hoy celebramos 30 años de protección de la Antártida, la última frontera de nuestro planeta y uno de los pocos ecosistemas que permanece prácticamente intacto por el ser humano.
Hasta 20 millones de pingüinos anidan, bucean y buscan alimento en este vasto continente de hielo. Las ballenas
migran miles de kilómetros para alimentarse de krill en sus aguas
gélidas. Incluso hoy en día, seguimos descubriendo nuevas especies en
las profundidades del océano Antártico.
Pero debajo del hielo, hay algo más: petróleo.
Cientos de miles de millones de barriles. Por eso en la década de los
80, los gobiernos y las empresas quisieron repartirse la Antártida y
empezar a buscar crudo, a pesar de que un solo vertido podría devastar
la zona.
Teníamos que actuar. Sabíamos que los gobiernos sólo podrían reclamar la Antártida si construían una base allí. Así que, para ganarnos un lugar en la mesa de negociaciones del tratado Antártico, establecimos nuestra propia base.
En 1987, zarpamos al extremo sur del planeta.
Nos dijeron que era ridículo. Al principio, los gobiernos recibieron
nuestra base antártica con mucha hostilidad. Pero después de siete años
de campaña, Greenpeace pasó de ser objeto de risa a convertirse en un
actor respetado en las negociaciones por el futuro del continente.
Gracias a nuestro trabajo, poco a poco, más y
más países fueron sumándose a la prohibición de perforar en busca de
combustibles fósiles. Y finalmente, el 4
de octubre de 1991 se firmó este visionario acuerdo que hoy celebramos,
el Protocolo de Madrid, que prohibía toda explotación minera y
petrolífera en el continente helado. Con dos lecciones
importantes: respetar los límites planetarios y aprender a vivir dentro
de ellos, en lugar de correr hacia los confines del mundo para
explotarlos, y que todo es posible cuando trabajamos juntos.
Esta es la historia de cómo ganamos y cómo podemos volver a ganar. Susan, muchas gracias por hacer que todo siga siendo posible.
Ahora que Greenpeace cumple 50 años,
nos ponemos a recordar todo lo que hemos logrado juntos. Si hoy la
Antártida está fuera del alcance de la industria de los combustibles
fósiles, es gracias a socios y socias de Greenpeace como tú, Susan.
Los descubrimientos científicos que tienen
lugar allí, hoy juegan un papel muy importante para ayudarnos a
comprender la crisis climática y de biodiversidad que vivimos.
Como sabes, en Greenpeace estamos
presionando a los gobiernos para que vayan más allá y tomen medidas para
proteger también el océano Antártico. Más de tres millones y medio de personas
se han unido a nuestra campaña pidiendo a los gobiernos que creen una
red de santuarios marinos totalmente a salvo de la sobrepesca y la
contaminación en aguas internacionales.
Y será en 2022, tras la pausa de la pandemia
también global, cuando se retomarán las negociaciones en la ONU para
abrir la puerta a esta protección.
Para poder
lograr esta victoria, al igual que hicimos hace tres décadas, tenemos
que hacer que esta campaña siga creciendo. Hoy hemos desplegado varias
pancartas ante las autoridades en el acto oficial de celebración de este
acuerdo. Queremos que esta protección se extienda a todo el planeta con
un Tratado Global de los Océano.
Sois valientes Greenpeace, muchos gracias para todo que haceis.
El cancion del blog para hoy esta: "Friends will be friends" by Queen
At last some really good news on the animal testing and research front!
By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson of the Humane Society United States
On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor
of a resolution that calls on the European Commission to draw-up an
action plan to phase out animal experiments. This is a momentous
political victory in a region where recent setbacks have occurred for
animals in laboratories.
Top on the list of setbacks is the revelation that the European Chemical Agency has disregarded the longstanding ban
on animal testing for cosmetics by demanding additional animal data for
dozens of cosmetic ingredients, which has already killed an estimated
25,000 animals. Humane Society International’s stop-motion short film “Save Ralph” has helped raise awareness on the fact that the public has been misled about the EU’s cosmetics ban.
Many more animals may die in painful toxicity tests if the European
Commission implements its Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability Towards a
Toxic-Free Environment, which as proposed would further cement the EU’s
“tick-box” approach to chemical hazard assessment based predominantly
on animal testing. The Parliament’s resolution correctly points out that
non-animal approaches based on human biology are the key to better
assess chemical safety. That is one of the reasons why, in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency has committed to phase-out its animal tests requirements by 2035, and the Humane Cosmetics Act is gathering steam in Congress.
The resolution in favor of an action plan to phase out animal
testing was championed by HSI/Europe and other animal protection groups,
leading European scientists and companies. The overwhelming cross-party
support shown by Members of the European Parliament reflects the
growing dismay felt toward recent actions and proposals by European
Chemical Agency and the European Commission.
The resolution is a strong statement that covers all animal use for
research, testing and education, a sobering reminder of the nearly 10
million animals used annually in European laboratories. Nearly 70% of
these animals are used in biomedical research, an area where, according
to statistics, little to no reduction has been achieved despite a
35-year-old legal requirement that animals must not be used where
alternatives are available. Continued reliance on animals as a first
resort cannot be justified or allowed to persist in light of the modern
non-animal technologies like human organ-chips and next-generation computer models now available.
Recognizing that science has evolved, the Parliament is calling for
deep, systemic changes, noting that phasing out animal experiments will
require “preferential funding of non-animal methods across all EU
research and innovation initiatives,” training scientists in novel
approaches and supporting start-up companies offering and perfecting
these methods.
