Environment/Sustainability

Planetary Duty is a Feminist Construct

Jun 20th, 2019 | By
[Forest Scenery Creative Commons Nature Pictures]

By Geoffrey Holland, guest writer for Transition Earth. Have you noticed? We humans can be very destructive. For the longest time, where nature is concerned, we’ve been takers rather than givers. We’ve become very efficient at ripping up the landscape and stripping the life from our oceans.  On top of that, we produce massive quantities
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Rights of Nature: The Time Has Come

Feb 19th, 2019 | By
Lake Erie [photo: Harmful algae bloom. Lake Erie. July 22, 2011. Credit: NOAA.]

By Suzanne York. Whatever you can do or imagine, begin it; boldness has beauty, magic, and power in it.   ~ Goethe The rights of nature movement has hit the mainstream media, which surely is good news for those looking for a way to change the planet’s current course of continuing environmental degradation and climate disruption. 
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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
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A True Earth Day is Grounded in Rights for People & Nature

Apr 19th, 2018 | By
[Climate March, New York City, 2014. Photo: Suzanne York]

By Suzanne York As Earth Day celebrations take place in communities across the country this weekend, it’s a good time to consider how we can really honor the earth. Undertaking efforts such as eating less meat, taking public transit, using clean energy, and so on counts for a lot. Yet with so much on the
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Pollution: The Lasting Effect of the Anthropocene Era?

Oct 22nd, 2017 | By
[photo: UNEP]

By Suzanne York. It’s shocking news that impacts people the world over. A study by the Lancet medical journal has found environmental pollution is the largest cause of disease and death, killing more people each year than war and violence, accounting for 16 percent of all global deaths. The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health
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Deforestation – The Problem that Affects Everyone

Sep 13th, 2017 | By
Deforestation in Indonesia [photo: un.org]

By Candela Vázquez Asenjo, youth blogger, Transition Earth. This past summer I volunteered with an orangutan sanctuary located in Borneo, Indonesia. The feeling of being just one more creature in the middle of the forest, no longer an intruder but a guest, is a beautiful gift that few people get to experience. However, there is a
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Earth Overshoot – Can Our Society Change Course?

Aug 1st, 2017 | By
In the fishing community of Wanseko, Uganda, fisherfolk face many threats to their livelihoods and community [photo: Suzanne York]

By Suzanne York. Another Earth Overshoot Day is upon us, this one coming August 2nd, even earlier than last year. This date, calculated by Global Footprint Network, arrives earlier with each passing year, as humanity uses up natural resources faster than the Earth can replenish in a year. Currently we are using the ecological resources
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The Connection Between Endangered Species and Family Planning

Jun 5th, 2017 | By
Alex Ngabirano of Conservation Through Public Health

By Suzanne York. A visit to southwestern Uganda makes it clear why Churchill deemed it the “pearl of Africa.” The lush greenery, the people, the animals all make it a delightful experience. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwestern Uganda is aptly named – the forest is thick as far as the eye can see, and the
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The Anthropocene – Are We There Yet?

Aug 30th, 2016 | By
Earth at Night [image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Earth_at_Night_2001.jpg]

By Suzanne York. It’s official, more or less – we have entered the Anthropocene epoch, a time when humanity’s impact on the planet is so transformational that it’s pushed the world into a new geological period. “New Age of Man” An international working group, after seven years of deliberation, voted unanimously (with one abstention) at
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Solutions for Saving Elephants on World Elephant Day

Aug 11th, 2016 | By
[photo credit: @ChrisAustria.com]

By Suzanne York. One elephant is killed every 15 minutes for its ivory. Perhaps it is appropriate that World Elephant Day (August 12) follows Earth Overshoot Day, the date when humanity exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet. This is because human beings are doing a good job of wiping wild elephants off the face
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