A great video on the future of agriculture
Showing posts with label global climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global climate change. Show all posts
Friday, August 9, 2013
Friday, June 29, 2012
Pollution, Poverty, and People of Color
One of the biggest environmental justice issues is the interconnectedness between pollution, poverty, and people of color. Too often, the victims of pollution are those already marginalized in mainstream society by class or race and those with fewer voices to fight with. But even with the difficulties facing them, some communities managed to win against the big corporations and industries polluting their water, air, and land. This past June, the Environmental Health Network launched a special news series highlighting the environmental justice issues facing seven different communities across the United States. Check out the articles!
Day 1: The Factory on the Hill. The people of Richmond, CA live within a ring of five oil refineries, three chemical plants, eight Superfund sites, dozens of other toxic waste sites, highways, two rail yards, ports and marine terminals.
Day 2: 'We are Richmond.' A beleaguered community earns multicultural clout. Richmond's jumble of smokestacks and storage tanks overlooking a port is one of the most industry-dense areas in the San Francisco Bay Area - and one of the poorest and most beleaguered.
Day 3: Stress + pollution = health risks for low-income kids. Facing financial strain, racial tension and high crime rates can wear down immunity and disrupt hormones, making kids more vulnerable to everything around them, including the lead in their yards and the car exhaust in their neighborhood.
Day 4: No beba el agua. Don't drink the water. “They think it’s normal not to drink water from your tap, that it’s normal to have to go buy bottled water. Part of our job is telling people, ‘This is not normal,’ ” said Susana De Anda, co-founder of the Community Water Center.
Day 5: Sacred water, new mine: A Michigan tribe battles a global corporation. The Keweenaw Bay Indians are fighting for their clean water, sacred sites and traditional way of life as Kennecott Eagle Minerals inches towards copper and nickel extraction, scheduled to begin in 2014.
Day 6: Dirty soil and diabetes: Anniston's toxic legacy. As a cleanup of West Anniston stretches into its eighth year, new research has linked PCBs exposure to a high rate of diabetes in this community of about 4,000 people, nearly all African American and half living in poverty. Even today, people there are among the most highly contaminated in the world.
Day 7: Falling into the 'climate gap'. Climate change is adding a new dimension to the three-decades-old environmental justice movement as researchers and activists focus on the inequities of the impacts. The rich can turn up air conditioners, move to higher ground, get bailed out by insurance. The poor and minorities are left – as with other environmental injustices – to cope as best they can.
Day 8: Asthma and the inner city: East St. Louis children struggle with life-threatening disease. What is it about this city, and other poor, African American cities, that leaves children with a disproportionate burden of respiratory disease? Is it the factories? The traffic exhaust? The substandard housing? Medical experts have struggled to unravel the mysterious connections between inner-city life and asthma, and they suspect they know the answer: All of the above.
Day 9A: Birth of the movement: "People have to stand up for what is right." A Q&A with two environmental justice pioneers. Just before the 30th anniversary of the protests against a toxic waste landfill at Warren County, North Carolina, Ferruccio and Ramey talk with EHN about their days as pioneers in the environmental justice movement.
Day 9B: Opinion Essay by Bullard: Much of America has wrong complexion for protection. In commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Warren County protests, we cannot celebrate too long because the “NIMBY” (not in my back yard) practice continues to be replaced with the “PIBBY” (place in blacks’ back yards) principle.
Day 10A: Opinion: Fighting environmental racism in the name of charity and justice . The “have not’s” or “have nothings” of the world often get blamed for their poverty as a moral failing on their own part. But perhaps the “haves” are the ones whose hardness of heart is the true moral failure because they don't act upon environmental inequity and destruction.
Day 10B: Opinion: Environmental policies must tackle social inequities. Even today, 30 years after residents of a poor, rural, predominantly African American county in North Carolina tried to block a hazardous waste landfill, the burden of proof still is placed on communities to demonstrate hazards and push for action. This needs to change. Social equity concerns should be incorporated into environmental policies and regulation.
Day 1: The Factory on the Hill. The people of Richmond, CA live within a ring of five oil refineries, three chemical plants, eight Superfund sites, dozens of other toxic waste sites, highways, two rail yards, ports and marine terminals.
