By Suzanne York and A.Tianna Scozzaro. In the southwestern part of Indonesian Borneo, known as Kalimantan, there’s a small town on the outskirts of an incredibly diverse forest where the community has turned from illegal logging to stewards of the land. Sukadana borders Gunung Palung National Park, home to an estimated 2,500 orangutans. As much
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By Suzanne York. Some of the greatest and most dedicated guardians of our planet are women. At Women Deliver, an international conference dedicated to improving the lives of women, it is heartening to see the efforts of female environmental defenders being acknowledged. With the International Day for Biological Diversity recognized on May 22 (this year’s
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By Suzanne York. Mention the Congo, and it evokes thoughts of Conrad, King Leopold, diamonds, conflict, war, and also incredible biological diversity and culture. If there is anyplace on the face of the planet that seems to comprise the best and worst of humanity, it might just be the Democratic Republic of Congo. From its
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By Suzanne York. Yet another Earth Day is upon us, now officially known as International Mother Earth Day. In honor of it this year, some real steps forward are taking place, with the signing of the Paris climate accord today which, amongst other things, strives for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial
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By Suzanne York. The poorest people in the world are paying the highest price for safe water, according to WaterAid’s report, Water: At What Cost? The State of the World’s Water 2016. Worldwide, some 650 million people in the world still do not have access to clean water and more than 2.3 billion do not
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By Suzanne York. If you are a parent or a teacher, you might be excused for occasionally thinking that there are too many young people. But it’s true that there are a lot of young men and women living right now, as noted in a recent op-ed in the New York Times by Somini Sengupta,
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By Suzanne York, www.transition-earth.org. Amazing things can happen when local voices are heard. In a remote pocket of the island of Indonesian Borneo, a small organization is working with the local community to link the issues of human health and protecting a fragile environment in an effort to build a brighter future.  As the world recognizes
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By Suzanne York, www.transition-earth.org. In some ways the following are two very different stories, but ultimately in the end both end up advancing women’s rights when it comes to family planning and reproductive health. Let’s first take a look at India – soon to be the world’s most populous country.  For decades it has been relying
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By Suzanne York, www.transition-earth.org “We are the first generation with the knowledge of how our activities influence the Earth System, and thus the first generation with the power and the responsibility to change our relationship with the planet.” That statement was written in 2011 in a journal article by a group of some of the
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By Suzanne York. Child marriage is a difficult issue that is complicated by culture and religion, and especially by poverty.  Now it seems that climate change is another complicating factor. It might be surprising to find out that extreme weather could be increasing the rate of child marriage and other detrimental impacts on children. But
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