Creation's Cry for Help - We Can Do This! Options To Avoid Global Collapse
In this Issue:
The Last White Rhino - UN Report : Planet In Peril - Children & Climate Change - Project Drawdown - The Climate Mobilization - Professor Anderson: Why Scientists Deny the Urgency of Taking Climate Action - Upcoming Events: Citizens' Climate Lobby Meetings & food Sleuth Radio on KOPN - Advancing Renewables Conference - Earth Day Festival - Sierra Club Events - St. Louis Climate Summit - Heroic People Taking Extraordinary Measures to Save Our
Spectacular Trees & Forests
The Last White Rhino
March 20, 2018 The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is deeply saddened to hear that the northern white rhino is teetering on the edge of extinction. With the death of the last remaining male rhino yesterday, this subspecies is all but gone due to poaching. This is just another tragic reminder of how culpable humans are for the loss of the world’s most charismatic wildlife, and that we all must become global stewards for Africa.
UN Report:
ONGOING DECLINES IN WORLD'S PLANTS & ANIMALS
“PUTS HUMANS AT RISK”
The Sixth Great Extinction - We are witnessing a mass extinction event happening in the geologic blink of an eye. https://www.showmesolar.org/single-post/2017/12/31/2017-In-Review-%E2%80%93-Another-Record-Smashing-Climate-Year
Environmental experts have issued a stark warning over the future of
life on this planet
Nature is in decline in every region of the world, putting human livelihoods in danger, a series of United Nations reports on biodiversity have warned.
Biodiversity, the variety of plants and animals found on Earth, and natural services such as clean water and healthy soils are being hit by exploitation, pollution, invasive species and the growing threat of climate change.
The declining trend in nature endangers economies, livelihoods, food security and the quality of life for people worldwide, according to the reports which were written by more than 550 leading experts from more than 100 countries.
The four regional assessments paint a bleak picture of biodiversity and nature in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and Europe and Central Asia – although they also pointed to some successes in reversing declines in wildlife.
Sir Robert Watson, the leading British scientist who chairs the intergovernmental body behind the reports, said: “Biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people sound, to many people, academic and far removed from our daily lives.
“Nothing could be further from the truth – they are the bedrock of our food, clean water and energy.
RIP Sudan - The Last Male Northern White Rhino
“They are at the heart not only of our survival, but of our cultures, identities and enjoyment of life.”
And he said: “The best available evidence, gathered by the world’s leading experts, points us now to a single conclusion: we must act to halt and reverse the unsustainable use of nature – or risk not only the future we want, but even the lives we currently lead.
“Fortunately, the evidence also shows that we know how to protect and partially restore our vital natural assets.”
The reports have found wide ranging current and future impacts on the natural world, including:
– More than two fifths (42%) of land-based animal and plant species in Europe and Central Asia have seen populations decline in the last decade;
– More than a quarter (26.6%) of marine fish species in the region have declining populations due to unsustainable fishing, habitat degradation, invasive species, pollution and climate change;
– A quarter of land in the EU is affected by soil erosion;
– More than 50% of African bird and mammal species could be lost to climate change by 2100;
– The Asia-Pacific region could be left with no commercially exploitable fish stocks by 2048 if current fishing practices continue;
– Up to 90% of corals could suffer severe damage by 2050 in the region even under conservation scenarios for climate change;
– More than 50% of the population of the Americas face problems with water security;
– More than 95% of North American tall grass prairie grasslands, 88% of South American Atlantic tropical forest and 17% of the Amazon rainforest have been lost to agriculture and other human activities.
Our Political Future on a Heating Planet
NASA | A Year In The Life Of Earth's CO2
Whether the U.S. is in or out of the Paris Climate Accord, woefully little has been done to stop global warming. Geoff Mann argues that the most serious effects from climate change won’t only be ecology, but also political. He discusses what possible political orders may take hold from the disruptions caused by a heating planet.
Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright: Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future, Verso, 2018
Sierra Club Events
Nature Hikes, News, Climate Actions, & More at
Citizens' Climate Lobby
Mid-Missouri Chapters
Dear Climate Heroes,
All are invited to the three Earth Day events we have planned for this Sunday, April 22.
Carlos is presenting our carbon fee and dividend during the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Jefferson City service at 10:30 AM.
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Jefferson City
1021 Northeast Dr.,
Jefferson City, MO 65109
George and Kathy are coordinating the adults table in Columbia, while Shelley, Diana, Ruth Anne and Nancy are leading the kids event.
We look forward to seeing you there!
