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. 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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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Across the world many people are waiting with bated breath as one of society’s most influential religious leaders weighs in on the topic of climate change and its impact on people and the environment. Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, is releasing an encyclical (a papal letter sent to bishops)
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By Kimberly Absher, guest youth blogger, www.howmany.org. This April 22nd marks the 45th anniversary of Earth Day. With a rich history beginning in 1970, when 20 million Americans took to the streets, their actions led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of critical laws to protect our air, water, and endangered
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By Suzanne York. “In fact, person for person, reducing birth rates in industrialized nations has a bigger impact on greenhouse gas emissions because affluent people use more of the Earth’s resources and depend more heavily on fossil fuels.” Thus wrote the editorial board of the Los Angeles Timesover the weekend. Word is getting out that
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Perhaps it’s telling that the UN climate meeting (officially known as COP 20) is being held in Lima, Peru.  It is an arid city of more than 8 million people and growing that receives less than an inch of rain annually.  With droughts increasing here and in many cities and regions
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Hopefully you’ve heard about this weekend’s People’s Climate March in New York City.  It is being billed as the biggest climate rally in the U.S., taking place before UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon’s climate summit. While there will be many organizations and diverse views being touted during the march, there is one
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By Suzanne York. Changing the way we live, to better our lives or the environment, is not always an easy thing to do.  Yet often times simple changes can amount to big differences. Take eating less meat, for example.  Eating less meat probably has a greater impact than changing to energy-saving light bulbs. You don’t
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org All one really needs to take away from the 800-page National Climate Assessment (NCA), mandated every four years by the U.S. Congress, is this: Human-induced climate change is projected to continue, and it will accelerate significantly if emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to increase. As published in the NCA, “The magnitude of climate
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org In yet another dire warning, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), comprising hundreds of scientists and government representatives from across the globe, released its long-awaited report on the impacts of climate change.     The IPCC report states that climate change has already “caused impacts on natural and
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