Climate activist Greta Thunberg on the power of a movement

Published on Sep 13, 2019
Although more Americans than ever are worried about climate change, less than 40 percent expect to make “major sacrifices” to tackle the problem. But according to Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager and climate activist, drastic action is exactly what’s needed to address the problem. William Brangham sits down with Thunberg to discuss galvanizing young people across the globe to the climate cause.

Tech-Master Disaster: Part One – Open Source with Christopher Lydon

The late Jeffrey Epstein stands for at least three levels of mystery: the man himself, a boastful sex offender, convicted of preying on under-age women; second, there’s his money machine and its unsavory connections with celebrity science and the high ground of education; and third, just surfacing: the mindset, the Epstein mentality that fed on fantasies of re-fathering the human race, making himself immortal, defeating death—not so far from the wildest dreams of techno-futurism: extended lifetimes, edited genomes, cryonic resurrections, reincarnation. All of it draws on ancient dreams of humankind but it’s now top-of- the-agenda in the industrial-strength biological, genetic sciences.

There’s trouble in the magic Kingdom of Advanced Computation, and the late Jeffrey Epstein leads us to it. This hour is one man’s critical overview of the kingdom and its landscape. Silicon is its valley, its production center out west. The Media Lab at MIT has been high ground of ideas on the east coast. WIRED is the magazine of the realm; TED talks are its showcase. It’s a kingdom of masterful men—names like Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, and Kurzweil. And it has its own code of intelligence, called AI, A for Artificial. It has its high priests like Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the Media Lab in 1985 and of WIRED magazine in 1993. Linkages are tight and loyalty is firm to some central ideas, above all that technology is good for everybody. If it can’t fix a problem, it can transform it—even ultimate challenges of life and death. This kingdom of computation has had it rogue financiers, like the late Jeffrey Epstein. And it has its dissenters, too. Our guest this hour is eminent among those critical insiders: the writer-historian Evgeny Morozov.

3rd Democratic Debate: Foreign Policy Continues Imperialist Tradition

The Real News Network Published on Sep 13, 2019

While most Democratic candidates are finally shifting the debate on Afghanistan, 18 years after the war began, the discussion on other issues, such as Latin America, continues in the same old imperialist vein as before

3rd Democratic Debate: Education, Inequality, and Racism

The Real News Network

Published on Sep 13, 2019

Our panel on the 3rd Democratic presidential debate takes a closer look at how the candidates look at and overlook crucial issues related to inequality and education in the United States.

Greta Thunberg on the Climate Fight: “If We Can Save the Banks, Then We Can Save the World”

The Intercept Published on Sep 13, 2019

Greta Thunberg is one of the great truth-tellers of this or any time. But Greta is not all talk. All of this began with action. It began when Greta realized that if she wanted powerful politicians to put themselves on emergency footing to fight climate change, then she needed to reflect that state of emergency in her own life. And so she stopped doing the one thing all kids are supposed to do when everything is normal: Go to school to prepare for their future as adults.

Instead, she stationed herself outside of Sweden’s parliament with a handmade sign that said simply: “School Strike for the Climate.” She started doing it every Friday, and pretty soon she attracted a small crowd. Then other students started doing it in other cities as well.

Students like Alexandria Villaseñor, who stations herself outside the United Nations in this city every Friday, week after week, rain, snow or shine. Sometimes the student climate strikes were just one lonely kid. Sometimes tens of thousands showed up.

And then, on March 15, came the first Global School Strike for Climate. Over 2,000 strikes in 125 countries, with 1.6 million young people participating on a single day. 1.6 million people. That’s quite an achievement for a movement that began just eight months earlier with a single 15-year-old girl in Stockholm, Sweden.

And now this movement is gearing up for its biggest challenge yet: They have called on people of all ages to join the and go on strike, all around the world, on September 20. Because protecting the future is not a spectator sport.

Thunberg and the many other amazing young organizers have been very clear that they do not want adults to pat them on the head and thank them for the hope infusion. They want us to join them and fight for the future alongside them. Because it is their right. And all of our duty.

Activist Greta Thunberg on how to make sure the word does not ‘give up’ the climate fight

Washington Post

Published on Sep 13, 2019

After taking a solar-powered boat from England to New York City to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Thunberg sat down with The Washington Post to discuss her role in the fight for preventing climate change.

