Category Archives: Press

Participants in the social media selfie campaign entitled This Is My #EarthStatement. © The Earth Statement

Planetary Transformation

Participants in the social media selfie campaign entitled This Is My #EarthStatement. © The Earth Statement

This is an interesting article, and we’d seen some of the ‘tipping points’ earlier this year. It clicks nicely with our recent discussion about The BA and the next step of our  journey. Certainly it has some good ideas. There are links in the story to other sites of interest. Mike 🙂 Transformation

Leigh Phillips and the 'eco-austerity'

Eco-Austerity: The Greens and The Left vs Digging and Values

Recently The Guardian presented the readers with real gem from Red Pepper science writer and journalist WordPress: Leigh Phillips titled “The Guardien: Why eco-austerity won’t save us from climate change“.

In this writing Mr. Phillips, lumping wide variety of eco-friendly and conservationist movements together with political ideologies on the left, arrives to the conclusion that talking about unnecessary and resource wasting consumption (over-consumption) is not only inappropriate, as the wast majority of people living in the so called ‘developed’ countries consume much less than they need, but also harmful for the prosperous future of humanity. He confidently states that “The truth is that we can stop climate change and deliver expanding wealth for all.”

What seem to be missing from his train of thoughts are only the appropriate reasoning and any scientific evidence supporting his discovery. The apparent contradiction between living in a finite system and delivering expanding wealth for ever growing population is something which does not even worth to think about.

The term ‘eco-austerity’ in his writing is intended to serve as a stigma on everything and everybody, which and who do not support and in favour of growth- and profit-centric view of the world. In his interpretation the secret to saving the world from climate change is “above all, large amounts of cheap capital”. Because “An entrepreneurial, risk-taking, mission-oriented public sector got us into space, and it’ll be the same sort of public sector that saves the planet.” The globally recognizable Tragedy of the Commons seemingly does not concern Mr. Phillips.

There is another humble, nearly undiscoverable writing titled Cultural values of digging from Farida Vis and her team from 2014 January is also about the subject eco-austerity, referring to it from completely different aspects. It highlights the fact how important it is to use scarce resources wisely and how it can create cultural values. This study is much less propagandist and more thoughtful to find long lasting values.

NBSAP Forum - CBD, UNDP, UNEP

NBSAP Forum

: NBSAP Forum - CBD, UNDP, UNEP

Krishnan,

Thanks for this. Let me directly come to the point.

After having seen
– the encyclical from Pope Francis about Climate Change and protecting our environment,
– the speech from the Dalai Lama at Glastonbury also about Climate Change and lately
– the speech from Prince Charles about the pressing necessity of rewiring the global economy to halt the destruction of our planet

probably best moment could not be expected to direct the attention of NBSAP Forum members to the fact that their main objective: “Supporting countries in their critical work in reversing the global loss of biodiversity by 2020.” will be nothing more than an empty slogan unless all the stakeholders combine all their capacity to address the single most important cause for biodiversity loss: Anthropogenic pressure on this planet.

To tackle this issue I can see the following “sub-tasks”
– Work out the framework for a new global economic model replacing the current growth and profit centric exercise;
– Educate nations all around the globe about the finite nature of our planetary resources, and as part of this also educate them about their responsibility in the exploding population;
– Propose a mechanism to be implemented worldwide for Carbon Labeling every products and services.

Infrastructure for teaching, education are given in much more places than such kind of information is distributed in any way, so education can be started right now.

We, The Biodiversity Alliance can act as a facilitator to contact and communicating with stakeholders to deliver the above message.

I hope to see your thoughts on this. 🙂
Janos

Poyang lake, China - CCTV

China’s wetlands

: Poyang lake, China - CCTV

A useful article on China’s wetlands. I liked the fact that they report the impacts of human activities, such as Three Gorges dam, whereas western media tries to pretend we have no impact. Another article says that China has 10% of world’s wetlands.

http://english.cntv.cn/2015/05/19/VIDE1432040282288536.shtml

A jungle village on Bougainville, 2005 - Lloyd Jones, AAP

Bougainville

: A jungle village on Bougainville, 2005 - Lloyd Jones, AAP

Another disturbing happening. Not good news for those us familiar with these processes, especially Rio Tinto and Abbott. Business first. Does anyone have direct knowledge of the place?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/20/australias-interest-in-bougainvilles-independence-is-far-from-locals-wishes

Zambia to lift ban hunting on big cats - Brendan Raisbeck, Alamy

Wildlife trophy hunting!

: Zambia to lift ban hunting on big cats - Brendan Raisbeck, Alamy

This will no doubt raise passions on both sides of the fence as it always does. Anyway I’d like us to think about it, and to provide underpinning evidence to support each argument. Please think deeply about it. Thanks, Mike 🙂

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/19/zambia-to-lift-ban-hunting-lions-leopards-big-cats

Barcroft Media, Haytham Pictures

Life-long learning opportunities for all

: Barcroft Media, Haytham Pictures

Good paper by Julia Gillard, also links off it to some others. How different this is from those terribly weak Millennium Development Goals. We now need something as strong for Biodiversity 🙂 Mike

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/18/julia-gillard-the-uns-new-education-goal-is-ambitious-and-audacious-it-has-to-be