fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
What can I do to reduce my Carbon Footprint?
Tags: Climate Action, Global Warming, Climate Crisis, Environment, Climate Change

You may have heard that due to covid 19 this year, CO₂ emissions have reduced slightly. People were stuck at home, and with minimal use of transports, CO₂ decreased by 17%. But global warming is a reality.

You can play your part by reducing your carbon footprint. With a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, you can make a huge difference.

What is a Carbon Footprint?

A carbon footprint is defined as the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to, directly and indirectly, support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Changeit is an app that helps you reduce your Carbon Dioxide emission. The app will help you change your habits that are causing damage to our globe. And send you helpful notifications that help you commit to those habits.

About the app

1. The app Changeit is available on the play store and has an easy to use interface. With this app, your goal would be to help you fighting climate change. With your small daily actions, you can reduce your Carbon footprint on daily basis.

2. The app will provide you ample knowledge about the things that are harmful to the climate. The app will help you adopt healthy habits to reduce your CO₂ emission.

3. The app suggests things like buying the products from the country you’re living in. Purchasing local products will help you in saving 6 kg of CO₂. You can choose the local products from your grocery stores. It will help in less shipment of products from other countries.

4. You will get notified daily about your actions that you have to perform for reducing your CO₂ emission. You can develop habits like reducing the use of beef consumption. Beef consumption produces a lot of CO₂ emissions.

5. Another best thing about the Changeit app is that it will help you keep on track. The app will tell you where you’re going wrong. By checking the app’s options, you’ll get notified every time you use something that’s producing CO₂.

6. You can also calculate the current CO₂ emission that you’re producing per month. The app will help you to achieve your target goal of reducing 130 kg of CO₂ per month.

7. Many people are taking part in reducing their carbon footprint by using this application. The app will make you learn a lot about how the reduction in CO₂ emission is possible.

Install Changeit here

Conclusion

You can take a lot of steps to reduce your carbon footprint and adopt many habits that are helpful in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The Changeit app will be your partner in reducing your daily carbon footprint.

We use tons of apps on daily basis just for entertainment purposes so why not use an app to help our planet.

Changeit is an educational app that will help you educate yourself on greenhouse gas emissions.

Install Changeit here
The Fate of the Forecaster: Canada’s New Net-Zero Emissions Plan
Tags: Climate Action, Tcfd, Esg, Climate, Climate Change

Carbon Emmission

Canada tabled new legislation on November 19th that would force current and future federal governments to set binding climate targets for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

If it passes, the bill would put the country on equal footing with a swathe of others like China, the UK, New Zealand and France who have recently announced legally binding measures to go carbon neutral within half a century.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jumped on the idea, stating, “ignoring the risks of climate change isn’t an option. That approach would only make the costs higher and the long-term consequences worse. Canadians have been clear — they want climate action now.”

And it looks like they’ll get it. But at what cost? We all know that transitioning to carbon neutral will be good for the environment — there’s no denying that.

Yet there are risks to setting legally binding forecasts.

Trudeau isn’t the first Canadian politician to make such bold claims about scrapping fossil fuels. In fact, back in 2003 Dalton McGuinty — the former smooth-talking leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario — promised that by the end of 2007, all five of Ontario’s coal plants would be closed because their pollution had become a public health issue.

At the time, Ontario’s coal-fired generation represented 7,560 MW of capacity, which was about a quarter of the total. And Canada was frequently referred to as one of the “biggest climate laggards” worldwide.

McGuinty’s forecast was brash and unequivocal, and it won him office.

But flicking the switch on coal proved problematic. What was going to replace it? He’d promised nuclear, natural gas, wind and solar. But Ontario didn’t have enough of those, and many of its power plants were too far from gas transmission lines to import the substitute cheaply.

Just 18 months into office, McGuinty was forced to admit he’d been a bit hasty. Now, he said, he’d have to revise the deadline to 2009. Then, facing heavy criticism and growing doubts about his forecast, he changed it to 2014. And, as if to seal his own fate, he signed it into law in 2006.

By the end of 2014, the Ontario Power Authority declared that Ontario had become “the single largest greenhouse gas reduction measure in North America.” And it had. But it still relied on coal for some of its generation and had mostly switched to natural gas, another fossil fuel, over wind and solar.

Meanwhile, shutting down coal meant Ontario also had to import expensive coal-fired energy from two ancient, heavily polluting generating stations in Ohio.

The net result, in addition to a 51% increase in electricity prices between 2004–2013, was poetic justice: the southern winds brought more pollution into Ontario from coal than there was before. Guelph, a bucolic college town in the center of Southern Ontario, became one of the cities with the poorest air in the province.

