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How climate adaptation can improve quality of life and save costs  
This piece is co-authored by Henrik Stener Pedersen, Director, Ramboll Management Consulting

When decision makers and other delegates arrive in New York City to participate in the UN Climate Week 2016, they touchdown in a city that is struggling with the same dilemma as cities all over the world:

How do you protect your citizens from cloudbursts, sea rise and other consequences of climate change without undermining other necessary investments? How do you secure that money spent on future incidents that nobody knows when will occur, does not take too much out of today's budget to citizen's health and other indispensable items? What is the sustainable break-even here - for todays and future generations?



The answer is to do what you do in all other sound budget decisions; you inform yourself through cost-benefit analyses.

Cost-benefit is also about the benefits of life

The tricky part here is that the cost-benefit analysis is even more complicated than when you are calculating pros and cons of traditional climate adaptation, typically enlargement of the sewer system.

Take a blue-green infrastructure project, where rainwater is retained and used on the surface for water areas in parks and other places instead of overloading the sewage system. As cities like Copenhagen have discovered, cost-benefit here means not only the amount of savings in terms of avoided property damage - as the traditional grey sewage extension would. It also considers the extent to which the new green areas will improve resident's health and quality of life - plus the way this increased recreational value will influence on for example real estate prices.

Tackling several challenges at the same time

Copenhagen tries to calculate all these factors with help from Ramboll among others. When the city does climate adaptation projects, the aim is to solve more than one problem at the same time. For example not only preventing the cloudburst water from flooding houses and businesses, but reuse it so you reduce water consumption and at the same time contribute to the recreational value of the city.

Because of the added benefits, this approach is often cheaper than the traditional engineering solution, and this holistic approach has now inspired New York City.

The delegates to the Climate Week arriving in JFK Airport can catch a glimpse of the area in Queens where some of Ramboll's employees right now are conducting the first pilot project using this cost benefit-method. The area has more flooding and sewer backup complaints than any other area of the city, and certain neighborhoods are flooded repeatedly.

We have been hired because of our know-how and experience from especially Copenhagen to conduct a best practice study that determines the most cost-effective ways to reduce flooding while improving water quality; calculating both the environmental, social and economic consequences.

By combining technical and socioeconomic competences, it is possible to optimize investments in climate adaptation - so they are sustainable for the citizens of today as well as for future generations.

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Sportsmen to Candidates: Stand up for Public Lands  
In an election season marked by deep divisions, the National Wildlife Federation and 41 other sportsmen's organizations have a suggestion for finding - literally - common ground.

Organizations from across the country have sent letters to all four presidential candidates asking them to publicly commit to keeping our national public lands in public hands. The organizations represent millions of hunters, anglers, hikers, campers, paddlers and wildlife watchers. These people use our public lands and waterways to recreate, sustain family traditions and fill their freezers.

These sportsmen and wildlife advocates, who come from all social, economic and political backgrounds, are worried about being able to keep using public lands. A small but relentless group of state and federal lawmakers keep trying to auction off our public lands, turn them over to states or undermine the federal agencies that manage the lands for all U.S. citizens.

Public Lands Under Assault

During the past two years, sportsmen's and other conservation organizations have helped defeat dozens of bills in state legislatures across the West that attempted to seize control of national public lands. On the federal level, The Center for American Progress found that members of Congress filed at least 44 bills between January 2013 and March of this year to remove or undermine protections for national parks and public lands.

Whether the attempted public-land grabs are one more iteration of the so-called "Sagebrush Rebellion" that's roiled the West for years or are efforts by an elite few to profit from our great American commons, the results of the loss of public lands would be the same. Families would be locked out of fishing, hunting, hiking and camping spots they've enjoyed for generations. Fish and wildlife populations that depend on open rangeland, pristine waterways, forests and mountain sanctuaries for migration, food and shelter would be in jeopardy. The $646 billion outdoor recreation economy that supports 6.1 million direct jobs nationwide would be threatened. Local communities and businesses that benefit from spending by hunters and anglers and visitors to national parks, monuments and forests would lose a vital and sustainable source of revenue.

American Values

Even more fundamental, we as Americans would be robbed of an incredible legacy built by political leaders of both parties and farsighted conservationists. Millions of hunters and anglers rallied at the start of the last century to rebuild wildlife populations that had been depleted by commercial exploitation and disregard for wildlife habitat. They teamed up to conserve wetlands and other habitat and financed advances in fish and wildlife management through license fees and taxes on their gear. We must preserve the gains made over the last century, and to do that you need the vast habitats provided by our public lands.

The loss of our national public lands would cut through the marrow of something that connects all Americans. The lands we all share, no matter who we are or where we live, are a uniquely American tradition. They embody our democratic principles. They keep alive that spirit of exploration and discovery that underlies our optimism and our best entrepreneurial impulses.

And they are the places we go with our families and friends to build togetherness and memories. This summer, I traveled to Yellowstone National Park and the Gallatin National Forest with my 5- and 8-year-old to introduce them to some of our nation's crown jewels. After bathing in the Lamar River and watching bison and grizzly roam from our campsite, a fundamental piece of America has now been ingrained in my children's psyche as Americans. And that American right needs to be preserved for all.

Conserving our national public lands is not a partisan issue; it's an American issue. The 42 organizations calling on all the presidential campaigns to keep these lands in public hands hope candidates remember that much more binds us together than drives us apart. The National Wildlife Federation and its state affiliates are also asking other candidates of all parties across the country to join us in publicly committing to keeping our proud public-lands heritage intact.

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Whales Continue to Disappear and You May Be The Problem  
Everyone enjoys looking at cute animals. It has become increasingly popular to visit national animal attractions such as aquariums and even fun and exciting places that make it easy for you to enjoy whale watching in San Diego. Watching whales can become therapeutic in a lot of ways. Unfortunately, many Americans don't have the luxury to enjoy animals such as whales because of the extinction of most of them.

So what exactly is causing the extinction of one of America's most fascinating animals? In many cases, humans are the main cause of this extinction for several reasons:

Pollution

Chemical pollution is a real thing especially in our oceans. As oil spills and garbage pollutes the ocean it has a direct effect on whale populations. While whales suffer the most intensely due to pollution dolphins also face threats.

Overfishing

Not familiar with overfishing? You may be a part of the problem. Over fishing is when a group of people continue to fish in a certain area even though they know they are causing harm to a certain population of fish. It also impacts many animals' food supply who may often rely on certain mammals as their food sources.

Construction

While Construction can be a sign of something new or monumental for whales, it can be a sign of danger. Certain construction projects separate animals and keep them from being able to join with their families. In some cases, some construction scenes also impact food supply.

Whale Hunting

Several countries allow commercial whaling which is essentially hunting. For the most part this practice continues to decline however; there is still known whale hunting in areas that still have populations of whales that exist.

Boating

Believe it or not many whales and other fish are often struck by passing boats. The more boaters you have in the water the higher the chances are of one or many being seriously killed.

What other reasons do you think can explain the disappearance of whales

-- 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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Pit Bulls? Hero Mayor Affirms: I'm With Stupid  
In the debate over whether pit bulls should be banned, Montreal's mayor has demonstrated rare grit. It takes backbone to stand firmly against every professional organization on the continent, and to embrace heroic ignorance. I stress: Mayor Denis Coderre is not rejecting "some" expert groups. He's not sneering at "the majority." He's rejecting every single one. Every. Single. One.

Bravo, mayor. Short may you prosper.

Ah, but the mayor laughs -- Ha! Je ris! -- at specialists who have studied the matter, and who have concluded that Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) does absolutely nothing to reduce dog bites, and means the slaughter of thousands of innocent pets.

When local citizens oppose these worthless measures, they too are treated with royal contempt. I urge you to watch the video below. It's disgraceful. An animal behavior consultant, Gaby Dufresne-Cyr, stands at an open hearing to confront the mayor with the proven fact that breed bans have worked literally nowhere in the world. Coderre's democratic response (midway through the argument) is: "Coupe le micro."



If you're français-deprived, that means: "Cut the mic." And the mic is duly cut. Thank you, Mayor. You're a peach. May your silenced constituents vote you into oblivion.

Sure, but what kind of mayor listens to mere citizens? That's hardly his job. So let's revisit those expert organizations, shall we. By "experts," I don't mean pompous pseudo-scientists who hate pit bulls, but qualified professionals who rely on peer-reviewed articles written by actual scientists and published in major international journals. Perhaps you require names? Well, I've written about this recently, but to recap and expand, the legislation Mayor Coderre is forcing down the collective throat of his city has been scorned by the following (and this is by no means a complete list):

1. Ordre des médecins vétérinaires du Québec
2, Canadian Veterinary Medical Association
3. SPCA Montréal
4. Humane Society International/Canada
5. Ontario Health and Safety Board
6. Toronto Humane Society
7. Canadian Kennel Club
8. National Animal Control Association
9. National Animal Interest Alliance
10. National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors
11. International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants
12. International Association of Canine Professionals
13. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
14. Best Friends Animal Society
15. Humane Society of the United States
16. American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
17. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
18. Association of Pet Dog Trainers
19. Animal Behavior Society
20. American Kennel Club
21. American Humane
22. American Bar Association
23. American Dog Owners Association
24. American Veterinary Medical Association
25. American Working Dog Federation
26. American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior
27. The, uh, White House

Eyes glazed yet? Sorry, but sometimes ennui is instructive. Note that I'm restricting myself to a select group of North Americans here -- I'd hate to bore you even further with a more comprehensive list, but you're welcome to Google the entire civilized world.

Oh, come on: isn't there even one prominent group in Canada or the U.S. in favor of banning pit bulls? Not one? Okay, it's only fair to note that there is one. Not a professional organization, by any stretch, but famous. In the way that Kim Kardashian is famous. This would be PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA's argument isn't based upon anything remotely scientific, of course, but it's deeply felt. And that's what matters. Their caring founder goes further in the way of Breed Specific Legislation than most: she has called for every living pit bull taking refuge in a shelter to leave that safe haven in a body bag. (She's big on animals leaving shelters in body bags. It's more than just a hobby for her; you might say that it's a calling.) So, if you're the kind of person -- a sterling, Coderre-like type -- who stands firm with the vile, the confused, and the famous, you might wish to take this into account: PETA's on your side.

Don't get me wrong. I have a great vat of admiration for this mayor. A brimming trough, even. Let's face it: there's an unprincipled bias, worldwide, in favor of science. Far too many people have kneejerk respect for intelligence and rigor. It takes fortitude to lift the executive schnozz in disdain at those "science whores," and to insist that the city swallow mayor-approved medicine, even if it won't make constituents any safer, will seize and kill many of their pets, and will put a significant dent in the municipal budget. Hey, who cares about mere dollars? Or dogs? Or humans? What matters is to be stout, unwavering, righteously deaf, and benthically ignorant.

