Environment
- Tracking environmental crime with Copernicus Land data
cross-postowane z: https://szmer.info/post/4572970
> Crime scenes are not always confined to dark alleyways and abandoned warehouses—sometimes they are hidden in plain sight. Environmental crimes are illegal activities which directly harm the environment, often resulting in significant damage to ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health.
- ‘The system is the problem, not people’: how a radical food group spread round the worldwww.theguardian.com ‘The system is the problem, not people’: how a radical food group spread round the world
Incredible Edible’s guerrilla gardening movement encourages people to take food-growing – and more – into their own hands
> Her big idea is guerrilla gardening – with a twist. Where guerrilla gardeners subvert urban spaces by reintroducing nature, Incredible Edible’s growers go one step further: planting food on public land and then inviting all-comers to take it and eat. > > “I used food because it seemed to me that we needed to act fast,” Warhurst says. “We needed to get experience as soon as we could, and probably food was the thing that we could demonstrate an alternative way of living around, in a really simple way.”
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> Warhurst conceptualises the mission of Incredible Edible as three spinning plates: “You grow, in the place you call home, food to share – sometimes you ask permission, sometimes you don’t. You share the skills you’ve got, you find out who knows how to do things in your community. > > “And the third plate is, if you’re really going to try to create impact in the place you call home, you have to try and support the economy, you have to try and see if there’s local jobs in it.” > > The result is an all-round benefit for the community: free, healthy food, physical activity, and a forum to connect with neighbours in an increasingly atomised society. And for Warhurst, it shows something else: “What it’s doing is demonstrating that in a crisis when you’ve not got a load of money, there’s a lot you can do if you trust the people.”
- Decarbonize Your Life - an effort by Heatmap to identify the biggest points of leverage you have to incentivize a post-fossil fuel worldheatmap.news Decarbonize Your Life
A complete guide to making your everyday decisions count in the fight against climate change.
the methodology behind this, which notes:
> Trying to zero out your personal carbon footprint, in other words, is a fool’s errand. What you can do, however, is maximize the degree to which you’re building a new, post-fossil-fuel world. > > To be clear, we don’t mean that in a woo-woo way. We’re not saying you should imagine a kumbaya world where we all hold hands and take public transit to the nearest all-volunteer renewable-powered co-op. We’re saying that there are real, already existing products and technologies that must become a bigger part of today’s built environment if we are to have any hope of solving climate change. What you can do — and what we recommend in this guide — is help take those technologies from the fringes into the center of everyday life. If you want to decarbonize the whole planet, you should think about decarbonizing your life. > > What we have tried to do here is not focus on how to reduce your marginal emissions — the number of tons that you, personally, are responsible for pumping into the environment. Instead, we’re trying to help you understand how to focus on high-leverage actions — the kinds of choices that can drive change throughout the energy system.
- Vaporizing plastics recycles them into nothing but gasarstechnica.com Vaporizing plastics recycles them into nothing but gas
Polypropylene and polyethylene can be broken down simultaneously.
- A new solution for flood-prone cities? Concrete made from shellfish waste.grist.org A new solution for flood-prone cities? Concrete made from shellfish waste.
Researchers have created a type of concrete that uses discarded shells to trap water. It's now combating floods and food waste in urban gardens and cycling paths.
- The Land Remembers: Why Farmers Are Bringing Back 'Prairie Potholes'reasonstobecheerful.world The Land Remembers: Why Farmers Are Bringing Back 'Prairie Potholes'
Drained over a century ago, these revitalized wetlands are becoming thriving wildlife hubs and storehouses of water for surrounding farms.
> Switchgrass and foxtail provided the perfect camouflage for a heron slowly wading through a prairie pond. Only the squawking of a Canada goose mother scolding her offspring shattered the bucolic stillness of the wetland. It was the summer of 2023, and throughout large areas of the Canadian prairie provinces and the Great Plains of the United States, increasingly dry conditions had made water a precious resource. But not here. The 260-acre Hannotte wetland in east-central Saskatchewan was an oasis in an otherwise arid desert of wheat fields. > > It hadn’t always been this way. The land had been drained for agriculture over a century earlier, and it took 20 years of door-knocking for Kevin Rozdeba to convince farmers in the Yorkton region of Saskatchewan that removing land from crop production and turning it back into a wetland was in their best interests. As a program specialist for Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUCS), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to conserve and manage wetlands, Rozdeba knew a wetland’s unique hydrology could contribute to water availability essential for crop production in times of drought. Getting farmers on board, though, was a tall order.
- Five seabirds added to UK red list of most concern - BBC Newswww.bbc.co.uk Five seabirds added to UK red list of most concern
Conservation groups are calling for action as populations of seabirds decline on UK cliffs.
