Jun 26, 2022
What impact is the pandemic having on the environment? Has air quality improved because people stayed at home during the many lockdowns? How does illness pass between humans and animals? DW’s science team investigates these questions and more in this week’s COVID-19 Special.
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“As advocate for the forgotten and the ignored, Mary Robinson has not only shone a light on human suffering, but illuminated a better future for our world.” -Barack Obama
“The antidote for your climate change paralysis.” -Sierra
“Insightful and optimistic.” -The Guardian
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson’s mission to bring together the fight against climate change and the global struggle for human rights has taken her all over the world. It also brought her to a heartening revelation: that that an irrepressible driving force in the battle for climate justice could be found at the grassroots level, mainly among women, many of them mothers and grandmothers like herself. Robinson met with ordinary people whose resilience and ingenuity had already unlocked extraordinary change: from a Mississippi matriarch whose campaign began in her East Biloxi hair salon and culminated in her speaking at the United Nations, to a farmer who transformed the fortunes of her ailing community in rural Uganda.
In Climate Justice, she shares their stories, and many more. Powerful and deeply humane, this uplifting book is a stirring manifesto on one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our time, and a lucid, affirmative, and well-argued case for hope.
Review
“As advocate for the forgotten and the ignored, Mary Robinson has not only shone a light on human suffering, but illuminated a better future for our world.” – Barack Obama
“Addressing climate phenomena is the way to ensure justice for humanity. Mary Robinson, as UN Special Envoy on climate change & as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has been a global champion to bring justice for all. Her book inspires & guides us on what to do to protect humanity & our only world.” – Ban Ki-moon, 8th UN Secretary General, Member of the Elders
“The most dramatic symptoms of our changing global climate–rising sea levels, extreme weather events, increasing desertification, and water scarcity–disproportionately affect vulnerable communities that are often far removed from the causes of human greenhouse gas emissions. Mary Robinson has been their champion for many years, and Climate Justice gives them a voice that we all should hear. Robinson makes a powerful and compelling case that the climate crisis is a crisis of humanity, requiring far more than mitigation and adaptation, but a renewed sense of shared destiny. Simply put, climate action must work for the good of all, or it won’t work for anyone.” – Richard Branson
“Robinson’s lucid, direct style works because it gives a voice to those who have taken it upon themselves to tackle Earth’s most pressing problems. The book’s central message is a mantra worth repeating: individual local action can grow into a global idea, producing positive change.” – Observer
“Sustainable development is at the heart of climate justice–protecting the planet, now and for generations to come. The stories in this book reveal the lived experience of people doing just that, adapting and strengthening their resilience in the face of climate change. They are courageous men and women whose lessons we all should heed.” – Gro Harlem Brundtland
“This is a book about people: farmers and activists in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, people whose livelihood is ruined by climate change and climate injustice. Yet it is also a celebration of their fight back. I was moved by Mary Robinson’s account of amazing women leading the fight for their communities.” – Mo Ibrahim
“Mary Robinson brings the power of the voice of those heavily affected by climate change–particularly women–to the center of the consciousness of decision makers to propel collective action.” – Graça Machel
“Climate Justice is the antidote for your climate change paralysis . . . [Robinson] uses her powerful platform to highlight the work of mostly female climate activists in frontline communities that are already reeling from the effects of climate change . . . Written in a post-Trump world, Climate Justice burns with urgency. – Sierra Magazine
“Exceptionally informative and impressively organized and presented, ‘Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future’ is an erudite and documented manifesto with respect to a critically important and universal humanitarian issue.” – Midwest Book Review
“Robinson’s humility and compassion resonates through her story-telling. [Her] stories provide a window into our own future.” – Irish Times
“Robinson and Palmer highlight inspiring stories of ordinary people who are making a difference for the environment―especially women who have become ‘agents of change.’ ” – Foreword Reviews
“Robinson fights despair with inspiring stories of activists, politicians and others who are helping people mitigate and adapt to the changes . . . Putting a human face to those on the front lines and giving them a voice, Robinson illustrates the day-to-day impacts of climate change on those around the world, making the threat more real, more pressing, and, ultimately, more frightening . . . Climate Justice is a compelling, easy read that should persuade people to take personal responsibility for the problem” – Ms. Magazine
