By Suzanne York. As the world rings in a new year, there are the ubiquitous feelings of desiring fresh starts and new beginnings. Yes, a fresh start is greatly needed, as the state of the global environment (and more) is extremely bleak. With so much on the line for the planet as a whole –
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By Suzanne York. The climate negotiations that took place earlier this month in Bonn, Germany (referred to as COP23) dealt with challenging issues, including the U.S. government sticking its head in the ground regarding the reality of climate change. Still, there are reasons to be somewhat hopeful that global society overall is moving in the
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By Candela Vázquez Asenjo, youth blogger, Transition Earth. Plastic pollution is a huge problem in the world today and is affecting our daily lives in ways we may not even be aware of. As we grow up in a culture relying on disposable items, we are unaware of the huge damage this is creating, not
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By Suzanne York, Transition Earth. (A longer version of this article was originally written for the online magazine, ReImagining, published by the Chicago Wisdom Project) Lately it seems as if the entire world is veering wildly off course. From climate change to species extinctions to rising inequality, many people – not to mention nature – are crying out
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By Suzanne York. In what is sadly a sign of things to come for many places, Bolivia has declared a state of emergency, as it endures its worst drought in 25 years. The Andean glaciers that for centuries have supplied water to La Paz and its sprawling neighbor El Alto – one of the poorest
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By Suzanne York. The prediction is so shocking that it is difficult to comprehend – our world is on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020. The Living Planet Report 2016, by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Zoological Society of London, reports that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on
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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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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. Most people in the world will blithely go about their lives on August 8th, without knowing that on this day, we go into debt to nature. Otherwise known as Earth Overshoot Day, it is the day when humanity’s resource consumption for the year exceeds the planet’s ability to replenish its natural capital.
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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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