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Climate Change This Week: Siberia Exploding, Too Hot to Work, LED Job Surge, and More!  
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.




Soon This May Be The Only Kind Of Tropical Frog In Existence - one made of painted women; better to conserve our carbon-storing tropical forests. By Johannes Stoetter, source www.rebelsmarket.com

Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon




Palm Oil Eats Away as its plantations wipe out forests. Credit mongabay.com

OO Can We Feed The World Without Cutting Forests? It can be done, says U.N. (MEH: not really - see below.) Agriculture is biggest driver of deforestation globally, but:

• Giving people clear land ownership creates sustainable management;
• 
  
• Boosting investment boosts land productivity;
• 
  
• Forests can be protected.

MEH: The above argument is greatly flawed:

• boosting land productivity beyond sustainable limits has already destroyed arable land;
• 
  
• our global population levels are already beyond sustainable limits;
• 
  
• forests fall when desperate, unsustainable populations use them for resources.

• 80% of all arable land is already under cultivation globally;
• 
  
• The total amount of arable land is decreasing due to desertification and overuse.

Humanity is crashing through its global limits.


FORESTS ARE BURNING UP




Climate Change Drives Wildfires - as higher temperatures both melt out mountain snowpacks earlier (meaning less water later in summer), and, in combo with drought, dries out trees, creating tinderbox conditions for fires. Source Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory

OO Wildfires Have Burned More Than 2.6 Million Acres So Far This Year - under continuing climate change, higher temperatures and more frequent and intense droughts will fuel ever more intense and larger wildfires - until we run out of forests.


OO California's Costly Wildfire Season Might Never End until it runs out of forests.





Source siberiantimes.com

OO Huge Swaths Of Russia's Forests Are Ablaze
- Possibly A Record Fire Season - The past few years have seen huge conflagrations in this region, from a combination of forest management practices, firefighting policies, human-caused global warming and shorter-term weather fluctuations.


OO Russian Wildfires Put Key Climate Change Resource At Risk - as the government's practice of leaving massive wildfires to burn out of control in sprawling stretches of Siberia shrinks a key global resource for absorbing climate-warming emissions: its trees.

When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.




Just How Desperate Are You For A Hamburger? - enough to fuel climate change by destroying carbon sinks? Source www.vox.com

OO Cattle Grazing Is Now Causing Massive Deforestation Hotspots
In The Peruvian Amazon


OO Drought 'Shuts Down Amazon Carbon Sink' by killing trees and slowing trees' growth rates, a study has shown.





Source www.smarborists.com

OO Global Warming Could Limit Forest Capacity as Carbon Sinks - more specifically, North American forests, says a new study.





OO How To Stop Deforestation?
Give Indigenous People Rights To Land - Indigenous people are better than governments at preventing forests from being cut and should be seen as a solution, not a barrier to protecting them, said a UN official.


*
*

GOING, GOING...




Fracking As Far As The Eye Can See Credit Mark Gamba at Corbis via Foundation for Deep Ecology

OO Humans' Consumption of Earth's Natural Resources Has Tripled in 40 Years - says a new UN report.

Growing consumption drives climate change, as it uses huge amounts of climate-polluting energy; those energy sources, in turn, are using increasing amounts of energy just for extraction and distribution.




Asia Deforests Source ulet ifan at flipboard.com

Trees, Orchids, Beautiful Birds, And More - All Gone when a tropical forest disappears, and often extinguishing unknown, unique forms of life.

"The alarming rate at which materials are now being extracted is already having a severe impact on human health and people's quality of life," said UN International Resource Panel co-chair, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra.

"We urgently need to address this problem before we have irreversibly depleted the resources that power our economies and lift people out of poverty.

[It] calls for a rethink of the governance of natural resource extraction."


OO UN: Shorter Working Hours May Be Needed To Save Environment - to increase efficiency of resources used and slow their extraction.


*
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HOT NEWS




OO Heat Alerts Blanket US. - N.Y.C., L.A. and Chicago were all under heat advisories recently, plus 23 states in between.


OO Deadly Dangerous Heat Wave Scorched Central And Eastern U.S. with at least 6 heat related deaths. The heat index, a measure of how hot it actually feels, could reach 115°F in parts of Washington, DC and 108°F in Philadelphia.


Related Headlines:





How Much Hot Temperatures Differed for June 2016 in the US from the average. Source NOAA

OO Sizzling Midwest Previews a Hotter Future Climate - 'Climate change is putting heat waves on steroids,' says prominent climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, with dire consequences for public health.

"Heat waves are getting more frequent and stronger."


OO Heat Dome Had Tens Of Millions Sweating From Minneapolis To Mississippi and the high pressure area persisted for days, creating a vast heat wave across much of the US.





OO Eastern Hemisphere's All-Time Temperature Record:
Kuwait Fries In 54°C (129.2°F) Heat on July 21, 2016 in the Middle East.






A Hot Map tracing global temperature anomalies. Source Climate Central via NASA, NOAA data

OO First Half of 2016 Blows Away Temp Records -the first half of 2016 has blown away temperature records, capped off by a record hot June, once again bumping up the odds that 2016 will be the hottest year on record globally, according to data released recently.


OO Earth On Track For Hottest Year Ever As Warming Speeds Up - and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also confirmed that June was the 14th consecutive month to break temperature records.





OO Global Warming Happening Faster Than Predicted says the World Meteorological Organization, reporting the first six months of this year have seen all previous global warming records broken.

It also marked the 378th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average.




@@ Climate Change 101: Why Care?
What You Need to Know - Bill Nye tells it all in five minutes amid graphic, dynamic, engaging, compelling imagery. Check it Out!

*
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MELTDOWN

OO Siberia: Areas Leaking Methane 200 Times Faster Than Usual,
Massive Releases Creating Giant Holes, 'Trembling Tundras' - as Russian scientists measured the gas emitted by the mysterious bubbles The 'trembling tundra' also contains concentrations of carbon dioxide 20 times higher than usual levels.

Scientists theorize the sudden appearance of giant holes in northern Siberia - a 2013 eruption was heard 60 miles away - is from methane gas from melting tundra is trapped in existing ice, exploding it.




Siberia: Scientists Discover Unusual Methane Bubbles Underground


OO Siberia: Heat Wave Sparks Anthrax Outbreak - as it melted the decades old, anthrax riddled carcase of a reindeer, allowing the pathogen to spread. 1500 other reindeer died from the highly infectious disease, and 13 people were hospitalized.






A Canyon in White - as Greenland melts away. Credit James Balog

OO Greenland Lost A Staggering 1 Trillion Tons Of Ice In Just Four Years - How much is that?