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Did a Front Group Use Pro-Dakota Access Pipeline Fake Accounts on Twitter, Led by GOP-Tied Firm?  

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog

Image Credit: Twitter

A DeSmog investigation has revealed the possibility that a front group supporting the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) — the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN) — may have created fake Twitter profiles, known by some as "sock puppets," to convey a pro-pipeline message over social media. And MAIN may be employing the PR services of the firm DCI Group, which has connections to the Republican Party, in order to do so. 

DeSmog tracked down at least 16 different questionable Twitter accounts which used the #NoDAPL hashtag employed by protesters, in order to claim that opposition to the pipeline kills jobs, that those protesting the pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's encampment use violence, and that the pipeline does not pose a risk to water sources or cross over tribal land.

On September 13, people began to suspect these accounts were fake, calling them out on Twitter, and by September 14, most of the accounts no longer existed.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is set to carry oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") from the Bakken Shale basin in North Dakota across the Dakotas, Iowa, and Illinois. Its owner, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), says it plans to talk to the Obama administration and "reiterate [its] commitment to bring the Dakota Access Pipeline into operation." It will do so despite the administration requesting that the company halt construction "voluntarily — particularly around the contested sacred tribal sites located 20 miles east and west of Lake Oahe and the Missouri River — until further notice."

In his memorandum announcing his company's plans to do so, ETP CEO Kelcy Warren espoused many of the same arguments that were deployed by the Twitter sock puppets, which calls into question whether his company helped spearhead the social media campaign behind the scenes in order to create the appearance of grassroots support, a technique known as "astroturfing."

In that memo, Warren said his company plans to engage more aggressively in the PR sphere.

"It has not been my preference to engage in a media/PR battle," wrote Warren. "However, misinformation has dominated the news, so we will work to communicate with the government and media more clearly in the days to come."

Vicki Granado, a spokesperson for the company, did not respond to a request for comment. 

In the meantime, as all stakeholders in the debate await a definitive next move from the Obama administration, protests both on-site and nationwide have continued, with a militarized police presence at the Sacred Stone Camp intensifying. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke at a September 13 Washington, DC protest against the pipeline, while U.S. Representatives Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Raul Ruiz (D-CA) that same day called for a congressional oversight investigation of the hotly contested permitting issues which have arisen in the ongoing saga over the pipeline's future. 

With that backdrop, in came the "sock puppets" for their own September 13 day of action on Twitter — and with MAIN likely pulling the strings. 

The Sock Puppets

The sock puppet profiles had names such as Ashley Lovinggood, Garnett Vreeken, Yong Fetner, and Ying Baars, and all of the profile pictures featured women. Besides tweets promoting the Dakota Access Pipeline, what links all of the bogus profiles together is that they all "follow" (similar to "liking" a page on Facebook) the company Hootsuite.

Image Credit: Twitter

Hootsuite serves as a social media platform management tool which allows an administrator for many different social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter, to toggle quickly between accounts and send out posts in the form of tweets and other status updates. One of those accounts, that of Angla Dullea, formerly followed MAIN — and like all of the other pages — also followed Hootsuite; that is, until the account became suspended.

Dullea's profile photo bore an identical resemblance to the Twitter profile for Palma Mackerl, another bare-bones Twitter account.

 

Image Credit: Twitter

Dullea also retweeted a tweet from a group called Standing Rock Fact Checker, which on its website describes itself as a project of MAIN. The website also states it is "dedicated to promoting the truth" and battling "misinformation about the approved — and nearly complete — Dakota Access project." Five other suspicious Twitter profiles also shared Fact Checker tweets.

MAIN members include the South Dakota Petroleum and Propane Marketers Association, North Dakota Petroleum Council, Petroleum Marketers, Convenience Stores of Iowa, and others.

Reverse photo searches on Google revealed that the pictures used for other sock puppet profiles also appeared on a dermatologist website, a mail order bride website, and a hairstyle website featuring a photo of Eva Longoria, as well as images of Chinese model Crystal Wang Xi Ran, singer Keri Hilson, and the late singer Amy Winehouse.

Eva Longoria doppelgänger; Photo Credit: Twitter | Oliver Keyes

The use of political bots and sock puppets is nothing new and in fact, has become normalized by political factions worldwide, explained Norah Abokhodair of the Political Bots research program based at the University of Washington and Oxford University. 

"There are many ways in which social bots can disrupt or influence online discourse, such as, spamming, phishing, distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), or other nefarious activities," Abokhodair explained, pointing to examples such as the Syrian Civil War bots and bots used in Turkey. "They can also be deployed for sophisticated activities like astroturfing, misdirection (botnet that tries to get the audience to attend to other content by spamming the hashtag) and smoke screening (serves to hide or provide cover for or obscure some type of activity)."

MAIN and DCI Group

MAIN was the only industry group to issue a press release in response to the Obama administration's September 9 announcement halting construction on a portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Its press release contained a statement attributed to spokesperson Craig Stevens. Stevens also recently did an interview with KVLY-TV, the NBC and CBS affiliate for Fargo, North Dakota. When on TV, however, he was billed as the "spokesperson for a pipeline sort of group, if you will" by segment host Chris Berg.

Despite the lack of disclosure by KVLY and Berg, it turns out that Craig Stevens actually works as Media Affairs and Crisis Management Lead for DCI Group. His DCI Group contact information is listed for MAIN's profile page on the website PR Newswire.

Image Credit: PR Newswire

DCI is a PR firm tied to the GOP and with roots in creating front groups on behalf of Big Tobacco, spearheading the modern Tea Party movement, and representing oppressive dictatorial regimes such as that of Burma and oil- and gas-soaked Azerbaijan. Stevens formerly worked for the George W. Bush presidential campaign, served as spokesperson for U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman for the George W. Bush Administration, and also worked on Mitt Romney's 2012 Republican Party presidential campaign.

Jim Murphy, the political director for Donald Trump's Republican Party presidential campaign, formerly served as President and Managing Partner for DCI Group. Beyond the DCI Group connection, Continental Resources — whose founder and CEO Harold Hamm is one of Donald Trump's top energy advisers and a potential candidate for U.S. Secretary of Energy under a Trump presidency — said in a recent investor statement that a significant chunk of the company's Bakken oil will flow through Dakota Access. 

Before DCI Group began working on Standing Rock-related projects for MAIN, it appears the PR firm LS2Group maintained the PR account for Dakota Access. A MAIN press release from November 2015 lists LS2's Kayla Day as the contact person and her LS2 work number is also listed, while metadata for the press release's PDF shows the document was last saved by former LS2 staffer Alex Shaner.

DCI's Role

As DeSmog has previously revealed, LS2 also did PR work in support of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline. The group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement published emails from 2014 (obtained via a public records request) showing LS2 also doing advocacy work in support of Dakota Access.

LS2's Day told DeSmog that LS2 still does some work on behalf of MAIN, but declined to comment further on how the work is divvied up between LS2 and DCI Group. Stevens was first listed as a spokesperson for MAIN in a September 6 press release, two days after the now-infamous dog biting incident took place at the protesting Standing Rock Siuox Tribe's Sacred Stone Camp. The Standing Rock Fact Checker website was registered the day before, and it also sent out its first tweet that same day.

Image Credit: WhoIs.net

Stevens declined to comment on who funds MAIN, referring to the membership list and confirming he was brought on in the past couple weeks to do PR work on behalf of the coalition, "as the whole public discussion has increased and been elevated" surrounding the pipeline. He also confirmed he runs the Fact Checker portal.

Asked about whether his firm or MAIN had anything to do with the sock-puppet tweets, Stevens denied he or MAIN had any involvement. 

"It's frustrating to me because we're working to be respectful in tone and fact-based and any tactics like these are a distraction for what we're trying to do and that's to bring facts and contexts to this discussion," Stevens said. "I don't know about the tactics themselves and I don't know who or what is behind it, but as someone who's trying to get facts out and trying to be respectful in tone, it was incredibly frustrating that this was going on. As far as I know, and think I know, the MAIN Coalition had nothing to do with them."

However, noted environmental advocate and co-founder of climate group 350.org, Bill McKibben, doubts the authenticity of such claims from PR firms with a record like DCI, saying: 

"There's a word for this kind of thing, and that word is: lying. The invention of fake people to make fake arguments perfectly exemplifies the tactics Big Oil has been reduced to. They can't win an argument on the merits, so they've given up trying. Instead, they literally make things up. The contrast with the steadfast straightforwardness of the tribes, and of the climate scientists, couldn't be more stark."

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For 20 million years, the diversity of large terrestrial mammals depended on plant growth  
For more than 20 million years, the ups and downs of diversity in terrestrial large mammals were determined by primary production, i.e. net production of plant biomass. This pattern changed with the onset of the ice ages. The reason for this is likely the beginning of human impact on nature, according to a new research. Based on 14,000 fossils, the scientists reconstructed the diversity of terrestrial large mammals and compared it with data on the biomass production of plants during the same time period.  
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'Green News Report' - September 15, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...





IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New analysis finds Dakota Access pipeline fails Obama's climate test; U.S. House Science Committee chair investigating states who are investigating Exxon Mobil; Lead paint manufacturers got legal immunity in Wisconsin after big campaign donations; PLUS: Louisiana floods now the third costliest disaster in U.S. history... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
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Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Wind, solar and electric cars are booming. Too bad that's not enough to stop climate change; Wind, solar and electric cars are booming. Too bad that's not enough to stop climate change; Bayer and Monsanto to merge in mega-deal that could reshape world's food supply; Reducing runoff pollution by making spray droplets less bouncy; What the sixth extinction will look like in the oceans; Obama designates the first-ever marine monument off the East Coast, in New England; New Research Documents That Sugar Industry's Playbook Goes Way Back... PLUS: Reducing runoff pollution by making spray droplets less bouncy... and much, MUCH more! ...

'Green News Report' is heard on many fine radio stations around the country. For additional info on stories we covered today, plus today's 'Green News Extra', please click right here to listen!

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Native bird on native plant.  

sandranne2 posted a photo:

California Gnatcatcher on Buckwheat at UCI Eco Preserve this morning.

 
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Zero Waste Cities: At The Forefront Of The Sustainable Development Goals Agenda  
A call to rethink our relationship with the stuff that we use and discard is fundamental to the sustainability agenda.


Making "cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable" will prove to be one of the most critically important SDGs of this century. In particular, SDG 11.6 commits us all "by 2030, [to] reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality, municipal and other waste management".

