#DoNotTouchMyClothes: Afghan women’s social media protest against Taliban

Stefanie Glinski in Kabul

Women around the world are sharing pictures of themselves in traditional colourful clothes in a campaign against the new strict dress code for female students

Sara Wahedi, Peymana Assad, and Sana Safi who are among the many women posting images of themselves in colourful traditional Afghan clothing on social media. Photograph: Twitter

After street demonstrations across major cities in Afghanistan, women have now taken to social media to protest against the Taliban’s hardline policies towards them.

An online campaign has seen Afghan women around the world share photos of themselves wearing traditional colourful clothes, using the hashtag #DoNotTouchMyClothes.

The protest is a response to a sit-down demonstration orchestrated by the Taliban at Kabul University, where about 300 women appeared in all-black garments covering their faces, hands and feet – the sort of dress previously never seen across the country.

Waving Taliban flags, the women said they supported the militants who have announced that women would not be allowed to hold high-ranking government positions and that schools and universities needed to be gender-segregated.

Since the Taliban took the capital Kabul, it has set up an all-male interim government with just a handful of Tajik and Uzbek representatives and no member of the ethnic Hazara minority.

The ministry of women’s affairs is not part of the new regime, which has brought back the ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, ensuring that sharia law is implemented throughout the country.

Many Afghan women, especially in urban centres, fear that their hard-gained freedoms might be limited, remembering the 1996 to 2001 Taliban regime that saw women largely confined to their homes.

Dr Bahar Jalali, an Afghan historian and gender studies expert, posted the first photo using the #DoNotTouchMyClothes hashtag, which has since inspired Afghan women across the globe.

Peymana Assad, the first person of Afghan origin to be elected to public office in the UK, posted a photo of herself in colourful garments and tweeted: “This is Afghan culture. My traditional dress.”

This is Afghan culture. My traditional dress #AfghanWomen

Thank you to Dr @RoxanaBahar1 for the inspiration.

Our cultural attire is not the dementor outfits the Taliban have women wearing. pic.twitter.com/i9wFASfWR6

— Peymana Assad 🏔 (@Peymasad) September 12, 2021

The BBC’s Sana Safi, posting a similar photo, wrote: “So how do Afghan women dress then? This is how. If I was in Afghanistan then I would have the scarf on my head. This is as ‘conservative’ and ‘traditional’ as I/you can get.”

Musician Ariana Delawari shared a photo of her mother “with me in her belly”, she wrote, wearing traditional dresses and no headscarves decades ago in Afghanistan.

My mom (with me in her belly), my khalas, and my sisters in Afghanistan dresses 🇦🇫🏔 #donottouchmyclothes #afghanistanwomen #AfghanistanCulture pic.twitter.com/P7i9bb0Em7

— ariana delawari (@arianadelawari) September 13, 2021

Despite the Taliban’s announcement that further protests would only be allowed if approved by the ministry of justice, women in Kabul have pledged to continue their demonstrations.

Samira, a Kabul University student, said that this was her only way forward. “The Taliban is already starting to limit women’s freedoms,” she said. “I have nothing to lose. I will either be locked inside my house, unable to continue my education, or I can fight. Even if I risk my life, even if they kill me, it’s better than being silenced.”

Drought puts 2.1 million Kenyans at risk of starvation

Peter Muiruri in Nairobi

National disaster declared as crops fail after poor rains and locusts, while ethnic conflicts add to crisis

A man crosses arid land in western Turkana, one of 23 counties in Kenya facing an urgent need for food due to poor rains. Photograph: David Bathgate/Corbis/Getty Images

An estimated 2.1 million Kenyans face starvation due to a drought in half the country, which is affecting harvests.

The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said people living in 23 counties across the arid north, northeastern and coastal parts of the country will be in “urgent need” of food aid over the next six months, after poor rains between March and May this year.

The crisis has been compounded by Covid-19 and previous poor rains, it said, predicting the situation will get worse by the end of the year, as October to December rains are expected to be below normal levels.

The affected regions are usually the most food-insecure in Kenya due to high levels of poverty.

Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the drought a national disaster promising “comprehensive drought mitigation measures”.

In July, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Kenya said the country needed 9.4bn Kenyan shillings (£62m) to mitigate the effects of the drought between July and November.

Asha Mohammed, secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross, said most of the affected counties had already had to deal with desert locust invasions, flash floods and tribal conflicts driven by diminishing resources.

“You have two seasons of depressed rains, desert locusts ravaging farmlands in the same counties and people fighting over the few resources available. That is the making of a disaster,” said Mohammed.

She said it was not only farmers who had been affected by the drought, but also people in urban areas who had been forced to pay higher prices for the little available food. “There is some food reaching the urban areas within these counties but there is little purchasing power because many have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic,” she said.

The coronavirus pandemic has added to food insecurity by reducing available workforce in a country whose subsistence farming relies heavily on communal labour.

A child tries to chase away a swarm of desert locusts near the town of Rumuruti, Laikipia, Kenya, January 2021. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters

The NDMA said social distancing measures had “restricted the communal performance of agricultural activities and availability of casual labour opportunities, reducing the amount of land cultivated and projected crop production”. The disruption of supplies of staple food items and livestock has led to increased price volatility, it added.

Production of maize, Kenya’s staple food, is projected to decline by 50% in the affected regions due to low acreage under cultivation, while some areas will see total crop failure. Poor harvests have also affected those farming crops with short maturity cycles, such as vegetables.

Thomas Waita, from Kathatu village, in eastern Kenya, does not expect to harvest many tomatoes from his half-acre farm this year. Poor rains and dwindling water levels from a shallow well have seen the size of tomatoes shrink and a good portion of the crop damaged by blossom end rot, brought on by insufficient calcium intake.

For the father of two, a poor harvest means little money in the pocket and poor nutrition for his young family. “The tomatoes are ripening but didn’t get enough water. With drip irrigation, I can only afford to water them twice a week rather than daily. They will not fetch good prices at the market,” said Waita.

Waita counts himself among the fortunate ones because he at least had some water for his crops. Lack of water has seen maize planted in neighbouring farms wilt and die after hardly reaching knee height. Many farmers, he said, use irrigation methods that require a regular flow of water and, with rivers drying up, it is a matter of time before his fellow villagers become part of drought statistics.

“We are told it’s because of climate change. In the past, we used to have many trees here but most have been cut down for firewood and charcoal. [Scientists] tell us such fuels are contributing to global warming and changing rainfall patterns,” said Waita.

Mohammed said it is time the country thinks of medium and long-term interventions to mitigate the climate crisis and break the cycle of food insecurity.

“It’s clear this is going to get worse,” she said. “We have all the data to help these communities become more resilient and bounce back.”

Four in 10 young people fear having children due to climate crisis

Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent

Global survey finds most 16-25-year-olds worry a lot about the future, and many feel failed by governments

A Sunrise Movement demonstration in Washington DC last June seeking more action from the Biden administration on the climate crisis. Photograph: Allison Bailey/Rex/Shutterstock

Four in 10 young people around the world are hesitant to have children as a result of the climate crisis, and fear that governments are doing too little to prevent climate catastrophe, a poll in 10 countries has found.

Nearly six in 10 young people, aged 16 to 25, were very or extremely worried about climate change, according to the biggest scientific study yet on climate anxiety and young people, published on Tuesday. A similar number said governments were not protecting them, the planet, or future generations, and felt betrayed by the older generation and governments.

Three-quarters agreed with the statement “the future is frightening”, and more than half felt they would have fewer opportunities than their parents. Nearly half reported feeling distressed or anxious about the climate in a way that was affecting their daily lives and functioning.

The poll of about 10,000 young people covered Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Portugal, the UK and the US. It was paid for by the campaigning organisation Avaaz.

Young climate activists said feelings of anxiety over the climate were now widespread among today’s youth. Mitzi Tan, 23, from the Philippines, said: “I grew up being afraid of drowning in my own bedroom. Society tells me that this anxiety is an irrational fear that needs to be overcome, one that meditation and healthy coping mechanisms will ‘fix’.” At its root, our climate anxiety comes from this deep-set feeling of betrayal because of government inaction. To truly address our growing climate anxiety, we need justice.”

It is now common for young people to worry about having children, according to Luisa Neubauer, a 25-year-old climate activist, who is co-organiser of the school strike movement in Germany and helped achieve the court victory that has forced the German government to re-evaluate its climate policies.

She said: “I meet a lot of young girls, who ask whether it’s still OK to have children. It’s a simple question, yet it tells so much about the climate reality we are living in. We young people realised that just worrying about the climate crisis won’t stop it. So we turned our individual anxiety into collective action. And now, we are fighting everywhere: on the streets, at the courts, in and outside institutions across the globe. Yet governments are still failing us, as emissions are rising to record levels. The appropriate answer to this study would be governments to start acting like they promised they would.”

Earlier this month, Unicef found that children and young people around the world were bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, with 1 billion children at “extreme risk” from the impacts of climate breakdown.

The study, entitled Young People’s Voices on Climate Anxiety, Government Betrayal and Moral Injury: A Global Phenomenon, has been released on a pre-publication basis, while it is under the peer review process, by the scientific journal Lancet Planetary Health. The survey was conducted and analysed by seven academic institutions in the UK, Europe and the US, including the University of Bath, the University of East Anglia, and the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

The poll adds to previous surveys, which have also found high levels of anxiety about the climate crisis around the world, including fears about having children.

Caroline Hickman, from the University of Bath, Climate Psychology Alliance and co-lead author on the study, said: “This study paints a horrific picture of widespread climate anxiety in our children and young people. It suggests for the first time that high levels of psychological distress in youth is linked to government inaction. Our children’s anxiety is a completely rational reaction given the inadequate responses to climate change they are seeing from governments. What more do governments need to hear to take action?”

