Some environmentalists call the move a step in the right direction. Others are concerned about how many acres of rain forest might need to be cleared for sugar plantations.
“You’ll find haters, but it’s way better than petroleum,” Stephen Mayfield, a molecular biologist at UC San Diego, told Mashable.
Switching from oil-based to plant-based plastics cuts the carbon footprint of a product by around 70 percent, Mayfield said.
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Add this to the list of decisions affected by climate change: Should I have children?
It is not an easy time for people to feel hopeful, with the effects of globalwarming no longer theoretical, projections becoming more dire and governmental action lagging. And while few, if any, studies have examined how large a role climate change plays in people’s childbearing decisions, it loomed large in interviews with more than a dozen people ages 18 to 43.
A 32-year-old who always thought she would have children can no longer justify it to herself. A Mormon has bucked the expectations of her religion by resolving to adopt rather than give birth. An Ohio woman had her first child after an unplanned pregnancy — and then had a second because she did not want her daughter to face an environmental collapse alone.
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It’s low tide in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago off Africa’s eastern coast, as a group of women in brightly colored clothing gather on the beach, and then walk into the sea. They are seaweed farmers, responsible for growing the aquatic plants that are Zanzibar’s largest marine export.
Men hold most of the jobs in this conservative Muslim society, but more than 80 percent of seaweed farmers here are women. Over the past few decades, trade in seaweed has brought them unprecedented financial independence — and the social status that comes with it.
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Just in time for Thanksgiving, a new digital calculator is taking the guesswork out of portion planning to help hosts reduce the massive amount of food, money and resources that go to waste around the holiday. The “Guest-imator” is the latest waste-busting consumer resource from the Ad Council and Natural Resources Defense Council’s Save The Food national public service campaign. “Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful, yet it’s often unintentionally wasteful as well,” said NRDC senior scientist Dana Gunders. “Hosts can have the best intentions, but planning a meal for a large group is still tricky. This calculator can help cooks prepare enough for turkey-cranberry sandwiches the day after the feast, but avoid a stockpile of past-due leftovers a week later.” Created pro bono by SapientRazorfish, the Guest-imator is designed to eliminate unnecessary over-purchasing, saving consumers money and preventing food waste before it starts.
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Using reusable shopping bags can help reduce the amount of plastic bag waste. It’s a necessity for us to grocery shop. We need food so we can thrive and survive. However, how we transport food from the store to our home can have a huge impact on the environment. While plastic bags are convenient, they also cause a lot of problems. Plastic bags are made from nonrenewable oil byproducts. While you can recycle them, the process isn’t simple or easy. In fact, it costs less to create new plastic bags than it does to recycle old bags. There are so many plastic bags in the world that 300 million are found in the ocean every year. Plastic wreaks havoc on sea life, including turtles, dolphins and other animals who often mistake the bags as jellyfish and eat them.
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Women play a vital role in society; we are the hub in the wheel on which the family resides, we are the silent hard workers. A woman symbolizes the earth, she searches for food and offers protection and safety.
Through the generations, women have fought for the right to vote, an end to sexual violence, equal rights in family law, fair wages or equal pay, the rights to own property and to education, the list is endless. Our next pivotal role now, which has always been of paramount importance but has become critical: our role in sustainability.
I believe that we can be catalysts for innovation in sustainability. We are naturally nurturing and what better a cause to fight for than mother earth and the health of its inhabitants.
Parents and teachers who are searching for ways to engage kids with local environmental issues might look to their community parks or science museums for opportunities. But what about art? Environmental issues can often be overwhelming or disheartening for members of the public, and art offers an innovative way to promote interest that can lead to deeper engagement down the line. This approach presents a particular opportunity for younger audiences, combining activities they love – like coloring, building, and crafts – with the basics of environmental issues.
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Melbourne physiotherapist Lauren Dircks and her husband Andrew Casey began their ethical shopping journey when they had their first child nine years ago. The couple had already done a six-month course on sustainable living and saw an opportunity to make food choices that aligned their environmental principles with better health. “It was about making different choices and how you can take little steps to be a better global citizen,” Lauren says.
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A brother-sister duo have teamed up to give shoppers on Auckland’s North Shore a taste of nostalgia. Andrea and Robert Watt have opened The Source Bulk Food in Milford, bringing unbranded, bulk food retail to the community in an effort to revitalize old-fashioned grocery shopping. The business stocks more than 400 products from as close to the source as possible, and is committed to being zero-waste, vetoing the use of plastic bags in favor of recyclable paper ones.
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Many believe the fight to combat climate change hinges on the aligned interests of capital and state. Give the Elon Musks of the world enough time and resources and they will innovate us out of impending climate catastrophe. Get the G20 in a room and they will hammer out a deal and create regulations to enforce it. Or so the thinking in some circles goes. Yet throughout history, the interests of the state have slid into alignment with big oil and big profits rather than lining up with our rivers, our air, our wildlife and our people. But the first people of this land, who often live on the frontlines of our metastasizing climate disaster, remain resolute. It is our sacred responsibility to protect and preserve this planet for future generations.
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