How to Get Off Fossil Fuels Quickly—and Fairly

When it comes to a just transition, it’s going to take a radical reimaging not only of our economy but also of our culture and the shape of our social structures. YES! co-hosted a conversation with experts from the nonprofit The Land Institute to discuss policy proposals and new ways to rebuild our sense of self and community from the bottom up. The discussion was prompted by a new book, The Green New Deal and Beyond, by...

A New Food Economy Post-Covid: Building More Regio...

Founder of Incredible Edible Bristol, Sara Venn, looks at how the city can keep the momentum going to upscale and increase urban production, buoyed by how the good food movement in Bristol has turned itself into a response movement to support citizens during the pandemic. This is part of a series of blog posts looking at how we can emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with a more resilient food system, each blog introduced...

How Permaculture can Build Resilience and Meet Bas...

Despite their urgency, coronavirus outbreaks, health crises and failing institutions are just some of the problems our global society is facing today. Billions of people worldwide still lack access to healthy food, clean water and sanitation services — being unable to properly wash hands and stay safe in the midst of a pandemic. And we are still trapped in an economic system that fuels environmental damage, from biodiversity...

Wood Mackenzie: Current economic downturn will spe...

The cost of U.S. solar power is dropping faster than expected as the coronavirus stifles demand, according to a report from Wood Mackenzie. Residential-system prices will fall 17% over the next five years, the research company said Wednesday. That’s steeper than the 14% it had expected before the coronavirus. Wood Mackenzie also sees prices for commercial systems sliding 16%, and utility-scale installations will decline 20%,...

3 Years and $3 Trillion Could Shift the Climate Ch...

A new report from the International Energy Agency details what it will take to lock in this year’s drop in emissions. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg Plummeting carbon emissions and big government spending—two of the defining narratives of 2020 so far—could create an unprecedented opportunity for the world to meet the goals enshrined in the 2015 Paris climate change...

Palm Oil Industry Leaves Indonesian Village Strugg...

Just like his father and grandfather, Alfian has spent his whole life working as a fisherman on the banks of the Batang Hari river in Rukam, Indonesia. In the village of 1,200 residents, rows of houses sit low to the ground beside the water, buttressed on the other side by swampy peatlands. The natural environment has long sustained the life of this village on the island of Sumatra. But now 48-year-old Alfian is struggling....

Vatican Asks Catholics to Ditch Fossil Fuel Invest...

The Vatican urged Catholics to closely consider where they invest their money and to take a close look at the environmental impact of the companies they may be shareholders in, as Reuters reported. Pope Francis has frequently criticized wanton greed that has led to environmental degradation and a climate crisis that is uprooting the lives of the world’s most vulnerable and impoverished people. On Earth Day, the Pope...

Scientists’ warning on affluence

Abstract For over half a century, worldwide growth in affluence has continuously increased resource use and pollutant emissions far more rapidly than these have been reduced through better technology. The affluent citizens of the world are responsible for most environmental impacts and are central to any future prospect of retreating to safer environmental conditions. We summarise the evidence and present possible solution...

For Indigenous Protesters, Defending the Environme...

Adán Vez Lira, a prominent defender of an ecological reserve in Mexico, was shot while riding his motorcycle in April. Four years earlier, the renowned activist Berta Cáceres was shot dead in her home in Honduras by assailants taking direction from executives responsible for a dam she had opposed. Four years before that, Cambodian forest and land activist Chut Wutty was killed during a brawl with the country’s military...

The race to preserve Earth’s historical climate re...

Engineers associated with the Ice Memory Project prepare to drill an ice core from the Col du Dôme glacier in the French Alps in 2016.Sarah Del Ben/Fondation UGA As climate change threatens Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets, climatologists and chemists are banking ice core samples for the future Climatologist Lonnie Thompson’s voice is still full of wonder when he talks about seeing the Quelccaya Ice Cap for the first time....

Thermoelectric Stoves: Ditch the Solar Panels?

Ed. – An article describing the Thermoelectric effect applied to a domestic cooking stove. Primarily included for reference. Wood stoves can provide a household with thermal energy for cooking and for space and water heating. Wood stoves equipped with thermoelectric generators also produce electricity, which can be more sustainable, more reliable and less costly than power from solar panels. If the 2,000 year old...

Promise of Cracker Plants Comes Up Short, Group Wa...

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A group of economists and engineers from seven universities in Ohio and Pennsylvania, including John Russo, have published a letter sent to the governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia warning that the projected impact of the petrochemical industry won’t be as great as initially thought. The letter follows a recent report by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis stating the Royal...

Investors Want Companies to Disclose Environmental...

There’s a growing push from large investors in publicly traded companies to hold the companies accountable for the environmental impact of their practices. In the latest salvo, global companies worth more than $10 trillion are urging companies to disclose their environmental impact to investors, as Forbes reported. Activist campaigns have proven remarkably effective recently, as major investment firms...

‘Plastic Rain’ Is Pouring Down in Nati...

The plastic crisis has polluted the world’s oceans and created mountains in landfills. Microplastics have been identified wafting on the sea breeze and raining down on top of the Pyrenees. They travel on the winds and slowly drop down from the skies. Now, a new study has found that some of the most untouched areas of the U.S. are seeing 1,000 tons or more of microplastics rain down every year, according to The New York...

New High Seas Treaty Could Be a Gamechanger for th...

Most of us have never been to the world’s immense last wilderness and never will. It’s beyond the horizon and often past the limits of our imaginations. It contains towering underwater mountain ranges, ancient corals, mysterious, unknown forms of life and the largest seagrass meadow in the world. Yet it begins just 200 nautical miles off our shores. Technically referred to as “areas beyond national...