Think of the ENTIRE weight of humanity currently - now multiply that by about 3,000.


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GOOD CLEAN NEWS




Sun Lights A Night Time Street with solar powered LEDs. Source www.truelite.us

OO Off-Grid LED Lighting Could Create 2 Million Jobs as solar systems come on-line across the globe.


OO Governments Look to Phase Out HFCs, which are potent climate changing gases, causing 1,300 times as much warming as carbon dioxide over a span of 100 years even though they exist for a shorter duration in the atmosphere.

Diplomats and leading national ministers are negotiating to phasing them out. Originally, HCFs substituted chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs) as refrigerants for air conditioners.





OO Solarcity Raises $345 Million To Fund New Projects


OO Corporate Investment In Energy Efficiency 'At An All-Time High'





@@ Time To Choose - this is the trailer but one can view the entire documentary here via download torrent.

OO Not Your Typical Climate Change Documentary:
It Focuses On Solutions, Not Doom - The film provides a compelling argument to its audience that renewable energy and alternative forms of living and eating are not only legitimately effective, but can give us a real shot at stopping climate change.


OO California: Alameda County Bans Fracking - the results of 2+ years of persuasion from a coalition of environmental groups.


OO California Moves Forward With Oil, Gas Methane Rules to slash methane emissions from oil and gas facilities 40-45% by 2025.





OO Obama Plans to Expand Solar for Low-Income Homes to One Gigawatt - via the 'Clean Energy Savings For All' initiative by 2020.

The DOE also will award up to $100,000 for projects that develop solar farms and train solar workers in low-income communities.


OO India Doubles Down On Solar Parks After Sunedison Setback - the company formerly contracted to build major solar projects. India will double the target for energy to be generated from solar parks by 2020.


OO PM Modi Lures India's Top Fossil Fuel Companies To Back Solar Boom





OO Elon Musk Unveils Tesla's 'Master Plan':
Package Electric Cars, Solar Panels and Energy Storage for Customers by merging two big companies, Tesla and Solarcity.


*
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OH-OH




What We're Doing Won't Prevent More of This and worse, as climate change continues. Use your vote to tell leaders we have to do more.

OO The World's Climate Pledges Are Not Even Close To Good Enough - the Paris agreement won't prevent our planetary thermal shields, the polar ice caps, from melting, or rainforests from dying.

But there's still time to prevent even more catastrophic change - and the good news is, countries can easily do more than they've promised so far.

"If all countries were to replicate policies that are currently successfully implemented by some countries, the gap toward two degrees Celsius could almost be closed," says a senior Netherlands government climate policy analyst.

Beyond national governments, organizations and corporations are also moving to effect change. Get involved.





Missing In Action are measures to prevent the drowning of European civilization. Source www.caribflame.com

OO EU Climate Targets Fall Short Of Paris Deal Ambitions, Experts Warn - the European Commission missed an opportunity recently by failing to introduce a mechanism to increase emissions targets over time, a European coalition of environmental NGOs said.


OO Six EU Countries Have Already Met Their 2030 Climate Targets - indicating that the targets are way too weak.


*
*

SPEAKING OUT




OO 'World Can't Afford To Silence Us':
Black Church Leaders Address Climate Change - One of the largest and oldest black churches in the US warns that black people are disproportionally harmed by global warming and fossil fuel pollution.


OO France And UN Press For Ratification Of Climate Agreement


*
*

NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS




Higher and Higher - what is now our lowest global average temperatures is higher than the highest global average temperatures just 40 years ago... Credit Climate Central using NASA data

OO The Climate That Most Of Us Grew Up With Is Gone For Good







Climate Change > Drought, Heat > Dry Forests > Wildfires in the US West Source www.climatesignals.org

OO Massive Wildfires Rage Across California - destroying lives, homes, forests and sparking mass evacuations.


Extreme heat and years of ongoing drought, both linked to climate change, are increasing wildfire risk in California, and ten of the state's 20 largest wildfires on record have all burned in the last 10 years.

OO Flame Broiled Alaska: With soaring temperatures and crackling lightning, wildfires erupt across the state.





Credit Claudio Accheri at flickr

OO Tropical Storms To Get Fiercer As The World Warms − known variously as cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes, they bring death and destruction to huge swathes of the Earth's surface. And new research suggests that they are likely to become even stronger.


Air pollution that cools the air masks the accumulating heat on the planet, and as the air gets clean, that mask will be stripped away: heating air absorbs more water - that extra water and energy translates into fiercer storms.

As if life weren't exciting enough already...





A Stinking Green Monster Is Engulfing US Waters - toxic algal blooms are sickening swimmers, suffocating water life, driving away tourists, and smell like "death on a cracker." Credit Rick Egan at The Salt Lake City Tribune via AP

OO Why Disgusting Toxic Blue-Green Algae Blooms Seem Increasingly Common - across the US and elsewhere, sickening algal blooms are occurring more frequently.

"We've primed the system perfectly for blue-green algae blooms," says Australia government scientist Darren Baldwin:

• Nutrient runoff from agriculture settles in lakes and coastal areas;
• 
  
• Fiercer storms, fueled by climate change, stir up those nutrients more;
• 
  
• Hot waters, heated by global warming, and nutrients fuel massive algal blooms.

An Undersea Rainbow Collapses Into Gray and Brown - as corals bleach die, taking down an entire ecosystem with them in the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere. Credit Justin Marshall at the University of Queensland

OO Sections Of Great Barrier Reef Suffering From 'Complete Ecosystem Collapse' as fish numbers tumble and surviving corals continue to bleach into winter, says a scientist witnessing it.




What Once Was Is No More at Lizard Island and other devastated areas of the Great Barrier Coral Reef.

These natural undersea wonders, the evolutionary work of millennia, have been destroyed, and will not come back for generations, if ever.







The Face of Climate Change - this could be the face of humanity in coming decades, if we do not address the underlying causes of climate change. Credit Kerstin Langenberger at Facebook

OO Polar Ecology In Flux Due To Climate Change - glacial melting and rising ocean temperatures are affecting the feeding, breeding and dispersion patterns of species, such as krill, cod, seals and polar bears, in the polar regions, say two new research studies.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls...


OO Wildlife Dying En Masse as South American River Runs Dry - the Pilcomayo River in Paraguay is littered with dead caiman and fish carcasses; in some areas almost all the caimans and capybaras - furry river animals - have died.


WASTE MAKES CLIMATE CHANGE




OO America Wastes $160 Billion In Food Every Year But Is Too Busy To Stop


OO Denmark Leads Europe In Tackling Food Waste - 33+% of all food is spoiled or squandered, resulting in nearly a loss of $1 Trillion, and generating 8% of global greenhouse emissions.

