Our call to Guatemalans, Mexicans, and the U.S. supporters alike is that they take a step back, debate the merits and challenges inherent in this proposal, and at all costs avoid a rush to judgement."

• A full report on the controversy is available here.

SOURCE: Maya Biosphere

Nestlé Develops 'PB Triple Play' - A Fully Plant-Based 'Bacon Cheeseburger'

Nestlé debuting first-ever vegan bacon cheeseburger

Nestlé announced today that it has developed vegan alternatives to cheese and bacon, designed to complement its existing plant-based burger patties. This makes it the first food and beverage company to develop and produce all three essential elements for a no-compromise plant-based 'bacon cheeseburger'.

This complete burger solution will first be offered to professional clients such as restaurant and foodservice operators. Nestlé's plant-based burger patties are already available to food professionals, with the full package including the vegan alternatives to cheese and bacon following in 2020.

Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider said, "More and more consumers are looking for delicious, nutritious and sustainable plant-based options when they dine out. We have now raised the bar by developing a 'PB triple play' of ingredients for an all-time classic: the bacon cheeseburger. We're continuing to make good on our promise to offer consumers food that is right for them and right for the planet."

The 'PB triple play' is intended to appeal to consumers who are actively seeking to reduce meat in their diet and switch to plant-based meals more often. It delivers on familiar tastes that consumers are seeking out in plant-based alternatives. The vegan cheddar cheese alternative has the texture, meltability and delicious, rich taste of a dairy cheese. The vegan bacon alternative becomes crispy and chewy when cooked, similar to animal-based bacon, and has the same satisfying flavor.

With Nestlé's plant-based burger patties providing the perfectly juicy, meat-like base, the 'PB triple play' offers an amazing vegan burger experience. The plant-based 'bacon cheeseburger' is significantly lower in fat and saturated fat, free of cholesterol and has a higher fiber content compared to a standard bacon cheeseburger. Like Nestlé's existing plant-based offerings, the new products will also have a lower environmental footprint.

Nestlé leveraged its R&D expertise and proprietary technology to develop the vegan alternatives to cheese and bacon, using a combination of natural ingredients such as plant-based proteins, fibers and oils. In creating these ingredients, culinary chefs and food scientists worked alongside foodservice experts to tailor the products for use in professional kitchens, taking into account their specific cooking and serving requirements.

• The company also offers a variety of vegan burger sauces to create a completely plant-based and delicious burger experience.

The move is part of the Nestlé's efforts to speed up the transformation of its portfolio with innovative, sustainable products. Nestlé recently announced its ambition to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This includes offering more plant-based food and beverages.

• Nestlé has already launched its Sweet Earth Awesome Burger in the United States and its Garden Gourmet Incredible Burger in Europe for retail and foodservices.

SOURCE: Nestlé

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Desmond Tutu Announces the Winners of the International Children's Peace Prize 2019: Greta Thunberg (16) and Divina Maloum (14)

The winner of the International Children's Peace Prize receives the statuette ‘Nkosi’, which shows how a child sets the world in motion...

From an impressive 137 applicants from 56 countries, the KidsRights' Expert Committee selected Divina from Cameroon and Greta from Sweden as winners. 

The International Children's Peace Prize will be awarded on November 20th, on Universal Children's Day in The Hague. The very special award ceremony, will also celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the International Children's Peace Prize which became a global phenomenon and reached 1.2 billion people last year.

Personal congratulations from Archbishop Tutu

Archbishop Tutu, who has been the patron of the International Children's Peace Prize and KidsRights for more than a decade, said in a personal message to the winners: "I am in awe of you. Your powerful message is amplified by your youthful energy and unshakable belief that children can, no must, improve their own futures. You are true change-makers who have demonstrated most powerfully that children can move the world."

Introducing the winners

"The impact of both Greta and Divina for the future of many children is unmistakable, they are the rightful winners of the International Children's Peace Prize 2019," said Marc Dullaert, Founder of KidsRights and chairman of the Expert Committee.

