With restaurants and supermarkets becoming less viable options during the pandemic, there has been a growth in demand and supply of local food. Baker County Tourism Travel Baker County / Flickr
By Robin Scher
Beyond the questions surrounding the availability, effectiveness and safety of a vaccine, the COVID-19 pandemic has led us to question where our food is coming from and whether we will have enough.
<p><br/></p>
<p>According to a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) <a href="https://www.wfp.org/news/covid-19-will-double-number-people-facing-food-crises-unless-swift-action-taken" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a>, COVID-19 might have left up to 265 million people with acute food shortages in 2020. The combined effect of the pandemic as well as the emerging global recession "could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems," which would "result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for more than half a century," states another UN <a href="https://unsdg.un.org/resources/policy-brief-impact-covid-19-food-security-and-nutrition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a>.</p>
<p>In the United States, "food insecurity has doubled overall, and tripled among households with children" due to the pandemic, states a <a href="https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/documents/reports/ipr-rapid-research-reports-pulse-hh-data-10-june-2020.pdf#link=%7B%22role%22:%22standard%22,%22href%22:%22https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/documents/reports/ipr-rapid-research-reports-pulse-hh-data-10-june-2020.pdf%22,%22target%22:%22%22,%22absolute%22:%22%22,%22linkText%22:%22June%20report%22%7D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">June 2020 report</a> by the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at Northwestern University, which relied on data provided by the <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey</a>. In a recent <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/staggering-need-covid-19-has-led-to-rising-levels-in-food-insecurity-across-the-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interview</a> with CBS News, IPR Director Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach warned that these statistics would likely "continue to hold," with the numbers indicating particularly dramatic rises in food insecurity among Black and Latinx families. Indeed, families of color are being disproportionately impacted. According to an analysis of new Census data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/struggling-families-and-economy-need-robust-bipartisan-covid-relief-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">22 percent of Black and 21 percent of Latinx respondents reported not having enough to eat</a>, compared to just 9 percent of white people.</p>
<p>Globally, the effects of COVID-19 on food security are equally, if not more, severe. According to a CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-famines-united-nations-warning/" target="_blank">report</a>, WFP Director David Beasley <a href="https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-chief-warns-hunger-pandemic-covid-19-spreads-statement-un-security-council" target="_blank">told</a> the UN Security Council in April 2020 that the world is on "the brink of a hunger pandemic." He added, "In a worst-case scenario, we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries, and in fact, in 10 of these countries we already have more than one million people per country who are on the verge of starvation."</p><p>"The number of chronically hungry people increased by an estimated 130 million last year, to more than 800 million — about eight times the total number of COVID-19 cases to date," <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/prevent-next-food-crisis-now" target="_blank">wrote</a> Mark Lowcock, the under-secretary-general and emergency relief coordinator at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and Axel van Trotsenburg, managing director of operations at the World Bank. "Countries affected by conflict and climate change are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Empty stomachs can stunt whole generations."</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) <a href="https://www.usda.gov/oce/energy-and-environment/food-security" target="_blank">warns</a> that climate change "is likely to diminish continued progress on global food security through production disruptions that lead to local availability limitations and price increases, interrupted transport conduits, and diminished food safety." The same might be said about the pandemic, which has made it abundantly clear: climate resilience, food security and global health are closely intertwined.</p><p>In terms of food security, another major concern is the pandemic-related school closures that have occurred across the globe, with UNICEF reporting that more than <a href="https://data.unicef.org/covid-19-and-children/" target="_blank">1.6 billion children and young people</a> have been affected. Schools provide a food lifeline for children; for so many, that is where they get their only nutritious meal of the day. In January, the UNICEF Office of Research — Innocenti, and WFP released a new <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/nutrition-crisis-looms-more-39-billion-school-meals-missed-start-pandemic-unicef-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a> that found that more than 39 billion in-school meals have been missed worldwide since the pandemic began, with 370 million children worldwide having missed 40 percent of in-school meals.</p>
<p>In early 2020, when COVID-19 was still a looming specter rather than the deadly virus we're more familiar with today, the threat of food insecurity was a practical problem. Scenes of shoppers descending on aisles to stock up on supplies were a common sight. As <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/18/business/supermarkets-rationing-coronavirus/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a> in March 2020, supermarkets around the world rationed food and other products such as toilet paper and cleaning supplies, in an effort to curb stockpiling.</p><p>In Vermont, for instance, a steady increase in food insecurity since the start of the pandemic has correlated to employment levels, according to a <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/uvm-survey-food-insecurity-vermont-rose-33-during-pandemic" target="_blank">survey</a> conducted by the University of Vermont between March and April 2020. Approximately 45 percent of respondents "had lost their jobs, been furloughed or had their hours reduced during the pandemic," and a further two-thirds of survey participants who recorded scarcity of food in their households "had experienced job losses or work disruptions since the outbreak of the pandemic," according to the survey. Vermont is just one example; the impact has been felt across the U.S. During the week before Thanksgiving in 2020, the Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/nov/25/us-hunger-surges-spiraling-pandemic?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> that 5.6 million U.S. households "struggled to put enough food on the table," while referring to the analysis of the Census data by CBPP.</p>
<p>As the pandemic continues to upend lives across the world, it has impacted the entire food supply chain. With factory and supermarket workers being <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31200-9/fulltext" target="_blank">highly susceptible</a> to COVID-19, there's been a concomitant <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/05/28/another-look-availability-and-prices-food-amid-covid-19-pandemic" target="_blank">decline</a> in food production and a rise in prices. As Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2020/04/what-if-coronavirus-strikes-tens-thousands-food-and-farm-workers-same-time" target="_blank">reported</a>, farmers in the U.S. were already facing labor shortages prior to the pandemic, and with tightened immigration as well as the heightened risk and poor compensation associated with these jobs, "food processors and farm labor contractors may struggle to find other workers willing to risk their lives to work in meat plants, packing sheds or produce fields."</p><p>The pandemic has exposed the weakness of the industrialized global food system, which depends on long, complex transportation chains and cross-border travel. "[T]he monstrous and unsustainable food industry known as <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/big-ag-monopolies-have-stifled-small-farmers-2020-democrats-want-to-break-them-up" target="_blank">Big Ag</a>... relies on the horrendous <a href="https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2018/01/18/improving-working-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">treatment</a> of laborers, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wasteful allocation of resources</a>, worldwide <a href="https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/factory-farming-is-killing-the-environment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environmental devastation</a> — and in a pinch, can quickly devolve into near-collapse of the entire system, as evidenced by the delays, shortages and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/coronavirus/food-supply-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pressure</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pandemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deepening hunger crisis</a> in America," April M. Short, a fellow at the Independent Media Institute, recently <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/02/04/covid-19-has-exposed-the-fragility-of-our-food-system--heres-how-we-can-localize-it_partner/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a> in Salon. "Among the many necessary systemic changes 2020 has illuminated is the need to majorly restructure the way we cultivate and access food in our communities."</p>
<p>It didn't take the pandemic to reveal the inefficiency and injustice of our food system: Globally, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/20/health/global-food-waste-higher/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a third of all food is wasted</a>, while nearly <a href="https://gho.unocha.org/global-trends/hunger-rising-covid-19-will-make-it-worse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">690 million people were undernourished in 2019</a> — almost 60 million more people than in 2014. But the pandemic has underscored the matter: According to <a href="https://gho.unocha.org/global-trends/hunger-rising-covid-19-will-make-it-worse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OCHA</a>, "the number of acutely food insecure people could increase to 270 million due to COVID-19, representing an 82 percent increase compared to the number of acutely food insecure people pre-COVID-19."<br></p><p>And the disruption of transportation has shown that the long distances it normally takes for food to get from one place to another can be a serious liability during a crisis. "[F]ood banks are under tremendous pressure to meet the skyrocketing demand," said a CNN article quoting from a letter Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, Feeding America CEO, and Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/business/farmers-food-supply-food-banks-donations-trnd/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a> to then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in April 2020. "At the same time, however, we are seeing literally tons of agricultural goods being discarded because of the shutdown of so much of the economy."</p>
<p>Consumer demand has shifted from eating out at restaurants and food services away from home, and food supply chain operations have had to be retooled. And that impact has been felt within the transportation sector. Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennysplitter/2020/03/18/covid-19-and-truck-driver-shortage-may-threaten-food-supply-chain/?sh=5495ccbd523e" target="_blank">reported</a> that Andrew Novakovic, an agricultural economist at Cornell University, "points to a number of weak spots in the food transportation system that could be aggravated by the increased demand for food." A shortage of truck drivers is one potential weak spot, says Novakovic. Although he concedes there is debate on this matter, Novakovic maintains that "[t]rucking companies are finding it much harder to recruit [those] long haul drivers." China, which was the first country to be hit by the virus, offers insight into the prolonged impact of the pandemic on transportation and food systems. The lockdown in the Hubei province of China, which is home to 66 million people, led to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-will-delay-agricultural-export-surges-promised-in-trade-deal-with-china-132227" target="_blank">shortage</a> in delivery of animal feed as well as refrigerated containers full of imported vegetables, fruit and frozen meat in February 2020, according to an article in The Conversation.</p>
<p>In addition to shifting consumer demand, the pandemic has also made us take a closer look at where our food comes from and how it impacts not only the lives of food workers but also the lives of animals trapped in the food system. According to a <a href="https://www.aspca.org/news/survey-says-covid-19-crisis-drives-americans-desire-reform-animal-agriculture" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new public opinion survey</a> conducted by Lake Research Partners and commissioned by the animal rights group American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, "[t]he vast majority (89 percent) of Americans are concerned about industrial animal agriculture, citing animal welfare, worker safety or public health risks as a concern." The survey also found that "85 percent of farmers and their families support a complete ban on new industrial animal agriculture facilities — almost twice the level of support expressed by the general public." This finding shows key support for the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3221/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Farm System Reform Act</a>, legislation that was introduced in 2019 by Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey that, among other reforms, seeks to put a <a href="https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-unveils-bill-to-reform-farm-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">moratorium on new or expanding factory farms</a>.</p>
