IKEA has proven that going green is how you make the green with sales exceeding $1 billion in 2014. The company has pledged to go 100 percent renewable by 2020, and this past summer they committed $1.13 billion to fight climate change and invest in renewable energy.
"We've made the commitment that by 2020 we'll be a net exporter of energy," say Joanna Yarrow, head of Sustainability in the UK and Ireland for IKEA. "Becoming 100 percent renewable is gearing ourselves up to be a successful business in the future.”
Watch Yarrow explain why going 100 percent renewable by 2020 makes good business sense:
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Sir David Attenborough speaks at the launch of the UK-hosted COP26 UN Climate Summit at the Science Museum on Feb. 4, 2020 in London, England. Jeremy Selwyn - WPA Pool / Getty Images
Sir David Attenborough wants to share a message about the climate crisis. And it looks like his fellow Earthlings are ready to listen.
<p>The beloved 94-year-old nature broadcaster joined Instagram Thursday, and quickly broke the world record for the shortest amount of time to reach one million followers, <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2020/9/sir-david-attenborough-breaks-instagram-record-for-fastest-time-to-reach-one-mill-632391" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Guinness World Records announced</a>. He reached the milestone in just two hours and 44 minutes.</p><p>"I've been appearing on radio and television for the past 60 years," Attenborough said in a video accompanying his first post, "but this is my first time on Instagram."</p>
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<p>In the video, Attenborough said he was trying the new (to him) form of communication in order to spread awareness about the threats facing life on Earth.</p><p>"As we all know, the world is in trouble," he said. "Continents are on fire. Glaciers are melting. Coral reefs are dying. Fish are disappearing from our oceans. The list goes on and on. But we know what to do about it."</p><p>Attenborough said he would be recording video messages over the next few weeks explaining both the problems facing our planet and possible solutions.</p>
<p>In breaking the record Thursday, Attenborough racked up one million followers more quickly than Friends star Jennifer Aniston, the previous record holder who amassed one million followers in five hours and 16 minutes last October. Previous record holders also included Pope Francis and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Guinness said.</p><p>As of Monday morning, the broadcaster had a follower count of 4.5 million. That's still well below the highest total Instagram follower count, which is held by soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo with 238 million, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54292947" target="_blank">BBC News</a>.</p><p>This isn't the first time that Attenborough has broken a record in his decades-long career, Guinness World Records pointed out. He also holds the record for the longest career as both a TV presenter and a TV naturalist.</p>
<p>While Attenborough is recording the messages for his Instagram account, the account is being managed by some of the team behind the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/environment-movies-2020-2647790203.html" target="_self">new documentary</a> <em>David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet</em>, which <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80216393" target="_blank">premieres on Netflix Oct. 4</a>.</p><p>"Social media isn't David's usual habitat," director Jonnie Hughes and executive producer Colin Butfield of the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/" target="_blank">World Wildlife Fund</a> explained in the text accompanying the post.</p><p>The pair said the Instagram feed would also feature exclusive clips and behind-the-scenes footage from the new film.</p><p>"Saving our planet is now a communications challenge," Hughes and Butfield wrote. "We know what to do, we just need the will."</p>
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People walk down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey on August 27, 2017 in Houston, Texas. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Kevin T. Smiley
When hurricanes and other extreme storms unleash downpours like Tropical Storm Beta has been doing in the South, the floodwater doesn't always stay within the government's flood risk zones.
New research suggests that nearly twice as many properties are at risk from a 100-year flood today than the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood maps indicate.