In the context of an unprecedentedly rapid pace of urban population growth - not only does most of the global population now live in cities, it is foreseen that by 2050, 70% of the population will live in the urban context, effective management of municipal solid waste poses one of the biggest challenges.

Badly managed municipal solid waste contributes to resource depletion, economic lock-in, air pollution, and public health impacts such as diarrhoea, asthma, dengue fever, and other serious health effects such as cancer. Moreover, cities account for 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions if a consumption-based method is used (that is, accounting for all goods consumed by residents, irrespective from their origin), so a call to rethink our relationship with the stuff that we use and discard is, clearly, fundamental to the sustainability agenda.

Facing up to the waste challenge can hold the key to the transformation of our relationship with resources and provide practical, bottom-up and decentralised strategies for reducing climate pollution, conserving energy and natural resources, and present enormous opportunities for the development of local economies.

Fortunately, the transition towards a more resource-efficient society has already begun: Zero Waste strategies currently implemented around the world by visionary local leaders, recyclers cooperatives, and innovative practitioners, provide some of the necessary building blocks for a 'sustainable city'.

In Europe, the Zero Waste Municipalities network has grown rapidly and it now counts on more than 350 members and municipalities in more than 7 EU countries. The keys for success have proven to be a combination of strong political will, community leadership and engagement, and a locally-adapted strategy.






Zero waste is both a goal and a plan of action. The goal is to ensure resource recovery and protect scarce natural resources by progressively minimising and ultimately ending waste disposal in incinerators, cement plants, dumps, and landfills. Experience shows that these costly end-of-pipe options do not address the underlying problems with the throw-away society, lead to the destruction of resources, and create issues regarding the disposal of the considerable and often highly toxic ash that remains, air pollution, and the destruction of livelihoods in local recycling economies.

The plan encompasses people-led programs for waste reduction, reuse and repair programs, composting, recycling, changes in consumption habits, redesign and toxic-free production. Being rooted in community participation, zero waste policies are both far-sighted and inclusive, they pave the way toward sustainable waste management systems that work for both communities and the environment. Ultimately, zero waste is a revolution in the relationship between waste and people, a new way of thinking that aims to safeguard the health and improve the lives of everyone who produces, handles, works with, or is affected by waste--in other words, all of us.





Cities engaging in raising their mark on sustainability can look at the innovative experiences around the world that today are already making real progress towards compliance with the SDGs for urban sustainability:

• A door-to-door collection service operated by a cooperative of almost 2,000 grassroots recyclers in Pune, India, has been integrated into the city's waste management system and diverts enough waste to avoid 640,000 tons of GHG emissions annually.
• 
  
  
• A zero waste movement in the Basque country province of Gipuzkoa led to the adoption of a door-to-door waste collection service in more than 30 small cities that have reduced their amount of waste going to landfills by 80 percent.
• 
  
  
• In Italy, the Contarina district in Treviso has not only managed to reach more than 85 percent diversion in its cities but it has actually achieved the most impressive residual waste reduction rates in Europe, down to 56Kg/pp/year, which is more than 4 times lower than the German average. Moreover, they aim at going below 10Kg/pp/year by 2022. Italy now has 232 cities working toward Zero Waste, totalling more than 4.8 million inhabitants.
• 
  
  
• In 2015 Ljubljana, Slovenia, became the first 'Zero Waste Capital' in Europe implementing a wide range of zero waste practices into the fabric of the city. Also in Slovenia, 5 other municipalities, among which the very touristic town of Bled have taken the path toward Zero Waste, with now 1 in 5 inhabitants of the country living in a Zero Waste city.
• 
  
  
• Through incentives and extensive public outreach, San Francisco has reduced its waste to landfill by more than 80 percent--the highest diversion rate in the United States and one of the best well-known cases.

These experiences show that solving the waste problem in line with the creation of sustainable cities requires more than technical fixes: it is part of a larger web of decisions about health, equity, power, poverty, and development, including policy decisions and governance.

At its heart, how cities deal with the stuff its residents make, use and discard, will determine the effectiveness of strategies for climate mitigation, clean air, clean water, clean energy, healthy food, healthy people, healthy wildlife, and the availability of resources for future generations.

These are the kind of commitments that we need to be making for a truly sustainable city to be achieved. That is, zero waste strategies are essential if we are serious about the creation and development of sustainable cities.


This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or, officially, "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development"). The SDGs represent an historic agreement -- a wide-ranging roadmap to sustainability covering 17 goals and 169 targets -- but stakeholders must also be held accountable for their commitments. To see all the posts in the series, visit here.

-- 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' - September 15, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New analysis finds Dakota Access pipeline fails Obama's climate test; U.S...

Read more: Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Global Warming Deniers, Green, Green News, Green News Report, Infrastructure, Interior Department, Public Lands, Renewable Energy, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Video, Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Lead Poisoning, Campaign Finance, Dark Money, Lamar Smith, Republicans, House Science Committee, Exxon Mobil, Louisiana, Floods, Natural Disasters, Congress, Fema, Noaa, Green News

 
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Who Are Tomorrow's Leaders in Ocean Conservation?  
By Julia Luthringer, Conservation Innovation Fellow at Conservation X Labs


Photo: Alex Dehgan

On World Oceans Day 2014, Nancy Knowlton and Elin Kelsey launched #OceanOptimism, a hashtag used by researchers and practitioners to share marine conservation successes globally. 60 million tweets later, there's a lot to be hopeful about. I spent the past few weeks "catching" hope at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii. President Obama drastically expanded the Papahānaumokuākea National Monument to 582,578 square miles to serve as a sanctuary for endangered and imperiled marine species. The Russian Arctic National Park now protects Franz Josef Land, a group of 190 extremely biodiverse, northern islands. The pacific reef Coral Castles, once thought dead, is showing signs of new and revived life even despite 2016's record-breaking heat. The UK government plans to ban microbeads in all products by 2017 to stop the plastics from entering the oceans and potentially entering the marine foodweb.

While these solutions pinpoint awe-inspiring success, they are usually local in scope. Where are today's global-scale, transformative ocean solutions?

"Our Problems are exponential, but our solutions have been linear. We need to increase the speed, scale, efficacy, and sustainability of our conservation interventions," explains Alex Dehgan, the co-founder and CEO of the DC-based tech startup Conservation X Labs. "Conservation science must continue its shift from being a descriptive, discovery-based science to a transdisciplinary field that seeks to also engineer solutions. While conservation science can help define the problems, it alone does not possess the solutions. However, powerful new tools for conservation exist and offer hope." Dehgan previously worked as the chief scientist for USAID, where he created the Global Development Lab, a space for social-based innovators and entrepreneurs to create and scale solutions in public health. Realizing a need for similar, transformative solutions in conservation, Dehgan, along with Paul Bunje of Xprize, created Conservation X Labs.

The organization aims to create and utilize technologies to transform the field of conservation in a number of ways, focusing on "revolutionary solutions rather than evolutionary ones." Conservation X Labs is building their own technologies, like the world's first DNA Barcode Scanner, a tool that can be used to slow illegal wildlife and timber trafficking and trade.

Australia's innovationXchange within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is funding an AU$3 million global challenge, The Blue Economy Challenge, to source new solutions and engage new solvers to rethink the future of aquaculture to improve both food security and enhance sustainability. Conservation X Labs partnered with the innovationXchange as well as SecondMuse and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to implement the challenge, as it is a great opportunity to source transformative solutions for ocean conservation. The Blue Economy Challenge seeks innovative solutions that will reduce the burden on the environment and improve food security in developing countries of the Indian Ocean for three issues in aquaculture: highly nutritional fish-free aquaculture feed replacements; new ocean products; and, new technology and practices for aquaculture farmers to improve the efficiency and environmental and economic sustainability of aquaculture farms. The winners of the Challenge will be announced at Our Ocean, and the top 20 innovators are featured in this blog post, From Sea Cucumbers to Spirulina: Meet the 20 Finalists.

This fall, Conservation X Labs and WWF will launch Ocean X Labs: an accelerator that will bring transformative, ocean-based conservation innovations to scale. Oceans X Labs will provide entrepreneurs, innovators, problem-solvers, and scientists access to lessons in business and finance, guidance and mentorship from industry leaders, and time and resources to continue building and prototyping their products. The program is also building a web platform to be used as a virtual co-working space, so that people from many disciplines and backgrounds can collaborate to solve the wicked problems our oceans face today.

Enter our ocean heroines and heroes: ordinary people with big ideas for conservation.

Small, start-up companies have already begun to pepper the market. A number of them submitted their ideas in The Blue Economy Challenge. New Wave Foods has created shrimp-free, kosher, and vegan shrimp that is made from algae in an effort to stop mangrove forest degradation associated with shrimp farming. Coral Vita farms corals to rebuild reefs that are resilient and hearty for both ecotourism and habitat restoration. MicroSynbiotiX is growing algae for fish feeds containing vaccinations for common diseases in aquaculture to reduce fish mortality.

#OceanOptimism lies with these unique thinkers and dreamers who have the capacity to revolutionize ocean conservation by drawing on their own, diverse experiences and knowledge. It's an exciting time for conservation--there is great potential for creative, positive and transformational change.


Julia Luthringer is a Conservation Innovation Fellow at Conservation X Labs and a 2017 NOAA Knauss Finalist. She's a recent and proud graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she studied marine policy and sustainable fisheries management.


This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Secretary of State John Kerry's Our Oceanconference and Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the Our Ocean Conference (September 15th, 16th) as part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here. The State Department does not endorse the content of this blog. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #OurOcean #MakeASplash. 

-- 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 Digital Tracking of Rogue Fishing Can Safeguard Vast Ocean Reserves  
It's one thing to expand marine reserves and another to protect them. Now an online tool for tracking global fishing fleets is on the case.  
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Uniting Against Organized Wildlife Crime  

Law enforcement agencies, NGOs, and business leaders gathered from across the world in Washington this week to share information and expertise and organize a concerted strategy to combat the global scourge of wildlife trafficking.

The unprecedented collaboration was heralded at the National Geographic Society's headquarters on Tuesday, at an event held against the backdrop of recent news of a catastrophic plunge in the last wild populations of African elephants and other species. The meeting also set the stage for CITES CoP17, a world wildlife conference in Johannesburg at the end of this month that will bring more than a hundred governments together to review the planet's biggest wildlife challenges and opportunities.

Stories From the Front Line: Exploring Global Law Enforcement in the New Age of Wildlife Trafficking —  the title of the event hosted by the National Geographic Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) was attended also by officials and conservation experts from 11 African nations on the frontline of poaching of elephants, rhinos, and other iconic species.

