Environment

Half Of Pasture Lands On Earth Degraded By Climate Change, Overuse

May 23, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Pasture Land, Report

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has found that as much as half of the natural pasture land on Earth has been degraded by the impacts of climate change and overexploitation, putting a sixth of the planet’s food supplies at risk. The new UNCCD report — Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Rangelands and Pastoralists — emphasizes the importance of rangelands and points to ways to better manage and restore them while protecting pastoralism. “Degradation of Earth’s extensive, often immense natural pastures and other rangelands due to overuse, misuse, climate change and biodiversity loss poses a severe threat to humanity’s food supply and the wellbeing or survival of billions of people,” a press release from UNCCD said.

Biospheric Cognition

May 23, 2024 James R. Martin, Resilience. Strategize! Biosphere, Ecosystems, Environment, Indigenous Knowledge

Biospheric Cognition is a radical innovation in human cognition which is emerging now, and could only have emerged and evolved in our time in history. It could not have emerged or evolved in the ancient world, or before modernity, because the sciences which enable biospheric cognition to fully realize itself didn’t exist then. “The term “biosphere” was coined in 1875 by geologist Eduard Suess, who defined it as the place on Earth’s surface where life dwells.” – Wikipedia, Biosphere That we live within ecosystems has been well known by traditional people for a very, very long time, since a time even more ancient than ancient civilizations.

Portugal’s Proposed Ecocidal Airport Grounded

May 19, 2024 The Canary. Resist! Air Travel, Airports, climate crisis, Ecocide, Environment, Portugal

The Portuguese government has grounded an ecocidal airport that would have decimated a biodiverse wetland. However, it isn’t the end of the climate-wrecking air travel plan. Specifically, the government is still hurtling ahead with plans to build the new airport at a different location. Of course, this will be disastrous for the climate crisis and nature. Portugal’s airport plans In 2019, the Portuguese government announced plans to build a new airport outside of Lisbon. The government planned to build this in the Tagus Estuary, close to Portugal’s capital. However, it is one of the main estuaries in Western Europe and Portugal’s most important wetland for waterbirds.

Atmospheric CO2 Increasing Ten Times Faster Than In Last 50,000 Years

May 15, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! Carbon Dioxide, climate crisis, CO2, Environment

Carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere 10 times faster than it has in the last 50,000 years, according to a new study led by researchers from University of St. Andrews and Oregon State University. The findings shed light on periods of abrupt climate change in the planet’s history while offering new understanding of the impacts of today’s climate crisis. “Studying the past teaches us how today is different. The rate of CO2 change today really is unprecedented,” said Kathleen Wendt, lead author of the study and an Oregon State University assistant professor in the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS), in a press release from University of St. Andrews.

In Texas, SpaceX’s Rocket Facility Is Blocking Public Beach Access

May 11, 2024 Joseph Bullington, In These Times. Resist! Environment, Public Access, SpaceX, Texas

Boca Chica, Texas — I’m loafing outside my tent, waiting for the coffee to boil, contemplating a morning swim. My pitbull, Shiner, is thrashing in the sand with a look of crazed joy twisting his face. Brown pelicans are cruising low over the roiling gray-green Gulf waters. That’s when a Cameron County sheriff’s deputy drives up and tells us to leave. Boca Chica Beach is now closed so Elon Musk’s company SpaceX can conduct rocket tests at its nearby launchpad, which towers over the dunes just north of our camp. Such beach closures have become frequent since SpaceX started building its Starbase facility about six years ago.

Eco-Collapse Hasn’t Happened Yet, But You Can See It Coming

April 30, 2024 Stan Cox, Resilience. Create! climate crisis, Degrowth, Ecological Collapse, Environment

Something must be up. Otherwise, why would scientists keep sending us those scary warnings? There has been a steady stream of them in the past few years, including “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency” (signed by 15,000 of them), “Scientists’ Warning Against the Society of Waste,” “Scientists’ Warning of an Imperiled Ocean,” “Scientists’ Warning on Technology,” “Scientists’ Warning on Affluence,” “Climate Change and the Threat to Civilization,” and even “The Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future.” Clearly, there’s big trouble ahead and we won’t be able to say that no one saw it coming. In fact, a warning of ecological calamity that made headlines more than 50 years ago is looking all too frighteningly prescient right now.

Forest Defenders Declare Victory After 22-Day Tree Sit

April 24, 2024 Unicorn Riot. Resist! Environment, Environmental Activists, Environmental Justice, Forest Defenders, Oregon, Treesit, Victory

Josephine County, OR – Environmentalists are declaring victory after occupying a stand of old growth forest for three weeks to prevent trees from being logged. Forest defenders launched a tree sit on April 1 to prevent Boise Cascade Wood Products, the timber company who bought the logging rights, from cutting a stand of mature trees which represents some of the last remaining intact old growth in the region. For 22 days, community members occupied a patch of old growth forest that sits inside the boundaries of the Poor Windy Forest Management Plan.