"Waste makes everybody poorer," said a Danish minister.

Led by a passionate activist, Denmark has been working intensively on solutions backing a global food waste measurement standard; once measured, it can be managed.




Credit S. Brandlin at Deutsche Welle

Strategies include:

• Supermarket "stop food waste areas" where nearly expired food sells very cheaply;
• 
  
• "ugly" food gets used in prepared food;
• 
  
• Public campaign urging people to eat their UFOs* once a month;
• 
  
• Too Good To Go startup pairs unsold meals with people who can buy them cheaply at day's end.

*Unidentified Frozen Objects found in overstocked freezers. Yes, you probably have some.



OO Wal-Mart, America's Largest Grocer, Is Now Selling Ugly Fruit And Vegetables - at a discount, using weather dented produce that might otherwise go to waste.


*
*

SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS





OO Soaring Temperatures Will Make It Too Hot To Work, UN Warns.


OO Global Warming Set To Cost The World Economy $2+ Trillion By 2030 as it becomes too hot to work.
'If you are physically active in work, the hotter it is, the slower you work.'





Source www.independent.co.uk

OO Heat Stress To Wipe Billions Off GDP In India, China





So Pretty, So Deadly For Humanity - the loss of reflection as ice melts, not only speeds Arctic warming, but contributes to climate disruption worldwide. Source NASA

OO This Year's Record Arctic Melt Is A Problem For Everybody - "Melt ponds are a major contributor to radiation and heat in the Arctic," says a NASA sea ice scientist. Takeaways:

• Global warming is melting ice;
• 
  
• This increases Arctic heat absorption by darker waters;
• 
  
• Further heat speeds Arctic warming;
• 
  
• Arctic warming wobbles the polar jet stream;

• Wobbling further mixes extreme cold and warm air masses over the northern hemisphere;
• 
  
• Thus, the wobbling is linked to more extreme weather where humanity lives.

So, Arctic warming helps fuel more extreme weather. Be concerned.


WATER, MORE AND LESS




Source www.chiangraitimes.com

OO Torrential Rains, Floods Kill At Least 112 Across China,
With Scores Missing


OO Colorado: Climate Change Causes Earlier Snowpack Runoff,
Late Summer Water Scarcity For Farmers






Drought Continues even as the devastating 2015-16 El Niño subsides; many parts of Africa, Central
America and Southeast Asia rains and harvests are not expected to recover until 2017.

OO Devastating Droughts Continue As El Niño Subsides





OO Nigeria: Pests and Drought Hit Farms of Tomatoes - a staple of Nigerian diet. Increasing drought and desertification, along with pesticide resistance to the tomato moth worm, are decimating this important food crop.


*
*

FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE



@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels - and distributing the revenues back to all of us.

The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. What's not to like? Check it out!

*
*

CLUELESS LEADERSHIP




Credit Donar at politicalgraffiti.wordpress.com

OO GOP Platform, Which Calls Coal 'Clean',
Would Reverse Decades Of US Energy And Climate Policy


OO Republican Platform Rejects Paris Climate Agreement,
Climate Regulations


OO Republican Dream Of Shrinking EPA Could Hurt Industries former EPA officials say, and "rejects 40 years of environmental history and success," says an ex EPA head under the GHW Bush administration.





Credit Nate Beeler at the Columbus Dispatch

OO President Trump Would UP Climate Change
By Upping US Oil, Gas Production - a policy promoted by his energy advisor.)
l

*
*

ELECTION YEAR:




If You Don't Vote For Climate Action, You Can Forget The Rest - in a climate-changing world of famine, drought, rising seas, giant storms and heat waves, there will be no security in jobs, health, wealth, or national safety. There will be chaos ensuing from increasing crises and disasters. Vote.

OO Global Warming Policies We Set Today Will Determine The Next 10,000 Years - of global warming, a new study shows -- and whether our civilization survives or not: history shows that harmful climate change has destroyed civilizations before.

This time, it could be worldwide. Let's keep "The Hunger Games" in the realm of fiction.

*
*

GOOD IDEAS




Source Wikipedia

OO Invest In Small Scale Renewable Projects Too,
To Ensure Universal Access To Low Carbon Energy


OO The Public Health Case For Energy Storage - A new study proposes storage and demand response to avoid extra air pollution while meeting peak demand.


OO Curb the Marijuana Industry's Voracious Energy Appetite - policymakers should start by requiring indoor cultivators to consume only carbon-free energy sources or to pay a carbon fee until such measures can be implemented.





Some Like It Cool - but if a cool pool isn't nearby, try a cool neck wrap instead. Source www.arcticspas.com

OO The Best Strategies To Keep Bodies Cool In A Heatwave, say researchers, is full body immersion or cooling the extremities to help maintain healthy body temperatures.

Okay, let's just assume we all don't have a cool pool handy at home or work. What to do?

The Wet Scarf: Carry a cotton scarf/cloth, a wash cloth, and bottle of water with you. When you start heating up, thoroughly wet the scarf and wash cloth, roll the latter inside the former, and tie around your neck. It makes a BIG difference. Replenish occasionally with ice cubes or cold water (often free at fast food places).

At night, keep a wet wash cloth nearby for periodically swabbing down your extremities.





Google Data Center Source Google/Rex

OO Google Uses Artificial Intelligence To Cut Data Centre Energy Use By 15%


OO How A Former Wal-Mart Executive Is Helping The Air Force Cut Energy Costs


OO Paying Businesses To Power Down 'Could Save UK Billions' a new industry report finds.





Zipping Around In a Borrowed Car helps reduce pollution.

OO Car-Sharing Reduces Pollution, Autos On The Road says a new study, filling in the small gaps between those who commute using mass transit or bicycling.


OO China Launches New System To Efficiently Channel Wind Power Investments - to prevent investment in areas where lack of infrastructure results in useless power production.


OO Australia, Cheap And Clean:
Company Creates Hydrogen With Near-Zero Emissions - using cheap iron ore to convert methane into hydrogen, capturing any resulting carbon as graphite.


*
*


CLIMATE LEADERSHIP




The Man Gets It - "Stay safe as it heats up: Drink water, stay out of the sun, and check on your neighbors," tweeted President Obama. Source www.baltimoresun.com

OO Weather-Communicator-In-Chief? President Obama Calls Attention To Heat Wave


*
*

FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES




OO Increased Asthma Attacks Tied To Exposure To Natural Gas Production


OO Ships Worsen Air Pollution Over China, Killing Thousands finds a new study.


OO The Future Of Big Oil?
At Shell, It' The "New Coal," Natural Gas as the deluded energy giant thinks this will help address climate change.





