Valerie Schloredt – Calling All Climate Activists: “Go Out and Get Yourself in Some Holy Trouble”

A handful of climate activists turned off the flow of Canadian tar sands oil through pipelines in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington on Tuesday, Oct. 11. Five who cut chains and turned pipeline valves and five more supporters were arrested. They face a range of charges, including criminal trespass, sabotage, burglary, and criminal mischief. That morning in Seattle, Jay O’Hara …

Are Organic Farms Really Worse When It Comes to Greenhouse Gases?

Organic farming earned some negative press recently with the publication of a paper that linked it to higher greenhouse emissions, but the truth is a little more complex. The paper, by University of Oregon Ph.D. student Julius McGee and published in the journal Agriculture and Human Values, found what appears to be a shocking bit of information: “Organic farming,” McGee …

Courtney Sexton – 5 Actions You Can Take To Celebrate World Food Day

Wendell Berry once said “the Earth is what we all have in common.” It is one of my favorite quotes to return to when I’m getting down and out about the unrest in the world, and particularly, as of late, the extreme socio-political divisions here in the U.S. that have put many of us at odds with our neighbors. I …

Kieran Cooke – Tasty insects benefit poor and climate

LONDON, 13 October, 2016 − Eating insects may not be to everyone’s taste, but crickets have for centuries been eaten in many parts of the world − particularly in Asia Pacific region countries, where they are seen as a nutritious snack food, containing far more iron than spinach and other greens. And now scientists say that eating insects such as …

Robert J. Burrowes – A Nonviolent Strategy to End the Climate Catastrophe

As the evidence mounts that we are fast approaching the final point-of-no-return beyond which it will be impossible to take sufficient effective action to prevent climate catastrophe – see ‘The World Passes 400 PPM Threshold. Permanently’ http://www.climatecentral.org/news/world-passes-400-ppm-threshold-permanently-20738 – the evidence of ineffective official responses climbs too. See, for example, ‘Climate Con: why a new global deal on aviation emissions is …

The World Bank and the IMF Are Enabling the Next Crisis

The ingredients of a fresh global economic crisis are assembling, and the IMF and the World Bank are failing to acknowledge their role in creating them. Larry Elliott, The Guardian’s economics editor, writes: According to the IMF, global debt has risen to a record level of $152tn (£1223tn) – more than double world GDP – at a time when activity …

Andrea Germanos – Methane Emissions From Fossil Fuel Industry May Be 60 Percent Higher Than Estimates: Study

As President Barack Obama heralds the ratification of the Paris climate agreement, a new study shows that methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry are far higher than previously estimated. According to the research published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, they may be as much as 60 percent greater. “Our study shows that leaks from oil and gas activities around the world are responsible for a …

The psychology behind climate change denial

Climate change is a serious threat to humans, animals, and the earth’s ecosystems. Nevertheless, effective climate action has been delayed, partly because some still deny that there is a problem. In a new thesis in psychology, Kirsti Jylhä at Uppsala University has studied the psychology behind climate change denial. The results show that individuals who accept hierarchical power structures tend …