#carbon stewardship

[pier-carlo-universe]

FutureCoal supporta la visione di Trump sul "carbone pulito". Innovazione, sostenibilità e tecnologie avanzate per un futuro a basse emissioni

Washington, DC, 18 dicembre 2024 – FutureCoal, l’organizzazione globale per il carbone sostenibile, ha accolto con entusiasmo la recente dichiarazione del presidente eletto Donald Trump, che ha ribadito il suo impegno verso il "carbone pulito".

Washington, DC, 18 dicembre 2024 – FutureCoal, l’organizzazione globale per il carbone sostenibile, ha accolto con entusiasmo la recente dichiarazione del presidente eletto Donald Trump, che ha ribadito il suo impegno verso il “carbone pulito”. Questa posizione si allinea perfettamente con la roadmap Sustainable Coal Stewardship di FutureCoal, che mira a coniugare crescita economica, sicurezza…

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Your Voice, Your Future

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #39

October 18-25 2024.

President Biden issued the first presidential apology on behalf of the federal government to America's Native American population for the Indian boarding school policy. For 150 years the federal government operated a system of schools which aimed to destroy Native culture through the forced assimilation of native children. At these schools students faced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and close to 1,000 died. The Biden-Harris Administration has been historic for Native and Tribal rights. From the appointment of the first ever Native American cabinet member, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, to the investment of $46 billion dollars on tribal land, to 200 new co-stewardship agreements. The last 4 years have seen a historic investment in and expansion of tribal rights.

The Biden-Harris Administration proposed a new rule which would make contraceptive medication (the pill) free over the counter with most Insurance. The new rule would ban cost sharing for contraception products, including the pill, condoms, and emergency contraception. On top of over the counter medications, the new rule will also strength protections for prescribed contraception without cost sharing as well.

The EPA announced its finalized rule strengthening standards for lead paint dust in pre-1978 housing and child care facilities. There is no safe level of exposure to lead particularly for children who can suffer long term developmental consequences from lead exposure. The new standards set the lowest level of lead particle that can be identified by a lab as the standard for lead abatement. It's estimated 31 million homes built before the ban on lead paint in 1978 have lead paint and 3.8 million of those have one or more children under the age of 6. The new rule will mean 1.2 million fewer people, including over 300,000 children will not be exposed to lead particles every year. This comes after the Biden-Harris Administration announced its goal to remove and replace all lead pipes in America by the end of the decade.

The Department of Transportation announced a $50 million dollar fine against American Airlines for its treatment of disabled passengers and their wheelchairs. The fine stems from a number of incidences of humiliating and unfair treatment of passages between 2019 and 2023, as well as video documented evidence of mishandling wheelchairs and damaging them. Half the fine will go to replacing such damaged wheelchairs. The Biden administration has leveled a historic number of fines against the airlines ($225 million) for their failures. It also published a Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights, passed a new rule accessible lavatories on aircraft, and is working on a rule to require airlines to replace lost or damaged wheelchairs with equal equipment at once.

The Department of Energy announced $430 million dollars to help boost domestic clean energy manufacturing in former coal communities. This invests in projects in 15 different communities, in places like Texas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Michigan. The plan will bring about 1,900 new jobs in communities struggling with the loss of coal. Projects include making insulation out of recycled cardboard, low carbon cement production, and industrial fiber hemp processing.

The Department of Transportation announced $4.2 billion in new infrastructure investment. The money will go to 44 projects across the country. For example the MBTA will get $400 million to replace the 92 year old Draw 1 bridge and renovate North Station.

The Department of Transportation announced nearly $200 million to replace aging natural gas pipes. Leaking gas lines represent a serious public health risk and also cost costumers. Planned replacements in Georgia and North Carolina for example will save the average costumer there over $900 on their gas bill a year. Replacing leaking lines will also remove 1,000 metric tons of methane pollution, annually.

The Department of the Interior announced $244 million to address legacy pollution in Pennsylvania coal country. This comes on top of $400 million invested earlier this year. This investment will help close dangerous mine shafts, reclaim unstable slopes, improve water quality by treating acid mine drainage, and restore water supplies damaged by mining.

Data shows that President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (passed with Vice-President Harris' tie breaking vote) has saved seniors $1 billion dollars on out-of-pocket drug costs. Seniors with certain high priced drugs saw their yearly out of pocket costs capped at $3,500 for 2024. In 2024 all seniors using Medicare Part D will see their out of pocket costs capped at $2,000 for the year. It's estimated if the $2,000 cap had been in effect this year 4.6 million seniors would have hit it by June and not have had to pay any more for medication for the rest of the year.