Hastening the transition to human-focused approaches
to testing and health research is in all our interests. EU
parliamentarians should be applauded for their vision and leadership,
and other nations are encouraged to follow suit.
Now, we need public voices to join our call to make sure the European Commission listens and delivers an ambitious and life-saving action plan.
Sara Amundson is president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
Even in our age of advanced technologies, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice
and rats continue to have chemicals and substances forced down their
throats, dripped into their eyes or slathered on their skin to satisfy
new regulatory demands that undercut progress against cosmetic animal
testing. That’s why we put so much effort into legislative and
regulatory change—removing the driver for new animal testing and ultimately banning it.
So, we rejoiced last week when Mexico became the first nation in
North America to pass a law banning animal testing for cosmetics. Once
enacted, the new law also bans the manufacture, import and marketing of
cosmetics tested on animals elsewhere in the world. With the addition of
Mexico, 41 countries have banned such testing. Also, seven states in
the U.S. have prohibited the sale of animal-tested cosmetics and 10
states in Brazil have also enacted bans.
Over the years, we have largely campaigned against cosmetic animal
testing because of the terrible suffering and loss of animal life
inherent to such procedures. As we approach critical mass in our global
effort to end cosmetics testing on animals, it is more important than
ever that we make it clear that we do not just stand against animal suffering, we also stand for
something: The transition to state-of-the-art non-animal methods that
are rapid, inexpensive, more accurate and simply better at assuring safe
use for humans. This is part of a vision of a more humane world in
which corporate, institutional and public policies take animals’
interests deeply into account, a world that recognizes their dependence
on us, does real justice by them and seeks to draw out the best in
ourselves.
In Mexico, members of the Senado de la República unanimously adopted
the federal bill to end cosmetic animal testing thanks to the bill’s
champions, Senator Ricardo Monreal, Humane Society International/Mexico,
Mexican animal organization Te Protejo and other key stakeholders. HSI’s stop-motion animated film “Save Ralph”
also played a pivotal role in carrying this law across the finish line.
The film—which tells the story of a rabbit “tester” through voices from
a multinational, multilingual cast of stars, and went viral worldwide
with more than 150 million social media views and over 740 million tags
on TikTok—helped to generate more than 1.3 million petition signatures
in Mexico.
Companies like Lush, Unilever, P&G, L’Oréal, Avon and Givaudan are working with HSI through the Animal-Free Safety Assessment Collaboration
to secure stronger policy alignment and provide training in modern,
non-animal approaches to cosmetic safety assessment to build capacity
across the global industry, together with acceptance by regulatory
authorities. But the U.S., Canada,
Brazil and other major economies still lag behind the now 41 other
nations who have taken a federal stand against cosmetic testing on
animals. That’s why our public policy work is laser-focused on these
remaining target nations for the campaign. In the U.S. we are also
pressing for state laws banning the sale of animal-tested cosmetics, building on the steady progress of the last year.
Within the next few weeks, we expect to see the reintroduction of the Humane Cosmetics Act in the U.S. Congress, and we’ll be doing all that we can to secure its passage. .
Sara Amundson is president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
Even more good news for dogs in the USA, hopefully this is just the start and other countries will follow suit.
A massive blow to puppy mill industry: Illinois ends the sale of puppies in pet stores
In a major win in the fight against cruel puppy mills,
Illinois’ Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed the Humane Pet Store Bill (HB
1711) into law. The state’s 21 puppy-selling pet stores have 180 days
from August 27, the date the bill was signed, to stop selling
commercially raised puppies and kittens. This effectively closes out a
profitable sales channel for puppy mills and will drive the Illinois pet
market towards more humane sources like shelters, rescues and
responsible breeders.
Illinois pet stores sell thousands of puppies each year from
large-scale commercial breeders and brokers who treat mother dogs as
little more than breeding machines and puppies as mere products to be
shipped to pet stores and sold. Many of these operations have terrible
animal welfare records, impacting the health of the puppies. When
families acquire ill puppies, this can lead to high veterinary bills and
the puppies can even die within weeks of purchase, leaving families
heartbroken. The new law sends a clear message: The days when pet stores
can showcase the cute puppy or kitten in the window while puppy and
kitten mills hide their horrors are coming to an end. Despite the vast
resources the pet stores put into fighting this legislation, it passed
both the state House and Senate by strong bipartisan majorities. And
Gov. Pritzker did not cave to the veto campaign that followed its
passage. Instead, lawmakers, led by Republican Rep. Andrew Chesney and
Democratic Sen. Cristina Castro, sided with the people of Illinois who
called and emailed by the thousands to urge support for this important
law.
Illinois now joins California, Maryland, Maine, Washington and
nearly 400 localities across 30 states in prohibiting the sale of puppy
mill puppies in pet stores. The writing is on the wall for puppy-selling
pet stores: It’s time to cut ties with puppy mills and, rather than add
to the pet overpopulation crisis that is currently gripping large parts
of the nation, pet stores should look to join with shelters and rescues
to increase adoptions of animals who would otherwise be left homeless.
Petland, the largest retailer of puppy mill puppies and a company we’ve criticized for mistreating animals, selling sick animals and sourcing from some of the worst breeders in the nation,
will be affected by the Illinois law. Eight Petland stores in the state
will have to stop selling puppies in the coming months, and the recent
passage of pet store ordinances in Florida counties adds four more
elsewhere in the country. As a dominant force in the industry, Petland
should take a good look at where things are moving and shift all its
stores away from selling puppies.
