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20 Percent of Plant Species Could Go Extinct

by KeiraFoulds Posted on May 13, 2016

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Climate change, deforestation, and pollution are wreaking havoc on the Earth’s vegetation. djgis/Shutterstock One out of every five plant species on Earth is now threatened with extinction. That’s the disturbing conclusion of a major report released this week by scientists at Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The planet’s vegetation—from grasslands to deserts to tropical rainforests—is being hit hard by human activity. And deforestation, pollution, agriculture, and climate change are all playing a role. The sliver of good news, though, is that some researchers are hopeful that people will be able to act in time to avert the worst of the impending crisis. “I am reasonably optimistic,” said Kathy Willis, Kew’s science director, in an interview with our partners at the Guardian. “Once you know [about a problem], you can do something about it. The biggest problem is not knowing.” But others take a darker view. “Regardless of what humans do to the climate, there will still be a rock orbiting the sun,” said University of Hawaii scientist Hope Jahren in a recent interview with Indre Viskotas on the Inquiring Minds podcast. Jahren is a geobiologist—she studies how the earth (“geo”) and life (“bio”) come together to shape our world. “I’m interested in how the parts of the planet that aren’t alive—rocks and rivers and rain and clouds—turn into the…parts of the world that are alive: leaves and moss and the things that eat those things,” she explains. And what she’s seeing isn’t good. “We are already seeing extinctions,” she says. “We’re already seeing the balance of who can thrive and who can’t thrive in…the plant world radically shifted. In a lot of ways, I think that train has passed.” You can listen to her full interview below: Jahren, who is the author of a new book called Lab Girl, was recently included onTime magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people. She’s also an outspoken voice for gender equality and the fight against sexual harassment and assault in the scientific community. Part of Jahren’s work has focused on reconstructing the climate of the Eocene, the geologic epoch that lasted from about 56 million years ago to about 34 million years ago. In the middle of that period, about 45 million years ago, the world was so warm that massive deciduous forests were growing above the Arctic Circle—despite the fact that, as Jahren points out, the region saw little-to-no sunshine for part of the year. Jahren and her colleagues study fossilized plant tissues left over from these ancient forests in order to understand how the climatic factors of the time—light levels, atmospheric composition, water, etc.—combined to “make possible this life in the darkness.” She compares her work to investigating a crime scene. “Almost anything you come upon could have information in it,” she says. Jahren’s description of a lush Arctic full of plants and animals is striking. Imagining that world, she says, is “a really neat thing to do when you’re…juxtaposing that image against that fact that you’re near the North Pole, and there’s not a soul in sight for thousands of miles, and there’s not a green thing in sight for hundreds of miles.” That may be one of the reasons why she speaks so passionately about environmental destruction in the present day. “The world breaks a little bit every time we cut down a tree,” she says. “It’s so much easier to cut one down than to grow one. And so it’s worth interrogating every time we do it.” In the end, though, Jahren isn’t sure that science will lead humanity to make better decisions about the planet. Instead, she says, “I think my job is to leave some evidence for future generations that there was somebody who cared while we were destroying everything.” Inquiring Minds is a podcast hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and Kishore Hari, the director of the Bay Area Science Festival. To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes orRSS. You can follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow, like us on Facebook, and check out show notes and other cool stuff on Tumblr.

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20 Percent of Plant Species Could Go Extinct

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20 Percent of Plant Species Could Go Extinct

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Green Grocery: How To Shop To Support The Environment

by CurtPratten Posted on May 12, 2016

At Earth911, we’ve created a community that helps consumers find their own shade of green, match their values to their purchase behaviors, adopt environmentally sound practices and drive impactful environmental changes. We are here to deliver a mix of targeted content and eco-conscious products that influence positive environmental actions so that you can live a happier, healthier, sustainable lifestyle; one that protects this wonderful planet we call home.

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Green Grocery: How To Shop To Support The Environment

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There’s worrying volcano news. But could that be good climate news?

by LandonH3214 Posted on May 11, 2016

There’s worrying volcano news. But could that be good climate news?

By on May 11, 2016Share

If you, like me, have Google alerts for the terms “volcano,” “earthquake,” “end of days,” and “survivalist cult now accepting applications,” the recent news that both Mount St. Helens and Yellowstone’s supervolcano are showing signs of activity may have had you reaching for your bug-out bag. Then again, if you’re more afraid of climate change than natural disasters, massive volcanic explosions might actually sound like a good thing, right? After all, a huge plume of ash could block sunlight and lower global temperatures.

Here’s what’s up in volcano news: Over the past two months, Mount St. Helens in Washington state, located a scant 174 miles from this author’s house, has been experiencing an “earthquake swarm.” More than 130 small quakes have rumbled beneath the mountain, indicating that magma is on the move. But while this sounds terrifying, it’s actually nothing to worry about, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which wrote on Facebook that “there are no signs of an imminent eruption.” Whew.

But what about Yellowstone? Yellowstone National Park is located on top of a supervolcano, and scientists discovered a few years ago that the massive magma reservoir beneath it is two and a half times larger than previously believed, measuring 55 miles across. An eruption there could be 2,000 times larger than the blast at St. Helens in 1980 that killed 57 people, and, Tech Insider reports, such an event could cover much of the Midwest in ash, wipe out food and water supplies, and render vast swaths of land uninhabitable for at least a decade.

Scientists have long thought that Yellowstone wasn’t due to erupt for at least another 10,000 years. However, a recently posted YouTube video alleging to show unusual seismic activity at the park has had some people speculating that eruption is imminent. It also, naturally, has inspired quite a few headlines that might have you stockpiling food and water.

But pause a moment before you head for the hills. I asked Bill Steele of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network if I should add the Yellowstone supervolcano to my (lengthy) list of anxieties. He said, quite simply, “No.” Then he laughed.

The recent “unusual” seismic activity at Yellowstone isn’t actually unusual, Steele told me. “Yes, there are earthquakes there and it is a volcanic hotspot, but this is normal.”

As for Mount St. Helen’s, Steele said that even if it blew today, it just wouldn’t be that big a deal. The major eruption in 1980 let off all the mountain’s gas, and so, at worst, the next time St. Helen’s blows, it’ll be mostly steam.

But let’s just pretend for a moment that Steele is totally wrong and both Yellowstone and St. Helen’s go today — and go big. Is it possible that large volcanic eruptions could actually be good for the environment? After all, one thing that definitely is happening right now is global climate change, so wouldn’t it be good to have an ashy reprieve from soaring temperatures, helping us keep the ice caps intact at least a little while longer?

Yes, Steele tells me, if a volcano threw enough material into the stratosphere, it would cool the planet for a while. In fact, big eruptions have led to ice ages in the past. On the other hand, volcanic emissions include carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and other greenhouse gases, which worsen climate change (though volcanos are a minuscule source of warming gases compared to fossil fuel burning by humans). So a big eruption would be kind of a mixed bag for the climate.

Ultimately, the planet will be alright if and when both volcanos blow. “The Earth can handle volcanos,” Steele says. “It’s having a lot more difficulty with human activity.”

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There’s worrying volcano news. But could that be good climate news?

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, global climate change, LAI, LG, ONA, Oster, solar, solar power, Ultima, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on There’s worrying volcano news. But could that be good climate news?

Crude oil is flooding Texas rivers

by KraigV0096 Posted on May 3, 2016

Flooding in Brookshire, Texas, U.S. April 20, 2016. Handout via REUTERS TPX IMAGES

Crude oil is flooding Texas rivers

By on May 2, 2016Share

Dramatic, deadly flooding is the new normal for parts of Texas and Louisiana this past year. This weekend, a single flash flood killed six people. But the damage often doesn’t end when the skies are finally clear. In Texas — a state dotted with oil wells — extreme flooding can also mean contaminated water.

According to El Paso Times, chemicals and oil from overfilled wells and fracking sites have flushed into majors rivers. Texas officials have reportedly taken dozens of images of waterways polluted with crude oil and fracking chemicals, which show the “sheens and plumes spreading from tipped tanks and flooded production sites.” Affected waterways include the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisiana border, which flooded in March, and the Trinity, Red, and Colorado rivers, which flooded last year.

“That’s a potential disaster,” Dr. Walter Tsou, a physician and past president of the American Public Health Association, told the El Paso Times. “I’m sure it will get into the groundwater and streams and creeks.”

Fracking, of course, is the inherently toxic and increasingly common industry practice of injecting massive amounts of water laced with cocktail of chemicals into the earth to fracture underground shales with deposits of oil or natural gas. Crude oil spills are never pretty, least of all when they destroy habitats.