George Laur
Group Leader, Columbia
georgelaur@embarqmail.com
Cell/text: 573-230-3177
Jeff Holzem
Group Leader, Jefferson City
jeff2002h@yahoo.com
CCL on KOPN - Food Sleuth Radio
April 4th, 2018
It's Not Too Late To Listen!
The April 5th 2018 show will be in the Food Sleuth on KOPN Archives for two weeks.
Melinda Hemmelgarn Interviews Lori Griffin Byron, M.D. , Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and co-leader of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby Health Team, describes how climate change – rising levels of CO2, more severe and unpredictable weather, flooding and drought — will impact food and agriculture, plus mental and physical health; and strategies for citizen action. https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
Climate Change and Children's Health
American Public Health Association https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/climate-change/health-impacts
Rising global temperatures are causing major physical, chemical, and ecological changes to the planet. There is wide consensus among scientific organizations and climatologists that these broad effects, known as "climate change," are the result of contemporary human activity. Climate change poses threats to human health, safety, and security, and children are at particularly high risk.
The effects of climate change on child health include:
physical and psychological sequelae of weather disasters
increased heat stress
decreased air quality
altered disease patterns of some climate sensitive infections
food, water, and nutrient insecurity
The social foundations of children's mental and physical health are threatened by the specter of far-reaching effects of unchecked climate change, including community and global instability, mass migrations, and increased conflict. Given this knowledge, failure to take prompt, substantive action would be an act of injustice to all children. A paradigm shift in production and consumption of energy is both a necessity and an opportunity for major innovation, job creation, and significant, immediate associated health benefits.
A new public health movement is needed to educate, advocate, and collaborate with local and national leaders regarding the risks climate change poses to human health. In addition to mitigation strategies, ongoing research into the links between climate and health outcomes and the development of medical and public health interventions to protect individuals and communities from inevitable changes is needed.
Pediatricians, as advocates for the population most vulnerable to climate change health effects, have a valuable role to play in this movement. The AAP recognizes this need and is working with National Stakeholders and members to be sure that the health and welfare of children are prioritized...
Climate Change and Human Health - Peter Raven Speaking at Washington University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U80K_rmA5bs
American Academy of Pediatrics
Two Great Days of Speakers & Networking:
Wednesday, April 18
12-1:00pm Registration and Sandwiches
1-4:30pm Speakers
Keynote: Aaron Bloom, Grid Systems Analysis Group Manager, NREL
Challenges to Planning for 100% Renewable Energy Systems
4:30pm-6pm Networking Reception
6pm-10pm After Party at Shakespeare’s Pizza
Thursday, April 19
7:45-8:30am Registration and Breakfast
8:30-12pm Speakers
Keynote: Dr. Holmes Hummel, Founder, Clean Energy Works
Beyond Greening the Grid: Clean Energy for All
12-1:15pm Catered Lunch
1:15-4pm Speakers
Electric Vehicles on display Thursday
DRAWDOWN
Solutions To Reverse Global Warming
Project Drawdown is a collaborative effort from over 200 scientists, scholars, policymakers, business leaders, PhDs, and more to create the “most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming.”
What they uncovered is a path forward that can roll back global warming within thirty years. It shows that humanity has the means at hand. Nothing new needs to be invented. The solutions are in place and in action.
An Uros mother and her two daughters live on one of the 42 floating islands made of totora reeds on Lake Titicaca. Installed at an elevation of 12,507 feet, the panel will replace kerosene and provide electricity to her family for the first time. Solar power is a perfect cultural match: The Uru People know themselves as Lupihaques, Sons of the Sun.
When you start to grasp the severity of the climate crisis, it’s easy sometimes to feel a little hopeless. But a new book called Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming presents a way forward to create a future that is perhaps greater than anyone has imagined was possible.
The project, led by activist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken, was started in 2013 and has since brought together over 65 researchers from across the globe with 128 experts in climate, sustainability, academia, and business. Together this group developed a unique global systems model, evaluating 80 technologies and practices from the ground up – from innovative energy and agricultural methods to enhanced environmental conservation and restoration.
The results show that combined these 80 solutions could eliminate 1 trillion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2050, enough to prevent the dangerous climate tipping point of 2 degrees Celsius. Moreover, these solutions would cost less than and produce more jobs that business as usual.
What is drawdown? It is the reversal of greenhouse gases that have built up in our atmosphere primarily from the burning of fossil fuels – coal, oil, and natural gas. Fortunately, major advancements have been made in the past decade to mitigate this problem.