The National Geographic/FWS event coincided with the publication of the October 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine, which features a report on the rhino horn trade and rhino farming in South Africa, written by Bryan Christy, the Society's wildlife crimes investigator.

Human-Wildlife Conflict Likely to Grow

The human population is expected to grow to nine billion people by 2050, one billion more in Africa alone in the next 35 years, said National Geographic Society President and CEO Gary E. Knell, at the opening of the event. “The chances of human-wildlife conflict are going to grow, whether we like it or not. We've got to come up with solutions, whether they're in Yellowstone National Park ecosystems, or whether it's in Gorongosa [National Park in Mozambique], or in Kenya or Cameroon. We have to find ways to find a balance and figure out ways to protect the natural habitats of wildlife, and at the same time protect the human needs for survival, food, housing, education, energy, and for all the things which we deserve in human rights.”

Bryan Christy's work on wildlife crime has been cited as one of ten ways National Geographic is changing the world, Knell said. Christy, head of the Society's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) team and 2014 NG Explorer of the Year, is an award-winning journalist and a true champion for wildlife and wild places, he added. “With dedication, courage and conviction [Christy] has already produced astounding results, exposing the criminals of wildlife trafficking and sharing these stories in print, television, digital media, Facebook. That's how we can make his work amplified. That work has put elephants and the illegal trade in elephants on the priority list of many countries, including our own, and has led to numerous Internet petitions and campaigns to stop the illegal ivory trade.”

Enforcement Is Key — But not Enough

David J. Hayes, Chair of the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance and Vice Chair of the President's Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking, said enforcement was key, both domestically in the U.S. and in Africa. “It is so fantastic that the FWS is training you all together to have an effective force,” he told the dozens of wildlife protection and law enforcement officers at the event. “But enforcement is not enough; we have to reduce the demand. As long as there are tremendous dollars chasing illegal products, it's going to be impossible for you guys to completely win,” he said.

Hayes said there was a need to develop international cooperation and public-private partnerships. “The government can't reduce demand by itself. We need all of civil society to come together. We need all of the big nonprofits in this space to not compete against each other, but to work together. And we need to recruit the corporate sector. We need new voices in this debate. We need companies that are being abused by traffickers, to step up, make sure that their supply chains are not being polluted by trafficked goods, and use their communications channels to deliver a broad message to consumers [to] ‘Watch out, don't buy this stuff. You may be the unwitting purchaser of it.'”

Hayes said the Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking went first to National Geographic to form a broad organization, “and with National Geographic, the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the African Wildlife Foundation…we brought them under the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance banner. Then we went to the corporate world and said, we need your help…we're a nongovernmental temporary coalition bringing together the nonprofit community with the corporate community. We looked at leading companies in important sectors that traffickers were using. The e-commerce sector for example.”

Secret Sauce

The broad coalition of companies and NGOs under one umbrella speaks with one voice to help American consumers make better decisions, Hayes said.

But there's a secret sauce in this, he added. “You might say, why are you spending so much time in the U.S. consumer world when we know that the largest demand is coming from Southeast Asia. If we get global big name companies like Google, E-bay, Ralph Lauren, and others taking up this cause, communicating with their customers about the importance of this issue, that's going to affect international commerce, too. We're already seeing it happening. If we can get it done in the U.S., we think it will take fire globally as well.”

“All of society needs to help you do your job,” Hayes told the law enforcement gathering. “And with National Geographic's voice, with the impetus of companies and NGOs working together, we can address this issue and we must.”

Engagement Key to Success

“National Geographic's work gives us inspiration and helps us see what's possible in a world of challenge that often seems impossible,” Daniel M. Ashe, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told the meeting. “If we are going to solve this crisis, this epidemic of wildlife trafficking, engaging people is the key ingredient in success.”

Photo Ark: A Reminder of What's at Stake

“Things like [the National Geographic project] Photo Ark with its 6,000 images, all of them a reminder of what's at stake,” was an example of engagement, Ashe said. “Iconic creatures like African elephant and black rhino and Sumatran tiger, but also the thousands of less charismatic creatures that form the foundation and the sinews that connect this global ecosystem on which we depend. The decline of all of these species, the great and small, the loved and obscure, is an ominous sign for the health of the planet and the billions of people that it sustains — and there will more people in the future, which reminds us that we need to do more and better.”

As we think about the future of prosecuting this effort, we can't just catch the poachers and the middlemen, Hayes added. “We have to go after the people who are making the money, so that we take wildlife trafficking from a high-profit, low-risk endeavor toward a lower profit, higher risk endeavor.”

Operation Crash

The success of Operation Crash [an ongoing nationwide criminal investigation led by the FWS Office of Law Enforcement, focusing on the illegal trade in rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory in response to international poaching and smuggling syndicates] was a key reason why the FWS was working to position senior agents around the globe to facilitate these efforts, Ashe said. The agency had recently selected a special agent to serve in Libreville, Gabon, joining five other attaches stationed in embassies in China, Thailand, Tanzania, Botswana, and Peru. “Hopefully before the end of the year, we will have attaches placed in three more key embassies around the world, because we've seen the tremendous value that these agents provide in improving our collaboration and information-sharing. They are dramatically expanding the reach and effectiveness of our law enforcement efforts and communication among law enforcement agencies across the globe,” Ashe said.

Long Time Coming

Introducing a panel discussion, Bryan Christy noted that the gathering of an international group of law enforcement officials had been a long time coming.

“Wildlife crime is organized crime…something that funds terrorist organizations operating in central Africa. It is violent…militarized…mechanized. And one of the advantages that it has is that law enforcement is not violent most of the time, not as well-funded, and, from the international perspective, not historically organized.

“You as law enforcement officers have restrictions that criminals don't; you have diplomatic restrictions on the ability cross borders, you have funding limitations, and you are outfitted with outdated technology occasionally. Criminals are not. Organized criminals are not, especially. So what's exciting to me about tonight is that this represents organized crime fighters.”

Christy noted that he had created the National Geographic Special Investigations Unit with specific goals: “To allow me to work on long investigations, give voice to the work that you do, have a platform for law-enforcement, and to profile endangered species and species we don't hear enough about — and then to empower communities on the ground, talk to journalists in developing countries where wildlife exists, and to law enforcement in those places.”

Following the Story No One Else Can Tell

“I tell law enforcement, if you share your story with me I will follow it,” Christy said. “I know you can't follow it…because of funding and so on. We have had great success doing that. And the success comes from sharing that story, sharing the work that you're doing, the work being done in other countries, pulling that together. And the impact can be pretty impressive.”

Panel Discussion

Five panelists joining Christy on the podium were Curtis Brown (Director of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission), Julius Kamwendwit Cheptei (Assistant Director, Kenya Wildlife Service Parks and Preserves), Mike Cenci (Deputy Chief, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Program), Christopher Fominyam Njoh Tangi (Director, Kimbi-Fungom National Park, Cameroon), and Timothy J. Santel (Resident Agent in Charge, Special Investigations Unit, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service-Office of Law Enforcement).

 

Highlights of the Discussion

Curtis Brown: “It takes a lot of work, money and patience to allow for conservation work to happen, especially undercover work. It takes a long time for these cases to actually develop. And it costs a lot of money. So we appreciate everyone's support in that endeavor.

At a national association of conservation law enforcement chiefs meeting we will be trying to collaborate better, share information better, have better intelligence. We are going to get together and do a better job of sharing trafficking intelligence and work better together as investigators. Talking across borders is critical. Any time you share data it's always hard, but if you sit down and share information in conversation, that is valuable information.

Julius Kamwendwit Cheptei: Kenya is divided into eight conservation areas. One of those is the area I am responsible for, in the southern part of the country, 31,000 square kilometers, the equivalent of Israel. I have about 600 foot soldiers charged with the responsibility to ensure the survival of elephants, rhinos, and all other species. A big challenge is conflict between wildlife and community, but our primary responsibility is to ensure that wildlife survives.

Mike Cenci: We have 130 very dedicated Fish and Wildlife police officers and a small cadre of detectives that focus on trafficking and crimes related to natural resources. Some of you may be wondering what does this state agency have to do with the trafficking of species, particularly at the international level. Well, as a state, we've experienced our own natural resources being trafficked on a global scale. We're often the source…there's a lot of diversity in the Pacific Northwest…and our resources that are in relative abundance are highly valued worldwide, so we understand what some of these other nations are facing. If we are going to be concerned about our challenges, we have to show a lot of concern for their challenges. We know that wildlife trafficking is global and it requires a global response, and that requires that it be coordinated worldwide.

Chrstopher Fominyam Njoh Tangi: Responsible for the latest national park created in Cameroon (2015). We have a problem of bush meat, and our greatest problem is cross-border poaching from Nigeria. We also have a problem with the small trophy that comes out of our park, the buffalo horn, which is used as a drinking cup in our tradition. One of our greatest ways of handling wildlife crime is working with our local people. We have a lot of wildlife, but we need to do research to know what we have in the park. The park is enclaved, with no roads, so we have to work with the local people.

The wildlife criminals from Nigeria use the local people as their accomplices to get to what they want. We educate the local people to not be accomplices. In our culture, local people may take a little bush meat for their cultural use, but they may not sell it. But they always abuse this, so we have to discipline them. We have to work with them, get their support to track and find Nigerian trans-boundary poachers.

We don't have the technology, manpower, money, but we work with the local population. But what we hear from them is, “What is the alternative, if we don't work with these people who are paying us to show them where to get these animals, what are we going to do?” The challenge is to find partners who can come into these communities and help with alternative livelihoods, so they can have a better life and turn away from these poachers.

We must look at habitat to improve it. If the animals have a place to hide, they will outsmart the poachers by using the camouflage of the forest. Where we have deforested, the animals are exposed and can be shot from a long distance away. The restored forest is not friendly to poachers; more friendly to animals that can hide there. That's the planned aspect of our work…give animals places to hide and better security.

Tim Santel: We kicked off Operation Crash in 2011 with a team of special agents. I can say five years later, I  am very proud of the results that our team put together. [Operation Crash is the centerpiece of Bryan Christy's rhino story in the October 2016 issue of National Geographic.] It is an extraordinary case that shows at multiple level the challenges for law enforcement and the impact of the U.S. Government.

John Webb, Member of the Federal Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking, and U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor (retired): We need well trained, well prepared investigators, and to be effective across borders requires those same investigators to cooperate among themselves. Two other important players in effective interdiction and enforcement: prosecutors and judges. How do we get that group of dedicated prosecutors that will take our effective investigations and turn them into successful prosecutions? How do we ensure that we have judges that take our cases seriously and are not corrupt? We have a trilogy of players, all of who must be on the same page for us to have effective wildlife crime fighting.