Francois Hollande, who was president of France when the Paris agreement was forged in 2015, urged governments meeting in November in Glasgow for the Cop26 UN climate summit to take note. “Six years after the Paris agreement, we must open our eyes to the violence of climate change, to its impact on our planet, but also to the mental health of our youth, as this alarming study shows. We must act urgently and do everything we can to give younger generations a future,” he said.

Sacrifice of 9/11 first responders an example of humanity and compassion, UN chief

UN NEWS
Peace and Security

Twenty years to the day since the terror attack that brought down the iconic Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has paid tribute to the first responders who ran into the buildings to save lives

© Eric Ganz The Tribute in Light has become an iconic part of the 9/11 remembrance.

Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks on 11 September 2001, which saw four planes hijacked by members of the Al-Qaeda terror group fly into US targets, including the two skyscrapers in Manhattan’s Financial District.

Memorial ceremonies were held across the United States on Saturday, including the three sites of the attacks: a plane was also flown into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Military, and another crashed into a field in Pennyslvania, after passengers wrested back control from the hijackers.

More than 400 first responders were killed in New York that day, the majority of them firefighters. In a statement, Mr. Guterres honoured those who put themselves in harm’s way when they headed towards the burning Twin Towers, “with many making the ultimate sacrifice, exemplifying the very humanity and compassion that terrorism seeks to erase”.

Describing the day as one “seared in the minds of millions of people around the world”, Mr. Guterres recalled that the thousands of victims, and thousands more injured in the “cowardly and heinous" acts of violence came from some 90 countries.

Paying tribute to the survivors who, he said, have had to overcome physical and emotional scars to get on with their lives, Mr. Guterres pledged the UN’s continued solidarity with the people of New York City, the United States of America, as well as all victims of terrorism everywhere around the world.

Mr. Guterres also recalled the solidarity, unity and resolve expressed 20 years ago by the international community. The then Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, condemned the attacks on the day they happened, stressing that no just cause can be advanced by terror, and the members of the Security Council unanimously called on all countries to work together to bring the perpetrators to justice.

World’s biggest machine capturing carbon from air turned on in Iceland

Agence France-Presse

Operators say the Orca plant can suck 4,000 tonnes of CO2 out of the air every year and inject it deep into the ground to be mineralised

A worker on a CarbFix carbon injection well in Iceland in 2017. The company is involved in the new Orca plant designed to draw carbon dioxide out of the air and store it as rock. Photograph: Christian Science Monitor/Getty Images

The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into rock has started running, the companies behind the project said on Wednesday.

The plant, named Orca after the Icelandic word “orka” meaning “energy”, consists of four units, each made up of two metal boxes that look like shipping containers.

Constructed by Switzerland’s Climeworks and Iceland’s Carbfix, when operating at capacity the plant will draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air every year, according to the companies.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, that equates to the emissions from about 870 cars. The plant cost between US$10 and 15m to build, Bloomberg reported.

To collect the carbon dioxide, the plant uses fans to draw air into a collector, which has a filter material inside.

Once the filter material is filled with CO2, the collector is closed and the temperature is raised to release the CO2 from the material, after which the highly concentrated gas can be collected.

The CO2 is then mixed with the water before being injected at a depth of 1,000 metres into the nearby basalt rock where it is mineralised.

Proponents of so-called carbon capture and storage believe these technologies can become a major tool in the fight against climate change.

Critics however argue that the technology is still prohibitively expensive and might take decades to operate at scale.

Climate action: Guterres hails Latin American and Caribbean leadership

UN NEWS
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

The UN chief on Wednesday commended the leadership of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on climate action.

UNDP I Restoring natural habitats as pictured here in Cuba will help to slow down climate change

Secretary-General António Guterres said he was counting on these nations to send a strong signal to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) that it is possible to achieve a resilient net zero future. 

He was speaking at the High-Level Dialogue on Climate Action in the Americas, hosted by the Government of Argentina. The one-day virtual event brought together countries in the Americas to discuss their shared commitment to enhancing climate ambition. 

Glasgow in the United Kingdom will host the international climate meeting COP26, by Unsplash/Adam Marikar

The event is taking place less than two months before COP26, which will be held October 31 to November 12 in Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow. 

“We need to act together to overcome the current impasse”, said Mr. Guterres, adding that countries in the region were already showing their ambition in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climatic change, even as they grapple with the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He also pledged “the full support of the United Nations system to address the triple threat of COVID-19, climate change and debt.” 

Glasgow in the United Kingdom will host the international climate meeting COP26, by UNsplashI Adam Marika

Priorities 

Mr. Guterres highlighted three essential areas that need immediate action. 

First, keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels target within reach. According to him, at present, the world is “a long way from achieving it”. 

He shared some examples of how that can be accomplished, such as achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and phasing out the use of coal no later than 2030 for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and by 2040 for all others. 

The UN Chief also said that “a just transition means ensuring that workers in high-carbon and fossil fuel-related sectors have decent alternative options, are supported for retraining, and have social safety nets.” 

Adaptation and resilience 

Second, Mr. Guterres asked for a breakthrough on adaptation and resilience. 

He called on donors and multilateral development banks to allocate at least 50 per cent of their climate finance to this end. Currently, only 21 per cent is devoted to it. 

Developing countries already need around $70 billion dollars a year to adapt to these changes. That figure could more than quadruple by the end of this decade. 

And lastly, the Secretary-General said developed nations must deliver on the solidarity agenda. 

“That means support to developing countries on vaccines, debt and liquidity, as well as climate finance,” he said. 

To achieve that goal, Mr. Guterres argued the world needs “a credible plan” for delivering on the $100 billion dollar commitment made over a decade ago, and multilateral development banks have to align their portfolios with the 1.5 degrees goal. 

Event 

The opening of the high-level event also featured remarks from US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, along with Latin American and Caribbean heads of state. 

The event included interventions from governments, the private and financial sectors, development banks, academia, and civil society organizations.  

Panel discussions were held on topics such as enhancing climate ambition on the road to Glasgow, accelerating climate action through regional cooperation, and strengthening adaptation and resilience to the impacts of climate change. 

From locusts to cyclones: the human cost of interlinked disasters

UN NEWS
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

The huge locust swarm which hit the Horn of Africa in the Spring of 2020, and Cyclone Amphan, which struck the border region of India and Bangladesh in May that year, might not seem, on the face of it, to be connected, but a rport released on Wednesday by UN University, the academic and research arm of the UN, shows that there were connected underlying causes: greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, which are affecting the environment in unpredictable ways, and a lack of sufficient disaster risk management.

Both disasters took place in 2020, with the world in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that the effectiveness of the response to both disasters was reduced, with movement restricted for both humanitarians and victims, who also found themselves more financially vulnerable.

Two of the people directly affected have shared their stories with the UN: Susan Mumbi Karanja, a farmer from Nyandarua County, Kenya, and Sudhansu Shekhar Maity, who sells stationery in the Indian city of Kolkata.

Surviving a swarm of biblical proportions

“My name is Susan Mumbi Karanja. I live in a village called Karima, Nyandarua County. I am a farmer, and I have six children.

When the locusts came in March 2020, we saw them coming from the hills. There were so many. They attacked all the food: the cabbages, carrots, potatoes, everything that was on the farm. When they came you could not even see the sun. It would get dark. You could not go to work, the cows could not even eat.

We had heard about the swarm on TV, but we did not think that it would reach us. When it came, the government sent people here, and they sprayed chemicals at the locusts, even where there was food.

We saw that when the chemicals were sprayed some locusts died and others just slept and waited for the sun to rise again. They ate much of the food, which was also destroyed by the chemicals.

When the swarm left there was no food to eat, and none to sell. The cows did not produce milk because there was nothing for them to eat: locusts were everywhere, even in the grass. We couldn’t even eat the locusts, because they had been sprayed with chemicals.

The only thing that can be done is for the government to find out where the locusts are coming from, so they can contain them or burn them. During the swarm, they even sent a helicopter to get rid of them, but it failed and left.

We are wondering what we can do. There can be no planning because of the threat of locusts; it is only the government that can help.”

‘It sounded like a bombardment’: surviving Amphan

“I am Sudhansu Shekhar Maity, and I am from Ramganga village in West Bengal.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures, I had to leave my job in Kolkata in March 2020 and return to my village, where I stayed for six months.

Based on news from different media, there was a sense of terror about the virus spread, and we were scared to step outside.

Obviously, I have faced a major financial crisis. If we stay at home days after days and cannot go to work, how are we going to generate income?

During Cyclone Amphan, we could clearly see the sea from my house, and the water hitting the boundaries was horrific, with 20-25 foot waves. The moment the cyclone started coming closer, we could hear the disturbing noise of heavy wind hitting the windows. It sounded like a bombardment. The river started overflowing and water began entering into the village.

People started running, along with their livestock, such as cows, buffaloes and goats, to save themselves. Most people took shelter in hotels.

UNU-EHS/Tanmay Chakraborty // Cyclone Amphan, struck the border region of India and Bangladesh in May 2020 causing widespread destruction.

When the cyclone passed, I stepped out of my house and all I could see was water: most of the houses were underwater, and the mud-built homes had disintegrated.

Ponds are the most reliable source of water in village areas, we farm fish in these ponds, which is good enough for our yearly consumption. Because of the floods, the ponds were filled by saltwater, and all of the fish died.

All the crops were destroyed due to the cyclone and the flooding. The betel leaf farmers faced the most terrible times due the cyclone: they farm on the baked mud roofs of their homes, and these were all destroyed.

Right after the cyclone, the first thing I could think of was the food and the drinking water. And how we are going to live our life? All our ponds and lands were destroyed. No vegetables and groceries, no connectivity, no electricity, all the roads were blocked and there was no access to the nearest health care centres. With the shortage of drinking water, we had to stand in a long queue to get the well water: there is one well for about 50-60 families.