Divina Maloum (14 years old, Cameroon, theme: Peace)

Divina Maloum (14 years old, Cameroon, theme: Peace). Since 2014, Cameroon has experienced terrorist attacks. When Divina visited the north of the country, she was horrified to see that children were the biggest victims of these terrorist attacks. She realized that many children do not know their rights, and so she created Children for Peace (C4P) to warn them about enrolment in armed groups and to reinforce the participation of children in peace-building and sustainable development. C4P is now a network of 100 children across the ten regions of Cameroon. She empowers them to be changemakers and to take part in peace initiatives in their communities. She has organized an inter-community children's peace camp, established peace clubs in mosques, and together with other children, made a children's declaration against violent extremism. Divina has big plans for the future and will not stop advocating for the right of children to live in peace.

Greta Thunberg (16 years old, Sweden, theme: environment)

Greta Thunberg (16 years old, Sweden, theme: environment) is a climate activist and a role model for international student climate activism. At the age of eight, when she first learned about climate change, she was shocked that adults did not appear to take the issue seriously. She could not understand why adults were not taking action against the climate crisis. Greta became depressed. She didn't eat, go to school or speak for months. It was vital for Greta to take measures in her own life; she refrains from flying, eats no meat or dairy and she has a shop stop, meaning that she doesn't buy new things. On August 20th 2018 Greta decided that it was time for her to take her efforts to the next level and speak out. She wanted more people to be aware and take action. Inspired by the 2018 International Children's Peace Prize winners March for Our Lives, she sat down in front of Sweden's parliament with a self-made banner skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate).

• Please visit kidsrights.org/childrenspeaceprize for more information about the International Children's Peace Prize .

SOURCE: KidsRights

Star Wars: The Evolution Of The Death Star Reflects Hollywood's Growing Fears Of A Climate Apocalypse

The Death Star - Star Wars (Lucasfilms/Twentieth Century Fox)

Science fiction films are rarely about the future. Their distant planets and remote time periods instead seem to reflect upon the concerns and anxieties of the contemporary moment. For instance, 1978’s Invasion of the Bodysnatchers played on the US public’s fear of communism at the height of the Cold War. Terminator 2: Judgement Day capitalised on concerns of a nuclear apocalypse and the fears associated with escalating artificial intelligence.

In the 21st century, in this era being referred to as The Anthropocene, fears of environmental disaster seem to have eclipsed those of a cold war, nuclear apocalypse or technological singularity. Rising temperatures, melting sea ice, ocean acidification, deforestation, soil erosion, overpopulation, biodiversity loss and the general degradation of ecosystems worldwide are an escalating threat to all life’s survival on Planet Earth. How then does contemporary sci-fi respond to these pressures and demands of living on a dying planet?

Many recent sci-fi films seem to reflect this shift in concern. Interstellar, Snowpiercer, After Earth, IO: Last on Earth, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Wall-E, Avatar, Geostorm, Annihilation and Okja, seem to situate a climate catastrophe – or more specific environmental concerns – as the dystopic impulses driving their narratives.

This ecological imagination of disaster can also be seen in sci-fi films that are not ostensibly about the environment. Star Wars stands out in particular here. The transformations between the original 1977 Death Star in the Star Wars trilogy to the Death Stars found in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, succinctly chart a movement from a technological to an ecological imagination of disaster in the genre.

Design for the ultimate Death Star – Star Wars: Rogue One. (Lucasfilms/20th Century Fox)

Death Stars then and now

The potential devastation in the original Death Star is akin to a nuclear strike. The device’s advanced technology is front and centre of its representation – there are plenty of shots of buttons being prodded and levers being pulled prior to its laser firing. More obviously, this weapon’s total and instantaneous destruction of Princess Leia’s home planet of Alderaan neatly connects with fears of a huge atom bomb’s almost unimaginable destructive power.

Destroyer of worlds: the original Death Star in the 1977 Star Wars.(Lucasfilms/20th Century Fox)

By contrast the “new” Death Star of The Force Awakens – called “Star Killer Base” – is solar powered. It is a planet with a weapon in it, as opposed to the original, a weapon shaped like a planet.

