Floating trash collector will try to scoop up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
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At the end of March, President Trump released his budget proposal. And what is a budget, other an expression of a statement of values. Think about it: what do you care about, and how is that translated into your daily spending? Where do you choose to spend your money? It appears that science and research in general are under attack within the Trump Administration. This applies to critical health research as well. The largest cuts in the budget proposal are to the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposal to cut 31% of the agency’s funding has troubling implications for numerous programs that ensure people’s ability to live in healthy and vibrant communities. Let’s look at how programs that address toxic chemicals will be impacted.
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With drought, economic instability, erratic weather and interruptions in transportation a very real threat, it really doesn’t take much to have the food supply disrupted. As the famous proverb says: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Taking this proverb and running with it, a team of innovators from Quebec, Canada have developed an eco-friendly and exceptionally cost-effective solution to our food woes — The Greenhouse of the Future. Combining the principles of Earthships, aquaponics and passive solar greenhouses, Gendron — along with friends, Christian Désilets and Curt Close — designed and built a radically different food growing system. Not wholly surprising, they christened it The Greenhouse of the Future.
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16-year-old climate activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is petitioning the 2016 U.S. presidential candidates to take a strong stance on ending climate change. In a Care2 petition and a corresponding video letter, Martinez is urging the candidates to pledge to end fossil fuel use in the U.S. by 2026. The petition attracted over 100,000 signatures in its first week online.
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Gender matters now more than ever in sustainability — not just for the sake of individual women, but for the prospects of the global economy, the environment and society at large. In developing countries, the focus is on forging more paths to self-sufficiency and better safeguards for women who do find financial opportunity in ever-expanding global supply chains.
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Fairphone is the world’s first socially responsible and sustainable company to design, manufacture and sell mobile phones. Like most companies, Fairphone aims to make a profit. But less common is that the company refuses to do so at the expense of its purpose.
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The middle class, which is “fundamental to social stability and economic growth” with real clout, will be threatened by climate change in the near future as the majority live in urban cities, many of which are located on coastlines exposed to climate risks,.
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Water is sacred to the Turtle Mountain Tribe among many other. Water, more than anything, explains why members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians acted so quickly when they learned their region was next in line for fracking. Within just a few weeks of tribal women meeting on the topic in late 2011, the council banned fracking on the 77,000-acre reservation. They now are developing alternative energy with a Department of Energy grant.
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We’ve really been on a roll this year. And when I say we I don’t just mean 350.org the organization. I mean this big, broad movement we’ve built together—you, me, 350’s many partner organizations, the hundreds of local groups we work with every day and all the many individuals around the world who take action in ways large and small. This was such a landmark year that we had a really hard time picking just 10 things for the list below. In fact, it really seems like we’re getting close to a sort of climate-action tipping point. Of course, we’re not kidding ourselves into thinking that the fossil fuel industry is going to sit back and let it all happen. (In fact, the Secretary-General of Europe’s coal lobby recently accused the European Commission of being “in cahoots with protest movements” and called for the creation of a “less ambitious” climate plan in 2016). People and companies that benefit from the status quo will pull us backwards if we let them—so we can’t let them. Can you help us continue this fight in 2016? Next year, we’re taking on the fossil fuel industry more directly than ever, as well as keeping the pressure […]
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Studies show that collective intelligence rises with the number of women in a group—but women are often underrepresented at talks like COP21. Meet 15 leaders worth listening to. Women, particularly those in developing countries, are on the frontlines of a changing climate. Extreme weather events, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity threaten their survival and that of their families. Yet, when confronted with social and economic exclusion, women’s vulnerabilities remain hidden and their voices quiet. Women have been severely underrepresented at high levels of policymaking around global environmental concerns as well. In the climate arena, the need to improve women’s participation in negotiations was explicitly recognized by COP 7 in Marrakech in 2001 as the impact of gender balance on decisionmaking became more evident. Why is this a problem? Studies show that collective intelligence rises with the number of women in a group. Engaging a critical mass of women is linked to more progressive and positive outcomes and to more sustainability-focused decisionmaking across sectors. Yet, women have remained a notable minority in climate negotiations at both the national and international level, in the global scientific body on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and in media debates about climate. Women’s representation in bodies and […]
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