The Department of Education announced a new proposed rule to bring student debt relief for 8 million struggling borrowers. The Biden-Harris Administration has managed despite road blocks from Republicans in Congress, the courts and law suits from Republican states to bring student loan forgiveness to 5 million Americans so far through different programs. This latest rule would take into account many financial hardships faced by people to determine if they qualify to have their student loans forgiven. The final rule cannot be finalized before 2025 meaning its fate will be decided at the election.

The Department of Agriculture announced $1.5 billion in 92 partner-driven conservation projects. These projects aim at making farming more susceptible and environmental friendly, 16 projects are about water conservation in the West, 6 support use of innovative technologies to reduce enteric methane emissions in livestock. $100 million has been earmarked for Tribal-led projects.

[854489]

save eco-system

It is estimated that 30% of energy used by buildings is wasted. A key goal of Think Planet is to reduce our overall energy consumption significantly.

Radisson Hotel Group is committed to science-based net zero by 2050 and actively strives to reduce our carbon footprint by finding energy-efficient solutions and increasingly using renewable energy sources.

water stewardship efforts include limiting the use of water through technology improvements in its rooms and operations, using rainwater and gray water wherever possible.

Radisson Hotel Group works to reduce, reuse, replace and recycle and share best practices in this area. 

[techdriveplay]

The Green Revolution: Eco-Friendly Cars and Their Benefits

Eco-friendly cars have emerged not just as a trend but as a necessity to combat environmental challenges and reduce our carbon footprint.

In the 21st century, the automotive industry has seen a significant shift towards sustainability, marking the advent of the green revolution. Eco-friendly cars have emerged not just as a trend but as a necessity to combat environmental challenges and reduce our carbon footprint. This comprehensive guide delves into the world of eco-friendly cars, highlighting their benefits, innovations, and the…

[reasonsforhope]

"In an unprecedented step to preserve and maintain the most carbon-rich elements of U.S. forests in an era of climate change, President Joe Biden’s administration last week proposed to end commercially driven logging of old-growth trees in National Forests.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, issued a Notice of Intent to amend the land management plans of all 128 National Forests to prioritize old-growth conservation and recognize the oldest trees’ unique role in carbon storage. 

It would be the first nationwide amendment to forest plans in the 118-year history of the Forest Service, where local rangers typically have the final word on how to balance forests’ role in watershed, wildlife and recreation with the agency’s mandate to maintain a “sustained yield” of timber.

“Old-growth forests are a vital part of our ecosystems and a special cultural resource,” Vilsack said in a statement accompanying the notice. “This clear direction will help our old-growth forests thrive across our shared landscape.”

But initial responses from both environmentalists and the logging industry suggest that the plan does not resolve the conflict between the Forest Service’s traditional role of administering the “products and services” of public lands—especially timber—and the challenges the agency now faces due to climate change. National Forests hold most of the nation’s mature and old-growth trees, and therefore, its greatest stores of forest carbon, but that resource is under growing pressure from wildfire, insects, disease and other impacts of warming.

Views could not be more polarized on how the National Forests should be managed in light of the growing risks.

National and local environmental advocates have been urging the Biden administration to adopt a new policy emphasizing preservation in National Forests, treating them as a strategic reserve of carbon. Although they praised the old-growth proposal as an “historic” step, they want to see protection extended to “mature” forests, those dominated by trees roughly 80 to 150 years old, which are a far larger portion of the National Forests. As old-growth trees are lost, which can happen rapidly due to megafires and other assaults, they argue that the Forest Service should be ensuring there are fully developed trees on the landscape to take their place...

The Biden administration’s new proposal seeks to take a middle ground, establishing protection for the oldest trees under its stewardship while allowing exceptions to reduce fuel hazards, protect public health and safety and other purposes. And the Forest Service is seeking public comment through Feb. 2 (Note: That's the official page for the proposed rule, but for some reason you can only submit comments through the forest service website - so do that here!) on the proposal as well as other steps needed to manage its lands to retain mature and old-growth forests over time, particularly in light of climate change.

If the Forest Service were to put in place nationwide protections for both mature and old-growth forests, it would close off most of the National Forests to logging. In an inventory concluded earlier this year in response to a Biden executive order, the Forest Service found that 24.7 million acres, or 17 percent, of its 144.3 million acres of forest are old-growth, while 68.1 million acres, or 47 percent, are mature."