Day 2: 'We are Richmond.' A beleaguered community earns multicultural clout. Richmond's jumble of smokestacks and storage tanks overlooking a port is one of the most industry-dense areas in the San Francisco Bay Area - and one of the poorest and most beleaguered.
Day 3: Stress + pollution = health risks for low-income kids. Facing financial strain, racial tension and high crime rates can wear down immunity and disrupt hormones, making kids more vulnerable to everything around them, including the lead in their yards and the car exhaust in their neighborhood.
Day 4: No beba el agua. Don't drink the water. “They think it’s normal not to drink water from your tap, that it’s normal to have to go buy bottled water. Part of our job is telling people, ‘This is not normal,’ ” said Susana De Anda, co-founder of the Community Water Center.
Day 5: Sacred water, new mine: A Michigan tribe battles a global corporation. The Keweenaw Bay Indians are fighting for their clean water, sacred sites and traditional way of life as Kennecott Eagle Minerals inches towards copper and nickel extraction, scheduled to begin in 2014.
Day 6: Dirty soil and diabetes: Anniston's toxic legacy. As a cleanup of West Anniston stretches into its eighth year, new research has linked PCBs exposure to a high rate of diabetes in this community of about 4,000 people, nearly all African American and half living in poverty. Even today, people there are among the most highly contaminated in the world.
Day 7: Falling into the 'climate gap'. Climate change is adding a new dimension to the three-decades-old environmental justice movement as researchers and activists focus on the inequities of the impacts. The rich can turn up air conditioners, move to higher ground, get bailed out by insurance. The poor and minorities are left – as with other environmental injustices – to cope as best they can.
Day 8: Asthma and the inner city: East St. Louis children struggle with life-threatening disease. What is it about this city, and other poor, African American cities, that leaves children with a disproportionate burden of respiratory disease? Is it the factories? The traffic exhaust? The substandard housing? Medical experts have struggled to unravel the mysterious connections between inner-city life and asthma, and they suspect they know the answer: All of the above.
Day 9A: Birth of the movement: "People have to stand up for what is right." A Q&A with two environmental justice pioneers. Just before the 30th anniversary of the protests against a toxic waste landfill at Warren County, North Carolina, Ferruccio and Ramey talk with EHN about their days as pioneers in the environmental justice movement.
Day 9B: Opinion Essay by Bullard: Much of America has wrong complexion for protection. In commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Warren County protests, we cannot celebrate too long because the “NIMBY” (not in my back yard) practice continues to be replaced with the “PIBBY” (place in blacks’ back yards) principle.
Day 10A: Opinion: Fighting environmental racism in the name of charity and justice . The “have not’s” or “have nothings” of the world often get blamed for their poverty as a moral failing on their own part. But perhaps the “haves” are the ones whose hardness of heart is the true moral failure because they don't act upon environmental inequity and destruction.
Day 10B: Opinion: Environmental policies must tackle social inequities. Even today, 30 years after residents of a poor, rural, predominantly African American county in North Carolina tried to block a hazardous waste landfill, the burden of proof still is placed on communities to demonstrate hazards and push for action. This needs to change. Social equity concerns should be incorporated into environmental policies and regulation.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Rough Guide to Community Energy
Rough Guides, a world travel guidebook company, and M&S has recently come out with a free book on community energy. This book, Rough Guide to Community Energy, brings together resources and advice about creating sustainability in local communities through citizen action.
It's often been said that individual action is too small to make a difference and government action is too slow to change anything, but communities are the right scale to get the movement going. For anyone who's interested in starting a community group to tackle climate change or solar energy, but doesn't know where to start, this book provides a lot of cool case studies from the UK and many a practical advice on getting a project off the ground. The guide only covers energy issues and only draws from successful models from one geographic region, so there's a lot more out there that's possible, but it's a good starting point.
The book is available for download free on the website here.
It's often been said that individual action is too small to make a difference and government action is too slow to change anything, but communities are the right scale to get the movement going. For anyone who's interested in starting a community group to tackle climate change or solar energy, but doesn't know where to start, this book provides a lot of cool case studies from the UK and many a practical advice on getting a project off the ground. The guide only covers energy issues and only draws from successful models from one geographic region, so there's a lot more out there that's possible, but it's a good starting point.
