Soil4Climate

Soil4Climate, a nonprofit organization, advocates for soil restoration as a climate solution. We promote regenerative land management practices to capture atmospheric carbon and encourage collaboration with the larger body of climate activism. Uniting “drawdown” strategies with emissions reduction, divestment from fossil fuels, a price on carbon, and climate justice advocacy, together creates a powerful alliance.

Groups we feel camaraderie with include: The Carbon Underground, Project Drawdown, Regeneration International, Kiss the Ground, Organic Consumers Association, Soil Carbon Coalition, Savory Institute, Rodale Institute, 350.org, Climate Reality Project, Citizens Climate Lobby, Better Future Project, Mothers Out Front, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), “4 per 1000” (France’s global soil carbon initiative), and many others.

Find us on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Soil4Climate/
https://twitter.com/soil4climate
https://www.instagram.com/soil4climate/

Soil4Climate is incorporated in Vermont. Contact us at soil4climate. Our mailing address is Box 332, Thetford Center, Vermont, 05075.

Soil4Climate Mission

Our Mission: To advocate for soil restoration as a climate mitigation solution.
Our Vision: A livable climate with healthy soils.
Our Values: Transparency. Respect. Education. Hopefulness. Love.

   Food-Matters
   Global Climate Change
   Environment Ethics
   Environment Justice

Professor William Moomaw on Soil4Climate and Paris Climate Talks

sethitzkan

Published on Feb 26, 2016

“I urge you to join the movement to make soils a more central part of the climate action agenda.”

Professor William Moomaw of Tufts University calling for soils to be included in the climate negotiations in Paris. Please join us in online discussions. Professor Moomaw will answer questions and provide insights. Professor Moomaw’s prepared statements is here.

December 3, 2015
Prepared comment from Professor William Moomaw calling for soils to be included in Paris climate negotiations – mentioning the French “4per1000” program and endorsing the Soil4Climate movement.

   Food-Matters
   Global Climate Change
   Environment Ethics
   Environment Justice

Break Free 2016 – Anacortes, WA

350.org

Published on May 18, 2016

Thousands converged by land and water in Anacortes, WA — the site of two oil refineries. Over three days, the action included multiple an overnight, kayak flotillas, a march led by Indigenous leaders, and a sit-in on the train tracks that led to over 50 arrests.

Learn more about this action here: http://breakfreepnw.org

Special thanks to Balance Media for capturing beautiful footage from this action. http://www.balancemedia.tv

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Break Free 2016 – Los Angeles

350.org

Published on May 18, 2016

On May 14, California took part in a global wave of resistance to keep fossil fuels in the ground and accelerate the just transition to 100% renewable energy. We stood together to show that our health, our communities, and our climate are more important than the profits of a shameful industry.

We demand that our leaders end neighborhood drilling in L.A., keep fossil fuels in the ground, and protect the health of Californians across the state.

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Break Free 2016 – Washington D.C.

350.org

Published on May 18, 2016

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Global Analysis – April 2014 | State of the Climate | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

Contents of this Section:
Introduction

• Temperatures
• Precipitation
• References

April 2014 Selected Climate Anomalies and Events Map

Global Highlights

• The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for April 2014 tied with 2010 as the highest on record for the month, at 0.77°C (1.39°F) above the 20th century average of 13.7°C (56.7°F).
• The global land surface temperature was 1.35°C (2.43°F) above the 20th century average of 8.1°C (46.5°F), marking the third warmest April on record. For the ocean, the April global sea surface temperature was 0.55°C (0.99°F) above the 20th century average of 16.0°C (60.9°F), also the third highest for April on record.
• The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the January–April period (year-to-date) was 0.64°C (1.15°F) above the 20th century average of 12.6°C (54.8°F), the sixth warmest such period on record.

Introduction

Temperature anomalies and percentiles are shown on the gridded maps below. The anomaly map on the left is a product of a merged land surface temperature (Global Historical Climatology Network, GHCN) and sea surface temperature (ERSST.v3b) anomaly analysis developed by Smith et al. (2008). Temperature anomalies for land and ocean are analyzed separately and then merged to form the global analysis. For more information, please visit NCDC’s Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page. The percentile maps on the right provide additional information by placing the temperature anomaly observed for a specific place and time period into historical perspective, showing how the most current month, season or year compares with the past.

The most current data may be accessed via the Global Surface Temperature Anomalies

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
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Assessing the Global Climate in April 2016 | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

 

The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for April 2016 was the highest for the month of April in the NOAA global temperature dataset record, which dates back to 1880. This marks the 12th consecutive month a monthly global temperature record has been broken, the longest such streak in the 137-year record. The January–April global temperature was also the highest on record.

This monthly summary from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides to government, business, academia, and the public to support informed decision making.

For extended analysis of global temperature and precipitation patterns, as well as extreme events, please see our full report.

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Thomas Jefferson the Farmer – America’s Heartland

America’s Heartland

Uploaded on Feb 17, 2009

When Americans visit Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia, they’re visiting the home of one of history’s most impassioned farmers. Visit http://tinyurl.com/n6kehh for more of Episode 308.

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

What Happens When The Machines Don’t Need Us Anymore?

Are we relinquishing our power when we teach machines, instead of programming them?
(Alex Williamson / Getty)
Published in The Takeaway

May 18, 2016From and

“If you control the code, you control the world,” security adviser Marc Goodman said in a 2012 a TED Talk. But what happens when humans no longer control the code?

Today, coding — that thing that got millions of people seeking foolproof Silicon Valley jobs to enroll in boot camps — is being supplanted by something called “machine learning.”

With traditional coding, an engineer writes specific instructions for a computer program to follow. But in machine learning, the programmer “trains” the program to do its job by feeding it a bunch of data. Extremely complicated equations take care of the rest.

But even the programmers don’t totally understand how this process works. Are we relinquishing our power when we teach machines, instead of programming them?

Jason Tanz, editor-at-large for WIRED magazine, took a deep dive into machine learning for the publication’s June cover story,”The End of Code and Future of AI.”

How is growing connectivity changing the way we live? And how will the choices we make be enhanced or restricted as computers outperform humans?

These are questions that Joshua Cooper Ramo has spent years examining. He’s the author of “The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune and Survival in the Age of Networks.”

Today we’re asking you to fill in the blanks: “Life was better before _____ because _____.” Check out the conversation on Anchor and add your voice.

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Is organic agriculture really better for the environment? – The Washington Post

Heinz Thomet, an organic produce farmer in Newburg, Md., is planting rice on dry land. (Logan Mock-Bunting/For The Washington Post)
By Tamar Haspel Columnist, Food May 14

The whole point of organic agriculture is soil. Farm in such a way that your soil stays healthy — rich in organic matter, nutrients and microbial activity — and you can grow crops without the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides used in conventional farming.

Organic farmers employ lots of techniques to improve their soil. They use compost and manure, rotate their crops and grow many kinds of plants. They do use pesticides, but only certain ones (mostly non-synthetic, with a few approved synthetics), and often only when other pest-control methods fail.

But plenty of conventional farmers do a lot of those things, too. When you pony up the extra money to buy organic produce, are you supporting environmental benefits? I wanted to know, and it was probably one of the most difficult questions I’ve tried to answer in this column.

We don’t have data about soil health or environmental pollution (in the form of soil erosion, nutrient runoff or greenhouse gases) that allows us to comprehensively assess all organic and conventional acreage and say whether one type or the other is doing better, but scientists all over the country are working on comparisons, so we do have something to go on.

…(read more).

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice