Just 12 plant species and five types of animal make up 75% of the world’s food. At least 30,000 of the 350,000 known plant species on our planet are edible, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. It is a woefully limited diet in the midst of such variety. Only 170 species of plant are cultivated for food on any significant… Read More NORMAN MILLER: The forgotten foods that could excite our tastebuds
Nearly two-thirds of Europeans would rather repair their products than buy new ones The French capital hosts a dozen of these so-called “repair cafes” – free, monthly initiatives that allow local residents to fix household objects and electronics with the help and advice of enthusiastic volunteers. Pioneered by journalist Martine Postma in Amsterdam in 2009,… Read More Peter Yeung: The country rejecting throwaway culture
Underwater seagrass in coastal areas appear to trap plastic pollution in natural bundles of fibre known as “Neptune balls”, researchers have found. With no help from humans, the swaying plants – anchored to shallow seabeds – may collect nearly 900m plastic items in the Mediterranean alone every year, a study reported in the journal Scientific… Read More Seagrass 'Neptune balls’ sieve millions of plastic particles from water, study finds
India has the world’s worst air pollution. Home to 21 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, its toxic air kills more than one million people each year. That’s partly because the South Asian nation is the world’s second largest brick producer. Brick kilns — which account for 20% of black carbon emissions globally — make a significant contribution to its terrible air. Indian architect… Read More Isabelle Gerretsen: This company is making building tiles out of polluted air
The global food system is on course to drive rapid and widespread ecological damage with almost 90% of land animals likely to lose some of their habitat by 2050, research has found. A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability shows that unless the food industry is rapidly transformed, changing what people eat and how it is… Read More Matthew Taylor: Global food industry on course to drive rapid habitat loss // Laura Spinney: Time for some home truths about deforestation
Guwahati: Padmashree Awardee and India’s ‘Forest Man’ Jadav Payeng has signed an agreement with Fundacion Azteca on December 7, to collaborate on environmental works in the North American country. Fundacion Azteca is a Mexican non-profit organisation that promotes social responsibility, specifically towards environment. The agreement has been signed during the Ciudad de Oas Ideas (CDI)… Read More Assam's 'Forest Man' Jadav Payeng to plant trees in Mexico
This report is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and critical overview of the state of contemporary rural India. It focuses on the key structural factors, especially policies and trends, that have marked rural India’s economic and ecological conditions. Through this report we wish to share alternative ideas, paradigms and methodologies to address these entrenched… Read More STATE OF RURAL AND AGRARIAN INDIA REPORT 2020. By the Network of Rural and Agrarian Studies
Early in the pandemic, many scientists noticed an odd, incongruous side effect of business closures and widespread shelter-in-place orders: a concomitant reduction in air pollution. NASA saw significant drops in nitrogen dioxide levels in satellite data from April 2020. That raised an uneasy prospect for environmentalists, the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic — which has,… Read More MATTHEW ROZSA: How humanity lost control of plastic pollution
Public Solidarity Statement: Greens With Farmers: #GreensWithFarmers Youth environmental groups join Dilli Chalo and Nationwide General Strike on 26th November to withdraw the three Anti-Farmer Bills and Reverse the Dilution of Workers’ Protections. Stop destructive projects, reverse anti-Earth policies, abandon fossil fuels, and implement a People’s Green Recovery Agenda to safeguard future generations! Environmental groups… Read More Public Solidarity Statement: Greens With Farmers
International lawyers are drafting plans for a legally-enforceable crime of ecocide – criminalising destruction of the world’s ecosystems – that is already attracting support from European countries and island nations at risk from rising sea levels. The panel coordinating the initiative is chaired by Prof Philippe Sands QC, of University College London, and Florence Mumba, a… Read More Owen Bowcott: International lawyers draft plan to criminalise ecosystem destruction
