Climate change and biodiversity should be top headline news (David Suzuki)
We’re Not the Class of 2019. We’re the Class of 0000.
Deliver a plan for zero emissions—or get zero of our votes.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/10/were-not-class-2019-were-class-0000
Coops, community, and agroforestry: Q&A with coffee entrepreneur Dean Cycon
If you’re older than 27 you’ve lived through 50% of humanity’s fossil fuel emissions (carbon concentration being reallocated into atmosphere and oceans mainly),
of all time
https://twitter.com/neilrkaye/status/1129347990777413632
What if reporters covered the climate crisis like Edward R. Murrow covered the start of World War II?
by Bill Moyers (link to video included)
https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/bill-moyers-climate-change.php
After Years of Abuse, the Earth Has Sent Its Bill Collectors
Does Mother Nature have a sense of irony?
https://truthout.org/articles/after-years-of-abuse-the-earth-has-sent-its-bill-collectors/
End fossil fuel subsidies, and stop using taxpayers’ money to destroy the world: Guterres
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1039241
US is hotbed of climate change denial, major global survey finds
Exclusive: Out of 23 big countries, only Saudi Arabia and Indonesia
had higher proportion of doubters
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/07/us-hotbed-climate-change-denial-international-poll
Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/us/politics/trump-climate-science.html
As Capitalism Fails, We Need a Roadmap to Survive Climate Change
https://truthout.org/articles/as-capitalism-fails-we-need-a-roadmap-to-survive-climate-change/
Green New Deal: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO, 20 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDcro7dPqpA
SF Bay Area Greenprint
https://www.bayareagreenprint.org/
Silicon Valley Could Care Less About Earth’s Imminent Demise
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/silicon-valley-doesnt-give-a-damn-about-earths-imminent-demise/
California may let polluters offset carbon by preserving rain forests. Here are the pitfalls – Los Angeles Times
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-song-climate-change-rain-forest-offsets-20190523-story.html
Where the forest has no name
North America’s temperate rainforest extends some 2,500 miles from California to the Gulf of Alaska, providing important habitat for many species and playing a big role in global carbon sequestration.
However, despite its uniqueness, there is no officially recognized name for the whole of the forest.
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/where-the-forest-has-no-name/
AND
Rain Forests of Home Atlas
https://ecotrust.org/publication/rain-forests-home-atlas/
The governments of 187 countries have agreed to control the movement of plastic waste between national borders, in an effort to curb the world’s plastic crisis — but the United States was not among them.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/11/world/basel-convention-plastic-waste-trade-intl/index.html
AND
Basel Convention Agrees To Control Plastic Waste Trade
https://www.eurasiareview.com/11052019-basel-convention-agrees-to-control-plastic-waste-trade/
Plastic warms the planet twice as much as aviation – here’s how to make it climate-friendly
https://theconversation.com/plastic-warms-the-planet-twice-as-much-as-aviation-heres-how-to-make-it-climate-friendly-116376
AND
Plastic & Climate: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet
https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Plastic-and-Climate-Executive-Summary-2019.pdf
AND
Plastic Is Just as Destructive to the Climate as Oil and Gas
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/plastic-is-just-as-destructive-to-the-climate-as-oil-and-gas/
What do the plastics and climate crises have in common? The same someone profiting from the status quo
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/what-do-plastics-and-climate-crises-have-common-same-someone-profiting-status-quo
We’ve run out of elections to waste – this is the last chance to make a difference on climate change | Bill McKibben
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/14/weve-run-out-of-elections-to-waste-this-is-the-last-chance-to-make-a-difference-on-climate-change
Carbon farming can slash CO2 emissions
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/carbon-farming-can-slash-co2-emissions/
The world needs topsoil to grow 95% of its food – but it’s rapidly disappearing
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/30/topsoil-farming-agriculture-food-toxic-america
Rodale Institute Approved
We’re partnering with select brands to create “Rodale Institute Approved” products
that support regenerative organic agriculture.
https://rodaleinstitute.org/rodale-institute-approved/
From chicken to tomatoes, here’s why American food is hurting you.
