Biodiversity

HEMP

#Hemp is an incredibly versatile plant. Peter Miles tells us that we can make paper from fast growing hemp, instead of cutting trees, replace concrete, a major source of greenhouse gases, and make biodegradable plastics and textiles to help solve the serious problem of toxic microfibers and particles in the oceans, which poison the fish, and the people who eat them. Hemp can be eaten and is a good source of protein.

The hemp plant itself can restore depleted and even radioactive soils. Both the plant and the concrete sequester carbon. What’s not to like?

In Zimbabwe, without vested interests interfering, Peter’s company, eHemp.House, aims to help the country develop a decarbonized industrial base with hemp pellet fuel and local biodiesel for farm machinery. He hopes to spread to other African countries where hemp grows readily and can help bolster sustainable and better #lifestyles.

Forests: Mismanaged For Money

“Hazardous Fuel Reduction” is a euphemism for logging. Instead of protecting communities from fire, as the forest service would have us believe, thinning, clear cutting, and snag (dead tree) removal in the deep forest are all practices that damage soils, and increase both the intensity and speed of #wildfires. Making money from such programs as Clear Cuts for Kilowatts, the #ForestService is neither protecting forests, nor the communities that fire endangers. "Non-commercial only". These simple words need to be added to the Build Back Better Bill so that the $14 billion allocated for forests will actually protect them.

As Chad Hanson explains in his book, #Smokescreen, logging by any name and putting out large fires in the wildlands are not effective in preventing such tragedies as the Camp fire. Instead, the focus should be on fireproofing houses and regularly pruning the area surrounding them.
The actual wildland-urban interface is 100 feet, not miles away.

Beyond Code RED : IPCC 2022

The new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released this week, gives a dire warning: we are hitting “hard limits,” damage so extensive and ongoing that soon it will outpace our ability to adapt. We must act within this decade.

The report finds that up to 3.6 billion people live in areas highly vulnerable to the most immediate effects of climate change. Once #TippingPoints are reached, no place on Earth will be unaffected.

#Mitigation efforts we can take now will not be possible in a few years. The window of opportunity is closing.

This is what UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calls “an atlas for human suffering.”

Raya Salter speaks with Dr. Deborah Ley, a Lead Author of the #IPCC Report, which focuses on widespread and irreversible impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.
Dr. Ley is a climate change specialist and an Officer with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

If there is a bright side, it is that the report finds that societal choices can make all the difference. We have 10 years to stand up and fight for our lives, the natural world and the planet itself.

Foods for a Future, Conquering Disease with Plant Based Diet

We need #biodiversity, not only in the environment, but also in our diet. Dr. T. Colin Campbell first introduced what he called a “plant-based diet” to prevent disease in the 1980’s. He is joined in this discussion by oncologist Dr. Barry Boyd, whose own clinical experience led him to conclude that, by adopting this diet, patients would have far better outcomes.

Both doctors advocate whole foods rather than the reductionist practice of separating out single nutrients in pills or shots because nutrients need to work synergistically, as in an ecosystem, to be effective. In fact, high doses of beta carotene or B12 can actually increase the progression of cancers and other diseases.

They also note that farms have been replaced by industrial operations whose pesticides have penetrated the environment and can be found in our bodies. This is why organic food is so important. And, if we stopped growing feed for animals to produce meat and dairy, the bulk of these chemicals would no longer be used.

For a deeper dive into the science behind a plant-based diet, and to learn more about #nutrition, you can read Dr. Campbell's latest book, The Future of Nutrition, or enroll in the program Dr. Campbell mentions in this video.
https://nutritionstudies.org/courses/...

This Decisive Decade Luiz Marques

This is Part 2 of Facing Future TV’s discussion with Dr. Luiz Marques about his upcoming book, 'The Decisive Decade'.

Dr. Marques is a Professor of Environmental History at the State University of Campinas in São Paolo, Brazil. Here we discuss how war, overconsumption, pollution and ecological destruction are accelerating the #climate crisis while harming our health and the planet. This is fueled by global #capitalism and the grip of corporate control which rages unchecked. We must evolve to defeat the climate crisis - and this includes true accountability for corporate agents of ruin.

Dr. Luiz Marques, a leading proponent of #EcologicalEconomics (http://isecoeco.org) shows why an economy based on continuous exponential growth, is unsustainable.

An Inconvenient Apocalypse

The dream of endless bounty is over. We must save as much of Nature as is still possible and end the wealth-concentrating system that is destroying it. Wes Jackson, in his no-nonsense fashion, explains how our ecological collapse began with #agriculture, when we started to remove carbon from the soil to grow crops, then from the forests to build ships, and finally from the deep ground to build civilizations.

Now we need to power down as we face irreversible changes - inconvenient, to say the least.

Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen envision a transition - to fewer and less - to life without dense energy, with less destructive systems of agriculture. They chart a collective, realistic path for humanity - not only to survive, but also to emerge on the other side with a renewed appreciation of the larger living world, recognizing that the rediscovery of Nature, and of human connection is the greatest renaissance of all.

Their book, An Inconvenient #Apocalypse, Environmental Collapse, #Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity will be published by The University of Notre Dame Press in the fall of 2022 and will be available both in paper and in digital format.

The Great Transition

The ecosystem and civilization are unraveling in this decade. As the power of Nature becomes more evident, so does the call for the citizens of wealthy nations to make profound lifestyle changes.
Our adolescence is over. Maturity must come, either by choice, or through sorrow and grief as societies and living systems collapse in the decade ahead. #ClimateChange is upon us.

The future holds great challenges, pushing us to recognize the value of community, and a new paradigm in which consuming is no longer the basis of society. Instead, as citizens of a resilient, living universe, on a planet with limited resources, we must choose to respect and care for the Earth, our only home.

#VoluntarySimplicity, as proposed decades ago by #DuaneElgin, is now essential for survival.

Eco Restoration is Happening!

People in John D. Liu’s #EcoRestoration Camps are bringing back #biodiversity by restoring whole ecosystems on land that had been degraded by agriculture, overgrazing, mining and industry. A former filmmaker, John dreamed of camping on the land and bringing it back to life. It turned out that many people shared this dream and were willing to make it a reality.

There are now over a hundred such camps, and the movement is expanding around the world. Nature's amazing resilence is evident once #HydrologicalCycles return. The sequestration of carbon in healthy soils and plants could significantly stave off #ClimateChange, and give us time to recognize that the purpose of life is not to consume, but to care for each other and our incredible planet.

Regeneration – Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation

The biosphere is critically degenerating as climate systems collapse.

#PaulHawken argues that the only effective and timely way to address the crisis is to focus on the regeneration of Nature, and the rediscovery of humanity's interconnectedness. Weaving justice, #climate, #biodiversity, equity and human dignity into a tapestry of action, policy and transformation, Paul discusses his book, “Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation", with host Raya Salter.

In this conversation, Paul shares his early experiences as a young activist in the civil rights movement. He believes that only an inclusive movement that can engage the majority of humanity can save the world from the existential threat we now face.

The Carbon Underground, Making a Deal with Nature

At its root, the #ClimateCrisis demands that we nurture healthy soil filled with living organisms. #Biodiversity is essential. The monocultures and chemical inputs of industrial agriculture, the majority of which is grown to feed cattle, has created a climate disaster. Larry Kopald founded The Carbon Underground to foster #RegenerativeFarming methods, designed to restore the soil and to pull CO2 out of the air and back into the earth, because no technology can match the capacity of the planet itself to sequester the billions of tons of carbon we’ve put in the air.

A Conversation With God - The Creator Ain't Happy

Three trillion trees are missing, and the Creator is not happy to learn what’s happened to the forests and the oceans. Three quarters of the wild animals are gone. What’s the cause of all this devastation is it coal? oil? Or is the major driver of habitat destruction in fact an agri-culture based on providing the milk and meat of a few species - that use over 43 percent of the land, and an aqua- culture that kills trillions of fish and other ocean species for a measly 15% of it's diet?

Glen Merzer, author of Food is Climate, presents the case to the ultimate authority. Posing as a hapless UN official, he reveals the frailities of human nature and its curious culture of destruction.

Is it possible that humans will realize that a diet based in the vegetable kingdom will keep them healthier and bring back #Biodiversity, restoring the oceans and the land?

#ClimateChange must be mitigated by the same human species that caused it, and curtailing #AnimalAgriculture is at the center of the solution.

Climate Justice, COP27

#XiyeBastida, the 20-year-old Mexican activist and Dr. Stella Nyambura Mbau, whose work in Sub Saharan Africa fosters climate resilience, give firsthand testimony of the 'Loss and Damage' that has finally been included in the COP agenda. With hosts Raya Salter and Jem Bendell, they focus attention on the need for #ClimateJustice.

While delegates give speeches, and industries parade their wares at the side shows of #COP27, people in countries around the world who have contributed the least to the climate crisis, continue to suffer. This year, the drought in East Africa severed food supply for 22 million people, while record monsoons in Pakistan took 1,500 lives and uprooted 33 million people. Mudslides inundated villages in Central America, killing dozens and displacing 560,000 people.

Expectations are not high, but the US is signaling a willingness to discuss the issue more seriously.
As movements worldwide focus on climate justice, there is an increasing need for climate activism to focus on solidarity among and with those most affected in the global South.