We have faced really hard times and my savings have been spent during the lockdown. I am still trying to recover from the situation. Around 12,000 families live in our village and most of them have suffered.”

Blue sky thinking: 5 things to know about air pollution

UN NEWS

Around 90 per cent of people go through their daily lives breathing harmful polluted air, which has been described by the United Nations as the most important health issue of our time. To mark the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, on 7 September, UN News explains how bad it is and what is being done to tackle it.

1) Air pollution kills millions and harms the environment

Unsplash/Alexander Popov/Transport is a huge driver of air pollution.

It may have dropped from the top of news headlines in recent months, but air pollution remains a lethal danger to many: it precipitates conditions including heart disease, lung disease, lung cancer and strokes, and is estimated to cause one in nine of all premature deaths, around seven million every year.

Air pollution is also harming also harms our natural environment. It decreases the oxygen supply in our oceans, makes it harder for plants to grow, and contributes to climate change.

Yet, despite the damage it causes, there are worrying signs that air pollution is not seen as a priority in many countries: in the first ever assessment of air quality laws, released on 2 September by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), it was revealed that around 43 per cent of countries lack a legal definition for air pollution, and almost a third of them have yet to adopt legally mandated outdoor air quality standards.

2) The main causes

WHO / Andrew Esiebo / Panos Pictures
A 54-year-old Nigerian man with type 2 diabetes had to have his right foot amputated.

Five types of human activity are responsible for most air pollution: agriculture, transport, industry, waste and households.

Agricultural processes and livestock produce methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas, and a cause of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Methane is also a by-product of waste burning, which emits other polluting toxins, which end up entering the food chain. Meanwhile industries release large amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulate matter and chemicals.

Transport continues to be responsible for the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, despite the global phase out of dangerous leaded fuel at the end of August. This milestone was lauded by senior UN officials, including the Secretary-General, who said that it would prevent around one million premature deaths each year. However, vehicles continue to spew fine particulate matter, ozone, black carbon and nitrogen dioxide into the atmosphere; it’s estimated that treating health conditions caused by air pollution costs approximately $1 trillion per year globally.

Whilst it may not come as a great shock to learn that these activities are harmful to health and the environment, some people may be surprised to hear that households are responsible for around 4.3 million deaths each year. This is because many households burn open fires and use inefficient stoves inside homes, belching out toxic particulate matter, carbon monoxide, lead and mercury.

3) This is an urgent issue

ADB/Zen Nuntawinyu //Using sustainable and clean energy sources, like this wind farm in Thailand, reduces air pollution.

The reason that the UN is ringing alarm bells about this issue now, is that the evidence of the effects of air pollution on humans is mounting. In recent years exposure to air pollution has been found to contribute to an increased risk of diabetes, dementia, impaired cognitive development and lower intelligence levels.

On top of this, we have known for years that it is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

Concern about this type of pollution dovetails with increased global action to tackle the climate crisis: this is an environmental issue as well as a health issue, and actions to clean up the skies would go a long way to reducing global warming. Other harmful environmental effects include depleted soil and waterways, endangered freshwater sources and lower crop yields.

4) Improving air quality is a responsibility of government and private sector

Unsplash/Jo-Anne McArthur // Eating less meat and more plant-based foods can help to reduce air pollution.

On International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, the UN is calling on governments to do more to cut air pollution and improve air quality.

Specific actions they could take include implementing integrated air quality and climate change policies; phasing out petrol and diesel cars; and committing to reduce emissions from the waste sector.

Businesses can also make a difference, by pledging to reduce and eventually eliminate waste; switching to low-emission or electric vehicles for their transport fleets; and find ways to cut emissions of air pollutants from their facilities and supply chains.

5)…and it is our responsibility, as well

At an individual level, as the harmful cost of household activities shows, a lot can be achieved if we change our behaviour.

Simple actions can include using public transportation, cycling or walking; reducing household waste and composting; eating less meat by switching to a plant-based diet; and conserving energy.

The Website for the International Day contains more ideas of actions that we can take, and how we can encourage our communities and cities to make changes that would contribute to cleaner skies: these include organizing tree-planting activities, raising awareness with events and exhibitions, and committing to expanding green open spaces.

How clean is your air?

You may well be wondering exactly how clean or dirty the air around you is right now. If so, take a look at a UNEP website which shows how exposed we are to air pollution, wherever we live.

The site indicates that more than five billion people, or around 70 per cent of the global population, are breathing air that is above the pollution limits recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Death toll rises in US north-east after sudden heavy rains and flooding

Deaths and damage spanned huge areas in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland

Nina Lakhani, Mark Oliver, and Martin Pengelly
New York, and agencies

A stranded car in flood water is seen on Lester Street on Thursday in Passaic City, New Jersey. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

Police were going door to door in search of more possible victims and drawing up lists of the missing in the US north-east on Friday, as the death toll rose to 49 across eight states in the region after the catastrophic flooding set off by the remnants of Hurricane Ida after it roared up from Gulf coast.

Ida struck Louisiana last Sunday, knocking out power to the city of New Orleans and causing deaths in that state and Mississippi.

The National Hurricane Center had warned since Tuesday of the potential for “significant and life-threatening flash flooding” and major river flooding in the mid-Atlantic and New England.

The storm struck the region on Wednesday night and officials in New York admitted they had not expected the swift devastation that followed, as record rainfall and battering winds hit the city, amid a tornado warning, in the space of a terrifying hour or so after dark.

The disaster underscored with stunning clarity how vulnerable the US is to the extreme weather that the human-caused climate crisis is bringing. In its wake, officials weighed far-reaching new measures to save lives in future storms and Joe Biden warned from the White House that climate change “is here”.

New York’s new governor, Kathy Hochul, and the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, said the storm took them by surprise.

“We did not know that between 8.50pm and 9.50pm last night the heavens would literally open up and bring Niagara Falls-level of water to the streets of New York,” said Hochul.

De Blasio said he had a forecast on Wednesday of 3in to 6in (7.6-15cm) of rain over the course of the day. Central Park ended up getting 3.15in in one hour, surpassing the previous recorded high of 1.94in in an hour – recorded during Tropical Storm Henri on 21 August.

Many people drowned in their cars or in basement apartments and there were hundreds of rescues by boat and with first responders wading and climbing to the rescue in dangerous conditions.

Cars abandoned on a flooded highway on Thursday in the Bronx borough of New York City. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Late on Thursday afternoon, after a day of rescue work and disruption to transportation and power, the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, said he was “saddened to report that, as of right now, at least 23 New Jerseyans have lost their life to this storm.

“The majority of these deaths were individuals who got caught in their vehicles by flooding and were overtaken by the water. Our prayers are with their family members.”

On Friday, communities labored to haul away ruined vehicles, pump out homes and highways, clear away muck and other debris, restore mass transit and make sure everyone caught in the storm was accounted for.

Even after clouds gave way to blue skies, some rivers and streams were still rising. Part of the swollen Passaic River in New Jersey was not expected to crest until Friday night.

“People think it’s beautiful out, which it is, that this thing’s behind us and we can go back to business as usual, and we’re not there yet,” Murphy warned.

In New York City, police said at least 13 people died, one in a car and 11 in flooded basement apartments that often serve as relatively affordable homes in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets. Westchester county, a northern suburb of New York, reported three deaths.

Officials said at least five people died in Pennsylvania, including one killed by a falling tree and another who drowned in his car after helping his wife to escape.

In Connecticut, a state police sergeant perished after his cruiser was swept away. A 19-year-old man was killed in flooding at an apartment complex in Rockville, Maryland, police said.

Floods in south-west Hoboken, New Jersey, on Thursday. Photograph: Kena Betancur/Dave Lucas/AFP/Getty Images

In a speech at the White House in Washington on Thursday, Joe Biden said: “These extreme storms, and the climate crisis, are here. We must be better prepared. We need to act.”

Highways flooded, garbage bobbed in streaming streets and water cascaded into subway tunnels, trapping at least 17 trains and halting service until early morning. Videos online showed riders standing on seats in swamped cars. All riders were evacuated safely, officials said.

Harrowing reports were common. In Queens, water filled the sunken patio of one basement apartment then broke a glass door, trapping a 48-year-old woman in 6ft of water. Neighbours tried in vain to save her.

“She was screaming, ‘Help me, help me, help me!’” said the building’s assistant superintendent, Jayson Jordan. “We all came to her aid, trying to get her out. But it was so strong – the thrust of the water was so strong.”

A two-year-old boy was among the dead in Queens, where officers said they found three bodies around noon in a flooded basement near Kissena Park. Three other people, including two women and a man, were found dead on Thursday morning in a basement apartment in another part of the borough.

The storm ultimately dumped more than 9in of rain in parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and nearly as much on Staten Island in New York City.

Newark international airport shut down on Wednesday night as videos showed water rushing through a terminal. The airport allowed limited flights on Thursday.

“There’s a lot of hurt in New Jersey,” Governor Murphy told ABC, discussing havoc caused by flooding in the north and tornadoes in the south.

Roads are covered in floodwaters in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Drone Base/Reuters

Major flooding along the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania swamped highways, submerged cars and disrupted rail service. Amtrak service was affected between Philadelphia and Boston, as was New Jersey Transit train service.

New York’s resilience to flooding was under renewed scrutiny. It was the second time in recent weeks that subway stations and streets were submerged.

As COP26 approaches, experts talk tech, carbon pricing and what governments should do next

• A lot is riding on COP26, the major climate change summit which was due to take place last year but postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

• A lot of the discussions at COP26 will be centered around nationally determined contributions, or NDCs.

Adriana Van De Wal | EyeEm | Getty Images

The chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission has highlighted the role both companies and governments can play when it comes to reducing emissions, emphasizing the importance of the upcoming COP26 summit on climate change.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” at the end of last week, Adair Turner was asked if meaningful action was actually taking place when it comes to corporate announcements related to ESG — a term which stands for environmental, social and governance — or if these lacked substance.

