Published on Jun 12, 2015
Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson discusses his views on divestment. “I happen to think that those kinds of risks should be disclosed. And if they’re disclosed then I think that goes a long way to solving the issue rather than dictating what an endowment can invest in,” said Paulson.
Speaker:
Henry Paulson, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
This program was recorded before a live audience on April 28, 2015.
NBC series edited to one short video. Global warming, climate change, extreme weather, heat, wildfires, prolonged drought, floods, extreme NH cold, severe coastal storms, and Arctic rapid warming and Arctic summer sea loss. There is a link.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The mayor of Minneapolis and the chairman of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux signed an agreement Tuesday that promotes the use of biochar.
Jim Doten, Minneapolis’ environmental services’ supervisor, says it’s a product similar to cooking charcoal that’s used for gardening.
“They really increase the soil fertility, it increases crop yields, it reduces the amount of inputs you need, the amount of fertilizer you need,” Doten said.
Biochar is typically made from waste wood which is heated to 500 degrees in a sealed container. The resulting product is very porous, so in garden soil, biochar holds water and nutrients.
“It will be in the soil for hundreds, up to thousands of years, rather than breaking down and being released into the atmosphere,” he said.
Some beautiful veggies are growing in a garden near the Indian Health Board Facility in Minneapolis. It is one of five biochar demonstration gardens in the city.
The idea, according to organic farmer Christina Elias, is to grow more food on smaller plots, near communities that need fresh produce.
“We moved in 47 tons of soil,” Elias said. “It’s strong in Native American practices, and we have Oneida corn, we have the black turtle beans, Cherokee trail climbing beans.”
The biochar for these gardens is mixed with compost at a Mdewakanton organic recycling facility in Shakopee. This all-natural blend takes the place of chemical fertilizers.
“I think fresh produce is important to every community, and I think fresh produce that is organically grown and we know what’s in the produce is extremely important,” Elias said.
Biochar helps the atmosphere as well. Traditional burning of waste wood creates carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas which contributes to atmospheric warming.
The making of biochar prevents this harmful emission by keeping the carbon in the ground. http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/09…
As the seas rise, a slow-motion disaster gnaws at America’s shores
A REUTERS investigation: From centuries-old fishing communities on Chesapeake Bay to a NASA space center on the Atlantic coast, a Virginia county bears the brunt of rising seas.
Examples of how abrupt climate change might apply to individual home owners and to business manufacturing sector provided by leading climate scientist.
VATICAN CITY — He warns of “synthetic agrotoxins” harming birds and insects and “bioaccumulation” from industrial waste. He calls for renewable fuel subsidies and “maximum energy efficiency.” And although he offers prayers at the beginning and end of his heavily anticipated missive on the environment, Pope Francis unmasks himself not only as a very green pontiff, but also as a total policy wonk.
In the 192-page paper released Thursday, Francis lays out the argument for a new partnership between science and religion to combat human-driven climate change — a position bringing him immediately into conflict with skeptics, whom he chides for their “denial.”
by Jack Jenkins Posted on June 18, 2015 at 8:19 am
Former Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush doesn’t want his Catholic faith to inform his politics. Well, except for when he does.
Speaking at a town hall campaign event in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Bush, who converted to Catholicism 20 years ago, all but dismissed the pope’s new encyclical on the environment, which was leaked to the press on Monday and officially released on Thursday. In an apparent rejection of the document’s impressively comprehensive, faith-based call for Catholics to help slow the effects of climate change, Bush said that he thinks religion “ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting into the political realm.”
“I hope I’m not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home,” Bush added, “but I don’t get my economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope.”
While Bush seems suddenly eager to distance himself from the pontiff, he was singing a very different tune just last month, when he offered the commencement address at Liberty University. After specifically championing Pope Francis as an exemplar of the Christian faith, Bush pushed back on the idea that a politician should unconditionally cleave their faith from their legislative agenda.
“… I am asked sometimes whether I would ever allow my decisions in government to be influenced by my Christian faith,” he said. “Whenever I hear this, I know what they want me to say. The simple and safe reply is, ‘No. Never. Of course not.’ If the game is political correctness, that’s the answer that moves you to the next round. The endpoint is a certain kind of politician we’ve all heard before – the guy whose moral convictions are so private, so deeply personal, that he refuses even to impose them on himself.”
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
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