Greta Thunberg brings climate protest to the White House

CGTN America

Published on Sep 13, 2019

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg led a student rally outside the White House on Friday. The Swedish teenager, who began her activism by skipping school to lobby her government, has inspired a similar movement here in the U.S. They’re demanding more action on climate change as world leaders prepare to gather at the United Nations.

Let’s Talk About Food

We can all change the world one dish at a time.

We all eat. Three times a day if we can. With joy and hunger.

And hopefully with the understanding that good clean food is the essential fuel for human health and community.

We start at the beginning of where and who grows our food, who brings it from the oceans, coaxes it from the soil, who works with our food in industrial kitchens and labs, in large greenhouses and in small craft cellars, etc.

We care about the supply chain of how food gets from here to there, and how much of it gets left behind. We care about food waste, we care about food insecurity and justice. We care about how many miles food travels to get to us.

We care about humanity.
* * * *

Harvard presents Let’s Talk About Food – Saving the Planet One Bite at a Time

Saturday, September 28 2019, 10:30am-4pm, The Plaza at the Science Center

Harvard University Dining Services and Let’s Talk About Food bring you a fun-filled and inspiring day of cooking, demonstrations, hands-on skills and tastings, innovations and explorations. Join the Greater Boston community of experts and eaters in an all-day exploration of how we can work together to

‘‘Save the Planet One Bite at a Time!” Bring your culinarians, your kids, your scientists, your adventurers and hear, taste and experience the next generation of dining! The event is free and open to the public.

Mainstage Hosts: Annie Copps and Laurie Donnelly

…(read more).

Food-matters,

The Declaration – NYDF Global Platform

About the Declaration

Download the Declaration: Bahasa | English | French | Portuguese | Spanish |

The New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) is a political declaration among governments, companies, indigenous peoples and civil society to halve the loss of natural forests by 2020, and strive to end it by 2030. Its ten goals also include restoring 350 million hectares of degraded landscapes and forestlands and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation as part of a post-2020 global climate agreement. Meeting these goals would cut between 4.5 and 8.8 billion tons of carbon pollution every year – about as much as the current emissions of the United States. The NYDF combines goals expressed in the context of a number of other global agreements; such as Goal 15 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Article 5 of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Aichi Targets of the Global Biodiversity Strategic Plan, the 2011 Bonn Challenge to restore 150 million hectares of degraded land by 2020, REDD+, climate and forest financing pledges, and corporate supply chain commitments. These links provide an integrated approach to protecting and restoring forests, transforming supply chains, and improving forest governance.

See related:

• Climate Summit 2014: New York Declaration on Forests

and latest report:

• World ‘losing battle against deforestation’ – BBC News

Announcement of the initial 2014 Declaration

 

 

World ‘losing battle against deforestation’ – BBC News

A historic global agreement aimed at halting deforestation has failed, according to a report.

An assessment of the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) says it has failed to deliver on key pledges.

Launched at the 2014 UN climate summit, it aimed to half deforestation by 2020, and halt it by 2030.

Yet deforestation continues at an alarming rate and threatens to prevent the world from preventing dangerous climate change, experts have said.

The critique, compiled by the NYDF Assessment Partners (a coalition of 25 organisations), painted a bleak picture of how the world’s forests continue to be felled.

Deforestation ‘accelerating’

“Since the NYDF was launched five years ago, deforestation has not only continued – it has actually accelerated,” observed Charlotte Streck, co-founder and director of Climate Focus, which co-ordinated the publication of the report.

The report says the amount of annual carbon emissions resulting from deforestation around the globe are equivalent to the greenhouse gases produced by the European Union.

On average, an area of tree cover the size of the United Kingdom was lost every year between 2014 and 2018.

…(read more).

See related:

• Climate Summit 2014: New York Declaration on Forests

and
https://www.un-redd.org/
https://nydfglobalplatform.org/declaration/
https://forestdeclaration.org/about/about-assessment
https://forestdeclaration.org/

Download the Executive Summary here

Read the full report

Initial 2014 Declaration:

 

Full list of publications.