I wish the criticism against AI would include that among everything it is a huge, active environmental catastrophe. Even if just at the end of the post/video/anything. Talk about how much it sucks, how much it steals from artists and creators, how dangerous it is to children and teenagers and women and people's privacy and mental health in general. But please always add that it's an active threat to the survival of humans, animals and the environment. Please. We can't forget that. It's not that hard to write or say a little line about this. And it's fundamental.
About 44% of all disaster events around the world are flood-related.
In our new explainer episode, we show how ‘sponging’ cities can help them overcome the challenge of flooding while strengthening the local ecology, and boosting the economic and social well-being of residents.
In this episode, you will learn:
🟡 What a sponge city is (and how it works)
🟡 The benefits of ‘sponging’ cities (beyond flood-resilience)
🟡 Projects that demonstrate the principles and benefits of a sponge city at various scales (and what we can learn from them)
🟡 Why developers should be in favour of sponge city initiatives (they can save millions in costs)
And much more!
💚 If you gain value from this conversation, we hope you will subscribe to the channel 💚
Thank you to Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction for supporting season 5 of Ecogradia.
A green belt circling the capital of Burkina Faso is preparing the country for the climate crisis
As far as the eye can see is a hodge-podge of trees, vegetable plots and water tanks. Up close it may look like a gigantic allotment, but this unusual project actually stretches for 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres), a green belt that now completely rings the city of Ouagadougou.
The green belt began life many years ago in the 1970s, with the aim of building a protective wall against the encroaching desert that lies beyond the greenery, just a few steps away. In Burkina Faso, one-third of the territory – about 9 million hectares of productive land – is degraded, with an estimated average degradation rate of 360,000 hectares per year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “Burkina Faso is not a climatically favoured country, but the drought of the 1980s exacerbated the problem, leading to significant population movements toward less degraded areas,” explains Sidnoma Abdoul Aziz Traoré, an environmental economist and expert in land degradation at the Centre Universitaire de Ziniaré (CUZ). But the situation, he says, is not irreversible.
The initial goal of the green belt was to reforest 2,100 hectares at an annual rate of 100 hectares, and by 1986, the area where trees had been planted was 1,032 hectares. The project stuttered a little in later years, despite reaching 2,000 hectares. But new impetus has recently been given to the project, which seeks, beyond holding back the desert, to combat heat and promote urban agriculture to help feed a city that has doubled its population in just 14 years, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Demography (INSD). The deadly heatwave that hit the country last year, with the temperature in Burkina Faso exceeding 42.3C (108F) for three consecutive days, only hammered home the urgency of what is now a vital project for the city.
“The Sahel responds more quickly to climate change, and we are less prepared,” explains climatologist Kiswendsida Guigma at the Climate Centre of the Red Cross Federation in the Burkinabè capital. “When we analyse the situation on a large scale, we realise that the climate phenomenon has contributed to increasing heat. As a result, there are new initiatives like planting trees. People have realised that we need to cool the city, although we haven’t managed to do it on the necessary scale.”
“One of the objectives of the green belt is to lower the city’s temperature; that’s why we’re also planting trees,” says Moumini Sawadogo of the Burkinabé Red Cross, which financed a two-hectare garden as part of the belt, including the construction of two water wells and training in agroecology. Research has shown that “botanical gardens are the green spaces with the greatest capacity to lower city temperatures”, and that sites such as the Chelsea Physic Garden and Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, or the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, reduced air temperatures during heatwaves in the city streets around them by an average of 5C.
1. Inform yourself - Reading up on climate can be very difficult because the news is so grim, and it can be very upsetting. I do most of my reading focused on possible solutions. I try to know the basics of the issue as well, but I am aware of not pushing my boundaries. Upsetting yourself is not the goal. Knowledge is the foundation that leads to the other steps.
2. Become politically active - Some options:
1) Volunteer for and/or donate to campaigns of candidates who will support climate legislation. As unexciting as it is to support politicians who keep on disappointing, and to wade into electoral politics in general, these are the folks who will actually vote on legislation. Just the effort of replacing any Republican with almost any Democrat is worth doing, even if it makes one sigh. (Sorry, this is going to be US-centric.) Volunteering can include canvassing, phone banking, writing letters, attending campaign rallies and events. Act locally, but if you’re not sure where to start, Swing Left tracks the most significant US races.
2) Go to protests. Showing up is one of the most significant things we can do.
3) Join a climate activism group, like Extinction Rebellion, the Sunrise Movement, Fridays for Future, and participate in their events. If there is nothing near you, there are some things you can participate in online. Check their websites. Other groups you can help: 350, Rainforest Action Network, NRDC, Stop Line 3, Oxfam, stand.earth, League of Conservation Voters... Use these organizations to choose actions to take (from signing petitions to sending letters to politicians to becoming an organizer). They have many to choose from. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel.
4) Avoid burnout or guilt. Do what you can, when you can. It’s okay if you can’t. It’s not all on you.
3. Transform your own life - Transforming consumption habits among the world’s more-affluent is necessary to reduce emissions. Collectively, our impact on heating the climate is huge. (People who make $38,000 a year and up are the 10% who contribute 50% of global emissions.) Each individual effort to reduce is so tiny it’s insignificant, but it’s part of a bigger whole that needs to happen. But again, you can only do what you can, and the choices involved are complicated. It’s okay if you can’t. It’s not all on you. (The super-rich are the ones who really need to be doing this, because their contribution to GHG emissions goes hand-in-hand with their wealth.)
These are the most impactful actions, adapted from various sources. “If possible” is implied in all of these:
1) Live car-free. Walk, bike, use public transportation. If buying a car, buy electric or used, and drive less. (”Used” because the significant emissions of manufacturing a car can be avoided by driving an existing car.)
2) Take no more than one short flight every three years and one long flight every eight years.
3) Switch electricity provider to one that provides solar or wind energy. More challenging: also convert your house to using only electricity (no natural gas) and install a heat pump.
4) Switch to a vegan diet or greatly reduce meat -- especially beef -- and dairy consumption.
5) Buy no more than three new items of clothing a year. Avoid buying newly manufactured things whenever possible. Use what you already have for seven years or longer. A big chunk of consumer emissions are embedded in the things that we buy.
4. Spread the word - This may be the most important and possibly the hardest. Do what you can. Avoid heated and probably pointless arguments. As a general rule, say your piece and then let it go, without expecting to change anyone’s mind right in that moment. I try to focus on talking about solutions, which many people surprisingly don’t know. And use your piece of the internet, write letters to the editor, comment on articles, etc.
So as I am vibrating with anticipation for GO2, I figured it will be nice to re-watch season 1 (and it was, obviously).
Apart from the usual delightful moments, what hit me hard was
1. The points about climate change and global heating. Like, of course it was true 4 years ago, but in the time since it go so much worse! Bear in de, the original was written in the late 80ies, so this is something we see a starting gradually and becoming more and more prominent.
2. In the Russian submarine there is a moment when they literally say they're at war with Ukraine. Damn, how is this possible?!
#the amazing digital circus
#photography
#love and deepspace
#coquette