“A lot of meaningful action is taking place,” Turner said. “The problem is that it’s five to ten years later than it should have occurred – but it’s still good news.”

He went on to note that companies and countries across the world were “now making clear commitments and taking clear actions” to cut their emissions.

“Almost everybody has now agreed that we’ve got to get the global economy to about zero emissions by 2050,” Turner, who chaired the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority between 2008 and 2013, said.

“The other bit of good news is that the technologies to do that — the technologies of renewables, of batteries, of electrolyzing hydrogen — have ended up being far cheaper and easier to apply than we dared hope 10 years ago,” he said.

According to the foreword of a recent report from the International Renewable Energy Agency, the cost of electricity from utility scale solar photovoltaics dropped by 85% in the period 2010 to 2020. For onshore wind, costs fell by 56%, while offshore wind saw a decline of 48%.

The report from IRENA also states that, in the U.S., the price of utility scale battery storage decreased by 71% between 2015 and 2018.
 
The production of hydrogen using renewables and electrolysis — sometimes called ‘green’ hydrogen — remains expensive, but efforts are also being made to lower costs.

In June, the U.S. Department of Energy launched its Energy Earthshots Initiative and said the first of these would focus on cutting the cost of “clean” hydrogen to $1 per kilogram (2.2 lbs) in a decade. According to the DOE, hydrogen from renewables is priced at around $5 a kilogram today.

COP26

Looking at the bigger picture, Turner acknowledged that while the technologies were there and a lot of companies were taking action, even stronger commitments would be needed at COP26, which will be held in the Scottish city of Glasgow from October 31 to November 12.

“In particular, we now need to focus not just on how do we get to zero emissions by 2050, but how do we get really serious emission reductions in methane as well as CO2 — I want to stress that point — in the 2020s,” he said. “We’ve really got to get the action in place now.”

A lot is riding on COP26, which was due to take place last year but postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The U.K.’s official website for the summit says it will “bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.”

Described by the United Nations as a legally binding international treaty on climate change, the Paris Agreement, adopted in late 2015, aims to “limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.”

Much of the discussions at Glasgow will be centered around nationally determined contributions, or NDCs. In simple terms, NDCs refer to individual countries’ targets for cutting emissions and adapting to the effects of climate change.

In his interview with CNBC Turner noted how the NDCs presented at COP26 would, when added up, be “nothing like the scale of emission reductions that we need.”

“We are going to have to think about additional action on top of that,” he said. “And that will require further tightening of NDCs in future years but also, maybe, some cross-cutting initiatives at COP26 on methane, on deforestation, on accelerating the drive towards electric vehicles, which can be agreed across all countries.”

Governmental role

When it came to getting results, Turner stressed the important role national governments could play.

“You need not only corporates to be committed and to make voluntary commitments because they want to do the right thing,” he said, but strict government “regulations and taxes and other instruments as well.”

He explained how establishing a framework to create the conditions in which businesses could then deliver was key.

One example of how governments are attempting to generate change is in the automotive industry. The U.K., for instance, wants to stop the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2030 and require, from 2035, all new cars and vans to have zero tailpipe emissions.

“The automotive industry is pivoting towards EVs at an amazing pace,” Turner said. “But we need to make that even faster by just telling them you can’t sell an internal combustion engine car beyond 2035. So yes, you need strong action from government — sometimes the best action is regulation, sometimes it’s a carbon price, sometimes it’s a subsidy or support.”

When it comes to climate change and action, topics related to increased government regulation and carbon pricing have generated a significant amount of debate in recent times.

In a separate interview with CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick over the weekend, former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz touched upon these subjects.

Moniz said he thought the energy transition to net zero was “a $100 trillion-plus affair.” He was, he said, encouraged at how financial institutions were “demanding things like disclosure from … companies … in order to be able to shape their own investment portfolios.”

“But we know that most areas of the clean energy transition right now do not have, let’s say, the returns that an investor would like without government coming in and reshaping policy and regulation,” Moniz said. “So that I think is a key step now that needs further attention.”

He was then asked if a carbon tax would level the playing field and make renewables more attractive when compared with hydrocarbons.

“First of all, I like to say clean energy and not renewable because we need the entire space, including carbon capture and hydrogen and nuclear.”

“But yes, a carbon pricing mechanism, I think, would be the most straightforward way of doing two things. One, to shape the playing field – assuming the price, frankly, is high enough. But secondly, what carbon pricing would do is create a pool of resources that I would strongly urge be used in a progressive way.”

THE GREEN ROOM (Episode 15): Gerod Rody and Sophia Paul on Bridging Queer Identity and Sustainability Values

GREEN ROOM: LIVE WEBINAR

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Summary of the Discussion

Gerod Rody is the founder of OUT for Sustainability, gave a brief history organization, its mission and challenges in the last 13 years. Also, during the session, Sophia Paul mentioned the achievements of the organization, post COVID-19 restructuring and the future engagement of the organization in helping the queer communities.

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LISTEN TO PODCAST

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Gerod Rody is the founder of OUT for Sustainability

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Dr. Jason J. McSparren is an educator, researcher, and administrator with a PhD. in Global Governance and Human Security from Massachusetts Boston.

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Q&A

Jason: Greetings to our audience, thank you very much for joining us on the green room today.

I'm Jason McSparren, I'm the moderator for the green room here at the green Institute. Today, our discussion is about sustainable inclusion bridging queer identity and sustainability values. And we have two guests with us today which is really nice. We've got Gerod Rody and Sophia Paul. Please give everybody your silent applause and welcome to Gerod and Sophia.

Let me Please introduce them. Gerod Rody is the founder and former president of OUT for sustainability. Gerod has followed his passion for connecting various vision with near in action. He's animated by identity intersectionality, and where he sees fresh opportunities and spaces between established business practices and shifting cultural norms, is where he operates best, he is an innovative strategy consultant, focused on business design. He has worked with some of the largest organizations around the country and around the world, he applies his entrepreneurial creativity to benefit clients across sectors. He's worked in retail, finance, beauty and energy. And when he has a few extra minutes, his hobbies include long walks with his dog and Brooklyn, sharing meals with friends and traveling the world. Thank you very much for being here with us today Jerry. Thank you.

And I'd also like to introduce Sophia Paul. Sophia is the chair of the board at OUT for sustainability. Sophia is passionate about OUT for sustainability mission of environmental justice in climate resilient programs, created for in by LGBTQIA plus communities. Sophia has professional experience and collective processes in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the environmental movement. A graduate of Environmental Studies in Oberlin College, Sophia worked as a volunteer coordinator at a social service organization that focused on community engagement and food justice. Following that, they pursued a Masters of Science at the School of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan. They focus on the studies and environmental justice in collaborative natural resource management. Currently, Sophia coordinates research and Institutional Diversity in equity in the environmental movement and plans conferences for young people, focus on equity in the environmental movement, currently living in Ohio, Sophia is employed at the trust for Public Land. Sophia spends their free time gardening, baking and training for their first marathon. Good luck with that.

Sophia: Thank you.

Jason: You're welcome, and everything else you're doing.

Sophia: Thank you.

Jason: So thank you too very much for being here. We can start our conversation by talking about what was the genesis for your program OUT for sustainability. Gerod, can you talk to us about that, please.

Gerod: Yeah, absolutely. I've been involved with the queer community for a while, and then I decided, but I also had this deep passion for sustainability. So I went to business school, the famous Graduate Institute, and I found these amazing progressive people who are actively inclusive, but a completely invisible queer community within that. So it wasn't that there weren't queer people present but there was no connection there was, it felt like I was divorced from this other part of my identity. And so, notoriously I asked around and said, is there any kind of organization that exists, kind of along these lines, so I can give a date. But it really became much more than that very quickly. So we started doing stakeholder meetings and figure out like, does the world actually need this kind of organization or is it just me and maybe a few other people. So we built a board, we started doing some programming. And, you know, the thing I wanted to leave on this one is through all of the things we've done early on this try and learn model, it showed that even if you don't really like camping, like me, you can get involved with the environmental movement and the queer community and really bring these things together and get engaged, wherever you are.

Jason: I admired your entrepreneurial spirit. It really a good quality to have in, especially you know, the world needs leaders and it's really good to see. So tell us a little bit about, were there any challenges at the beginning that you had to overcome.

Gerod: A lot of it was just focus. What is the problem that we're solving. I got a lot of feedback of like this is nice. But, you know, is this do these two things have anything in common. And the, the original example I gave was, you know, there's get running groups there's queer foods contingents out there that are doing amazing work. Sustainability is so intrinsic to who we are as people and so essential to focus on is humanity that it was, it was a logic thing, we need to give everything we've got to surviving as a species and we can't survive if we ignore this incredibly essential and dynamic part of our human race. So in that respect, I think it was ended up being proving itself out that there is a value to this kind of organization. And thankfully there are a few others now, Doing this kind of work as well. Was 15 years later or something but I mean, the point is, it's been amazing to see how many points. Sustainability crosses with the career community like food, like health, like transportation, you know, anything sustainability is everywhere, it's every part of who we are and how we operate. So, Yeah, that would be my two cents.

Jason: I just got one quick question for you until you started to say about 15 years ago. Well, doing this work.

Gerod: Yeah, 2008.

Jason: Okay.

Gerod: Yeah.