<p>Food insecurity has long been a pressing issue, particularly for developing countries. However, as Mir Ashrafun Nahar, a research associate at the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling, <a href="https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/fallout-of-covid-19-on-food-security-1603117667" target="_blank">explained</a> in a Financial Express article, "the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more acute." In response, Nahar argues for a policy-based approach that includes "subsidy based transportation systems for agriculture" to support supply chains, as well as policies aimed at cutting down on agricultural production costs in order to help farmers recover from the effects of the pandemic.</p><p>With the pandemic still affecting food supply, though, there are a number of logical measures for reducing the impact of the virus and maximizing output. "First, OSHA [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] and the USDA must be directed to issue emergency standards that require employers to provide personal protective equipment, enough space to work without spreading the virus, and housing and transportation options that will reduce the spread of the virus," <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2020/04/what-if-coronavirus-strikes-tens-thousands-food-and-farm-workers-same-time" target="_blank">wrote</a> Faber.</p>
<p>Proposed in April 2020, Faber's suggestions, unfortunately, remained <a href="https://www.ewg.org/testimony-official-correspondence/covid-19-bill-fails-protect-workers-and-hungry-families" target="_blank">unaddressed</a> under the Trump administration. Faber's relief measures further include the expansion of USDA programs to purchase surplus commodities to offset supply chain disruption; redirecting food that might be destroyed toward food banks; and increasing the standard SNAP benefit (food stamps) by 15 percent. And, echoing Nahar, Faber also proposes adopting policies that will help to alleviate financial burdens faced by farmers and food suppliers, as well as offering subsidy support.</p><p>The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental economic group with 37 member countries, said that the pandemic "has laid bare pre-existing gaps in social protection systems" in a <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y2jp7zk9" target="_blank">report</a> published in June 2020. "While the impacts of COVID-19 are still unfolding, experience so far shows the importance of an open and predictable international trade environment to ensure food can move to where it is needed," the OECD report states. "The biggest risk for food security is not with food availability but with consumers' access to food: safety nets are essential to avoid an increase in hunger and food insecurity."</p>
<p>Another problem is the lack of media coverage about the food insecurity being witnessed around the world, particularly during the COVID-19 era. As the Economist recently <a href="https://espresso.economist.com/6d94f9a8ea3ab919370c4bbd22ce9956" target="_blank">pointed out</a>, journalists in 2020 "wrote more than 50,000 articles about the canceled Eurovision song contest, but only around 2,000 about drought and hunger in Zambia."</p><p>Fortunately, beyond the failings of a state-led response to the pandemic, some positives have emerged at a community level. With restaurants and supermarkets becoming less viable options, there has been a growth in demand and supply of local food. According to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-small-local-farms-food_n_5e86332cc5b6d302366ccdcc" target="_blank">HuffPost</a><em>,</em> farmers have seen "a massive rise in demand for local produce." The result of this trend is that consumers who are able to access local food are changing their behavior toward procurement and consumption of food permanently.</p>
<p>Things are changing on a federal level, too. In a recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/dining/usda-food-policy-biden.html" target="_blank">article</a> about how the U.S. food system could be transformed during the Biden administration, New York Times food correspondent Kim Severson noted that "[h]unger relief is a pressing issue" for Tom Vilsack, who has been <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/23/politics/tom-vilsack-confirmed-agriculture-secretary/index.html" target="_blank">confirmed</a> by the Senate to become the agriculture secretary in Biden's Cabinet, a job the former Iowa governor also held under the Obama administration. However, while Severson notes that Vilsack has his <a href="https://secure.everyaction.com/9xZA4zPWO0m7iAvPbf4H4A2" target="_blank">critics</a>, President Biden has already made changes at the top, signing an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/" target="_blank">executive order</a> meant to deliver relief to families and businesses amid the COVID-19 crisis, including "expanding and extending federal nutrition assistance programs" to "[a]ddress the growing hunger crisis facing 29 million Americans." His proposal to Congress includes a $3 billion package to "help women, infants and children get the food they need" and "access to nutritious food for millions of children missing meals due to school closures."</p><p>For meaningful reform to the food system to occur, change is going to have to happen at every level: from federal, state and local governments, to Big Ag, small farmers and everyday consumers. With the future looking ever more uncertain due to the climate crisis — one of President Biden's top priorities — adapting to new ways of producing and transporting food will be key to our survival.</p>
<p>Robin Scher is a writer based in South Africa. He is a graduate of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at New York University. Find him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/robscherhimself" target="_blank">@RobScherHimself</a>.<br/></p><p><em>T</em><em>his article first appeared on </em><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/pandemic-may-have-left-265-million-people-with-acute-food-shortages-in-2020" target="_blank"><em>Truthout</em></a><em> and was produced in partnership with </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Tearing through the crowded streets of Philadelphia, an electric car and a gas-powered car sought to win a heated race. One that mimicked how cars are actually used. The cars had to stop at stoplights, wait for pedestrians to cross the street, and swerve in and out of the hundreds of horse-drawn buggies. That's right, horse-drawn buggies. Because this race took place in 1908. It wanted to settle once and for all which car was the superior urban vehicle. Although the gas-powered car was more powerful, the electric car was more versatile. As the cars passed over the finish line, the defeat was stunning. The 1908 Studebaker electric car won by 10 minutes. If in 1908, the electric car was clearly the better form of transportation, why don't we drive them now? Today, I'm going to answer that question by diving into the history of electric cars and what I discovered may surprise you.
<p>In 1881, at a blistering pace of 9 mph, inventor Gustave Trouvé introduced the streets of Paris, and ultimately, the world to the quiet hum of the electric carriage. For the wealthy socialites of Paris, and their counterparts in New York, the horseless carriage was a must have, and electric motors were the superior choice. "By 1900, there were 4,192 vehicles on the streets in the U.S. Steam cars accounted for 1,681 of these; 1,575 were electric, and 936 had internal-combustion engines."* If you just wanted to get around town, the electric carriage was a better option — that is, if you were rich enough to afford one. Unlike internal combustion engines, electric vehicles were easy to turn on, accelerate, brake, there was no exhaust, and didn't have something exploding under your seat. Oh, and you also didn't have to crank the engine every time you stopped, which is part of the reason why that electric Studebaker won the Philadelphia race so handily. As a result of this ease of use, electric cars were looking like big business in the early 1900s, especially for the industry giant Electric Vehicle Company. At the time, the Electric Vehicle Company was the biggest car manufacturer in the country, and they used a model that seems revolutionary now, but makes sense back then. Instead of selling their cars, they rented them to people for the day or for multiple days. Each night the renter could return the car to a central garage and the Electric Vehicle Company would charge and service the vehicle, a model very similar to how stables worked at the time. But despite the electric car's success, its golden age was about to end. </p>
<p>To find out what happened, watch the video above!</p><p><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXvxXpDJXp-mZu3pFMzYHQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Our Changing Climate</a> is an environmental YouTube channel that explores the intersections of social, political, climatic, and food-based issues. The channel dives into topics like zero waste and nuclear energy in order to understand how to effectively tackle climate change and environmental destruction.</em></p><p><em><em>To receive all the latest videos produced by Charlie subscribe to his YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXvxXpDJXp-mZu3pFMzYHQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em>*</em><em>Rudi Volti Cars and Culture: The Life Story of a Technology (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006</em></p>
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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A technician inspects a bitcoin mining operation at Bitfarms in Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec on March 19, 2018. LARS HAGBERG / AFP via Getty Images
As bitcoin's fortunes and prominence rise, so do concerns about its environmental impact.
<p>The process of mining the cryptocurrency is enormously energy intensive, so much so that it consumes more electricity in a year than Argentina or the Ukraine, according to the latest data from the <a href="https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index</a>. Its energy hunger even led to a warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/yellen-sounds-warning-about-extremely-inefficient-bitcoin.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNBC reported</a>.</p><p>"It's an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions," Yellen said, "and the amount of energy that's consumed in processing those transactions is staggering."</p>
<p>Bitcoin's value rose past $50,000 two weeks ago, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/16/investing/bitcoin-50000-price-record/index.html" target="_blank">CNN Business reported at the time</a>. It was in part buoyed by the success of Elon Musk, whose electric car company <a href="http://tesla/" target="_blank">Tesla</a> made more than $900 million after buying $1.5 billion of the currency, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56215787" target="_blank">BBC News reported</a>. Its value has subsided somewhat since then, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/27/bitcoin-mining-electricity-use-environmental-impact?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR32SsssuI2vJel6JIv35Rynz8rUuwDOjKG06vMdBGDQA0LuFQ389eE9B_g#Echobox=1614421164" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. But Musk's endorsement raised a concern: How did his support of the currency meld with Tesla's <a href="https://www.tesla.com/about#:~:text=Tesla's%20mission%20is%20to%20accelerate%20the%20world's%20transition%20to%20sustainable%20energy.&text=Today%2C%20Tesla%20builds%20not%20only,energy%20generation%20and%20storage%20products." target="_blank">goal</a> of moving the world towards a "zero-emission future?"</p><p>The question is larger than Musk, of course. Bitcoin mining is energy intensive by design. There are only 21 million bitcoins that can be mined, a process that involves solving complex math problems on a computer to release new coins. When bitcoin first started in 2009, it was possible to mine for bitcoin on a normal computer. However, the currency is designed so that the fewer bitcoins left to be released, the more complicated the problems become. Now that 18.5 million bitcoins have been mined, an average computer cannot handle the calculations.</p>
<p>As the price rises, more people are motivated to get in on the action.</p><p>"They want to get that revenue," University of Chicago economics professor Gina Pieters told BBC News, "and that's what's going to encourage them to introduce more and more powerful machines in order to guess this random number, and therefore you will see an increase in energy consumption."</p><p>Pieters is part of the University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), which runs the bitcoin electricity use index. CCAF <a href="https://cbeci.org/" target="_blank">calculates</a> that bitcoin now uses 129.22 terawatt hours of electricity a year, according to its most recent update.</p>
<p>This doesn't necessarily mean that mining bitcoin is increasing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_self">greenhouse gas emissions</a>. Bitcoin proponents say that the mining can be powered using <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/renewable-energy" target="_self">renewable energy</a> sources, according to The Guardian. However, the mining process does motivate miners to seek out cheap energy sources.</p><p>"The more machines a miner operates, the more likely he is to find the solution to the puzzle," the CCAF <a href="https://cbeci.org/faq/" target="_blank">explained</a>. "However, more machines also means that more electricity is needed to run and cool the equipment, which in turn results in higher costs for the miner in question. Miners are thus always searching for abundant electricity sources at the lowest possible price."</p><p>Seeking the cheapest electricity source may mean <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> in many places, The Guardian pointed out. More bitcoin is mined in China than in any other country, and about two-thirds of its electricity still comes from coal.</p>
<p>The CCAF said it does not yet have the data to determine the cryptocurrency's carbon footprint, since this would require accurate assessments of the energy mix behind mining. However, it pointed out that even if all bitcoin mining was powered by coal, an unlikely scenario, it would still only account for 0.17 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. That doesn't mean bitcoin's growth isn't a concern for the attempts to combat the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, however.</p><p>"There are valid concerns that Bitcoin's growing electricity consumption may pose a threat to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the future," the index wrote.</p><p>That threat increases the more bitcoin gains in popularity. Bitcoin expert and Digiconomist founder Alex de Vries told BBC News what would happen if bitcoin were adapted as a global reserve currency.</p><p>"[T]he Bitcoin price will probably be in the millions, and those miners will have more money than the entire [US] Federal budget to spend on electricity. We'd have to double our global energy production," he said. "For Bitcoin."</p>
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OR-93 traveled hundreds of miles from Oregon to California. Austin Smith Jr. / Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs / California Department of Fish and Wildlife
An Oregon-born wolf named OR-93 has sparked conservation hopes with a historic journey into California.