Healing the Earth, The Real Work of Our Time

Eco Restoration is critical for the survival of life on our planet. At the forefront is John D. Liu whose #CommonlandFoundation has fostered 55 large scale projects around the world.

Siham Said, of the Habiba Community in South Sinai, Maximilian Abouleish-Boes, Sustainable Development Lead at the SEKEM community and Naglaa Ahmed, Manager of the Egyptian #Biodynamic Association describe their successes in reviving hydrological cycles and ecological function to what was once dried up land. Two thousand Egyptian farmers are doing the very real work of salvaging Nature, storing carbon, and developing a sustainable, organic agriculture. Using carbon credits, these projects continue a short distance, but a far cry, from the air conditioned and now empty halls of COP27.

Why Equality is Essential for Survival

Inequality creates discontent in all societies. #RichardWilkinson explains how it leads to the illusion that the purpose of life is to get rich, and to attain status, breeding a lack of trust and concern for the community as a whole. Instead, people have become obsessed with producing and consuming.

How can we change that? One way is to build more equal societies while repairing ecosystems. #JohnDLiu and Marteen Klop invite us to explore new communities based on equality and common purpose. Like seeds of a new culture, Global #EcoRestoration projects are germinating a collective intelligence that can take us to the next level of consciousness, a connectedness to Nature and each other, which is essential for any possibility of survival.

The Power of Forest Bathing

Anxiety. Grief. Catastrophic events heard in the news or felt in person. Coping is a major problem. We can’t act clearly unless we maintain our equilibrium. Where do we turn? Forests, whether in city parks or in the remaining wild places, provide extraordinary benefits. Aside from their incredible power to sequester carbon, they also help heal people both emotionally and physically.

Sylvie Rokab and Sheila Laffey, Ph.D., certified Nature therapy guides, describe how the practice of #ForestBathing boosts our immune system. Trees emit volatile organic compounds, #Phytoncides, to protect themselves from insects and germs. When we inhale these VOCs, they induce human natural killer (NK) cell activity to ward off cancer and other diseases. Aside from the retreats available, even a short walk in the woods or a quiet moment of #Mediation in Nature has effects that last for weeks.

Recovering The River, A Tribal Victory

Today's guest, Vanessa Castle, Fish and Wildlife Technician, and member of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, is featured in the Beautiful Undammed episode from the new series, Wild Hope, which will be released on YouTube on August 28th. The entire Wild Hope series will begin streaming on YouTube starting July 31 at www.wildhope.tv.
Vanessa tells the story of how the local people are working with the now freed river to restore the land and the #Salmon, who carry critical marine nutrients into the #Ecosystem so that it can flourish once again.

New Hope for the Amazon?

While the Amazon rainforest is still being attacked by logging, mining, and cattle raising, Atossa Soltani, who has been in the front lines of the fight to save the Amazon, has hope that, with the return of Lula to the Brazilian presidency, deforestation will be sharply curtailed and hydrological cycles which she describes in detail, can be restored. Lula's inclusion of indigenous leaders in his government is a powerful step toward much needed equity and protection of human rights.

Buoyed by the EU’s decision to ban the import of all goods, including timber and animal products, that come from rainforest destruction, the countries of the Amazon region are uniting to reverse years of devastation that have threatened this critical habitat and carbon sink.

Atossa shares the short animated film, Amazonia 2041: A Vision for the Future.

Atossa Soltani is the Global Strategy Director for the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative and founder of Amazon Watch.

Hosted by Sheila Laffey, Ph.D.

Regenerative Agriculture - Wildlife vs. Livestock

Three quarters of all farmland is devoted to #AnimalAgriculture. The destruction of #Habitat largely to graze and feed livestock has eliminated over 70% of the planet’s wildlife. Globally, 80 billion animals are killed each year for only 12% of the human diet. To keep the meat and dairy industries afloat, this slaughter is subsidized. At the same time, the topsoil is seriously degraded due to industrial farming of all kinds.

#RegenerativeFarming offers a better way to grow food, but it requires farm animals.
Instead, shouldn't we seize the opportunity to allow wildlife to return and flourish?

We Must Restore Nature

#PhoebeBarnard, founding director of the Stable Planet Alliance and co- producer of the upcoming documentary, #TheClimateRestorers, explains why we can’t simply shift, even if the world agreed to do it, from fossil fuels to electricity. We must restore nature in order to remove billions of tons of carbon and bring down global temperatures to safer levels, while also addressing the twin issues of #population and the over consumption of our planet’s finite resources.

For more about the Climate Restorers documentary:
https://www.backtoourfuture.net/

For more about Phoebe's work:
https://www.stableplanetalliance.org/...

Eat Less Meat with Meatless Meat

Paul Shapiro, CEO of The Better Meat Co. and Author of Clean Meat, How Growing Meat WIthout Animals will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, explains how new processes can replace the environmental disaster that is animal agriculture.