 
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VIDEO: Eastside Sol Celebrates Community, Culture, and Clean Energy in Los Angeles  

EAST SIDE SOL 2016 from Youth Speak Media Solutions on Vimeo.

By: Luis Gutierrez, Senior Associate, Leadership for Urban Renewal Network (LURN) and Jorge Madrid, CA Campaign Director, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)

It's a warm, sunny day in August at the iconic Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, California. More than 400 local residents have come together to dance to the classic tunes of Selenamos and the cumbia-rock fusion of El Conjunto Nueva Ola - the entire stage powered by solar. They're enjoying delicious vegan treats, participating in a live mural art project, and screen printing their own reusable tote bags. Many are collecting free shade trees to plant at home, learning about bicycle safety and receiving free helmets, and discovering information about a new vehicle trade-in program that allows Californians to swap out their older vehicles for a new or used electric car. So what exactly is this celebration of music, art, culture, and clean energy? It's Eastside Sol.

Event organizers Jorge Madrid and Luis Gutierrez reflect on the origins of Eastside Sol, its driving principles, and what's in store for the future.

How did the idea for Eastside Sol come about?

Jorge: I started working in clean energy policy during the peak of the economic recession, around 2008. Many advocates, myself included, believed clean energy could combat climate change, reduce local air pollution, and alleviate some of the economic malaise that hit low-income communities of color first and worst. Problem was, very few of these new clean energy technologies and programs were showing up in neighborhoods like the one I grew up in, on the Eastside of Los Angeles. This needed to change. I knew I wanted to do something to celebrate the culture and community where I grew up and introduce new technologies and programs that could help folks save money, access jobs and resources, and breathe cleaner air. But I had no idea how to pull it off until I met the folks at REPOWER LA and LURN.

Luis: LURN was working on several projects related to land use and local economic development, including a citywide effort to legalize street vending, a project to reimagine vacant lots throughout South Los Angeles, a healthy foods purchasing-cooperative for small businesses, and a campaign to utilize art in combatting gentrification and displacement in Boyle Heights. When Jorge approached us with this wild idea, we thought it fit perfectly with our style of projects.

How has this event evolved since the first Eastside Sol last year?

Jorge: The first Eastside Sol focused on solar access and equity issues. It was a great success, only because of the amazing community partners and residents who came to support. This year, we wanted to expand the scope of the event and provide residents with more, because we know there are complex challenges facing our neighborhood. Intersectional challenges need intersectional solutions.

Boyle Heights ranks among the top 5 percent most environmentally burdened neighborhoods in the state. Simultaneously, the community is dealing with a lead contamination disaster and major pollution from freeways and heavy industry. The neighborhood is 70 percent renters and the median income is $33,000. Boyle Heights is also on the front lines of gentrification and displacement, a growing concern in Los Angeles and many major U.S. cities.

We believe clean energy, like solar power and electric vehicles, can help families in Boyle Heights and similar neighborhoods. It can create local, well-paying jobs, lower energy bills, reduce pollution impacts and health costs like asthma, and create more affordable mobility options. California, and cities like Los Angeles, are rolling out programs that can help residents access these technologies and make them more affordable.

Clean energy is not a silver bullet to address all the challenges facing the Eastside, but we are confident it can be part of the solution.

What have you learned from Eastside Sol about community building?

Luis: To pull off the delicate balance between entertainment, information, and engagement, we discovered five values while planning our 2015 event and refined them this year:

• Fun - If people aren't having a good time, they're not going to grab onto the ideas we're sharing and they're certainly not going to share their opinions and advice. So, to get people to see the entire event, we turned it into a game of "loteria." Visiting different stations allowed you to collect stamps on a card. Once attendees reached a certain number, they traded in their cards for a food ticket. The awesome music during the event helped keep people happy and moving!
• Culture - We worked closely with community organizations and members to ensure the event was an extension of local culture and values. Everything - from the food to the messaging and music - was planned and coordinated collectively. We wanted folks in the neighborhood to feel like it was their space.
• Local leadership - This event was a success because we worked closely with community leaders and organizations. We asked for their help in leading the planning and identifying the themes for the event.
• Tradition and history - We started Eastside Sol knowing the community was already doing a lot for the environment - re-using plastic containers, repurposing water for gardens, etc. Knowing this, we sought to introduce residents to services and resources that would help augment those existing practices.
• Accountability - Large agencies, such as LA Metro and utility companies, were critical in the development and execution of Eastside Sol. However, very early in the process we opened consistent and clear lines of communication to ensure their participation served community needs and the spirit of Eastside Sol. We also knew we had to hold ourselves accountable to community needs and concerns.


What's next for Eastside Sol?

Luis: We want to return to Mariachi Plaza next year and produce an even bigger event with more resources for the community. Additionally, we may replicate our model in other neighborhoods and cities throughout Los Angeles and California. We want to work with as many impacted communities as possible to ensure they are at the table where important environmental, transportation, and land-use decisions happen. This, to us, is one of the best ways of engaging underrepresented communities - through fun, art and culture, and collaborative community spaces.

-- 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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Oceana unveils Global Fishing Watch  

At Oceana, we fight for national policies in key countries around the world. We win key victories for the oceans that stop overfishing, reduce bycatch, limit pollution, preserve habitat and protect wildlife. But responsible policies like those we advocate for depend upon effective monitoring and enforcement to be successful. Today, at the 2016 Our Ocean Conference, Oceana helped unveil a powerful new tool that will make these prerequisites easier to achieve: Global Fishing Watch.

Global Fishing Watch is the result of a partnership between Oceana, SkyTruth and Google. It is the first-ever technology platform that enables anyone with an internet connection to see global fishing activity and track commercial fishing vessels in near real-time - for free.

With Global Fishing Watch, users can visualize the global fishing fleet in space and time to reveal the intensity of fishing activity around the world. Users can track and measure both near real-time and historical commercial fishing activity using the Global Fishing Watch heat map. They can also view individual vessel tracks, exclusive economic zones, marine protected areas and other features.

Hundreds of millions of people depend on the ocean for their livelihoods and approximately 3 billion rely on it as a primary food source. However, the world's oceans are threatened by global overfishing, illegal fishing and habitat destruction. These threats could undermine the many benefits the oceans provide us with. Governments face a challenge in managing oceans sustainably. Sharing information more transparently on how our oceans are being used is essential to keeping our oceans healthy and bringing back abundance.

Global Fishing Watch can drive science and innovation, and improve decision-making about the effective management of the world's fisheries and oceans. It will harness the power of citizen engagement to help rebuild and maintain abundant oceans and provide a powerful tool to show consumers where and by whom their fish are being caught.

Together, the uses of Global Fishing Watch will promote healthier oceans and more effective policymaking around the world.

This exciting new tool is live and available now. Try it out for yourself at www.globalfishingwatch.org.

-- 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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Jorge Madrid: VIDEO: Eastside Sol Celebrates Community, Culture, and Clean Energy in Los Angeles  
EAST SIDE SOL 2016 from Youth Speak Media Solutions on Vimeo.

By: Luis Gutierrez, Senior Associate, Leadership for Urban Renewal Network (LURN) and ...

Read more: Los Angeles, Environment, Solar Power, Green Living, Art, Music, Kids, Community, Latinos, Boyle Heights, Green News

 
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Andrew Sharpless: Oceana unveils Global Fishing Watch  
At Oceana, we fight for national policies in key countries around the world. We win key victories for the oceans that stop overfishing, reduce bycatch...

Read more: Global Fishing Watch, Oceans, Fishing, Overfishing, Conservation, Environment, Green News

 
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Blue Whale And Salmon Farm In Southern Chile  
With its wealth of temperate rain forest, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, Southern Chile is a global conservation priority place that stands out for its high levels of endemism and marine biodiversity. Chile has one of the world's longest coastlines, stretching close to 4,300 km along the Pacific Ocean, and close to 80,000 km of shoreline around channels, fjords and coastal islands. It is home to unique species, including the endangered blue whale. However, a range of pressures on natural marine resources, including unsustainable exploitation, habitat degradation and other human induced impacts continue to be considerable threats to the marine biodiversity along the Pacific coast of southern Chile.



The blue whale is the world´s largest animal on the planet and moves around Northern Chilean Patagonia during their feeding season in Austral waters, every summer. This area is also heavily used for salmon aquaculture, and this sharing of habitat is the crux of the problem. In order to contribute to the long-term protection of this important marine species, WWF Chile's Marine Program launched a campaign to create a positive change in the salmon industry, to work with producers and aid the industry in improving their approach to environmental and social issues.

During the last Our Ocean Conference celebrated in Chile, a partnership was developed among the Environmental Ministry, Consejo Nacional de Producción Limpia, WWF Chile, Blue Whale Center (BWC), Universidad Austral de Chile, Los Fiordos, Aquachile, Blumar, Pesquera Camanchaca, Ventisquero and Multiexport commited to evaluate and mitigate the potential impact of the salmon industry on the blue whale habitat. Since then, a number of activities have been taking place according to the time table developed. These activities included one day navigation for blue whale sighting and tagging procedures observations in charge of the BWC experts and cetaceans sighting training courses. The identification of salmon farm installation that would be involved in the impact evaluation, allowed the development of whales and dolphin sighting training courses for all salmon farm workers. With the aim of making them part of a cetacean sighting network. During a blue whale tagging expedition, 3 animals were tagged in Chiloé inner waters. As result of this, it has been possible to see the whales mainly moving up north area in the Gulf of Ancud. Area highly used with salmon farm installations.

Saving this iconic species is essential as it will be used as umbrella, flagship, and environmental species for promoting general conservation and management actions for the entire marine biodiversity. This specific partnership is part of a holistic approach for marine conservation, which includes effective implementation of Marine Protected Areas, science and stakeholder involvement, keeping at the same time sustainable development options open for local inhabitants, and the implementation of better practices from the private productive sector, such as aquaculture.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Secretary of State John Kerry's Our Oceanconference and Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the Our Ocean Conference (September 15th, 16th) as part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here. The State Department does not endorse the content of this blog. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #OurOcean #MakeASplash.

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Women Living With Green Hearts  

I had the privilege of attending the first Women in Green Forum in 2010. This conference is the brainchild of Jamie Nack, the President of Three Squares, Inc, a consulting firm specializing in developing sustainability plans, the mission of the conference has been to promote women's leadership across green industry and develop future solutions to the environmental crises facing our planet. Jamie's team does this by curating fabulous speakers, informative workshops and break-out sessions that always leave me inspired and is the reason why I try and attend every year. This year she might have outdone herself.

