Sustainability

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The Sustainability Working Group is focused on exploring sustainability issues in the U.S.

The mission of the Sustainability Working Group is to explore sustainability issues in the U.S.

Members

Kathy Gilbeaux Maeryn Obley mdmcdonald Miles Marcotte

Email address for group

sustainability@m.resiliencesystem.org

How More Organic Farming Could Worsen Global Warming

Left: For decades, the conventional wisdom surrounding organic farming has been that it produces crops that are healthier and better for the environment as a whole. A new study out this week challenges this narrative. Photo by REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

CLICK HERE - STUDY - The greenhouse gas impacts of converting food production in England and Wales to organic methods

pbs.org - by Courtney Vinopal - October 23, 2019

. . . a new study out this week predicts that a wholesale shift to organic farming could increase net greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 21 percent . . .

 . . . Organic farming typically produces lower crop yields due to factors such as the lower potency fertilizers used in the soil, which are limited to natural sources such as beans and other legume . . .

 . . . Proponents of organic farming acknowledge the issue of low crop yields raised by the Cranfield Study, but maintain that farmers can still find ways to reduce their carbon footprint by focusing on “regenerative practices.”

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NY Times: Did Exxon Deceive Its Investors on Climate Change?

In an OP-ED in the New York Times, the director of the Rockefeller Family Fund states that EXXON systematically lied to the public and to its stockholders about the risks of climate change and EXXON's major contributions to the catastrophic damage climate change will inflict on humanity and on biodiversity.  
 
 To read the complete article, see:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/opinion/exxon-climate-change.html

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IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

           

CLICK HERE - Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) - ipbes.net

nationalgeographic.com - by Stephen Leahy - May 6, 2019

The bonds that hold nature together may be at risk of unraveling from deforestation, overfishing, development, and other human activities, a landmark United Nations report warns. Thanks to human pressures, one million species may be pushed to extinction in the next few years, with serious consequences for human beings as well as the rest of life on Earth.

“The evidence is crystal clear: Nature is in trouble. Therefore we are in trouble" . . .

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - UN Report: Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’; Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’

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Does Unconscious Bias Affect Our Sustainable Lifestyle Choices?

            

Credit: Getty Images

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Is Eco-Friendly Unmanly? The Green-Feminine Stereotype and Its Effect on Sustainable Consumption 

forbes.com - by Carolyn Centeno Milton - April 3, 2019

. . . Brough co-authored a paper with professors from four other universities to understand how gender norms affect sustainable decision making. They report data from seven experiments that included over 2,000 participants from the US and China. What they found was remarkable.

They found that both men and women associated doing something good for the environment with being “more feminine.” This unearths a deeply held unconscious bias that Brough and team call the “Green-Feminine Stereotype.”

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - Men Resist Green Behavior as Unmanly

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Destruction of Nature as Dangerous as Climate Change, Scientists Warn

       

A dead Bodó fish in front of stranded floating houses on the bed of Negro River, a major tributary of the Amazon River, during a drought in 2015. Photograph: Raphael Alves/AFP/Getty Images

CLICK HERE - ipbes - Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions Continue Dangerous Decline, Scientists Warn

Unsustainable exploitation of the natural world threatens food and water security of billions of people, major UN-backed biodiversity study reveals

theguardian.com - by Jonathan Watts - March 23, 2018

Human destruction of nature is rapidly eroding the world’s capacity to provide food, water and security to billions of people, according to the most comprehensive biodiversity study in more than a decade.

Such is the rate of decline that the risks posed by biodiversity loss should be considered on the same scale as those of climate change, noted the authors of the UN-backed report, which was released in Medellin, Colombia on Friday.

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Before the Flood

nationalgeographic.com - October 30, 2016

From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Fisher Stevens and Academy Award®-winning actor, environmental activist and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio, Before the Flood presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change, as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society can take to prevent the disruption of life on our planet.

CLICK HERE - National Geographic - Before the Flood

CLICK HERE - YouTube - Before the Flood

CLICK HERE - About the Film - Before the Flood

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Utopian off-grid Regen Village produces all of its own food and energy

inhabitat.com - May 27th 2016 - Lacy Cooke

Danish architectural firm EFFEKT envisioned a future where self-sustaining communities could grow their own food and produce their own energy. They incorporated that vision into the ReGen Village, a planned off-grid community that addresses issues ranging from climate change to food security through sustainable design. They plan to start building these utopian communities this summer.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Reject Proposal to Expand the UDB

submitted by Albert Gomez

miamiherald.com - by Julie Dick - December 14, 2015

Miami-Dade County leaders have a number of decisions to make in the coming days, months and years that will define how we prepare for a changing Miami. If unsustainable developments are approved and move forward — be it a landfill expansion, a highway running through the Everglades ecosystem or new commercial and industrial development in currently undeveloped low-lying areas — they will create future liabilities and sprawling urban areas that will require expensive, though not necessarily effective, flood control. This will put the region’s water resources at risk.

On Tuesday, the County Commission is scheduled to consider whether to approve an application from the Neighborhood Planning Company for an industrial and commercial development on more than 60 acres of agricultural land and wetlands outside of the Urban Development Boundary (UDB).

The development would sit entirely on top of the West Wellfield Protection Area, in which certain land uses and activities are regulated or prohibited to protect the potable water supply from contamination and to provide recharge of the aquifer. Industrial development on this site puts our drinking-water supply at risk. This proposal should not move forward.

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Secretary-General Appoints David Nabarro of United Kingdom Special Adviser on 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

                                                                 

un.org - December 3, 2015

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of David Nabarro of the United Kingdom as Special Adviser on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  The Special Adviser will work with Member States and other relevant stakeholders to galvanize action on implementation of the Agenda, while also overseeing the Secretary-General’s special initiatives, for example, “Every Woman Every Child”.

Dr. Nabarro has more than 30 years experience in public health, nutrition and development work at the national, regional and global levels, and has held positions in non-governmental organizations, universities, national Governments and the United Nations system.

Since September 2014, he has served as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Ebola, providing strategic and policy direction for the international response.  From 2005 to 2014 he was Senior Coordinator for Avian and Pandemic Influenza.  From 2011 to 2015, he served as Coordinator of the Movement to Scale Up Nutrition, and since 2009 he has been the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Food Security and Nutrition, a position he will continue to hold.

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The Global Goals

http://www.globalgoals.org/

World Leaders have committed to 17 Global Goals to achieve 3 extraordinary things in the next 15 years. End extreme poverty. Fight inequality & injustice. Fix climate change. The Global Goals for sustainable development could get these things done. In all countries. For all people. If the Goals are going to work, everyone needs to know about them. TELL EVERYONE.

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