The book is available for download free on the website here.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Adaptation and mitigation of small island agricultural systems
Australia's Primary Industries Adaptation Research Network (PIARN) and National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility recently ran a webinar on adaptation, mitigation, and management of agricultural systems, focusing on the research work done on Tasmania. The webinar featured Professor Holger Meinke with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture. He spoke on improving early warning systems and risk management of the increasing flood threat, which will enable farmers to adapt cropping systems, and produce methods that will have applications throughout Australia’s flood-prone farmland.
Professor Meinke gave a very informative presentation, which is available to view below. PIARN records the presentation and also allows the public to access the presentation remotely via the internet such that they can interact with the presenter from a distance. It's a great way for the information to be accessed more widely. The presentations so far have been geared towards audiences with a basic understanding of climate change and agriculture, but are not so technical that those not in the discipline cannot understand.
Professor Meinke gave a very informative presentation, which is available to view below. PIARN records the presentation and also allows the public to access the presentation remotely via the internet such that they can interact with the presenter from a distance. It's a great way for the information to be accessed more widely. The presentations so far have been geared towards audiences with a basic understanding of climate change and agriculture, but are not so technical that those not in the discipline cannot understand.
Adaptation, mitigation and the responsible management of agricultural systems - a 'small island' perspective from Climate & primary industries on Vimeo.
Friday, February 10, 2012
PIARN seminar and webinar: Adapting agriculture management to cope with high intensity rainfall
Upcoming seminar on climate change adaptation for agriculture at University of Melbourne! Check it out or attend virtually.
PIARN Webinar and seminar: Adapting agriculture management to cope with high intensity rainfall
Presented by
Jim Salinger, Stanford University and NCCARF
and Holger Meinke, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture
on behalf PIARN and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF).
Date: Thursday 15 March, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm, followed by refreshments
Venue: Theatre 1, 207 Bouverie St (building 379), Parkville, University of Melbourne, and available remotely via live online webinar
Cost: Free
RSVP: To attend either the webinar or seminar please register online by 9 March
Although Australia is among the driest continents, global warming will manifest in more variable rainfall and increased extreme events.
This is already having massive impacts on agriculture. Three days of extreme rainfall events in Tasmania in 2011 destroyed vegetable crops and wine grapes, and spread disease.
In this seminar, Professors Salinger and Meinke outline a new project to improve early warning systems and risk management of the increasing flood threat. This will enable farmers to adapt cropping systems, and produce methods that will have applications throughout Australia’s flood-prone farmland.
For more information and to register visit the PIARN website.
Presented by
Jim Salinger, Stanford University and NCCARF
and Holger Meinke, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture
on behalf PIARN and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF).
Date: Thursday 15 March, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm, followed by refreshments
Venue: Theatre 1, 207 Bouverie St (building 379), Parkville, University of Melbourne, and available remotely via live online webinar
Cost: Free
RSVP: To attend either the webinar or seminar please register online by 9 March
Although Australia is among the driest continents, global warming will manifest in more variable rainfall and increased extreme events.
This is already having massive impacts on agriculture. Three days of extreme rainfall events in Tasmania in 2011 destroyed vegetable crops and wine grapes, and spread disease.
In this seminar, Professors Salinger and Meinke outline a new project to improve early warning systems and risk management of the increasing flood threat. This will enable farmers to adapt cropping systems, and produce methods that will have applications throughout Australia’s flood-prone farmland.
For more information and to register visit the PIARN website.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
I just finished Jeffery Sachs' book Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet and wanted to recommend it to any person interested in the environment and how it might tie into global politics, economics, and social issues.
The book includes a bit of everything - science, politics, social concerns, population demographics, economics. For those who aren't as familiar with climate change, Sachs gives a nice and easy to understand summary of the scientific evidence for global climate change and the environmental consequences that will follow. There are also chapters on population growth, poverty, and global politics.
For me, the most enlightening chapters were on US foreign policy and how these policies help solve (or more correctly fail to solve) global problems. Having traveled outside of the US, it now makes sense to me WHY everyone dislikes the US so much - the US takes the attitude of "you're with us or against us" rather than one of cooperation and neighborly conduct. The problems the world faces today are ones that everyone has a hand in causing and in resolving, and one country acting like they can just let the other countries deal with their own problems will eventually be detrimental to the world.