The strong stand by Illinois lawmakers against puppy mill cruelty
this session did not stop with the pet store bill. The state also became
the first in the nation to prohibit the financing of dog and cat
purchases with the enactment of HB 572. Because puppy mill puppies are often sold for thousands of dollars to
those who may not be able to afford them outright, some stores offer
financing as an incentive to close the sale. Pet stores and large
internet brokers often promise low-interest financing through
third-party lenders that end up charging exorbitantly high-interest
rates and hidden fees. Petland customers have complained of interest
rates as high as 188%, and in some cases, customers must make payments
for years after their pets died. HB 572 passed unanimously in both
chambers, showing zero tolerance for these predatory practices.
With the momentum of public opinion and bipartisan lawmakers on our
side, we will continue full steam ahead until puppy mills no longer
exist. New York, with more than 60 puppy-selling stores, is in the
middle of a two-year legislative session in which a humane pet store
bill has already passed the state Senate. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and
Massachusetts also have active bills, and there are several key local
ordinance votes coming up. We are campaigning for the passage of these
laws in communities around the country that are affected by the impacts
of puppy mills, leading the charge for a more humane future for puppies
and kittens.
What absolutely brilliant news for animals. It´s about time that something good came out of the years of campaigning by many dedicated people. Well done to those people and thank you for all that have done, are doing and will continue to do for animals!
The blog song for today is: "Heroes" by David Bowie
Scientists couldn’t be more clear. For humanity to avoid climate
disaster and remain below the 1.5°C threshold set out in the 2015 Paris
Climate Agreement, society must radically transform. We need to change
our energy, transport, and food systems fundamentally and quickly.
Why
food? According to scientists from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), land use for farming is responsible for
one-quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Corporate
food giants like JBS, Tysons, AMD, Cargill and CP and others operate a
runaway industrial food system that gobbles up more and more land to
raise cows, pigs, and chickens and grow the maize and soya that feeds
them.
Livestock alone already accounts for 14.5 % of all global GHG
emissions, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO). Also, industrial farming produces about half of global methane, 28 times more warming than CO2. Bottom line: If we don’t fix food, we don’t fix the climate, equity and justice.
This year, the UN convened the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS).
Announced in 2019, the UNFSS was billed as an ambitious attempt to
address food’s role in the climate crisis and reach the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals to “feed the world.” Though launched with good
intentions, the organisers together with member states have made
critical errors.
First, organizers paid little attention to an
established “multilateral” approach where member states and civil
society organizations, like the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM), equally set the agenda on big summits. Instead, corporate food players like the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (which includes Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo.), Google Food Services and the Consumer Goods Forum featured more prominently.
Second, crucial issues like the rights of local communities,
Indigeneous Peoples, and smallholder farmers weren’t prioritized. The
dominance of corporate players was so obvious that thousands of CSM
members and affiliates boycotted the pre-summit and organized a counter-summit in protest, with the hashtag #FoodSystems4People.
After this week, UNFSS organizers will pass the various
recommendations to UN food agencies and national governments to
implement. But there are already signs that the summit outcomes won’t
take the food-climate crisis as seriously as science requires.
The initial recommendations emerging from the UNFSS’ so-called “sustainable livestock cluster”
advocates for industry-promoted technical fixes like genetically
modified ‘ethiochicken’ to produce more eggs or ‘precision livestock
farming’ to use big data to track herds in pastures and feedlots.
Moreover, the recommendations skirt away from corporate accountability
and the need for corporate transformation. None of the
recommendations address the scientific imperative: we must drastically
reduce our meat and dairy production and consumption and radically shift
our food systems toward ecologically produced plant-rich diets.
According to Greenpeace’s definitive 2018 scientific report
on livestock’s role in the climate crisis, we need a global reduction
of 50% in production and consumption of meat and dairy products by 2050
to stay under 1.5°C. Why? Livestock is responsible for the majority of
food’s GHG emissions. If left unchecked, agriculture is projected to
produce 52% of global greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades,
70% of which will come from meat and dairy, most of which produced
unsustainably by corporate players.
But business as usual expansion is exactly what the livestock industry wants. Agribusiness industry groups like the Global Dairy Platform, International Meat Secretariat, International Poultry Council,
and others are already lobbying the UN to form a ‘Coalition of Action
on Sustainable Livestock’, dominated entirely by pro-livestock
researchers and lobbyists. Greenpeace UK’s investigative arm, Unearthed, just published an expose showing how far the meat and dairy lobby is willing to go.
If successful, these livestock industry groups will continue setting
the agenda and endlessly expand, pushing us toward a climate and public
health disaster. More forests will be cleared for cattle and feed. Meat
heavy diets will drive continued high rates of cancer, heart disease and
obesity. Smallholder farmers, landowners, fisherfolk, Indigenous
Peoples and the world’s impoverished will be left on the sidelines with
no input.
The science is clear. To survive the climate crisis, we’ll need less
land devoted to animal grazing and feed, not more. We need plant-rich
diets, not meat-heavy diets that damage our health and planet. The UNFSS
is creating the illusion of real action without addressing these
inconvenient truths.
If governments want real solutions, they must amplify the voices of
the small-scale producers and communities they claim to support. In
pandemic times, they must support smallholder farmers, landowners, and
Indigenous Peoples and push back on neocolonial food expansion. They
must reverse the endless expansion of corporations into natural
ecosystems and embrace ecological food systems that put food sovereignty
and people’s wellbeing at the core.
The UN, national governments and corporations must listen to
scientists and local communities and stand up to the industrial
livestock lobby’s lie that only they can feed the world. They must
decide if their legacy will be to fiddle while the planet burns.
So after reading this article and realising that a lot of us are already aware of this and trying to do something about it, as always it is about reaching others and hoping that they make at least one small change to their lifetsyle. This really is the time to do something, at the end of the day it is not for us, but for our children, grandchildren and those who follow.