<p>Unfortunately, many of the people living in those properties have no idea that their homes are at risk until the floodwaters rise.</p><p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SmYUxIEAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sociologist who works on disaster vulnerability</a>. In a new study, I looked at the makeup of communities in Houston that aren't in the 100-year flood zone, but that still flood. What I found tells a story of racial disparities in the city. Research in other cities has shown <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25381/chapter/4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">similar flooding problems</a> in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.</p><p>Poor stormwater infrastructure, expanding urbanization and limited flood mitigation efforts are a few of the reasons why.</p>
Flooding Outside the Zones
<p>About <a href="https://furmancenter.org/files/Floodplain_PopulationBrief_12DEC2017.pdf" target="_blank">15 million</a> Americans live in FEMA's current 100-year flood zones. The designation warns them that their properties face a 1% risk of flooding in any given year. They must obtain flood insurance if they want a federally ensured loan – insurance that helps them recover from flooding.</p><p>In Greater Houston, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01840.x" target="_blank">47% of claims</a> made to FEMA across three decades before Hurricane Harvey were outside of the 100-year flood zones. Harris County, recognizing that FEMA flood maps don't capture the full risk, now <a href="https://www.hcfcd.org/floodinsurance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recommends that every household</a> in Houston and the rest of the county have flood insurance.</p><p>New risk models point to a similar conclusion: Flood risk in these areas outstrips expectations in the current FEMA flood maps.</p><p>One of those models, from the <a href="https://firststreet.org/flood-lab/research/2020-national-flood-risk-assessment-highlights/" target="_blank">First Street Foundation</a>, estimates that the number of properties at risk in a 100-year storm is 1.7 times higher than the FEMA maps suggest. Other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaac65" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">researchers</a> find an even higher margin, with 2.6 to 3.1 times more people exposed to serious flooding in a 100-year storm than FEMA estimates.</p>What FEMA’s Flood Maps Miss
<p>Understanding why areas outside the 100-year flood zones are flooding more often than the FEMA maps suggest involves larger social and environmental issues. Three reasons stand out.</p><p>First, some places rely on relatively old FEMA maps that don't account for recent urbanization.</p><p>Urbanization matters because impervious surfaces – think pavement and buildings – are not effective sponges like natural landscapes can be. Moreover, the process for updating floodplain maps is locally variable and can take years to complete. Famously, New York City was updating its maps when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 but hadn't finished, meaning flood maps in effect <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nyc-flood/" target="_blank">were from 1983</a>. FEMA is required to assess whether updates are needed every five years, but the <a href="https://www.fema.gov/cis/nation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">majority of maps</a> <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2017/OIG-17-110-Sep17.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are older</a>.</p><p>Second, binary thinking can lead people to an underaccounting of risk, and that can mean communities fail to take steps that could protect a neighborhood from flooding. The logic goes: if I'm not in the 100-year floodplain, then I'm not at risk. Risk perception <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab195a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">research</a> backs this up. FEMA-delineated flood zones are the major factor shaping flood mitigation behaviors.</p><p>Third, the era of climate change scuttles conventional assumptions.</p><p>As the planet warms, extreme storms are becoming <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/" target="_blank">more common and severe</a>. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at a high rate, computer models suggest that the chances of a severe storm dropping 20 inches of rain on Texas in any given year will increase from about 1% at the end of the last century to 18% at the end of this one, a chance of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716222114" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">once every 5.5 years</a>. So far, <a href="https://www.rstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/195.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FEMA hasn't taken into account the impact climate change is having</a> on extreme weather and sea level rise.</p>Racial Disparities in Flooding Outside the Zones
<p>So, who is at risk?</p><p>Years of research and evidence from storms have highlighted social inequalities in areas with a high risk of flooding. But most local governments have less understanding of the social and demographic composition of communities that experience flood impacts outside of flood zones.</p><p>In analyzing the damage from Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area, I found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aba0fe" target="_blank">Black and Hispanic residents disproportionately experienced flooding</a> in areas beyond FEMA's 100-year flood zones.</p><p>With the majority of flooding from Hurricane Harvey occurring outside of 100-year flood zones, this meant that the overall impact of Harvey was racially unequal too.</p><p>Research into where flooding occurs in Baltimore, Chicago and Phoenix points to some of the potential causes. <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25381/chapter/4#16" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">In Baltimore and Chicago</a>, for example, aging storm and sewer infrastructure, poor construction and insufficient efforts to mitigate flooding are part of the flooding problem in some predominantly Black neighborhoods.</p>What Can Be Done About It
<p>Better accounting for those three reasons could substantively improve risk assessments and help cities prioritize infrastructure improvements and flood mitigation projects in these at-risk neighborhoods.</p><p>For example, First Street Foundation's risk maps account for <a href="https://firststreet.org/flood-lab/research/flood-model-methodology_overview/" target="_blank">climate change</a> and present <a href="https://floodfactor.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ratings</a> on a scale from 1 to 10. FEMA, which works with communities to update flood maps, is <a href="https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1521054297905-ca85d066dddb84c975b165db653c9049/TMAC_2017_Annual_Report_Final508(v8)_03-12-2018.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exploring rating systems</a>. And the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently <a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2019/03/new-report-calls-for-different-approaches-to-predict-and-understand-urban-flooding" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called for a new generation of flood maps</a> that takes climate change into account.</p><p>Including recent urbanization in those assessments will matter too, especially in fast-growing cities like Houston, where <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1boBRyDvMFW6W" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">386 new square miles</a> of impervious surfaces were created in the last 20 years. That's greater than the land area of New York City. New construction in one area can also <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2018/01/city-in-a-swamp-as-houston-booms-its-flood-problems-are-only-getting-worse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impact older neighborhoods downhill</a> during a flood, as some Houston communities discovered in Hurricane Harvey.</p><p>Improving risk assessments is needed not just to better prepare communities for major flood events, but also to prevent racial inequalities – in housing and beyond – from <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/688786177/how-federal-disaster-money-favors-the-rich" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">growing</a> after the unequal impacts of disasters.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Trump's Bureau of Land Management Chief Forced Out After Judge Says He's Serving Unlawfully
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William Perry Pendley is questioned at a National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Subcommittee hearing on Sept. 10, 2019. Natural Resources Democrats
A federal judge in Montana ordered William Perry Pendley, the head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to quit immediately after finding that the Trump administration official had served in the post unlawfully for 14 months, according to CNN.