As reward for his effort, McGuinty was booted from office and ended up leaving the country.

So be careful what you forecast, and the risks that doing so can create.
Give Them Back Their Land and More
By: Emily Jennings
Tags: Indigenous, Climate Action, Short Read, Native Americans, Climate Change

Give Them Back Their Land and More

Photo by Andrew James on Unsplash

Over the past two weekends, I virtually attended Bioneers 2020, a conference dedicated to all the things that can heal humanity and the Earth. In their words, it is about ‘breakthrough solutions for people and planet.’ The major focus was indigenous peoples — because indigenous peoples everywhere have those solutions, and have had them for a while.

One might argue that when Europeans began colonizing other parts of the planet, societal and climate problems arose, and it’s been downhill ever since.

Indigenous leaders, mainly members of North American native tribes, led many of the talks. There was plenty of spirituality involved and talk of ancestors. I attended an interactive session that took me on a shamanic journey into my soul, after which I wrote this post. It was so inspiring.

The most striking takeaway from all of it was that climate change can start to be reversed if we just give back the land that was taken away before our lifetimes. All we have to do is give land to the people whose traditions organically maintain it. Native peoples all over the world already know how to live in balance with the environment and heal the Earth.

It’s so simple. Just give back the land. I think it’s best if we give them back even more, trusting them with all land-related decisions.

And then we can begin to heal other parts of our brokenness in the process. Wounds inflicted in society will heal with wounds inflicted on Mother Earth.
Food and Climate Change
By: Stefano Osellame
Tags: Plant Based, Food Waste, Climate Action, Global Warming, Climate Change

Climate Emergency Diaries #3

What Project Drawdown can teach us

Project Drawdown: the most comprehensive plan ever propose to reverse Global Warming

One of the things we repeatedly hear about the fight against climate change, is that transforming the economic model would be overly expensive. In fact many researches are currently suggesting this might not be the case.

Project Drawdown collects 100 solutions currently applicable with technologies already present, which not merely contribute to reducing emissions but would produce an undeniable economic impact. Costs would be far less than income and social benefits. Considering profits and savings and the value of required financing, costs become negligible and the return on the investment is substantially fast in most cases.

100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming By 2050

And all of this without even starting to consider the costs that would be suffered in the event of increasing natural disasters due to climate change, such as prolonged droughts, longer and stronger typhoons’ seasons, “water bombs”, and in any case more extreme and frequent meteorological incidents.

Are we still confident we should continue with our model of development, based on the denial of the laws of physics? A closed and isolated system, like Earth is in fact, has limited resources by definition and the intensive exploitation of these reserves causes irreversible exhaustion. The only way to limit this entropic process is to adopt sustainable development and use renewable source as much as possible.

Another thing to deny however, is the belief that everything depends on the Greats of the Earth. How often do we say:

What can we do? The Great Ones, the Leaders, should be doing something about it. Our contribution cannot move the needle.

Naturally we cannot deny it would be better to have great Leaders and expect them to take decisions on a global level. But we must equally say once and for all that the unique contribution each of us can give with his own life choices is much more important than you might think.
We need to rethink public debt
By: Young-Jin Choi
Tags: Climate Action, Impact Investing, Sustainable Finance, Public Debt, European Commission

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

The world has embarked on a #racetozero. In order to win this race and meet the aspirations of the Paris Agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions need to be halved within the next 10 years. I believe the sheer magnitude of the task at hand ought to change our traditional view on public debt. Not any debt, of course, but a specific kind of debt — one which is dedicated to driving and accelerating a socially just transition to a climate neutral economy. Rather than being a burden for future generations, this kind of debt arguably reprecents a critical success factor for their wellbeing. It becomes especially compelling when considering that we are not only facing an existential threat, but at the same time perhaps the greatest economic opportunity of this century, with the potential to create millions of decent jobs amid a looming economic crisis, not to mention historically low interest rates.

Unfortunately, private capital markets are not well prepared to help humanity win the #racetozero, especially at today’s inadequate carbon pricing levels. On the contrary, they continue to fund fossil fuel infrastructure (which continues to be way more profitable than ever should be), and they fail to finance important decarbonization projects whenever the economics of an unprecedented market failure don’t allow for “market rates of financial return”. At the same time, the European Natural Gas Lobby is working hard at recklessly slowing down the green transition. Sadly, instead of vanishing, climate denialism has been replaced by “discourses of delay”. Moreover, there continues to be an immense cumulative financing gap of trillions of EUR by 2050, which are needed to rapidly accelerate the modernization of power grids, the decarbonization of public infrastructure and the “electrification of everything”. The financing gap persists even though the cost of capital has never been lower, especially for developed economies (while overly high capital costs in developing countries represent a tragic obstacle for clean energy’s cost advantage to materialize and replace coal power supply).