- Dead Zones Are Growing, but With Government Action, Hope Isn’t Lostsentientmedia.org Dead Zones Are Growing, but With Government Action, Hope Isn’t Lost
In places with no enforceable limits on nutrient pollution, addressing the problem will remain elusive.
- How colleges can become ‘living labs’ for combating climate changehechingerreport.org How colleges can become ‘living labs’ for combating climate change - The Hechinger Report
A growing number of professors in fields as diverse as business, English and the performing arts have integrated their teaching with efforts to minimize their campuses’ waste and emissions — an approach to sustainability known as “campus as a living lab.”
- Is there a website to measure and compare the greenhouse emissions of certain foods?
Hey all,
While I'm aware that most issues regarding reducing greenhouse gasses land more on companies and governments than they do on individual responsibility, I still want to work on forming my diet to overall be more climate-friendly.
I'm curious if there's a website that compares the carbon footprint of certain foods. Since I'm currently modifying my diet to be more healthy and nutritious, I was also thinking about maybe making some changes where possible that are more friendly to the environment.
What brought up this thought is that I'm currently making sweetened drinks at home using zero-calorie sweeteners, and with the options I have available and how little they differ from one another in my eyes, I was curious which option between Stevia and Sucralose was more environmentally friendly, and then it became a more general question as to where I can compare these things.
Thanks in advance!
- How Summer of Heat on Wall Street is using disruption to end fossil fuel financingwagingnonviolence.org How Summer of Heat on Wall Street is using disruption to end fossil fuel financing
A new climate campaign is testing whether relentless civil disobedience can stop Citi from backing the fossil fuel industry.
- 'Project 2025:' The U.S. MAGA Republicans' “battle plan” declares war on our food, water, and climate for the sake of corporate profitswww.foodandwaterwatch.org How Project 2025 Puts People and Our Planet in Peril
This right-wing “battle plan” declares war on our food, water, and climate. Here’s what you need to know about Project 2025.
Project 2025 Would Pave the Way for More Corporate Pollution
One key tenet of Project 2025 is dismantling and disempowering federal agencies [...] Notably, the plan recommends gutting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On day one, it would downsize staff at a time when the agency is already severely understaffed and under-resourced. This has led to, for example, absurdly long reviews of chemicals that threaten our water, air, and health [...]
Notably, the plan recommends gutting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On day one, it would downsize staff at a time when the agency is already severely understaffed and under-resourced. This has led to, for example, absurdly long reviews of chemicals that threaten our water, air, and health [...]
Project 2025 would have a new administration pause and revisit Biden’s recent Lead and Copper Rule Improvement and PFAS regulations, which are vital first steps in responding to our country’s lead-in-water and PFAS contamination crises. This would put the health of millions of people at continued risk.
[...]
Safe, Affordable, and Sustainable Food Is Under Attack
Project 2025 wants to cut [...] regulations on pesticide use and genetically modified food to conservation programs that help farmers manage their land sustainably [and] brushes aside the role that our food system has in fostering a healthy environment, saying “environmental issues” are “ancillary” to agriculture. It would hamstring efforts to transform our food system to save our climate and environment while ensuring affordable, sustainable food for all.
Additionally, Project 2025 cruelly threatens to yank food access from poor and low-income families across the country. Notably, it calls for limiting access to SNAP benefits — formerly known as food stamps — which help feed more than 40 million people in the U.S. It also calls for restricting the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which specifically helps children and families. Cutting these programs will allow more people to go hungry.
[...]
Project 2025 Puts a Livable Climate in Jeopardy
Its authors propose restoring coal mining on public lands and opening more of them to oil and gas leasing. They also recommend speeding up drilling permits, allowing fossil fuel corporations to more easily ravage our shared public lands for profit.
Notably, Project 2025 recommends clearing the way for the planet-wrecking liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry to balloon. Exporting even more LNG could lock in not only the U.S. into decades of more fossil fuels, but also the entire world.
- Climate change feedbacks lead to surge in natural methane emissionsarstechnica.com Climate change feedbacks lead to surge in natural methane emissions
Attempts to cut greenhouse gases made tougher by increased emissions.
Surprising absolutely no one ...
- A "Sustainable Square Mile" Tests the Power of Biden's Billions for Climate Justiceinthesetimes.com A "Sustainable Square Mile" Tests the Power of Biden's Billions for Climate Justice
Can $3 billion in hyperlocal funding for environmental justice create lasting change?
- EV charging gets another massive funding push from Biden administrationwww.theverge.com EV charging gets another massive funding push from Biden administration
Underserved communities are included in this latest round.