Credit Joel Pett

OO New Documents Reveal
Oil And Tobacco Industries' Dirty History Of Working Together to mislead the public on the harms of each.


OO Tobacco And Oil Industries Used Same Researchers To Sway Public - as early as the 1950s, the two groups shared scientists and publicists to downplay dangers of smoking and climate change.

*
*



If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.





@@ Myth vs Truth: The Huge Value of Contraception is an incisive, heartfelt recognition of the value of contraception by Sarah Brown, CEO, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy


Unintended Pregnancy Costs US Taxpayers:

Unintended Pregnancies Cost US Taxypayers Nearly $11 Billion Yearly
-the Guttmacher Institute

Teen Childbearing Alone Cost US Taxpayers $9+ Billion In 2010
And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:
publicize where women can access affordable contraception.



They can go here to find locations:




And there are many more actions you can do, right here.

*
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SOLAR KEEPS RISING



OO Tanzania: Dodging Costs And Power Cuts,
Firms Profit From Solar Drive


OO China Installed 20 GW Of Solar Power in first-half of 2016; triple from a year ago.





Check it out here, right now!

*
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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS




Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Aug 4, 2016

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is "caused" by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues and so does the drought in California.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.




There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I've compiled, "Climate Change News Resources," at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this wild spotted coralroot orchid I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: 'Green News Report' - August 4, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New criminal charges for MI state employees in the Flint Water Crisis; $1...

Read more: Clean Energy, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Democratic Convention, Democrats, Donald Trump, Economy, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Global Warming Deniers, Green News, Green News Report, Oil, Regulation, Renewable Energy, Republican Convention, Republican Party, Republicans, Video, Enbridge, Pipeline, Oil Spill, Kalamazoo Oil Spill, Flint Water Crisis, Voting, Hillary Clinton, Green News

 
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Finance, Renewable Energy And Social Inclusion Are Key To A Sustainable Future  
When opening the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, I quote one of my favorite Guyanese creole sayings: wan wan dutty build dam. Put differently, every house must sit on solid foundations and we build it one brick at a time. Many years later, the Paris Climate agreement brought us the international breakthrough many have fought for so hard: near universal action to address climate change and keep global average temperature well below 2 degrees centigrade.

Of course it was the euphoria of the outcome that made the headlines. But the Paris agreement also noted some important points of caution. First that the commitments made in Paris are not enough to achieve the temperature goal, second that early action is imperative and thirdly that the provision of finance, technology and capacity support are essential to enable enhanced pre-2020 action by developing countries. As early as 2018 countries will meet to take stock of efforts taken to meet the long term goal.

If Paris was all about setting the goal(s) and drawing the boundaries of the pitch, the next conference in Marrakesh will be about defining the rules of the game. That is critical if the 2018 stock-taking is to provide the confidence to take next and bolder steps towards achieving the long-term goal. As the Guyanese also say in creole: clath ah easy fuh dutty but hard fuh wash (having achieved a goal, it is difficult to retain it)!

As an organization dedicated to working with its members to achieve a greener model of growth, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is now doing everything to help countries understand how international climate finance can be made to work for climate action, remove the barriers that prevent investments in renewables, translate climate ambitions into bankable projects, build national finance institutions to support this and ensure that growth is more socially inclusive.



In line with an effort to identify practical solutions to sustainability challenges, GGGI and its partners will organize the Global Green Growth Week (#GGGWeek2016), on September 5-9, on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea. The sessions throughout the five-day event will focus on three key topics: 1) mobilizing finance for climate action and green growth, 2) driving renewable energy and green investments in Asia and 3) improving the livelihoods of and creating a green and inclusive economy for the poor.

First, finance is an important issue. In principle, sufficient financial resources from the public and private sectors are available to support developing nations. However, not enough attention has been paid to enhancing the capacity of the system to absorb the capital in ways that are beneficial to the poor in developing countries and acceptable to those that bring the capital. The Global Green Growth Summit (GGGS) aims to explore ways to unblock the barriers to capital flowing to emerging markets, develop innovative international financial instruments for green growth, strengthen national financing vehicles and build solid project proposals. It is critical to find blended financial models and innovative solutions to mobilize climate finance.

Second, transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy will bring health and financial benefits as well as enhance employment opportunities. Asia is claiming to be going green, but according to the International Energy Outlook 2016, China and India are projected to be the top two coal-consuming countries together with the United States, accounting for more than 70% of world coal use. For instance, in 2012, China accounted for 50% of world coal consumption and its coal use is expected to grow through 2025. Coal is expected to continue to play a prominent role in Asia's energy consumption due to the abundant regional endowment of coal and low extraction costs.

On a brighter note, energy demand is projected to almost double in the Asia and Pacific region by 2030. This rapid rise in demand is a reflection of the dramatic economic growth in countries such as China and India. Countries in Southeast Asia have also been enjoying remarkable economic progress in recent years while solidifying their position as a major driver of global growth in energy demand. Investments in renewables have now overtaken investments in fossil fuel and renewable investments in developing countries have significantly overtaken those in industrialized countries - all of which is positive. But the reality remains that making more money available and decreasing costs of technology is not enough to address the challenges of climate change.

The Asia Regional Policy Dialogue (ARPD) will examine the success factors and barriers to scaling up the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy. The discussions will be tailored to the Asian context, in line with the goal of building consensus among major stakeholders on strategic, actionable solutions to be taken to promote clean energy.

Third, more emphasis needs to be placed on creating better lives and livelihoods for poor people in society by using green growth policies. Billions of people have been lifted out of poverty, but the gap between the rich and poor is increasing. 90% of urban population growth this century will occur in developing countries, predominantly in Africa and Asia and a significant proportion of that growth will be in cities that don't exist yet. Although the world has made significant progress in reducing poverty in the last decade, inequality still persists, with large portions of humanity, particularly in developing countries, lacking basic sanitation, access to electricity, and clean drinking water.

Growth in developing countries will continue, yet this growth needs to be green and inclusive. The discussion topics for the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) Annual Conference include examining challenges of inclusive green growth, exploring the climate change and poverty nexus and identifying whether economic growth can be inclusive and green.

#GGGWeek2016 will serve as a platform to generate innovative solutions, leverage green growth opportunities and promote delivery of growth that is pro-poor, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable.

Click here to learn more about #GGGWeek2016.

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A student of Gothic literary monsters assesses Donald Trump's allure.  
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Want to Fight Food Waste? Get with the Food System  

Above: Students working in the Field and Fork Student Gardens at the University of Florida. Part of creating a sustainable food culture is appreciating the labor and resources that go into food production. UF/IFAS Photo by Amy Stuart

At the University of Florida's Innovation Academy, students are challenged to come up with creative, inventive solutions to some of our toughest problems.