<p>A young male, OR-93 traveled hundreds of miles from an area southeast of Mount Hood, Oregon, to California's central Sierra Nevada mountain range, the <a href="https://cdfgnews.wordpress.com/2021/02/25/dispersing-gray-wolf-travels-from-oregon-to-the-central-sierra-nevada/" target="_blank">California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced Friday</a>. The agency said he traveled farther south into California than any previous collared wolf. His trek is also the longest tracked journey of any gray wolf during the last century, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/27/oregon-wolf-journey-california-wolves" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>"OR-93's historic trek so far south into California's central Sierra Nevada is thrilling news for wolf recovery throughout the West – and underscores that species recovery is not isolated to separate states; what happens in the Northwest greatly affects the success of wolves in other states, and vice versa," California Program Director at Defenders of Wildlife Pamela Flick said in a statement emailed to EcoWatch.</p><p>OR-93 hails from Oregon's White River pack, according to the CDFW. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs fitted him with a tracking collar in June 2020 within his home territory. At some point he left the area, likely in search of new territory and a mate. He reached California's Modoc County by the beginning of February; by the end of the month, he had traveled to Alpine County, between trans-Sierra State Highways 4 and 108. He then passed into Mono County. This put him just east of Yosemite National Park and marks the first time a wolf has been known to approach the park in more than 100 years, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/travel-national-parks-california-animals-parks-143167309e434e3b26702550f9c4b1c3" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>.</p><p>The wolf is the 16th one to travel into California, and most have hailed from Oregon. However, this journey is notable from a conservation standpoint for two reasons. For starters, OR-93 is the first wolf from the White River pack to enter the state, which is important for the population's diversity.</p>
<p>"As the first known member of the White River Pack from western Oregon to disperse into California, OR-93 also importantly brings the potential for increased genetic diversity to our state," Flick said. "We look forward to watching the journey of California's newest wolf, and we will continue to welcome gray wolves back to their historical home in the Golden State."</p><p>OR-93's epic journey also places him in a habitat with enormous potential for wolves.</p><p>"We're thrilled to learn this wolf is exploring deep into the Sierra Nevada, since scientists have said all along this is great wolf habitat," Amaroq Weiss, senior West Coast wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in an email to EcoWatch. "He's another beacon of hope, showing that wolves can return here and flourish as long as they remain legally protected."</p><p>California's wolves were eradicated in the early 20th century following a concerted campaign by the livestock industry. The first wolf to return to the state in 2011 included another Oregon wolf, named OR-7. There are now fewer than a dozen wolves living in California, including the Lassen pack, which has produced pups every year between 2017 and 2020, according to CDFW. Another pair of wolves has also been spotted in Siskiyou County, and scientists think they will produce pups this spring.</p>
<p>While the Trump administration <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/gray-wolves-endangered-trump-2649746799.html" target="_self">removed federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves</a>, they remain listed as an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> within California. CDFW Spokeswoman Jordan Traverso told the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oregon-wolf-has-traveled-deeper-into-California-15984246.php" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a> that OR-93's incredible journey proved the protections were working.</p><p>"We have a burgeoning population," she told the Chronicle. "It's exciting."</p><p>However, not everyone shares her excitement. The presence of wolves in the state has concerned ranchers.</p><p>"There are diverse constituencies with varying viewpoints — we do our best to walk that tight rope," Traverso told the San Francisco Chronicle.</p><p>There have been some wobbles on that walk. The seven-member Shasta pack, the first wolf pack to be discovered in California in almost 100 years, disappeared months after being found in 2015, the CBD said. The disappearance followed the pack's implication in two livestock casualties, and there are concerns they may have been poached.</p><p>Defenders of Wildlife called for more strategies to reduce livestock and wolf conflicts as wolves' California presence increases. Meanwhile, OR-93's success in the state will likely depend on more personal matters.</p><p>"Given the time of year, we assume OR-93 has traveled such a long way in search of a mate," CBD's Weiss said. "I hope he can find one."</p>
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A plume of exhaust extends from the Mitchell Power Station, a coal-fired power plant built along the Monongahela River, 20 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, on Sept. 24, 2013 in New Eagle, Pennsylvania. The plant, owned by FirstEnergy, was retired the following month. Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
By David Drake and Jeffrey York
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
The Big Idea
People often point to plunging natural gas prices as the reason U.S. coal-fired power plants have been shutting down at a faster pace in recent years. However, new research shows two other forces had a much larger effect: federal regulation and a well-funded activist campaign that launched in 2011 with the goal of ending coal power.
<p>We studied the retirement of U.S. coal-fired units from January 2008 to September 2016 and compared the effects of various market factors, regulations and activism on their early closure. In all, 348 coal-fired units either retired or switched to natural gas during that time.</p><p>Among the many pressures on coal power that we reviewed, a federal regulation implemented in 2015 had the biggest overall effect. The <a href="https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2017/09/cross-state-air-pollution-rule-and-section-126-petitions/" target="_blank">Cross State Air Pollution Rule</a> requires states to reduce soot and smog pollution that blows across state lines, including from power plants. We estimate that it was responsible for reducing the expected production life of the coal power units that it affected by a total of 1,170 years.</p>
<p>Looking at coal units individually, however, we found that the <a href="https://coal.sierraclub.org/" target="_blank">Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign</a>, backed by <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/09/bloomberg-philanthropies-and-sierra-clubs-beyond-coal-campaign-reaches" target="_blank">over $174 million</a> to date from Bloomberg Philanthropies, had the most impact per targeted plant.</p><p>The campaign works by generating public pressure on utilities and state and local politicians to close down coal-fired units, often through targeted lawsuits. When the Beyond Coal campaign targeted a coal-fired unit, we found that the unit's life expectancy, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12618-3" target="_blank">normally 50-60 years</a>, was reduced by an average of just over two years.</p><p>The Cross State Air Pollution Rule was the second-biggest factor per individual plant, though it affected more plants. It reduced the expected life span of each coal-fired generating unit that it affected by an estimated average of about 21 months.</p><p>We were surprised to find that neither low natural gas prices nor the adoption of renewable energy significantly reduced the life of coal units. Both have been widely touted by politicians and business leaders as the market-based drivers of coal plant retirement.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMzM1Mi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTE0NDY2OH0.YivSnJf8zxVGrZ-tqR5DKJBuXIvMU0sK9mvoE0zOnlE/img.png?width=980" id="5a990" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f93a313d8569c2cebd38ce041d696230" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1308" data-height="924" />
<p>However, while adoption of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a> alone did not reduce coal units' life spans, the average use of each source of renewable energy in an area did have a significant impact. Coal units operating in regions with high average renewable energy use retired an average of 15 months earlier.</p><p>It is important to note that a large number of coal plants were already nearing the end of their lifecycles during this period. But through statistical modeling, we were able to isolate the impact of each of these interventions on accelerating the retirement of a given unit.</p>
<h3>Why It Matters</h3><p>A rapid transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources such as coal is essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. Burning coal releases <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=73&t=11" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nearly twice as much carbon dioxide</a> per unit of energy produced as natural gas does, and the natural gas contribution to global warming is significant.</p><p>From 2011 through 2018, coal-fired generating capacity in the U.S. contracted by 23%. We estimate that the emissions impact of the accelerated retirements we studied was equivalent to taking <a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">38 million typical passenger cars off the road</a>.</p><p>The common narrative has been that <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/08/biden-coal-energy-industry-policy-renewables-natural-gas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">market forces and economics have driven the demise of coal</a>. However, our research suggests that a continued focus on federal policy is a more effective route for reducing emissions.</p><p>The Biden administration has already <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/27/960941799/biden-to-pause-oil-and-gas-leasing-on-public-lands-and-waters" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">halted new leases</a> for coal, oil and gas extraction on federal lands. And its climate task force – which includes the Cabinet-level department and agency heads – <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/11/readout-of-the-first-national-climate-task-force-meeting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">met in</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/climate/biden-climate-change.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">February</a> to start coordinating <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-plans-to-fight-climate-change-in-a-way-no-u-s-president-has-done-before-152419" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">government-wide</a> climate change solutions. Those likely will include new regulations and could include a price on carbon.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMzM2Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjAzMTEwNn0.vvLRY5Hd-ZUC7v9FF7TAv4ea0jv2hS8gqJUzh15KJcM/img.png?width=980" id="a304a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9c74d6048af72ea038d4d550ca9f736b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1288" data-height="676" />
<h3>What's Next</h3><p>Our current work sheds light on where responsibility lies for the acceleration of coal-fired power unit retirements through late 2016.</p><p>Next, we are interested in expanding on our findings about differences between renewable energy use and initial adoption. Understanding how to increase use of renewable sources, while creating new businesses and jobs, is a critical research agenda for addressing climate change.</p>
<p>
<em>David Drake is an assistant professor of strategy, entrepreneurship and operations management at the University of Colorado Boulder.<br/>
</em>
</p><p>
<em>Jeffrey York is an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Boulder.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-really-driving-coal-powers-demise-153868" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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By Gwen Ranniger
Fertility issues are on the rise, and new literature points to ways that your environment may be part of the problem. We've rounded up some changes you can make in your life to promote a healthy reproductive system.