Jason: And how large is your group nowadays in terms of membership

Gerod: Yeah so we've never been, you know, I stepped down from the board right before points only right before coven for a job that was going to have me traveling like three weeks, a month. But anyway, the point is, so I'm not totally up on the numbers, Sophia you may be able to step in but it's never been in a membership organization so we don't have, you know, kind of like a roster, but in terms of engagement, before that I think for 10 year and 2018, it was like 5000 people had been touched in some way by the organization like Atlanta, I'm sure it's grown since then, so

Jason: You know that's a significant amount of people because they have friends and contacts so that's really good. Yeah, I know that that's really good spread. Yes. Actually,

Gerod: Yea,

Jason: Thank you so much Gerod. Just give us one second, I'd like to bring Sophia in, but before we do that I just want to highlight one thing and share. After this the origin story. Yes, certainly. Okay. Yes, absolutely. I've got a question about to ask Sophia. I'm curious about how Out for sustainability is emerging. So perhaps you can talk about the mission, but prior to that I just want to again, just highlight our new guests today. We've got Gerod and Sophia from We're talking about bridging queer identity and sustainability, how they work for sustainability, you can find out for sustainability out4s.org. And then one thing I like to go to the green institute website is the website.greeninstituteng.com and you can get the latest book by Adenike Akinsemolu. Adenike is the director and founder of the group. And this is a fantastic book. You can read about the principles of green and sustainability science. The book is focused on the principles of green and sustainability science, using case studies across Africa, in the world. The book contributes to the literature about environmental science by expounding on the natural systems, and the scientific aspects of sustainability. Okay. So if we go back to our screen I don't want to share, and we'll go back to ask the question to Sophia. Sophia please Can you talk to us about how Out for sustainability is emerging

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Favourite Quote

“...in a world of climate crisis and wherever these natural disasters, queer people have unique vulnerabilities”

— Sophia Paul

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Top Comments

Don't think us inattentive, I don't have anything to ask, but it's been really interesting and inspiring so far!-Shaun Bryan

Thank you for the knowledge passed across-Olisa Ononye

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Opec member urges oil producers to focus more on renewable energy

Fiona Harvey
Environment correspondent

Iraqi minister and International Energy Agency chief urge countries to move away from fossil fuel dependency

The finance minister of Iraq, one of the founding members of the global oil cartel Opec, has made an unprecedented call to fellow oil producers to move away from fossil fuel dependency and into renewable energy, ahead of a key Opec meeting.

Gas flares from an oil production platform are seen at the Soroush oil fields in the Persian Gulf. Photograph: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters

Ali Allawi, who is also the deputy prime minister of Iraq, has written in the Guardian to urge oil producers to pursue “an economic renewal focused on environmentally sound policies and technologies” that would include solar power and potentially nuclear reactors, and reduce their dependency on fossil fuel exports.

Along with the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, he wrote: “To stand a chance of limiting the worst effects of climate change, the world needs to fundamentally change the way it produces and consumes energy, burning less coal, oil and natural gas … If oil revenues start to decline before producer countries have successfully diversified their economies, livelihoods will be lost and poverty rates will increase.”

Ministers of the 13 Opec member states are scheduled to meet virtually on Wednesday to negotiate potential curbs to production, as oil prices waver. Opec had earlier agreed to boost production as economies recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, but slowing markets have led some to suggest a halt to the increase.

The US president, Joe Biden, controversially called for Opec to increase oil production further last month, to keep oil prices from rising and assist with the US economic recovery. His plea was rejected.

The Guardian understands Wednesday’s Opec meeting may also discuss the climate crisis, in an unusual move for the fossil fuel producers, before vital UN climate talks called Cop26, scheduled for Glasgow in November.

Allawi and Birol suggested current oil price volatility, driven by the pandemic, was only the beginning of problems for producers. The climate crisis will not only require a move away from oil, but will strike the Middle East and north Africa particularly badly, where rising temperatures are already causing severe problems.

The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) recent global roadmap to net zero by 2050 found that global demand for oil was likely to plunge from more than 90m barrels per day to fewer than 25m by 2050, resulting in a potential 85% drop in revenues for oil-producing economies.

“In a region with one of the youngest and fastest-growing populations in the world, economic hardship and increasing unemployment risk creating broader unrest and instability,” Allawi and Birol wrote.

An alternative to remaining tied to increasingly volatile oil prices would be to invest in renewables, especially solar power. “The energy sector could play a role here by making use of the region’s vast potential for producing and supplying clean energy,” they wrote.

Iraq is a founder member of the cartel that includes many of the world’s biggest producers, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Nigeria and several other African oil-producing states. The Opec+ grouping also includes Russia and some smaller producers. Most have been hostile to calls for action on climate change, while some have been dismissive of climate science and Saudi Arabia, in particular, has frequently been obstructive to UN negotiations on global climate action.

The IEA warned in May that for the world to stay within 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the lower limit set out in the Paris agreement – to which all Opec members are signatories – then all new oil exploration must cease from this year.

Asked about the findings, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the energy minister of Saudi Arabia, told reporters after an Opec meeting in June: “I would have to express my view that I believe it is a sequel of [the] La La Land movie … Why should I take it seriously?”

In the past, Saudi ministers have flirted with climate action, for instance suggesting that the country could power itself with solar energy in future. But none have seriously suggested a policy to cease oil exports.

However, some oil producers have taken a more dovish stance. Oman, which is no longer an Opec member, is pursuing hydrogen as a potential low-carbon fuel for the future. UAE is also working on hydrogen, and boosting renewables, and recently inaugurated a new nuclear plant. Egypt, Morocco and Jordan are among other countries in the region with sizeable renewable energy programmes.

Birol, one of the world’s leading energy economists, told the Guardian: “More than at any point in history, fundamental changes to the economic model in resource-rich countries look unavoidable. Countries in the region have been making some efforts on the energy transition. There are promising initiatives [among oil producers], but as is the case for many other countries around the world, reaching net zero emissions will require much stronger actions and much greater international collaboration.”

He added: “The IEA has been warning for many years that countries that rely heavily on oil and gas revenues need to move quickly to diversify their economies away from fossil fuels to keep pace with the transition to clean energy. The impact of Covid on the oil market last year gave us a fleeting image of what the region’s economies could look like in the future in a world where demand for oil and gas is structurally weaker – and where countries do not take serious measures to diversify their economies and increase their resilience.”

On Wednesday oil prices fell slightly after analysts said they expected Opec to stick to its plan of gradually increasing oil production.

Secretary-General calls for bold action to end biodiversity crisis

UN NEWS
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

With one million species at risk of extinction, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday called for greater leadership and political will to end the biodiversity crisis.

CIFOR/Ulet Ifansasti I In Indonesia many people rely on forest biodiversity for their livelihoods.

"Today, I call on all countries to make strong, credible commitments and to take ambitious action. The world needs you to demonstrate leadership and political will. "
— @antonioguterres addresses the #BiodiversityPreCOP2021.

🔴LIVE: https://t.co/1qwjO0B5oW#COP15 #ForNature pic.twitter.com/HxutoGKVMQ

— UN Biodiversity (@UNBiodiversity) August 30, 2021

In remarks to a high-level virtual meeting to develop a new global framework to address biodiversity loss, he underlined the need for commitment, ambition and credibility.

“The future of humanity depends on our collective efforts”, he said. “Let us work together to sustain all life on Earth so people and nature may benefit.”

A critical moment

The new framework will be adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference, known as COP-15, to be held in Kunming, China, next year.

At the Pre-COP meeting on Monday, organized by Colombia, countries and other stakeholders shared actions and initiatives, as well as commitments, towards its implementation.

Participants included world leaders, ministers, heads of international organizations and multilateral banks, women, youth, and indigenous peoples.

The Secretary-General said they were meeting at a critical moment as “biodiversitynew framework  is collapsing – and we are the losers”, pointing to degraded ecosystems around the world.

“As people and livestock encroach further into wild habitats, we run the risk of unleashing terrifying new pandemics,” he warned.

Transform relationship with nature

Mr. Guterres said the world is counting on an ambitious new agreement that will transform humanity’s relationship with nature, and that fully reflects the value of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, including to the global economy.

The new plan must support ecosystems that help humanity to adapt and build resilience to climate change.

Empower indigenous peoples

He urged Governments to “shift the perverse subsidies that destroy healthy soils, pollute our water and empty the oceans of fish to those that incentivize actions to sustain nature.”

They must also establish larger and better-managed conservation areas to safeguard species, functioning ecosystems and carbon stocks for current and future generations.
 
“And we need to safeguard and empower the leadership of indigenous peoples and local communities whose lands encompass much of the world’s remaining biodiversity.”

Above all, the world needs commitment, ambition and credibility, he said, emphasizing that everyone must act on the understanding that protecting nature will create a fairer, healthier and more sustainable world.

“I am optimistic this can happen, especially when I see the awareness and commitment of the world’s young people,” he said. “And I applaud the commitments already made.”

However, he stressed that only bold action on the ground will end the biodiversity crisis.

GREEN DIGEST: YOUTH INCLUSION, CONSERVATION AND CLIMATE-INDUCED DISASTERS

GREEN DIGEST

AFRICA

The International Support for African Development (ISNAD-Africa) with support from the WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF) has come up with an EcoKnowledge derivative policy, thereby issuing the cardinal call of youth inclusion in the post-Covid-19 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to address the prevailing challenges. The Executive Director of ISNAD-Africa, Adedoyin Adeleke stated that for the effective implementation of the biodiversity framework, merely creating awareness is not adequate but effective youth engagement is also required. Adeleke is concerned that with the current rate of destruction, over one million plants and animal species across the world would go extinct. According to various stakeholders, Nigeria and other African countries are losing as much as $3.8 billion to erosion, pollution and other environmental, as well as health issues. 

ISNAD-Africa strongly supports that for sustainable development the constructive implementation of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a necessity. The harmony of these two initiatives would result in a double effort progress towards green growth. According to Adeleke, the GBF would be a milestone in the global agreements for protecting biodiversity. For attaining the projected gains of the UN Convention for Biology Diversity, the contribution and focus on the youth in policy formulation and decision-making processes in countries like Nigeria is required. There was a loss of $4 trillion in the tourism sector in 2020-21 and over $125 billion was spent by the World Bank to combat the impact of COVID-19. These kinds of losses are undermining the increasing investments for sustainable development. 