The theme was "Business as (Un)Usual: Where Purpose Meets Profit" and included an assembly of renowned female professionals from the energy, technology, transportation, consumer products, professional services, and nonprofit sectors. We heard from leaders including Luanna Huber, Director, Environment & Conservation, TDM & Environmentality Integration at The Walt Disney Company, Rose Mckinney-James, Board Member at MGM Resorts International, Michelle Moore, CEO at Groundswell and Dr. Lisa Dyson, CEO at Kiverdi as to how they are addressing sustainability within their organizations. We even learned some practical feng shui tips from Lori Tierney, President and CEO of Tierney Management on how to keep the energy in your environment in balance.

There were several awards presented including the Women in Green Forum Trailblazer Award which went to Dolores Huerta, Activist and President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation for her work. And since there are no coincidences in my life, it was my friend Lora O'Connor who presented the clip of a documentary film on Dolores's life that has been submitted to Sundance.

But what stood out the most for me was listening to what Natalie Mindrum, Director of Environmental Strategy at United Airlines had to say about their Eco-Skies commitment to protect the environment.

You might be surprised to know that a global airline has a strategy, much less a person to direct it, but increasingly companies are adding titles as high as Chief Sustainability Officer to their hierarchy. What really got my attention is that in addition to having a four-pillar commitment to the environment, which includes fuel efficiency and carbon management, sustainable travel products and services, alternative fuels, and partners in sustainability, United is the first airline to use biofuels - fuels produced directly or indirectly from organic material including plant and animal waste - to power their flights out of LAX.

They've partnered with AltAir Fuels, who took an idle commercial oil refinery in Paramount, California and retrofitted it to produce biofuel. Not only is the 30/70 blend of biofuel with traditional jet fuel expected to reduce carbon emissions by 60%, but it also created over fifty new jobs! I found it very impressive that an airline in a difficult economic period, would continue to make the environment a priority.

There has been so much progress made in sustainability since the Women's Green Forum started in 2010 and since I launched Greenopia in 2006, but there is also so much more to do. As always happens when I find myself in a room full of smart women passionate about building and creating sustainable businesses I leave with fresh, new ideas. The first is to work with Jaime Nack to help take this event to the global stage.

The second is to make everyone aware that green initiatives don't need the budget of a United Airlines behind them to make a difference. Changes can be made, no matter how small your business, to make green thinking a part of your company's culture. They include choosing LED lighting over incandescent and fluorescent which contain mercury and other toxic gases, installing a water infiltration system to eliminate the use of plastic bottles and save money in the long run, using recycled paper, stocking non-toxic cleaning supplies, choosing green vendors to do business with (Greenopia has great listings!) and serving healthy and organic food at meetings.

What's so wonderful about taking these small steps is that in addition to helping the greater good, you are creating a safer work environment, which means healthier employees, greater mental alertness, and more productivity - what Jaime called purpose with profit at the Women's Green Forum- and what I call living with a green heart.

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Upcycling the Oceans - With Style!  
Ecoalf was founded in 2010 by Javier Goyeneche, whose idea was to create a fashion brand that is truly sustainable.

The concept arose out of his frustration at the excessive use of the world's natural resources and the amount of waste produced by industrialized countries, especially by the fashion industry. He embarked on a mission to create an entirely new concept that would combine his design sensibility and understanding of the fashion consumer with the latest in recycled materials. In 2012 he launched Ecoalf, named after his son Alfredo. The goal was to create the first generation of recycled products with the same quality, design and technical properties as the best non-recycled products. That way, Javier could demonstrate that there is no need to use natural resources in a careless way.

©Javier Goyeneche

The small amount of recycled fabrics that Javier found on the market at that time were not fashionable, were of poor quality, and had only a small recycled %, so first he partnered up with manufacturers to develop suitable fabrics. It is for this reason that Ecoalf still designs and develops its own fabrics every season: it currently has 14 joint ventures around the world (Korea, Japan, Portugal, Taiwan, Spain...) where it recycles all different types of waste (such as discarded fishing nets, PET bottles, used tyres, coffee, post-industrial cotton and wool) to create yarn to produce all kind of fabrics, linings, straps, outsoles, etc.

Working with fishermen to clean-up the oceans
In 2016, Ecoalf embarked upon its most ambitious project to date: UPCYCLING THE OCEANS, an unprecedented worldwide adventure that is helping remove waste from the oceans thanks to the support of fishermen. The main objective of this revolutionary project, which Ecoalf aims to replicate in other parts of the world, is to recover the trash that is destroying the Mediterranean Sea and transform it into top-quality yarn to produce fabrics to tailor clothes and accessories.

Through the Ecoalf Foundation, funded by HAPfoundation, Ecoalf has begun to remove waste from the seabed with the participation of the fishermen of the Spanish Levante Coast. To be rolled-out in different phases, this great project intends to prove that not only is ocean clean-up possible but that part of the recovered waste can, indeed, be converted into pellets, yarn, fabrics and products - where others see trash, Ecoalf sees raw, premium-quality materials.

©Javier Goyeneche

However, this project faces a great challenge because of the low and inconsistent quality of the debris recovered by the fishermen as a consequence of its exposure to sun light, salt and water. Now, more than ever, investment in R&D is crucial to the attainment of a quality of product in line with Ecoalf's standards. Once again, its goal is to succeed in obtaining 100% recycled products of high technical quality and textures and in tune with current trends but without using more of the planet's natural resources.

Currently 160 trawler boats from the 10 main ports of Levante are collaborating with Upcycling the Oceans. Every day each boat recovers approximately 4 kg of waste from the Mediterranean seabed. Ecoalf has enabled the necessary infrastructure (non-existent until now) for trash collection by installing specific containers on ships and harbours. All the marine waste collected (PET bottles, glass, cans, etc) is deposited each day in the special containers placed in each port, which are collected every week and transported to a treatment plant where the debris is cleaned with water and separated. The material is then sent to the various specific recycling channels, leaving just the PET plastic bottles, which are separated, stocked and transformed into flakes and pellets through sophisticated technological processes.

As mentioned above, due to the inequality and low quality of the waste that has been recovered from the oceans, Ecoalf's great innovation challenge is to obtain pellets with the required purity conditions so it can use them to achieve a thread yarn that meets its high quality standards.
After the success of its Spanish trial, the Ecoalf Foundation is working hard to expand and replicate the project all around the Mediterranean coast. It will also start a trial test in the US thanks to the support of the Henry Pincus Foundation. Furthermore, the Thailand government has just signed a contract with Ecoalf Foundation to start replicating Upcycling the Oceans in the south (Phuket), starting October 2016.



This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Secretary of State John Kerry's Our Oceanconference and Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the Our Ocean Conference (September 15th, 16th) as part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here. The State Department does not endorse the content of this blog. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #OurOcean #MakeASplash.

-- 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 Donald's Climate Change Exception: Golf  
Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

The man who might be president insists that climate change is an elaborate, "very expensive hoax," even possibly a "Chinese" one meant to undermine the American economy. It's "bullshit" and "pseudoscience" (on which, it seems, he's an expert). He's said this sort of thing numerous times, always mockingly, always dismissively. Only recently in his Phoenix speech on immigration, on his love of Mexicans, and on what suckers they'll be when it comes to paying for his future wall, he put it this way: "Only the out-of-touch media elites think the biggest problems facing America... it's not nuclear, and it's not ISIS, it's not Russia, it's not China, it's global warming." Those fools! They know nothing. They don't even know that there's a crucial footnote, a lone exception, to The Donald's climate change position: golf.

Though the heating of the planet via fossil fuels couldn't be more of a fantasy, while saving the coal industry, building pipelines, and reversing anything Barack Obama did in the White House to promote alternative energy systems will be the order of the day, it turns out that climate change does threaten one thing. And it's something crucial to human life as we know it: playing 18 holes on a coastal golf course. For that, protection is obviously in order. This is undoubtedly why the man with no fears about drowning coastal communities has, through his company Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Ireland, applied for permission to build "a coastal protection works to prevent erosion at his seaside golf resort in County Clare," based on... yep... the danger of rising sea levels. We're talking about "200,000 tons of rock distributed along two miles of beach." And if permission is finally granted, the result will surely be a "great wall," a "beautiful wall" that will not let a drop of sea water emigrate onto Irish soil.

One small hint for Mr. Trump, should he become president. From the Oval Office, he might consider granting similar wall-building exemptions to key parts of coastal Florida already experiencing a serious rise in what's called "sunny-day flooding." Such walls would protect crucial coastal properties like Mar-a-Lago, his top-of-the-line private club in Palm Beach, which could otherwise find itself "under at least a foot of water for 210 days a year because of tidal flooding" within three decades. It's that or develop a sport called aquatic golf.

As for the rest of us for whom such walls assumedly won't be built, there's always flight inland where we might become... gulp... climate refugees. (In that case, you know what Trump is likely to say about the necessity for our extreme vetting). And while you're waiting for the floodwaters, I suggest that you consider what TomDispatch's invaluable energy expert Michael Klare has to say about the rise of versions of The Donald globally and what that means for the health of our world in "Will Trumpism, Brexit, and Geopolitical Exceptionalism Sink the Planet?"

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Will Trumpism, Brexit, And Geopolitical Exceptionalism Sink The Planet?  
The Mounting Threat to Climate Progress

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

In a year of record-setting heat on a blistered globe, with fast-warming oceans, fast-melting ice caps, and fast-rising sea levels, ratification of the December 2015 Paris climate summit agreement -- already endorsed by most nations -- should be a complete no-brainer.  That it isn't tells you a great deal about our world.  Global geopolitics and the possible rightward lurch of many countries (including a potential deal-breaking election in the United States that could put a climate denier in the White House) spell bad news for the fate of the Earth. It's worth exploring how this might come to be.

The delegates to that 2015 climate summit were in general accord about the science of climate change and the need to cap global warming at 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius (or 2.6 to 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit) before a planetary catastrophe ensues.  They disagreed, however, about much else. Some key countries were in outright conflict with other states (Russia with Ukraine, for example) or deeply hostile to each other (as with India and Pakistan or the U.S. and Iran). In recognition of such tensions and schisms, the assembled countries crafted a final document that replaced legally binding commitments with the obligation of each signatory state to adopt its own unique plan, or “nationally determined contribution” (NDC), for curbing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.

As a result, the fate of the planet rests on the questionable willingness of each of those countries to abide by that obligation, however sour or bellicose its relations with other signatories may be.  As it happens, that part of the agreement has already been buffeted by geopolitical headwinds and is likely to face increasing turbulence in the years to come.

That geopolitics will play a decisive role in determining the success or failure of the Paris Agreement has become self-evident in the short time since its promulgation. While some progress has been made toward its formal adoption -- the agreement will enter into force only after no fewer than 55 countries, accounting for at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified it -- it has also encountered unexpected political hurdles, signaling trouble to come.