<p>The ruling may reverse an entire year of decisions that Pendley made to open up the American West to oil and gas drilling, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/09/26/william-pendley-blm-montana-judge/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported. The judge in the case, <a href="https://www.mtd.uscourts.gov/chief-judge-brian-morris-chambers" target="_blank" title="">Brian Morris</a> of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, said that Pendley had been appointed to the post, but his name had never been submitted to the Senate for confirmation.</p><p>"Pendley has served and continues to serve unlawfully as the Acting B.L.M. director," wrote Morris in a 34-page ruling he issued on Friday, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/us/william-perry-pendley-blm.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. He added that Pendley's authority "did not follow any of the permissible paths set forth by the U.S. Constitution."</p>
<p>He added, as CNN reported, "Secretary Bernhardt lacked the authority to appoint Pendley as an Acting B.L.M Director under the (Federal Vacancies Reform Act). Pendley unlawfully took the temporary position beyond the 210-day maximum allowed by the F.V.R.A. Pendley unlawfully served as Acting B.L.M Director after the President submitted his permanent appointment to the Senate for confirmation — another violation of the F.V.R.A. And Pendley unlawfully serves as Acting B.L.M Director today, under color of the Succession Memo."</p><p>The ruling went on to prohibit Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, who appointed Pendley, from appointing a successor, according to The New York Times.</p>
<p>The plaintiff in the case, Montana's Governor Steve Bullock, now has 10 days to present examples of decisions Pendley made that should be nullified, according to The Washington Post.</p><p>"They've never had a valid person running that agency," said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/26/trump-public-lands-chief-removed-william-perry-pendley" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "Even before Pendley there was just a never-ending list of rotating acting people, and that's not what you're supposed to do."</p><p>Hartl added the lack of legitimate leadership could mean every BLM decision from the last three years is reversed.</p>
<p>"If this case becomes a template in other districts, then it would follow that all other land use plans that have been approved during Pendley's illegal tenure could also get thrown out," said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, as The Washington Post reported. "The potential implication there is stunning — effectively erasing all of the planning work B.L.M has finalized over the last year, possibly longer."</p><p>On Friday, Bullock wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/GovernorBullock/status/1309635303146057729" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, "Today's ruling is a win for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands">public lands</a>. Montanans can rest easy knowing that National Public Lands Day will begin with William Perry Pendley packing his desk and vacating the Director's Office."</p><p>Joe Biden took to <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1309887202529177601" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a> on Saturday to echo Bullock's sentiment. "Today is Public Lands Day and National Hunting and Fishing Day — and what better way to celebrate than the long overdue removal of William Perry Pendley from @blmnational. It's a victory for everyone who values our public lands over those who want to exploit them for profit."</p>
<p>The decision may have a cascading effect for federal policy since the administration has not nominated 133 of the 750 leadership positions that require Senate confirmation, as The Washington Post reported. That means their decisions could be nullified as well.</p><p>"We're talking here about an acting official or someone designated to be the equivalent who may have no authority to make decisions," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, to The Washington Post. "It creates uncertainty across the board and there are many other instances where the same or similar circumstances might exist."</p><p>Bullock started the lawsuit after Pendley tried to open up vast areas in southwest Montana to oil and gas drilling. The BLM manages 27 million acres in Montana, roughly one-third of the state. In one area, Pendley attempted to lease 95 percent of a 650,000-acre area to oil and gas exploration.</p><p>"This ruling enshrines in law what Montanans already knew: William Perry Pendley has no business overseeing our public lands," Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said in a statement, as The Washington Post reported. "Montanans and future generations will benefit from Governor Bullock's work protecting our public lands from Pendley's reckless agenda."</p>
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President Donald Trump hands coal miners the pen he used to sign a bill eliminating environmental regulations on the mining industry at the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 16, 2017. Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images
By Oliver Milman
Art Sullivan is considered something of a political heretic by other coal miners in south-western Pennsylvania, where a wave of support for Donald Trump based upon his flamboyant promises of a resurgence in coal helped propel the Republican to the U.S. presidency.