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Ted Cruz Has Disgusting Taste in Food

by KieraSweatman Posted on April 29, 2016

Mother Jones

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With California’s unusually high-stakes primary just weeks away, the top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination have descended on their party’s state convention in Burlingame, a suburban enclave 16 miles south of San Francisco. This weekend’s convention will be a key opportunity for Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich: For the first time in at least a half century, the GOP presidential nomination will hinge on who Californians vote for in the state’s June 7 primary. This has empowered local GOP officials, some of whom have toiled in obscurity for years, running quixotic candidates against Nancy Pelosi or denouncing local climate-change laws in Santa Cruz. Suddenly, these GOP officials now possess valuable connections with potential volunteers and local voters.

I have a ticket to the convention and will be posting live updates here.

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Ted Cruz Has Disgusting Taste in Food

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How to Start Your Own Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Business

by cazatrobfq Posted on April 23, 2016

You share bumper crops of tomatoes and peppers with the neighbors, turn berries into jam, and bake countless loaves of zucchini bread to keep fresh produce from going to waste. Whether youre an experienced gardener eager to share the harvest or a homesteader looking to make a profit from your backyard bounty, starting a CSA might be the answer.

CSA stands for community-supported agriculture. Farmers use this model to sell shares of their harvest to supporters. In exchange for a flat fee paid upfront, subscribers receive weekly (or bi-weekly) boxes of produce throughout the season that can be picked up at predetermined locations at set times.

Growers benefit from having guaranteed income and capital to purchase seeds and other supplies, and subscribers get access to a diverse array of fresh fruits and vegetables for an entire growing season.

While the CSA model is popular, you should know a few things before signing up subscribers.

Preparing for Success

Starting a CSA is not an undertaking for beginning gardeners. Subscribers purchase shares with the expectation of receiving fresh produce all season long, which means you need the experience to deliver.

A CSA is a business, and its important to consider the following issues.

Check local zoning laws:On a farm, it might not be a problem to have subscribers stopping by to pick up their shares. If your garden or homestead is in a residential neighborhood (or subject to HOA rules), on-site distribution might be prohibited. If this is the case, arrange for an alternate pickup location. A local farm-to-table restaurant may agree to allow subscribers to collect their shares there; delivering shares is another option. Youll also need to check with the city or county to determine whether you need a business license to sell fruits and vegetables.

Establish Agreements:Some CSA operators have written agreements for subscribers spelling out the price of the share, the length of the season, what is included with each share, and pickup times and locations.

Its also a good idea to outline some of the risks in a written agreement. Some crops may fail, and others may exceed expectations; subscribers need to understand that their shares could include a lot of kale and no tomatoes and that subscribing to a CSA means taking on a share of the risk. A University of Illinois professor of agricultural law developed a model CSA agreement that is available as a free download.

Put Safety First:Make sure you understand and follow state and federal guidelines for safe food handling and storage.

Cover Your Assets:Research insurance options. You want to be covered if a subscriber gets sick from something in their CSA share or gets injured while picking up their produce from the garden.

Planning the Harvest

The success of a CSA depends on good planning. Subscribers will expect to receive equal amounts of produce throughout the season, not a few heads of lettuce in the spring, dozens of vegetable varieties in the summer, and a handful of turnips in the fall.

CSAs often operate for 20 weeks; most also offer 10-week (or half-season) shares. Plan to have multiple crops available throughout the season.

As a general rule, each share should contain 10 to 20 pounds of fruits and vegetables. To provide a diverse array of produce, aim to harvest between five and 12 different types of produce each week. Use these numbers to plan the number of available shares your garden can accommodate.

Consider planting multiple varieties of the same type of vegetable. Some tomato varieties make great slicers, others are perfect for sauces and canning, and some, such as purple, black, or striped varieties, are just offbeat enough to wow subscribers. Dont forget about herbs, which offer a nice complement to fresh produce.

To help with planning, consider using an online tool. The Old Farmers Almanac Smart Gardener and Mother Earth News both offer online planners that show sowing and harvesting times based on hardiness zones to help ensure an impressive array of crops in each weeks share.

Setting the Price

The cost per share should be fair for subscribers, and it should provide enough capital to cover your costs.

The most basic method of establishing the cost per share is estimating the market price of the produce included in an average share and multiplying it by the number of weeks in a share. In other words, if a subscriber would spend $20 at the farmers market to purchase an equivalent amount of produce included in one weekly box, set the price at $200 for a half share (10 weeks) and $400 for a full share (20 weeks).

