Tag Archive for: Climate Change

The World Is Changing Too Fast for Us: Organic Farmers on Urgency of French Protests

Pierre Bretagne woke at 4am to feed the cows on his organic farm near the coastal town of Pornic in western France, then did something he had never dared to before.

He made a cardboard protest banner about the nightmare of French bureaucracy and went to cheer on a go-slow convoy of tractors warning that French farming and the rural way of life was facing collapse. Effigies of dead farmers dangled from nooses on tractor trailers as the convoy drove into the centre of the Brittany city of Rennes, beeping horns and waving banners. “Quality has a price,” read one.

“We’re fed up and exasperated,” says Bretagne, 38. “I love my job – I farm organically because it’s what I believe in and it’s the right thing ethically and in terms of health. In nine years of farming, I’ve never been on a protest; I’d rather be with my animals.

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Desafíos ambientales de Argentina en 2024: el gigantesco reto de instalar una agenda sostenible frente a un gobierno que niega el cambio climático

Cinco días antes de la segunda vuelta de las elecciones generales celebradas en noviembre en Argentina, un nutrido grupo de “personas dedicadas a la conservación de la biodiversidad”, entre los que se encontraban “técnicos/as, guardaparques, académicos/as y naturalistas” emitió un comunicado manifestando su predilección por Sergio Massa, candidato oficialista, debido a su “compromiso para enfrentar y buscar acciones concretas para mitigar el efecto del cambio climático y garantizar la protección de la biodiversidad”. A su vez, recordaban que Javier Milei, su contrincante, “niega abiertamente el cambio climático; manifiesta que no sería delito contaminar ríos; propone privatizar el mar; se muestra en contra de la creación de áreas naturales protegidas y declara que la investigación en conservación es un gasto que no corresponde a la situación del país”.

La mirada previa del mundo científico-ambientalista explicaba por sí misma el significado que podía tener en los próximos cuatro años un triunfo opositor en esas elecciones.

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¿Puede el trabajo remoto reducir la huella de carbono?

En un contexto global donde la conciencia ambiental se encuentra en constante aumento, un nuevo estudio publicado en la revista Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revela un impactante beneficio medioambiental asociado al trabajo remoto. Según los datos recopilados, los empleados que optan por trabajar desde casa generan menos de la mitad de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero que aquellos que desempeñan sus funciones en oficinas tradicionales.

Este estudio, respaldado por la investigación aplicada de Microsoft y liderado por Longqi Yang, destaca que el cambio de un entorno laboral presencial a un esquema de trabajo completamente remoto podría resultar en una reducción de más del 50% en la huella de carbono individual. Además, sugiere que los modelos de trabajo híbridos, combinando días de oficina con jornadas remotas, podrían contribuir a una disminución sustancial de las emisiones, llegando a alcanzar entre un 11% y un 29%.

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La UE acuerda eliminar los gases fluorados de frigoríficos y aires acondicionados

La Unión Europea trabaja para reducir las emisiones de CO2 y de otros gases que calientan el planeta, como el metano, los gases fluorados (también llamados gases F) y sustancias que dañan la capa de ozono. A pesar de estar presentes en menor volumen que el CO2 en la atmósfera, pueden tener un importante efecto de calentamiento, según advierten en la UE.

Los gases fluorados se utilizan en una amplia gama de productos cotidianos, como frigoríficos, sistemas de aire acondicionado y medicamentos. También se utilizan en bombas de calor y dispositivos de conmutación en sistemas de energía eléctrica.

El acuerdo alcanzado entre el Consejo de la Unión Europea y el Eurocámara establece que los gases fluoarados se eliminarán completamente de aquí a 2050. Si bien la legislación vigente de la UE ya limita significativamente el uso de estos gases, las nuevas normas reducirían aún más sus emisiones a la atmósfera y contribuirían a limitar el aumento de la temperatura global, en consonancia con el Acuerdo de París.

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La agricultura sostenible también es parte de la solución en la Amazonia

La Cumbre de la Amazonia celebrada recientemente en la ciudad de Belém, en el estado brasileño de Pará, tuvo el gran mérito de reunir, además de presidentes y ministras y ministros de Medio Ambiente y Relaciones Exteriores, a centenares de representantes de la sociedad civil —entre ellos pueblos indígenas, comunidades tradicionales y pobladores amazónicos, además de la cooperación internacional y el financiamiento multilateral—, todos juntos por primera vez en una mesa de debate sobre los desafíos y las posibilidades existentes para el desarrollo sostenible de una región estratégica para el mundo, que debe contemplar junto a la protección de un bioma imprescindible, la reducción de las desigualdades y la promoción de la inclusión social.