We must get our act together so we don´t leave a huge pile of crap for future generations.
The blog song for today is: " Don´t look back in anger" by Oasis
Hello. COP26,
the most important climate change summit in six years, is almost upon
us. Here’s a news digest, followed by an interview with one of the
architects of the
2015 Paris Agreement.
A
UN analysis today revealed a bleak upward trajectory for global CO2
emissions, despite new CO2-curbing plans by scores of countries,
including major emitters such as the US and the European Union’s 27
member states.
Global
emissions will rise 16 per cent by 2030 on 2010 levels under
governments’ plans put forward since the start of 2020, according to the
synthesis report from UN Climate Change. That puts the world ruinously
off track for the 45 per cent cut that climate scientists say is needed to meet the Paris deal’s goal of holding global warming to 1.5°C.
“This
report is really showing us sobering numbers,” says Patricia Espinosa
at UN Climate Change. “But it is also still showing the progress to the
1.5°C goal is possible. The latest IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report says there is still this window open. It’s a very, very small window, that is true. The 1.5°C goal is, in my view, alive.”
There
are some reasons to be hopeful. One is that the report does not count
political announcements that have not yet been translated into official
plans submitted to the UN, such as China’s promise to peak emissions before 2030. A second is that the 16 per cent increase ignores pledges in developing countries’ plans that are conditional on greater finance or support from developed countries.Thirdly, looking at the 113 parties to the Paris Agreement that
did put forward new plans, their emissions will decrease 12 per cent by
2030, compared with 2010 levels.
The COP26 summit, due to begin on 1 November, will be key to keeping on track for 1.5°C, but some green groups have called
for the meeting to be delayed, because not all delegates will have had
access to covid-19 vaccines in their home country. In response, a group
of nations vulnerable to climate change insisted
that it must go ahead. There remains no sign or hint from COP26’s
hosts, the UK and Italian governments, that the summit won’t go ahead.
Meanwhile,
US climate envoy John Kerry and the COP26 president Alok Sharma have
both recently been in China, meeting in-person with the country’s chief
climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, and with other officials via video
link. It’s not clear the visits have yielded the results the US and UK
hoped for. Instead of issuing a new emissions reductions plan, China
warned the US that cooperation on climate change could not be separated
from differences on other issues. The Chinese government also
argued it is cutting emissions
faster than countries have in the past, while conveniently ignoring the
fact that the technologies to do so are now much more mature.
Next
Monday will be an important stepping stone towards COP26. UN
secretary-general António Guterres is gathering a select group of heads
of state, including Boris Johnson of the UK and Joe Biden of the US, to
elicit greater ambition on emissions reductions plans from countries, in
particular the G20 group of nations.
Espinosa,
referring to today’s UN synthesis analysis, says: “I certainly hope
this report is going to be one element for reflection for leaders when
they meet on Monday. It shows everyone needs to increase ambition in all
areas.” The challenge facing Guterres was also laid bare two days ago by an analysis – separate to the UN one – released by the non-profit Climate Action Tracker.
It found that three G20 countries – India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey –
have yet to even publish a new plan. Many other G20 members – including
Australia and Indonesia – have put forward new plans with the same old
targets.
All
this adds up to what might seem like a tough backdrop for COP26. To
inject a dose of optimism into this month’s newsletter, I talked with
Christiana Figueres, Espinosa’s predecessor. As the former executory
secretary of UN Climate Change and one of the key players who drove home
the Paris deal, she has a great insight into the summit’s prospects.
You can watch the full video interview by signing up for New Scientist’s Sustainable Future event on 25 September
. In the meantime, here are some highlights.
Adam Vaughan:What message did you take away from last month’s IPCC report? Christiana
Figueres: I was surprised by the categorical language that was used by
scientists and then approved by governments for this first section of
the sixth assessment report. Previous reports have been couched in much
more cautionary and conditional language, this just gives it to us
square, right through to the bare truth.
What strikes you about the extreme weather we’ve seen lately? Do we risk treating this as normal now? The
sad fact is climate change and extreme weather have become the norm.
That is actually alarming that we now see that as the norm. We are never
going to completely “solve” climate change. We are now in a state of
the planet and human history in which we will have to deal with a
permanently changed atmosphere and global environment.But at the same
time, I’ve never seen as much press coverage and concern, on the part of
institutions, civil society, organisations, of financial institutions,
as with this IPCC report – so that is a good thing.
Do these sort of impacts at 1°C of warming highlight the limit of adapting to climate change? People
dying in their basements because of flooding, in New York City, that
was a huge wake-up call. Yes, we are struggling to adapt. What that
reminds us is there is an inverted relationship between mitigation and
adaptation. The longer we wait to reduce our emissions to responsible
levels, the more we will be forced to adapt – or the more we will be
unable to adapt.
How well-prepared are we ahead of COP26 compared to the same time two months ahead of the Paris summit in 2015? My
memory, but human memory in general, is pathetically short. We look
back at Paris in 2015 and assume everything was already ironed out and
it was a very smooth walk into the Paris Agreement. Not the case. It was
a very, very difficult negotiation all the way to the last minute.
Secondly, we are in a very, very, difficult situation this year. The
fact no one has really been able to travel to get together, the fact
delegates have not been able to get into a room to reach common ground
for basically the good of two years. That’s very hard on a negotiation.
Fortunately, the US has come forward with a doubling up of its effort,
the EU is at a 55 per cent cut [by 2030]. Fortunately, we do have some
critical countries coming forward, but not all. And that’s the concern.
Should COP26 be delayed, as some groups have called for? If we didn’t have a deadline looming over, then we could say “oh let’s delay”. But let’s remember we’ve already delayed [COP26] one year.