All solutions presented in Drawdown are not just hypothetical. They are real, well-understood technologies and processes that can be scaled around the world. The breakthrough research required for the book has resulted in dozens of new scientific papers, and there are 20 more solutions coming that could create an even greater reduction in greenhouse gases.
Below are the top 10 solutions in order of greatest impact:
To learn more about Project Drawdown, please visit: http://www.drawdown.org/
U.S. Green Building Council - Missouri Gateway Chapter - Drawdown
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
Review Highlights Needed to Fight Climate Change in 2018
The Environmental Year-in-Review
The Climate Mobilization:
Re-Powering The Planet
By Ezra Silk
Foreword by Paul Gilding
former Executive Director of Greenpeace International
How the U.S. could eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions at wartime speed, contribute to a global effort to restore a safe climate, and reverse ecological overshoot through massive WWII-scale mobilization.
A mobilization on this scale is the only rational response to the level of economic, security and social risks posed by climate change. Anyone who looks at the evidence objectively would conclude that — and historians will look back and wonder why it took us so long to accept it. So be clear — a mobilization on this scale is simply inevitable, with the only question being when we get started.
Read here or read the Executive Summary.
Los Angeles Council Members
call for Climate Emergency Mobilization Department
January 16, 2018
Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Koretz, Naomi Klein and a coalition of environmental justice leaders from L.A. and beyond announced an effort to launch a WWII-scale climate mobilization of America’s second largest city.
Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Bob Blumenfield introduced two “Fierce Urgency of Now” motions to the Los Angeles City Council seeking to turn that vision into reality: A motion to establish a City of Los Angeles Climate Emergency Mobilization Department to oversee an emergency effort to radically reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions citywide.
As Paul Koretz said at the announcement of these motions, "We’re out of time. We can’t keep waiting around thinking, once it gets bad enough, we’ll have enough time to do something. We’re here today to tell you, it’s bad enough now. We are out of time and need to act, quickly and boldly, like the very planet beneath our feet depends upon it. Like our home depends upon it. Because it does.”
Globally
First and foremost, wealthy nations must move to negative emissions at light speed. We advocate these international policies to advance climate justice abroad, in consultation with other nations.
Climate Justice in the U.S. and Around the World
The climate crisis is a humanitarian crisis. It is already devastating millions of lives. These impacts are unfairly distributed along generational, national, class, and racial lines. Further, while the WWII homefront mobilization advanced justice and equality in many spheres, these took place alongside a segregated military and the shameful internment of Japanese Americans. The Climate Mobilization will only succeed if it brings the country together, to strive not only for a safe climate, but for a just society and beloved community.
If passed, these motions could begin the first true WWII-scale climate response in the world, rooted in the social and environmental justice principles outlined by the coalition of Angelenos who have been struggling to phase out our toxic economy for decades. The World War II homefront mobilization began with the creation of new agencies, such as the War Production Board, tasked with coordinating the extremely fast conversion from peacetime to wartime production. By introducing these motions in our second largest city, Councilmembers Koretz and Blumenfield are setting a new precedent for how governments must respond to climate disruption in 2018.
This could be a giant first step toward the mobilization we need to protect life on earth. You can be a part of it:
or
Naomi Klein, Author and Activist: “Our collective house is on fire and nobody knows that better than the people of Los Angeles. It’s time we started acting like it. These City Council motions recognize the real lesson of these unprecedented winter fires and mudslides — that the time has come for an immediate, whole-of-society mobilization to address the climate emergency, with the highest priority placed upon a just transition and the needs of frontline communities.”
Bob Blumenfield, Los Angeles City Councilmember, 3rd District: "Over the past few months, we have seen some of the most vicious fires in our city’s history rip through our communities, testing the limits of our emergency management capabilities. The sad reality is that due to climate change, as well as a deliberate lack of environmental leadership out of Washington, it is up to us to lead and ensure that we are doing everything possible to reduce our carbon footprint and clean our environment. I am proud to stand with Councilmember Koretz and many environmental organizations in continuing to steer Los Angeles toward being the greenest and cleanest city in the nation.”
Napa Valley Holocaust Remembered - Summer of 2017
Hottest Year On Record
In the middle of the night, dozens of homeowners found themselves on a Napa Valley hilltop surrounded by a huge, wind-blown fire. They are suddenly trapped, desperate to escape. Two teams of daring chopper pilots risk their lives in a mission to rescue them, landing in smoke and fire to do the seemingly impossible. Josh Mankiewicz reports Sunday, April 1 at 10:20 p.m. ET/9:20 p.m. CT.
Why Scientists Underplay The Severity Of Climate Change
Climate change: Triumph and tragedy in Paris
Professor Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and adviser to the British Government on climate change, discusses the science, strategies, and probabilities for our survival as a civilization until 2100.
