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"Amid 2020’s gloom, there are reasons to be hopeful about the climate in 2021"
While the pandemic was raging, so was the climate emergency, like two horror films overlapping. We saw record-breaking wildfires engulf the west coast of the US, a record number of powerful Atlantic storms, the Arctic ice failing to freeze in late October and deadly floods hitting countries from Italy to Indonesia. We got a glimpse of a chaotic world battered by multiple crises, each making the other worse, and it was terrifying.
Exceptional as the calamities of 2020 may seem, they could be just a taste of what’s to come unless we change direction. Neither the pandemic nor extreme weather are random events. Disease outbreaks are on the rise and about 70% are the result of viruses crossing the barrier from animals to humans.
From rampant deforestation in the Amazon to Covid-infected mink farms in Denmark, industrial farming is opening up a viral Pandora’s box that could unleash pandemics even worse than the present one. While scientists were busy developing a vaccine, destructive industries were even busier clearing forests and displacing wildlife, increasing the risk of awakening the next deadly virus. We’re mopping up the floor while making the leak worse.
www.theguardian.com/...
"Sliding back to the old normal is not an option"
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When it comes to the climate, there’s no vaccine, no single fix for it. Technology can help, but the real breakthrough can only come from a radical change in political and corporate will. Despite the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic, levels of planet-heating gases in the atmosphere have hit a new record high this year. It’s clear that nothing short of a complete transformation of our economy and society can save us from climate breakdown.
If we want the future to look as different as possible from the crises-ravaged mess of the past year, then tackling the climate and nature emergency head-on really is the only way forward. If we can muster the energy for a new year resolution as we toast good riddance to 2020, let it be a determination to leave behind the old normal and make a truly new beginning.
Climate/UK
Tennis-court sized scrap of Bristol to become 'tiny forest'
Six hundred trees to be planted as part of nationwide initiative to bring more precious woodland into cities
A scrap of ground, the size of a tennis court, beside a river in Bristol is being transformed into a “tiny forest” featuring 600 trees as part of a nationwide initiative to bring more precious woodland into cities.
The area, on a plateau next to the River Trym in Southmead, will be one of a string of such projects across the UK featuring trees ranging from mighty oaks to birch, elder, blackthorn and guelder rose.
Over the next three years, the ambition is to plant more than 100 tiny forests, with spots already earmarked in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester and Glasgow.
The tiny forest in Southmead is part of a wider project called the Trym Valley Open Space Regeneration that aims to bring back trout to the waterway and includes the planting of the rare black poplar, on the river bank.
Tiny forests are based on woodland management methods developed in the 1970s in Japan, where many different species are planted closely together in urban areas. www.theguardian.com/...
More than 100 protesters have staged a trespass at Stonehenge to raise concerns over plans for a two-mile tunnel underneath the world heritage site.
Last month the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, approved the £1.7bn project, which will include eight miles of extended dual carriageway along the A303 in Wiltshire.
A broad alliance of residents, ecologists, land justice and climate activists and pagans joined the trespass. There was singing, drumming and speeches about the damage they say the road-building plan will cause. theguardian.com/...
'They respond to vibrations': does talking to plants actually help them grow?
After a year at home with her orchid, Seetha Dodd was rewarded with a large spray of blooms. Could her words of encouragement have played a part? www.theguardian.com/...
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Earth Matters is a Daily Kos compendium of wonderful, disturbing, and hideous news briefs about the environment.
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