According to ISNAD-Africa, more than 40 per cent of the African youth population does not have meaningful climate education, which disables and detaches them from effectively participating and contributing to policies and decision-making processes at the international, national and sub-national levels. This affects the rights of the youth to take action to protect themselves, their children and the health of the planet.

Adeleke also highlighted that the improvement in availability, accessibility and dissemination of information with special attention on youths at all levels is the key. He stated that the rate of biodiversity loss is alarming and this also adds to climate change. Therefore, the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework should set the pace for mitigating as well as reversing biodiversity losses which is essential for realising a nature positive planet. 

CONSERVATION

Lee Gault, director of the Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC) came to the Chamber of Commerce to present the benefits of the AZCC program. He contradicted the irony of the present times with the situation that pertained in the old times. He stated that presently children are information-rich and experience-poor, exactly the opposite of how it was hundreds of years ago. Teens today are too much reliant on the internet and cringe on solving problems without its assistance. Gault explained that AZCC uses hands-on learning through natural resource stewardship to provide experience to the youth (age: 16-25), encouraging personal growth and responsibility while stimulating their connection with the community. Simultaneously, another Corps program runs for the well-being of veterans too, up to the age of 35, in order to provide them smooth transition back to civilian life. The program runs in varied time duration- ranging from minimum six months to maximum two years. The program also ushersfixed financial aid for college.

Gault, who started his career in the Conservation Corps out of high school, explained that nature is the best teacher and working in the wild transforms a person. He gave a brilliant example as to how nature teaches things naturally, for instance- when there is a storm, one will get wet if one does not read signs and build a shelter.  Nature does not revolve around a kid's need and is like a wake-up call that makes him responsible.

The program intensively focuses on building leaders out of the youth by indulging them in running crew teams comprising up to 8 people and doing labour-intensive outdoor works involving the betterment of the natural resources, for example, thinning forests and building trails. The Corps teaches its members to adopt sustainable practices. The Conservation Corps help the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to conserve the nation's public land from the damage caused by weather and high visitation rates. Additionally, the Corps helped the Flagstaff community in sand-bagging and flood mitigation.

Corps field crew work on stream restoration, campsite maintenance, trail building etc. which often transitions into a job as a wildland firefighter. Other interns work in public and environmental education, GIS/GPS data management, surveying etc.

The AZCC also has“a sister program,” as Gault calls it, known as the ancestral lands for native youth.’ Under this program, various tribes from Arizona and New Mexico work together. The Corps is a way to engage a lot of people of colour. The Corps run over about 60 crews a year across Arizona and most of them are camping crews. Each crew is self-sufficient with a youth leader overseeing it. Full-time crew members work a nine-day, ten-hour per day schedule and then they have five days off in the town of home base office. Gault highlighted that Corps is also a national program and they perform hurricane and tornado response as well. The work in the Corps isn't easy and the members will be expected to work long days and adapt to various climatic conditions.

Other than the paid training, AZCC also provides a food stipend to its workers that ranges from $330 to $425 per week during camping, varying with the kind of program. They also provide a scholarship for higher education and an Employee Assistance Program. There is an ongoing opening for crew members interested in working from anywhere at any time at the Corps.

COVID-19

In the previous months of 2021, climate-induced disasters, like wildfires in Western North America and floods in China, had become recurring. As it is due to COVID-19 the relationship between mankind and nature was being re-examined already. Resultantly, the media focus on climate and environment gradually accentuated. In the light of these circumstances, Fred Nelson, the CEO of Maliasili, which is an organization working relentlessly to scale the impact of local conservation and natural resource organizations in Africa, identifies four key trends that are “significantly reshaping the conservation field”. The four keys are discussed herewith: 

1. Convergence of climate and biodiversity agendas–The emphasis on repudiating climate change and biodiversity loss has folded multitudinously in the past three decades. Recently, however, these agendas have seen a subtle convergence, which is mostly based on an impending, but worrisome reality. Globally, deforestation results in around a quarter of the global greenhouse (carbon) emissions, which implicitly means that the conservation and protection of grasslands, forests, and mangroves must be of the ultimate importance. This issue is supported by major climate policy initiatives under the heading of "Nature-Based Solutions". Investment in the measures to mitigate climate change, for example, ways that enhance carbon uptake in the forests, specifically in the vulnerable tropic regions could be a sustainable solution. Fred states that the conservation organizations can reasonably expect lump-sum investments to be made for the furtherance of the objective as the demand for regenerative agriculture grows. 

2. Increased investment in climate and biodiversity solutions- The growing awareness of biodiversity loss is bothering people around the globe. It would be safe to anticipate the same from the recorded trend of increased investments from the public, commercial and charitable organizations in the environment-protection initiatives. The reason behind this change is the growing sense of urgency surrounding the climate and biodiversity crisis and the recognition that the public and private sectors need to increase investment in ecological health and "nature-based solutions" to address climate and biodiversity problems. Many private companies are collaborating with conservation organizations to invest in nature-based solutions for instance- Apple, Goldman Sachs and Conservation International launched a $200 million restoration fund. Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund, launched in 2020, aims to spend roughly $1 billion annually over the next decade and issued its first series of major grants last year. A large amount of capital has also been invested in the long-term conservation financing mechanism. Such long-term and large-scale financing initiatives and collaborations are expected in the coming months and years. The active cooperation of international organizations, private foundations, and public institutions is remarkable and a promising trend for the conservation of climate and biodiversity. 

3. Growing mainstream support for indigenous and community-based conservation solutions

Another trend is the growing support for the locally-driven conservation approaches, and especially the role of indigenous people and local communities (IPLCs). All the major reports, (including UNFAO and WWF) and new initiatives favour supporting IPLCs for conservation efforts. As covered by Vox in its report with an apt title summarising the main issue ‘Indigenous peoples are the world’s biggest conservationists, but they rarely get credit for it’. The WWF report found that more than 90% of the land of indigenous peoples and local communities is in relatively good ecological condition. COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of local capacity and community-driven solutions in responding to such crises in adaptive and effective ways. 

4. Justice and Equity

Another trend changing the concept of conservation is the influence of new social movements and calls for racial justice, diversity, and equity in the United States and around the world. In Africa, this has lead to a greater focus on racial diversity, leadership, and power relations. As a result of these social movements, there is an additional effort towards conservation to support human rights, which in turn calls for social justice and equity. This has led to an increased focus on the importance of local organizations. A recent report by the Bridgespan Group and the African Philanthropy Forum documented the continuing obstacles local organizations face in obtaining funding. These issues will arise in prominence on the global conservation agenda, particularly as more funding pours into the field.

Organizational Implications

The conservation field will see far-reaching shifts and changes due to these four trends. The possible implications for any conservation organizations are:

1. Think bigger- Conventional small scale and short term projects will become obsolete as there is an increase in the scale of conservation challenges. The conservation organizations will be required to work on a larger scale project which will have a long-term impact.

2. Deepening partnerships- To work at a larger scale on long-term projects organizations will need to work in collaboration and form partnerships.

Invest locally- Growing support for indigenous and local leaders and institutions and increased support for social justice and fairness will prompt people to pay more attention to finding new and better ways to support local organizations and leaders. This will continue to extend far beyond traditional field projects or many NGO settings for conservation work to more creative social enterprises, social movements, and organizational structures.

REFERENCE:

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/08/stakeholders-seek-youth-inclusion-in-global-biodiversity-framework/

https://www.paysonroundup.com/news/local/conservation-corps-providing-kids-experience/article_41b2098b-0810-5abb-91d3-980bb7d12bf2.html

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/convergence-community-and-justice-key-emerging-conservation-trends-of-the-pandemic-era-commentary/

Rapid advance of Caldor fire forces more evacuations near Lake Tahoe

Associated Press in South Lake Tahoe, California

Official says: ‘Today’s been a rough day, no bones about it’
Over 15,200 firefighters battle a dozen large fires in California

In this long exposure photograph, embers fly off a burning tree during the Caldor fire in Twin Bridges, California, on Sunday. Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

Fire officials ordered more evacuations around the Tahoe Basin as the two-week-old Caldor fire encroached on the threatened mountain towns surrounding Lake Tahoe.

By nightfall, all residents on the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin were warned to evacuate, after fire officials stressed for days that protecting the area was their top firefighting priority.

More than a dozen large fires are being fought by more than 15,200 firefighters across California. Flames have destroyed about 2,000 structures and forced thousands to evacuate while blanketing large swaths of the west in unhealthy smoke.

The California fires are among nearly 90 large blazes in the US. Many are in the west, burning trees and brush desiccated by drought. Climate change has made the region warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

“Today’s been a rough day and there’s no bones about it,” Jeff Marsoleis, forest supervisor for El Dorado national forest, said on Sunday evening.

A few days ago, he said, he thought crews could halt the Caldor fire’s eastern progress, but “today it let loose”.

Flames churned through mountains just a few miles south-west of the Tahoe Basin, where thick smoke sent tourists packing.

“To put it in perspective, we’ve been seeing about a half-mile of movement on the fire’s perimeter each day for the last couple of weeks and today this has already moved at 2.5 miles on us, with no sign that it’s starting to slow down,” said Cal Fire division chief Erich Schwab.

Some areas of the northern California terrain are so rugged that crews had to carry fire hoses by hand from Highway 50 as they sought to douse spot fires caused by erratic winds.

Triple-digit temperatures were possible and the extreme heat was expected to last several days. A red flag warning for critical fire conditions was issued for Monday and Tuesday across the Northern Sierra.

The blaze that broke out on 14 August was 19% contained after burning nearly 245 square miles (635 sq km), an area larger than Chicago. More than 600 structures had been destroyed and at least 18,000 more were under threat.