No one has informed me we are delaying when 2030 is going to hit. And
that is our deadline. At 2030, we have to be at one half of emissions of
where we are now. So I very much applaud and respect the efforts of the
COP presidency to hold this COP with as normal conditions as possible.
What are the big issues going to be at COP26, in the run-up and at the summit? This
meeting is the deadline for all countries, I underline all countries,
to come forward with their new higher goals and much more ambitious
nationally determined contributions [emissions reduction plans]. In
addition to that, we have to have the promise fulfilled of the funding
for developing countries, the famous $100bn [a year] that has been on
the table forever, and should have been fulfilled by 2020. [Thirdly] we have to make more commitments to adaptation, because we have delayed so much.
And
then, perhaps most difficult of all, the price on carbon pollution.
That is the famous Article 6 that was not agreed to at Paris in 2015,
and has been straggling along ever since then without agreement among
all countries.
Can
the differences between countries be overcome on Article 6, about how
countries and companies can trade their emissions reductions? Absolutely.
It’s not simple but it’s also not rocket science. Furthermore, we don’t
start from zero. We had a thriving carbon market operating in the
global north and south, called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),
under the Kyoto Protocol [the climate treaty before the Paris
Agreement]. It had its rules, regulations, methodologies, it was
actually a very mature system. We need an upgrade of the CDM, and
inserted into the Paris Agreement. Let no one say we don’t know how to
do it, because we do.
What would your definition of a good outcome be for COP26? We
are expecting every country, every head of state in fact, to come to
the COP and announce what she or he are actually going to commit to in
terms of emissions reductions in the next five or 10 years. For me, the
expected outcome is that the sum total of that cannot guarantee that
we’re going to be at [on track for] 1.5°C by 2030. That is unrealistic.
But it should put us on the path towards [having] one half emissions by
2030. That for me would be successful."
Let´s hope that this is in fact the case at this very scary time for everyone on the planet. this was a most interesting read, given what is happening at this very moment. I think we can all agree mother earth is very unhappy with what we are doing to our one and only world. Here in Menorca yesterday we had never seen before flooding and breaking of canal banks. Ferreries was under water as was Es Mercadal. We must listen, stop flapping about and actually do something. As I have said all along, it is up to everybody to do their part. The blog song for today is "a thousand trees" by Stereophonics . TTFN
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4. After the cleanup
Make sure to wash your hands as soon as possible
Disinfect all the reusable equipment that was used during your cleanup
Publicize the success of your cleanup on social media. Tag us at
@EarthDay (or @EarthDayNetwork on Facebook) with the hashtag
#GreatGlobalCleanup, #TrashTag, or #Plogging. We love to feature our
volunteers!
Join the World’s Largest Environmental Movement!
This is taken from their website, however if you are like me and just want to do something on that day, then have a go!
If we can continue doing this type of stuff then maybe more people will feel guilty about throwing their litter in the street instead of putting it in the bin, which is usually just feet away!
This day starts a week of a global clean up campaign, hopefully people will continue to do world cleanup day every day and we may see a glorious change! It´s all about attitude!
So let´s keep on keeping on and make changes!
The saying of ¨ït´s not my job, just does´nt wash anymore" it´s all of our jobs!
The blog song for today is: "Changes" by David Bowie
The
so-called Fulfilment by Amazon programs, announced in a blog post on
Wednesday, will help to build a circular economy, the company said.
They
come less than two months after British broadcaster ITV reported that
Amazon is destroying millions of items of unsold stock at one of its 24
U.K. warehouses every year, including smart TVs, laptops, drones and
hairdryers.
One of the programs will allow third-party
businesses on Amazon to resell returned items as “used” products, Amazon
said. The other will allow sellers to use Amazon’s “wholesale resale
channel and technology” to recover a portion of their inventory cost
from returned items and excess stock.
In this article
Electronic waste is sorted and prepared for further processing reusing.LONDON — Amazon
has launched two programs as part of an effort to give products a
second life when they get returned to businesses that sell items on its
platform or fail to get sold in the first place.The so-called Fulfilment by Amazon programs, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, will help to build a circular economy, the company said.It comes less than two months after British broadcaster ITV reported
that Amazon is destroying millions of items of unsold stock at one of
its 24 U.K. warehouses every year, including smart TVs, laptops, drones
and hairdryers.
The online giant was sharply criticized by U.K.
lawmakers and environmental campaigners at the time and Prime Minister
Boris Johnson pledged to look into the allegations. In a blog post
on June 28, Greenpeace said ITV’s investigation showed it was clear
Amazon “works with within a business model built on greed and speed.”
The group also described the environmental and human cost of Amazon’s
wastefulness as “staggering.”
In response, Amazon had said it is
working toward a goal of zero product disposal and that no items are
currently sent to landfill in the U.K.The
first of Amazon’s new programs, known as “FBA Grade and Resell,” will
allow third-party businesses on Amazon to resell returned items as
“used” products, Amazon said.Under the program, returns are
automatically routed to Amazon for evaluation.
Once the product is
received, Amazon decides if it is: “Used - Like New, Used - Very Good,
Used - Good, or Used – Acceptable.” Sellers then set the price for the
item based on its condition.Amazon
said the program has been launched in the U.K., but it will be expanded
to the U.S. by the end of the year. FBA Grade and Resell will be rolled
out in Germany, France, Italy and Spain by early 2022.
The
company said a separate “FBA Liquidations” program will allow sellers to
use Amazon’s “wholesale resale channel and technology” to recover a
portion of their inventory cost from returned items and excess stock.