-via Inside Climate News, December 20, 2023

-

Note: This proposed rule is current up for public comment! If you're in the US, you can go here to file an official comment telling the Biden administration how much you support this proposal - and that you think it should be extended to mature forests!

Official public comments really DO matter. You can leave a comment on this proposal here until February 2nd.

[nutnoce]

Fire suppression p.1 & p.2: “Flame Retardant” & “Building Potential” Inspired by the PEM's ‘Our Time on Earth’ exhibit

I was gladly surprised to see the exhibit’s various optimistic installations, especially the building materials of the future. As a forestry student I am beginning to understand our relationship to our forests differently. In the US, forest policy which aimed to suppress wildfires has contributed to a century-long build up of fuel that would otherwise have been cleared by controlled burns or small spontaneous ground fires. Indigenous peoples shaped the forests of the Americas to require these controlled burns. More and more I realize that indigenous knowledge and collaboration is a necessary part of the stewardship of future. A concept which is present at large at the museum but also specifically within Our Time on Earth. Getting a ‘sustainable’ amount of lumber from our forest still disregards the health and purpose of these trees to a diverse and complex ecosystem. It is essential that we diversify our building material, to include carbon-negative things like mycelium! Natural resources that are close by, and at hand in our local environment, which doesn’t require chopping down a tree 3000 miles away and transporting it to the US. We need local resources whose collective cultivation lead to a sense of community and collaboration. A better future!

My thanks to lane.m.artin for collaborating with me for p.2!

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

Soon after Vice President Kamala Harris selected Tim Walz as her running mate this week, pictures of the Minnesota governor began to spread across social media—of Walz holding a piglet, of Walz on thrill rides at the state fair, of Walz and his rescue dog.

All of it coalesces into an image of a guy with rural roots and deep ties to agriculture.

Since Harris’ announcement, climate advocates have applauded her pick, pointing to Walz’s solid climate bona fides. Farm groups across the political spectrum, including those that work to shrink agriculture’s carbon footprint, have, too.

During his six terms in Congress, Walz was a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, where he was instrumental in ensuring that soil conservation measures made it into the 2018 farm bill. At the time, the farm bill—the massive piece of legislation that guides the country’s nutrition and farm policy—failed to acknowledge agriculture’s role in contributing to climate change, and barely hinted at its potential role in slowing it.

Walz, who spent his early years working on his family’s farm in rural Nebraska, found a political work-around of sorts. That year he introduced the Strengthening Our Investment in Land (SOIL) Stewardship Act, which boosted existing farm conservation programs and incentivized farms to adopt certain practices that improve soil health, ultimately making soils better able to sequester carbon.

“Even as short a time ago as 2018, the word ‘climate’ does not appear in the farm bill,” said Ferd Hoefner, who was policy director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition at the time. “He made soil health, through the SOIL Act, the acceptable thing one could talk about when one was trying to talk about climate mitigation through agriculture.”

Hoefner noted that the last time the term climate change appeared in a farm bill was in 1990, an indication of just how polarized and partisan the issue has become in farm policy debates since then. After that, it “was verboten to even mention the word,” he added.

The provisions of the SOIL Stewardship Act were ultimately included in that year’s farm bill. Farm policy observers also point to one of Walz’s biggest farm-related accomplishments, which was introducing bills in 2014 and 2018 that help small-scale, veteran and beginning farmers access credit and funds for land, equipment and crop insurance. Provisions of these bills made it into the final versions of those years’ farm bills.

The Land Stewardship Project, based in Minnesota, has long pushed against the trend of increasing consolidation in agriculture, which has seen the rise of ever-larger farms, mostly run by large corporate entities. This week the council applauded Walz’s record of working against this ongoing shift.

“What we’ve seen through his time in Congress and his time in the governor’s office is that issues around the future of agriculture and rural communities aren’t partisan—they cut across political lines,” said Sean Carroll, policy director at Land Stewardship Action, the organization’s political arm. “Many bills he’s co-sponsored or led are about creating a future for rural communities where we can keep more farmers on the land, where we can allow farmers who are stewarding the land to succeed and make money.”

[queenlucythevaliant]

How do you believe Theistic Evolution interacts with other aspects of Christian morality and tradition? I mean, obviously the commands of God are the commands of God - but what new perspective do you think a Theistic Evolutionary viewpoint gives?

Oh my goodness, so many things! Broadly, though, I'd divide the implications into two groups: God's character and the unity of creation.

God's character

Theistic evolution is (I contend) the only framework for understanding creation that has an equally high regard for both Scripture and scientific empiricism; thus, it makes a very profound statement about God's trustworthiness, and about our confidence in him as the arbiter of Truth.