The recent news about glyphosate and cancer only highlights
a broader problem with our system:
our obsession with killing the natural world is poisoning us.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/from-chicken-to-tomatoes-heres-why-american-food-is-hurting-you
Foundation For Climate Restoration Partners With Earth Day Network
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/05/22/foundation-for-climate-restoration-partners-with-earth-day-network/
‘Now I Am Speaking to the Whole World.’ How Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Got Everyone to Listen
“Can you hear me?” Greta Thunberg asks the 150 members and advisers in
the U.K. Houses of Parliament. She taps the microphone as if to check if
it’s on, but the gesture is meant as a rebuke; she’s asking if they’re
listening. She asks again later in her speech. “Did you hear what I just
said? Is my English O.K.? Is my microphone on? Because I’m beginning to
wonder.” There is laughter, but it’s unclear if it’s amused or awkward.
https://news.yahoo.com/apos-now-am-speaking-whole-100039508.html
From Greta Thunberg to Parkland: Young Activists and the Right-Wing Smear Industry
These attacks have become an industry supposedly rooted in a worldview that
worships rights and individual freedoms, but, in actual fact, is rooted
in a hatred of activism, principle, and dedication.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/20/greta-thunberg-parkland-young-activists-and-right-wing-smear-industry
The selfish case for saving bees: it’s how to save ourselves
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/18/saving-bees-save-ourselves-pollinators
Action on the Bee Crisis: Paul Stamets (video, 21 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZPkCozuqM8
A new zero waste hierarchy for the circular economy
https://resource.co/article/new-zero-waste-hierarchy-circular-economy
Are developing countries being excluded from the circular economy?
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news-analysis/3076142/developing-countries-are-excluded-from-circular-economy-debate-report-suggests
Siblings on a Mission to Grow Gardens, Not Landfills Earn $50,000 from General Mills
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/siblings-mission-grow-gardens-not-130300447.html
Why the Indian Ocean is spawning strong and deadly tropical cyclones
https://theconversation.com/why-the-indian-ocean-is-spawning-strong-and-deadly-tropical-cyclones-116559
Fracking can cause earthquakes tens of kilometres away – new research
https://theconversation.com/fracking-can-cause-earthquakes-tens-of-kilometres-away-new-research-116539
How eminent domain is blighting farmers in path of gas pipeline
Compulsory purchase – or the threat of it – of property on the route of a pipeline
for fracked natural gas has left a slew of grievances and lawsuits in West Virginia and Virginia
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/how-eminent-domain-is-blighting-farmers-in-path-of-gas-pipeline
I oversaw the U.S. nuclear power industry. Now I think it should be banned.
The danger from climate change no longer outweighs the risks of nuclear accidents.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-oversaw-the-us-nuclear-power-industry-now-i-think-it-should-be-banned/2019/05/16/a3b8be52-71db-11e9-9eb4-0828f5389013_story.html
Dismantling of Brazilian environmental protections gains pace
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/dismantling-of-brazilian-environmental-protections-gains-pace/
Open Forum: Eating organic can help reduce the high cost of cheap food
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Open-Forum-Eating-organic-can-help-reduce-the-13830691.php
The Green New Deal Needs an Anti-war Message
https://diem25.org/the-green-new-deal-needs-an-anti-war-message/
‘New economics’ – the way to save the planet?
https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN1SE2CU
The term “resilience” is everywhere. But what does it really mean?
https://ensia.com/articles/what-is-resilience/
Climate policy can recreate prosperity of the New Deal
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/442691-climate-policy-can-recreate-prosperity-of-the-new-deal
A Green New Deal Must Prioritize Regenerative Agriculture
https://truthout.org/articles/a-green-new-deal-must-prioritize-regenerative-agriculture/
‘The Art Of Food’ By Rick Bennett
https://www.leoweekly.com/event/art-food-rick-bennett/
Danone plans to triple health food sales
Chief says French food group wants to encourage more sustainable eating and drinking
https://www.ft.com/content/45dd0390-6ce2-11e9-a9a5-351eeaef6d84
Banned bread: why does the US allow additives that Europe says are unsafe?
China, Brazil and members of the EU have weighed the potential risks and outlawed chemicals found in US loaves.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/bread-additives-chemicals-us-toxic-america
‘Common ground through common food’
City’s new Cultural Foods Program has coordinator
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/texarkana/common-ground-through-common-food/777892/
Growers take up fight for a better climate
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business/farming/farming-news/887279/growers-take-up-fight-for-a-better-climate/
Beating the dry in your garden: reviving carbon-depleted soils
https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/country-living/gardening/beating-the-dry-in-your-garden-reviving-carbondepleted-soils/news-story/98ac3810ded79fe6651ccb9aaa2db608
Controversial Study: Do State Renewable Laws Work?