Infertility and Environmental Health: The Facts
<ul> <li>Sperm count is declining steeply, significantly, and continuously in Western countries, with no signs of tapering off. Erectile dysfunction is on the rise, and women are facing increasing rates of miscarriage and difficulty conceiving.</li><li>Why? A huge factor is our environmental health. Hormones (particularly testosterone and estrogen) are what make reproductive function possible, and our hormones are increasingly being negatively affected by harmful, endocrine-disrupting chemicals commonplace in the modern world—in our homes, foods, and lifestyles.</li></ul>What You Can Do About It
<p>It should be noted that infertility can be caused by any number of factors, including medical conditions that cannot be solved with a simple change at home.</p><p><em>If you or a loved one are struggling with infertility, our hearts and sympathies are with you. Your pain is validated and we hope you receive answers to your struggles.</em></p><p>Read on to discover our tips to restore or improve reproductive health by removing harmful habits and chemicals from your environment.</p>Edit Your Health
<ul><li>If you smoke, quit! Smoking is toxic, period. If someone in your household smokes, urge them to quit or institute a no-smoking ban in the house. It is just as important to avoid secondhand smoke.</li><li>Maintain a healthy weight. Make sure your caloric intake is right for your body and strive for moderate exercise.</li><li>Eat cleanly! Focus on whole foods and less processed meals and snacks. Studies have found that eating a Mediterranean-style diet is linked to increased fertility.</li><li>Minimize negative/constant stress—or find ways to manage it. Hobbies such as meditation or yoga that encourage practiced breathing are great options to reduce the physical toll of stress.</li></ul>Edit Your Home
<p>We spend a lot of time in our homes—and care that what we bring into them will not harm us. You may not be aware that many commonly found household items are sources of harmful, endocrine-disrupting compounds. Read on to find steps you can take—and replacements you should make—in your home.</p><p><strong>In the Kitchen</strong></p><ul> <li>Buy organic, fresh, unprocessed foods whenever possible. <a href="https://www.ehn.org/clean-grocery-shopping-guide-2648563801.html" target="_blank">Read our grocery shopping guide for more tips about food.</a></li><li>Switch to glass, ceramics, or stainless steel for food storage: plastics often contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals that affect fertility. <a href="https://www.ehn.org/bpa-pollution-2645493129.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learn more about the dangers of plastic here.</a></li><li>Ban plastic from the microwave. If you have a plastic splatter cover, use paper towel, parchment paper, or an upside-down plate instead.</li><li>Upgrade your cookware: non-stick may make life easier, but it is made with unsafe chemical compounds that seep into your food. Cast-iron and stainless steel are great alternatives.</li><li>Filter tap water. Glass filter pitchers are an inexpensive solution; if you want to invest you may opt for an under-the-sink filter.</li><li>Check your cleaning products—many mainstream products are full of unsafe chemicals. <a href="https://www.ehn.org/how-to-shop-for-cleaning-products-while-avoiding-toxics-2648130273.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out our guide to safe cleaning products for more info</a>.</li></ul><p><strong>In the Bathroom </strong></p><ul> <li>Check the labels on your bathroom products: <em>fragrance-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free</em> and organic labels are all great signs. You can also scan the ingredients lists for red-flag chemicals such as: triclosan, parabens, and dibutyl phthalate. Use the <a href="https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/" target="_blank">EWG Skin Deep database</a> to vet your personal products.</li><li>Ditch the vinyl shower curtain—that new shower curtain smell is chemical-off gassing. Choose a cotton or linen based curtain instead.</li><li>Banish air fresheners—use natural fresheners (an open window, baking soda, essential oils) instead.</li></ul><p><strong>Everywhere Else</strong></p><ul><li>Remove wall-to-wall carpet. If you've been considering wood or tile, here's your sign: many synthetic carpets can emit harmful chemicals for years. If you want a rug, choose wool or plant materials such as jute or sisal.</li><li>Prevent dust build-up. Dust can absorb chemicals in the air and keep them lingering in your home. Vacuum rugs and wipe furniture, trim, windowsills, fans, TVs, etc. Make sure to have a window open while you're cleaning!</li><li>Leave shoes at the door! When you wear your shoes throughout the house, you're tracking in all kinds of chemicals. If you like wearing shoes inside, consider a dedicated pair of "indoor shoes" or slippers.</li><li>Clean out your closet—use cedar chips or lavender sachets instead of mothballs, and use "green" dry-cleaning services over traditional methods. If that isn't possible, let the clothes air out outside or in your garage for a day before putting them back in your closet.</li><li>Say no to plastic bags!</li><li>We asked 22 endocrinologists what products they use - and steer clear of—in their homes. <a href="https://www.ehn.org/nontoxic-products-2648564261.html" target="_blank">Check out their responses here</a>.</li></ul>Learn More
<ul><li>For more information and action steps, be sure to check out <em>Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race</em> by EHS adjunct scientist Shanna Swan, PhD: <a href="https://www.shannaswan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">available for purchase here.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ehn.org/st/Subscribe_to_Above_The_Fold" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign up for our Above the Fold Newsletter </a>to stay up to date about impacts on the environment and your health.</li></ul>From Your Site Articles
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Seattle-based Community Loaves uses home bakers to help those facing food insecurity during the pandemic. Sol de Zuasnabar Brebbia / Getty Images
The irony hit Katherine Kehrli, the associate dean of Seattle Culinary Academy, when one of the COVID-19 pandemic's successive waves of closures flattened restaurants: Many of her culinary students were themselves food insecure. She saw cooks, bakers, and chefs-in-training lose the often-multiple jobs that they needed simply to eat.
<p>"The pandemic has leveled the most marginalized members of our society—the people working two, three jobs at minimum wage," Kehrli says. She knows the statistics by heart: FeedingAmerica.org says <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">50 million people may experience hunger and food insecurity this year</a>. "Its tendrils," she adds, "are nasty."</p><p>Kehrli knew she wouldn't be able to make the entire U.S. food system more equitable and just, but she did have an idea to help her local community. Six years before, after spending time in the culinary school's bake shop, she'd gotten hooked on the alchemy of flour, water, yeast, and salt. She took workshops with master bakers and built a library of cookbooks on bread. Kehrli even started a regional network of people who shared her hobby: Northwest Bread Bakers. She loved to bake, and during the pandemic, other homebound Americans were beginning to feed sourdough starters by the millions. Kehrli wondered: Could a trending private hobby help meet wider needs?</p><p>A little policy research showed that, in Washington, bread was one of the few homemade foods the state health department allowed to be donated to food banks without needing to be made in a licensed commercial kitchen. And so in April, from Kehrli's home—where giant bags of flour eventually displaced the family car from the garage—<a href="https://communityloaves.org/" target="_blank">the Community Loaves initiative</a> was born. She called on a hive of baking friends to develop a sandwich-friendly, easy-to-execute sourdough recipe, the "honey oat pan loaf." The group found a food bank in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland called Hopelink that agreed to take the bread if they could make and package it in a standardized way. That first batch, the initiative donated 19 loaves.</p><p>Ten months later, the numbers have mushroomed. Nearly 700 volunteer bakers, drivers, and flour packers have contributed to the donation of nearly 15,000 loaves to 11 food pantries around Seattle. Two Sundays a month, the individual bakers each make four loaves (three to donate, one to keep) that get distributed among 36 neighborhood hubs. Community Loaves is on track to give away more than 30,000 loaves before the end of 2021.</p>
<p>The initiative has already expanded to three locations in Oregon, and Kehrli expects to inspire other cities. She's already gotten calls from bakers in Connecticut, California, and Minnesota wondering how they can replicate the idea.</p><p>The proud but visibly fatigued founder is braced for more in early January when she beams in for a virtual interview. Kehrli had been up until 3:44 a.m. the night before, she reports wearily, then up again at 7 and back in action with no shower or makeup. "I can't sleep anymore," she says."I have stuff to do."</p><p>One of her two college-age sons slips in a veggie bowl for her to snack on, because she hasn't had time for lunch. Things will only intensify from here. The Today show is scheduled to air a <a href="https://www.today.com/food/seattle-bakers-donate-1-300-loaves-bread-local-food-bank-t205271" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">national segment on Community Loaves</a> in two days, and the project's new website needs to be ready. In the middle of it all, someone shows up at the door needing labels, which had been delayed in shipping. Kehrli's supportive, operationally involved husband, Tim, makes a quick decision: "I'm going to give her bags and twist ties," he declares, "because that's all I have."</p><p>The work continues, because demand isn't letting up.</p>
<h2>Inspiration and Limitations</h2><p>During the pandemic, mutual-aid societies have cropped up around the country, reviving an old concept with roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The idea was that everyone had something to contribute, and everyone had something they needed. By 1920, a presidential report estimated that one in three adult men in the U.S. was a member of a fraternal society. During the 1918 flu pandemic, <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/mutual-aid-united-states-unions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mutual-aid societies organized by and for women also multiplied</a>. New Orleans, in particular, developed a strong mutual-aid tradition, with an estimated 135 organizations dedicated to supporting Black people, nearly one-third of them for women. </p><p>For today's mutual-aid societies, the <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/coronavirus-community-power/2020/05/09/coronavirus-mutual-aid-low-income-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">catch line is often "solidarity, not charity</a>." </p><p>Community Loaves, too, draws on the model of neighbors helping neighbors. And Kehrli took inspiration from an earlier time as well. Her grandmother, Ruth Wiesen, was known for making cookies, pies, or fudge for every bake-sale fundraiser, neighborhood social, funeral luncheon, or other community need. And she participated in the interfaith CROP Walks against hunger for as long as she physically could. When Kehrli told Wiesen about Community Loaves, her grandmother said, "I would've loved to have [baked for] that." Wiesen died in 2020, at 105—but not before helping Kehrli put labels on Community Loaves bread bags, marshaling her frail 85-pound body and still-powerful will to help even from her nursing home.</p>
<p>Sourdough donation isn't widespread yet, but related efforts are out there. Kehrli drew on one Midwestern model, <a href="https://graincollaborative.com/neighbor-loaves/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Neighbor Loaves</a>, that uses commercial bakeries. And celebrated artisanal baker Guy Frenkel has started a similar initiative in L.A., <a href="https://www.castyourbreadlosangeles.com/#3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cast Your Bread</a>, that has inspired chapters in Baltimore and Israel. Kehrli gets calls from around the country—she logs them on a "New Cities Interest" spreadsheet—and she's expecting more. By April, she hopes to have expansion support in place, including a training session for others wanting to start something similar.</p><p>Still, Kehrli is dissatisfied with a food system that leaves people hungry—and is ever-conscious of her project's limitations. "It is just one piece of work on a scale that is extremely large in terms of what's needed," she says. "Yes, we're doing our part, and yes, I want us to feel good about it, and yes, it's still not enough."</p><p>Still, recipients who learn that volunteers are doing the baking appreciate the effort. Teresa, a Hopelink client in the Kirkland area who preferred that her last name not be used, says she was touched when she found out that fellow community members made the loaves. "This to me is the representation of community, people stepping in and learning and sharing love by trying to help the community," she says. "Baking is a special genre. There's no guarantees. But when the loaves are perfect, they're amazing."</p>
