Sustainability

Category Archives: Sustainability

Recycling Must Be Included in the Infrastructure Bill

As Congress and the Trump administration contemplate a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure, the question of how to utilize those dollars looms large. If the focus is just asphalt and concrete, it will miss the heart of American manufacturing. At the top of manufacturers’ needs is access to good, consistent, high-quality feedstocks to make into new products. Let’s help meet that need with some of the best possible domestic sources of raw materials: the paper, plastics, glass, metals and packaging discarded by U.S. homes and businesses. That means including funding for improved recycling in the infrastructure bill as a way to ensure long-term reliable supply created right here at home.

https://www.ecowatch.com/infrastructure-bill-recycling-2524851660.html

 

Animal welfare groups call for higher standards for farmed chickens

Retailers and restaurants urged to sign up to new cross-European guidelines amid growing concerns over cruelty in intensive meat production.

New welfare standards for farmed chickens have been demanded by a large coalition of European animal protection groups, including the RSPCA, in a bid to address growing concerns about inhumane conditions in the intensive and large-scale production of meat.

Supermarkets and restaurants are being urged to sign up to the new blueprint, which represents the first time a single set of requirements has been agreed on across the continent.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/13/animal-welfare-groups-call-for-higher-standards-for-farmed-chickens

Atmospheric CO2 Reaches Highest Level in Nearly a Million Years

According to the World Meteorological Organization, atmospheric CO2 levels have reached the highest level in 800,000 years – a gain that took just a few decades. The agency warns that urgent action is needed to reverse this worrying trend — and notes that we have the technology, but perhaps not the political will.

This announcement is especially alarming, given that the Trump administration has adopted aggressively anti-environmental policies, including placing climate change deniers in key policymaking positions.

https://www.care2.com/causes/atmospheric-co2-reaches-highest-level-in-nearly-a-million-years.html

 

Costs of 2017 US Weather Disasters Demolish Previous Record

2017 saw the US scorched by record-breaking wildfires in California, record-breaking rainfall events like Hurricane Harvey in Houston (just one of the three most expensive hurricanes to ever hit the US, which all occurred in 2017), damaging hail events, tornadoes, and extreme droughts that wiped out crops.

These extreme weather events, most of which were fueled at least in part by anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), cost the US nearly a third of a trillion dollars ($306 billion) over the past year.

That is more money than the US government spent on transportation, housing and community, international affairs, energy and the environment, and science, combined, in 2015.

The total cost of these extreme weather events was, by nearly $100 billion, a US record.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43178-costs-of-2017-us-weather-disasters-demolish-previous-record

California is preparing to defend its waters from Trump order

In its first act to shield California from the Trump administration’s repeal of regulations, the state’s water board has prepared its own rulesprotecting wetlands and other waters.

The proposed new rules, scheduled for a vote by the board this summer, could insulate the state from President Donald Trump’s executive order toroll back the reach of the Clean Water Act. That rollback would strip federal protection from seasonal streambeds, isolated pools and other transitory wetlands, exposing them to damage, pollution or destruction from housing developments, energy companies and farms.

California is preparing to defend its waters from Trump order

Sally and Mike Gale raise grass-fed beef and lambs and grow apple trees on un-irrigated pastureland dependent on rain at Chileno Valley Ranch in Petaluma, CA.

New Report on Radioactive Tap Water Renews Concerns About Trump Nominee

New Report on Radioactive Tap Water Renews Concerns

About Trump Nominee for Top Environmental Role

Critics are challenging Trump’s “outrageous” and “alarming” move to renominate the former head of a Texas environmental agency who has admitted to falsifying reports of radiation levels in drinking water

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/01/12/new-report-radioactive-tap-water-renews-concerns-about-trump-nominee-top

AND

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43195-embattled-trump-nominee-inadvertently-draws-attention-to-radiation-in-drinking-water

Creating a Sustainable Future: 5 Essential Reads

Much news about the environment in 2017 focused on controversies over Trumpadministration actions, such as proposals to promote more use of coal and budget cuts at relevant federal agencies. At the same time, however, many scholars across the U.S. are pursuing innovations that could help create a more sustainable world. Here we spotlight five examples from our 2017 archives.

https://www.ecowatch.com/sustainability-innovations-2017-2520468655.html

 

Poke Bowls Are Trendy, but Are They Sustainable? (video)

Poke, a dish made from raw tuna, is enjoying huge popularity far beyond its native Hawaii. But where is all that fish coming from? It turns out that tracking down the source of that tasty yellowfin or bigeye can be a hard task—and that raises some major sustainability concerns. (2 min.)

https://www.ecowatch.com/poke-tuna-oceana-2522775789.html

Belize Ends Oil Operations in Its Ocean Waters

Belize, home of the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere, has permanently suspended oil operations in its ocean waters. The legislation marks the first time that a developing country has taken such a major step to protect its oceans—and all the life within—from oil exploration and extraction.

The new suspension of oil activity marks an enormous win for the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System World Heritage site, the wildlife that live there, and the hundreds of thousands of Belizeans who rely on the reef for survival.

https://www.ecowatch.com/belize-offshore-drilling-wwf-2522728566.html

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