Do some quick calculations to ensure that the cost per share is enough to cover the cost of soil, seeds, and other supplies while providing a fair income for the work that goes into growing vegetables as well as marketing and managing the CSA.

Recruiting Subscribers

Once the number of available shares is calculated, its time to sign up subscribers.

Spread the word about the CSA to friends, neighbors, and co-workers; post on social media; and create flyers that include the share price, length of the season, and what types of produce will be available. Dont forget to include information about how people can sign up!

As the CSA grows, consider starting a newsletter that includes updates on the crops, photos, recipes, and information about washing, storing, and preserving produce in weekly boxes.

Maintaining Momentum

Operating a CSA is a lot of work. The good news is that you dont have to operate solo.

Some farms offer a discount on shares in exchange for volunteer labor. While an extra set of hands might sound appealing, subscribers might not be well versed in growing vegetables, and they could need a lot of direction and training to be of value; keep this in mind before inviting subscribers to work for food. A better bet is partnering with another homesteader or experienced backyard gardener to trade responsibilities and share revenues.

Co-operating a CSA can also mean expanding the types of products included in the share. If a neighbor raises chickens or bees, you could supplement the fresh produce youre growing with eggs or honey from their homestead.

At the end of the season, ask subscribers to fill out a survey about their experience. The information you gather can help you plan crops, tweak pick-up times or locations, and adjust pricing or share sizes before the next season.

Source: Fix.com

Written by Jodi Helmer. Reposted with permission from Fix.com.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How to Start Your Own Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Business

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For Once, Something Genuinely Good for the Earth Is Happening on Earth Day

by WilliamsLockyer Posted on April 22, 2016

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World leaders are in New York City to sign the first global agreement on climate change. This image from the 1968 Apollo 8 mission helped inspire the first Earth Day. NASA A lot of champagne was popped on the night of Saturday, December 12, when diplomats from almost every country on Earth finalized the text of the historic global agreement to combat climate change. In the Paris Agreement, countries committed to hold global temperature increases to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, an ambitious target considering that the world is already more than halfway to that limit. The deal also laid out a system for wealthier nations to help poorer ones pay for adapting to unavoidable climate impacts. But finalizing the agreement was only one step on the long road to actually achieving its aims. The next step is happening today, on Earth Day, as heads of state and other top officials from more than 150 countries will gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York City to put their signatures on the deal. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was a driving force in Paris, will sign the document on behalf of the United States. Signing the document is mostly a symbolic step, indicating a country’s intent to formally “join” the agreement at some later stage. In order to “join” the agreement, national governments have to show the UN the piece of domestic paperwork—a law, executive order, or some other legal document—in which the government consents to be bound by the terms of the agreement. Some small countries, including some island states that are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts, are expected to offer up those documents at the same time they sign. Other countries will take longer. The agreement doesn’t take legal effect until it is formally joined by both 55 individual countries and by enough countries to cover 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (a threshold that essentially mandates the participation of the US and China). The World Resources Institute made a pretty cool widget for experimenting with various ways to reach those thresholds. You can play around with different options to see what it would take. Once countries start signing the agreement, the widget will automatically update accordingly: President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping have promised to join the agreement this year. Obama is expected to join using an executive agreement, which will allow him to avoid sending the deal to Congress. (Executive agreements account for the vast majority of US foreign commitments.) He’s able to do this because the US says it can fulfill its Paris promises without any changes to domestic laws; instead, the Obama administration is holding up its end of the bargain by imposing new EPA regulations on emissions from power plants. Unlike a treaty, an executive agreement does not require ratification by the Senate. It’s not bulletproof; a future president could unilaterally abandon from the deal. But for Obama, there’s a clear incentive for pushing to reach those 55 countries/55 percent thresholds as quickly as possible: Once the agreement goes into force, it requires a four-year waiting period before a country can withdraw. In other words, in the event that either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump—both vociferous climate change deniers—succeeds Obama in the White House, they wouldn’t be able to back out of the agreement until their (*shudder*) second term. The odds are against the agreement taking force before Obama leaves office, because adoption by the European Union—which in the Paris Agreement acts as a singular unit—requires domestic actions by all of its 28 member states, which could take some extra time. Still, if the next president bails, he or she will have to pay a heavy diplomatic price for it, cautioned Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. “Walking away from the agreement would instantly turn the US from a leader to a defector,” he said, “and would almost certainly trigger a diplomatic backlash that would hamper our other priorities.” The upshot is that the US will likely join soon after today’s signing ceremony. A slew of other nations will follow, and the Paris Agreement will become binding international law sometime before 2018, when it calls for a global check-in on emission reductions. Of course, none of this puts the world any closer to averting devastating climate change than we were back in December. As they stand today, the country-level plans (nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, in UN jargon) enshrined in the agreement fall woefully short of the “well below” 2 degrees C target. The chart below, from a recent analysis by MIT and Climate Interactive, shows a variety of possible future scenarios. The blue line is what would happen without the Paris Agreement—a world where the impacts of climate change would be truly horrific and many major cities would become uninhabitable. The red line shows what will happen if countries stick to their current commitments. The green line is what a successful outcome of the Paris Agreement would look like (and, to be clear, even that level of warming will come with severe consequences): Climate Interactive/MIT Sloan As you can see, by 2025 or so countries need to be doing far more than they have committed to thus far. The Paris Agreement states that in 2020, at the next major international climate conference, countries must roll out new plans that go well beyond their current ones. So we’re very much not out of the woods yet. But we’re moving in the right direction, at least. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, the holiday has generally declined into little more than a “news” hook for corporate communications people to harass reporters about eco-friendly guns and cheeseburgers and other dumb stuff. So it’s kind of nice to see the day being used for something of actual historical significance.