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overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBrS8qIpqzx/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Cast Your Bread (@cast_your_bread)</a></p></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<h2>Added Benefits</h2><p>Despite its limited scale, Community Loaves has a range of impacts, even beyond addressing hunger. One of them: expanding the market for locally grown, locally milled grains. The initiative uses high-extraction and whole grain flour. It's bought wholesale from two regional mills, Cairnspring Mills and Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill, and then purchased in smaller units by bakers as part of their contribution. "Flour has been relegated to the commodity market for a long time. Just like coffee and craft beer have gone through their days, flour is having its moment," Kehrli says. "We are helping to educate and share that not all flour is the same. I think we are helping support an improved foundation for choosing local ingredients that have been minimally processed."</p><p>The high-extraction flour has higher nutritional content, Kehrli asserts, including fiber and protein. People with celiac disease and gluten intolerance still can't eat bread—but anecdotally, many with gluten sensitivity have reported the Community Loaves iteration doesn't disagree with them. "We attribute that to the longer sourdough fermentation process and the quality of the flour," she says.</p><p>Then there's the effect on bakers, who not only give to others, but also benefit from connecting and contributing, safely and from home, during a pandemic. They come from a range of ages and backgrounds. Kinsley Ogunmola, for instance, a millennial software engineer, leads a hub in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood. Up to 20 volunteers, ranging from 20-somethings to retirement age, drop off their loaves with him biweekly (he wrote a special code to let them into the building). From there, he coordinates transportation to the food pantry. "Our lobby smells like a bakery every other Sunday," he says. "My neighbor keeps asking me about bread now whenever I see him. I hope it spreads."</p>
<p>Community Loaves starts volunteers off with an online introductory session, which Kehrli leads. She's done more than 50 to date. At one orientation, in September, the range of the bakers' experience was apparent. There was Diane Moore, who had celebrated her 50th birthday with a weeklong baking course in France. And there was Clare Chan, who had zero baking experience but wanted to volunteer along with her teenage sons Caelen Yoong, 16, and Lucien Yoong, 14.</p><p>By January, Moore and Chan were both still involved and loving it. Chan reported that her family hadn't missed a single bread-donation Sunday since they started. In her native Singapore, she used to volunteer in senior homes, but she loves that the whole family can be involved in this service, and she hopes they'll keep it up even after the pandemic. "It's a humbling and rewarding experience for us to put in the time to make the bread and know that it's going to families in need," she says. "When you take the loaves out of the oven, that's the best part."</p><p>Moore had thought she might get bored making a sandwich loaf over and over, but found that consistency is its own challenge. "It turns out it's hard to perfect the pan loaf. It's not as forgiving in some ways as an artisan loaf. I feel like each time I'm learning more," she says. "This project nourishes me. It's been a gift. I was just ready to hand off bread, but there's a lovely connection to a community of bakers who share resources and recipes. It's a joyful project, and rewarding."</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/authors/lynn-freehill-maye/" target="_blank"><em>LYNN FREEHILL-MAYE</em></a><strong><em> </em></strong><em>writes about sustainability and related topics from her home in New York's Hudson Valley. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, CityLab, Civil Eats, and Sierra, among other publications.</em></em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/health-happiness/2021/02/25/bread-baking-mutual-aid/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em><br/><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2650842254#/" target="_self"></a></p>
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Storks in a nest near a construction crane. In the past 50 years, America's bird populations have fallen by a third. Maria Urban / EyeEm / Getty Images
By Tara Lohan
What does a biodiversity crisis sound like? You may need to strain your ears to hear it.
<p>In the past 50 years, America's bird populations have fallen by a third, and worldwide the average mammal population has dropped 60%, writes acclaimed environmental philosopher and nature writer <a href="https://www.riverwalking.com/" target="_blank">Kathleen Dean Moore</a> in her new collection of essays, <a href="https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/earths-wild-music/" target="_blank"><em>Earth's Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>And with all that loss comes an unsettling silence.</p><p>"Unless the world acts to stop extinctions, I will write my last nature essay on a planet that is less than half as song-graced and life-drenched as the one where I began to write," she explains in the book's preface. "My grandchildren will tear out half the pages in their field guides. They won't need them."</p>
<p>Her book uses sound as a reference point to better understand what we stand to lose as extinction rates climb higher. But the essays are also a celebration of the natural world's chorus and the joy of learning to hear what's still there.</p><p>The essays are also being <a href="https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/feature-story/music-save-earth-s-songs" target="_blank">set to music in a series</a> for Oregon State's Spring Creek Project that will feature 20 4-minute-long concerts combining live musical performance with excerpts from <em>Earth's Wild Music</em>.</p><p>"I've never been so excited about a project in my life," Moore tells us. "It combines everything I care about with the cause that I believe in more than anything else."</p><p><em>The Revelator</em> spoke to Moore about the moral stakes of our environmental crisis, what it's like to find a truly quiet place to listen, and what we lose as wild songs disappear.</p>
<p><strong>You've been writing about nature for 50 years. During that time our environmental problems have become graver. Has this changed how you approach your work?</strong></p><p>At first I was a celebrant. I believed Mary Oliver when she said, "My work is loving the world... which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished." And that went along fine for years and years, but then it became clear that what I was writing celebrations of were disappearing.</p><p>I was right in the midst of an essay on frog song, and bulldozers came and took away the marsh and put in a condominium. I was writing about a bald eagle nest, and the nest — and the tree it was in — burned to the ground in a forest fire. So it was starting to become clear to me that I was going to have to do more than celebrate. I was going to have to demonstrate. I was going to have to protect. I was going to have to defend the natural world.</p>
<p><strong>Why did you decide to focus this collection on sound?</strong></p><p>I started thinking about how I could open people's hearts without breaking them. How I could point to the onrushing extinctions and not force people to turn away in absolute grief. I decided that I was going to have to write in a way that was like a wave — I would lift people and smash them at the same time.</p><p>What is it that reaches people without breaking them? What is it that goes straight into people's hearts? What do they love about the world and will call them to action?</p><p>I decided that of all the things I loved about the world, what I loved the most was the music. What I loved the most was the sound. I've been writing about this for quite some time, so I had a couple of essays already under my belt, and I couldn't think of a more wonderful writing assignment for myself then to go outside and listen.</p>
<p><strong>Nature may be getting quieter. But people are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/science/ocean-marine-noise-pollution.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">getting louder</a>. How is our noise affecting wildlife?</strong></p><p>We are deafening. Noise that we create is causing extraordinary harm to the creatures. Think about the pain caused to the whales from the exploratory thudding of those machines that go through the ocean and stamp to try to find oil.</p><p>Think about the meadowlarks that lived in the fracking fields and had to endure endless noise of drilling and trucks. And as a result, the songs of the meadowlarks are fractured and abbreviated. They haven't been able to hear their parents well enough to imitate them.</p>
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<p><strong>Many of us may be out of practice at listening. In fact, a lot of folks walk around with earphones on so we can't hear what's around us. How do we get better at both listening to and understanding the sounds of nature?</strong></p><p>Listening is an art that we should practice because it does two things. It makes us shut up and it makes us open up. We stop listening just to the songs of "me, me, me." When we set aside our own stories, it opens us up so we can listen to the stories of other beings. It's a skill of empathy, isn't it? Listening to other people's stories and other creatures' sounds is a way of understanding the world from their point of view. It's a moral training.</p><p>When it comes to understanding what we hear, Rachel Carson, who wrote <em>Silent Spring</em>, and cared so much about bird song, took pains to tell us that it doesn't matter if we know the names of what we see. That comes later. But the first thing that has to happen is love.</p><p>So I'm not so concerned about knowing which bird is calling. I'm surrounded by people who could do that in a majestic way. My husband can identify birds by their call. My neighbor can. I think it's a beautiful skill that I don't have.</p><p>But I do have the ability to catch a song. To hear it, which isn't nothing. It can catch my attention and I can seek it out and I can listen to it. Knowing its name — maybe that's not so important as knowing its tune.</p>
<p><strong>How are people affected by this loss of nature's song, and what's the importance of preserving silent places where we can still experience what's left?</strong></p><p>We lose joy. Let's face it — the sounds of the natural world are beautiful and they make us happy. I think we also lose a connection to the world around us.</p><p>In the book, I write about going with acoustic ecologist <a href="https://www.soundtracker.com/about-gordon-hempton/" target="_blank">Gordon Hempton</a> to <a href="https://onesquareinch.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">One Square Inch of Silence</a>, a small spot in Olympic National Park [possibly the quietest place in the United States]. It was a wonderful experience. At the time, we were in pouring rain. Nature itself was cacophonous, but we didn't hear a human sound for 20 minutes, which is the definition in Gordon's mind of a quiet place.</p><p>Gordon now is recording in a jungle somewhere that can only be reached by canoeing down a wild river, because it's one of the last places on Earth he can find that's silent.</p><p>He's famous for these recordings called the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/Gordon-Hempton-Dawn-Chorus/release/7648571" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Dawn Chorus</em></a> that captured the outpouring of bird song that's triggered by morning light. But he couldn't do that anymore, because that music box is broken. We're in the process of wrecking what we should be treasuring.</p><p>It's hard to find a balance between grief and celebration. But you know, people often ask me, "What can one person do?" And I say, "Stop being one person."</p><p>You don't have to do it all. Other people are working all around the world on the same causes you believe in. Find them, join up with them. You'll find your place in the choir. [Author and teacher] <a href="https://www.joannamacy.net/main" target="_blank">Joanna Macy</a> says to choose what you love and devote yourself to it. That, she says, is enough.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/earths-music-moore/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
- Is Constant Human Noise Stressing Out Wildlife? - EcoWatch ›
- What We've Lost: The Species Declared Extinct in 2020 - EcoWatch ›
- Traffic Sounds Make It Harder for Birds to Think, Scientists Find ... ›
- Using Sound to Help Imperiled Species and Ecosystems - EcoWatch ›
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The Biden administration is temporarily using Obama-era calculations of the "social cost" of three greenhouse gas pollutants while calculating a more accurate estimate. Bloomberg Creative / Getty Images
The Biden administration announced it will use Obama-era calculations of the "social cost" of three greenhouse gas pollutants while an interagency working group calculates a more complete estimate, the White House announced Friday.
