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.
Continue reading... →
The impact of climate change on Arctic communities is so great that it limits their ability to adapt, or at least that’s what has long been assumed. But according to a recent study in Nature Climate Change, it’s non-climatic factors that obstruct adaptation. For those communities who struggle with adapting, the hurdles they face are unrelated to climate change. Instead, outside pressures, such as outdated land management practices, bureaucratic regulatory processes, limited education and marginalization curb the ability of these communities to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Continue reading... →
I recognize that I do not see a random sample of young people by teaching graduate students in environmental policy and sustainability management at Columbia University. I also confess that my visit last week to Portland, Oregon to meet with sustainability management students at Willamette University is influencing my mindset. Portland has been working on sustainability for a long time, and it shows. Caveats aside, I find that more and more people born since the mid 1980’s have internalized aspects of an environmental ethos, and that awareness will soon have a major impact on American politics. While Gallup continues to poll on what I consider the false tradeoff between economic growth and environmental protection, even their data reports growing environmental awareness, especially among young people.
Continue reading... →