So what is stopping the EU from going “all in” and issuing massive amounts of long-term debt in order to “spend & invest its way out of this crisis” (including helping developing nations to accelerate their energy transition)? Private capital can and should of course join in whenever it can, but winning the #racetozreo will require strong economic incentives, a combination of adequate carbon pricing and subsidy shifts, as well as the leadership of governments to publicly commission large scale transformative projects in the first place. I believe we owe it to future generations, including our children, to rethink our view on public debt. We need to recognize the necessity for borrowing unprecedendet amounts of resources from the future, for investments into the future, for the future’s sake. Over the next 10 years we have basically one shot at getting this right. Let’s make it count.
Climate change is threatening the last remaining species of Humans
By: Hamza Abdullah
Tags: Climate Action, Climate Change, Climate, Environment, Nature

The industrial revolution gave humanity new ways of living, advancing, and exploring with some disadvantages as well. The greatest of which was Climate change — We accelerated the rate at which climate change is impacting Earth’s biosphere. Modern humans first started influencing climate and natural balance some 20,000 years ago, but during the current century, we accelerated it by many folds. Earth’s temperature is rising, the Ozone layer is depleting fastly, the Oceanic level is rising, Antarctic plates are melting, Wildfires attenuating the great Amazon, and many animal species have gone extinct. Continuous & Irregular rise in population around the globe, Air, Water & Soil pollution, and Food shortages are further igniting the rate of change. As the English scholar “Thomas Robert Malthus” in his famous yet controversial Malthusian theory also predicted that Catastrophe when population rise exponentially as compared to agricultural production.

In 2015, the Climate change clock was launched by Artists, Scientists and Activists to provide a measuring tape against climate change effects. The date shown when we reach 1.5℃ carbon threshold level. The clock is updated every year to reflect the latest global CO2 emissions trend and rate of climate warming. As of 15 December 2020, the clock shows that the 1.5°C threshold will be breached in 7 years approximately.

Metronome in November 2020, after the original clock was replaced with the Climate Clock.

Climate change could be an astronomical level emergency if it got worse, as many are predicting, potentially eliminating the whole human species. We need to act before it’s too late. Many corporate giants i.e. Google, Apple, Samsung, have announced to become carbon-free production of their tech products. European Union, China, and many other countries also pledge to become carbon-free economies till 2030 and have taken strict measures to achieve that gigantic goal. It’s a good step, but we need to do a lot more than that. We are still consuming plenty of plastics, fossil fuels, and carbon products.

We have seen a clear picture of climate change’s effects during the worldwide lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. When the world stops, climate nourished again. We have seen clear skies, fresh winters, and many rare birds chirping again flying over the skies.

Climate change is real and We all need to do our part to mitigate its effects. We need to change our food habits, technology should be eco-friendly, and we need to transit from fossilized fuel to more environmental friendly options.
This is the self-preservation society — the need for new perspectives and values
By: Alexei Levene
Tags: Water Crisis, Climate Action, 2020, Desolenator, Change

Perspective

As well as new models, Covid-19 has also brought us an opportunity to step back and re-evaluate our motivations.

The world has galvanised around a single issue driven by a million deaths in just a few months. We can now see, however, that there are other threats that are just as lethal and immediate. WHO estimates, for example, that contaminated drinking water causes 485,000 diarrhoeal deaths alone each year. It also predicts that half the world’s population will be living in water stressed areas within five years, so the problem is only going to get worse — and quickly [5].

If the world can take decisive action around the pandemic, it follows that it is equally able to take decisive action on its many other existential challenges.

As everything began to change in the spring, many people started questioning the value and costs we attach to commodities — and even what a commodity is. We have begun to think about what’s really important. If we can cut transport emissions today, why can’t we cut them tomorrow? If we can slash water usage in the fashion industry in April, why not in every month? If scientists can cooperate across borders this year, why not next?

We can take this further. Is drinkable water more desirable than a cheap pair of jeans? Is breathable air more valuable than attendance at an international conference? Are trade tariffs more important than global health?

Essentially, what value do we place on a view of the stars?
In Britain, many years ago, there a satirical show called ‘That Was The Week, That Was’.
By: Maria Rattray
Tags: Environmental Impact, Climate Action, Changemaker, Environmental Issues, Climate Change

In Britain, many years ago, there was a satirical show called ‘That Was The Week, That Was’. It was both clever, and hilariously funny. If you were a fan, there was no way you would miss it.

I’ve been thinking about the show a lot lately, because I wish that somebody could take responsibility for writing a, That Was The Year, That Was, version for 2020.

It might serve as something we could all learn from.