The program is live in the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and is set to go live in the U.K. in August.“Customer
returns are a fact of life for all retailers, and what to do with those
products is an industry-wide challenge,”
Libby Johnson McKee, a
director at Amazon, said in a statement. “These new programs are
examples of the steps we’re taking to ensure that products sold on
Amazon — whether by us or our small business partners — go to good use
and don’t become waste.”McKee added: “We hope these help build a
circular economy and reduce our impact on the planet. And we’re excited
that these program will also help the businesses selling on Amazon
reduce costs and grow their businesses.”
The whole thing is absolutely daft, what a waste of resources! Why don´t they donate these items to local schools or give to charities?
Its such a shame that they only did this when it was exposed to the world! But it doesn´t matter, it´s the end result that matters and they are doing something positive about the situation.
Good on you Amazon.
The blog song for today is " It´s a hard life¨by Queen
I’d
like to take a moment to introduce myself to you. Ko James tōku ingoa
and I’m the new Seabed Mining Campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa.
Ko Māhuhu-ki-te-rangi te waka
Ko Taurere te maunga
Ko Tāmaki te awa
Ko Ngāti Whātua te iwi
Ko Te Uri O Hau te hapū
Ko James Hita ahau ,
I’d
like to take a moment to introduce myself to you. Ko James tōku ingoa
and I’m the new Seabed Mining Campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa.
I began life as a young Māori boy growing up in urban Auckland. Living
in the suburbs of Tāmaki Makaurau I saw diversity, care, and compassion
amongst the community I grew to call family. Being raised in a community
with a large Pacific population, I developed a strong sense of home
with my Pacific brothers & sisters.
Whilst I saw happiness in the world, I also saw it being taken advantage
of. Our planet has been subjected to huge pressures from extractive
industries worldwide, being ripped apart for oil, gas, metals, and
minerals. I knew then that I needed to join my elders in fighting for
what is right: Protecting our natural environment.
The oceans are a direct lifeline to the people of the Pacific. A place
to harvest kaimoana, connect with one another, and to share knowledge.
Ko te wai te ora ngā mea katoa – water is the life giver of all things.
I’m humbled and privileged to be the Seabed Mining Campaigner at
Greenpeace Aotearoa, working to protect the ocean that is such a huge
part of my identity and culture.
There is a huge threat on the horizon. Seabed mining companies
are eyeing up the Pacific to yet again take advantage of its resources.
Dredging up soil from the bottom of the ocean, taking what is of “value”
to the industry, then pumping back the rest in a sediment plume,
leaving a trail of darkness and destruction behind.
The seabed mining industry PR spin promises untold riches and a
seemingly magical ability to do no harm, but their promises are empty
and their words are hollow. We’ve just recently seen a glaring example
of how untrustworthy the seabed mining industry is right here in
Aotearoa. The Media Council upheld a complaint by our allies Kiwis
Against Seabed Mining, and found two statements in an industry opinion
piece defending seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight, contained
lies. A decision by the Supreme Court around Trans Tasman Resources’
(TTR) bid to carry out seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight is
looming.
The good news is that it hasn’t started at full scale yet and we can stop it together!
I’ll be working to amplify the voices of indigenous people fighting
this industry, sharing their stories of resistance against this
dangerous new form of extraction. You can take a stand right now, by
learning more about the issue, sharing conversations about the risk of
seabed mining, and adding your name to the ever growing list of people
who want to see a ban on seabed mining both in NZ and around the world.
We’re calling for New Zealand to become the first country in the world to ban seabed mining - closing the doors to this nascent industry.
Many
communities in the Pacific are already mobilising to keep the mining
machines out, and as their neighbour it’s essential we join this call.
I look forward to sharing with you; the stories of the Pacific, and the
actions we can all take to stop seabed mining in its tracks. In the
meantime whanau, stay safe, warm, and healthy.
Ngā mihi nui koutou,
This sounds absolutely fantastic, if anyone has the time to sign the petition that would be really great.
If one country starts then the rest are sure to follow. As individuals we can all try to do our bit, but we need governments on board too, after all they are individuals too.
It is too late to stop some things but from now on we can slow down others. It is the responsibility of our generation now to do something.
The blog song for today is "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens
In June, a heat dome descended over the Pacific Northwest, sending temperatures soaring 30 to 40 degrees above normal. It was so hot that plants scorched in the soil, roads cracked, and streetcar cables melted in temperatures that reached over 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then, in July, extreme floods ripped through northwest Europe, leaving at least 199 dead. The same happened in China’s Henan province, where subways flooded, roads collapsed, and at least 99 people died. And last week, yet another heat dome swept the US, putting 17 states under some form of heat advisory.
Scientists and activists have been warning about climate
change for decades — and plenty of people around the world have
experienced its effects long before now. John Paul Mejia, for example,
became a climate organizer as a Miami high school student, after seeing
what Hurricane Irma did to “people who both looked like me, and came
from the same background as I did.” (Climate change didn’t cause
Hurricane Irma, but it did worsen its impacts.)
“These are the harbingers of climate change that
have now arrived in Germany,” said German Minister of the Environment
Svenja Schulze in response to the flooding in northwest Europe earlier
this year.
Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
“I understood the climate fight through the justice lens
from experience, not from an article,” Mejia, now a spokesperson for the
Sunrise Movement, which mobilizes youth to fight climate change, told
Vox.
But through the events of this summer, many Americans —
including those from more affluent communities that have been insulated
so far — have seen more direct and devastating impacts of climate change
on their own lives. For a lot of people, that can come with a sense of
despair: What can one person possibly do to save a world literally on fire?