If people eat less or no meat and fish, much of nature can be restored and the wild animals that have been replaced by the 90 billion “livestock” slaughtered for meat each year, can return. Ecosystems can again flourish. Everyone can do this!

Food Security through the Restoration of Ecosystems

Securing the global food system is critical to human survival. Agriculture has an enormous impact on all ecological functions of our planet. Through #CommonlandFoundation and #EcoRestoration Camps, John D. Liu and Willem Ferwerda spearhead movements to restore hydrological cycles, degraded soils and ecosystems at scale, creating new communities in the process.

Vegan activist, #Isaias Hernandez, advocates for more support and attention to young climate activists whose future rests on the resilience of nature and on transformative human action to bring about the restoration of nature.

The Restoration Revolution

There’s a revolution underway. All over the world, people are putting their energy into real actions to restore large ecosystems. #JohnLiu and Aude Peronne are in the forefront of the movement to recover degraded landscapes. Not waiting for governments or COP agreements, they and thousands of others are working with nature, whose incredible resilience offers our best hope of survival. You can join this exciting effort at Commonland and #EcosystemRestorationCommunities.

For more information on these critical movements, and to learn how to participate:
https://www.ecosystemrestorationcommu...
https://commonland.com/

From Chaos to Regeneration - Our World in Crisis

Life on our planet is under attack. False solutions mask the real questions - How will we grow our food, what kind of economy do we really need, and how can we stop the expansion of fossil fuels? To counter the dominant patriarchal culture, whose exploitation of nature and of other cultures, and particularly of women, climate justice groups are raising their voices and taking action to protect #Biodiversity, the health of their ecosystems, and the #RightsOfNature.

Changing Weather Patterns - What's Next?

As weather patterns change, bringing stronger storms and droughts, we need to free more land to absorb flooding, recover hydrology and enhance natural systems to sequester CO2.

Our automotive age has brought unprecedented mobility, at a steep cost. From extraction to tailpipe emissions, gas cars are an environmental disaster. To accommodate the car, whole #Ecosystems have been lost as paved surfaces cover soil and absorb heat. EVs will not change that. Add to that, the ¾ of arable land converted to animal agriculture - and we have a recipe for disaster. What can we do about it?

Deep Sea Mining - A Looming Peril

The ocean produces more oxygen and stores more carbon than any other place on Earth, and is home to the majority of life on our planet. Our climate depends on ocean currents propelled by upwelling from the deep sea. We damage it at our peril.

Yet, the International Seabed Authority is considering opening the deep sea to companies who are vying for rights to extract millions of tons of rocks containing manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium with heavy equipment, which will damage fragile ecosystems there.
Arlo Hemphill, Lead Ocean Campaigner for Greenpeace USA exposes how the laws of the sea are being evaded to accommodate mining interests.

World Wildlife Foundation estimates 60% of global biodiversity loss results from clearing land for meat-based diets. Humans are a ‘force of Nature’. Our habits and preferences impact biodiversity immensely. Life on Earth has gone through 5 mass extinctions over the eons, caused by massive volcanic eruptions, deep ice ages, meteorite impacts and clashing continents. Many scientists believe a 6th mass extinction has now begun.

This one is very different, caused not by geological factors, but by a single species – humans. In aggregate, we and our livestock now consume somewhere between 25-40% of the planet’s entire ‘primary production’, that is, the solar energy captured by plants on which life depends. We have become a voracious top predator around the globe.

One estimate suggests that, by weight, 97% of the world’s vertebrate land animals are now either humans or our livestock – just 3% are wild. Another consequence of this domination is that we are driving evolution in domesticating crops and animals, but also through genetic modification and even by how we maintain (or neglect) wildlife reserves.

The intricate web of life, knit over hundreds of millions of years, has been changed irreversibly in the last 10,000 years by humans intentionally and accidentally relocating species around the world. These alien species can devastate ecosystems without defenses – from rats devouring albatross chicks in their nests to snakehead fish decimating native species across the US.

But of all factors, climate change threatens the most serious loss of biodiversity of all. Few plant species can adjust their range in response to rapid climatic change. Animal species can sometimes move their range, but if they move upslope on mountains to familiar climatic zones, eventually they reach the top and populations decline or disappear.

The spread of disease vectors for both animals and plants is worsened by climate change and human mobility as we carry pests and microbial hitchhikers around the globe.

One of the worst threats to biodiversity is the trade in endangered species. The profit motive as well as governmental neglect and sometimes corruption bear sad witness to our selfishness and shortsightedness.

Interventions

Addressing the biodiversity crisis is the subject of many of the 13 Interventions recommended by the Alliance of World Scientists. These are discussed at various points on the page.