<p>Often described as "the most important number you've never heard of," the "social cost" of greenhouse gases estimates the harms to society caused by each ton of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emitted into the atmosphere.</p><p> Those estimates are used across government in calculating the costs and benefits of proposed actions. </p><p>Though the administration did not specify the exact costs, multiple outlets report the interim estimate of the social cost of carbon will be approximately $51 per ton. </p>
<p>The interagency working group also set the social cost of methane, a far more potent heat trapping gas, at $1,500 per ton and at $18,000 for nitrous oxide, Politico reported. </p><p>The Trump administration had slashed those estimates to as low as $1 per ton for carbon dioxide and <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/VWc3Ss16j4jqVWBHHP4LN2tpW5n2k0f4nF4btN52hRhc3p_97V1-WJV7Cg_0YW6pZTk92WhPGZW37hr0G4H1BjCW1hRCb65rgpCwW5Dp1C_38qPy9N2lz_9P4cjQTW2Q7ZGb2_Hr8KW7XqZ-N4MFD8BW54d7b08j9gc2W2wYlzG49736YW20Tf_B4_c467VM9dbX1KYGlgW2Ypf4p4TX1tHW4pSwzw2sW2ZXW4rbyBx4v8CkSW8l-CvK9043PvW96NMMm3WC-MKW1sXNd24n6KZDW8JVWhZ74_RjLW7y55q17qm1j0W7MnxFs7g-NvFN15zNdW7tZVVW29PxT_51Z0nqW3Nm3LL3t34rvW8-lpqK12JxWD320g1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$55</a> per ton for methane. </p><p>The final estimate for the social cost of carbon produced by the interagency working group could reach as high as $125 after accounting for scientific advances and climatic damage over the past four years but the Obama-era estimates were subject to extensive scientific and agency review and public comment, making them more likely to withstand legal challenges.</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/02/26/biden-cost-climate-change/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--ZE8aiLDfC1QFojOTg1BB2q5abyDKJicVOMcpB29ATwGIsOANclRCPjAsgbaDQFGpYLjgqua9bYwI35knDuFvvTbqToMPVfnZasx76dmkrs1rhgKI&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-26/biden-turns-back-to-obama-era-method-of-valuing-climate-change?sref=oUjKJw8m&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_a7BG_sgkNJUhtT5UjieNfPpo4xMvuWivfjr9CdY0eWIJW8gCnms5cqr-8twjTAch6UPmHDprjCp7vh9lxWcKwErrkiyWwcehJTz9dxw8-kq4z2_s&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/26/biden-carbon-price-climate-change-471787?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--L7SQELIPyKsbRfozxkJC1QnfZGlSfYGpccTlJNPFW3VRPlcQNF_SiMojxDSE9bPd7f-o3IooLdGiROyX-P1mNnFNNE1V9h8P-IWpmsoi3D1s3Jj4&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Politico</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/540754-biden-returns-to-obama-era-greenhouse-gas-calculation?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--O2t2RIGRoS4Bgo0jBxzJ5W6NFEPzX1h5n_kwd6gdEpPn6IxwmJsS7qbnOmpHLp9rdcI82BLrvjsUX-SRvXNjh1C94yIJpr6hD3RLXnyjSJz6Lc8g&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Hill</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-13/why-biden-is-reviving-climate-change-s-magic-number-quicktake?sref=oUjKJw8m&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--d2o4iO9QMaGPCI2xN2SNJYhDsfar9qIurb3_2HeXN4ulu5M5MEZvxFD5C1PeOVvFMUP8PeUI1h2M2UVk_qizhhKIQAH5EQqG9pKMbjC4B5GVuF_A&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2021/03/01/stories/1063726223?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--tuTQw9FQncUu6oCfAVaoAegk4MIV09o4wFpoRZsxYBieazAdsMd8nF5Gl6SVgeb3t3Hy_vRdhnRiIq8hqDZy97azF0GJGiHk5qHuMlUiOs75PX7s&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">E&E</a>, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26022021/carbon-cost-biden-climate-change/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_K9P-nN2bNBxNwHRPnnmOAoicP6nmjDyzwZ-GNWPDO9PBs4IXemV4weEB5doyxDn456PLZgjpZmNtnbDoAxTb8u_Pn88benWb0V9VE2noCMvstJMc&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">InsideClimate News</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2AQ335?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--Xl9dS7eM0mLl-usTffaL0yg_eHxYvFxS2BDC41G3aqhae6FMlFj8ei_b3GshuaPtIUsIOotjSt1vezMMmvntWES5oTm0OyXgmFuzh3UQ5k3ExQoc&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/biden-matches-obamas-social-cost-of-carbon-for-now-its-a-figure-roughly-50-times-greater-than-trumps-11614380130?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Oz_wuWo6RCfaqO4enpWn1xsDRPgxFl_q4pxfRGcBQW8rxoPB58Tz62_xHTOe-NwT3oW_jKrM96_Cq8pXEyuy9TdOZVpprDUBNLYcINWFWuHAyRS8&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">MarketWatch</a>, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carbon-social-cost-raised-by-biden/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113518301&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_ifIfvZnWIMu0aNfHhPZWpAGtI8MvaODgAzJ3YcSqC_dos4p6QduJShsXxWqlLOABHqQXwZSk3Dvk0y6v7Xpu4Agz_rpDGHuEkPsJ8jWqLCfT8ieE&utm_content=113518301&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">CBS</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>. </em></p>
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Posts about climate change will now automatically be labelled with an information banner that directs people to accurate climate science data at Facebook's Climate Science Information Center. Facebook
By Anne-Sophie Brändlin
Facebook has started tackling dangerous climate change myths and anti-environment propaganda that circulates among the platform's almost 3 billion monthly users.
