EcoWorldly

There has been significant success in decreasing the levels of chemical contaminants in our nation’s water ways in recent years, thanks to the Clean Air and Water Acts passed by Congress. However, low levels of many contaminants (such as metals, pesticides, and synthetic molecules like PCBs) persist in many rivers and streams, home to salmon and related trout species.

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As Obama’s Climate Change Bill is debated, news comes from Europe about a great new way for consumers to participate in carbon emissions cap and trade schemes.

Usually consumers believe the only way cap and trade will affect them is through price differences based upon the amount of carbon emissions used in a product’s manufacture and delivery.

However Sandbag UK have come up with a brilliantly simple way of engaging consumers directly in the carbon market.

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The efficiency of current animal farming practices is an “illusion”, according to a report released last Summer by the Pew Charitable Trusts (May 30, 2008).

This “illusion” is made possible by “cheap grain, cheap water and prison-like confinement systems.” Underpinning this status is the drive for the lowest possible labor costs–meaning automated feeding, watering, and waste disposal is the norm–which undermines and impoverishes traditional, family and small farm operations (farms which are typically bought out by corporate farming conglomerates, who then receive  the lion’s share of subsidies; about half a trillion since 2001).

What some call “industrial” farming and others –like the Union of Concerned Scientists–more descriptively refer to as  “confined” farming, results in massive over-crowding of livestock where unsafe/unhealthy conditions prevail for both the  animals, and the workers. These conditions make the spread of disease easier, and lead to over use of antibiotics (which are also often used to keep young calves sickly, and their meat more tender). *

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We know a bit about the current situation on climate change. We know which countries are emitting the most global warming emissions. We know that the EU is actively implementing policies to get their emissions down and are serious about keeping climate change at the top of the priority list, even in one of the biggest economic struggles in history. We know that little nations like Tuvalu are working to address climate change. We know that ambitious and engaged countries are running into unseen problems and are unsure where to go in the future. We know that the US is looking to pass a climate bill for the first time and could change history in the process, and the USDA supports it but climate change groups, consumer advocate groups, and social equity groups are quite concerned about some of the changes made by the House of Representatives at the last minute. We know that China, India, and Brazil’s growth in greenhouse gas emissions have skyrocketed (several times faster than developed countries’ still growing emissions) in the past two decades.

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A study published in PLoS One has found that climatic conditions by the middle to end of the 21^st century will no longer support some of California’s main tree crops.

California’s Central Valley currently grows $9 Billion dollars worth of apples, walnuts, cherries, prunes, peaches, pistachios and almonds.

The study is the result of work on climate modeling based on the effects of likely climate change in California’s Central Valley. Temperatures have been rising a degree Fahreneheit for the last 30 years in California. Researchers project that the region will lose more than half its winter chill by the year 2100.

Within a century, warm winters will end production of these fruit and nut crops.

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Tuvalu is the tiny nation in the Pacific that sued the Bush administration because of sea level rise that was destroying its ability to sustain itself. (Tuvalu’s flag is number three above, with the stars of the Southern Cross.)

Climate change was affecting Tuvalu early - its gorgeous islands are only 3 feet above sea level. Crops were being destroyed by encroaching seawater from rising sea levels. Plans were being made to emigrate the entire nation to New Zealand by the end of the century.

Now it appears Tuvalu’s remaining 12,000 residents have a stay put and fight back plan:

Read the rest of this entry at Cleantechnica:

In a meeting with environment and energy ministers from other European countries yesterday, Sweden’s Minister of Environment, Andreas Carlgren, said that global economic problems should in no way slow movement to address climate change. Other leading European ministers agreed.

Economic problems today are in many ways a result of environmental missteps in the past. If we want a healthy economy in the future, we have to take the environment into account more than we have. The Swedish Minister of the Environment agrees and says that there should be no hesitation to combat climate change due to the current economic situation. Read the rest of this entry »

The EU is cutting electricity use equivalent to Sweden and Austria’s annual usage. In total, after previous ecodesign regulations, the savings will be greater than Italy’s total consumption by 2020.

The European Union (EU) agreed to cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 earlier this year. They stated: “The challenge is to spark a new industrial revolution that will deliver a low-energy economy, whilst making the energy we consume more secure.” In another move to spark this new industrial revolution, the European Commission added 4 new eco-design standards this week to the 5 they had previously set.

The four new eco-design measures will save as much electricity as Sweden and Austria use annually. Combined with the previous five measures, the electricity savings will be more than the total annual usage of Italy!
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You may not have heard of Ug99 yet, but, if its rapid spread continues unchecked, chances are you will not only be hearing about it, but you’ll be paying for it too. That’s because this fast-spreading strain of the fungus that causes stem rust–a seemingly unstoppable plant disease–and is now spreading around the globe and threatening to devastate the world’s wheat harvest.

One hopeful remedy may in fact lay in certain native, durum wheat species (”landraces”) found only in certain African nations–in particular, Ethiopia–which are believed to possess “slow rusting” genes. These native durum wheats are stronger (durum is Latin for “hard”) than7  other strains and originally evolved under much different environmental conditions than European and Western Hemisphere varieties. These durum landraces have most likely evolved slight gene variations as a result. These variations in gene sequences (and/or their expression in the wild), it is believed, can confer survival advantages to the plants when transplanted in a different locale.

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In the process of reconstructing the global economy especially after the G20 summit, where international trade protectionism was advised against, it would make sense to act in unison with respect to even conserving the environment and formulating common legislations on materials like plastic.

So why is it that the UK and Europe are looking at new initiatives to recycle plastic while developing countries (India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and even Rwanda) are looking to ban their use completely. Which is the more profitable and productive alternative? Read the rest of this entry »