This year, the freshman class was tasked with developing a business concept or invention that responded to the issue of food waste. As the campus food system coordinator and part of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, I was invited to talk to some of these students about their ideas and probe their thinking.

Needless to say, this was a group of very smart, very talented young people. But as I listened to them talk about their ideas, I began to notice a trend that worried me.

It's not that their ideas were unrealistic. For example, one student proposed a composting device people could install in their homes and use like any other appliance, an approach I thought was both clever and practical.

The problem was that they all assumed that waste was inevitable and that all we can do is figure out what to do with it. They weren't asking themselves how they could reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place.

When I pointed this out, some of the students got excited. Others looked daunted, struggling to imagine a world in which food waste wasn't a given.

This isn't to say that composting or participating in food drives are bad things to do. These efforts are a great step toward sustainability and food security. In our campus food program, Field and Fork, we embrace composting in our student garden, and we ask our community to donate extra food to our on-campus food pantry.

But these efforts are a response to food waste and don't necessarily stop it from happening.


Above: Student volunteers learn not only how to grow their own food, but also how to manage the gardens' operations. UF/IFAS Photo by Tyler Jones

I encouraged the students to think about how food is often wasted as a result of our preference for beauty and abundance. I asked the students to visualize how fresh fruits and vegetables, for instance, apples, are typically displayed in stores--hundreds of shiny apples, all the same color, size and shape.

The store may not sell all those apples, and the ones not sold may be thrown out. But a mountain of fruit conveys abundance, and we're attracted to abundance. A display of only a few dozen apples is underwhelming, even suspicious. If given the choice, we'd likely choose an apple from the big pile over one from the small pile, even if the apples themselves were identical.

As a class time drew to a close, the students and I thought about how we could tap into this preference for abundance in a way that doesn't lead to wasted food.

One way to reduce food waste may be to offer people, particularly young people, a chance to be part of food production.

As consumers buying broccoli at the store, we only know the end product--we may not even know what a broccoli plant looks like. But when a student at the Field and Fork Student Gardens grows a broccoli plant from seed, she not only understands where her food comes from but also gains an appreciation for all the resources--energy, labor, time, water--that go into producing it.

Understanding how an apple or a head of broccoli is produced may be one way to recognize the vast abundance already embedded in our food.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Radar tracking reveals the 'life stories' of bumblebees as they forage for food  
Scientists have tracked the flight paths of a group of bumblebees throughout their entire lives to find out how they explore their environment and search for food.  
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Mary Ellen Harte: Climate Change This Week: Siberia Exploding, Too Hot to Work, LED Job Surge, and More!  
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.




Soon This May Be The Only Kind Of Tropical Frog In Existence - one made of painte...

Read more: Climate Change, Environment, Drought, Extreme Weather, Global Warming, Sustainability, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Nature, Science, Technology, Technologie, Green Technology, Technology News, Climate Change Denial, Climate, Climate Science, Climate-Change, Obama, Green Energy, Clean Energy, Renewable Energy, Natural Gas, Wind Power, Solar Power, Fossil Fuels, Heat Waves, Congress, Voting, Weather, Business, Business News, Corporations, Economy, Climate Change Solutions, Greenhouse Gases, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Carbon Emissions, Food, Water, Coal, Fracking, Oil, Agriculture, Crops, Rising Sea Levels, Insurance, Pollution, Wildlife, Transportation, Transports, Transport, Cities, Deforestation, Jobs, Natural Disasters, Population, Population Growth, Overpopulation, Oceans, President Obama, Barack Obama, Epa, Nasa, Noaa, Department of Energy, Republicans, Gop, Democrats, Animals, Cute Animals, Fish, Birds, Activism, Political Activism, Humor, Alaska, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Mississippi, Utah, Paris, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, United Nations, United Kingdom, England, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Europe, European Union, France, Denmark, India, Asia, Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, Siberia, Children, Babies, Children'S Health, Kids, Human Health, Health, Education, Air Pollution, Seafood, Shell, Donald Trump, Soil, Art, Cartoons, Elon Musk, Wal-Mart, Cars, Tobacco, Tesla, Solarcity, Green News

 
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American Crocodiles on Florida Bay  

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Crocodylus acutus

A pair of recent hatchlings take their first steps into the world in a remote estuary of Florida Bay in south Florida. Because of long term conservation efforts, this species was downgraded from Endangered to Threatened on the Endangered Species list in 2007. Today, more than 1,500 wild crocs are estimated to inhabit south Florida. Long term conservation and management plans are essential for the long term survival of this species moving forward.

 
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London at Sunset  

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Over The Shard

Thanks for all the views, Please check out my other photos and albums.

 
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Photos of the Week: 7/30-8/5 (35 photos)  

Scenes from Rio as the Olympics are set to begin, wildfires in Greece, horses at a McDonald's Drive-thru in Spain, the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany, fireflies in Mexico, a bear atop a New Mexico garbage truck, and much more.

 
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Towards Deptford Strand  

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the clouds come in

 
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london-29  

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Get Thee to a Hospital  

This story originally appeared on the Conversation and is reproduced here with permission.

A report published in May from researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine claims that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., behind only heart disease and cancer.

According to the researchers, medical errors account for 251,454 U.S. deaths each year—and they regard this figure as an underestimate.

That's the sort of finding that makes headlines. Indeed, you might have read about this report in the newspaper or even seen it reported on the evening news.

But as we'll argue, the methods the researchers used to draw this conclusion are flawed, and that means the conclusion that medical error is the third leading cause of death is highly questionable.

When a report like this gets broad media coverage, it can foster unwarranted mistrust of medicine, which could prevent people from seeking needed care—a concern for everyone who takes care of patients.

A medical error can be defined as a decision or action that results in patient harm, one that experts agree should have been made differently given the information available at the time. But applying such a definition in reviewing patient records is fraught with difficulty.

The study's authors argue that death certificates should be redesigned to recognize that more deaths are attributable to medical error. That's a reasonable suggestion. But the implication of many media reports that these findings prove hundreds of thousands of people are dying each year due to medical errors is highly problematic.

First, the authors of the Johns Hopkins report did not collect any new data. Instead, they based their conclusions on studies performed by other authors. There is nothing wrong with that, in principle.

But in this case, the results are highly misleading because they are based on large extrapolations from very small data sets: The authors based their conclusions on four studies that included a total of only 35 deaths attributable to medical error—out of nearly 4,000 hospital admissions. Extrapolating from 35 deaths to a population of 320 million is quite a leap.

In addition, these studies frequently do a poor job of distinguishing between adverse events and errors. They are not the same thing.