"No one really questions the almost fraudulent nature of the venture we're engaged in - not the climate change, not the science, but actually we are underplaying the severity of what that science implies for what we need to do as a society, because it is very uncomfortable."
Policy is still often dominated by long-term targets e.g., 80% reduction by 2050 - despite such targets having no scientific basis "Yet the IPCC makes clear it's cumulative CO2 that matters i.e. the carbon budget (emissions between now & 2100) ... The budget is blown. ...& it provides carbon budgets (CO2 only) for different probabilities of 2 degrees C. ...
"You wouldn't take a chance on a plane with a 50:50 chance of falling out of the sky, or with a 50:50 chance of a nuclear power station blowing up, but with the planet, that's fine. ..."
Kevin Anderson is the Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research; holds a joint chair in Energy and Climate Change at the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester and School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia; and is an honorary lecturer in Environmental Management at the Manchester Business School.[2][3] He is an adviser to the British Government (as of 2009) on climate change.
Watch More: Delivering on 2°C: Kevin Anderson
'Delivering on 2 degrees' Keynote Prof Kevin Anderson - Climate change: triumph and tragedy in Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gJ78vDU17Y
“The Battle for Paradise”: Naomi Klein on Disaster Capitalism & the Fight for Puerto Rico’s Future
Six months since Hurricane Maria battered the island of Puerto Rico, the island is the site of a pitched battle between wealthy investors—particularly from the technology industry—and everyday Puerto Ricans fighting for a place in their island’s future.
The Puerto Rican government has pushed for a series of privatization schemes, including privatizing PREPA, one of the largest public power providers in the United States, and increasing the number of privately run charter schools and private school vouchers.
For more, we speak with best-selling author and journalist Naomi Klein, author of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” Her latest piece for The Intercept, where she is a senior correspondent, is “The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Ricans and Ultrarich 'Puertopians' Are Locked in a Pitched Struggle over How to Remake the Island."
St. Louis Climate Summit
https://stlclimatesummit.org/
The 2018 Saint Louis Climate Summit brings together some of the most authoritative minds in climate science, ecology, sustainable development, and related disciplines for three days of discussion on climate change. We will highlight key issues, celebrate notable achievements, and elucidate a path forward.
Conference Information & Registration:
Columbia Earth Day Festival
Sunday, April 22
(Backup rain date Sunday April 29)
Come to Columbia for the best Earth Day Festival ever!!!
There will be over 200 booths at the Street Fair - with many one-of-a-kind items that can't be found in stores!
Check out ECO Ave, where you will find great information on how to green up your lifestyle. Talk with solar experts, gardening experts, sustainability experts, and many more who will provide great information.
You can even register for a workshop and get great details
and free stuff!
Composting workshops at 12:30 & 3:00,
Solar Workshop at 1:45,
Mushroom workshop at 4:15.
Workshops will be held in a tent in the west field of Peace Park
Hula Hoop Workshop
If you would like to be involved in promoting earth-conscious living at the Columbia Area Earth Day Festival,
contact Laura Wacker at 314-825-4444.
For information on having a booth at Earth Day, please see our website at: columbiaearthday.org
or call 573-875-0539.
Woman marries 100-year-old tree to save it from being cut down
By ANDREA MILLER Mar 26, 2018
By ANDREA MILLER Mar 26, 2018
A 100-year-old ficus tree that stands as a focal point of a local park in Fort Myers, Florida, has a bride. Karen Cooper, 60, wed the tree during a community event on March 24 at the Snell Family Park as part of a neighborhood effort to save the tree from being cut down.
"When I heard the city was planning to cut it down, I was like, 'I don’t think so,'" Cooper, who has been living in Fort Myers for nearly 40 years, told ABC News. "I'm just having fun with something very serious." The city approved a request from a developer to have the tree removed, according to a spokesperson from the Fort Myers Public Works Office.
"We lost so many trees in Hurricane Irma and for them to cut one down on purpose is terrible," she added. "And this tree is fabulous."The tree's 8,000-foot canopy extends into a neighboring lot that's for sale for $1 million.
"The tree is the focal point of a very sweet neighborhood park, and without it, the park would just be a vacant lot," she said. "People get married at this park... but I married the tree."
Cooper said she was inspired by stories of women in Mexico who wed trees to protest deforestation."The ceremony was meant to encourage residents of the subdivision to come to city hall on Tuesday to show support for saving the tree," she explained.
The Fascinating History of Tree Huggers
The Fascinating History of Tree Huggers
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