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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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, www.howmany.org The Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony was held this week, just prior to Earth Day.  It is an annual prize given to six environmental activists who face tremendous struggles – even death threats – to protect their environment. As the world endures increasingly serious environmental problems and intensifying impacts from climate change,
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org. The world is headed towards a “danger zone,” as it is passing a number of planetary boundaries that could destabilize the earth, according to yet another study by an international group of scientists. While your average citizen is probably not even aware of the concept of planetary boundaries, it should be a
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org From the outside, it seems like the UN climate negotiations are all about wordsmithing, rehashing decades-old arguments on responsibility, finance and a little bit about impacts on people. It is more difficult to hear about the planet, i.e., nature, in the talks. When it does come up, nature is often reduced
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org There has been some hoopla over a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) about how decreasing human population numbers is not a quick fix for environmental problems. Well, of course it’s not a quick fix.  Nothing really is, short of a catastrophe.  The two authors
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The theme of this past weekend’s Bioneers Summit Conference was “revolution from the heart of nature,” but more than that, it was also that land and life are sacred. If you aren’t familiar with Bioneers, it is an annual conference that just celebrated its 25th year. Attendees are referred to as
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Global overshoot.  You’d have to be in serious denial, or living under a rock, to not realize that humanity today is living beyond planetary means.  We take so much from Earth to live our lives today. August 19th is designated as Earth Overshoot Day, the date humanity exceeds the carrying capacity
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org “Can Earth Handle 29 Billion People? Easy.” Where to begin with this statement?  Actually, it’s the title of an editorial in the Financial Post of Canada by one Lawrence Solomon, described as “one of Canada’s leading environmentalists.”  This editorial was preceded by another on the same theme and is based on
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org World Environment Day – a day “for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment” – is another officially recognized day by the United Nations for doing something (anything) positive for the environment. Given the fragility of the climate, environment and communities around the world, it is a good time to
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