Where the destruction of Alderaan by the Death Star felt like a massive explosion, when Star Killer Base’s lasers land on their target planets it is instead as if they go through some sort of geological catastrophe. This geological imagery is echoed when Star Killer Base is itself destroyed. It does not blow up immediately, as the original Death Star did, but undergoes what’s referred to as “a collapse”.

During this collapse two of the central characters, Kylo Ren and Rey, have time for a climactic lightsaber duel among the tectonic chaos, dodging great chasms that open in the ground as the snowy forest landscape is slowly engulfed. This drawn-out collapse sits in stark contrast to the instantaneous explosion of the 1977’s Death Star, wherein no such luxury of time was afforded to Grand Moff Tarkin.

The Death Star in Rogue One also draws on environmental imagery and a longer timescale of destruction. Rogue One is a prequel to 1977’s Star Wars – and the plot partly revolves around the Empire’s construction of this iconic battleship. So it is interesting that – despite a need to ensure continuity with the original film – Rogue One’s Death Star aesthetically operates rather differently to the Death Star first seen in 1977.

When its laser strikes the film quickly ignores the device’s technological underpinning. Instead a Frankenstein stitching of unruly weathers approaches on the target of Jedha City: part mudslide, part storm, part Earthquake, part pyroclastic flow. What once appeared as dangerous technology now manifests as dangerous weather.

Shifting crises

Star Wars’ Death Stars are not alone in this representational shift. In Independence Day (1996), aliens blow up the White House with a laser. By 2016’s Independence Day: Resurgence, the aliens are reinvented as intergalactic miners who use this laser to drill into the Earth’s core to extract energy.

At the end of the original Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston gets down on his knees and exclaims: “You maniacs! You blew it all up” – implying humans bombed themselves into near extinction. By the time Dawn of the Planet of the Apes came along in 2014, we were on the side of an environmentally situated and self-subsisting ape colony, who simply wish to be left alone in the forest. As with Star Wars, the technological seems to give way to the ecological in 21st-century iterations of 20th-century franchises.

Anthropocene anxieties

Susan Sontag’s 1965 article The Imagination of Disaster revolves around her belief that sci-fi films imagine the disaster narrative of the time in which they are made. These examples suggest that the disaster that is being imagined today is environmental, with these films situating the ecological concerns of a warming climate above and beyond that of nuclear Armageddon.

Such a shift in attention is timely and pertinent to the pressures of a rapidly warming climate, and at the time of writing the Amazon rainforest is still burning fiercely.

Through the mirrored unruly environments found in sci-fi cinema and our contemporary moment alike, we are reminded that the worst effects of ecological collapse are continually unfolding. And this crisis is not only happening on fictitious planets and in far-flung time periods – but right here and now on Earth.

About Today's Contributor:

Toby Neilson, PhD Film Researcher, University of Glasgow, is the author of:
Different Death Stars and devastated Earths: Contemporary sf cinema’s imagination of disaster in the Anthropocene

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

Star Wars Related Stories:

• Versions Of Han Solo's Blaster Exist – And They're Way More Powerful Than Real Lightsabers Would Be
• Southend-on-Sea: Street Artist Pays Tribute To Carrie Fisher By Doing What He Does Best
• Star Wars: Escapist Fantasy Or Dream Of The Future?

Miscellaneous:

• What Led Up to the War for the Planet of the Apes
• 'Interstellar' - New Official International Trailer's Out! [Video Included]

Amazon Rainforest Related Stories:

• "Game Of Thrones" Star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Travels To The Amazon With United Nations Development Programme To Discover The Real Story Behind The Fires
• Fires from Deforestation and Negligent Policy are Destroying Amazon Rainforest
• Let's Stop The Amazon Apocalypse! [Petition]

US: Republic Services Launches Recycling Simplified Education Program For Grades Pre-K Through 12

The Recycling Simplified Education Program from Republic Services is a free, downloadable curriculum designed by teachers to incorporate recycling education in schools for pre-kindergarten through 12th grades. The lessons can be taught as a unit or individually and align with individual grade-level curriculum standards in multiple disciplines such as science and STEM, English, language arts and literacy, math and social studies.