Who would ever have thought that one year, could scare the living daylights out of so many people?

So much devastation in the first six months, and still things keep happening to sound alarm bells for us.

Let’s begin with:

The Australian Bush Fires

I can now say that I have lived through two very frightening bush fires here in Australia. Each was confronting, but the latter spoke volumes to many of us.

You can read the rest of this article by clicking on the link below:
Climate Action: U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden pledged to rejoin the Paris climate agreement
By: The Dispatcher Hq
Tags: Climate Action, Joe Biden, Paris Agreement, Climate Change

Five years ago, today, the world gathered to adopt the Paris Agreement on climate change. The product of years of tough diplomacy, the Paris Agreement created an unprecedented framework for global action to avoid potentially catastrophic planetary warming, while building global resilience to the climate impacts we are already experiencing.

It sent a clear signal that nearly 200 countries were — finally, together — moving toward a clean-energy future.

U.S. leadership was essential to negotiating Paris and indispensable to bringing the Agreement into force. Over the last four years, however, the world has lost that momentum, and nations and people in every part of the world are feeling the devastating impacts of a changing climate. We haven’t come close to the bold action that’s needed, and today, we have no time to waste.

The United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement on day one of my presidency, and I’ll immediately start working with my counterparts around the world to do all that we possibly can, including by convening the leaders of major economies for a climate summit within my first 100 days in office. The Biden-Harris Administration will increase the ambition of our domestic climate target and put the country on a sustainable path to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050. We’ll elevate the incredible work cities, states, and businesses have been doing to help reduce emissions and build a cleaner future.

We’ll listen to and engage closely with the activists, including young people, who have continued to sound the alarm and demand change from those in power. And we’ll do all of this knowing that we have before us an enormous economic opportunity to create jobs and prosperity at home and export clean American-made products around the world, harnessing our climate ambition in a way that is good for American workers and the U.S. economy.

As we mark this anniversary, I am grateful to leaders around the world and across the country — at all levels — who remained steadfast in their commitment to the goals we embraced five years ago in Paris. And, under a Biden-Harris Administration, America will be back working with our partners around the world to ensure we realize those goals for the sake of our families and future generations.
Winter Spiral Day #11
By: Amy Bobeda
Tags: Winter Solstice, Writing Challenge, Climate Action, Writing Life, Writing Prompts

a WBC writing invitation series for the Winter Solstice

What do we see dance in the tree?

Who might we be

when the leaves have fallen

and the geese have gone,

our trash our only companion.

How do we band together ‘til spring?
The 3 Nested Dependencies Model
Tags: Climate Action, Environmental Issues, Science, Perspective, Climate Change

The 3 Nested Dependencies Model

Source: author via Canva

A few weeks ago I spent a day as a student auditor for Green Impact, a global organisation dedicated to improving sustainability in workplaces through small, actionable change. Since I was a total newbie to conducting audits, the day began with a training session. For the most part, it was what I was expecting — a brief introduction to the company, a discussion of the United Nation’s sustainability goals, and an induction into the world of auditing.

Nonetheless, one thing — albeit a very simple thing — stood out. As we further discussed the environment and our role in protecting it, the instructor presented us with the following image:

Source: author via Canva

My fellow volunteers and I nodded in approval. As self-proclaimed environmentalists, this was a picture we had seen a million times. Yet our instructor was ready to challenge, and perhaps even change, our perspective.

‘In my opinion, this is a very outdated way of looking at our world,’ she told us, leading to a few puzzled faces in the room. How could that be? This is a widely popular model that is taught (or at least assumed) over and over again, from primary school classrooms to university lecture theatres.

‘A more accurate depiction would be this,’ she continued.

Source: author via Canva

As the second image came on the screen, we all nodded even more enthusiastically. Of course! It seemed so obvious, so clear, so… basic. I felt foolish for not realising it sooner. Yet how many of us picture the world as in the first picture, with the society, environment, and economy merely co-existing?
When agreeing to do something is not doing something
By: Lou Covey
Tags: Climate Action, Paris Agreement, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Climate Change

Listened to an interview with the UN Secretary General this morning and came away more frustrated than ever about climate change.

The core of the interview was about the progress of the Paris Accords that so many people debate, support, oppose, etc. Let me summarize with out the SG’s sunny equivocation.

Q Are we making progress toward Paris Accord limits in climate temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C by 2050?

A No.

Q Is the 1.5 degree target realistic?

A No.

Q Are we approaching the zero-carbon target by 2050?

A No.

Q So what are we doing?

A We are getting more countries to say they will do something…eventually.

I’ve never been a fan of international agreements, because they are rarely adhered to by anyone in the agreement. Moreover, the measurement of the morality of a country is based on saying they will do something and not on whether they actually adhere to the agreement.