- What Works: Groundbreaking Evaluation of Climate Policy Measures Over Two Decadeswww.pik-potsdam.de What Works: Groundbreaking Evaluation of Climate Policy Measures Over Two Decades
08/23/2024 - An international research team has unveiled the first comprehensive global evaluation of 1,500 climate policy measures from 41 countries across six continents. Published in the prestigious journal Science, this unprecedented study provides a detailed impact analysis of the wide range of...
- I Met the Activists Getting Arrested for Fighting Fossil Fuels
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I've been watching Tom Nicholas for a bit now, and he gets more and more audacious as he grows his base. This is journalism. Not really a fan of the Tarantino aspect of "but we'll get back to that;" he's nonetheless someone to watch.
It's thoughtful, insightful and perhaps can offer a wider worldview of how desperate fossil-fuel companies are getting now that it's generally accepted that we are fucked.
It's an hour and change. Other than the Nebula ad at the end, there's no filler. You probably haven't heard about this act of civil resistance, but you really should.
- Why category 1 hurricanes can be as damaging as the strongest stormswww.bbc.com Why category 1 hurricanes can be as damaging as the strongest storms
Don't be lured into a false sense of security by a category one hurricane – storm surge and flooding mean they can be as dangerous as a category five.
- In shift, U.S. backs global target to reduce plastic production, source sayswww.japantimes.co.jp In shift, U.S. backs global target to reduce plastic production, source says
The change away from earlier calls to leave such decisions up to each country puts the U.S. in direct opposition to countries like Saudi Arabia and China.
- The lost history of what Americans knew about climate change in the 1960sgrist.org The lost history of what Americans knew about climate change in the 1960s
It wasn't just scientists who were worried, but Congress, the White House, and even Sports Illustrated, newly unearthed documents show.
- Lobsters in the Gulf of Maine are experiencing a housing crisiswww.newscentermaine.com Lobsters in the Gulf of Maine are experiencing a housing crisis
Between 1984 and 2014, the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine jumped an estimated 515 percent.
- She’s the New Face of Climate Activism—and She’s Carrying a Pickaxwww.wired.com She’s the New Face of Climate Activism—and She’s Carrying a Pickax
Sabotage. Property destruction. For Léna Lazare and her cohort, radicalized by years of inaction on the environmental crisis, these aren’t dirty words. They’re acts of joy.
- Fashion brands are failing to act on decarbonisationwww.voguebusiness.com Fashion brands are failing to act on decarbonisation
In its latest transparency ranking, Fashion Revolution calls out the lack of progress towards fashion’s climate goals. The critical path to decarbonisation — and a just transition — remains elusive.
- Minneapolis Polluter Smith Foundry Will Cease East Phillips Operation August 15unicornriot.ninja Minneapolis Polluter Smith Foundry Will Cease East Phillips Operation August 15 - UNICORN RIOT
A century-old metal foundry will close this month, bringing relief to residents after years of pollution concerns. Smith Foundry announced it will cease all operations by August 15. This decision follows a settlement with the EPA and an $80,000 fine.
- How Four Cities Are Cooling Down Creativelyreasonstobecheerful.world How Four Cities Are Cooling Down Creatively
Cities around the world are trying everything from reflective paint to underground water channels to manage the hotter days ahead.
- The Gulf of Mexico's ‘dead zone’ larger than average this year, larger than expected for 2024, scientists announcethelensnola.org Gulf ‘dead zone’ larger than average, larger than expected for 2024, scientists announce | The Lens
Due largely to lagging prevention efforts in the Midwest, the low-oxygen area of the Gulf of Mexico is larger than expected this year, prompting fish and shrimp to flee nearly 4 million acres of habitat and killing off bottom-dwelling species.
This year’s area of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico is larger than average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Thursday.
The “dead zone” is approximately 6,705 square miles, as measured last week. Within NOAA’s 38 years of measuring the dead zone, this year’s assessment marks the 12th-largest area of low to no oxygen, which can kill fish and marine life.
NOAA had forecast at the beginning of the summer that the dead zone would be above average. But the measurement announced this week is even larger than anticipated.
Experts fault upriver conservation efforts that are not keeping pace.
[...]
The dead zone occurs every summer and is caused in large part by nutrient runoff from the overapplication of fertilizer on Midwestern farms. During rains or flooding, water carries the fertilizer’s nitrogen and phosphorus from fields into the Mississippi River and waterways that feed into the river.
When the nutrients reach the Gulf, either from the Mississippi or the Atchafalaya River, they ignite an overgrowth of algae. As the algae dies, it decomposes and sinks to the bottom, depleting oxygen from the water.