Another interesting section in the book was the statistics on foreign aid. I never saw the statistics on it before, but there is definitely a correlation between amount of foreign aid given to developing countries and how successful they became later. Foreign aid can help stop the poverty trap and prevent civil wars and conflicts that engulf the world from happening. Countries that have a large percentage of its population in extreme poverty are more likely to have troubled communities desperate to survive. Add on the environmental stress of climate chance, such as water scarcity and food shortage, and uncontrolled population growth, and you have a potentially explosive situation on your hands. Places where civil wars and conflicts that have occurred in the last few years have all been places where there was a high percentage of young people and where there was high environmental stress.
In short, I found the book really enlightening and I highly recommend everyone to read it, especially fellow Americans!
The book includes a bit of everything - science, politics, social concerns, population demographics, economics. For those who aren't as familiar with climate change, Sachs gives a nice and easy to understand summary of the scientific evidence for global climate change and the environmental consequences that will follow. There are also chapters on population growth, poverty, and global politics.
For me, the most enlightening chapters were on US foreign policy and how these policies help solve (or more correctly fail to solve) global problems. Having traveled outside of the US, it now makes sense to me WHY everyone dislikes the US so much - the US takes the attitude of "you're with us or against us" rather than one of cooperation and neighborly conduct. The problems the world faces today are ones that everyone has a hand in causing and in resolving, and one country acting like they can just let the other countries deal with their own problems will eventually be detrimental to the world.
Another interesting section in the book was the statistics on foreign aid. I never saw the statistics on it before, but there is definitely a correlation between amount of foreign aid given to developing countries and how successful they became later. Foreign aid can help stop the poverty trap and prevent civil wars and conflicts that engulf the world from happening. Countries that have a large percentage of its population in extreme poverty are more likely to have troubled communities desperate to survive. Add on the environmental stress of climate chance, such as water scarcity and food shortage, and uncontrolled population growth, and you have a potentially explosive situation on your hands. Places where civil wars and conflicts that have occurred in the last few years have all been places where there was a high percentage of young people and where there was high environmental stress.
In short, I found the book really enlightening and I highly recommend everyone to read it, especially fellow Americans!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Peru, indigenous communities, and going back to traditions
Dealing with climate change with ancient traditions: Peru is going back to farming traditions that indigenous people living there centuries ago. This includes planting crops that are adapted to the land, temperature, and weather, such as the huaña pink potato which lasts 4 times longer than normal potatoes in storage and which can resist frost, hail, extreme rain and drought. Peruvian farmers are also looking into different techniques of farming, such as level terraces on the mountains and hillsides. It's very promising that organizations are now looking into local traditions that have persisted through the years as a way to combat climate change. While not all traditions are equally efficient or relevant now, there are many benefits from learning from the past, especially if they are traditions that had been honed for that particular environment over many years. Jared Diamond writes of successful (and unsuccessful) societies from the past and present in his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, including examples of farming methodology and government structure that may be worthwhile to explore now.
In another article about Peru, Peru is now one of the leading Latin American countries for indigenous communities rights. A new law recognizing land ownership rights has now come into effect, which can help reduce social conflict between locals and companies interested in mining, logging, or other resource extraction. It'll be seen whether the government takes the consultation of such indigenous leaders into consideration when making decisions, as some countries make decisions contrary to the wishes of their indigenous communities despite having consulted them.
In another article about Peru, Peru is now one of the leading Latin American countries for indigenous communities rights. A new law recognizing land ownership rights has now come into effect, which can help reduce social conflict between locals and companies interested in mining, logging, or other resource extraction. It'll be seen whether the government takes the consultation of such indigenous leaders into consideration when making decisions, as some countries make decisions contrary to the wishes of their indigenous communities despite having consulted them.