To date, since the signing of the Kyoto Accords, signer China has become the largest producer of greenhouse gasses, ahead of the US by twice the tonnage. Per capita production of CO2 in China has increased 255 percent while the US, which is not part of either the Kyoto or Paris agreements, has reduced production by 17 percent.

And yet it is the United States that gets the onus for not signing a piece of paper, even though we are actually doing something to fix the problem.

The US is not the only country to reduce production. It is, in fact, one of two of the top 10 economies to do so. The other is the United Kingdom. The US is also one of only 20 countries in the world to reduce emissions since 2000. Everyone else has increased. India and Australia, also signers of both agreements, have also increased to the point that they have entered the top five producers. At current rates, India will overtake the US in second place within five years and Australia will be nipping at the US heels for third place.

That does not mean the the ideals of the Paris Agreements are bad or unattainable. It does mean that actions reveal more than words.
Take Your Climate Action Further this Holiday Season
By: Krista Kurth Ph.D.
Tags: Climate Action, Letters, Holidays, Climate, Lifestyle

Take Your Climate Action Further this Holiday Season

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

“It is I who must begin,” Vaclav Havel states in the first line of his poem of the same name. “It is I who must begin. Once I begin, once I try — here and now, right where I am, not excusing myself by saying things would be easier elsewhere, without grand speeches and ostentatious gestures, but all the more persistently — to live in harmony.”

In this statement, he issues a clarion call to himself, and each of us, to start right where we are. I think this is good advice for climate action, and one that I took to heart a couple of years ago.

Something in me shifted towards the end of the year, although I’d been doing my best to live a green life for the past 20 years. I realized that if I was truly concerned about leaving a habitable planet for future generations, I needed to do more to change my lifestyle. Since it was not long before the winter holidays, I started with how I wanted to celebrate with my family. To share my thinking with them, I wrote to everyone in my large extended family about the changes I was making.

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

And now I am sharing excerpts from my letter with you in the hope you will find it helpful as you think about how you might take a larger climate step in your own life. Consider it my holiday gift to you!

As you read, notice if anything jumps out as something you’d like to implement in your own life.

What letter might you write to your loved ones? What new action might you take?
Carbon capture and storage works ­– and these projects prove it
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Carbon Capture, Climate Action, Innovation, Technology

The UK continues to be a global leader on climate action, pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68% on 1990 levels by the end of this decade. And carbon capture technology has been recognised as one of the key elements of the UK’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution to get us there, launched by the Prime Minister last month.

Drax Power Station is already trialling Europe’s first bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project. Combining sustainable biomass with carbon capture technology could remove and capture millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year and put the power station at the centre of wider decarbonisation efforts across the region as part of Zero Carbon Humber, a partnership to develop a world first net zero industrial cluster in the North of England.

But who else is making carbon capture a reality?

Snøhvit & Sleipner Vest

Who: Sleipner — Equinor Energy, Var Energi, LOTOS, KUFPEC; Snøhvit — Equinor Energy, Petoro, Total, Neptune Energy, Wintershall Dean

Where: Norway

Sleipner Vest offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant, Norway

Sleipner Vest was the world’s first offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant. Active since 1996, it separates CO2 from natural gas extracted from beneath the sea.

Snøhvit, in Norway’s northern Barents Sea, operates similarly but here natural gas is pumped to an onshore facility for carbon removal. The separated and compressed CO2 from both facilities is then stored in empty reservoirs under the sea.

As of 2019, Sleipner had captured and stored over 23 million tonnes of CO2 while Snøhvit stores 700,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Petra Nova

Who: NRG, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA) and JX Nippon, a joint venture with Hilcorp Energy

Where: Texas, USA

In 2016, the largest carbon capture facility in the world began operation at the Petra Nova coal-fired power plant. However, the 240-megawatt project was interrupted in July 2020 when falling oil prices meant that Petra Nova was unable to find an economically sustainable way to deploy coal-based CCUS at scale.
This means big trouble for our planet in the future
By: Terry Mansfield
Tags: Climate Action, Global Warming, Arctic, Climate, Climate Change

‘Shift to a Not-So-Frozen North Is Well Underway, Scientists Warn. There is no reason to think that in 30 years much of anything will be as it is today,” one of the editors of a new report on the Arctic climate said.’

Image by 358611 from Pixabay

Watch this amazing video that shows the ongoing change in the Arctic climate.