“What happens is, when people first realize how bad it is, they feel powerless,” Mary Annaïse Heglar, a climate writer and co-creator of the podcast Hot Take, told Vox. With the extreme weather this year, “there’s a new wave of new people realizing how bad it is.”
Indeed, 40 percent of Americans feel helpless about climate change, and 29 percent feel hopeless, according to a December 2020 survey.
It’s also no surprise that these emotions are coming up during a
devastating pandemic — yet another global disaster over which individual
humans have seemingly little control.
To help stop climate change, we’ve sometimes been told to
change our personal habits: recycle, reuse, take shorter showers, etc.
But these individual choices are dwarfed by the actions of corporations
and countries.Just 100 companies are responsible for 70 percent of the world’s carbon emissions since 1988, according to one study,
and sweeping changes aren’t possible without government intervention.
Not to mention the fact that poverty and other factors constrain the
choices many people can make in the first place.
That’s why it will take government action, not just
individual sacrifice, to meaningfully rein in emissions. For example,
Congress could pass a nationwide clean electricity standard,
requiring utilities to get their electricity from renewable sources
like solar, rather than fossil fuels. Without that, even supposedly
environmentally-friendly individual decisions like driving an electric
car may not mean much, since that electricity could still come from
burning coal. And only governments have the money and authority for the improvements to public transit and other infrastructure that are needed to dramatically reduce emissions over the long term.
In recent years, there’s been growing awareness
of the outsize role that big companies and government entities play in
climate change. “We’ve really changed the conversation around climate
change away from individual action, which I think we really needed to
do,” Heglar said. However, now we’re “in danger of the pendulum swinging
too far,” she said, with people thinking “they can’t do anything at
all.”
Here are some ways Americans can think about — and act on — climate change
Giving upon our climate is not an
option, experts and advocates say. As Mejia puts it, “cynicism serves no
purpose but to uphold the status quo.”
Instead, people who’ve been steeped in climate action for
years or decades have some advice for those who might feeling powerless
today in the face of the problem.
Don’t try to do everything. Do what you can.
Individual “green” behaviors aren’t enough to stop
climate change on their own. And not all people have the same ability to
reduce their carbon footprints. Many Americans can’t afford solar
panels or insulation for their hot water heaters
— many others don’t live in places where they can control such things.
Time is also a factor — reducing waste in a society designed to produce a
lot of it is labor-intensive, and that labour often falls
disproportionately on women, as Alden Wicker reported at Vox.
So rather than beating ourselves up when we fall short of
environmental perfection — or criticizing others when they do — we can
choose the most meaningful actions that are doable for us. Things like
reducing consumption of animal products, driving less, and taking fewer
airplane flights likely have the biggest impact on our personal carbon use.
Everyone’s capabilities are different. Overall, “it’s
important to find the ways that you can reduce your consumption, that
work for your lifestyle and within your means,” Heglar said.
And it’s important to remember that those consumption
decisions are just the beginning. “It’s a good starting point, but it’s a
really dangerous stopping point,” Heglar said. People need to exercise
their power as consumers, but remember that they have power as citizens
and community members, too.
Think communally
The most important step, many say, is collective action.
In America, “we have such a myth of individualism,” said Humboldt
State’s Ray, also the author of A Field Guide to Climate Change: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.
That myth can make people feel “that they have no power, because they
can’t do anything against such as something so big as climate change.”
For many in climate movements, the antidote to that feeling — and the
way to build real power — is to band together.
At the Sunrise Movement, for example, that means advocating for a Green New Deal, alongside other priorities like climate investment in the infrastructure deal currently before Congress. The movement has hosted marches across the country in recent months to bring the Biden administration’s attention to the problem, as well as reaching out to more than 6.5 million voters in the 2020 election.
“Since the winds of change are blowing,” Mejia says, “why don’t we make them sail in our direction
The Sunrise Movement is just one of many groups working
on climate advocacy today, and for some, getting involved with
collective action can seem as daunting as reducing your individual
carbon footprint: Where do you even start? For Heglar, the answer is
simple: “You do what you’re good at, and you do your best.”
“If you’re good at organizing, organize. If you’re good
at taking care of people, take care of people who do other things,”
Heglar said. And “no matter who you are, build community.”
Around the world, people are already working on communal
solutions to environmental degradation, and have been for generations,
whether that’s Indigenous firefighting practices or the fight to protect the rainforest in Colombia. And for Americans looking for ways to join together to help one another and the planet, there are many options, like local mutual aid groups that help communities cope with the impact of climate change, such as by providing water and sunscreen during heat waves. Local Buy Nothing groups can help people reduce waste by giving away and sharing used items.
Putting pressure on elected officials is one of the most important collective actions people can take. People can urge their representatives in governments, state legislatures, and city governmentsto
support climate investments, public transit, and clean energy
standards, for example.
Getting involved in communities doesn’t just multiply
your impact — it can also stave off despair. Ray has seen this in her
classes at Humboldt State, in which she encourages students to build
trust, express their feelings about climate change, and essentially
practice for going out into the wider world. “The alleviation of anxiety
that happens when you’re working towards a common goal, even if it’s a
really depressing one, in community is actually very joyful and very
fulfilling,” she said.
Think long-term
Just as no one person can fix climate change, the crisis
isn’t going to be solved overnight — and it may not be “solved” in a
conventional way at all. In order to confront this fact, people need to
think of fighting climate change as a long-term process they engage with
over time, Heglar said.
We should see the problem “in the same realm that you
would see reproductive justice or racial justice or any other justice
issue,” she explained. “You would never say, what’s the one thing I can
do about racism?”