Seeing God's fingerprints in the creative process over the course of millions of years gives us a real sense of his patience and tirelessness. As Chesterton might say, he never gets tired of saying to the replicating cell, "do it again."

We also get a beautiful picture of God's sovereignty over creation: he is the God that knew, from the first time two organic molecules crashed together, that he was creating Man to glorify and enjoy him forever.

In the story of creation through evolution, we see a God who transcends time, but also works within it to bring about his sovereign will; who is endlessly patient, who is clever and inventive, who has an eye for beauty and a love for tangents and (ostensible) dead ends. What does it tell you about God that he spent millions of years creating the platypus? That he created dinosaurs at all? Through theistic evolution, we see a creator who plays across the vast landscape of time, creating endless forms most beautiful. Most importantly, we see a God whose wonderful works are faithfully recounted not just in the pages of Scripture, but in the very substance of the world he created.

Unity of creation

Knowledge of evolutionary history pushes us to think about our own embodied nature, our creatureliness, and our place within creation/the biosphere. We are united in lineage with all other creatures, both living and dead. We are embodied in the same carbon as every other living thing, deliberately, beautifully. This pushes back hard against the strains of "flesh bad" gnostic dualism that have run through our faith for pretty much its whole history. Heaven is not our "real home"; our destiny is the New Earth. God has woven us into its fabric.

Jesus stepped not just into the human lineage, but the lineage of the whole earth! In becoming flesh, he took on our place in the tree of life. Jesus shared DNA with Mary and her family, yes, but also with bacteria and brachiosaurs and banana slugs. While Christ died for the sins of humanity in particular, His stepping into the unity of life points to a future in which all living things are to be redeemed.

We must take the Biblical call to environmental stewardship very seriously then, if the rest of the biosphere is not merely our dominion but something of which we are an inextricable part. Evolutionary theory calls us to reconnect our theology and the created universe. In the same way that Scripture calls us to care for the world God created, evolution tells us of our direct relationship with the rest of creation, which implies a duty of care.

[mariacallous]

There are trillions upon trillions of numbers in the world. We use numbers to describe almost every conceivable thing in the universe. But there is one number that surpasses all others for the enormous impact it will have on every living thing on Earth over the next few thousand years. We consider it so important that we’ve dedicated our lives to acquiring and understanding it. Today that number happens to be: 427.6.

This is a measure (known in scientific terms as the mole fraction) of atmospheric carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, in parts per million. It’s part of a continuous chain of observations stretching back across two generations, to 1958, when Dave Keeling recorded the first measurement of 313 parts per million. Dave Keeling maintained this record, known as the Keeling Curve, using a running hodgepodge of short-term grants until 2005, at which point geochemist Ralph Keeling, a professor at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, coauthor of this piece and Dave’s son, assumed its stewardship. But now, after 67 years of battling to keep the program funded and provide the data to other scientists around the world, the program faces its most dire threat ever.

Why? Endeavors of this nature—highly precise measurements of a trace gas over many decades—require three basic inputs: knowledge, people, and money. It’s the third one that’s at risk, thanks to the current administration’s attacks on NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA provides support for our program both through an annual grant and through invaluable “in-kind” support, such as staffers taking samples for us, maintaining buildings in remote areas where sampling occurs, and running the Mauna Loa Observatory.

Monthly average carbon dioxide concentration at Mauna Loa (top panel) and annual financial support for the Scripps CO2 program (bottom panel), adjusted for inflation to US dollars in 2007. Photographer: Adapted from Sundquist and Keeling, 2009

The Trump administration has made clear it wishes to gut NOAA’s research enterprise, which is at the center of climate research globally. Already, we’ve seen large-scale firings and rejections of research proposals. Recent guidance from the Office of Management and Budget shows the administration intends to assiduously follow the blueprint of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and shutter the Ocean and Atmospheric Research Line Office. This is not just a little haircut for a large federal agency—it’s grabbing the scissors and stabbing the agency through the heart. If successful, this loss will be a nightmare scenario for climate science, not just in the United States, but the world. It will also likely spell the end of our ability to continuously update the Keeling Curve.