El encuentro tuvo como base dos premisas consensuadas, resumidas por la Ministra de Medio Ambiente y Cambio Climático de Brasil, Marina Silva: la comprensión de que la Amazonia no puede alcanzar un punto de no retorno…

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California Proposes to Hijack Regenerative Agriculture

“Regenerative agriculture provides answers to the soil crisis, the food crisis, the climate crisis, and the crisis of democracy.” Dr. Vandana Shiva

California has unilaterally decided to define Regenerative Agriculture. It is a subnational government with no formal role in the Regenerative Agriculture movement.

It has a state government with entrenched bureaucracies, such as The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), that regulate and condone some of the world’s worst excesses in industrial-scale Degenerative Agriculture on the planet.

California has the highest toxic pesticide use in the US, some of the worst excesses in industrial-scale monocultures such as the almond and other fruit and vegetable farms in the Central Valley that have destructively tilled bare soil, drenched with toxic herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers. It has large scale cruel, confined animal feeding operations. California has an unsustainable use of water. These farms are causing severe health damage to people and the environment.

Photo credit: Unsplash

The CDFA is taking submissions from interest groups. This includes agribusiness poison cartels such as Bayer/Monsanto, Syngenta, and others trying to hijack and greenwash their degenerative systems as regenerative agriculture.

The CDFA has never been involved in the regenerative agriculture movement, and this move to make a Californian definition without consulting the major regenerative organizations and including non-regenerative groups, is hijacking. The last thing the world needs is a subnational government with such a terrible record in farming systems hijacking regenerative agriculture so it can greenwash its degenerative systems.

Regeneration International is the largest and most significant regenerative organization on the planet, with 500 partners in over 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Australasia, the Pacific, North America, and Europe. We are the people who started the global regeneration movement.

Leaders of the organic, agroecology,  holistic management, environment, and natural health movements started Regeneration International as a genuinely inclusive and representative umbrella organization. We aimed to establish a global network of like-minded agricultural, environmental, health, and social organizations to regenerate agriculture, our health, environment, climate, and communities – which is what we have done. We continue to grow every week.

Due to the diversity of like-minded partners, regenerative agriculture is now being used as an umbrella term for the many farming systems that use techniques such as longer rotations, cover crops, green manures, legumes, compost, and organic fertilizers.  These include organic agriculture, agroforestry, agroecology, permaculture, holistic grazing, silvopasture, syntropic farming, and other agricultural systems that increase soil organic matter/carbon. Soil organic is an essential proxy for soil health – as soils with low levels are not healthy.

The regeneration movement is an innovative, dynamic space. Regeneration International has opposed simple definitions and attempts to make standards as these will inhibit this innovative movement.

Defining Regenerative Agriculture.

By definition: Regenerative systems improve the environment, soil, health, animal welfare, and communities.

The opposite of Regenerative is Degenerative

By definition: Agricultural systems that use Degenerative practices and inputs that damage the environment, soil, health, and communities and involve animal cruelty, such as synthetic toxic pesticides, synthetic water-soluble fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, confined animal feeding operations, and destructive tillage systems, are not Regenerative.

They must be called out as Degenerative Agriculture.

Regenerative and Organic based on Agroecology – the path forward.

RI’s perspective: All agricultural systems should be regenerative and organic using the science of agroecology.

Regeneration must be seen as a way to improve systems.  Practitioners must determine what practices are acceptable and what practices are degenerative and, therefore, unacceptable. The criteria to analyze this must be based on the Four Principles of Organic Agriculture. These principles are clear and effective ways to decide what practices are Regenerative and what are Degenerative.

Health

Organic agriculture should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal, human, and the planet as one and indivisible.

Ecology

Organic agriculture should be based on living ecological systems and cycles, work with them, emulate them and help sustain them.

Fairness

Organic agriculture should build on relationships that ensure fairness in the familiar environment and life opportunities.

Care

Organic agriculture should be managed in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well-being of current and future generations and the environment.

Ronnie Cummins, one of our founders, clearly stated: “Regenerative agriculture and animal husbandry is the next and higher stage of organic food and farming, not only free from toxic pesticides, GMOs, chemical fertilizers, and factory farm production, and therefore good for human health; but also regenerative in terms of the health of the soil.”

The last thing the Regenerative Agriculture movement needs is government interference by a committee of non-stakeholder bureaucrats making definitions. The French Government’s agroecology definition was a crude attempt to greenwash industrial agriculture and the use of synthetic toxic pesticides and fertilizers. It was done without input from the global agroecology movement and has weakened the integrity of agroecology.

Similarly, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization promotes a version of agroecology that allows synthetic toxic pesticides and fertilizers, which has divided the agroecology movement.

We have seen the same with the government regulation of certified organic agriculture favoring large-scale industrial organic systems over small-family farmers. The USDA regulations have been hijacked to allow hydroponics, industrial-scale cruel animal factories, synthetic feed supplements, cancer-causing nitrate preservatives, highly processed junk foods, and various derogations that have fractured the organic movement and consumers.