On the bright side, in a stunning diplomatic coup, President Obama persuaded Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign the accord with him during a recent meeting of the G-20 group of leading economies in Hangzhou. Together, the two countries are responsible for a striking 40% of global emissions.  “Despite our differences on other issues,” Obama noted during the signing ceremony, “we hope our willingness to work together on this issue will inspire further ambition and further action around the world.”

Brazil, the planet's seventh largest emitter, just signed on as well, and a number of states, including Japan and New Zealand, have announced their intention to ratify the agreement soon.  Many others are expected to do so before the next major U.N. climate summit in Marrakesh, Morocco, this November.

On the dark side, however, Great Britain's astonishing Brexit vote has complicated the task of ensuring the European Union's approval of the agreement, as European solidarity on the climate issue -- a major factor in the success of the Paris negotiations -- can no longer be assured. “There is a risk that this could kick EU ratification of the Paris Agreement into the long grass,” suggests Jonathan Grant, director of sustainability at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Brexit campaign itself was spearheaded by politicians who were also major critics of climate science and strong opponents of efforts to promote a transition from carbon-based fuels to green sources of energy. For example, the chair of the Vote Leave campaign, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, is also chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think-tank devoted to sabotaging government efforts to speed the transition to green energy. Many other top Leave campaigners, including former Conservative ministers John Redwood and Owen Paterson, were also vigorous climate deniers.

In explaining the strong link between these two camps, analysts at the Economist noted that both oppose British submission to international laws and norms: “Brexiteers dislike EU regulations and know that any effective action to tackle climate change will require some kind of global cooperation: carbon taxes or binding targets on emissions. The latter would be the EU writ large and Britain would have even less say in any global agreement, involving some 200 nations, than in an EU regime involving 28.”

Keep in mind as well that Angela Merkel and François Hollande, the leaders of the other two anchors of the European Union, Germany and France, are both embattled by right-wing anti-immigrant parties likely to be similarly unfriendly to such an agreement.  And in what could be the deal-breaker of history, this same strain of thought, combining unbridled nationalism, climate denialism, fierce hostility to immigration, and unwavering support for domestic fossil fuel production, also animates Donald Trump's campaign for the American presidency.

In his first major speech on energy, delivered in May, Trump -- who has called global warming a Chinese hoax -- pledged to “cancel the Paris climate agreement” and scrap the various measures announced by President Obama to ensure U.S. compliance with its provisions. Echoing the views of his Brexit counterparts, he complained that “this agreement gives foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use on our land, in our country. No way.” He also vowed to revive construction of the Keystone XL pipeline (which would bring carbon-heavy Canadian tar sands oil to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast), to reverse any climate-friendly Obama administration acts, and to promote the coal industry.  “Regulations that shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants and block the construction of new ones -- how stupid is that?” he said, mockingly.

In Europe, ultra-nationalist parties on the right are riding a wave of Islamaphobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, and disgust with the European Union. In France, for instance, former president Nicolas Sarkozy announced his intention to run for that post again, promising even more stringent controls on migrants and Muslims and a greater focus on French “identity.” Even further to the right, the rabidly anti-Muslim Marine Le Pen is also in the race at the head of her National Front Party.  Like-minded candidates have already made gains in national elections in Austria and most recently in a state election in Germany that stunned Merkel's ruling party.  In each case, they surged by disavowing relatively timid efforts by the European Union to resettle refugees from Syria and other war-torn countries. Although climate change is not a defining issue in these contests as it is in the U.S. and Britain, the growing opposition to anything associated with the EU and its regulatory system poses an obvious threat to future continent-wide efforts to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

Elsewhere in the world, similar strands of thinking are spreading, raising serious questions about the ability of governments to ratify the Paris Agreement or, more importantly, to implement its provisions.  Take India, for example.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has indeed voiced support for the Paris accord and promised a vast expansion of solar power.  He has also made no secret of his determination to promote economic growth at any cost, including greatly increased reliance on coal-powered electricity. That spells trouble.  According to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, India is likely to double its coal consumption over the next 25 years, making it the world's second largest coal consumer after China. Combined with an increase in oil and natural gas consumption, such a surge in coal use could result in a tripling of India's carbon dioxide emissions at a time when most countries (including the U.S. and China) are expected to experience a peak or decline in theirs.

Prime Minister Modi is well aware that his devotion to coal has generated resentment among environmentalists in India and elsewhere who seek to slow the growth of carbon emissions. He nonetheless insists that, as a major developing nation, India should enjoy a special right to achieve economic growth in any way it can, even if this means endangering the environment. “The desire to improve one's lot has been the primary driving force behind human progress,” his government affirmed in its emissions-reduction pledge to the Paris climate summit. “Nations that are now striving to fulfill this ‘right to grow' of their teeming millions cannot be made to feel guilty [about] their development agenda as they attempt to fulfill this legitimate aspiration.”

Russia is similarly likely to put domestic economic needs (and the desire to remain a great power, militarily and otherwise) ahead of its global climate obligations. Although President Vladimir Putin attended the Paris summit and assured the gathered nations of Russian compliance with its outcome, he has also made it crystal clear that his country has no intention of giving up its reliance on oil and natural gas exports for a large share of its national income. According to the Energy Information Administration, Russia's government relies on such exports for a staggering 50% of its operating revenue, a share it dare not jeopardize at a time when its economy -- already buffeted by European Union and U.S. sanctions -- is in deep recession. To ensure the continued flow of hydrocarbon income, in fact, Moscow has announced multibillion dollar plans to develop new oil and gas fields in Siberia and the Arctic, even if such efforts fly in the face of commitments to reduce future carbon emissions.

From Reform and Renewal to Rivalry

Such nationalistic exceptionalism could become something of the norm if Donald Trump wins in November, or other nations join those already eager to put the needs of a fossil fuel-based domestic growth agenda ahead of global climate commitments. With that in mind, consider the assessment of future energy trends that the Norwegian energy giant Statoil recently produced.  In it is a chilling scenario focused on just this sort of dystopian future.

The second-biggest producer of natural gas in Europe after Russia's Gazprom, Statoil annually issues Energy Perspectives, a report that explores possible future energy trends. Previous editions included scenarios labeled “reform” (predicated on coordinated but gradual international efforts to shift from carbon fuels to green energy technology) and “renewal” (positing a more rapid transition). The 2016 edition, however, added a grim new twist: “rivalry.” It depicts a realistically downbeat future in which international strife and geopolitical competition discourage significant cooperation in the climate field.

According to the document, the new section is “driven” by real-world developments -- by, that is, “a series of political crises, growing protectionism, and a general fragmentation of the state system, resulting in a multipolar world developing in different directions.  In this scenario, there is growing disagreement about the rules of the game and a decreasing ability to manage crises in the political, economic, and environmental arenas.”

In such a future, Statoil suggests, the major powers would prove to be far more concerned with satisfying their own economic and energy requirements than pursuing collaborative efforts aimed at slowing the pace of climate change. For many of them, this would mean maximizing the cheapest and most accessible fuel options available -- often domestic supplies of fossil fuels. Under such circumstances, the report suggests, the use of coal would rise, not fall, and its share of global energy consumption would actually increase from 29% to 32%.

In such a world, forget about those “nationally determined contributions” agreed to in Paris and think instead about a planet whose environment will grow ever less friendly to life as we know it.  In its rivalry scenario, writes Statoil, “the climate issue has low priority on the regulatory agenda. While local pollution issues are attended to, large-scale international climate agreements are not the chosen way forward. As a consequence, the current NDCs are only partly implemented. Climate finance ambitions are not met, and carbon pricing to stimulate cost-efficient reductions in countries and across national borders are limited.”

Coming from a major fossil fuel company, this vision of how events might play out on an increasingly tumultuous planet makes for peculiar reading: more akin to Eaarth -- Bill McKibben's dystopian portrait of a climate-ravaged world -- than the usual industry-generated visions of future world health and prosperity. And while “rivalry” is only one of several scenarios Statoil's authors considered, they clearly found it unnervingly convincing. Hence, in a briefing on the report, the company's chief economist Eirik Wærness indicated that Great Britain's looming exit from the EU was exactly the sort of event that would fit the proposed model and might multiply in the future.

Climate Change in a World of Geopolitical Exceptionalism

Indeed, the future pace of climate change will be determined as much by geopolitical factors as technological developments in the energy sector. While it is evident that immense progress is being made in bringing down the price of wind and solar power in particular -- far more so than all but a few analysts anticipated until recently -- the political will to turn such developments into meaningful global change and so bring carbon emissions to heel before the planet is unalterably transformed may, as the Statoil authors suggest, be dematerializing before our eyes. If so, make no mistake about it: we will be condemning Earth's future inhabitants, our own children and grandchildren, to unmitigated disaster.

As President Obama's largely unheralded success in Hangzhou indicates, such a fate is not etched in stone. If he could persuade the fiercely nationalistic leader of a country worried about its economic future to join him in signing the climate agreement, more such successes are possible. His ability to achieve such outcomes is, however, diminishing by the week, and few other leaders of his stature and determination appear to be waiting in the wings.

To avoid an Eaarth (as both Bill McKibben and the Statoil authors imagine it) and preserve the welcoming planet in which humanity grew and thrived, climate activists will have to devote at least as much of their energy and attention to the international political arena as to the technology sector. At this point, electing green-minded leaders, stopping climate deniers (or ignorers) from capturing high office, and opposing fossil-fueled ultra-nationalism is the only realistic path to a habitable planet.

Michael T. Klare, a TomDispatch regular, is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of The Race for What's Left. A documentary movie version of his book Blood and Oil is available from the Media Education Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @mklare1.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Nick Turse's Next Time They'll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt's latest book, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

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A Historic Moment for New England: A Marine National Monument in the Atlantic!  


With Marine National Monument designation in the Atlantic, President Obama seals environmental legacy

President Obama is making history today, announcing the designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which will become the only fully protected large marine area in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean. Until today, zero miles of the U.S. Atlantic were fully protected from the imminent threats of climate change and increasing industrial activity.

The announcement comes just as the third annual Our Ocean Conference is held in Washington, DC, hosted by the U.S. State Department. Thanks to the president's use of the century-old Antiquities Act, ancient coral formations will no longer face potential ruin from commercial fishing activity, and diverse and pristine habitats will allow an abundance of marine life to thrive.

It is a good day to be a New Englander. So much of our region's history is rooted in the ocean; so much of our economic success depends on a healthy ocean off our coast. Unlike our impressive conservation efforts on land, however, the ocean's critical ecosystems beneath the surface have been overlooked. With the impacts of climate change already upon us, little action has been taken to protect these ecosystems and allow them to build resilience to changing conditions. With President Obama's two recent marine monument designations, that may no longer be the case.