Against this ominous backdrop, a small group of scientists is scrambling to preserve the ability to know how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere. NOAA maintains a global backbone of measurements of carbon dioxide and other gases, not just at Mauna Loa, but at more than 50 stations around the world. In parallel, our program at Scripps maintains records at a dozen stations. Other countries also contribute, but their efforts are almost all focused regionally, leaving the big picture to just a few programs that are global in scope. Climate change, however, is a global problem, and global networks address the really important questions. Such networks provide critical information on how fast carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are building up in the air from fossil-fuel burning and other processes. They provide information on how much carbon dioxide is being removed from the atmosphere by the oceans and by land plants. They provide information critical to independently verify emissions, to negotiate international treaties, to make decisions now about how much carbon dioxide the world can emit. These observational networks are the factual basis upon which all efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change are based.

NOAA and Scripps play another key role in the atmospheric measurement community. How does the world know that the value of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today is really 427.6 and not 427.7 parts per million? Such differences may seem small, but they are consequential in the realm of climate research, and they can be calculated only because a lot of work has gone into calibration. Hundreds of groups can measure carbon dioxide using various off-the-shelf analyzers, but these analyzers first need to be calibrated using compressed air that has a known amount of carbon dioxide in it. Scripps assumed the lead role for preparing tanks filled with known amounts of carbon dioxide and dispensing them to the community until 1995, at which point NOAA took over.

The country and the world are now at risk of losing the only two programs that have played this central role. If the current administration has its way, the climate change research community could soon be fully adrift, unable to know with sufficient accuracy how quickly carbon dioxide levels are rising.

Even in the best of times, long-term observations can be very fragile. It is difficult to convince funding agencies to put money into long-term observations because, by definition, they are continuations; they have been done before. Most funding entities, from science agencies to philanthropic organizations, want to be associated with exciting, groundbreaking work, and sustained observations are too routine to scratch that itch. (Dave Keeling records in his autobiography, Rewards and Penalties of Monitoring the Earth, that at one point a National Science Foundation program manager demanded that, to maintain funding, he generate two discoveries per year from his record of carbon dioxide levels.)

Another vulnerability stems from the fact that the community of researchers making sustained measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide probably numbers less than 30. Graduate students interested in learning to conduct this arcane work are a rare commodity. Patience and attention to detail are required, and years may be needed to accumulate enough data to answer the key questions or make groundbreaking discoveries. Researchers have to be extremely diligent and exacting to ensure that measurements in 1958 are comparable to those today. Calibration is an endless chore. This scientific pursuit isn’t for everyone.

Perversely, while the Keeling Curve has attained iconic global importance, this actually can hinder, rather than help the funding situation. Environmental programs tend to be organized by geographic domain and discipline—the National Water Quality Program of the US Geological Survey, NSF’s Arctic Observing Network, and the US Forest Service, for instance. Amid these focused efforts, the big picture can be lost. As the climate change field has evolved, we have found it increasingly difficult to find sponsors who accept responsibility for measuring vital signs of the Earth as a whole.

The original Mauna Loa measurements were started during the International Geophysical Year in 1957/1958. This was a massive, remarkable effort, led by the United States and including 67 countries, with the goal (simply put) of measuring every physical attribute possible on the Earth in one year. It led to numerous, important scientific discoveries and the establishment of many measurement programs worldwide. It established the South Pole station, for instance, a home for vital climate research that is still going today. It was a time of enormous optimism, of international cooperation (even during the height of the Cold War), of vast dreams, of global cooperation. And the United States was proud to lead the way.

This sense of endeavor continued into the 1970s, when then president Richard Nixon—a conservative Republican—established NOAA to better understand the world’s oceans and atmosphere. By the 1980s, the NOAA grew in scope, alongside the Scripps effort, to become the beating heart of global climate science. Now, after just three short months of the Trump administration, we are contemplating the abdication of US leadership in oceanic and atmospheric science and the loss of the largest and most critical observing network for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and their calibration laboratories.

Our colleagues at NOAA are living day to day, not sure if tomorrow will be their last on the job. We pray that common sense will prevail and that NOAA will be spared the worst. Whatever its fate, we will remain in the fight to preserve the world’s ability to measure carbon dioxide levels with whatever support we can muster, a small bulwark against climate science’s new dark age.

[wachinyeya]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced today an investment of $70 million in seven creative and visionary agricultural projects to transform the U.S. food and agricultural system and sustainably increase agricultural production in ways that also reduce its environmental footprint.

This Fiscal Year 2023 investment is part of the Sustainable Agricultural Systems program area of NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, the nation’s leading and largest competitive grants program for agricultural sciences.

The innovative program focuses on a broad range of needed research, education and Extension solutions – from addressing agricultural workforce challenges and promoting land stewardship to addressing climate change impacts in agriculture and filling critical needs in food and nutrition.