__________________

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Kan vi lära av Odysseus i klimatomställningen?
By: Viable Cities
Tags: Politik, Agenda 2030, Climate Action, Göteborg, Hållbarhet

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
I would recommend Crowther Labs for research about plant life’s role in carbon sequestration and…
By: Danny Pilkenton
Tags: Climate Action, Climate Crisis, Climate Change

I would recommend Crowther Labs for research about plant life’s role in carbon sequestration and many other topics related to our changing planet.
Indigenous People Can Save the Planet
By: Sandra Barrett
Tags: Indigenous People, Climate Action, Science, Environment, Climate Change

Indigenous People Can Save the Planet

Spiritual leader “Mamo” of the Kogui indigenous people at the Lost City, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Photo by Berend Leupen on Unsplash

“We must pay close attention to those with another imagination: an imagination outside of capitalism, as well as communism. We will soon have to admit that those people, like the millions of indigenous people fighting to prevent the takeover of their lands and the destruction of their environment — the people who still know the secrets of sustainable living — are not relics of the past, but the guides to our future.” — Arundhati Roy, author and activist

For centuries, Indigenous people have been subjected to centuries of genocide, land theft, wiping out food sources, water pollution, and forced migration onto land no one else wanted — then pillaging that land for minerals and fossil fuels. But now, governments are starting to realize that Indigenous peoples may be the ones with the knowledge needed to save the planet.

To many people, it may seem ironic that our fate may now rely on the very people we have inflicted so much harm upon. And it's reasonable to wonder why they would help us, after all the racism and other atrocities they have had to live with for so long. I agree with that logic, but I also think Indigenous people won’t do this for us. Instead, they will do it for Mother Earth, whom they have been trying to protect all along. We are the ones that must allow them to do what is necessary. We must provide resources for what they need to be successful, and work collaboratively. It’s likely that at times we will be most helpful by getting out of their way.
Create futures you’re in love with
By: Elaine France
Tags: Climate Action, Entrepreneurship, Ideas, Love, Futures Thinking

Photo © 2020 Elaine France: Into the Blue

There were moments back in April 2020 when, I swear, I heard the trees breathing. The planes had stopped flying, the sky was crystal clear both day and night, clouds were clouds, not contrails masquerading; and the tinnitus of engine noise had ceased. A stillness like nothing I’ve ever known happened. It was stillness rather than quiet, because as it turns out Nature is spectacularly deafening.

And, I’d like to create that to be the normal. I want the reassuring susurrations of trees deafening me every day. It reminds me that they’re breathing me.

Rather than watching history in the making, what’s happening right now for us all, is that we’re seeing the future unfold. What we breathe, imagine, and create now, manifests then.

When I’m present to that understanding, it’s liberating, hope-filled, a call to action, galvanising me out of fear because it gives me choices of how to arrive in each day.

Imagine December 2030, if we all show-up today imagining the flourishing futures we want to unfold?

2030 is the target year for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 10-year horizon for making significant steps towards net-zero.

Which is why, I think, that NOW is exactly the right time to fall in love…

with protecting the planet that breathes you,

with yourself and the purpose that’s living through you,

with your beloved ones who love you exactly as you are,

with dreaming a new narrative into existence.

Real love, is about being present to the now, knowing it unfolds the future. It gives us the grace to braille our way forward step-by-step.

Which means it’s time to pop on our wonder-goggles to look at the world and create futures to be in love with.

If we’re looking with eyes of wonder at the world, then futures to love become more than possible. The seeds are planted for them to become real.

I keep asking myself…what is the future of air? It is after all our have-to-have value proposition for breathing.

In 2030, what will air be like? When I look at that question without my wonder-goggles on, it’s a terrifying proposition. When I put them on, I am instantly connected to the possibilities of a planet restored with multiple nature-based and nature-inspired solutions.

Now, step back to today.

Put on your wonder-goggles, pick your gig, show-up as ‘unprecedented you’ and imagine a more beautiful story. How can you be ‘of’ the planet, not just ‘on’ it?

No need to worry if you’ve forgotten how to put your wonder-goggles on (it’s ok…most adults have), then get in touch with me and we’ll go together.

So, “Would you like an adventure now, or would like to have your tea first?”

JM Barrie, Peter Pan
Rain or shine, another sunrise
By: Ayumi L
Tags: Climate Action, Climate Crisis, Climate Change

Rain or shine, another sunrise

Silent cries, the circle of life.

Crack, sink, break

– into tears.

Do you feel the heat?

Ayumi, 2019
The Crisis of my Generation.
By: Roman Attisha
Tags: Climate Action, Tesla, Environment, Solar Energy, Climate Change

A child’s perspective on the greatest threat in recorded history.