The Caldor fire has proved so difficult to fight that fire managers pushed back the projected date for full containment from early this week to 8 September. Even that estimate was tenuous.

In southern California, a section of Interstate 15 was closed on Sunday afternoon after winds pushed a new blaze, the Railroad fire, across lanes in the Cajon Pass north-east of Los Angeles.

Further south, evacuation orders and warnings were in place for remote communities after a wildfire spread quickly through the Cleveland national forest on Saturday.

A firefighter received minor injuries and two structures were destroyed in the 2.3-sq mile Chaparral fire burning along the border of San Diego and Riverside counties, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection. It was 10% contained on Sunday.

The Dixie fire, the second-largest in state history at 1,193 sq miles, was 48% contained in the Sierra-Cascades region about 65 miles north of the Caldor fire. Nearly 700 homes were among almost 1,300 buildings destroyed since early July.

Containment increased to 22% on the 12-day-old French fire, which covered more than 38 sq miles in the southern Sierra Nevada. Crews protected forest homes on the west side of Lake Isabella, a popular recreation area north-east of Bakersfield.

The Department of Defense is sending 200 soldiers from Washington state and equipment including eight C-130 aircraft to help firefighters in northern California. The C-130s have been converted to air tankers that can dump thousands of gallons of water on the flames.

International talks aim for consensus on Taliban government

Patrick Wintour
Diplomatic editor

Western G7 powers are meeting Turkey, Qatar and Nato in Doha to discuss how Kabul airport could be reopened

Talks are due in Doha and New York to try to reach an international consensus on the conditions for recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. There are signs of tensions between superpowers after Russia called on the US to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month.

An Afghan man who was evacuated from Kabul sits on a wall at a temporary housing complex in Doha, Qatar. Photograph: AP

“If our western colleagues are actually worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by freezing gold and foreign exchange reserves,” said the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.

He said the US must urgently unfreeze these assets, “to bolster the rate of the collapsing national currency”.

The leading western G7 powers are meeting Turkey, Qatar and Nato in Doha to discuss further details of how Kabul’s civilian airport could be reopened to allow those that want to leave Afghanistan with valid documents to do so. More than 100 nations signed a joint statement saying the Taliban has agreed to facilitate this. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is chairing the meeting and due to announce its outcome later.

At the same the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, started a four-day sweep through countries bordering Afghanistan to secure their agreement to house refugees temporarily, or to use the country as a transit point pending processing. So far Qatar has acted as the transit point for more than 40% of the 100,000-plus refugees airlifted out of the country. Maas is due to visit Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Pakistan.

In Turkey, his first stopover, Maas said he was grateful for the country’s offer. “We ask the Taliban to promise to provide security,” he said. “We have to negotiate with the Taliban. They want the airport to be operated. In this regard, we are ready to contribute both financially and technically.”

James Cleverly, the UK minister for the Middle East and North Africa, said he could not see how Kabul airport could be operated by foreign powers without boots on the ground, something that is not currently possible.

On Monday, António Guterres, the UN secretary general, will convene a meeting in New York of ambassadors from the five permanent members of the UN security council – Russia, China, the US, the UK, and France – to discuss a potential joint resolution on Afghanistan that could be passed later this week. The resolution has been under discussion over the weekend.

The UK has said its four international priorities are: preventing Afghanistan becoming a haven for terrorists; responding to the humanitarian plight; safeguarding regional stability; and holding the Taliban to account on human rights. The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said it is necessary for the west to work pragmatically with Russia and China on the future of Afghanistan.

The Kremlin on Monday welcomed French president Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to create a “safe zone” in Kabul to protect humanitarian operations.

“This is certainly a proposal that must be discussed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Climate change: curbing methane emissions will 'buy us time'

Leonardo Lima (GREEN INTERN)

An aggressive campaign to cut methane emissions could give the world more time to tackle climate change, experts say. One of the main conclusions of the recently released IPCC report is that methane emissions have contributed enormously to the current warming.

The study suggested that 30-50% of the current rise in temperatures is due to this powerful but short-lived gas. The main sources of methane include agriculture, spills from oil and gas production and landfills.

For decades, the focus of efforts to curb global warming has been increasing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from human activities such as energy generation and forest clearing.

There are good scientific reasons for this, as CO2 is the biggest driver of temperatures, responsible for about 70% of the warming that has occurred since the industrial revolution.

Methane (CH4), however, did not have the same focus. That may be changing, as earlier this year a major UN study highlighted its environmental impact.

A recent IPCC report graphically points out that the influence of methane has been calculated as an addition of about 0.5°C to the warming the world is currently experiencing.

So where does all this methane come from?

About 40% of the gas comes from natural sources such as swamps – but most of it now comes from a range of human activities. Since 2008, there has been a huge increase in methane emissions, which researchers believe is related to the rise in gas hydraulic fracturing in parts of the United States.

In 2019, methane in the atmosphere reached record levels, about two and a half times higher than it was in the pre-industrial era. What worries scientists is that methane has real muscles when it comes to warming the planet. Over a 100-year period, it is 28-34 times hotter than CO2.

Over a 20-year period, it is about 84 times more powerful per unit mass than carbon dioxide.

However, an important positive point about CH4 is that it doesn't last as long in air as CO2.

"In two decades, there would be a quarter of a ton, so basically, if we could stop emitting methane today by the end of this century, emissions would drop to the natural levels that were around 1750."

In the short term, experts believe that if methane emissions were to be reduced by 40-45% over the next decade, you would reduce 0.3°C of global temperature rise by 2040.

In a world where every fraction of a degree count, that's a potentially huge difference for the hope of keeping the 1.5°C limit alive.

References: Brazil Environment, BBC News and Matt McGrath

AVIATION AND SUSTAINABILITY: A GLIMPSE OF THE PARADIGM SHIFT

(GREEN INTERN) NISHANT TIWARI

INTRODUCTION

In 2018, the aviation industry alone caused 2.5% of the global carbon emissions. In comparison to 2013, the aviation sector’s contribution to carbon emission has increased by 32%. The demand for a more sustainable way of flying is pressurising. Faintly from the background, an environment activist can hear the accentuating pitches of “flygskam,” a Swedish term translated as “flying shame.” The movement of giving up flying unless it becomes friendlier has begun. In 2017, the Swedish singer Staffan Lindberg gave up flying because it destroyed the environment. In 2019 the climate activist Greta Thunberg crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a boat to attend the United Nations summit.

AIRCRAFT INNOVATIONS

‘Green aviation’ does not merely mean limiting carbon emission. It is rather a multidisciplinary angle that involves making the entire aviation sector more environment-friendly. Therefore, from reducing the noise to reducing the fuel usage, it covers everything under the umbrella. Realising the dearth of bringing breakthrough advancements, in the present day, the civil aviation sector spends resources worth $15 billion per year in researching better methods of inducing sustainability and technology development in the field.

Infrastructurally changes are sought to decrease the weight of the aircraft overall. Traditionally, Concord did it by altering the shape of its fleet. Airlines understand that more take-off weight means more fuel consumption, which means expensive rates of operation. To combat the same, there are many solutions that the experts came up with. Amongst them, one was as easy as keeping the aircraft paint light, for example, white and grey. The reason was that these are light shades, their wear-and-tear would not be immediately visible in comparison to dark colours such as blue or purple. This means that the airline can choose to get the fleet re-varnished in a decade without being tensed about tarnishing the brand image. Lesser coating of paint incidentally means a lesser overall weight of the aircraft, thereby helping the airlines to save costs on fuel. Some airlines opt to hire only female attendants to overall reduce the cumulative weight of travellers from their end, as male attendants are usually heavier owing to masculine body structure.

Similarly, to reduce noise pollution, Rolls Royce has worked to produce an engine for both Boeing and Airbus that significantly reduces the engine noise, thereby also resulting in optimisation of compressors, turbines, and fans.

AVIATION FUELS

Major manufacturers of aircraft (Airbus and Boeing) have long initiated their research in the field of searching for alternative fuels when it comes to aviation. In 2010, Airbus introduced A320neo which used nearly 16% lesser fuel than the normal aeroplanes. Following the suit, Boeing released the 787 Dreamliner which took a leap further and reduced fuel emissions by 20%. Since then, Boeing has also released its ecoDemonstrator, which is recyclable aircraft that resultantly overall reduced the weight of the aircraft, its drag, and inter alia, enhances its fuel usage.

‘Sustainable aviation fuels’ are soon to replace the traditional fuels, that too, by giving the same (if, not better) efficiency. In 2019, Etihad airlines empowered a Boeing 787 Dreamliner by making hybrid fuel- a mix of the traditional fuel and eco-sustainable fuel (made from Salicornia, a plant species that inhabitants the Abu Dhabi desert). Biofuel blends are rather coming into vogue with major airlines such as Qantas Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Alaska Airlines, and United Airlines picking up the idea. More than 170,000 flights using biofuel blends have already been made and more are in the pipeline. To facilitate the purpose, airports like Oslo Airport and Bergen Airport of Norway, Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Los Angeles International Airport are also making these alternative aviation fuels available to the airlines for operation.

A KEY TO SUSTAINABILITY: CHANGE IN PRACTICES

Green aviation is a step away from changing a few fundamental practices. Private players have been operating in the aviation sector for decades now. The entry of “no-frills” or ‘Low-Cost Carriers’ (LCC) in the sector has given it a huge boost, apart from making the availability and ensuring that flying does not remail an experience limited to only the creamy layer of the society. This has induced a lot of competition in the aviation market and it is seen as a gold mine for investment. But there still are many airspaces that have not been opened yet for the private players, or else, are monopolised or duopolised by only a few airlines either in the absence of competition or due to uncompetitive practices.

As an ethical general effort, the passengers (given the choice) have always resorted to travelling by planes that result in lesser environmental damage. Therefore, vehement competition in the market would gradually path mandatory path to innovation, and given that, the development of green aviation would be boosted.

