Greenland Is Melting – The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/24/greenland-is-melting

Not long ago, I attended a memorial service on top of the Greenland ice sheet for a man I did not know. The service was an intimate affair, with only four people present. I worried that I might be regarded as an interloper and thought about stepping away. But I was clipped onto a rope, and, in any case, I wanted to be there.

The service was for a NASA scientist named Alberto Behar. Behar, who worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, might be described as a twenty-first-century explorer. He didn’t go to uncharted places; he sent probes to them. Some of the machines he built went all the way to Mars; they are orbiting the planet today or trundling across its surface on the Curiosity rover. Other Behar designs were deployed on Earth, at the poles. In Antarctica, Behar devised a special video camera to capture the first images ever taken inside an ice stream. In Greenland, he once sent a flock of rubber ducks hurtling down a mile-long ice shaft known as a moulin. Each duck bore a label, offering, in Greenlandic, English, and Danish, a reward for its return. At least two made it through.

…(read more).

How do we grow from here? Towards sustainable food production – 18 Oct 2016

Grantham Imperial

Published on Oct 25, 2016

Join us to discuss with experts the challenge of feeding the world without costing the planet.

This event is open to anybody interested in food and sustainability, so whether you’re an aspiring ethical consumer or a green-fingered producer be sure to join in the debate.

Join the conversation on Twitter using #SustFood.

Speakers:
Andrew Clark, Director of Policy, National Farmers’ Union
Steve Webster (@SteveWebster16), Delta Innovations
Angela Karp, Associate Director for Science Innovation, Head of AgroEcology Department, Rothamsted Research
David Powell (@powellds), Environment Lead, New Economics Foundation
Chair:
Louise Gray (@loubgray), Environmental journalist (formerly of the Daily Telegraph) and author of The Ethical Carnivore, published by Bloomsbury.

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Experts hungry for change at discussion on a greener future for food production | Grantham Institute

by Alexandra Cheung 25 October 2016

Audience members and experts explored what it would mean to produce food sustainably, and how we can achieve this for the world’s growing population.

People with an interest in all things ‘foodie’ came together at an event jointly organised by the Grantham Institute and The Ecotarian, an initiative led by students on the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership, which was held at Imperial College London last week.

Expert panellists on farming, agricultural science and economics shared their insights about how to make food production more sustainable, as the impact of global eating increases. Suggestions included improving quality of life for farmed animals and relaxed regulation of genetically modified (GM) crops, to dramatically increasing the funding for research into innovative agricultural practices.

The audience also put forward their ideas on the most effective measures, recommending responsibilities for food producers, government, retailers and consumers in supporting new initiatives.

The way that food is currently processed, distributed and stored has a range of potential environmental impacts including climate change, land degradation, water shortages and loss of biodiversity. In order to establish a fair and green food system that will continue to provide for future generations, those assembled agreed that a fundamental shift is therefore needed.

….(read more).

Grantham Imperial

Published on Oct 25, 2016

Join us to discuss with experts the challenge of feeding the world without costing the planet.

This event is open to anybody interested in food and sustainability, so whether you’re an aspiring ethical consumer or a green-fingered producer be sure to join in the debate.

Join the conversation on Twitter using #SustFood.

Speakers:
Andrew Clark, Director of Policy, National Farmers’ Union
Steve Webster (@SteveWebster16), Delta Innovations
Angela Karp, Associate Director for Science Innovation, Head of AgroEcology Department, Rothamsted Research
David Powell (@powellds), Environment Lead, New Economics Foundation
Chair:
Louise Gray (@loubgray), Environmental journalist (formerly of the Daily Telegraph) and author of The Ethical Carnivore, published by Bloomsbury.

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Association of Climate Change Officers – Online Training

Attend Live CCO Training BootcampsTM Online

Our live online CCO Training BootcampsTM are taught by recognized experts, who bring real-world and relevant experience and important insights to bootcamp participants.

• Save time and money by training without travel
• Interact virtually with expert instructors and ACCO staff during courses
• Attend online bootcamps from any Internet-connected computer
• Choose bootcamps based upon your availability and subject matter interests

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
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Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too | FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

One of the biggest issues related to climate change is food security. The world’s poorest – many of whom are farmers, fishers and pastoralists – are being hit hardest by higher temperatures and an increasing frequency in weather-related disasters.

At the same time, the global population is growing steadily and is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. To meet such a heavy demand, agriculture and food systems will need to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change and become more resilient, productive and sustainable. This is the only way that we can ensure the wellbeing of ecosystems and rural populations and reduce emissions.

Growing food in a sustainable way means adopting practices that produce more with less in the same area of land and use natural resources wisely. It also means reducing food losses before the final product or retail stage through a number of initiatives including better harvesting, storage, packing, transport, infrastructure, market mechanisms, as well as institutional and legal frameworks.

This is why our global message for World Food Day 2016 is “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.”

It resonates with the crucial time in which the day will be observed, just before the next UN Climate Change Conference, COP 22, from 7-18 November 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco.

FAO is calling on countries to address food and agriculture in their climate action plans and invest more in rural development.

By strengthening the resilience of smallholder farmers, we can guarantee food security for the planet’s increasingly hungry global population also reduce emissions.

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Victor Wallis reviews ‘Facing the Anthropocene’

 

Victor Wallis, Posted on October 24, 2016

‘Ian Angus’s distinctive contribution is to underscore, with his geologically grounded perspective, the need to combine immediate measures of relief with a long-term agenda of transformation.’

Noted socialist scholar Victor Wallis is a Professor in the Liberal Arts department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and managing editor of the journal Socialism and Democracy, where this review was first published. It is republished here with his kind permission.

FACING THE ANTHROPOCENE
Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System
by Ian Angus Monthly Review Press, 2016  reviewed by Victor Wallis

“The Holocene is over. The Anthropocene has begun.
That cannot be reversed. The climate changes already
under way will last for thousands of years….
The question is not whether the Earth System is changing, but how much
it will change, and how we will live on a changed planet.” (212-13)

This book underscores the depth of the environmental crisis and, with its thorough grounding in the scientific literature, situates the onset of the crisis in geological as well as historical time. These two time-scales now converge, signifying the end of the ecological conditions that allowed the human species to flourish.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

North Dakota: Police Arrest Over 100 Water Protectors

October 24, 2016Headlines

In North Dakota, police arrested over 100 people this weekend who gathered for a peaceful march opposing construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The demonstrators, who call themselves protectors, not protesters, were arrested after they were confronted by police in riot gear carrying assault rifles. They say police pepper-sprayed them and then arrested them en masse. This is footage from the Sacred Stone Camp.

Police officer 1: “You’re all under arrest! Back off!”

Police officer 2: “You’re under arrest!”

Water protector: “Do not be afraid! Stand your prayer!”

Those arrested face charges including riot, reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. Organizers also say officers fired rubber bullets at drones the water protectors were using to document police activity. We’ll go to North Dakota after headlines to speak with Tara Houska of Honor the Earth and Sacheen Seitcham of the West Coast Women Warriors Media Cooperative. We’ll also speak with actress Shailene Woodley, who was arrested during a protest against the pipeline on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and with Deia Schlosberg, a filmmaker who was charged with three felonies and is facing 45 years in jail for filming another pipeline protest in Walhalla, North Dakota.

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
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Media