Welcome back for another round up for The Environment This Month. Well, so much for six more weeks of winter. We’ve had unusually high temperatures for February here in New York: 60s and 70s. But there’s no truth to the rumor of Climate Change, I keep hearing. Oh, wait, that’s man-made climate change, they deny now. Pardon my eye roll but the science to support could choke all the elephants left on the planet. It’s about time we stop coddling alternative facts, and Scientific American starts us off (even though it’s dated February).
Here are five meaningful steps you can take on…
How to Defeat Those Who are Waging War on Science – Scientific American Blog Network
This past year, I started following a corporation on the cutting edge of sustainable packaging. TIPA Corp promotes on twitter, posting videos and articles about sustainability, as well as innovations in the food packaging arena. For instance: plastic free aisles in supermarkets. They are the future and worth investing your interest, and perhaps money, in. The reason being? See the article below…
The environmental impact of producing a loaf of bread has been analysed in depth – from the farm to the supermarket shelf.
Bread’s environmental costs are counted – BBC News
One of the worst outcomes of isolation is that the people of a nation cut off from the world will suffer greatly for the lack of communication. They lose access to innovation and trade. For instance, medicine and medical advances will not make their way there for much longer than it takes to get to other areas that are open. Therefore, illness can ravage the population. Additionally, such places tend to control the information that is shared with their people, holding them back even further, and thus inhibiting innovation. In a time when climate change and the science around it is imperative for the survival of humanity, isolation is the last thing this planet needs any nation choosing.
Iranian politicians like to refer to their country as an “island of stability” in the Middle East. But the country has severe environmental problems, and nobody feels responsible – with wide-reaching consequences.
Iran: paralyzed by environmental neglect | All media content | DW.COM
Distances, poverty, stubborn and/or corrupt governments, and other factors can affect nations that are not isolated, making them isolated nonetheless. The people of those regions, as well as wildlife, pay a huge price for the negligence and/or abuse of those in power…
More than 1 in 4 deaths of children under 5 years of are attributable to unhealthy environments. Every year, environmental risks take the lives of 1.7 million children under 5 years.
WHO | The cost of a polluted environment: 1.7 million child deaths a year, says WHO
A few weeks ago I saw a post on Facebook that declared the Great Barrier Reef to be dead. My heart sunk. So many scientists and conservationists have been working so hard for years to prevent this. It almost seems inevitable in hindsight, because, as we watch with other things, humanity is never ready to act let alone listen. Changing your lifestyle can be very hard, especially when you won’t see the impact of those changes first hand, and thus feel there is no cause to do so. When you fully understand that your actions where you are impact around the world, for better or worse, it becomes less of an issue. Part of the issue with conservation, is that those communicating the benefits of it fail to explain the what’s in it for me aspect. It might annoy them that they have to, but that is the reality. Humans are mostly self focused (also, for better or worse) as part of archaic survival instincts. Although this served humanity well in the distant to nearer past, it has a downside: myopic vision, failure to look far enough out to the future to see that choices do affect you, and it does matter. How many times have people come back with, I wish I had thought about the possibility of this result? If we take the issue and then work backward from it to the self to follow how it will impact us, we’re more successful in doing right by all involved. For instance, those individuals who cry about supporting public programs or the poor fail to realize that medicare and temporary assistance keep them healthy, too. If they looked at the programs and what they provide and accomplish on their behalf, they would realize that and be far more likely to get behind them. The failure to realize this is the fault of those running the programs who don’t do a very good job explaining to the public in terms that focus on what’s in it for me, but rather tout how great they are for bringing this forward. The focus is on patting themselves on the back. Who is going to be ecstatic when they see policies being put in place for political points, and that more money is to be taken out of their pocket to achieve it (especially, if they’re geared toward selfishness, and see it as the other person stealing from them for selfish ends)?
Thus, we find ourselves with this…
Parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will never recover from the impact of unseasonably warm waters, scientists said on Thursday, as more of the World Heritage Site comes under renewed threat from a recent spike in sea temperatures.
Great Barrier Reef will never be as pristine as it once was: scientists – Business Insider
It’s important that at this time of upheaval we review the reasons behind the founding of the EPA. Discussions on the institution are bound to come up. Having the facts can make those talks more effective in spreading a positive message and reinforcing the continued need for environmental protection.
As the Environmental Protection Agency becomes the subject of focus for major cuts under President Trump’s proposed budget — and as the U.N. marks World Water Day on Wednesday — it’s worth looking back at the moment in time when the EPA was first created, and why Richard Nixon saw a need for the agency to exist.
Environmental Protection Agency: Why the EPA Was Created | Time.com
Please note: If you’ve noticed the conspicuous absence of any news mentioning the damage being done by the new administration of the United States (aka 45), that was a conscious choice to not give a platform to them. The reason behind it is that so many news outlets will be covering the stories this month, that for me to do so would more than likely alienate my readers, and only serve to falsely inflate an out of control ego. I’m also of a mind that such depressing information can kill morale. We need to do a lot of work and we don’t need to be told we face a battle in accomplishing environmental health and sustainability for in the United States as well as across the globe. Much like women’s health issues, I can’t believe I still have to fight this shit in 2017. I will assess the situation again in April.
Thanks for reading! Until next time…