Republic Services, an industry leader in U.S. recycling, has introduced a free, downloadable curriculum designed to incorporate recycling education in schools and support students' real-world learning about sustainability and how to recycle properly.

The Recycling Simplified Education Program, designed with teachers for teachers, aligns with individual grade-level curriculum standards in multiple disciplines such as science and STEM, English, language arts and literacy, math and social studies. 

The curriculum contains step-by-step lesson plans for pre-kindergarten through 12th grades with supporting teaching materials, including classroom activities, videos, handouts, virtual field trips and completion certificates.

• A recent Republic Services survey shows that while 88% of Americans agree recycling is important, they are confused about what materials belong in the recycling bin. In fact, 41% of the respondents failed a basic recycling quiz, despite 69% giving themselves an A or B when asked how much they knew about recycling.

"Most people care about the environment and want to recycle; however, many are genuinely unsure about how and what to recycle. In fact, about 30% of what people put in their recycling containers doesn't belong there," said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability. "By reinforcing recycling best practices in our schools, we can reduce recycling contamination rates and ensure local recycling programs remain sustainable for future generations."

The Recycling Simplified Education Program curriculum for grades preK-12 is structured to provide educators with flexibility to teach the lessons as a complete unit or incorporate into existing curriculum plans. Lessons within each grade range build upon students’ current understanding and help them gain greater awareness of the broader environmental, sustainability and societal issues related to recycling and the conservation and reuse of natural resources.

The curriculum is structured to provide educators with flexibility to teach the lessons as a complete unit or incorporate into existing curriculum plans. Lessons within each grade range build upon students' current understanding and help them gain greater awareness of the broader environmental, sustainability and societal issues related to recycling and the conservation and reuse of natural resources.

• The education program is available for free online at RecyclingSimplified.com along with tips, videos and resources to become a better recycler and reduce contamination rates.

About the Survey:

A recent Republic Services survey shows that while 88% of Americans agree recycling is important, they are confused about what materials belong in the recycling bin. In fact, 41% of the respondents failed a basic recycling quiz, despite 69% giving themselves an A or B when asked how much they knew about recycling.

The Recycling "Report Card" Survey was conducted online on behalf of Republic Services from June 17-19, 2019. A nationally representative sample of 1,048 respondents from the US were interviewed. The margin of error on these results is +/- 3 percentage points (based on a confidence interval of 95%).

• Survey Infographic & Additional Findings: Nearly Half of Americans Fail Recycling Quiz

The Video:

SOURCE: Republic Services, Inc.

"Game Of Thrones" Star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Travels To The Amazon With United Nations Development Programme To Discover The Real Story Behind The Fires

"Game of Thrones" star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau during his fact-finding journey to Peru (image via UNDP)

Game of Thrones star and United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has just returned from a fact-finding journey to Peru, where he traveled deep into the jungles of the Amazon with the UN agency to get to the bottom of the causes – and the impacts – of the fires. 

His mission also offered insights into the effects of climate change on the hard-to-reach communities living in the Amazon.

"When I saw those images of the Amazon on fire, like everyone else, I felt shocked, powerless and angry. It didn't make sense to me," Coster-Waldau said. "Which is why I wanted to come to Peru and find out why the Amazon is on fire."

What Coster-Waldau discovered was that the deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon, to which the fires are attributed, can be traced back to economic and social inequalities facing the communities living in this region.

Indigenous and local communities play a key role in safeguarding the Amazon rainforest, which covers more than 60 percent of Peru and is critical for our planet because it holds about 20 percent of the river water on Earth.

But in the Peruvian Amazon, many of these communities also face high levels of poverty and inequality and lack basic infrastructure and resources. Most are small farming or fishing villages whose residents live off the forest and often rely on deforesting their plots to grow food and earn a living.

"What I found when I traveled to Peru is that the burning of the Amazon, the deforestation is incredibly complex. But at the core is social inequality," Coster-Waldau said.

"I met indigenous communities, and they explained the awful dilemma they face: They are farmers. They need to farm, not for great profit but simply to feed their families. These communities are often living in extreme poverty and have an impossible choice: they are the guardians of the Amazon, but they also have little choice but to clear sections of it in order to plant crops just to survive.

The problems indigenous communities face in the Amazon are a window into not just the impacts of climate change, which have intensified over the past 20 years, but one of its biggest causes: inequality.

If we don't address inequality on a global scale, then we won't be able to fix climate change. It's complex, but there's hope. We have the resources, we have the technology. We just need to do it. We need to come together as individuals, as communities, as nations. And if we do that, we can solve the problem."

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in "A Second Chance" (image via Wikipedia - CC BY 3.0)

 "Development challenges are complex, and in Peru, home to the second largest portion of Amazon forest, we have to pursue integrated solutions that ensure that vulnerable communities can accelerate progress towards equality and resilience to climate change," said Maria del Carmen Sacasa, Resident Representative of UNDP in Peru.

About United Nations Development Programme

UNDP is supporting government, private sector and communities in their efforts to reduce deforestation and address climate change in the Peruvian Amazon. Aligned with Peru's national policy framework, UNDP and partners address the root causes of environmental degradation through supporting inclusive governance, by providing technical assistance to stimulate sustainable economic growth and climate proof livelihoods, and through facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships to align public and private finance in support of sustainable development.

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in nearly 170 countries and territories, UNDP offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

SOURCE: United Nations Development Programme

There Is an Arch Villain Behind The Climate Crisis And There Is Just One Solution

The Great Healing

Today one million species of plants and animals are facing extinction. Over the next two decades, global warming will threaten the survival of virtually every multicellular life form — including us. In this "save-the-planet" book, The Great Healing - Five Compassions That Can Save The World, award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker Stephen Erickson, a member of The Great Healing LLC, introduces exquisite creatures, human and non-human, and the challenges they face, while revealing the Arch Villain and humanity's singular solution.

Four esteemed thought leaders have joined Stephen to contribute three new essays, photos, and a poem:

• Wendell Berry - essayist, novelist, poet, farmer, national treasure
• Joel Fuhrman, MD - author of 6 New York Times bestsellers including Eat to Live and The End of Diabetes
• Alan Lewis – guides Food and Agriculture Policy for Natural Grocers stores
• Jo-Anne McArthur - investigative photojournalist

The main cause of global warming is Big Ag. Its behemoth dark twins, industrial agriculture and factory farming, are responsible for creating a far greater share of greenhouse gas emissions than any other industry. Industrial agriculture also kills the life of the soil, its microbiome, destroying healthy soil's ability to sequester carbon — making the Arch Villain a preeminently lethal adversary.

There exists only one solution to the climate crisis: Regenerative agriculture and healthy soil's natural ability to drawdown and hold carbon. The key to achieving this rapidly and at necessary scale are Five Compassions: Compassion for Animals, for Self, for the Land, for Community, and for Democracy.

Compassionate activism and widespread awareness can create The Great Healing. More than a "call-to-action" book, this is a book with a plan. Told empathetically through the stories of exquisite creatures, they are an emotional invitation, a way in, to easily grasp the situation and its urgency.

• Join in what will become the most important cause of all of humanity's endeavors to date.

Stephen Erickson (image via thegreathealing.org)

About Stephen Erickson:

Stephen Erickson is a scriptwriter, feature filmmaker, and entertainment executive. That while fathering his children on this fascinating planet during a short window of time that may prove to have been the most magnificent years for human beings ever to be alive.

In The Great Healing he introduces exquisite creatures and takes the reader on an emotional journey, while alerting everyone to a dire threat and revealing the singular solution.

• Buy The Great Healing - Five Compassions That Can Save The World on Amazon.

SOURCE: The Great Healing LLC

2050 Is Too Late – We Must Drastically Cut Carbon Emissions Much Sooner

Ratcliffe-on-Soar, one of 7 UK coal-fired power plants still in service. (Diana Parkhouse/Unsplash, CC BY-SA)

One of the last things that Theresa May did before she left office as the UK prime minister in July 2019 was to commit the country to a net zero carbon target in 2050. Weaning the entire economy off carbon-based fuels on this sort of timescale sounds ambitious, but several advanced economies have set targets considerably sooner than this.