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/controversial-study-asks-do-renewable-energy-standards-work/588823/
Australia’s Politics May Be Changing With Its Climate
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/climate/australia-climate-change-politics.html
How to prepare for climate impacts without creating financial chaos
https://ensia.com/features/climate-change-financial-crisis/
The World’s First 3D-Printed Village Is Coming to Latin America This Summer
https://www.dwell.com/article/3d-printed-village-yves-behar-icon-new-story-c56ded54
As Jeff Creque, agricultural director at the Carbon Cycle Institute,
which promotes carbon-focused agriculture, said the state should
instead be aiming to engage 3% of its agricultural land annually, so
that by 2050 all of the state’s 25 million acres of agricultural land
becomes a net carbon sink — that’s the kind of commitment needed to meet
the state’s decarbonization goals.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-leslie-regenerative-farming-california-20190513-story.html
Dr. Bronner’s Helps Bring Better Opportunities to Farmers in India
https://foodtank.com/news/2019/05/dr-bronners-helps-bring-better-opportunities-to-farmers-in-india/
Ethiopia will plant 4 billion trees to fight deforestation
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ethiopia-will-plant-4bn-trees-to-fight-deforestation-nbqjt5mzv
Frances Arnold Turns Microbes Into Living Factories Instead of synthesizing new biochemicals from scratch, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist puts nature to the task — with astonishing results.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/science/frances-arnold-caltech-evolution.htm
Rolling coffee cups into the circular economy
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/rolling-coffee-cups-circular-economy-sponsored
Human impact on climate is 100 years old | Climate News Network
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/human-impact-on-climate-is-100-years-old/
Scientists around the world are working to turn agricultural waste into food, packaging and more
https://ensia.com/features/agricultural-waste/
MIGRATION, AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE( FAO)
http://www.fao.org/3/I9549EN/i9549en.pdf
The Precise Ways Climate Change Is Putting Food at Risk
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/crops-at-risk-from-changing-climate/
The Battle for Rights of Nature Heats Up in the Great Lakes
https://www.ecowatch.com/lake-erie-bill-of-rights–2637300365.html
Mexico City passes ban on plastic bags, utensils
https://www.apnews.com/30220911369e4426bc73a964f8ac5e06
Retired oil rigs off the California coast could find new lives as artificial reefs
https://theconversation.com/retired-oil-rigs-off-the-california-coast-could-find-new-lives-as-artificial-reefs-111892
Air Pollution and Noncommunicable Diseases
https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(18)32723-5/fulltext
IPBES Global Assessment Summary for Policymakers (PDF)
Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on
biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
https://www.ipbes.net/spm_unedited_advance_for_posting_htn.pdf
AND
UK supermarkets implicated in Amazon deforestation supply chain: report
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/uk-supermarkets-implicated-in-amazon-deforestation-supply-chain-report/
TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE — WITH GOOD UNION JOBS
The Green New Deal is the plan we need to push wages up and pollution down.
https://otherwords.org/save-the-planet-with-good-union-jobs/
Time to follow the green new leaders
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/05/17/time-to-follow-the-green-new-leaders.html
Regressives’ junk science is having real consequences
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-states-are-laboratories–run-right-now-by-mad-scientists/2019/05/17/94da1a72-78aa-11e9-bd25-c989555e7766_story.html
After Standing Rock, protesting pipelines can get you a decade in prison and $100K in fines
https://grist.org/article/after-standing-rock-protesting-pipelines-can-get-you-a-decade-in-prison-and-100k-in-fines/
Ten per cent of the oxygen we breathe comes from just one kind of bacteria in the ocean.
Now laboratory tests have shown that these bacteria are susceptible to plastic pollution, according to a new study
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0410-x
Qantas flies first zero-waste flight amid growing concerns about single-use plastics
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/quantas-flies-waste-flight-amid-growing-concerns-single/story?id=62905046
Researchers develop viable, environmentally-friendly alternative to Styrofoam™.
For the first time, the researchers report, the plant-based material
surpassed the insulation capabilities of Styrofoam™ (PS #6). It is also very
lightweight and can support up to 200 times its weight without changing
shape. (“It degrades well, and burning it doesn’t produce polluting ash.”. . .hmmm)
https://news.wsu.edu/2019/05/09/researchers-develop-viable-environmentally-friendly-alternative-styrofoam/
What Happens When Hotels Pledge to Reduce Plastics?
https://skift.com/2019/05/13/what-happens-when-hotels-pledge-to-reduce-plastics/
Are you ready for Fair Trade … plastics?
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/are-you-ready-fair-trade-plastics
AND
Plastics For Change
Changing Lives Through Recycling
www.plasticsforchange.org/
Plastic waste joins ‘amber’ export restrictions
https://recyclinginternational.com/plastics/export-restrictions/
REPORT: Burning the Natural Gas ‘Bridge Fuel’ Myth: Why Gas Is Not Clean, Cheap, or Necessary
http://priceofoil.org/2019/05/30/gas-is-not-a-bridge-fuel/
AND
Climate Denying Trump Administration Rebrands Burning Fossil Fuels
as “Freedom Gas”
http://priceofoil.org/2019/05/30/climate-denying-trump-administration-rebrands-fossil-fuels-as-freedom-gas/
Sperm counts are on the decline – could plastics be to blame?
