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Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
On Tuesday 13th November 2018, a group of young climate activists descended on the office of Nancy Palosi, expected to lead the Democrats in the US Congress. They were demanding that she set up a special committee to create a proper climate action plan for the country – a Green New Deal.
At COP24 environmental movements have an opportunity to use their platform to highlight the relationship between economic growth and environmental impact, and even to discuss radical alternative futures that are not dependent on a growth-based economy.
From the election of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to the rise of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, young Americans are injecting a strong dose of energy into the climate and environmental movements.
The speed at which the regeneration meme is spreading into all aspects of society and infiltrating the mainstream is breathtaking and faster than I would have anticipated when I told my colleagues in Gaia Education in early 2014 to take a closer look at Bill Reed’s article from 2007 ‘Shifting from sustainability to regeneration’.
But I want us to ask Indigenous people to take the reins themselves and help get us back on track with fire. I want them to take care of their own lands once again, as the Karuk people are doing up north on the Klamath River.
Here’s the thing: Not all regions in the U.S. are going to experience climate change in the same way. Your backyard might suffer different climate consequences than my backyard. And, let’s be honest, we need to know what’s happening in our respective spaces so we can be prepared.
In 2015 Canada proclaimed itself an ally of vulnerable island nations and pushed for an ambitious climate mitigation goal. But since then Canada’s actual commitments under the Paris Agreement have ranked with the world’s weakest. Behind the discrepancy is the lack of a global agreement on a fair method for allocating the remaining carbon emissions budget.
Blue carbon is increasingly being championed by organisations and governments as a tool for climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as addressing multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). What is blue carbon, how much potential does it actually have, and how could we use it?
In an obvious attempt to keep it out of the news, the Trump administration released the most recent report — Volume 2 of the Fourth National Climate Assessment — at 2pm on the day after Thanksgiving. The 1656-page report begins with a blunt statement that “Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization.
Although our geographic and political situations vary a great deal, nearly all cities in industrial civilization have been dominated by car culture for a few generations, and we face many common challenges as we work back towards cities that are safe for everyone who could and should be moving about our streets.
Drawdown was a major collaborative effort involving 70 research fellows from 40 countries. It’s not so much a cohesive plan as a list of partial solutions: 80 that are tested and in use at least somewhere in the world, and another 20 that are speculative.
Here is as good as any spot to ask the question asked in the first two articles in the series. What does an appreciation of “inside the beltway” political maneuverings have to do with federal climate policy?