Sweden and New Zealand are aiming for 2045, Finland for 2035 and Norway for 2030 – the most ambitious of any government. Extinction Rebellion has called for the UK to eliminate all carbon emissions by 2025. Our recent working paper explores the justification for these various targets.

The starting point is the global carbon budget calculated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This is the total amount of carbon that can be emitted into the atmosphere from now until the end of this century. The most recent estimate of a global budget that would offer a 66% chance of limiting climate warming to within 1.5C above the pre-industrial average is 420 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Working from here to a carbon budget for each country is both a technical and an ethical question. Using the UK as a detailed example, a simple proportional allocation would give the UK a budget of approximately 2.9 billion tonnes. But given the UK’s historical responsibility for carbon in the atmosphere and the undeniable need for development in the poorest countries in the world, there is a very strong argument that the UK should adopt a fair carbon budget somewhat lower than this. So, for example, if the poorer countries in the world were to have an allowable carbon budget just one-third higher than the richer countries, this would lead to a fair carbon budget for the UK of around 2.5 billion tonnes.

The question of how long this budget might last has no simple answer, because it depends how fast carbon emissions are cut over time. Remaining within any given budget depends inherently on the emissions pathway the country follows. If we cut emissions faster, we can afford a later target. If we cut too slowly, the budget will be exhausted, and we would be faced with the task of installing uncertain and costly negative emissions technologies to take carbon out of the atmosphere for the rest of the century.

The UK’s carbon footprint in 2018 was about 590m tonnes, measured on a “consumption basis”, which includes the carbon in imports but excludes that of exports. This footprint has been falling slowly (at around 1.5% a year) since 2010. But if it continued to fall this slowly, the carbon budget would be exhausted by 2023, in just four years’ time (Scenario a).

Even if we assume a straight-line reduction to zero emissions in 2050 (Scenario b), we would still generate a carbon overdraft approximately three times our allowable budget. In fact, the latest date by which we could draw a straight line from our current level of emissions to zero and still remain within the budget would be 2025 (Scenario c).

Four UK emissions pathways. (a) is based on our current rate of reduction, and (b) shows that linearly reducing emissions to net zero by 2050 means we’ll exhaust our carbon budget in four years. (c) shows that 2025 is the latest date we could linearly reduce our emissions to net zero, and (d) shows that for a 2050 target to stay within our budget, we’d need a 24% annual reduction in emissions. (Tim Jackson/CUSP, Author provided)

A target later than 2025 is possible only if the UK reduces emissions faster than the straight line pathway in the early years. In order to extend the target date for zero carbon to 2050, emission cuts would need to be in the region of 24% every year for the next three decades (Scenario d).

What is notable about this pathway is that, within little more than a decade, carbon emissions must already have fallen to a very low level. With a 24% annual rate of reduction, UK emissions in 2030 would only be 22m tonnes – less than 5% of the current level of emissions. Only a small programme of negative emissions technologies would be needed to achieve net zero at this point.

Clearly the challenge is still colossal. A 24% reduction in emissions amounts to a cut of 140 million tonnes in the very first year alone. The UK has never achieved anything close to this since its carbon footprint was first measured in 1990. In 2009, when the economy was in recession, the carbon footprint fell by 80m tonnes, while its best post-crisis reduction saw a fall of only 38m tonnes in 2016.

It is dangerously misleading for advanced nations to set target dates as far out as 2050. Doing so ignores the importance of staying within a fair carbon budget and gives a false impression that action can be delayed. In reality, the only way to ensure that any developed country remains within its fair budget is to aim for an early net zero target. For the UK, that means bringing forward the government’s target by at least two decades.

This might all seem daunting, but every year that progress is delayed, the challenge only gets bigger. Remaining within a fair carbon budget for the rest of this century requires deep and early decarbonisation. Anything else will risk a climate catastrophe.

About Today's Contributor:

Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), University of Surrey

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

Fires from Deforestation and Negligent Policy are Destroying Amazon Rainforest

Rainforest: Dispatches from Earth’s Most Vital Frontlines

The Amazon Rainforest, the lungs of the earth, is going up in flames due in large part to deforestation and negligent policy from Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro. 

