Warning that no-deal Brexit will lead to food shortages and price hikes

Published on Sep 20, 2019
A no-deal Brexit is set to lead to food shortages and price rises, say food sector businesses that warn of the dangers of leaving the EU without a deal…

Humanity Is Pumping Carbon Dioxide Into The Atmosphere At The Fastest Rates In History, Overfishing

Published on Sep 20, 2019
Humanity Is Pumping Carbon Dioxide Into The Atmosphere At The Fastest Rates In History, Overfishing The Oceans And Losing Forests

The Great Transition: A Renewable Energy Revolution by Janet Larsen

Janet Larsen is an environmental analyst working to connect the dots among environmental and social issues, including climate, energy, water, food, and security. She is the founder of One Planet Strategies LLC, where she does research, writing, and analysis as an independent consultant.

Previously, Janet was one of the incorporators of the Earth Policy Institute, where she led the research team for 15 years. With Lester Brown and colleagues, she co-authored the books The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy and The Earth Policy Reader. Prior to the creation of Earth Policy Institute, Janet worked as a staff researcher at the Worldwatch Institute. She has conducted fieldwork examining salt-tolerant plants on the Chilean coast and poison dart frogs in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, and continues to enjoy the outdoors. Janet holds a Bachelor of Science in Earth Systems from Stanford University and a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University. She lives in Washington, D.C.

“Urgency of climate crisis encompasses everything else we care about” – Indigenous Climate Activist

Published on Sep 20, 2019
Remarks by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, indigenous climate activist and Youth Director of Earth Guardians at the annual Student Observance for the International Day of Peace.

Live | Global climate strikes kick off ahead of UN summit on climate change

Streamed live 8 hours ago
As world leaders prepare to meet in New York for a UN Climate Summit next week, millions of young people all over the world will skip school on Friday to demand faster action against climate change.

“Young People Have Had Enough”: Global Climate Strike Youth Activists on Why They Are Marchi ng

Published on Sep 20, 2019
Today is the Global Climate Strike, inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. As people took to the streets in Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia, we host a roundtable discussion with youth activists organizing marches in the United States — in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis — ahead of next week’s U.N. Climate Action Summit. We are joined by Xiye Bastida, a 17-year-old climate justice activist originally from Mexico who is an organizer with Fridays for Future New York and a student at Beacon High School in New York; Katie Eder, a 19-year-old climate justice activist who founded the Future Coalition, where she is currently the executive director; Juwaria Jama, a 15-year-old and first-generation Somali from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who is with U.S. Youth Climate Strikes and is the co-state lead for the Minnesota Youth Climate Strike; and Isra Hirsi, a high school junior and executive director of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike, daughter of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar; Kelsey Juliana, lead plaintiff in Juliana v. United States, the landmark youth climate lawsuit against the U.S. government; Jerome Foster II, White House Climate Strike organizer, founder and executive director of OneMillionOfUs; and Nasratullah Elham, an Afghan high school student studying in Phuket, Thailand whose visa to the United States was rejected after being invited to the first-ever U.N. Youth Climate Summit.

Greta Thunberg: Our House Is On Fire

Published on Sep 20, 2019“I don’t want your hope. I want you to panic … and act.”

Climate activist Greta Thunberg does not mince words when speaking truth to power, and her soft voice silenced a room full of global leaders at Davos 2019 earlier this year.

“Our house is on fire,” said the Swedish student activist who has galvanized 100,000 fellow teens around the world to follow her example in striking for the climate. “At Davos, people like to talk about success, but financial success has come with a price tag, and on the climate we have failed. And unless we recognize the failures of our system, there will be unspoken suffering.”

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/0…

Worldwide rallies to call for more actions against climate change

Published on Sep 20, 2019

In Australia, thousands of students walked out of classrooms to start a global protest. They demanded world leaders gathering for a UN Climate Action Summit to adopt urgent measures to curb climate change. Similar protests, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were planned in over a hundred countries on September 19.

We’re doomed if solar energy stalls—here’s how to keep it rising | Varun Sivaram | TEDxYale

TEDx Talks

Published on Mar 28, 2018

Solar energy is the world’s cheapest and fastest-growing power source, but its rise is in danger of stalling, risking catastrophic climate change. Energy expert Varun Sivaram argues that realizing solar’s potential will require innovation—creative financing, revolutionary technologies, and flexible energy systems. Dr. Sivaram is the Philip D. Reed Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the book, “Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet” (MIT Press, 2018), which the Financial Times called “the best available overview of the solar industry and a roadmap for how to achieve that brighter future.” Dr. Sivaram is also a Professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches “Clean Energy Innovation”; an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University; and a board member for the Stanford University energy and environment institutes. He has served as Senior Energy Advisor to the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Governor of New York, and he holds a Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from Oxford University.