“Agriculture is facing a multitude of complex challenges,” said Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics. “We need all hands on deck developing creative, sustainable and strategic ways to feed, clothe and fuel future generations.”

The $10 million awards are for coordinated agricultural projects (CAPs), which are larger-scale and longer-term investments that integrate research, education and Extension efforts. These projects promote collaboration, open communication, information exchange and reduce duplication efforts by coordinating activities among individuals, institutions, states and regions.

“These research investments support exciting projects that integrate innovative systems-based thinking, methods and technologies to establish robust, resilient, and climate-smart food and agricultural systems,” said NIFA Director Dr. Manjit Misra. “These visionary projects will improve the local and regional supply of affordable, safe, nutritious and accessible food and agricultural products, while fostering economic development and rural prosperity in America.”

Explore the seven projects, which include the following:

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Erin Silva is leading a collaboration with the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition, the Wisconsin Tribal Conservation Advisory Council, and the Menominee Nation on a transdisciplinary project that aims to scale up traditional Indigenous food production practices — practices that for generations have already been climate-smart and sustainable — by expanding production, processing, storage, and distribution systems, as well as education and Extension programs, that are needed to support integrated crop-livestock systems, cover crops, and rotationally-grazed cattle and pastured chickens.

At the University of Maine, Dr. Hemant Pendse is leading an integrated research, education and Extension effort to advance the bioeconomy by developing biorefinery technologies that will make the millions of tons of available low-grade woody biomass – which currently has a very limited market – more commercially viable in both the sustainable aviation fuel and fish feed sectors.

At Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan is leading a project that seeks to transform cotton production in the southern United States into a more sustainable, climate-smart enterprise by applying improved precision management practices to increase carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; enhance pest control, and nutrient and water management; and address labor challenges while creating new market opportunities.

AFRI, which also makes grants in the Foundational and Applied Sciences and Education and Workforce Development program areas, is designed to improve plant and animal production and sustainability, and human and environmental health. Grants are available to eligible colleges, universities, and other research organizations.

[meghaamodidesignstudio]

🌿 Ikebana as a Sustainable Art: Embracing Eco-Friendly Floral Practices

In today’s world of environmental awareness, the art of Ikebana stands out as a gentle yet powerful example of sustainable creativity. Rooted in harmony with nature, Ikebana—the traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement—has long encouraged respect for natural materials, minimalism, and mindful consumption. Now, more than ever, it offers valuable lessons in eco-friendly floral practices for artists, florists, and nature lovers alike.

🌸 A Tradition Grounded in Respect for Nature

Unlike commercial floral arrangements that often prioritize large, imported blooms and disposable materials, Ikebana celebrates local, seasonal, and simple elements. Practitioners are taught to use what is available in their immediate environment—branches, grasses, wildflowers, and even fallen leaves. This approach naturally reduces carbon footprints and supports biodiversity by honoring native plants.

Every stem in Ikebana is chosen thoughtfully, avoiding waste and excess. Even a single flower can become the centerpiece, proving that beauty does not require abundance. This philosophy of “less is more” reflects an intrinsic respect for Earth’s resources.

🌿 Sustainable Techniques in Ikebana Practice

✅ Use of reusable containers: Ikebana artists often invest in durable ceramic, bamboo, or glass vases that last for years, reducing reliance on plastic floral foam or disposable holders.

✅ Repurposing materials: Twigs, stones, moss, and even dried plants are incorporated creatively, extending the life of natural materials and minimizing waste.

✅ Seasonal and local sourcing: Ikebana emphasizes the use of seasonal blooms that reflect nature’s cycles, avoiding imported or artificially grown flowers that require high energy inputs.

✅ Composting and natural disposal: After an arrangement’s life cycle ends, plant materials are returned to the earth through composting, closing the sustainability loop.

🌸 Ikebana’s Role in Modern Eco-Conscious Art

As global conversations around sustainability grow, Ikebana offers a timeless blueprint for balancing artistic expression with environmental responsibility. Many contemporary Ikebana practitioners are exploring new ways to deepen its eco-friendly values—by organizing zero-waste exhibitions, using reclaimed materials, and raising awareness about native plant conservation through their arrangements.

Ikebana also inspires a mindful relationship with consumption. Instead of buying large quantities of cut flowers, artists learn to appreciate the beauty of imperfection, asymmetry, and simplicity—further reducing demand for overproduced or chemically treated blooms.

