With every year that passes, we’re getting further away from averting a human-caused climate disaster. That’s the key message in this year’s “Low Carbon Economy Index,” a report released by the accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The report highlights an “unmistakable trend.” The world’s major economies are increasingly failing to do what’s needed to to limit global warming to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. That was the target agreed to by countries attending the United Nations’ 2009 climate summit; it represents an effort to avoid some of the most disastrous consequences of runaway warming, including food security threats, coastal inundation, extreme weather events, ecosystem shifts, and widespread species extinction.
Colleen Flanigan is a socio-ecological artist. Through visual, performing, and biological arts, she investigates contemporary issues of species endangerment and ecosystem regeneration, specifically coral reefs. Her work encompasses Living Sea Sculptures, conversation-catalyzing alter egos, participatory multimedia exhibitions, and more.
Mineral accretion reefs can be any shape or size, allowing for original seascaping compositions. Both functional and artistic, they evolve into large aquatic topiary-like ecosystems. Rather than artworks about ecology that derive inspiration from nature and the environment, this is actually art as ecology with vibrant living plants and animals. Low volt DC electricity flowing through seawater raises the pH locally to attract calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide minerals to deposit onto a metal matrix; corals readily cement to this natural substrate. They can grow faster and tolerate some environmental stress that normally bleaches or kills them. As more people become aware of the issues of sea level rise, climate change, pollution, and overfishing, it is our time to explore how to resuscitate our ocean biodiversity and protect our shores with interdisciplinary recoralization.
Negotiations at the World Trade Organization on a free-trade agreement that would free “environmental goods” from the shackles of tariffs and other protectionist measures. The WTO talks involve the United States, China, the European Union, and 11 other countries and affect $1 trillion worth of trade every year.
Examples from the list include waste incinerators, which burn trash to produce electricity — and, in doing so, can pollute air and water with poisonous byproducts. The list also includes steam generators, which are used by coal and nuclear power plants. And it includes centrifuges, which are not only used for water purification but also by tar-sands oil producers.
On June 16, President Anote Tong of the Republic of Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific Oceanscape, announced that his nation’s Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) will close to ALL commercial fishing on December 31, 2014!
Covering an area roughly the size of California, PIPA hosts some of the world’s most economically important waters. In fact, if you order a spicy tuna roll in the United States, chances are good that it was made with fish caught in the waters of the Pacific Oceanscape — which supports 60% of the world’s tuna catch.
Tuna numbers are dwindling, though, and the off-limits PIPA will be a globally important test case for large-scale conservation of the popular fish as well as other ocean resources.
UNEP Goodwill Ambassadors Gisele Bündchen, Don Cheadle, Ian Somerhalder and Yaya Touré are sending an SOS to the world on behalf of Small Island Developing States.
Their message in the bottle: "We are all connected. The challenges faced by islands will face us all. So, every action we take to reduce waste and mitigate climate change counts. Join one of our teams and pledge to make a difference by taking action for WED."