Further, the airlines have been lately adopting the methods of leasing and financing in the aviation sector. It means that the aircraft fleet that they possess and operate, is not entirely owned by them. It is taken off ‘lease,’ or in layman’s terms, ‘rent,’ by the aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus or Boeing. This enables the airlines to equip the latest progressive advancements in the aeroplanes at a much cheaper cost than the airlines that believe in acquiring a 100% stake in the fleet. Leasing planes also allow the flexibility of disposing them easily back with the manufacturer without unfortunate hassles of bidding and making lumpsum losses for the degradation of fleet quality. Small steps such as this can take the aviation sector a long way in becoming sustainable and better.

CONCLUSION

Held on the 10th of February 2020, Singapore Air Show (Singapore Aerospace Technology Leadership Forum (SATLF)) saw the launch of the FRAeS reports on required changes in the field of aviation. Other than the increased use of artificial intelligence, the conference deliberated on the new designs, alternative sources of power and methods of operation for the airlines in a more eco-friendly fashion.

It was in 2009 that the IATA (International Air Transport Association) had decided to place strategic targets for the industry of aviation. In its ambit, it also included the ambition of inducing carbon-neutral growth from 2020- which focussed on surging the ideology that even with the increase in profits, the carbon emissions will not increase. As of July 2019, 77% of the international aviation community, which is almost equivalent to 81 nations became a part of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Other efforts also focus on emphasising people to reduce their flying when it is possible to meet the objective virtually, but still, the major onus of bringing the sweeping change lies with the aviation industry. The collaborative effort to turn the aviation industry greener is mammoth-sized, and its significance grows every day. With the pandemic having shaken the sectors deep into their roots, it will be better to grow back, maybe slower, but in a more sustainable fashion. Greener aviation is not an “alternative” anymore, it is a need. An urgent need

'How is it sustainable if only 1% can afford your food?’: the man on a quest to change farming

Taylor Moore

Chris Newman, founder of Virginia-based Sylvanaqua Farms, on why feeding people needs to be at the heart of sustainable farming

Sylvanaqua Farms pigs are raised outdoors in forests and pastures. Photograph: Chris and Annie Newman

Chris Newman, 38, and his wife, Annie, 35, always planned to retire with a farm. But after a health scare in 2013, the couple left their jobs as a software engineer and art gallery director to found Sylvanaqua Farms, a 120-acre operation in northern Virginia that produces pasture-raised chicken, eggs and pork and grass-fed beef.

Newman has gained a sizable following online for his writing and advocacy, which focuses on producing food in ways that don’t exploit people or the environment.

Scaling up Sylvanaqua’s operations is more important than achieving perfection, said Newman. “Our goal on our farm is to responsibly produce as much food as we possibly can and just get it into as many mouths as possible, making sure that what we produce isn’t just accessible to the upper crust.

To meet that goal, Sylvanaqua has pledged to donate half its harvest to food aid organizations throughout the Chesapeake region, as part of a mutual aid program focused on people who ordinarily can’t afford high-quality meat and produce.

Newman, who is Black and an enrolled member of the Choptico Band of Piscataway Indians, spoke with the Guardian about racism in the farm-to-table movement, how indigenous practices influence the way he farms and why, ultimately, feeding people needs to be at the heart of sustainable farming.

What was the transition like when you and your wife left your jobs to start the farm?

It was awful. Basically, the transition to farming was us moving to Charlottesville, buying a bunch of chickens, buying a few pigs, and then getting this really rude awakening. There’s a lot of literature out there talking about how regular people can farm. It’s this shtick that if you work hard enough and you go direct-to-consumer and you’re creative, then you’ll be able to make it – but also they forget to tell you that they inherited a $5m estate. Everything that’s in the popular culture about these things is basically marketing.

What kind of farming practices has Sylvanaqua adopted?

If you were to come here, you would find a ranch that was overwhelmingly forest – some of it grass. You’d find us doing rotational grazing with our cattle. You’d see our pigs in the forest. You would find we have no chemical fertilizers because we range our poultry across the grass so that we don’t have to import any fertilizer

Our egg-laying chickens follow behind our cows in order to keep the fly populations down. Our hens will see a dried cowpat and they’ll scratch it open and eat larvae out of it before they’re able to hatch. That keeps our pinkeye issues down with our cattle. It keeps our costs down and keeps our animals happier without us having to resort to chemicals, medications, vets and things that traumatize animals.

And it’s not just about the ecology. When we talk about sustainability, people are almost always talking about the stuff like no till, no sprays, no GMO. It’s all technical stuff about what you do to the land, but somehow there’s no sustainability criteria in terms of people.

How is your farm really sustainable if only 1% of people can afford your food? We are actively trying to figure out how to connect the dots between what we do here and the people who’ve been left behind by the farm-to-table movement. Without that mass participation, then all we’re really doing is creating castles in the sky.

How does your Black and indigenous heritage factor into how you farm?

I’m not focused on owning land. I think that’s actually one of the big ways that my indigenous heritage expresses itself in the way we do business – I’m not looking to own or accumulate. I just want access to that land in order to feed people, because for us, that’s the point of landscape – to sustain people.

Sylvanaqua Farms sells pasture-raised eggs and chickens. Photograph: Chris and Annie Newman

The rest of it is probably a bunch of weird neuroses around farming and agriculture, because people of color, especially Black people, ran away from farms for a reason. We were chased away at gunpoint, basically. My maternal grandfather, who was the last farmer in my family, was determined that none of his kids would be farmers, even though he was very successful at it. He had people paint swastikas on his tractors.

Sylvanaqua Farms sells pasture-raised eggs and chickens. Photograph: Chris and Annie Newman

With all the issues that permeate the sustainable food movement, how have you done things differently to not replicate those issues?

Going after scale has turned me into a kind of a black sheep for the movement because sustainable farming is supposed to be all about being small. It’s supposed to be about not integrating because there’s this idea that anything that JBS or Smithfield or Cargill does, we must not do.

We’ve been at this farm-to-table movement, “let’s revolutionize the way we do agriculture” thing for the better part of 50 years now and where are we?

If we’re about feeding everybody in this country and ultimately in this world – in a way that arrests climate change and fundamentally changes our economic and spiritual and physical relationship to food – we have to be a little tougher. We can’t be so self-congratulatory.

How should farmers think about climate resilience?

The deeply unsatisfying answer that I give people about this is that I don’t think there’s anything that an individual farm can really do to affect climate change. The problem with agriculture, as it relates to climate, is that we’re producing way more food than we need.

Farmers are being bankrolled by public money to grow stuff that nobody wants, especially corn. We grow lots of food, but we end up just throwing most of it away or funneling it through livestock that don’t really even need it to grow. We’re outrageously inefficient with it.

The ultimate thing that we do that creates a climate-friendly model is knowing why we’re producing food, who we’re producing it for, and making sure it gets to them. That’s what fundamentally matters – it’s not about technology, it’s not about techniques, it’s about people.

COVID, natural hazards and climate crisis in Asia and the Pacific expand ‘riskcape’

UN NEWS

The convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic with natural hazards, made worse by climate change, has reshaped and expanded the disaster “riskscape” in Asia and the Pacific, according to a new report published on Wednesday by the UN’s regional commission there.

© ADB I A boy drags possessions through the flooded streets of Manila in the aftermath of a typhoon. (file)

In the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2021, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) described how while dealing with the pandemic, countries in the region have also been hit by multiple biological and natural disasters, such as cyclones, landslides, heatwaves and volcanic eruptions.

At the same time, as climate change has continued to warm the world it is also exacerbating many of these disasters.

““The string of ‘record-breaking’ events show that we do not have the luxury of ‘waiting this out’: action must be taken now to address these risks”- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and @HeadUNDRR Mami Mizutori #DRWeek2021 pic.twitter.com/Lwpo34hqds”

— United Nations ESCAP (@UNESCAP) August 25, 2021

The capacity of disaster management and public health systems to respond to this “expanded risk environment” will determine the recovery path for COVID-19 and beyond, the report argues. 

Countries must not ‘wait this out’

UN representatives serving throughout Asia and the Pacific met on Wednesday at the seventh session of the ESCAP Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction, where they were called on to intensify efforts to prepare for and tackle these complex, overlapping crises and increase the resilience of people as well as economies.

“The string of record-breaking weather events show that we do not have the luxury of ‘waiting this out’: Action must be taken now to address these risks”, said Mami Mizutori, UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction.

“This includes increasing international funding for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, especially for countries graduating from the least-developed category”, she added.

Despite progress made by many countries in devising more robust systems of early warning and responsive protection, which have led to far fewer people deaths resulting from natural disasters, ESCAP chief Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana said, “the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that almost without exception, countries around the world are still ill-prepared to deal with multiple overlapping crises, which often cascade, with one triggering another”.

“Tropical cyclones, for example, can lead to floods, which lead to disease, which exacerbates poverty”, she elaborated.

Economic impact of ‘triple threat’ 

Significant economic losses have also resulted from the “triple threat” of disease, disaster and climate change, according to ESCAP.

The annual average of disaster-related losses currently stands at $780 billion, which could nearly double, to around $1.4 trillion, in a worst-case climate scenario.

At an annual cost of $270 billion, choosing a proactive strategy of adapting to natural and other biological hazards would be far more cost-effective.

‘Paradigm shift’ in disaster risk management 

The meeting – the first of a four-event series to exchange ideas and solutions to key challenges facing Asia and the Pacific – also highlighted the importance of climate change mitigation and the need for regional countries to advance digital transformations to tackle the dual challenges of climate-related disasters and Covid-19.

Accentuating the urgency of building universal resilience against the vulnerabilities that the pandemic has exposed and tackling rising levels of inequality and poverty, Ms. Alisjahbana called for a “paradigm shift” from managing disasters to investing in prevention and the building of resilience.