🌿 A Sustainable Path Forward

In a world grappling with environmental challenges, Ikebana reminds us that art and nature need not be at odds. It invites us to create with care, arrange with awareness, and live with harmony. Every thoughtfully placed stem becomes a quiet act of stewardship, proving that sustainability can be woven beautifully into artistic traditions.

By embracing Ikebana’s eco-friendly practices, we not only preserve a cultural heritage but also contribute to a greener, more mindful future—one flower at a time.

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Green Hearts Unite: Celebrating Charity in Afforestation

[haggishlyhagging]

Aiming for net-zero impact is a truly impressive departure from the business-as-usual of degenerative industrial design, and it is more impressive still if the aim is net zero not just in energy or water but in all resource-related aspects of a company's operation—a still far-off goal. It is also a sign of profound efficiency in resource use, but as the architect and designer William McDonough has put it, the avid pursuit of resource efficiency is simply not enough. ‘Being less bad is not being good,’ he says. ‘It is being bad, just less so.’ And once you think about it, pursuing mission zero is an odd vision for an industrial revolution, as if intentionally stopping on the threshold of something far more transformative. After all, if your factory can produce as much energy and clean water as it uses, why not see if it could produce more? If you can eliminate all toxic materials from your production process, why not introduce health-enhancing ones in their place? Instead of aiming merely to do less bad; industrial design can aim to 'do more good' by continually replenishing, rather than more slowly depleting, the living world. Why simply take nothing when you could also give something?

That's the essence of the fifth business response: be generous by creating an enterprise that is regenerative by design, giving back to the living systems of which we are a part. More than an action on a to-do checklist, it is a way of being in the world that embraces biosphere stewardship and recognises that we have a responsibility to leave the living world in a better state than we found it. It calls for creating enterprises whose core business helps to reconnect nature's cycles, and that gift as much as they can—because only generous design can bring us back below the Doughnut's ecological ceiling. For Janine Benyus, a leading thinker and doer in the field of biomimicry, this notion of generosity has become the design mission of a lifetime. As she told me,

‘We are big-brained animals, but we are newcomers on this planet, so we are still acting like toddlers expecting Mother Nature to clean up after us. I want us to take on this design task and become full participants in every one of nature's cycles. Start with the carbon cycle—let's learn to halt our industrial exhale of carbon pollution and then, by mimicking plants, learn to inhale carbon dioxide into our products and store it for centuries in rich agricultural soils. Once we've cut our teeth on the carbon cycle, let's apply what we have learned to the phosphorus, nitrogen and water cycles, too.’

To discover the essence of generous design, she suggests that we take nature as our model, measure and mentor. With nature as model, we can study and mimic life's cyclical processes of take and give, death and renewal, in which one creature's waste becomes another's food. As measure, nature sets the ecological standard by which to judge the sustainability of our own innovations: do they measure up and fit in by participating in natural cycles? And with nature as mentor, we ask not what we can extract, but what we can learn from its 3.8 billion years of experimentation.

-Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist

[so-true-overdue]

The Unseen Symphony of Our Careers and Climate

In the grand theater of life, where each of us plays a role, there exists an invisible orchestra—an ensemble of choices, actions, and consequences that compose the symphony of our existence. Today, we delve into a crescendo that demands our attention: the intersection of our careers and the undeniable reality of anthropogenic climate change.

The Incontrovertible Truth

Let us not mince words: human-induced climate change is an unequivocal truth, a scientific consensus as robust as the laws of gravity. Our industrious endeavors, while noble in pursuit, have inadvertently orchestrated a cacophony of carbon emissions, deforestation, and pollution. This is not mere hyperbole; it is an empirical reality corroborated by a plethora of peer-reviewed studies and the consensus of the global scientific community.

The Career Conundrum

As we navigate the labyrinthine corridors of our professional lives, we must confront the paradox of progress. Our careers, those bastions of personal achievement and societal contribution, are inextricably linked to the environmental tapestry we are unraveling. The industries that fuel our economies often do so at the expense of the planet’s health, a Faustian bargain that demands reevaluation.

The Evidence Unfurled

Consider the evidence: rising global temperatures, melting polar ice caps, and increasingly erratic weather patterns. These phenomena are not mere anomalies; they are harbingers of a planet in distress. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has provided irrefutable data, painting a portrait of a world teetering on the precipice of irreversible change.

Preemptive Rebuttal to Skepticism

To those who remain skeptical, who question the veracity of climate science, I offer this preemptive rebuttal: skepticism is the bedrock of scientific inquiry, yet it must be rooted in evidence, not ideology. The overwhelming consensus among climate scientists is not a conspiracy; it is a clarion call to action, a plea for stewardship over the only home we have ever known.