Varun Sivaram is the Philip D. Reed fellow for science and technology at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, a nonresident fellow at the Columbia University Center for Global Energy Policy, and a member of the advisory boards for the Stanford University Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy. He is the author of the book Taming the Sun (MIT University Press, 2018). Dr. Sivaram also serves as strategic advisor to the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Reforming the Energy Vision, and he was formerly a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he counseled Fortune 500 companies on adapting to the modern competitive landscape in energy. A Truman and a Rhodes scholar, he holds degrees from Stanford University in engineering physics and international relations, with honors in international security. Dr. Sivaram holds a PhD in condensed matter physics from St. John’s College, Oxford University.

Why Solar Energy Needs Innovation to Reach Its Potential

Council on Foreign Relations

Published on Mar 2, 2018

Solar energy, the world’s cheapest and fastest-growing power source, could one day supply most of the world’s energy needs. But in a new book, “Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet” (MIT Press), energy expert Varun Sivaram warns that solar’s current surge is on track to stall, dimming prospects for averting catastrophic climate change. Brightening those prospects, he argues, will require innovation—creative financing, revolutionary technologies, and flexible energy systems.

Climate change: the trouble with trees | The Economist

The Economist

Published on Sep 18, 2019

Tree-planting has been hailed as a solution to climate change. But how much can trees really do to tackle global warming? See our research here: https://econ.st/32HXvXY

Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy

Summer 2019 – More than 38,000 fires raged across the Amazon. Fires that were man-made. Over the past 50 years almost 17% of the world’s largest rainforest has been cleared. And globally deforestation has almost doubled in just five years.

Since the start of human civilisation it’s estimated that the number of trees around the world has fallen by almost half. Clearing forests increases carbon-dioxide levels but planting them could store away some of the carbon already in the atmosphere.

This woman runs safaris in England. Guests are not only here to see wild animals – they’re here to see wild trees.

Almost 20 years ago Isabella Tree—yes that is her real name-handed 1,400 hectares of Sussex farmland back to nature, by doing, well nothing. She thinks this is the best way to use the land to help tackle climate change.

To stabilise the climate global carbon emissions need to drop to net zero by 2050. Simon Lewis is a professor of global change science.

And there’s never been more global ambition to plant trees. In 2014, 51 countries pledged to plant over 3.5m square kilometres of forest by 2030 – an area slightly larger than India. The 2030 target looks likely to be met. But there’s a catch…

Monoculture tree plantations like eucalyptus grow quickly but the trees are harvested every ten or so years releasing much of the carbon stored in the tree back into the atmosphere – which means that, according to some studies they’ll store only around one-fortieth of the carbon natural forests do over the long term.

In fact, those pledges to plant millions of trees actually promise to store 26bn tonnes less carbon than they could. Sometimes the motives for planting forests are less green than they might appear. By 2020 Ireland ought to have cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20% below 2005 levels. But at current rates it will have reduced them by only 5%. Planting forests might help Ireland avoid massive penalties for missing EU targets because the potential carbon these forests could store in the future can be counted as a carbon credit today. In the 1920s Ireland had the lowest forest cover in Europe at around 1%. That’s now risen to 11% and the government has set a target to cover 18% of the land with forest by 2046.

And now local community groups are protesting against these monoculture tree plantations. They say they’re doing more harm than good.

Tree-planting programmes invariably have an impact on the people living nearby. In east Africa one project is demonstrating what can be achieved
when there’s genuine buy-in from the local communities. Green Ethiopia is a mixed-tree planting charity.

The land is communally owned and co-operatives of local women receive benefits for planting trees which are protected from being harvested. Here conserving is just as important as planting. Green Ethiopia assesses whether the condition of the land is good enough to regenerate by itself. When it is—on about a third of the area the charity runs they leave it alone. Just like Isabella Tree, back in England.

Monoculture plantations are often preferred because they make money. So some experts are looking to a future where carbon payments could create financial incentives for natural forests. Ultimately though, the trouble with trees tackling climate change is space