Just Say No

Last month we highlighted the story about Rise for Climate and how they were organizing rallies in cities and towns around the world to say “No more fossil fuel!”.

Results? September 8th on 7 continents, in 95 countries, with 900+ actions, people worldwide demanded real climate action from their local leaders.

The momentum is building. “We’re taking aim at specific energy sources, projects, and funders. We’re here to #ReclaimPower – with coordinated global actions from October 1-15, 2018. Join us! There’s never been a better time to change everything.”

We agree with the need to speak loud and clear “No more funding of fossil fuel projects, end them now, We need to stop the damage now, and focus on development of sustainable clean energy resources that are available to everyone”.

Preparing for the Inevitable

Powerful storms and flooding will continue to increase unless we are able to begin the reversal of global warming. Even if we stopped production tomorrow of new oil and coal projects, that would not be enough to reverse the damage we have already done. We need bring down the current levels of C02 (which is why we are so set on expanding Biochar across the globe).

But what happens in the meantime to those whose lives and homes are threatened by current climate conditions?

Scientific Journal recently published the article “How Can AI Help to Prepare for Floods in a Climate-Changed World?” in which Former FEMA chief Craig Fugate talks about his role at One Concern, an innovative program that uses technology to quickly access damage and get immediate help to those in need.

This technology can help plan for the future. “Our technology, which was first adopted by the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, will revolutionize the world’s understanding of the built and natural environments so that all communities can take action to build long-term resiliency in the face of climate change and the rise of deadly natural disasters”.

Guest Article

Climate Change and Honey bees

by Rao M Sajjad Sharif* Shahid Majeed and Usman Afzal

Climate change has had an adverse effect on pollinators. It has changed the distribution of many pollinating butterflies, bumblebees and other highly plant-dependent pollinators. These species pose a serious threat to the food supply chain worldwide. “When global warming occurs in different periods of the past two million years, the Earth takes about 5,000 years to heat up by 5 degrees. It is predicted that the warming rate in the next century will be at least 20 times faster,” NASA said. On this planet, they are very important insect species. But it is seriously affected by climate change. Bees are on the way to extinction due to climate change and some other factors such as habitat loss, pollution, and excessive use of pesticides, urbanization and land use change.

Even if they are threatened by climate change, your actions can easily be saved from extinction. The role of bees in everyday life – from our plants to our gardens is excellent. Bees are expected to produce more than $10 billion in agricultural vegetation each year in the United States. Due to pollination, bees have this key function in agriculture, where bees flow pollen (powders) in the flora to allow plants to replicate. According to the National Resource Conservation Council (NRDC), more than 80% of plants, especially fruits and vegetables, rely on pollination to maintain their output in order to maintain public appeal.

If the bee population is reduced in length, our food costs may increase and the number will decrease. In addition, bees create honey by using nectar from plant life to honeycomb, which produces millions of dollars in sales each year. In addition to our food aspirations, these bugs are surprisingly vital in the usual environmental fitness. For example, pollination allows for large-scale growth, mainly in the beautiful gardens and the vast habitat of animals.

Almost all natural elements – from tropical forests to grassland to industrial-scale farmland – rely on symbiotic pursuits between bees and plant life through pollination (even if bees allow plants to reproduce, they can also supply bee food). If the number of bee colonies is reduced, our food costs will increase and the number will decrease. In addition, bees make honey by transporting nectar from flowers to the hive, which produces hundreds of millions of dollars in annual income.

In addition to our food needs, these small insects are very important in the overall health of the ecosystem. For example, pollination allows for a wide range of flower growth, resulting in beautiful gardens and a wide habitat for animals. Almost all parts of nature – from tropical forests to grassland to industrial-scale farmland – depend on the symbiotic relationship between bees and flowers produced by pollination (flowers provide food for bees, while bees allow flowers to multiply).

Unfortunately, the percentage of bee colonies that have fallen each year has been as high as 30%. The number of bee colonies in 1959 was twice that of today. The decline in population caused by many of the effects of climate change will cause humans to lack all the benefits of this species that we take for granted. Climate change causes temperature changes that prevent bees from pollinating in time.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.”  ~ Jane Goodall

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Climate Change Primer

Cool the Climate

Fire Season

Huffpost recently published an article  “Fire, Fire Everywhere: The 2018 Global Wildfire Season Is Already Disastrous“.

In the article, David Bowman, a professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania in Australia explained

“Managing fire is about managing landscape,” said Bowman. “We are creating landscapes that are increasingly flammable. People are living in more and more dangerous environments because they believe technology will keep them safe.”

He further added

“We are just not prepared. Will there be more fires? With climate change, yes, lots more. We must get used to them, and learn to adapt. It’s like the earth has thrown down the gauntlet and we are paralyzed.”

It is so important that we overcome our paralysis and take action. Especially with something as manageable as Forest Management. It is time to speak up and insist that our governing bodies take notice and put concrete plans into action.

Enterprise-Record, a newspaper in Chico, CA recently published this Letter to the Editor. We applaud Bill Smith for taking the time to speak out. We all have voices and we must learn how to use them.

Letter to the Editor

Californians, we need new forest management. Removing the fuel that fans wildfires can stop the smoke, reverse global warming, create jobs and protect forest critters.

Smoke is actually lung-plugging ash floating in carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide from wildfires traps heat and contributes to “climate change.” Young trees, more so than older trees whose growth has slowed, reverse climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide then releasing the oxygen and storing the carbon as wood. This has a net effect of cleaning the air unless the trees are burned and the carbon is released again as carbon dioxide.

Out-of-date federal laws allow citizens to second guess U.S. Forest Service forest managers and litigate proposed wood removal projects to a standstill.

In reality each national forest could easily remove the accumulated carbon, in the form of wood, from 5,000 acres per year, following with reforestation. Each treatment could remove approximately 15 tons of carbon per acre from the forest. Across California that equals 1.5 million tons of carbon removed per year. The carbon stored in the removed wood could then be locked up by building houses with it.

This activity would: fireproof the woods, reverse climate change, increase plant and animal diversity, eliminate smoke, create jobs in mountain communities, reduce home prices and put money into the U.S. Treasury.

Let’s get on with removing more carbon from the forest and incentivize wood-using industries. Taxpayers incentivized the electric car, solar and wind industries. Surely, we can support industries that will save our lives.

— Bill Smith, Chico

We would like to add that biochar production of dead wood in forests is also a global warming reversal process that can also help with Forest Management. One example of utilizing the dead forest wood is the agreement Haliburton, the oil field services and petrochemical company has just made with the Canadian Forest Service to biochar all of the dead wood in their parks and then to turn it into carbon black, the stuff that makes your tires black and is normally a really nasty petrochemical.

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Warm Heart is a grass-roots, non-profit organization working towards solutions to reverse global warming. Environmental Progress News is meant to help stay current with new issues and on finding solutions. Our focus is working with biochar. Donations are always welcome.