Friday, September 2, 2011
DPI Climate Dogs
The Australian Department of Primary Industries made these really cute, but informative videos about the interactions of El Nino and La Nina affecting the weather patterns in Australia. They're one of the reasons why Melbourne had a cold and rainy year. Check them out! More information can be found here at the DPI website
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Politicizing climate science is ultimately deterimental to the world
Recent news about politicians such as Texas Governor Rick Perry and his views on climate science makes me so frustrated. Perry’s comments that climate scientists "manipulate" their data to keep "dollars rolling into their projects" are completely contrary to what scientists actually do and frankly, by that logic, every scientific field would be subject to the same incentive to manipulate data for funding. Climate scientists are after the factual truth about climate change, not some political agenda. I agree with Andrew Dessler of the Texas A&M Department of Atmospheric Sciences:
That is the most disconcerting part to me – scientists should always be critical about their work and that of their peers, but not for political reasons. To jump from climate data to minimizing the role of government seems to me something that is completely driven by political ideology and it has no place in science.
Another interesting article I came across recently was this describing how white conservative males tend to doubt climate change more than the general population. Again, it’s pointing to how climate science gets politicized from the right in the US, from those in organizations with outspoken views and resources to publicize them. It doesn’t surprise me that the trend towards climate skepticism is increasing in this group from the way the issue is so vehemently denied and associated with extreme anti-Americanism or anti-business in conservative networks. Interestingly, social conservatism isn’t always linked with disbelief in climate change – the UK and Germany were cited as examples – which makes me wonder why the US alone is so set against climate change.
My thoughts from all this is that American politicians are holding too much to their ideologies and not paying attention to facts. When people are unwilling to be flexible with their views, they cannot do what is best for the whole community. It doesn’t matter if the first ones to be hit aren’t going to well-off Americans; there are already people suffering from rising sea levels, prolonged drought, and poor agricultural yields. We as human beings have a responsibility to take care of each other and this planet. This isn’t about who’s right or who’s wrong or what political party is in charge – this is about everyone’s well-being in the present, as in NOW. We are in a point in time when action needs to be taken by community leaders on environmental issues like climate change and unless the political right gets their heads out of the sand, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble.
There are things the everyday person can do, however, and the first and foremost is to get informed on the issue. For credible sources of information on climate science, here are some resources provided by the Australian Primary Industries Adaptation Research Network (PIARN):
Climate Change Guide for the Perplexed New Scientist magazine
Skeptical Science 'Getting skeptical about global warming skepticism'
Facts and Fictions About Climate Change The Royal Society UK
The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007
I would add that the governor has it exactly backwards. There is evidence that climate skeptics are working off a political agenda. See [University of Alabama-Huntsville scientist and climate change skeptic] Roy Spencer’s statement, "I view my job a little like a legislator, supported by the taxpayer, to protect the interests of the taxpayer and to minimize the role of government." There’s no way that you can reach that conclusion by looking at data, and it is typical of the political views of skeptics. It’s a pre-determined political goal.
That is the most disconcerting part to me – scientists should always be critical about their work and that of their peers, but not for political reasons. To jump from climate data to minimizing the role of government seems to me something that is completely driven by political ideology and it has no place in science.
Another interesting article I came across recently was this describing how white conservative males tend to doubt climate change more than the general population. Again, it’s pointing to how climate science gets politicized from the right in the US, from those in organizations with outspoken views and resources to publicize them. It doesn’t surprise me that the trend towards climate skepticism is increasing in this group from the way the issue is so vehemently denied and associated with extreme anti-Americanism or anti-business in conservative networks. Interestingly, social conservatism isn’t always linked with disbelief in climate change – the UK and Germany were cited as examples – which makes me wonder why the US alone is so set against climate change.
My thoughts from all this is that American politicians are holding too much to their ideologies and not paying attention to facts. When people are unwilling to be flexible with their views, they cannot do what is best for the whole community. It doesn’t matter if the first ones to be hit aren’t going to well-off Americans; there are already people suffering from rising sea levels, prolonged drought, and poor agricultural yields. We as human beings have a responsibility to take care of each other and this planet. This isn’t about who’s right or who’s wrong or what political party is in charge – this is about everyone’s well-being in the present, as in NOW. We are in a point in time when action needs to be taken by community leaders on environmental issues like climate change and unless the political right gets their heads out of the sand, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble.
There are things the everyday person can do, however, and the first and foremost is to get informed on the issue. For credible sources of information on climate science, here are some resources provided by the Australian Primary Industries Adaptation Research Network (PIARN):
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