As the founders of the international regenerative agriculture movement, Regeneration International will continue to lead, and we will call out attempts to hijack and greenwash.

Alimentos y cambio climático: que es la agricultura regenerativa, que permite producir sin contaminar

El sistema productivo de alimentos representa 1/3 de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, según datos de Naciones Unidas. Esto incluye el metano producido por el proceso digestivo del ganado bovino, el óxido nitroso proveniente del uso de fertilizantes en la producción de cultivos, el dióxido de carbono causado por la tala de bosques para la expansión de los terrenos de labranza y otras emisiones en agricultura causadas por el aprovechamiento del estiércol, el cultivo de arroz, la quema de los residuos de cultivos y el uso de combustibles en las granjas.

Vale recordar aquí que el 60% de lo que los seres humanos comen procede de cuatro productos agrícolas: el arroz, la papa, el maíz y el trigo. Por eso los expertos insisten en la importancia de trabajar sobre este sistema para lograr un impacto positivo, porque una chacra es la unidad productiva que más beneficios provee al ecosistema en materia de servicios naturales.

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Overlooked and Underfoot, Mosses Play a Mighty Role for Climate and Soil

It’s easy to miss the mosses, the ubiquitous green, silver and brown carpets that drape across nature’s surfaces, from forest to fen. It’s also easy to underestimate just how big a role these small but mighty organisms play in maintaining ecosystems and countering climate change.

A recent study in the journal Nature Geoscience looked into the contributions of mosses that grow on soil and found that they cover an estimated 9.4 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles) of land — an area roughly the size of China.

On a global scale, soil mosses have the potential to add 6.43 billion metric tons of carbon to the soil, an amount roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 2.8 billion passenger cars, underscoring the substantial impact of these wee plants.

The researchers found several other benefits for soil covered with mosses versus bare soils. For example, mosses cycle higher amounts of essential nutrients through the soil, contribute to faster decomposition, and reduce the number of harmful plant pathogens in the soil.

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Restoring The Water Cycle: Understanding The Basics And Taking Action

I am writing this on World Water Day, March 22nd. The UN’s tag line for today is ‘Be the change. Every drop counts.’ This is very true. If we are going to return water cycles everywhere to what they used to be, then it will start with each one of us understanding the basics of the water cycle and acting to support a healthy water cycle.

The action we need to take is not that complicated. The complexities lie in the wonderful way  in which Nature drives the water cycle, when the basics are in place. We do not fully understand these complexities, but we understand what we need to do.

Nearly everywhere around our African continent, water falls as rain, falling as snow in a few spots here and there. If that rainwater sinks into the ground, it is a productive force. If it runs off the ground it is a potentially destructive force.

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Mongabay’s What-To-Watch list for February 2023

How are industrial agriculture and farms impacting local communities in different parts of the world? Mongabay’s features writer Ashoka Mukpo interviewed community members who work in Liberia’s rubber plantations and found that the plantations and owners are polluting their water, desecrating sacred areas where they worshipped in the forest, and sexually abusing female workers. In southern Chile, the salmon industry is expanding through the fjords of the Indigenous Kawésqar National Reserve, harming the fragile ecosystem of their ancestral territory.

Climate change is another challenge that communities dependant on agriculture are facing increasingly. Unseasonal or high intensity rainfall has damaged crops across India over the past few years. A large number of landless farmers have suffered the most. For the Xingu Indigenous Territory in Brazilian Amazon, the climate crisis has left the forests drier and more flammable.

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Tag Archive for: Climate Change

Hybrid – Global Conference on Weather Forecast and Climate Change

ScitechSeries cordially invites you to join the “Global Conference on Weather Forecast and Climate Change” (GCWC 2024) scheduled during May 20-21, 2024 at Singapore in Hybrid mode.

This HYBRID EVENT allows you to participate In person at Singapore or Virtually from your home or workplace.

This conference is centered around the theme “Addressing Escalated Climate Challenges Using Technology.”

GCWC 2024 is a reflection of its commitment to addressing the urgent global climate issues that encompass unprecedented shifts in weather patterns, looming threats to food security, and the escalating risk of rising sea levels. GCWC 2024 serves as a preeminent platform for delving into the latest advancements in climate change research and understanding the health-related ramifications of climate policies. The gathering facilitates meaningful networking opportunities, bringing together a diverse array of experts from fields such as research, science, environment, healthcare, and industry. Through collaborative efforts, participants aim to collectively confront the multifaceted challenges posed by climate change.

Mark your calendar for this impactful event, GCWC 2024 endeavours to convene a diverse spectrum of global research and case studies, facilitating networking and exchanges among leading experts. Researchers, scientists, environmentalists, healthcare professionals, industrialists, and related field professionals are encouraged to partake in this vital discourse.