An adverse event is defined as any undesirable outcome after a drug or treatment is administered to a patient. Every medical test and therapy, from antibiotics to surgery, is associated with some risk of an adverse outcome. Adverse events can include death, although that is rare. While every adverse outcome is regrettable, it does not prove that an error was made—that based on what was known at the time, a medical professional should have made a different decision or acted in a different way.

Physicians typically cannot know in advance which patients will experience such reactions, so attributing such deaths to error is misleading.

There is another problem with the Hopkins report: Two of the four studies it draws on use Medicare data, which generally include patients advanced in years, in relatively poor health, and being treated in the hospital. Sad to say, many such patients are at substantially increased risk of death to begin with. Many will die during their hospitalization no matter how well they are cared for. To attribute such deaths to error is to fail to account for the inevitability of death.

In fact, one of the studies on which the Hopkins report is based even includes a prominent correction factor. The author estimates the number of deaths due to medical error at 210,000. Then, based on the fact that the tools used to identify errors are imperfect, the author chooses to double his estimate of the number of deaths due to error to 420,000.

The sort of medical chart review used in these studies is radically different from caring for patients. The uncertainty and stress associated with caring for the very sickest patients are often invisible to hindsight. Seriously adverse patient outcomes are associated with a greater tendency to blame someone. When a patient has died, we want someone to be responsible even if every action taken appeared justifiable at the time.

This isn't the first study to try to assess how often medical errors can lead to death. Other studies paint a very different picture of the number of deaths attributable to error.

In one study responding to claims of very high death rates due to medical error, physicians reviewed 111 deaths in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals by attempting to determine whether such deaths were preventable with “optimal care.” VA patients are generally older and sicker than the U.S. population, and thus somewhat comparable to studies based on Medicare data. Also, by using “optimal care,” the study may catch even more deaths than the “medical error” standards, resulting in a tendency to overestimate the number of deaths due to error.

At first, the researchers estimated that 23 percent of deaths could have been prevented. But when they were asked whether patients could have left the hospital alive, this number dropped to 6 percent. Finally, when the additional criterion of “3 months of good cognitive health after discharge” was added, the number dropped to 0.5 percent. Preventable deaths should be viewed in context, and there is a big difference between preventing death and restoring good health.

Applying the rates from the VA study to U.S. hospital admission data, medical error would drop down to No. 7 of the top 10 causes of death in the United States. Applying the additional criterion of three months of good cognitive health, medical error would not even rank in the top 20. Of course, doing so runs the same risks as the Johns Hopkins study; namely, extrapolating from a small study to the entire U.S. population.

To produce a truly balanced account of medicine's role in causing death, it would be necessary to account not only for the risks but also the benefits of medical care. Many patients with heart disease, cancer ,and diabetes whose deaths such studies attribute to medical error would not even be alive in the first place without medical treatment, where its benefits vastly outweigh its risks.

Looking at medicine from this point of view, we are fortunate to be living in an era of unsurpassed medical capabilities, when the profession is doing more to promote health and prolong life than at any time in the past.

Perhaps the strongest evidence that such studies overestimate the role of medical error is that the fact that, when causes of death are ranked by authoritative organizations such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, medical error is not even included in the top 10. Would adding medical error to death certificates change this? We doubt it.

There is no doubt that mistakes occur in medicine every day, and if we take appropriate steps, error rates can be reduced. But inflated estimates of the number of deaths associated with error do nothing to advance understanding and may in fact make many patients more reluctant to seek care when they need it. A blinkered focus on error without corresponding accounts of medicine's benefits contributes to a distorted understanding of medicine's role in health and disease.

 
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American Crocodile  

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Crocodylus acutus

A hatchling explores a mangrove estuary on a remote key in south Florida.

 
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Technology that Could Turn the Tide on Climate Change: Clean Coal Technology  
New technology is required to make meaningful progress on climate change. This column will focus on one of those options: making coal power greener.

Coal will be a part of the international energy equation for decades to come. While domestic coal consumption is decreasing, worldwide consumption is still trending upwards. For many regions, coal is a plentiful, inexpensive feedstock and it is often the only option available for energy generation. Any pragmatic approach to attacking the global problem of climate change must include a way for developing economies to continue to use coal in an environmentally sustainable way.

Researchers are exploring several options to reduce emissions from burning coal. One approach is pre-combustion capture which separates the CO2 after gasifying the coal. It is less expensive and more efficient to capture the carbon dioxide on the front-end of the process than to add CO2 capture equipment on the back-end of a traditional power plant.

Another alternative is burning coal in recirculated flue gas and oxygen rather than air. This changes the chemistry of the emissions, eliminates the nitrogen, and recycles most of the CO2 so that it is not emitted.

Industry and government have invested in research, demonstrations and pilot projects to test these technologies. Depending on the results it could be a real game changer for power generation.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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The Climate Post: New York Joins Handful of Other States with Ambitious Clean Energy Targets  
By 2030, half of the energy produced in the state of New York will come from renewables, according to a new policy adopted Monday by the state's public service commission. The move is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels (80 percent by 2050) and to attract billions in clean energy investment.

"New York has taken bold action to become a national leader in the clean energy economy and is taking concrete, cost-effective steps today to safeguard this state's environment for decades to come," said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "This Clean Energy Standard shows you can generate the power necessary for supporting the modern economy while combatting climate change. Make no mistake, this is a very real threat that continues to grow by the day and I urge all other states to join us in this fight for our very future."

The plan calls for New York to retain its nuclear reactors--though The Washington Post reports that those facilities don't count as part of the 50 percent renewables target. According to New York regulators, doing so might cost $965 million over two years but could lead to net benefits of $4 billion due to avoided carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution. While supporters of this provision applaud New York's effort to retain its emissions-free nuclear generation, opponents are likely to challenge the nuclear subsidies on the grounds they are discriminatory, hurt markets, and intrude on federal authority.

New York is not the first state to announce an ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target. In April 2015, California announced it planned to cut those emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels in the same time frame with renewables increases. Like California, New York plans to phase in its renewables increase; 31 percent of its energy is to come from renewables by 2021 and 50 percent by 2030. Those targets are meant to give utilities and clean energy companies time to develop their business models.

The only states with higher renewables standards are Vermont, which set a target of 75 percent renewable power by 2032, and Hawaii, which set a target of 100 percent renewable power by 2045.

White House to Federal Agencies: Consider Climate Change Impacts

In an action with broad implications for thousands of projects, including energy and mineral development on public lands, natural gas import and export facilities, and transportation projects, the Obama administration issued final guidance on how federal agencies should consider greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts when conducting reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (subscription).