"Many of my coal miner friends voted for him," said Sullivan, who has spent 54 years as a coal miner and, more latterly, consultant to a struggling industry. "They were deceived. Trump had no plan, no concept of how to resurrect the coal industry. My friends were lied to."
<p>Sullivan's friends may disagree with this assessment but the coal comeback promised by Trump in the 2016 election campaign has failed to materialize, with his first term studded with bankruptcies and closures of mines and coal-fired power plants.</p><p>There are now about 5,000 fewer miners than when Trump strode into the White House. The coronavirus pandemic has turbo-charged the decline – so far this year U.S. coal production has <a href="https://www.eia.gov/coal/production/weekly/?src=email" target="_blank">collapsed</a> by more than 25% compared with the same period in 2019.</p><p>It has been a bruising few years rather than the glorious new dawn promised when Trump donned a miner's helmet, mimed digging coal and excoriated Barack Obama's "war on coal" on the campaign trail four years ago. One of Trump's <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-signing-executive-order-create-energy-independence/" target="_blank">first executive orders</a> removed a ban on coal mining on federal land and dumped Obama's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "Come on, fellas," said Trump at the order's signing, where he was surrounded by beaming miners. "Basically, you know what this is? You know what it says, right? You're going back to work."</p><p>Such assurances were eagerly accepted by coal mining communities in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/west-virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">West Virginia</a>, Pennsylvania and Kentucky who backed Trump and prepared for salvation. "When he came into office, it was like someone pulled their finger out of the dyke," said Thomas McLoughlin, a former mine inspector who trains new miners. "I was flooded with new mining students. It was overwhelming." McLoughlin said he would vote for the president again because Trump was the only candidate prepared to stand up for coal workers. "My business won't go under if he's re-elected," he added.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has set about weakening or scrapping a slew of environmental rules that bound the industry, such as requirements that new coal-fired power plants capture their carbon emissions and that coal firms do not release <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/31/trump-toxic-water-pollution-wastewater" target="_blank">wastewater laced with dangerous pollutants</a>, such as lead, selenium and arsenic, into rivers and streams.</p><p>Bob Murray, a major Trump donor and founder of the largest private coal company in the U.S., has <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-coal-executives-action-plan-for-trump-is-made-public/" target="_blank">boasted</a> of an "action plan" he gave the administration to undo what he called "eight years of pure hell" under Obama. Much of Murray's three-and-a-half-page wishlist has been ticked off, including the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. A particular prize was <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/digest/trump-administration-to-weaken-limits-on-mercury-and-other-toxic-pollutants" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a weakening of Obama-era standards</a> to reduce mercury pollution from coal plants, a rollback undertaken after Andrew Wheeler, a former lobbyist for Murray Energy, became administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.</p><p>"We are still feeling the effects of the damage from the Obama administration," said Jason Bostic, vice-president of the West Virginia Coal Association. "The social devastation in mining communities has been breathtaking. The support for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Donald Trump</a> is as strong if not stronger than in 2016. West Virginia is a Democratic state that has been dyed deep red because of the last administration."</p><p>But while Appalachia will largely stick with Trump in 2020, more coal capacity <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063430425" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has been retired</a> under Trump than during Obama's second term. "Coal's not back," as Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, glumly conceded last year. "Nobody saved the coal industry."</p>