“Robinson puts a human face on this politically charged issue, adding to the climate change conversation. Highly recommended.” – Starred review, Library Journal
“Robinson is uniquely qualified to write about the international fight for climate-change justice . . . A surefire winner.” – Booklist
“Giving voice to the previously voiceless, providing seats at the table not only for the powerful who are proceeding heedlessly, but for those who have been suffering devastating consequences . . . Hopeful and optimistic . . . [Robinson] tells engaging stories of extraordinary accomplishments by ordinary people.” – Kirkus Reviews
“An elegant and readable account of climate information and policy, embedded in ten powerful accounts of climate activists from around the world, eight of which focus on women . . . The accounts in Climate Justice share a trajectory of awakening, power, and the promise of deep, community-based change.” – Women’s Review of Books
About the Author
Mary Robinson is president of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice. She served in two capacities as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change. She is the former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and is now Chair of the Elders and a member of the Club of Madrid. In 2009, she was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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The Paris Accords, widely accepted as the key to solving today’s climate crisis, set a goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050. But that’s not good enough. The only way to guarantee a livable future is climate restoration, which can reduce greenhouse gases to historic levels. Scientist and entrepreneur Peter Fiekowsky explains the technology and maps a practical path that will let humankind survive and thrive.
As Fiekowsky explains in Climate Restoration, this will require removing a trillion tons of excess CO2 from the atmosphere. The good news is that this task, while enormous and technically challenging, is eminently feasible. Scientists and engineers have developed four major technologies for greenhouse gas removal and storage: Ocean iron fertilization; synthetic limestone manufacture; seaweed permaculture; and methane oxidation.
Fiekowsky shows that these technologies are safe and practical—and, even more remarkable, that they require little if any government funding, since they can be financed largely through existing markets. For these reasons, they have enormous promise as vehicles for achieving climate restoration.
With the global climate crisis continuing to spiral out of control, the time for tough conversations about what it will really take to create a healthy future for humanity is here. Climate Restoration will inspire those conversations and, ultimately, the actions we must take to ensure a livable planet for generations to come.
“Effective and galvanizing . . . An invigorating, thought-provoking plan to address climate change.”—Kirkus Reviews
“With inviting clarity and an engaging optimism, Fiekowsky considers four promising solutions [for climate restoration], presenting the possibilities with persuasive power. He simplifies the science for easy comprehension, and makes the case with such hopeful vigor that the book becomes something rare: a dead-serious, no-illusions look at climate change that doesn’t stir despair.”—Publishers Weekly BookLife
“Peter Fiekowsky has written the consummate book for our time. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about life, the Earth, and future generations. His science is impeccable, and his capacity to see what’s missing and provide it is sheer brilliance. This book lays out the path forward with clarity, honesty, and integrity — the tide-turning, revelatory message we have been waiting for.”—Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money and co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance
“A good way to become educated about climate restoration . . . is to get hold of the book written by Fiekowsky and Douglis. . . . It is a book that will inspire readers to join the battle and become part of the solution to clean up a climate mess of our own doing.”—Hersh Shefrin, Forbes
“Peter Fiekowsky is offering a bold warning to the world. I hope his important message becomes part of the mainstream conversation about the crisis of climate change.”—Muhammad Yunus, co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize
“Peter Fiekowsky is the textbook definition of a visionary. While others have pursued the critical goal of reducing carbon emissions, Fiekowsky has inspired thinking and action on carbon removal, an often ignored yet critical tool in achieving our ultimate goal, climate restoration.”—Sam Daley-Harris, Founder, RESULTS and Civic Courage
“As I live through the droughts, hurricanes, and heat waves now roiling Texas, it’s obvious to me that we need to restore the climate we had. Peter Fiekowsky’s roadmap for doing this is both brilliant and practical—a call to activate the entrepreneurial spirit of America to benefit all humankind as well as generations to come.”—Trammell S. Crow, founder of EarthX
Review