A Call to Arms (and Action)

What, then, shall we do? Shall we continue to march in lockstep with the status quo, or shall we dare to reimagine our professional paradigms? The call to action is clear: integrate sustainability into the very fabric of our careers. Whether you are an engineer, educator, entrepreneur, or artist, there exists a myriad of opportunities to champion environmental stewardship within your sphere of influence.

The Conclusion: A Harmonious Future

In conclusion, let us envision a future where our careers and the climate are not adversaries but allies. A future where innovation and sustainability are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing. The symphony of life demands a new movement, one where harmony between human ambition and ecological preservation is not only possible but imperative.

Let us rise to the occasion, for the baton is in our hands, and the world awaits the music we shall compose.

[thehopefuljournalist]

In the previous post I introduced Greenpeace. These are some wins from June posted on their website.

- Hyundai Construction Equipment commits to help stopping illegal mining in the Amazon

Greenpeace East Asia released the Stop the Excavators report in April of this year, calling to heavy machinery manufacturers to take measures that prevent their equipment being used illegally, in ways that cause violations of human rights.

This exposé revealed that Hyundai Construction Equipment is apparently the favoured brand used in illegal mining in Indigenous Lands in the Amazon.

Hyundai has now announced a series of measures to protect the forest, and will act to prevent this in the future.

- ReconAfrica suspends oil drilling in Okavango Delta

The Canadian oil company ReconAfrica has stopped drilling in Namibia’s Okavango Delta, after it was faced with lawsuits and environmental concerns. For now, the drillings have only been suspended, but this is a step in the right direction, proving that people power can work wonders.

In 2019, ReconAfrica announced fracking in some of Africa's most sensitive (both in terms of water supplies and as livelihoods for the communities in the area) environmental areas. Namibian youth climate activists, indigenous, environmental and human rights groups have been working since then to prevent this from happening.

- ASEAN steps up commitment to end forced labour and human trafficking practices of migrant fishers

In May 2023, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) leaders officially adopted the first ASEAN Declaration on Migrant Fishers Protection in history. This declaration follows many years of active campaigning by human rights advocates and civil society organizations. The campaign aims to push stronger policies to protect Southeast Asian migrants working in fisheries and their rights.

This declaration emphasised that protecting and fulfilling the rights of migrant fishers is an entire migration cycle (recruitment, placement, and repatriation), and so is a shared responsibility among the ASEAN states.

- Local fishers and civil society join forces to reforest mangroves in Senegal

The local community in the traditional fishing town Joal in Senegal started reforesting mangroves in a show of what direct action is really about.

Joal is located near mangrove forests, that are essential breeding grounds for many fish species, and are vital therefore for the fishing communities in those areas. They also store more carbon than tropical forests, and are capable of curbing climate impacts such as floods.

- Dutch creative agencies choose to no longer work with fossil fuel companies

23+ creative agencies in The Netherlands put together a Fossil No Deal, stating that they will stop working with fossil companies and no longer encourage fossil passenger transport. They call it verdrag verantwoord verleiden, a treaty for responsible seduction.

- Thailand applies new PM2.5 ambient standard

In the beginning of June, the new PM2.5 ambient standard was officially applied in Thailand. 

The new standard is now 15 μg/m3 for the annual standard and 37.5 μg/m3 for 24-hour standard, which is in keeping with the revised WHO air quality guidelines. This is a big step in the right direction to help reduce PM2.5 and solve air pollution in the country.

Greenpeace Thailand is still not at rest, though, and are continuing to fight to get the PM2.5 at its source, that is from the industries.

- In New Zealand, FSC abandons plans for ‘GE learning’ process

Greenpeace Aotearoa and other environmental organizations have been pressuring the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme to abandon its plans for a ‘Genetic Engineering (GE) learning’ process.

The long-standing principle of not certifying GE trees came under threat  after pressure from FSC certified plantation  company Suzano from Brazil that has a subsidiary doing GE eucalyptus tree research trials (for glyphosate resistance). 

- Citizens say yes to net zero emissions in Switzerland

 Swiss citizens have voted in favour of a new law to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The new climate law, which was initiated seven years ago, passed a referendum with about 59% of the voters.

Net zero is now enshrined in the “federal law on climate protection, innovation and strengthening energy security“.

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see, news from your own countries, or if you'd like to add anything or share.

I'm also here to listen, my DMs and Asks are always open :)

Love you all, and see you next time, be safe!