<p>Coal production fell so sharply last year that renewable energy such as solar and wind <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/renewables-surpass-coal-us-energy-generation-130-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">overtook it in electricity generation for the first time since at least 1885</a>, the year Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, America's first skyscraper was erected in Chicago and people were burning more wood than coal. Last year also saw Murray Energy <a href="https://www.waterwaysjournal.net/2019/11/08/murray-energy-files-for-chapter-11-protection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">file for bankruptcy</a>, one of half a dozen coal companies to do so that year.</p><p>Cheap, abundant gas, retrieved via fracking, and the advance of renewables have been greater causes of coal's demise than any green regulation, <a href="https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/proceedingsreports/Whither-the-Regulatory-War-on-Coal.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">experts say</a>, rendering Trump's rollbacks simply environmentally destructive.</p><p>"The fall of coal is first and foremost a market story," said Daniel Kaffine, a University of Colorado economist who has <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20150321" target="_blank">researched the issue</a>. "The days of coal supplying the majority of U.S. electricity production are not coming back." While metallurgical coal – needed for the making of steel – will hang on, the practice of burning thermal coal for energy is in "a death spiral," Kaffine said.</p><p><span></span>There are about 45,000 coal miners <a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES1021210001" target="_blank">left in the U.S</a>., half the number employed during Obama's first term. Plenty of political rhetoric surrounds a workforce that is actually quite small – there are double the number of flight attendants in the U.S. than coal miners, for example, and roughly the same number of chiropractors.</p>
<p>Whole communities sprang up around mining, however, meaning several dependent jobs are lost for each miner put out of work. The long decline of well-paying mining jobs, through machinery automation and now creeping obsolescence, has left deep scars in Appalachian towns now blighted by unemployment and opioid addiction.</p><p>"People drank Trump's Kool-Aid and he hasn't done it for them," said Blair Zimmerman, a former coal miner who is now commissioner of Greene county, Pennsylvania. "I'm very worried about the future because without mining, our tax base would go and we couldn't survive. People are leaving the area, it's tough. We should have looked at other options a long time ago."</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/joebiden" target="_blank">Joe Biden</a>, the Democratic presidential nominee, has outlined a $2tn plan to generate millions of jobs in renewable energy, potentially providing a new path for threatened coal workers. But coal mining has deep roots in communities that many are unwilling to relinquish. "It's a damned joke," said Bostic, of the West Virginia Coal Association. "It's an affront to a coal miner to say: 'We will take your job away for one that pays less well, and by the way, you have to pack your family up and move.'"</p><p>According to Sullivan, coal miners feel they have little choice. "The coal miner had no friends and was desperate," he said. "No one was speaking for us and then Trump was, so people backed him. Miners see him as their guy."</p>
<p>The externalities of coal reach far beyond mining communities, however. As the most carbon-intensive of fuels, coal is a key driver of the climate crisis, indirectly spurring the sorts of huge wildfires that have ravaged the U.S. west coast this year, as well as the continuing deterioration of the polar ice sheets that imperil coastal cities through sea level rise and storms.</p><p>Direct air pollution from the soot and chemicals given off by burned coal is also a major health burden. Not far from Sullivan and his friends, the Cheswick power plant, close to the banks of the Allegheny River, is close enough to people's homes that nearby residents have to <a href="https://earthjustice.org/features/photos-life-under-the-stacks" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wipe the coal soot from their houses</a>. Five miles downstream towards Pittsburgh, in the suburb of Verona, Laura Jacko suspects emissions from the power plant could be behind her husband's asthma and the breathing problems suffered by her son, who was born prematurely.</p><p>"There is nothing more horrifying than holding down your small baby to shove a breathing machine into them," Jacko said. "It affects me personally and I get pretty angry about it."</p><p>Environmental groups have long pushed for the closure of Cheswick, which has previously <a href="https://gasp-pgh.org/2020/08/17/cheswick-generating-station-assessed-32k-civil-penalty-for-emissions-issues/" target="_blank">been handed a civil penalty</a> for breaching pollution limits. In Jacko's view, the era of coal needs to come to a managed but swift end. "My uncle was a coal worker and had black lung," a disease that develops from inhaling coal dust, she said. "I don't want their jobs to kill them. I want them to transition. These jobs are going away, it's just a matter of when. Pushing ahead with coal does everyone a disservice."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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'Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution': New Paper Outlines Vision for Climate Action
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Climate
A new white paper explains how to transform current widespread agricultural practices to regenerative agriculture. PickPik
By Andrea Germanos
A white paper out Friday declares that "there is hope right beneath our feet" to address the climate crisis as it touts regenerative agriculture as a "win-win-win" solution to tackling runaway carbon emissions.