Research suggests that sperm counts have dropped by half in the last 50 years or so
and that a higher percentage are poor swimmers.
A recent study that tested both men and dogs added to concerns
that chemicals in the environment are damaging the quality and quantity of sperm.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/24/toxic-america-sperm-counts-plastics-research
AND
Chemicals in water and soda bottles and cans.
Though its health effects are still debated, the EPA says it is concerned about bisphenol (such as BPA) because ‘it is a reproductive, developmental and systemic toxicant’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/24/bisphenols-bpa-everyday-toxics-guide
Are ExxonMobil Executives the most evil people in the 200K-yr-long History of Humanity?
Internal ExxonMobil documents show that the company’s scientists predicted in 1982 that by 2020, parts per million of carbon dioxide in earth’s atmosphere would reach 410-420
ppm. For the first time this spring ppm of CO2 exceeded 415.
The 1982 memo says in part,
“Considerable uncertainty also surrounds the possible impact on
society of such a warming trend, should it occur. At the low end of the
predicted temperature range there could be some impact on agricultural
growth and rainfall patterns which could be beneficial in some regions
and detrimental in others.”
“At the high end, some scientists suggest there could be considerable
adverse impact including the flooding of some coastal land masses as a
result of a rise in sea level due to melting of the Antarctic ice
sheet.”
https://www.juancole.com/2019/05/exxonmobil-executives-humanity.html
AND
Reminder: Climate Change Was No Accident
As far back as 1982, fossil fuel executives knew they were trading a few decades of profits for the entire future of the planet.
https://otherwords.org/reminder-climate-change-was-no-accident/
AND
Exxon predicted in 1982 exactly how high global carbon emissions would be
today | The company expected that, by 2020, carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere would reach roughly 400-420 ppm. This month’s measurement of
415 ppm is right within the expected curve Exxon projected
https://thinkprogress.org/exxon-predicted-high-carbon-emissions-954e514b0aa9/
Wilder world can slow climate change
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/wilder-world-can-slow-climate-change/
World’s Richest Man Jeff Bezos Hides Backstage as Amazon Workers Demand ‘Bold, Rapid’ Climate Action
“How will we tell our children that we knew we had such a small window to
act decisively, but instead we helped Shell, BP, and others find and
extract oil more quickly?”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/23/worlds-richest-man-jeff-bezos-hides-backstage-amazon-workers-demand-bold-rapid
Republicans aren’t just climate deniers. They deny the extinction crisis, too
Republican officials and their industry benefactors are sowing doubt about
the wildlife extinction crisis that threatens as many as one million species
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/23/republicans-arent-just-climate-deniers-they-deny-the-extinction-crisis-too
Air pollution from every single power plant in the world, tracked – Vox
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/5/7/18530811/global-power-plants-real-time-pollution-data
Anthropocene now: influential panel votes to recognize Earth’s new epoch.
‘Atomic Age’ would mark the start of the current geologic time unit, if proposal receives final approval.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01641-5
The Rockefeller Foundation shuttered its “100 Resilient Cities” plan, calling into question the reliance on philanthropy to bolster climate resilience.
The Folly of Climate Change Philanthropy:
Corporate largesse won’t save cities from global warming —
especially when it comes from the industry that helped cause the predicament.
https://undark.org/2019/05/23/the-folly-of-climate-change-philanthropy/
Increasing ecosystem carbon is good for species, says new study
https://forestsnews.cifor.org/60815/increasing-ecosystem-carbon-is-good-for-species-says-new-study?fnl=en
AND
UEBT BIODIVERSITY BAROMETER
Discover the results of the UEBT survey conducted in 2019
http://www.biodiversitybarometer.org/
An (Even More) Inconvenient Truth:
Why Carbon Credits For Forest Preservation May Be Worse Than Nothing
https://features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-offsets/inconvenient-truth-carbon-credits-dont-work-deforestation-redd-acre-cambodia/
Algae: Single-Celled Savior Of The Climate Crisis
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/05/28/algae-single-celled-savior-of-the-climate-crisis/#79b6077c55df
What Would It Mean to Deeply Accept That We’re in Planetary Crisis?
https://truthout.org/articles/what-would-it-mean-to-deeply-accept-that-were-in-planetary-crisis/
Compostable Food Boxes Leach Harmful Chemicals Into Soil
https://www.courthousenews.com/compostable-food-boxes-leach-harmful-chemicals-into-soil/
AND
Perfluoroalkyl Acid Characterization in U.S. Municipal Organic Solid Waste Composts
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.estlett.9b00280
Here’s How the Oil Industry Plans to Solve Climate Change<
https://psmag.com/environment/heres-how-the-oil-industry-plans-to-solve-climate-change