Posts in climate change
In 2020, Make Climate Change Personal

Earth911 - OpEd

January 8, 2020
Author of award-winning book, The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times, Anita Sanchez, Ph.D., offers wisdom rooted in an understanding of the interconnection of all life. Her guidance helps us reframe our thoughts on climate change to facilitate personal and collective action.

As indigenous wisdom traditions have known for millennia and scientific research now confirms, we must expand our notion of family and community beyond our several immediate human relatives to include the community of nature for life to thrive.

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Photos portray suffering caused by climate change - but offer hope as well

World Council of Churches

January 8, 2020
As we begin the year 2020, wildfires rage from the Arctic to Australia, icecaps melt, and fierce storms and floods lash our cities. This is already “the new normal.” At the same time, in politics and media, truth struggles to prevail against lies. It’s a dangerous moment. Sean Hawkey, a photographer for ecumenical organisations including the World Council of Churches (WCC), selected photos from his archive as a reflection on a decade of work.

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Biodiverse forests better at storing carbon for long periods, says study

Phys.org

January 6, 2020
A new study, accepted in Environmental Research Letters, has found that diverse natural forests with a mix of tree species are more reliable and stable at absorbing and storing carbon than plantations dominated by just a few tree species, both over time and across diverse conditions. The study was co-authored by scientists from Columbia University's Earth Institute and its Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology.

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‘There is time to change course, but only if we start turning the wheel now’

Ethical Corporation (Op-Ed)

January 3, 2020
Nature Conservancy’s Lynn Scarlett says a series of international agreements in 2020 could set the stage for more sustainable economies by 2030

Imagine a massive container ship moving across the ocean at top speed, headed straight for a rocky island. The island is one mile away, which might seem far off, but turning a large ship moving at high speeds takes considerable effort. There’s still time for the ship to avoid running aground, but only if it starts the turn now.

This is the situation all of us are in today. The imminent collision we face is a world wrecked by climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, and the container ship – well, we’re all on that ship, and the engine of the current global economy is driving us straight toward the rocks. 

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Scenes from Australia's deadly bush fire crisis

The Washington Post

January 2, 2020
Australia is in the grips of a massive wildfire disaster, intensified by record heat and drought. The military has been called in to evacuate thousands from their homes, and thick plumes of smoke have reached as far as New Zealand, more than 1,000 miles away. While bush fires are an annual occurrence in Australia and deadlier fires have occurred there, this fire season began unusually early and is projected to last for months. Australia just had its hottest and driest year on record, and December was one of the top two hottest months in the country’s history.

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The science stories likely to make headlines in 2020

Science

January 2, 2020
Incessant political turmoil in the United Kingdom, United States, and other nations will likely last well into the new year, complicating many researchers’ work. The U.K. election last month made the country’s departure from the European Union a near-certainty, and its scientists now face losing EU science grants and scientific collaborators. In the United States, a presidential election in November will determine the role of scientists in future policy deliberations; many experts on climate change and other environmental issues assert that the Trump administration has ignored scientific evidence.

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UAE Nation Brand hits 10.6 million votes from 185 countries

Emirates News Agency

January 1, 2020
The UAE Nation Brand hit a record of 10.6 million votes from 185 countries as the campaign drew to a close to announce the logo that will represent the UAE and lead the country’s inspiring story towards the next 50 years.

Voters have contributed to planting 10 million trees to empower communities in areas affected by climate change in Nepal and Indonesia as the UAE had promised to plant a tree for every vote as part of the campaign.

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Greta Thunberg and mass protests defined the year in climate change

NBC News

December 30, 2019
Most climate scientists will be quick to say that 2019 was the year that Greta Thunberg truly became a force to be reckoned with. The 16-year-old Swedish activist staged solo “Fridays for Future” school strikes that triggered a global phenomenon drawing millions of people into the streets to protest climate inaction. The teen has since become the face of that newly energized climate movement and was recently named Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

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2019 was the year of ‘climate emergency’ declarations

The Verge

December 27, 2019
A rapidly changing climate drove hundreds of governments around the world to declare states of emergency in 2019. While the declarations are largely symbolic gestures, they have in some cases become jumping-off points for real action. It’s the culmination of coordinated efforts by activists pushing governments to take action that is as dramatic as the threats posed by the climate crisis.

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