"Focused and effective consideration of climate change in NEPA reviews will allow agencies to improve the quality of their decisions," the guidance states. "Identifying important interactions between a changing climate and the environmental impacts from a proposed action can help Federal agencies and other decision makers identify practicable opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve environmental outcomes, and contribute to safeguarding communities and their infrastructure against the effects of extreme weather events and other climate-related impacts."

The guidance, the product of a six-year effort by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, advises agencies to quantify projected greenhouse gas emissions of proposed federal actions whenever the necessary methodologies and data are available. It also encourages them to draw on their experience and expertise to determine the appropriate level and extent of quantitative or qualitative analysis required to comply with NEPA and to consider alternatives that would increase the climate-change resilience of the action and affected communities.

"From the public standpoint, we are now going to know what all of our decisions add up to in terms of impacting climate change," said Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the Council on Environmental Quality. "You can think of all the different federal decisions, and how they all add up. We have numbers where we can actually say, 'this is a huge decision, given the amount of greenhouse gases coming out of it.' And that gives the public a chance to really weigh in on decision-making."

Several media outlets pointed out that because the White House guidance is not a regulation, agencies are not legally bound to follow it.

Clean Power Plan Analysis: National Costs Low, State Costs Varied

Wednesday marked one year since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally rolled out the Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. Even with the February stay by the U.S. Supreme Court, which halted implementation of the plan pending resolution of legal challenges, some say the plan is having an impact while others are finding more reason to explore the legality of the rule (subscription).

Should the rule survive judicial review, a new paper by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions uses the Nicholas Institute's Dynamic Integrated Economy/Energy/Emissions Model to evaluate Clean Power Plan impacts on the U.S. generation mix, emissions, and industry costs. It indicates that industry trends are likely to make Clean Power Plan compliance relatively inexpensive, with cost increases of 0.1 to 1.0 percent. But policy costs can vary across states, which might lead to a patchwork of policies that, although in their own best interests, could impose additional costs nationally.

"The answer is not the same for everyone in terms of what's going to be the least-cost way for a particular state to approach this policy," said lead author and Nicholas Institute Senior Economist Martin Ross. "Nationally, it would make the most sense to have a broadly coordinated policy where you can take advantage of the usual economic [tools] to spread the cost reductions around and pick up the most cost-effective sources for reducing emissions."

Similar findings were presented at a conference of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Because of lower-than-expected natural gas prices, renewable power, and extended federal tax credits for that power, the country as a whole is set to meet the Clean Power Plan's early goals, reports ClimateWire.

The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

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Regardless of Fierce Opposition, Rooftop Solar Is Unstoppable  
As the Spanish saying goes, the sun is the poor man's blanket. And thanks to technology, it's also our heating system, air conditioner, refrigerator and a shinning spot that lights up our clean energy future.

The solar industry is the fastest growing sector of the US economy. It currently employs more than 200,000 workers, thousands of them Latinos, and double that of the coal mining industry. And for us Latinos, solar energy is a three-fold blessing.

"Since I had my rooftop solar panels installed last year, I spend less than half of what I used to pay for dirty energy," says Oscar Medina, a client of Solar City in Tucson, AZ. "It not only keeps my home cool in the Arizona desert, it also allows me to avoid using power from dirty coal."

And one of those thousands of Latino solar workers is Roberto "Bobby" Rosthenhousler, another Tucson resident, whose mother is from Los Mochis, Mexico. He enthusiastically supports solar.

"If you are Latino, this is a good choice," says Bobby, who installs panels for Net Zero Solar. "As long as the sun is there, we are going to have a job. I want to be a pioneer because there is only room to improve in this industry."

But dark clouds loom over solar --the backlash of public utilities. In the last four years, the explosive growth of rooftop solar has turned it into a severe threat to an archaic system based on a monopolistic model that heavily depends on dirty energy.

Take Arizona utility Tucson Electric Power (TEP), which owns, at least partly, four coal-burning plants, including the San Juan Generating Station in Northern New Mexico.

TEP is due to review its energy plan for the next few years, which presents it with the opportunity to drop at least a large part of its coal fleet and expand its clean, renewable energy portfolio. Alas, TEP plans to stick with the dirty coal plant, hike rates for its customers and damage Arizona's growing rooftop solar industry with new fees on solar customers such as Oscar.

Utilities across the country justify these rate hikes by arguing that rooftop solar clients continue relying on the electric grid without contributing their fair share to its maintenance. Study after study, however, indicates that rooftop solar reduces the stress and wear of the grid by using it less often. Furthermore, it limits the construction of expensive, dirty plants, thus substantially reducing coal pollution and the climate change it triggers.

These abusive practices may paint a bleak future for the rooftop solar industry. The clean energy progress, however, is unstoppable. A Cambridge University study indicates that photovoltaic solar panels will soon be more competitive than any fossil fuel energy. And this scares the living lights out of the energy dinosaurs.

"They need to let other environmentally friendly companies come in and provide a service that would especially benefit working-class families," says Oscar. "It's clear that utilities need to stop the pollution that makes people sick, especially us Latinos."

"My four-year-old is autistic," says Bobby. "And that's one other reason I went into clean energy. I worry about all those chemicals in the air affect my child. This is something I can give back to him."

No matter how hard the utilities try, you can't block the sun with an umbrella.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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How I Fell In Love With Ugly Food  

While grocery shopping one day, I realized I'd spent close to 30 minutes just in the produce section, meticulously choosing the best-looking apples, bananas that were ripe, but not spotted, ears of corn with perfectly aligned kernels. I admit, I'm picky about my produce. But I bet I'm not the only one that rejects the slightest bruise, blemish or mark on my fruits and veggies. 

How did we get this way? Could it be because we are living in a society where everything is filtered, where beauty is rewarded, where supermarkets reject foods that don't adhere to a certain standard, where everything is shiny and bright?

I've also seen how my pursuit of perfect produce has impacted my kids. When I pack their lunches, I make sure to include the plumpest tomatoes, crispest blueberries, cucumbers without any dents or scratches. But one day when my daughter refused to eat an avocado that was turning slightly brown, I knew I had to change my ways. I realized I was unconsciously raising my children to accept society's norms of perfection and that these perceptions can have a devastating impact on our environment.  

In the U.S, up to 40 percent of food produced is wasted every year. Most of this waste ends up in landfills that create dangerous greenhouse gases. Around 20 percent of food waste is produced directly at the farm because this so-called ugly food may not meet certain cosmetic standards set by grocery stores, yet are still perfectly consumable. Meanwhile, 48 million Americans live in food-insecure households.  

