Environmental News for Citizens of Earth

I post news about environmental issues, solutions and movements around the world. Feel free to contribute!

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Challenge accepted!

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Celebrate Great Bear Rainforest Solution with us !

20 years ago, who would have thought this was possible? Watch the video and learn more about this incredible story ! #CelebrateGreatBear #GreatBearRainforest

YEAH!!!

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GreenPAC

GreenPAC is a groundbreaking non-partisan organization motivated by a simple belief — Canada needs strong political leaders who are driven to take action to protect the environment.

Part of this I am.

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Support Malaysian Shark Sanctuaries

Sharks generate more money alive than dead for local communities . Well designed, administered and enforced Marine Protected Areas have been scientifically demonstrated across the globe to benefit fish and marine ecosystems. While the fins from a dead shark may be worth US $100 to a local fisherman, through ecotourism, a living shark can support an entire island community and its surrounding ecology by bringing in over US $1.9 million over the course of its lifetime. Together with Shark Stewards , an organization dedicated to combatting the shark fin trade, we are collecting signatures from the online community to prove to governments and organizations that travelers have a tangible interest in seeing sharks alive. We hope to begin saving sharks in my parents home country of Malaysia, in the heart of the coral triangle . Ecotourism is a major economic product of Malaysia and has increased over 20% in 2015 alone. Surveys among dive tourists indicate they will pay more to dive with sharks and big fish. Without healthy sharks, sea turtles and reefs the dive business in Malaysia is likely to decline and local communities will suffer economic loss and ecological destruction. Saving sharks would not only help revitalize the ocean ecosystem but could open up an entire new industry of dive ecotourism. Shark Stewards have successfully combated the shark fin trade and implemented shark conservation policies including the ban of shark finning, and the regulation of the shark fin trade in the USA and the Pacific Rim. With your support and signature, we hope to support Masidi Manjun in his efforts of creating shark sanctuaries in Malaysia. Five shark facts: Sharks are a keystone species and are responsible for the health of ocean ecosystems. They eliminate the weak, the diseased and the dead, maintaining the ecological balance and the future health of the ocean. Every year, tens of millions of sharks are killed by humans. On average, sharks kill less than 10 people a year. Shark fins contain mercury and have nearly no nutritional value. Most shark meat is unpalatable. It is mostly eaten as a status symbol by the Chinese. Currently, shark ecotourism brings almost US$1 Billion worldwide, and is expected to grow twofold over the next twenty years. There are over 450 species of sharks, most cause no harm to humans. Saving sharks will help save the ocean and the future of ocean and human health. The ocean needs our top predators. Let's start at the top, by fighting to save them. #sharkshepherds Learn more about the shoot here .

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Save the bees

Bees are miraculous! They are responsible for almost 1 out of every 3 bites we eat, but are vanishing under a rain of toxic pesticides. The US is finally considering action on bee-killing chemicals. But without strong public support the agrichemical lobby will block it. Join the call to save bees!

Message sent!

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Obama administration announced today it will conduct a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to examine the impacts that the federal coal leasing program has on the environment, including climate change. The administration also announced that a moratorium on new coal mining will be put in place while analysis is being conducted. This announcement follows the president’s announcement this week in his State of the Union address that he will push for chan...

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IEF supports and operates elephant conservation and education programs in managed facilities and in the wild, with emphasis on management, protection and

Last year when I heard that elephants were on the brink of extinction in the wild, I decided to do what I could to help them and began donating to the International Elephant Foundation.  Elephants are amazing animals, not so different from us in emotional and social development.

Unfortunately, due to the weakening Canadian dollar (and since donations are processed in USD), I will have to drastically reduce if not completely cancel my contributions.  Given this sobering reality I wanted to make sure that everyone who follows me is aware of this organisation and the critically important work it does for these amazing animals.

If you can, please help to support them.  The elephant family raises their trunks in thanks.

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Paris climate accord marks shift toward low-carbon economy

Signatories vow to reach peak emissions as soon as possible, aim for carbon neutrality in second half of the century

So much hope here, now let’s make these goals a reality!

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48 hours for 4 countries to close the climate deal

100 countries in Paris are now pushing for an ambitious climate deal, but four countries need to sign up to get an agreement to stop climate catastrophe. We have 48 hours -- add your name

Signed!