<p>"Humans broke the planet with grave agricultural malpractice," Tom Newmark, chairman of <a href="https://thecarbonunderground.org/" target="_blank">The Carbon Underground</a> and a contributor to the research, said in a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/09/25/new-white-paper-shows-shift-regenerative-ag-could-sequester-100-percent-annual" target="_blank">statement</a>. "With this white paper, Rodale Institute shows us how regenerative agriculture has the potential to repair that damage and actually reverse some of the threatening impacts of our climate crisis."</p><p>"This is a compelling call to action!" he added.</p><p>Released by the Rodale Institute and entitled <em><a href="https://rodaleinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Rodale-Soil-Carbon-White-Paper_v8.pdf" target="_blank">Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution</a></em>, the white paper discusses how a transformation of current widespread agricultural practices—which now contribute indirectly and directly to the climate crisis—"can be rolled out tomorrow providing multiple benefits beyond climate stabilization."</p><p>The findings are based on Rodale's own trials, research data, and interviews with experts, and build upon the institute's 2014 <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/09/solution-soil-how-organic-farming-can-feed-world-and-save-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">paper</a> <em>Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change: A Down-to-Earth Solution to Global Warming</em>.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0MzM2NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzczMDk0M30.g3bMMcdsxChGxcYN8onbvkGVHEJUwfLJZTIcX_tPZQk/img.png?width=980" id="1290a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="89e0122fc2627a2a88dfe53a7c0aa395" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Graph from Rodale Institute's new white paper "Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution."
<p>The claim made in the new paper is bold: "Data from farming and grazing studies show the power of exemplary regenerative systems that, if achieved globally, would drawdown more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions.</p><p>"Regenerative agriculture, as the researchers describe, represents "a system of farming principles that rehabilitates the entire ecosystem and enhances natural resources, rather than depleting them."</p><p>In contrast to industrial practices dependent upon monocultures, extensive tillage, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers, a regenerative approach uses, at minimum, seven practices which aim to boost biodiversity both above and underground and make possible carbon sequestration in soil.</p><ul><li>Diversifying crop rotations</li><li>Planting cover crops, green manures, and perennials</li><li>Retaining crop residues</li><li>Using natural sources of fertilizer, such as compost</li><li>Employing highly managed grazing and/or integrating crops and livestock</li><li>Reducing tillage frequency and depth</li><li>Eliminating synthetic chemicals</li></ul><p>While passers-by may easily spot visual differences above ground between the divergent agricultural approaches, what's happening below ground is also vital. From the paper:</p><blockquote>Contrary to previous thought, it's not the recalcitrant plant material that persists and creates long-term soil carbon stores, instead it's the microbes who process this plant matter that are most responsible for soil carbon sequestration. Stable soil carbon is formed mostly by microbial necromass (dead biomass) bonded to minerals (silt and clay) in the soil. Long term carbon storage is dependent on the protection of the microbially-derived carbon from decomposition.<br></blockquote><p>As for claims such as agricultural transformation wouldn't be able to produce enough food, the paper counters: "Actual yields in well-designed regenerative organic systems, rather than agglomerated averages, have been shown to outcompete conventional yields for almost all food crops including corn, wheat, rice, soybean, and sunflower."</p><p>But that is far from the only benefit. "When compared to conventional industrial agriculture," the authors write, "regenerative systems improve":</p><ul><li>Biodiversity abundance and species richness</li><li>Soil health, including soil carbon</li><li>Pesticide impacts on food and ecosystems</li><li>Total farm outputs</li><li>Nutrient density of outputs</li><li>Resilience to climate shocks</li><li>Provision of ecosystem services</li><li>Resource use efficiency</li><li>Job creation and farmworker welfare</li><li>Farm profitability</li><li>Rural community revitalization</li></ul>
<p>Rather than framing it as a "wake-up call," the institute says the paper should be seen as an "invitation to journey in a new direction."</p><p>"It is intended to be both a road map to change and a call to action to follow a new path," the authors write. "One led by science and blazed by farmers and ranchers across the globe."</p><p>"Together we both sound the alarm and proclaim the regenerative farming solution: It's time to start our journey with a brighter future for our planet and ourselves as the destination," the paper states.</p><p>Resources accompanying the white paper include a sample letter to members of Congress to urge support for the Agriculture Resilience Act (H.R. 5861), <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/mike-lavender/a-resilience-roadmap-fulfilling-agricultures-role-as-a-climate-solution" target="_blank">introduced</a> in February by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), and a "buyer's guide to regenerative food" to help decipher food labels and questions to ask suppliers at farmers' markets.</p><p>"A vast amount of data on the carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils has been published, including from Rodale Institute, and recent findings are starting to reinforce the benefits of regenerative agricultural practices in the fight against the climate crisis," said Dr. Andrew Smith, COO and chief scientist of Rodale Institute.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/26/regenerative-agriculture-and-soil-carbon-solution-new-paper-outlines-vision-climate?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>
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