The world is going down in flames. Climate change exacerbated natural disasters cause billions of dollars in damage all around the world. Floods, wildfires, droughts, and hurricanes have all increased in magnitude and As Covid-19 kills millions of people, the world is finally starting to feel the repercussions of its actions in the last 100 years. Some people will give up, finding it easier to dismiss the problem as insurmountable and sit idly by. If the human race wishes to have a future on this planet we must act now. We have made only small progress so far and continue to deny it is only digging humanity into an even deeper hole.

The time to act is now, and there are many ways to do so. There is no second chance, no planet B, and no time to procrastinate. Make sure your representatives at the local, state, and federal levels of the government. Eat less meat. Agriculture, especially livestock, accounts for around 20% of all carbon emissions. Investing in clean energy is also a substantial way to reduce your carbon footprint. Automakers like Tesla and Nio offer relatively cheap and adequately ranged cars. They are also more technologically advanced than combustion engines cars. You can also install solar panels on your home. They’re becoming cheaper and more efficient every day and you will never have to pay a power bill again.

Another major future consequence of climate change is disease. Warmer and weather means that mosquitos will breed all year round spreading many diseases. As people move away from coastal areas, overcrowding will cause diseases to spread like wildfires. Hospital systems will be overwhelmed. As permafrost melts, bacteria that humans have never been exposed to will be unleashed. Humans, having no resistance to them, will easily perish.

If we don’t do something now then future generations will have to deal with the problems that we ignored. Major damage has already been done but if we start now we can change the course of our species, and the world.
Time to Act Iowa
Tags: Paris Climate Agreement, Climate Action, Drought, Iowa, Climate Change

We are still in the Paris Climate Agreement, we may not be in officially but President-elect Joe Biden has promised to enter into the Paris Climate Agreement along with other sweeping climate action measures. We are still in the Paris Climate Agreement, not because we want to be but because we have to be in the international accord. Every year Iowa gets hotter and hotter and to mitigate these heatwave trends it’s going to take an international agreement. Currently much of Iowa is under drought conditions and we desperately need increased precipitation that will help us bank up water for soil moisture. Most of Iowa is running out of time to reverse drought conditions & we are moving into months that are typically drier. Iowa is not alone in climate change fueled disasters.

It’s been a year of devastating hurricanes and wildfires and record breaking temperatures, all with a mountain of evidence based science that it is clear climate change is here and threatening our livelihoods. The continued trend of extreme weather is devastating our health, environment and our economy. The last four years has been nothing but rollback after rollback by the Trump administration and the EPA have only made matters worse. We cannot continue our current course of inaction. Iowa needs to be at the table in the Paris Climate Agreement and Senator Grassley needs to bring his focus on combating climate change through international agreements. Think Iowa act global.
Just 2 Minutes On Some New Climate Tech
By: Drew Hodel
Tags: Climatetech, Climate Action, Cleantech, Electricity, Climate Change

So much has changed since my hair was long, I dreamt of starting a revolution, and politicians still ignored climate change. That was 2016.

Now, over four years have passed. Donald Trump is out and Biden is in. The Sunrise Movement, and it’s youthful spirit, have injected politics with the ideas of the future.

Things are changing and they’re changing fast.

Below are a few companies I discovered today, which seem to be offering cool new tech-based solutions:

Patch — to summarize, and I am no expert, it’s like a bunch of young people from my generation and below are beginning to gain political and economic influence. We want to buy things that are “carbon negative.” When we buy our soda, we want to know that a tree was planted. This planet is dying. What Patch does is this: Patch connects the little guys, the small mom and pops, the you’s and the me’s, the enterprises with less time and money than the giants like Microsoft and Google, the people who can’t afford the transaction costs of figuring out how to make their business “carbon negative,” to negative emissions technolgoy — forests, regenerative soil, biochar. Query, has Patch heard of Corigin or the Salk Institute? Sounds like they could partner.

WattTime — there’s an old school and a new school. The old school story goes something like this: Me want warm house. Me need energy. Me burn fossil fuel. Oh No! Me see climate change! Me want to reduce emissions. Me use less energy, right? Or, how about this, instead of me using less energy, how about me move to the Pacific Northwest to reduce my carbon footprint becuase the “average emissions factor” of power in the Pacific Northwest is very clean (e.g., perhaps just 25% the emissions intensity of natural gas because hydropower provides, on average, 75% of the region’s power, and gas-fired power plants provide the remaining 25%)!? But the new school story goes like this: If you want to stay warm and reduce your emissions, use WattTime’s AER technology — it’s Automated Emissions Reduction Technology. Use it because electricity grids are complicated. For example, in many places (like the Pacific Northwest), depending on the time that you add new energy consuming devices to the grid, natural gas —instead of, say, a clean energy like hydropower — might be turned on (i.e. dirty power plants might end up being the “marginal resource” of energy for the grid). WattTime’s AER helps your IoT devices grab power from the grid at the cleanest times — the times when the marginal resource of energy is clean!