Rainforests are hotspots of biodiversity and are crucial to our planetary health. These ecosystems provide indispensable benefits, from capturing carbon and ensuring food security to contributing to breakthroughs in medicine, farming, engineering, and protecting numerous species.

Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, the country's government conservation agency, knows rainforests better than anyone. On the Amazon wildfires, he recently wrote, "Our planet's largest freshwater system, biggest living carbon store, greatest repository of biological diversity & one of the richest places for cultural diversity is on fire. Difficult to imagine a more stupid policy than to wreck the Amazon rainforest."

His new book, Rainforest: Dispatches from Earth's Most Vital Frontlines, has been called "science writing at its best," by Booklist. In it, Juniper journeys from the barren forests of the Americas to Indonesia, where palm oil plantations have supplanted much of the former rainforest.

•  Along the way, he delivers a comprehensive view of the crucial roles rainforests serve, the state of the world's rainforests today, how they support civilization, and the inspirational efforts underway to save them.

Juniper explores the temperate zone rainforests, the pressures facing the Congo Basin, and the toll of hunting, forest fragmentation, and invasive species on rainforest wildlife. 

• He also examines how fires, often started by groups like palm oil and pulpwood plantations, can devastate thriving sections of rainforest in hours. 

Throughout, Juniper demonstrates how rainforests across the world have powerful and concrete impacts that reach as far as America's Great Plains and Central Europe.

SOURCE: Island Press

Let's Stop The Amazon Apocalypse! [Petition]

Let's Stop The Amazon Apocalypse! (image via Avaaz.org)

Dear friends,

It's horrifying -- in the past year, an area the size of 500,000 soccer fields has been destroyed in the Amazon! Nearly half a BILLION trees torn down and gone... forever.

This is how they do it: planes drop gasoline to start massive forest fires, armed militia swarm into protected areas, and indigenous leaders who stand up to them are murdered. 

• And Brazil's far-right President Bolsonaro is making it even worse by stripping the Amazon of its remaining protections!

Right now, Amazon champions in Brazil’s Congress are considering sweeping new protections for the precious rainforest. And indigenous groups are calling for international support to ramp up pressure to defend their home.

Let’s build a massive call of citizens from around the world to protect the forest -- when it's huge, allies will deliver our voices to Congress in each key moment to silence the chainsaws and stop this Amazon apocalypse!

>> Click to save the Amazon <<

Bolsonaro has praised forest killers, blocked money for key conservation programs and threatened to evict entire indigenous communities from their lands. And if we don’t stop it, it’s not just the forest we’ll lose. It could be everything. The Amazon breathes in and stores massive amounts of carbon -- and without it, there’s no chance of stopping the climate catastrophe.

A coalition of Brazilian MPs are about to introduce proposals that could bring illegal deforestation in Brazil to ZERO, and key indigenous leaders are calling on the world to help them defend the forest. We can help them!

The Amazon needs us right now. Add your name, and share widely to end the Amazon apocalypse, before it’s too late. Once enough of us sign, we'll throw everything we have to help their struggle -- demonstrations of huge public support, polling, hard-hitting ads, and pressure on key governments around the world to break their silence:

>> Click to save the Amazon <<

Just years ago, when Brazil wanted to put a huge chunk of the Amazon the size of Denmark up for sale, 1.8 million Avaazers worldwide stood up for it and WE WON! Now the threat is even bigger... they're putting the Amazon on death row! So we need to fight harder, smarter and stronger than ever for the Amazon treasure!

With hope and determination,

Loup Dargent

On behalf of Diego, Bert, Laura, Andrew, Mel, Nana, Luis and the rest of the Avaaz team

Sources: 

• 'Football pitch' of Amazon forest lost every minute (BBC)
• Brazil: huge rise in Amazon destruction under Bolsonaro, figures show (The Guardian)
• Donors of Brazilian Amazon Fund should get their way (Rio Times)
• Jair Bolsonaro launches an assault on Amazon rainforest protections (The Guardian)
• Brazil's Bolsonaro gives farm ministry power to decide on indigenous land (Telegraph)