“Effective and galvanizing . . . An invigorating, thought-provoking plan to address climate change.”-Kirkus Reviews
“With inviting clarity and an engaging optimism, Fiekowsky considers four promising solutions [for climate
restoration], presenting the possibilities with persuasive power. He simplifies the science for easy comprehension, and makes the case with such hopeful vigor that the book becomes something rare: a dead-serious, no-illusions look at climate change that doesn’t stir despair.”-Publishers Weekly BookLife
“Peter Fiekowsky has written the consummate book for our time. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about life, the Earth, and future generations. His science is impeccable, and his capacity to see what’s missing and provide it is sheer brilliance. This book lays out the path forward with clarity, honesty, and integrity – the tide-turning, revelatory message we have been waiting for.”-Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money and co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance
“A good way to become educated about climate restoration . . . is to get hold of the book written by Fiekowsky and Douglis. . . . It is a book that will inspire readers to join the battle and become part of the solution to clean up a climate mess of our own doing.”-Hersh Shefrin, Forbes
“Peter Fiekowsky is offering a bold warning to the world. I hope his important message becomes part of the mainstream conversation about the crisis of climate change.”-Muhammad Yunus, co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize
“Peter Fiekowsky is the textbook definition of a visionary. While others have pursued the critical goal of reducing carbon emissions, Fiekowsky has inspired thinking and action on carbon removal, an often ignored yet critical tool in achieving our ultimate goal, climate restoration.”-Sam Daley-Harris, Founder, RESULTS and Civic Courage
“As I live through the droughts, hurricanes, and heat waves now roiling Texas, it’s obvious to me that we need to restore the climate we had. Peter Fiekowsky’s roadmap for doing this is both brilliant and practical-a call to activate the entrepreneurial spirit of America to benefit all humankind as well as generations to come.”-Trammell S. Crow, founder of EarthX
“Humanity is rapidly leaving behind the safe-climate zone of the last 10,000 years. If civilization is to survive, we must restore those climate conditions. Climate Restoration explores in a very practical way how that can be done and why it is necessary.”-David Spratt, author of Climate Code Red: The Case for Emergency Action
“If ever there was a time for vision and innovation in human society, this is it. Peter Fiekowsky is laser-focused on the values that should unite us all, especially leaving a planet of which we can be proud to our children–and he speaks clearly and passionately about climate restoration as a crucial complement to mitigation and adaptation. Let’s find a way to make it happen.”-Phoebe Barnard, CEO/Executive Director, Stable Planet Alliance, Co-Founder, GirlPlanet.Earth, and Affiliate Full Professor, University of Washington
Peter Fiekowsky is an MIT-educated physicist and engineer, a serial entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and a social innovator. He has worked at NASA and the Fairchild/ Schlumberger Artificial Intelligence Lab in Palo Alto; taught at MIT; and developed his own machine vision company, Automated Visual Inspection LLC (AVI). He holds 27 patents and is on the board of Solar Capex, a fintech company dedicated to tripling the rate of investment in solar projects. A decade ago, when it became clear that global warming would endanger humanity’s future, Fiekowsky began working on climate restoration. Organizations Fiekowsky has built to help achieve this goal include: ●The Foundation for Climate Restoration (FCR), which works with scientists, innovators, policymakers, citizens, faith leaders, activists, and students to create the understanding and policy needed to further climate restoration. The Foundation has been instrumental in the adoption of climate restoration as a goal by both the Vatican and the United Nations.●Methane Action (MA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to solutions that will reduce atmospheric methane concentrations to pre-industrial levels.●Methane Oxidation Corporation (MOC), which is enabling companies to neutralize their carbon footprint through the active reduction of atmospheric methane.●The Stable Planet Alliance, which is working to frame the next set of UN Development Goals under the umbrella of achieving a healthy, sustainable population by 2100.Fiekowsky has also been an investor in and advisor to many companies working in the climate restoration field. He lives with his wife Sharon in Los Altos, near his grown son and daughter in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Carole Douglis is an award-winning journalist who has specialized in writing about climate, biodiversity, and sustainability since the 1990s. Her work has been published in The Atlantic, Harper’s, Psychology Today, and in National Geographic Society (NGS) books. She holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University and an M.A. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
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Transition Studies 