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At the end of the first day of the 21st Conference of the Parties I feel like we must be at day 4, or 5. Why the sense of exhaustion? Over 150 world

At the end of the first day of the 21st Conference of the Parties I feel like we must be at day 4, or 5.  Why the sense of exhaustion?  Over 150 world

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Largest. Climate. Mobilisation. In history.

785,000 people shook the ground at over 2,300 events in 175 countries, united in one voice calling for a 100% clean energy future to save everything we love. Click to see what the world in action looked like.

SO MUCH AWESOME!

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PARIS — Government and business leaders plan to spend tens of billions of dollars in the next five years to develop clean energy technology in efforts to fight global warming, an official and a former official have told The Associated Press. The initiative, which will be announced Monday along with the opening of the U.N. climate summit, involves Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, President Barack Obama and French President Francois ...

Very positive.

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This Sunday!

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EDMONTON — Alberta took what it hopes will be the first step toward shedding its status as international environmental pariah Sunday by revealing a sweeping climate change plan. The plan, the result of months of study and public input, will introduce a broad-based carbon tax that would apply across the economy. The government will move to phase out the province's coal-fired power generation by 2030. And it will introduce a hard cap on greenhouse ...

This is so incredibly hopeful.  People can make a difference in the world.  Let’s keep pushing for a safe future for our planet!

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Nous Sommes Unis

Let’s join hands today to embrace our brothers and sisters in France, Beirut and across the world, showing them that the world stands with them against this act of hatred in the city of love. Click here to leave a message of love and hope:

Nous Sommes Unis

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First, they were hit by an oil price collapse. Then Alberta elected an NDP government. Now, Canada’s oil industry is wrapping its head around the arrival of a “climate change minister” in the federal cabinet. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday appointed rookie Ottawa MP and international trade lawyer Catherine McKenna to head the newly named Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. The symbolism of that had some in the oil patch worried about the extent to which the new government will support the oil and gas industry, which has been struggling with depressed prices that have put major projects on hold. The sector has lost more than 11 per cent of its jobs in the past year. “I don’t think it’s panic-button stuff, but if you are looking to dig just below the surface … the cabinet committee would be very environment friendly rather than resource friendly,” an unnamed Calgary energy industry insider told the Financial Post. For others, it is panic-button stuff. “You’re really attacking the energy industry,” Murray Mullen, of oilfield services company Mullen Group, told the Globe and Mail. “That’s what climate change is all about.… It is all about attacking carbon.” Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna speaks to reporters in the foyer on Parliament Hill after being sworn in Ottawa. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press) But while some in the business prepare to circle the wagons, others are taking a more open approach. The continuing delays to the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. have convinced some in the industry that expanding Canada’s oilsands will mean convincing the world the industry is acting responsibly on climate change. To that end, some oil patch companies have thrown their weight behind a carbon tax — including Suncor, the largest player in the oilsands. "We're trying to move Canada toward a position of leadership" on the climate issue, Suncor CEO Steve Williams told a climate conference earlier this year. "That's not how we're viewed around the world at the moment. We're viewed to be quite the opposite." Not surprisingly, climate change activists largely welcomed the new ministerial title. “Including climate change in the environment minister’s title signals how high a priority this issue is to our new federal government,” Clean Energy Canada executive director Merran Smith told DeSmog Blog. Pembina Institute head Ed Whittingham said that while McKenna doesn’t have much of a background in climate issues, her experience working with NGOs is a positive. “It indicates a more engaging, communicative, collaborative approach, reading the tea leaves right now,” he said. And the oil industry seems to be more receptive to Trudeau’s choice for natural resources minister: Winnipeg MP Jim Carr, who is widely seen as being pro-business — though perhaps not to the extent of being a cheerleader for the industry. Carr “is fundamentally a bridge-builder,” Canada West Foundation head Dylan Jones told the Globe. “He did a spectacular job of connecting aboriginal people and unions and civil society and government when he was the president of the Manitoba Business Council.… That’s as much what the energy sector in Alberta needs as just someone who is a fearless champion.” McKenna's first test will be next month, when she heads to Paris for COP21, a climate change conference being billed as one of the most significant ones yet. Some climate activists criticized Trudeau's Liberals for not committing to emissions reduction targets as part of their election platform. Trudeau has said he wants to consult with the provinces before setting any concrete targets.