<p>In a <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/02/connecting-people-with-credible-climate-change-information/" target="_blank">new trial</a> that was launched in the UK in late February, posts about climate change will now automatically be labelled with an information banner that directs people to accurate climate science data at the company's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/climatescienceinfo" target="_blank">Climate Science Information Center.</a></p><p>"We do recognize that we have a bigger role to play when it comes to informing people accurately about climate change," Alexandru Voica from Facebook's tech communication team told DW.</p><p>"This will make users more aware of what information they share," he said.</p><h2>Debunking Climate Myths</h2><p>The Climate Science Information Center, which uses research that has been vetted by leading scientific organizations, also has a climate-myth-busting unit that actively debunks false information circulating online.</p><p>It explains, for instance, that the decline of polar bear populations is actually caused by rising temperatures, that global warming is not just part of a natural cycle of temperature fluctuation and that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere harms Earth's plant life.</p><p>Misinformation about climate change is not new, but experts believe it has been greatly amplified in the new digital world, where the topic is increasingly polarizing.</p><p>"Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are the most relevant infrastructure for information these days," Markus Beckedahl, editor in chief of Netzpolitik, a German platform advocating the digital right to freedom, told DW.</p><p>"These companies have a monopoly and dominate the market when it comes to how people get informed, communicate and debate society. That's why they carry a huge responsibility."</p>
<h2>Fighting Climate Change Starts With Fighting Misinformation Around It</h2><p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/gch2.201600008" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Research</a> has shown that the best way to counteract the politicization of science is to convey the high-level consensus among experts about the reality of human‐caused climate change. </p><p>That's why Facebook's UK-based trial is putting short, corrective messages into posts containing climate-change misinformation. These messages include information like the fact that 97% of the world's scientific community agree that global warming is real and caused by humans.</p><p>Behavior and communication experts from George Mason University, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the University of Cambridge helped advise Facebook on how best to debunk such climate myths in a way that is tailored to the psychology of misinformation. Dr. Sander van der Linden is one of the experts behind the UK trial.</p><p>"One common error that we often see media outlets make, for instance, is to prominently repeat the myth in an attempt to debunk it. But that tends to strengthen people's mental associations with the myths and people kind of forget about the correction," van der Linden, who is a professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge, told DW.</p><p>So instead of repeating the myths, they start by stating the facts.</p><p>The next step "is not to argue with people over the specifics, but to actually show what's misleading about the presentation of a particular argument and what the underlying technique is."</p>
<h2>Social Media Business Model a 'Catalyst for Misinformation'</h2><p>The Climate Science Information Center was launched in the US, Germany, the UK, and France last year and was just expanded to Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, India, Indonesia and Taiwan. If the UK trial goes well, these countries could see climate information banners and corrective message next, says Voica.</p><p>"We'll need to see the results from the UK tests first before we either expand the test or we make it into a real feature."</p><p>But for Markus Beckedahl, the climate misinformation trial comes years too late. He believes social media giants haven't done enough in the past years to combat misinformation. On the contrary, he says, they have actually promoted it through their own business model of collecting data and selling ads to keep people on the site.</p><p>"And the easiest way to do that is by showing content that creates emotions and anger. That's why disinformation and conspiracy theories have been shared and promoted massively on these sites in past years," he said.</p>
<h2>Opinion Loophole Makes Fact-Checking Even Harder</h2><p>Facebook has been coming under increasing pressure in recent years for failing to weed out false information, including myths about the climate crisis.</p><p>"The future of our planet is at stake, and there should be no company too big, too powerful, and too opaque to be held accountable for its role in the climate crisis. Facebook is no exception," U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and her colleagues <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-carper-whitehouse-schatz-call-on-mark-zuckerberg-and-facebook-to-stop-the-deliberate-spread-of-climate-disinformation-on-the-companys-social-media-platforms" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote in a statement</a> last year.</p><p>One way the company tried to combat this problem is by outsourcing fact-checking to more than 80 independent organizations, including journalists who review and rate public Facebook and Instagram posts.</p><p>"Fact-checking posts is often very complex. There are some parts that are true, others that are not. So there is a need for explanation; this is why we need the expertise of journalists to do this work," Basak Tezcan, who leads Facebook's sustainability team in Germany, told DW.</p><p>Content that has been rated false or altered will be labelled and will be limited in its distribution. It won't be deleted, though, unless it contributes to "the risk of imminent violence or physical harm," according to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/315131736305613?id=673052479947730&recommended_by=2593586717571940" target="_blank">Facebook's Community Guidelines</a>.</p><p>Here's the catch, though: "The fact-checking program is not meant to interfere with individual expression or debate," which means that opinion and speech from politicians, for example, isn't necessarily subjected to a fact check.</p><p>This has led to a backlash from climate activists, saying the policy is a huge loophole for climate change deniers.</p>
<h2>Pre-Bunking Instead of Debunking</h2><p>Considering the risk to society of climate misinformation, Van der Linden believes Facebook's climate misinformation trial is at least a small step in the right direction.</p><p>In the future, van der Linden hopes Facebook will work not just on debunking, but also "pre-bunking." In his <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/gch2.201600008" target="_blank">previous research</a> he has found that facts about scientific consensus can also be used to "pre-bunk" – pre-emptively debunk – the public against climate misinformation.</p><p>"Once people are exposed to a falsehood already, it's so much more difficult to undo the damage. So the better thing is a pre-bunk."</p><p>Another question is whether, as Beckedahl sees it, tech giants will agree to give independent scientists and government agencies access to their internal data so they can better understand how misinformation and climate myths spread exactly and what impact this has on society and our planet.</p><p><span></span>"Right now, it's a big black box, and the only ones who know what's really going on are the tech giants themselves — and they won't share their information. And that's a huge and dangerous asymmetry of power."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/facebook-launches-climate-project-to-tackle-misinformation/a-56713217" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em></p>
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‘Existential Threat to Our Survival’: See the 19 Australian Ecosystems Already Collapsing
27 February
Climate
Ningaloo Reef near Exmouth on April 2, 2012 in Western Australia. James D. Morgan / Getty Images News
By Dana M Bergstrom, Euan Ritchie, Lesley Hughes and Michael Depledge
In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were "on a collision course." Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a "safe space to operate." These are environmental thresholds, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and changes in land use.
<p>
Crossing such boundaries was considered a risk that would cause environmental changes so profound, they genuinely posed an <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/david-attenboroughs-witness-statement-for-the-planet-commentary/" target="_blank">existential threat to humanity</a>.
</p><p>
This grave reality is what our major research paper, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15539" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">published Thursday</a>, confronts.
</p><p>
In what may be the most comprehensive evaluation of the environmental state of play in Australia, we show major and iconic ecosystems are collapsing across the continent and into Antarctica. These systems sustain life, and evidence of their demise shows we're exceeding planetary boundaries.
</p>
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<p>We found 19 Australian ecosystems met our criteria to be classified as "collapsing." This includes the arid interior, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ecocheck-australias-vast-majestic-northern-savannas-need-more-care-59897" target="_blank">savannas</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-weather-likely-behind-worst-recorded-mangrove-dieback-in-northern-australia-71880" target="_blank">mangroves</a> of northern Australia, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-just-spent-two-weeks-surveying-the-great-barrier-reef-what-we-saw-was-an-utter-tragedy-135197" target="_blank">Great Barrier Reef</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/shark-bay-a-world-heritage-site-at-catastrophic-risk-111194" target="_blank">Shark Bay</a>, southern Australia's <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-other-reef-is-worth-more-than-10-billion-a-year-but-have-you-heard-of-it-45600" target="_blank">kelp</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-the-australian-bush-is-recovering-from-bushfires-but-it-may-never-be-the-same-131390" target="_blank">alpine ash</a> forests, tundra on Macquarie Island, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarcticas-moss-forests-are-drying-and-dying-103751" target="_blank">moss beds in Antarctica</a>.</p><p>We define collapse as the state where ecosystems have changed in a substantial, negative way from their original state – such as species or habitat loss, or reduced vegetation or coral cover – and are unlikely to recover.</p>
The Good and Bad News
<p><span>Ecosystems consist of living and non-living components, and their interactions. They work like a super-complex engine: when some components are removed or stop working, knock-on consequences can lead to system failure.</span></p><p>Our study is based on measured data and observations, not modeling or predictions for the future. Encouragingly, not all ecosystems we examined have collapsed across their entire range. We still have, for instance, some intact reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, especially in deeper waters. And northern Australia has some of the most intact and least-modified stretches of savanna woodlands on Earth.</p><p><span>Still, collapses are happening, including in regions critical for growing food. This includes the </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/importance-murray-darling-basin/where-basin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Murray-Darling Basin</a><span>, which covers around 14% of Australia's landmass. Its rivers and other freshwater systems support more than </span><a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/latestproducts/94F2007584736094CA2574A50014B1B6?opendocument" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30% of Australia's food</a><span> production.</span></p><p><span></span><span>The effects of floods, fires, heatwaves and storms do not stop at farm gates; they're felt equally in agricultural areas and natural ecosystems. We shouldn't forget how towns ran out of </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/issues-murray-darling-basin/drought#effects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drinking water</a><span> during the recent drought.</span></p><p><span></span><span>Drinking water is also at risk when ecosystems collapse in our water catchments. In Victoria, for example, the degradation of giant </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/logging-must-stop-in-melbournes-biggest-water-supply-catchment-106922" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountain Ash forests</a><span> greatly reduces the amount of water flowing through the Thompson catchment, threatening nearly five million people's drinking water in Melbourne.</span></p><p>This is a dire <em data-redactor-tag="em">wake-up</em> call — not just a <em data-redactor-tag="em">warning</em>. Put bluntly, current changes across the continent, and their potential outcomes, pose an existential threat to our survival, and other life we share environments with.</p><p><span>In investigating patterns of collapse, we found most ecosystems experience multiple, concurrent pressures from both global climate change and regional human impacts (such as land clearing). Pressures are often </span><a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13427" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">additive and extreme</a><span>.</span></p><p>Take the last 11 years in Western Australia as an example.</p><p>In the summer of 2010 and 2011, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-heatwaves-are-getting-hotter-lasting-longer-and-doing-more-damage-95637" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heatwave</a> spanning more than 300,000 square kilometers ravaged both marine and land ecosystems. The extreme heat devastated forests and woodlands, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. This catastrophe was followed by two cyclones.</p><p>A record-breaking, marine heatwave in late 2019 dealt a further blow. And another marine heatwave is predicted for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/24/wa-coastline-facing-marine-heatwave-in-early-2021-csiro-predicts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this April</a>.</p><h2>These 19 ecosystems are collapsing: read about each</h2>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-565" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/565/c520f0fa1e0169ca3dfe5d2d5c668f8f9fd8bc45/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
What to Do About It?