Aurora Solar — concession here, I haven’t had time to dive into the details, but imagine this: You’re building a solar farm. You want to know where you should put it and how much sun it will get. Use Aurora Solar and its software to essentially run a quick 2020 appropriate simulation on your computer to design the farm and understand what its financials will look like in minutes. Pretty cool
How A Shorter Work Week Would Help Reduce Emissions
By: Danny Schleien
Tags: Covid 19, Climate Action, Environment, Work, Climate Change

The five-day workweek has defined the industrial world for over a century. As kids, we go to school five days a week. As adults, we go to work five days a week.

We often feel like we don’t have enough days in the week. It often feels like we need eight days a week just to do what we need to do with no time for what we want to do.

If we’re focused on things we love — the girl next door (like John Lennon and Paul McCartney in their twenties) or the vacation of our dreams — eight days a week doesn’t sound too bad.

But most of us don’t get to live such charmed lives.

Nonetheless, wouldn’t you rather work four days a week instead of five…or eight?

We know a four-day workweek leads to productivity and well-being benefits.

What isn’t as widely known is the boon to something bigger than ourselves:

Our planet.

I’ve written before about where the blame lies for the climate crisis — governments and companies, not most individuals.

But shorter workweeks and fewer working hours could also help save the planet.

And I have a feeling that no matter how concerned you are about the planet — and you should be —you wouldn’t mind spending less time on the job and more time doing whatever it is that keeps you happy and fulfilled.
Global companies are a key to a sustainable future
By: Sana Al-Badri
Tags: Climate Action, Investing, Impact Investing, Sustainable Investment, Esg

One major sustainability myth is that all big corporates destroy the planet and are thus inherently unethical.

This is a very common misconception amongst sustainable minded individuals. Indeed big corporates are the main drivers of pollution and waste globally (only 100 companies cause 71% of carbon emissions). And big corporates also have the biggest impact on the planet because they serve billions of customers and have giant supply chains.

However their big size is also an amazing lever we have to change the world for the better. For example, Apple made huge investments to create innovation in their assembly process and their products are certified Zero Waste to Landfill. Further it has decreased average product energy use by 70% in the last 10 years. And for efforts like this, Apple received positive sustainability scores and thus more financing from investors. Win-win!

The way to achieve a clean economy quickly is by changing the big guys for the better a few percent every year, rather than founding thousands of small green companies who will need decades to grow and compete, just to (maybe) have a similar impact to a big corporate.

The UN even recognises this fact and announced several corporates as responsable leaders for their efforts in creating inclusive and clean economies. L’Oréal is recognised as such a responsible leader because they reduced their industrial emissions by 78% in the past decade and they’re poised to achieve carbon neutrality in production by 2025. Other big companies however make no such efforts! They even become worse polluters as they grow and profit. We should not invest in these companies.

This movement, of only investing in companies with a positive track record, has been successfully kickstarted by ESG and SRI investing in finance. Nordea, one of the biggest banks in the Baltics and Nordics) calculated that investing sustainably for retirement is 27x more impactful than sustainable consumption.

We found Sagefund because we want to give you the opportunity to participate in this change. In the image above, you can see a list of big global companies that are leaders in their industries (their sustainability scores are in the top 20%) and that you can invest in through Sagefund.
In and Out: 2019 UN Climate Action Summit
By: Jori Reiken
Tags: Climate Action, Donald Trump, United Nations, Un Climate Summit, Climate Change

In and out in the same amount of time it takes to walk to the store.

It may be old news that Donald Trump is opposed to the idea of climate change, but it was a surprise to see the President at the UN Climate Action Summit on Monday and for only a short amount of time.

The UN Climate Action Summit was a follow up to the 2015 Paris agreement and stood to enlarge the importance of solving the world’s biggest issue: climate change. On the line up to speak was U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, teenage activist Greta Thunberg, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel along with about 60 others.

After missing Greta Thunbergs moving and emotional speech, Trump strolled in to the summit without saying anything, listened to remarks from Modi and Merkle, then promptly left the summit.

The biggest emitters of pollution, including the United States, China and India, are not doing enough to reduce their pollution. Which is why it is extremely important for these world leaders to be present at the summits. That is the reason for this post.

What does this mean?

Even with all the momentum built from the Global Climate Strike that began on Friday, September 20th, it was not enough to promote action in the UN General Assembly Hall.

What are you going to do about it?

Stand up like greta, make your voice heard! Trump’s actions were not the right actions to take! We are going to make a difference together! Here are some things you can do https://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/top-10-ways-can-stop-climate-change/