Happy to announce our partnership with the Women's March on Washington. Their goals are our goals. Join us on Saturday.
http://www.earthday.org/…/earth-day-network-joins-womens-m…/
20,000 Earth and climate scientists gathered in San Francisco for the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), calling for actions to deal with global environmental and climate issues. “The time has never been more urgent or your work ever more important. The danger is definitely rising.”
Cities across the world are suffering from severe air pollution, and they have reacted differently towards this issue. What do you think about these cities' responses to this problem and which do you think is the best?
The Environmental Protection Agency confirmed that fracking can cause water contamination, which reverses the conclusion in its draft water and fracking study issued in 2015 that fracking has not caused "widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water" in the United States.
The Arctic saw the warmest temperatures ever recorded in 2016, according to an annual report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. According to the agency, since 1900, temperatures in the Arctic have increased about 3.5 degrees C (6.3 degrees F). "All of this means temperatures in the region continue to climb at double the rate of the planet as a whole."
The Connecticut Green Bank sets a great example of getting clean energy development less dependent on government funds in the face of a Trump presidency. The bank's mission is "to leverage limited public money into even more private investment in clean energy so eventually there is no need for public money".
Great writeup out of India:
Greening the Buddha Valley
An Earth Day Network initiative #Trees4Earth
On the occasion of the 3rd International Dhamma Walk, monks from different countries gif...ted saplings provided by Earth Day Network (EDN) to the people of the Jethian Valley.
Jethian is part of the Buddha Valley, a special place of profound international cultural and spiritual significance. Within this area, over 2,500 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment and was transformed into the Buddha, ‘the Enlightened One’.
The valley is dotted with historical caves and other structures. It is surprisingly untouched in many places, and retains the sites, features and living cultural landscape where the Buddha walked, meditated and achieved enlightenment. The Valley runs along approximately 70 kms and has at its head the UNESCO heritage site of Bodhgaya, and at the other end, an equally historic place, Rajgir. Jethian is within this stretch
Greening the Buddha Valley will form part of EDN’s global initiative ‘Trees for Earth.’ This aims to inspire people to plant some 7.8 billion trees by 2020, which is also EDN’s 50th Anniversary. Already 578 million trees have been pledged all over India.
Once lush and green, the valley today has green cover less than 10 percent. To help increase the green cover, EDN aims to plant indigenous species with the help of the Forest Department, Government of Bihar, that has very kindly offered support of providing free saplings to the people of the Buddha Valley during the planting season.
Along with increasing the green cover, EDN aims to organize income-generating skills development workshops so that people of the Buddha Valley switch from the use of free firewood that produces harmful emissions to cleaner energy use such as solar. EDN will also help build awareness among the people of the Buddha Valley about the benefits of trees so that the people themselves protect and nurture the saplings planted.
Bill Gates announced on December 12 the start of a fund to invest in transformative energy research and development to reduce the emissions that cause climate change.
Leonardo DiCaprio and the head of his foundation met with US president-elect Donald Trump to discuss how jobs centering on preserving the environment can boost the economy, hours after Trump announced Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Donald Trump has chosen former Texas governor Rick Perry to head the US Department of Energy. When he was seeking the Republican nomination for 2012 presidential election, Perry "intended to list the Department of Energy among agencies he wanted to eliminate, but he could not remember its name".
As a powerful El Niño event fades away, some climate change deniers are now heralding a new bout of sudden planetary cooling. "If past debates over the planet’s temperature are any guide, this could just be the beginning."
The loss of sea ice in Antarctica “has really changed the abundance of animals”. The melting has given humpback whales, which prefer open water, more room to find food. But it may spell disaster for the Antarctic minke, a species that depends on ice for its survival.
Donald Trump met with Al Gore on Monday, offering environmental activists "a glimmer of hope that the Trump administration's policies will moderate from his campaign pledges to scrap all efforts to stem the warming of the planet".
Bad news for the environment: Donald Trump nominated Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt "joined a coalition of state attorneys general in suing over EPA’s Clean Power Plan, the principal Obama-era policy aimed at reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector". His nomination is a clear signal of Republicans’ desire to dismantle Obama’s climate legacy.
Amazing video.
As the world's biggest corporate buyer of renewable electricity, Google promises that its data centers and the offices for 60,000 staff will be powered entirely by renewable energy from next year.
Pruitt is the worst-case scenario. https://t.e2ma.net/…/f/78d…/c33d5e45a001a9688b9a28ba254d2558
