Nobel Laureate: It is the People Who Must Stand Up For the Environment, Make Their Leaders Change

Fridays are the days I usually focus on good news. I think the best news around these days is that Rupert Murdoch and his right-wing, democracy-corrupting News International is finally being subjected to the harsh light of public and criminal investigation. Apparently last week, Murdoch’s media empire lost seven billion dollars worth of value in one day. Now that’s good news!

In another good news story, it turns out that forests play an even larger role in the Earth’s climate system than previously suspected.  According to a new study published in Science last week, this raises more concern about the risks from deforestation but also holds out hope for the potential gains from regrowth.

Werner Kurz, a scientist with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service who co-authored the paper, said the amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by forests is “good news” and reinforces what scientists had previously estimated — that forests are the biggest carbon sinks among land ecosystems.

“Right now, forests are helping,” he said, “but whether or not they will continue to help in the future will depend on the effect of human activities and climate change on the forest.” Read the full article on CBC.ca.

So if we buckle down and seriously address the issues of deforestation and reforestation across the globe – in the Amazon as well as in my backyard, the boreal forest – this could be a huge step towards stabilizing the world’s climate system. And who better to get inspiration from when talking about planting trees to heal the earth, than Wangari Maathai? Ms. Maathai is the Kenyan woman who started the Green Belt Movement which taught the women in her country how to plant trees, and who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work. Since 1977, GBM communities have planted over 45 million trees in Kenya to increase national forest cover and restore essential ecosystems. Here are some clips from Taking Root, a documentary by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater which tells Maathai’s story, “whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy—a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GX6JktJZg]

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Here’s a quote from Wangari Maathai to take into the weekend with you:

“It is the people who must save the environment. It is the people who must make their leaders change. And we cannot be intimidated. So we must stand up for what we believe in.” 

More links:

Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

The Green Belt Movement

Climate Change 2: Forests Soak Up Third of Fossil Fuel Emissions: “Science” Study

CBC.ca: Forests Absorb A Third of World’s CO2 Emissions

 

 

 

Bangladesh Surpasses Solar Energy Goal of One Million Homes, Sets New Target

I’ve declared today to be  “Good News Friday” on 350orbust. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of bad news out there, but today we’re going to focus on some feel-good stories to start the weekend off.

  • From a country that is too often in the news for tragic reasons, here’s a story that celebrates what can be done when a developing country decides to leapfrog over dependence on fossil fuels and conventional means of delivering power to households. Bangladesh had set a goal of powering one million households with solar energy by 2013, but achieved the landmark 18 months ahead of time. Officials say that over 5 million Bangladeshis now have access to home electricity because of solar technologies. Empowered by their success, the country has set a new goal of 2.5 million solar-powered households powered by 2014.

To read the full story click here.

  • Here in Canada, where our economy is dependent on the massively destructive and carbon-emitting Alberta tar sands, the NDP has announced that it is resurrecting the Climate Accountability Act that was killed in the unelected Conservative-dominated Senate last spring after being passed by the elected Members of Parliament.  Ironically, the Harper Cons have responded by saying that the NDP should heed the message sent in the last election (I guess it’s convenient for them to trot out “democracy” occasionally when it suits their purposes, although once again they are ignoring the fact that 60% of Canadians voted against them). Oh, right, this is a feel good blog posting, sorry, the Harper govt is guaranteed to ignite the ranter in me! Here’s the link to the story on CBC.ca: NDP Resurrects Climate Change Bill
  • I’m classifying this as a “good news” story because it shows that the judge in climate activist Tim DeChristopher’s trial is desperate to avoid media focus on the miscarriage of justice that is being carried out in Utah. Mr. DeChristopher disrupted an illegal U.S. government land auction in the dying days of the Bush administration (read more here) and was convicted in March after a trail in which he was not allowed to explain his motives or to mention the illegality of the auction.  As the Peaceful Uprising website states:

By issuing another last-minute delay, Judge Dee Benson has made it clear that he is desperate to avoid public accountability for the persecution of peaceful climate justice activist  Tim DeChristopher. The change was made directly following our announcement that there would be nationwide solidarity actions on June 23rd. It is another attempt to defeat citizen organizing, and it must not succeed.

Such delay tactics did not work before. Tim’s trial was rescheduled nine times over a period of two years–without explanation. They can do the same with the sentencing hearing, but those fighting for a just and healthy world know that we cannot wait.  

Click here to read more and to find out how to take action with Tim on the 23rd if you live in the United States – but don’t delay, it involves receiving a banner in the mail by that day!  In honour of Tim’s ongoing battle for a just and sustainable world, I’m reposting this video of his response after being convicted in March:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cae5Pr7CHgk&feature=player_embedded#at=13]

Searching For Good News This Friday

It seems like a good idea to end the week on a positive note, so lately I have been trying to do just that on my Friday blogs. However, this week has been a particularly discouraging one for those of us concerned about having a safe planet for our children and grandchildren. First, there was the death of climate legislation in the U.S., then there’s the just-published NOAA State of the Climate Report based on work by 300 scientists in 48 countries shows that, globally, the last 10 years have been the hottest on record. And let’s not forget about the study published in Nature shows that phytoplankton, a microscopic food crucial to marine life, is dying out due to the climate change-related rise in ocean temperatures. And I haven’t mentioned that this week marked the 100th day since the BP oil disaster began, or that Australia’s new Prime Minister Julia Gillard has taken the approach of another year of inaction while a “citizen’s consensus” group discusses climate change and carbon taxing. And please, let’s not even talk about “King Stephen“, our Canadian PM, whose pathetic stance on this urgent issue is “we won’t do anything until the Americans do”.