On a recent night in San Francisco, I attended a dinner party to raise awareness about this growing problem. The event was called the Salvage Supperclub and it is the brainchild of food waste activist Josh Treuhaft, who decided to create a unique, immersive experience as a conversation starter around food waste. It was an intimate gathering of 16 people dining on a table made from reclaimed wood, all within a cleared-out dumpster. The chef, Pesha Perlsweig, prepared a six course meal with food that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Perlsweig sourced some of the evening's ingredients from Imperfect Produce, a delivery subscription service that specifically sells “ugly” fruits and vegetables. Boxes of produce might contain organic crooked carrots or knobbly sweet potatoes for 30 to 50 percent of the price that one might pay at a traditional market.   

I was blown away by Perlsweig's creative dishes made from food the industry considers trash including stuffed wilted kale, ugly eggplant and squash ratatouille, and a delectable banana doughnut made from the actual peel of a banana. Before each course, Perlsweig offered guests tidbits and tips about how we can reduce our food waste. Did you know that if you cut off the end of a limp carrot or celery stalk and place it in water it will become firm again? 

After the evening's dinner, I became inspired to rethink the way I shop for and consume food, to embrace the imperfect, the ugly, the unique. My actions have inspired my daughter to think differently as well. One morning, while she was helping prepare her school lunch, I noticed her choosing a handful of cherry tomatoes with slight blemishes. “They're special,” she said.  

Here's hoping these small changes in our perception might make a big impact on our world.

Watch more of Laura Ling's reports on Seeker. Follow her on Twitter @lauraling.

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Spider sharing isn't always caring: Colonies die when arachnids overshare food  
Spiders living together in colonies of tens of thousands can go extinct from sharing food equitably, finds new research.  
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Lab-reared maggots may save Darwin's famous finches  
Researchers reveal how they used chicken blood to rear larvae of the fly Philornis downsi, an invasive species that parasitizes birds in the Galapagos Islands. The new method may be the first to effectively rear an avian blood-feeding fly from egg to adult in the absence of its host.  
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Tim Profeta: The Climate Post: New York Joins Handful of Other States with Ambitious Clean Energy Targets  
By 2030, half of the energy produced in the state of New York will come from renewables, according to a new policy adopted Monday by the state's publi...

Read more: Climate Change, Energy, Renewable Energy, New York, California, Clean Power Plan, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Environment, Pollution, Green News

 
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Sumatran Tiger On Danger  

dptro posted a photo:

Sumatran Tiger habitat were pushed away by oil palm plantation and poacher.

 
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Joan Michelson: Energy & the Environment Positions in the 2016 Election - Dispatch from the 2016 Democratic National Convention  
The Democratic and Republican platforms and their nominees' energy plans reflect complete opposite views. Here's a round-up of the differences, including excerpts from selected energy and environment events this week in Philadelphia where historic Philadelphia rolled out the red carpet and an analysis by top energy consultant, Peter Kelly- Detwiler* of Northbridge Energy.

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The Current State of Manufacturing Human Organs  
Thirteen. The number of people that die each day waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant.

$5 billion. The cost to create a new drug.

$3 billion plus. The amount invested in engineered tissue and organ research by the Federal government in a three year period.

Zero. The number of organs currently being manufactured by US industries for transplant.

322,762,018. The number of Americans in 2016 that could benefit from the Department of Defense's new Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing Innovation Institute (ATB-MII).

The Department of Defense has been interested in engineering organs, tissues and limbs for decades as a means of treating its wounded soldiers. The number of veterans in need of tissue repair and limb replacement has skyrocketed in the 21st century, due primarily to the recent and pervasive use of improvised explosive devices, coupled with dramatic improvements in body armor that save lives but not without sacrifice. Meanwhile, the need is equally as strong in the civilian world, where hundreds of thousands of Americans wait on organ transplant lists living day-by-day in fear of what the future holds.

Many wonder: "Why can't we manufacture organs TODAY?" The charge is not new, nor will it fade in the coming years. It rises from the halls of Congress. It mingles with tears in homes across our nation. It echoes down hospital hallways and lingers in operating rooms. As a DoD scientist working in the field of biofabrication and tissue engineering for over 15 years, I wake up every morning trying to answer that same question; trying to explain to my children, my colleagues, my friend whose husband is on his second and final kidney transplant--why can't we make faster and more substantive progress?

The answer, as is often the case in the world of science, is not so simple. The world is full of promising technologies. Stem cells. Bioprinters. Gels that simulate the biological and structural properties of human tissue. Sophisticated imaging and computer-aided design technologies. Why, then, do we not have manufacturing plants that churn out organs? We should be able to use these starting materials just as Henry Ford used steel, rubber, and assembly lines to create the first automobiles, right? Answers like "Biology is really complicated" and "Soft, living materials are just more difficult to build than computer chips and iPhones", don't resonate too well, especially when the need is so high.

Despite these challenges, progress is being made on all fronts. After decades of research, these technologies are maturing to the point where manufactured tissue is almost within reach. All that is needed is one big push.

Enter the Government's most recent investment, bringing at least $160 million to the table to accelerate tissue and organ development: the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing Innovation Institute, or the ATB-MII for short, sponsored by the Manufacturing Technology Program within the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The ATB-MII will pull emerging technologies into the industrial world--the world of manufacturing, automation and standardization. It will convene the best and brightest minds in the country across universities, small and large businesses, as well as local, state and federal governments, to identify, elevate, and synergize technologies. It will enable disruptive biofabrication tools, currently isolated in specialized laboratories across the country, to be inserted into manufacturing processes throughout diverse biotechnology sectors. It will enable biological starting materials and biofabrication tools to be standardized to the small- and mid-sized companies looking for a competitive edge. Ultimately, the ATB-MII will evolve into an enduring ecosystem that will accelerate the development to manufacture tissues, organs, and organ-based products.

Short-term products will emerge from the institute such as miniature tissues or organs, coined "organs-on-a-chip," that can be used to eliminate poorly performing drug candidates before they enter costly animal and human trials. These organs-on-a-chip will translate test results into the world of personalized medicine, helping speed up decision-making by clinicians looking to determine the most effective and least dangerous treatments for critically-ill patients.The industry is poised to revolutionize the way new drugs are discovered, as well as the way we engineer tissues and organs.

The ATB-MII is the path to create definable tools, products and standards that will have tangible

Dr. Ringeisen will serve as the DoD's Chief Technology Officer for the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication MII, which is currently under solicitation. He also serves as the Head of the Bioenergy and Biofabrication Section at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and ORGANIZE, a non-profit looking to end the organ donation crisis by identifying and building on opportunities for improvement through technology, advocacy, and policy. Learn more at ORGANIZE.org.

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