Monument Momentum

Today's announcement comes on the heels of the President's expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii, creating the largest marine preserve in the world. And a week prior, President Obama designated the Katahdin Woods and Waters Monument, safeguarding pristine forested wilderness right in our own backyard in the North Woods of Maine.

The canyons and seamounts marine monument designation is especially timely and important for New England, where the ocean has the compounding threats of climate change, overfishing, and proposed extraction of oil, gas, and other resources. The Gulf of Maine is warming at a rate faster than almost any other ocean area in the world, and this monument will provide areas where biodiversity and marine life can continue to thrive; it will also provide an area for scientists to study climate change and possible strategies to better protect the ocean's living resources against climate impacts.

With the announcement made surrounding the third annual Our Ocean Conference - a gathering of international leaders on ocean issues - President Obama sets a high global and local precedent; he has now protected more acres of lands and waters than any president in U.S. history.

Conservation Law Foundation is proud to have been a leader among a coalition of groups in the campaign to permanently protect the canyons and seamounts, helping to translate compelling science into a broad public advocacy to bring about permanent protection of the resource.

Working with the New England Aquarium, leading marine scientists presented a body of research in March that made it emphatically clear that the New England Canyons and Seamounts, along with the Gulf of Maine's Cashes Ledge, deserve and require permanent protection.



More than 300 scientists and 300,000 supporters signed petitions urging a marine monument in the Atlantic, and a summer poll showed that an incredible 80 percent of New England residents want permanent protection of important ocean areas.

Then, Senator Richard Blumenthal led the entire Connecticut congressional delegation in calling upon President Obama to designate the Canyons and Seamounts as a Marine National Monument, introducing a formal proposal for consideration by the Administration. Regional congressional leaders like Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, Rhode Island Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed, and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo then helped the White House shape the final proposal, including thoughtful efforts by Senator Markey to strike a balance between the conservation imperative and the need to sustain New England's iconic commercial fisheries. The designation just announced serves both, because research has shown that fully protected marine areas are more resilient to the negative effects of climate change.

President Obama's designation of the Atlantic's first marine monument has cemented his legacy on both conservation and climate change, while demonstrating the continued importance of the venerable Antiquities Act, first used by President Theodore Roosevelt, in protecting natural resources at risk.

Celebrate with us: Send a message to President Obama to say "Thank You!" for designating the Coral Canyons and Seamounts as a Marine National Monument!

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FDA Finds Monsanto's Weed Killer in U.S. Honey  


The Food and Drug Administration, under public pressure to start testing samples of U.S. food for the presence of a pesticide that has been linked to cancer, has some early findings that are not so sweet.

In examining honey samples from various locations in the United States, the FDA has found fresh evidence that residues of the weed killer called glyphosate can be pervasive - found even in a food that is not produced with the use of glyphosate. All of the samples the FDA tested in a recent examination contained glyphosate residues, and some of the honey showed residue levels double the limit allowed in the European Union, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. There is no legal tolerance level for glyphosate in honey in the United States.

Glyphosate, which is the key ingredient in Monsanto Co.'s Roundup herbicide, is the most widely used weed killer in the world, and concerns about glyphosate residues in food spiked after the World Health Organization in 2015 said its cancer experts determined glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen. Other international scientists have raised concerns about how heavy use of glyphosate is impacting human health and the environment.

Records obtained from the FDA, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, detail a range of revelations about the federal government's efforts to get a handle on these rising concerns. In addition to honey, the records show government residue experts discussing glyphosate found in soybean and wheat samples, "glyphosate controversies," and the belief that there could be "a lot of violation for glyphosate" residues in U.S. crops.

Even though the FDA annually examines foods for residues of many pesticides, it has skipped testing for glyphosate residues for decades. It was only in February of this year that the agency said it would start some glyphosate residues analysis. That came after many independent researchers started conducting their own testing and found glyphosate in an array of food products, including flour, cereal, and oatmeal. The government and Monsanto have maintained that any glyphosate residues in food would be minimal enough to be safe. But critics say without robust testing, glyphosate levels in food are not known. And they say that even trace amounts may be harmful because they are likely consumed so regularly in many foods.

The residue issues are coming into the spotlight at the same time that the EPA is completing a risk assessment to determine if use of this top-selling herbicide should be limited. The agency has scheduled public meetings on the matter Oct. 18-21 in Washington. The EPA's risk assessment report was initially due out in 2015, but still has not been finalized. The agency now says it will be completed in "spring 2017."

In the records released by the FDA, one internal email describes trouble locating honey that doesn't contain glyphosate: "It is difficult to find blank honey that does not contain residue. I collect about 10 samples of honey in the market and they all contain glyphosate," states an FDA researcher. Even "organic mountain honey" contained low concentrations of glyphosate, the FDA documents show.

According to the FDA records, samples tested by FDA chemist Narong Chamkasem showed residue levels at 107 ppb in samples the FDA associated with Louisiana-based Carmichael's Honey; 22 ppb in honey the FDA linked to Leighton's Orange Blossom Honey in Florida and residues at 41 ppb in samples the FDA associated with Iowa-based Sue Bee Honey, which is marketed by a cooperative of American beekeepers as "pure, all-natural" and "America's Honey." Customers "can be assured that Sue Bee Honey is 100% pure, 100% all-natural and 100% American," the Sioux Honey Association states.

In a Jan. 8, 2016 email Chamkasem pointed out to fellow FDA scientists that the EU tolerance level is 50 ppb and there is no amount of glyphosate allowed at all in honey in the United States. But Chris Sack, an FDA chemist who oversees the agency's pesticide residue testing, responded by reassuring Chamkasem and the others that the glyphosate residues discovered are only "technically a violation."

"The bee farmers are not breaking any laws; rather glyphosate is being introduced by the bees," Sack wrote in response. "While the presence of glyphosate in honey is technically a violation, it is not a safety issue."

Sack said the EPA had been "made aware of the problem" and was expected to set tolerance levels for honey. Once tolerance levels are set by EPA - if they are set high enough - the residues would no longer be a violation. When contacted this week, the EPA said there are currently no pending requests to set tolerance levels for glyphosate in honey. But, the agency also said: "there is no dietary risk concern from exposure to glyphosate residues in honey at this time."

Sioux Honey Vice President Bill Huser said glyphosate is commonly used on farm fields frequented by bees, and the pesticide travels back with the bees to the hives where the honey is produced.

"The industry doesn't have any control over environmental impacts like this," Huser said. Most of Sue Bee's honey comes from bees located near clover and alfalfa in the upper Midwest, he said. Beekeepers located in the South would have honeybees close to cotton and soybean fields. Alfalfa, soybeans and cotton are all genetically engineered to be sprayed directly with glyphosate.

The FDA results are not the first to find glyphosate in honey. Sampling done in early 2015 by the scientific research company Abraxis found glyphosate residues in 41 of 69 honey samples with glyphosate levels between 17 and 163 ppb, with the mean average being 64 ppb.

Bee keepers say they are innocent victims who see their honey products contaminated simply because they might be located within a few miles of farms where glyphosate is used.

"I don't understand how I'm supposed to control the level of glyphosate in my honey when I'm not the one using Roundup," one honey company operator said. "It's all around me. It's unfair."

The FDA did not respond to a question about the extent of its communications with Monsanto regarding residue testing, but the records released show that Monsanto has had at least some interaction with the FDA on this issue. In April of this year, Monsanto's international regulatory affairs manager Amelia Jackson-Gheissari emailed FDA asking to set up a time to talk about "enforcement of residue levels in the USA, particularly glyphosate."

The FDA routinely looks for residues of a number of commonly used pesticides but not glyphosate. The look for glyphosate this year is considered a "special assignment" and came after the agency was criticized by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2014 for failing to test for glyphosate.

The FDA has not released formal results of its testing plans or the findings, but Sack made a presentation in June to the California Specialty Crops Council that said the agency was analyzing 300 samples of corn; 300 samples of soy; and 120 samples each of milk and eggs. He described some partial results achieved through April that showed glyphosate levels found in 52 samples of corn and 44 samples of soybeans but not above legally allowed levels. The presentation did not mention honey. The presentation also stated that glyphosate testing at the FDA will be expanded to "routine screening."

The USDA also will start testing for glyphosate, but not until next year, according to information the agency gave to the nonprofit group Beyond Pesticides in a meeting in Washington in January. Documents obtained through FOIA show a plan to test in syrups and oils in 2017.

Soybeans and Wheat

Like the FDA, the USDA has dragged its feet on testing. Only one time, in 2011, has the USDA tested for glyphosate residues despite the fact that the agency does widespread testing for residues of other less-used pesticides. In what the USDA called a "special project" the agency tested 300 soybean samples for glyphosate and found more than 90 percent - 271 of the samples - carried the weed killer residues. The agency said then that further testing for glyphosate was "not a high priority" because glyphosate is considered so safe. It also said that while residues levels in some samples came close to the very high levels of glyphosate "tolerance" established by EPA, they did not exceed those levels.

Both the USDA and the FDA have long said it is too expensive and is unnecessary to test for glyphosate residues. Yet the division within the USDA known as the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) has been testing wheat for glyphosate residues for years because many foreign buyers have strong concerns about glyphosate residues. GIPSA's testing is part of an "export cargo sampling program," documents obtained from GIPSA show. Those tests showed glyphosate residues detected in more than 40 percent of hundreds of wheat samples examined in fiscal 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The levels vary, the data shows. GIPSA has also been helping FDA access soybeans to test. In a May 2015 email, GIPSA chemist Gary Hinshaw told an FDA food safety official that "it isn't difficult to find soybeans containing glyphosate." In a December 7, 2015 email from FDA chemist Terry Councell to Lauren Robin, also a chemist and an FDA consumer safety officer, Councell said that glyphosate was present even in processed commodities, though "way below tolerance."

The fact that the government is aware of glyphosate residues in food, but has dragged its feet on testing for so long, frustrates many who are concerned about the pesticide.

"There is no sense of urgency around these exposures that we live with day in and day out," said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides.

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Spain could be first EU country with national park listed as 'in danger'  

Doñana wetlands in Andalusia is home to thousands of species but has lost most of its natural water due to industry and faces ‘danger' listing by Unesco

A Spanish wetland home to 2,000 species of wildlife including around 6 million migratory birds is on track to join a Unesco world heritage danger list, according to a new report.

Doñana is an Andalusian reserve of sand dunes, shallow streams and lagoons, stretching for 540 square kilometres (209 square miles) where flamingoes feed and wild horses and Iberian lynx still roam.

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