But today’s Friday, and some good news is in order – let’s see:

Via 350.org: President Patil of India has announced that the President’s estate, Rasthrapati Bhavan, is now a certified green building, including the installation of solar power! Click here for the full announcement.

Via the wall of the Facebook group 1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling, this personal story:

I met a fellow the other day. He was planting fruit trees on our orchard. He had quit his job in the Alberta tar sands after the BP spill. He described to me the dangerous conditions in which they work in, the horrible daily mess that he had to help clean up, the countless gallons of fresh water wasted and the guilt he… felt every day. He said that everyone in the oil industry knows that they’re running out and that they will continue to drill in more and more places where extraction is tricky regardless of the environmental costs. He was disgusted with the oil industry. He’s a good dad and was making good money there, but decided to quit, pack up, and start a new job/new life working with troubled youth. Hearing his story gave me hope that even those who work for Oil know the horrible cost it is having on our lives.

Via Climate Progress: EPA Strongly Reaffirms Scientific Basis for Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions That Endanger Public Health

And on a personal note, part of our roof-mounted 7 Kilowatt solar panel system just arrived.  It looks like it’s the aluminium rail mounting system; we’re still waiting for the actual panels. It means that we’re another step closer to being part of the Ontario microFIT program. More details – and pictures – to follow!

Via Earthpolicy.org: Did you know? A bicycle is a marvel of engineering efficiency, one where an investment in 22 pounds of metal and rubber boosts the efficiency of an individual mobility by a factor of three. Click here for information on the League of American Bicyclists.

And on that theme, this weekend you can be part of “National Don’t Use Your Car Day(s)”. If you are on Facebook and want to sign on, click here.

This past week, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of recognizing water and sanitation as human rights. Now that is good news – even though Canada abstained from the vote. For on this, check out the Council of Canadians website – www.canadians.org.

More links:

If you are in the U.S. and unhappy with the failure of the climate bill, go to 350.org’s “They Blew It. Let Them Know It” page where you can sign up to “shadow” your senator while he or she is on recess and send them the message that it’s outrageous that they threw up their hands over this crucial piece of legislation.

Dr. Mann Exonerated, and Other Climate Science News

From DeSmogBlog is an article about Penn State University’s investigation into allegations of cover-up and impropriety on the part of climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann.  As their report states, the university was prompted to investigate Dr. Mann after it:

began to receive numerous communications (emails, phone calls and letters) accusing Dr. Michael E. Mann of having engaged in acts that included manipulating data, destroying records and colluding to hamper the progress of scientific discourse around the issue of anthropogenic global warming from approximately 1998. These accusations were based on perceptions of the content of the widely reported theft of emails from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Great Britain.

Dr. Mann was cleared of any wrong doing in 3 of the 4 allegations outright – as the university’s report states, there is no “credible evidence” to substantiate any of the accusations brought against him.  As for the 4th allegation, that Dr. Mann seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting or reporting research or other scholarly activities, a separate panel of faculty members will pursue a follow-up investigation to satisfy the critics, so the verdict is still pending on that one.

It seems, though, that credible evidence is something that climate change denialists aren’t that familiar with.  According to DeSmogBlog, the denialists are trying to spin the university’s exoneration as a “whitewash”.  Click here to read the full article on DeSmogBlog.com, or click here to read the full university report.

Meanwhile, Matthew Bramley of the Alberta-based Pembina Institute discusses the Harper government’s failure to address the looming climate crisis and  formulate its own climate change plan in “Hitched to the U.S., Canada is going nowhere fast”.

Kate at Climate Sight just posted “A Good Batch Of News” where she discusses an article by Phil Duffy that discusses the fact that medical errors occur all the time (I spent 20 years working as a nurse, I know how true that is!) yet nobody is calling for a massive inquiry into the science underpinning modern medicine, or the engineering foundations of the car industry because Toyota has just issued a massive recall.

But pseudoskeptics argue that the IPCC is systematically fraudulent simply because a couple of statements among thousands of pages of heavily edited and re-editing (and re-re-edited) documents cite gray literature instead of the peer-reviewed literature that supplied the science in the first place.

This posting also discusses the censorship of comments on blogs, where she makes the astute comment that:

that the vast majority of Internet discussions regarding climate change turn into such a food fight that reasonable and insightful discussion falls through the cracks. Well-meaning and fact-checking people are so busy responding to the same old objections, or are so intimidated by trolling commentators (quick poll – who here has been called a Nazi for explaining basic atmospheric science?), that they do not post the wonderfully thought-provoking things that they have to say.

Click here to read the full article.