When oxygen levels fall in areas of water, animals like fish and shrimp will leave. Some commercially harvested species such as shrimp will concentrate around the edges of the affected area, forcing local fishermen to travel outside the dead zone to cast their nets. But bottom-dwelling creatures, such as clams and burrowing crabs, aren’t as mobile. They cannot leave the dead zone and will suffocate and die.
[...]
“After nearly four decades of experience with the Gulf dead zone, it should be clear that we can’t continue to rely on the same policy tools to manage fertilizer pollution and expect a different result,” wrote Karen Perry Stillerman, deputy director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Perry Stillerman emphasized the need to demand a new approach, “one that not only helps farmers to shift their practices but also insists that they do so,” she added.
- Should heat waves get names like hurricanes? Some believe it could help save liveswww.wwno.org Should heat waves get names like hurricanes? Some believe it could help save lives
As heat waves and heat domes become more intense, the idea of naming extreme heat as we do with other major disasters is gaining traction with some experts.
- Oil companies sold the public on a fake climate solution (carbon capture & storage) and swindled taxpayers out of billionswww.vox.com Oil companies sold the public on a fake climate solution — and swindled taxpayers out of billions
The fossil fuel industry’s carbon capture bamboozle, explained.
- Taking Stock 2024: US Energy and Emissions Outlookrhg.com Taking Stock 2024: US Energy and Emissions Outlook
Every year, Rhodium Group provides an independent projection of future US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under current policy and expectations for economic growth, future fossil fuel prices, and clean…
> With all federal and state policies on the books as of June 2024, we estimate the US is on track to reduce its GHG emissions by 38-56% below 2005 levels in 2035, representing at least a doubling—and potentially as much as a four-times increase—from the pace of annual emissions abatement from 2005 to 2023. On the way to 2035, we find the US could reduce its emissions by 32-43% below 2005 levels in 2030. These emissions reductions under current policy are a measurable acceleration in mitigation even compared to our Taking Stock 2022 edition from just before the passage of the IRA, in which we found the US on track for a 24-35% reduction below 2005 levels in 2030. But they are not enough for the US to achieve its 2030 climate commitment under the Paris Agreement of a 50-52% reduction by 2030, or deep decarbonization by mid-century.
- France: Thousands protest 'mega-basin' reservoir expansionfreedomnews.org.uk France: Thousands protest 'mega-basin' reservoir expansion - Freedom News
Struggle against hoarding of water by agro-industry sees five days of action, culminating in a 10,000-strong march on the commercial port of La Rochelle
- ‘Wood Vaulting’ Explained: The Climate Solution You’ve Never Heard Ofgizmodo.com ‘Wood Vaulting’ Explained: The Climate Solution You’ve Never Heard Of
Forests throughout the West are overgrown and full of flammable vegetation, fueling wildfires and carbon emissions. Could burying it help solve the problem?
- Passive Houses - it's easier and cheaper than you think! VOLTS with David Robertswww.volts.wtf What's the deal with Passive House?
Beverly Craig of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center discusses what passive house building principles entail, the benefits they generate for building occupants and the grid, and what it would take to persuade more US builders and policymakers to adopt them.
Passive homes (a building designed for minimum losses on heating and cooling) are cheaper and easier to construct than you might think. In fact, it's nearly the default code in Massachusetts.
- Climate activists score major win in campaign to electrify DCwagingnonviolence.org Climate activists score major win in campaign to electrify DC
An inside look at the strategy behind Extinction Rebellion D.C.’s campaign that is blocking $12 billion in new fossil fuel infrastructure.
> Last month, Extinction Rebellion D.C. scored a major victory for the End Methane, Electrify D.C. campaign: the D.C. Public Service Commission dismissed corporate utility provider Washington Gas’ application for the third phase of their $12 billion fossil fuel pipeline replacement project dubbed Project Pipes. The commission also partially approved a petition to investigate Washington Gas’ leak reduction practices. > > This victory is a major milestone in the fight to shut down a fossil fuel project that would lock D.C. into decades of planet-warming emissions while poisoning the city’s residents, especially the communities that are most marginalized and underserved.
- Research backs beavers in fight against flooding and droughtswww.devonwildlifetrust.org Research backs beavers in fight against flooding and droughts | Devon Wildlife Trust
University of Exeter research concludes beaver-made wetlands can help alleviate impacts of flood and drought Study of four wild beaver territories in Devon finds they store more than 24 million litres of water Pioneering scheme now paying landowners/farmers who make space for beavers and their wetla...
- California Grid Breezes Through Heat Wave due to Renewables, Batteriesthinc.blog California Grid Breezes Through Heat Wave due to Renewables, Batteries
No rolling blackouts or grid emergencies as California continues on path to a carbon free grid. Several strategies, including upgrades to vulnerable parts of the grid at play here, but key enabler …