<p><span>Our brains trust comprises 38 experts from 21 universities, CSIRO and the federal Department of Agriculture Water and Environment. Beyond quantifying and reporting more doom and gloom, we asked the question: what can be done?</span></p><p>We devised a simple but tractable scheme called the 3As:</p><ul><li>Awareness of what is important</li><li>Anticipation of what is coming down the line</li><li>Action to stop the pressures or deal with impacts.</li></ul><p>In our paper, we identify positive actions to help protect or restore ecosystems. Many are already happening. In some cases, ecosystems might be better left to recover by themselves, such as coral after a cyclone.</p><p>In other cases, active human intervention will be required – for example, placing artificial nesting boxes for Carnaby's black cockatoos in areas where old trees have been <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-carnabys-black-cockatoo-calyptorhynchus-latirostris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">removed</a>.</p><p><span>"Future-ready" actions are also vital. This includes reinstating </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/a-burning-question-fire/12395700" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultural burning practices</a><span>, which have </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-you-have-unfinished-business-its-time-to-let-our-fire-people-care-for-this-land-135196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multiple values and benefits for Aboriginal communities</a><span> and can help minimize the risk and strength of bushfires.</span></p><p>It might also include replanting banks along the Murray River with species better suited to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/my-garden-path---matt-hansen/12322978" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warmer conditions</a>.</p><p>Some actions may be small and localized, but have substantial positive benefits.</p><p>For example, billions of migrating Bogong moths, the main summer food for critically endangered mountain pygmy possums, have not arrived in their typical numbers in Australian alpine regions in recent years. This was further exacerbated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-million-hectares-of-threatened-species-habitat-up-in-smoke-129438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019-20</a> fires. Brilliantly, <a href="https://www.zoo.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zoos Victoria</a> anticipated this pressure and developed supplementary food — <a href="https://theconversation.com/looks-like-an-anzac-biscuit-tastes-like-a-protein-bar-bogong-bikkies-help-mountain-pygmy-possums-after-fire-131045" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bogong bikkies</a>.</p><p><span>Other more challenging, global or large-scale actions must address the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICpI9H0GkU&t=34s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">root cause of environmental threats</a><span>, such as </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0504-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human population growth and per-capita consumption</a><span> of environmental resources.</span><br></p><p>We must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, remove or suppress invasive species such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mam.12080" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feral cats</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-buffel-kerfuffle-how-one-species-quietly-destroys-native-wildlife-and-cultural-sites-in-arid-australia-149456" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">buffel grass</a>, and stop widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-fire-risk-and-meet-climate-targets-over-300-scientists-call-for-stronger-land-clearing-laws-113172" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">land clearing</a> and other forms of habitat destruction.</p>Our Lives Depend On It
<p>The multiple ecosystem collapses we have documented in Australia are a harbinger for <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/protected-areas/202102/natures-future-our-future-world-speaks" target="_blank">environments globally</a>.</p><p>The simplicity of the 3As is to show people <em>can</em> do something positive, either at the local level of a landcare group, or at the level of government departments and conservation agencies.</p><p>Our lives and those of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-are-our-future-and-the-planets-heres-how-you-can-teach-them-to-take-care-of-it-113759" target="_blank">children</a>, as well as our <a href="https://theconversation.com/taking-care-of-business-the-private-sector-is-waking-up-to-natures-value-153786" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economies</a>, societies and <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-address-the-ecological-crisis-aboriginal-peoples-must-be-restored-as-custodians-of-country-108594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultures</a>, depend on it.</p><p>We simply cannot afford any further delay.</p><p><em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dana-m-bergstrom-1008495" target="_blank" style="">Dana M Bergstrom</a> is a principal research scientist at the University of Wollongong. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/euan-ritchie-735" target="_blank" style="">Euan Ritchie</a> is a professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences at Deakin University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lesley-hughes-5823" target="_blank">Lesley Hughes</a> is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-depledge-114659" target="_blank">Michael Depledge</a> is a professor and chair, Environment and Human Health, at the University of Exeter. </em></p><p><em>Disclosure statements: Dana Bergstrom works for the Australian Antarctic Division and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Wollongong. Her research including fieldwork on Macquarie Island and in Antarctica was supported by the Australian Antarctic Division.</em></p><p><em>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, Australian Geographic, Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. Euan Ritchie is a Director (Media Working Group) of the Ecological Society of Australia, and a member of the Australian Mammal Society.</em></p><p><em>Lesley Hughes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Councillor with the Climate Council of Australia, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a Director of WWF-Australia.</em></p><p><em>Michael Depledge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/existential-threat-to-our-survival-see-the-19-australian-ecosystems-already-collapsing-154077" target="_blank" style="">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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New EarthX Special 'Protecting the Amazon' Suggests Ways to Save the World’s Greatest Rainforest
26 February
Popular
A 3-hour special film by EarthxTV calls for protection of the Amazon and its indigenous populations. EarthxTV.org
To save the planet, we must save the Amazon rainforest. To save the rainforest, we must save its indigenous peoples. And to do that, we must demarcate their land.
<p><a href="https://earthx.org/protecting-the-amazon/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Protecting the Amazon</em></a>, the latest special film program from EarthxTV, explains the need for these actions and how to work in solidarity with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-peoples" target="_self">indigenous peoples</a> to preserve Amazonia.</p><p>The Amazon rainforest and the indigenous tribes that call it home are in danger. The newest scientific reports predict the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-collapse-2649776959.html" target="_self">world's largest rainforest will collapse by 2064</a>, causing dangerous water shortages, catastrophic biodiversity loss and much more. As the ecosystem degrades, it will also lose its ability to store carbon, changing from a carbon sink for the planet into a carbon source. A 2020 study estimated that the Amazon is already <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-carbon-emissions-2650166673.html" target="_self">on the brink of turning into a net carbon emitter</a>. Going past that threshold would throw the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> into full swing.</p>
<p>Unsustainable development, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" target="_self">deforestation</a>, cattle ranching and soybean production are the main culprits behind this rapid destruction. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-brazil-gold-mining-2645732733.html" target="_self">Illegal gold mining</a> plays a big part, too.</p><p>Princess Esmeralda of Belgium, president of the Leopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation and one of the co-hosts of the 3-hour special, lamented the bleak outlook.</p><p>"The current state of the Amazon rainforest is dire," she told EcoWatch. "During 2019 and 2020, deforestation continued at a frightening pace and scale. Last year, it increased by 30 percent from what was already a record-breaking year in 2019."</p><p>The conservation journalist also pointed out how <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-deforestation-bolsonaro-2649115946.html" target="_self">deforestation, invasion of indigenous lands and mining in the rainforest have skyrocketed under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro</a>, a known pro-development, anti-Amazon, anti-indigenous candidate. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/jair-bolsonaro" target="_self">Bolsonaro</a> was elected with the support of the "so-called BBB (beef, bullets and bible)," a very powerful lobby composed of militaries, Christian evangelists and meat producers, Princess Esmeralda said. She estimated that almost 20 percent of the Amazon had been lost in the last half-century.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, attempts to stop the destruction have fallen short.</p><p>According to Rob Harding, executive producer of <em>Protecting the Amazon</em>, "The international community's attempts to nurture a healthier Amazon have thus far failed... The urgency of this situation is clear."</p><p>Citing his motivations behind pitching the special project, Harding added, "There's no time like the present to help raise awareness and inspire meaningful action by instilling a sense of global collective responsibility. We believe that <em>Protecting the Amazon</em> will do all of the above."</p>
<p>The film event, a rare collaboration and amplification of indigenous voices and their allies, brings together some of the world's biggest players in conservation – including Jane Goodall, legendary indigenous rights advocates Chief Raoni Metuktire and Chief Ninawa Huni-Kui and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson – on the same virtual stage to highlight our collective responsibility to the rainforest.</p><p>All make the case for demarcating indigenous lands in the Amazon as an effective forestalling against the catastrophes forecasted above. Demarcation is the constitutionally-mandated federal process wherein indigenous territories are identified and studied to determine and mark off boundaries, explained Gert-Peter Bruch, co-host of the special and co-founder of the Alliance of Mother Nature's Guardians.</p>
<p>Satellite views of the rainforest make clear that where there are federally-recognized, demarcated and protected indigenous territories, the richest and most contiguous forests still remain, said Christian Poirier, program director for Amazon Watch, a partner in the special program.</p><p>"These are essentially islands of forests in a sea of deforestation," he told EcoWatch. "Everything around them has been degraded and deforested."</p><p>Importantly, he added, these areas remain pristine because (1) indigenous peoples are effective stewards of the rainforest, and (2) the federal government of Brazil has recognized the rights of indigenous peoples to these lands and helps to keep out destructive actors.</p><p>"The demarcation of indigenous lands is fundamental to the future of the Amazon, both in terms of its environmental conservation and in terms of respecting the human rights of indigenous peoples, who are the best stewards of the rainforest," Poirier said. Without demarcation, "the Amazon would cease to exist as we know it today."</p>
<p>In theory, once land is demarcated, non-indigenous equipment, installations and occupants would be required to leave, for good, Bruch explained. This would allow indigenous peoples to continue to act as custodians of the land as they have since time immemorial.</p><p>In the Amazon and indeed even on a global scale, indigenous peoples make up approximately 4 percent of the world's population, and yet they effectively watch over 80 percent of the planet's remaining biodiversity, Poirier explained.</p><p>"Because they are proven the best stewards of the rainforest, we need to learn from them how to keep the rainforest from reaching a tipping point," Poirier said. "The integrity of their territories is a fundamental component of that, but it goes beyond their territories. This is a worldview we need to apply to understanding how to preserve the rainforest in conjunction with its peoples ‒ its forest peoples and its indigenous peoples. We need to have their voice centered in any conversation about land conservation and their rights upheld."</p>
<p><em>Protecting the Amazon</em> calls for this critical mass and solidarity with indigenous peoples in protecting their rights and the forest, simultaneously. The film event notes the long history of fierce indigenous resistance to the many efforts to disenfranchise and evict them from their lands. All speakers also insist that indigenous peoples cannot do this work alone.</p><p>Bruch concluded with a hope that the special event would refocus the world on these pressing issues and remind everyone that the destiny of the indigenous guardians of the Amazon is linked to ours, and that their protection depends on the protection of their territories.</p><p>"Solidarity is so critical and... this event is a critical step towards raising awareness... of the work (indigenous peoples) have always done to benefit us all," Poirier said. "If they are unsuccessful in protecting their areas, all of humanity will suffer gravely."</p><p>View the film on demand on <a href="https://earthx.org/earthxondemand/" target="_blank">EarthxOnDemand</a>.</p>
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A new EarthxTV film special calls for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the indigenous people that call it home. EarthxTV.org
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