Biodiversity is as much a part of the health of our planet as a balanced diet is part of our own wellbeing. Biodiversity describes the variety within and between species, or within and between ecosystems; generally, the greater the diversity the healthier the system. The more different kinds of species are found in an ecosystem,...
Populism and environmentalism are words seldom seen in the same sentence. One is associated predominantly with nationalists and charismatic leaders of “real people”, the other with broadly-based collective action to address the world’s single most pressing problem. Differences don’t get much starker, it would seem. But we are increasingly seeing the two strands combine in...
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Author: Mark Howden, Director, Climate Change Institute, Australian National University. We can’t achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement without managing emissions from land use, according to a special report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Emissions from land use, largely agriculture,...
If you have ever lived in a farm or rural area, then you must already be pretty familiar with bees. I should know; I was raised alongside my siblings in rural Nigeria and in all our tree-climbing and bush-roaming for both fruits and fun, we were always wary of bees and their hives. I’ve lived...
As the prospect of a climate apocalypse becomes increasingly likely, people from all walks of life have been spurred into action. One such form of action is electing into power popular representatives who are committed to climate action. This undertaking has enjoyed a great boost from the overwhelming number of citizens who are now worried...
Currently, developed cities across the world account for about 71 to 76 percent of global carbon emissions. This does not come as a surprise; from the concrete used in buildings to factories and cars, cities are a carbon cesspool. According to the United Nations, by 2050, 68 percent of the world’s population will be living...
PRESS RELEASE Patagonia has announced the release of two films; Artifishal and Saving Martha urging for the protection of wild fish. The 80 minute feature film Artifishal explores the high cost—ecological, financial and cultural—of our mistaken belief that engineered solutions can make up for habitat destruction. They trace the impact of fish hatcheries and farms...
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Author: Joy Onasch, Business and Industry Program Manager, Toxics Use Reduction Institute, University of Massachusetts Lowell. The winter holidays are a busy time for many businesses, including retail stores, grocers, liquor stores – and dry cleaners. People pull out special-occasion clothes made of silk, satin or...
When plastic became available for convenient disposable packaging, it literally changed the world. Despite recent awareness campaigns, our plastic crises did not begin a couple of years ago; nor did it begin ten years ago. As far back as the 1960s, notable scientists and environmentalists had already begun to warn the general public about the long-term...
Some say the world is going to hell. However, with the planet over heating due to greenhouse gas emissions resulting in never-before-seen severe droughts, heat waves, arctic ice melting, I’d say we already are in hell. The good news is, more and more people are waking up and becoming enlightened about their impact on the...
I recently finished reading ‘Uninhabitable Earth‘ by David Wallace-Wells, which, despite being eye opening, gave me a full-on panic attack within the first few pages and did not get any better from there. I know things are bad. I am aware that the sea levels are rising and island nations such as Vanuatu and the...
In the 90s, I used to play Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction song. More than twenty years later, the record is a fitting soundtrack to what is happening with the world and its hundreds of thousands of endangered species facing the threat of extinction. Let’s get this straight; extinction is a part of the cycle of...