Especially since the uprisings last summer following the murder of George Floyd, more people — especially white people — arebeginning
to internalise the idea that the fight against racism will be a
long-term struggle, one that probably won’t ever be “over,” but that
they have a responsibility to keep committing to, again and again. And
racial justice activists have experience working for a cause that can
seem hopeless, and confronting an existential risk to themselves and
their families — but they keep doing the work anyway.
It’s also important to remember that for many communities
the world over, facing a major threat to the present and future is
nothing new. Anti-colonial and abolitionist movements “have had long
traditions of movement resilience that have a lot to teach the climate
movement,” Ray noted, including the message that climate change is not
“the first and only existential threat we’ve ever faced.”
Indeed, social movements from the opposition to apartheid
in South Africa to Indigenous rights activism here in the US have “seen
a lot of reason for despair, and no evidence for hope, and have still
figured out how to fight the fight,” Ray said.
Seek joy, but allow for grief
The fight against climate change can be slow, difficult,
and painful. But in order to stay committed for the long haul, people
need to think about the positive too, Ray said, to “actively discipline
into your life the cultivation of joy.”
That could mean something as simple as reading news about environmental success stories or successful activism in your local community. Ray is involved in a local group with the Just Transition movement,
which works toward an equitable shift away from fossil fuels, and says
“the newsletter that they send me is enough to keep me going.”
“The world is awful,” Ray said. “And there’s so much beauty, joy, and delight to be had too.”
Cliff divers spend time at High Rocks Park in Portland during the heat dome that descended over the Pacific Northwest in June.
Nathan Howard/Getty Images
It’s also okay to feel the awfulness of the world. After
all, climate change for many people today means risk to themselves or
their loved ones, or destruction of their homes or places they’ve come
to love. And part of acknowledging climate anxiety and grief, for people
not yet personally affected by disasters, can be asking yourself, “If I
am hurting so much, what is happening to people who are less
privileged?” Kritee, a senior climate scientist at the Environmental
Defense Fund, recently told the New York Times.
People who have been involved in climate science or
activism for years still feel sorrow, despair, or rage, Heglar said. In
fact, “I feel comforted by the fact I can still feel that way, because
it means I’m not desensitised,” she said. “I never want to be that
person who can look at the world burn and feel fine.”
But when climate grief or despair become overwhelming,
the key is to reach out to others in your community. “You are not the
only one feeling this way,” Heglar said, adding that “it benefits the
fossil fuel industry when you think you are. So find the other people
who are feeling it too.”
Given all this, it’s no surprise that “all of a sudden, everybody’s going into nihilism,” as Heglar puts it.
But experts say we’re notcompletely
powerless, and there’s a way to live in an age of climate change
without giving up or sticking your head in the sand. It’s not
necessarily about going vegan or making your home zero-waste, either.
The idea of reducing your personal carbon footprint,
while not inherently wrong, has often been used as a distraction,
“pitting working people against each other with morality choices about
how sustainable you are,” rather than “realizing how much you actually
have in common,” Mejia said.
Instead, many say the key to fighting despair is to think
beyond the individual and seek community support and solutions —
especially those that put pressure on governments and companiesto
make the large-scale changes that are necessary to truly curtail
emissions. As Heglar put it, “the most detrimental thing to climate
action is this feeling that we’re all in it alone.”
Many Americans are recognizing the reality of climate change
Climate anxiety and despair are far from new phenomena. But thisdisastrous summer has drivenhome
the message that the changing climate “is not something we can avoid,”
Sarah Jaquette Ray, leader of the Environmental Studies Program at
Humboldt State University, told Vox. “I’m literally talking to you from
the smoke right now.”
That message is showing up in polling. About a third of Americans
(and two-thirds of Republicans) still don’t believe that humans are
causing climate change, but a lot of people have been growing more
concerned in recent years. This year, for example, 50 percent of
participants in a Morning Consult poll
said the changing climate poses a “critical threat” to American
interests, up 6 percentage points from 2019 and 10 points from 2017.
American attitudes about what to do about climate change
are evolving too. Carbon emissions have often been treated as a problem
to be solved by changing our personal consumption habits, with an
explosion of green products
aimed at capitalizing on people’s desire to be environmentally
friendly. Aside from the irony of getting people to buy more stuff as a
way of reducing their environmental impact, this approach also obscured
the real culprits, many say: companies that produce or use large amounts
of fossil fuels, and governments that have been far too slow to curb
emissions.
Indeed, oil companies like ExxonMobil have used
sophisticated PR campaigns to make climate change seem like an issue of
personal responsibility, and deflect blame away from their own actions, as Rebecca Leber reported for Vox.
“A lot of the individualist solutions that have propagated across
society and across our discourse, such as the carbon footprint and the
idea of self-sacrifice in order to save the planet, really have the
fingerprints of a few oil companies,” Mejia said.
In truth, the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in the United States, transportation, electricity, and industry,
are only partly under individuals’ control. People can choose to use
less energy in their homes, but household electricity use only accounts
for about 10 percent of CO2 emissions in the US — even getting rid of it
entirely wouldn’t be enough to stop climate change. And while some
people can choose to drive an electric car or go car-free, they can’t
individually shut down coal plants or redesign America’s public transit
systems to make that an option for everyone.
It is something to think about and take heart over. We can do our bit as normal people but we need to put pressure on those big companies who surely must have children and grandchildren in the families of the owners. Is it a case of we´re all okay, we aren´t going to think of anyone else or the planet, well I hate to break it to you but the awful stuff will filter it´s way to you somehow. I am sure that one way or another they have been affected by the severe climate changes, fires, floods and tornadoes!
Onward we all must go, thinking positive and knowing that if each of us makes a small change the ripple effect will be awesome.
The blog song for today is "Chelsea Dagger" the Fratellis
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