Ten Times More Toxic Pesticide Could End Up On Our Food Under Proposal

April 24, 2024 Sharon Lerner, ProPublica. Educate! Environment, EPA, Food and Agriculture, health, Pesticide

When you bite into a piece of celery, there’s a fair chance that it will be coated with a thin film of a toxic pesticide called acephate. The bug killer — also used on tomatoes, cranberries, Brussels sprouts and other fruits and vegetables — belongs to a class of compounds linked to autism, hyperactivity and reduced scores on intelligence tests in children. But rather than banning the pesticide, as the European Union did more than 20 years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed easing restrictions on acephate.

New Documentary Film Urges Us To Rethink Our Relationship With Soil

April 23, 2024 Siri Chilukuri, In These Times. Create! Earth Day, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Regenerative Farming

Comment on industrial agriculture mostly appears in the mainstream only when something has gone awry. The current avian flu epidemic comes to mind, but it’s rare for the general public to step back from the alarm of novel threats to take a more comprehensive look at why our current system doesn’t work for its supposed purpose of feeding people. Common Ground, a new documentary now screening in AMC theaters across the country (and 2023 Tribeca Film Award winner), isn’t afraid to point its finger at Big Ag for the problems with industrial agriculture.

Letting Your Grass Grow Wild Boosts Butterfly Numbers

April 23, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! Butterflies, Environment, Rewilding, United Kingdom (UK)

Have you ever noticed that meadows of long grass seem to be teeming with butterflies, bumble bees, beetles, crickets and other insects? Meanwhile, short-cropped, bright green lawns appear devoid of critters in comparison. A six-year study of butterfly sightings in 600 gardens in the United Kingdom has confirmed that letting your lawn grow wild can significantly increase butterfly and moth numbers. “Nature is in crisis; 80% of butterflies have declined since the 1970s, so we need to take action now to protect them. We wanted to be able to give tried and tested gardening advice that will benefit butterflies as we know lots of people want to help.

War And Genocide On Earth Day

April 22, 2024 Melissa Garriga, Consortium News. Educate! Earth Day, Environment, Genocide, health, Wars and Militarism

On Earth Day Monday, prepare for the annual spectacle of U.S. lawmakers donning their environmentalist hats, waxing poetic about their love for the planet while disregarding the devastation their actions wreak. The harsh reality is that alongside their hollow pledges lies a trail of destruction fueled by military aggression and imperial ambitions, all under the guise of national security. Take Gaza, for instance. Its once-fertile farmland now lies barren, its water sources poisoned by conflict and neglect.

Communities Protest Banking Giant’s Annual Meeting Over Environmental Racism

April 21, 2024 Hannah Sharland, The Canary. Resist! Big Banks, Environment, Environmental racism, The Netherlands

Activists from the world are uniting against Dutch banking giant ING’s environmental racism. Specifically, at the company’s upcoming AGM they plan to call out ING’s financing of a big polluter and climate-wrecking industries harming marginalised communities throughout the Global North and South. On Monday 22 April community defenders from the US, Mexico, Brazil, Liberia, and the Czech Republic will attend ING’s AGM to call out the company’s financing for destructive big polluters. Fossil fuel finance accountability non-profit BankTrack and Netherlands climate campaign group Fossielvrij have facilitated their travel to Amsterdam, to take on the banking giant at this key meeting.

Report: Debt-For-Nature Swaps Could Help Fight Climate Crisis

April 16, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! climate crisis, Climate Justice, Conservation, Environment, Report

According to a new analysis by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), more than $100 billion of developing countries’ debt could be made available to spend on nature restoration, protecting ecosystems like rainforests and coral reefs and climate change adaptation. The research is part of IIED’s “hidden handbrakes” campaign, designed to reveal and explain unseen obstacles to climate action. “Many of the countries most threatened by rising temperatures have huge debt burdens, and are forever paying interest to wealthier nations that have contributed much more to the climate crisis,” said Laura Kelly.

EPA’s New Rule Aims To Cut Toxic Emissions

April 15, 2024 Julie Dermansky, DeSmog. Resist! Air Pollution, Cancer Alley, Environment, EPA

Leaders in the fight for clean air from Louisiana’s Cancer Alley joined the Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator Michael Regan on April 9 in Washington, D.C., for the announcement of a new rule governing air toxics-spewing chemical plants. The rule is intended to prevent cancer in surrounding low-income and minority communities. The announcement represents a milestone for environmental justice in communities historically overburdened by air-toxics pollution. But a growing number of proposed industrial projects threaten to further pollute the mostly low-income Black neighborhoods along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Draining The World Of Fresh Water

April 15, 2024 Andrew Nikiforuk, Resilience. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Technosphere, Water

The thirst of humans and our technology for water, according to two important studies, is bottomless and accelerating, even if the precious liquid itself is finite on this planet. One study shows that human activity has massively altered the world’s flow of surface water and imperilled water cycles critical for life as varied as fish and forests. The other confirms that in many places on Earth aquifers and groundwater wells are being pumped and mined faster than they can be replenished. The concept of the technosphere helps to explain the forces in play.

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