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Greta Thunberg: Saving Your World
“Greta Thunberg cut a frail and lonely figure when she started a school strike for the climate outside the Swedish parliament building last August. Her parents tried to dissuade her. Classmates declined to join. Passersby expressed pity and bemusement at the sight of the then unknown 15-year-old sitting on the cobblestones with a hand-painted banner.
Eight months on, the picture could not be more different. The pigtailed teenager is feted across the world as a model of determination, inspiration and positive action. National presidents and corporate executives line up to be criticised by her, face to face. Her skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate) banner has been translated into dozens of languages. And, most striking of all, the loner is now anything but alone…” [excerpt from The Guardian].
Greta leads the world in fighting climate change because she confronts people with reality—while using language that connects to what people care about and provides us with a way to change. Check out a video compilation of her speeches.
To save the monarch butterfly, Mexican scientists are moving a forest 1,000 feet up a mountain
The world is losing monarch butterflies at a startling rate, as logging, herbicides, and other human activities destroy natural habitats. But the biggest threat yet has only recently come into focus. Climate change, with its extreme storms, prolonged droughts, and warming temperatures, is poised to eradicate the forest that serves as the butterfly’s winter refuge.
To help his beloved butterflies, Ramirez has partnered with scientists on a monumental experiment: They are trying to move an entire forest 1,000 feet up a mountain…
Where we stand on important issues
“The American Conservation Coalition believes that people, businesses, and the government can work together to solve the nation’s environmental issues without sacrificing our economic prosperity or our rights as Americans. Market-based environmental action allows us to conserve our energy, wildlife, land, air, and water, while also ensuring continued economic growth…”
The young Republicans breaking with their party over climate change
“I think conservatives for a long time have been too willing to just let this be a leftwing issue. We can talk about this. Conservatives that care about the environment do exist.”
Fischer heads campus operations for the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), a Republican youth group founded 18 months ago but already with a presence in 125 colleges across the U.S., holding events and organizing campaigns. In January, 41 state college Republican chairs signed an ACC letter to GOP leaders urging “action on clean energy and environmental issues” to ensure “conservative values are not lost on the next generation”…
Parks Are a Critical Solution to Climate Change
Parks mitigate the urban heat island effect, improve air quality, and absorb carbon from the atmosphere. They support local biodiversity and can act as buffer zones for flooding or mudslides. Parks add both important social and environmental infrastructure…
Urban parks are also important because they provide the foundation for urban forests, which help cities both mitigate carbon emissions and adapt to a changing climate. According to Jad Daley, CEO of American Forests, urban forests absorb some 100 million tons of carbon each year—about 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Trees found in these green areas can reduce energy use up to 7% because they provide wind blocks for homes in the winter and cooling in the summer…
If you’re feeling hopeless of late, remember that your work matters and you do too
“Hi everyone, the last few weeks have been rough. I was glad to end it with the #NonprofitHaiku contest to bring some levity and humor. A colleague on Twitter, though, pointed out the seriousness of all the challenges we face beneath the lightheartedness:
‘It’s a cute joke that there are raccoons in our supply closet. It’s hilarious. […] The conditions we work in, the demoralizing chaos and the barriers to success is literally killing people…'”
Generation climate: Can young Evangelicals change the climate debate?
Evangelical Protestants—one in four American adults—are a political powerhouse. They are the single largest religious group in the nation, and they are nearly twice as likely to be Republican as Democrat. And while Baby Boomers are currently the strongest political voting bloc, that’s only because the older you are, the more likely you are to vote.
From Colorado Springs, Colorado, Chelsey, 20, always loved nature…
The next money crop for farmers: Solar panels
“There’s enough energy produced to run the whole complex,” said DeBaillie, 50, who farms 6,500 acres with his brother and cousin. They typically grow corn and soybeans each spring, but this year they want to put more solar panels on 15 acres—and sell the energy.
The earnings, he said, would be about three times what an average harvest would yield there.
According to the federal government’s Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in November, more extreme high temperatures plus increased humidity and precipitation could mean more pests and pathogens on farms throughout the Midwest in the coming decades. Productivity could drop to levels not seen since the 1980s, the report warned…
CDC: Farmers are committing suicide at 5 times the rate of the rest of the population
“Farmers in the US are facing a myriad of challenges these days, and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a report showing that such stress is taking a deadly toll.
While the suicide rates of Americans in all demographics have been on the rise over the last 30 years, farmers have the highest rate of suicide than any other occupation — five times that of the rest of the US population…”
Does talking to people about climate change make any difference?
Let’s say I was able to visit one high school per week for the next year and give a talk about what young people can do to fight climate change. Say I also try to reach adults by giving presentations at local community centers, churches, and international centers.
Would any of these efforts, if I undertook them over the next three or five years, make ANY difference in curbing the current rise in carbon dioxide emissions, reducing the number of species going extinct every day (which I’ve read is 200), and decreasing the amount of Arctic sea ice melt?