All entries by this author

“Have Children for the Country” – Changing Misguided Assumptions on Declining Population Growth

Jan 8th, 2019 | By
View of Tokyo 
[Photo: Creative Commons license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tokyo_from_the_top_of_the_SkyTree.JP]

By Suzanne York. It is commonly accepted by the ‘powers that be’ that continued population growth is a great thing and declining population growth is terrible. This assumption permeates the global economy mentality, where constant growth of people and markets is the mantra. And if population growth is on a downward course, that is cause
[continue reading…]



Our Not-so-Green Dependence on Rare Earth Minerals

Dec 13th, 2018 | By
Mining for rare earth metals [Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons]

By Candela Vázquez Asenjo, youth blogger for Transition Earth. There seems to be hope that we are finally moving, albeit slowly, toward a more sustainable society. Solar panels, bans on plastics, green buildings and more are increasing. Yet no matter how ‘green’ our reality may appear, we are still far away from being the environmental
[continue reading…]



What are Environmentalists Doing at a Family Planning Conference?

Nov 19th, 2018 | By
ICFP

By Suzanne York. This question came up a few times at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), a biennial gathering of reproductive health and rights advocates.  This year’s conference included a small number of attendees who address both reproductive health and conservation/environmental rights through a development approach known as PHE, or population, health and environment. The
[continue reading…]



Can We Win the Battle of Plastic Pollution?

Oct 24th, 2018 | By
[Photo: singularityhub.com]

By Candela Vázquez Asenjo, youth blogger for Transition Earth. I have been an activist campaigning against plastic pollution for the past four years. During this time, I have learned about a number of projects that promised to change the course of plastic pollution, but sadly none have actually been strong enough to have a lasting
[continue reading…]



Educating Girls: A Major Solution for Climate Resiliency

Oct 11th, 2018 | By
day of the girl

By Suzanne York. At first glance, the recent UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on global warming may not seem to have much to do with the International Day of the Girl, observed on October 11th. But climate change has a lot to do with girls, and especially the rights of girls. For one
[continue reading…]



Addressing a Desert Kingdom’s Water Crisis

Sep 20th, 2018 | By
Aerial view of Jordan, between Amman and Aqaba. [Photo: https://news.un.org]

By Candela Vázquez Asenjo, youth blogger for Transition Earth. Last month, I visited Jordan for the first time. Its colours, the never-ending lands of desert and the magnificent watercolour rocks that cover the whole country, touched my heart and soul. It did not matter what landscape Jordan was preparing for me, I was always surprised
[continue reading…]



Solutions to Stem the Tide of Extinction

Sep 10th, 2018 | By
A thriving herd of elephants in Kidepo National Park, Uganda.  [Photo: Suzanne York]

By Suzanne York. We humans, in general, pride ourselves on having such ingenious brains, but we’re not always that smart. We live in a society that is using up natural resources at an unsustainable rate – resources upon which our lives depend upon – yet we blithely continue with business as usual. Certainly there are
[continue reading…]



Why are People Rushing to Join the Anti-plastics Bandwagon?

Aug 23rd, 2018 | By
[photo: Ian Kirk, via Creative Commons]

By Candela Vázquez Asenjo, youth blogger for Transition Earth. Since the 1950’s our world has made some of the biggest developments in history. We came from the disasters of the second world war to a world of peace with no precedence in the developed countries. However, even with this scenario of peace and comfort, some
[continue reading…]



Reversing Global Overshoot for a Healthy Planet

Jul 25th, 2018 | By
Elephant in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

By Suzanne York. As the planet is literally burning up, awareness of our greater human impact on the world may just be increasing.  It does get more difficult to deny climate change as the daytime temperature records are broken in Scotland, Japan faces floods and then a heatwave and Yosemite National Park closes due to
[continue reading…]



The Right to Family Planning Is Not Ridiculous

Jul 11th, 2018 | By
Women's March 2018, Oakland, CA [photo: Suzanne York]

By Suzanne York. Unless you’ve been off the grid, chances are that you are at least somewhat aware of the battle taking place in the U.S. over reproductive rights.  With a potential new conservative Supreme Court justice poised to join the court, it is a dire time indeed for those who support women’s health and
[continue reading…]