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For Once, Something Genuinely Good for the Earth Is Happening on Earth Day

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For Once, Something Genuinely Good for the Earth Is Happening on Earth Day

Posted in Citadel, Cyber, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, Monterey, ONA, organic, organic gardening, OXO, Ringer, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on For Once, Something Genuinely Good for the Earth Is Happening on Earth Day

Earth Week Daily Action: Register to Vote

by Leonie5935 Posted on April 21, 2016

One of the most important individual actions we can take to protect the planet is to vote. How corporations behave, how much pollution is allowed, what energy we have access to, whether we’re exposed to toxic chemicalsall of these issuesare determined by the laws and regulations that govern our society. Those laws are passedor notby the people we elect to office. If we don’t elect strong advocates for environmental protection, we won’t have them in office. It’s as simple as that.

If you’re not registered to vote, do so during Earth Week.Even if you’ve already missed a primary election in your state, sign up to vote in the general election in November. Here’s how to make it happen.

1) Figure out if you’re registered! You may already be registered but not realize it. Most states allow you to access your voter status online. The Voter Participation Center provides links to every Secretary of State office in the country. Get in touch with them to determine what your registration status is if you’re unaware.

2) Register online You should beable to register online in 31 states plus the District of Columbia. Start here to see what your state’s rules are and when the registration deadlines are. Some states allow you to register the day of voting, but many states have a deadline that’s a week or two or more in advance of the election. Online registration should only take you 2 minutes.

3) Register in person at the department of motor vehicles, state or local voter registration or election offices, and at armed services recruitment centers.

4) Register by mail. You can download a national mail voter registration form here, fill it out, print it out, sign it and mail it to the location lister for your state. The form is available in English as well as many other languages.

5) Know what documentation you need to register in your state. You mayneed to show a driver’s license or state ID card. Requirements differ from state to state so be familiar with your own state’s demands.

6) Be sure you’re eligible. To vote in a federal election in the U.S., no matter which state you live in, you must be a U.S. citizen. You must meet your state’s residency requirements, and you must be 18-years-old by the time of the general election. Some states allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries or register if they will be 18 by the time of the generation election. Check with your secretary of state if you have any questions.

Once you register, know when and where you should vote.

Primary elections often take place in a different location than general elections. Early voting, which transpires in many states, can take place somewhere different from the general election locale. Know when the primary and general election dates are and where polling places have been set up.

At RocktheVote.com, you can both register to vote and sign up to receive timely election reminders and the address of your polling place location. If you register for a political party, the party will probably send you a sample ballot that also tells you where to vote and on what days.

To avoid long lines on election day, take advantage of early voting or vote by mail.

The political process can be very frustrating, but voting for candidates that best represent your view gives you a direct way to change the process for the better.

If you’re not yet registered to vote, register during Earth Week. If you have friends and acquaintances that aren’t registered, help them get the job done. And if you have time to volunteer, work with non-profit organizations who are committed to making sure concerned citizens register and vote. On election day, the only thing that matters is voter turn out!

Related:

5 Ways You Can Celebrate National Voter Registration Day
Moving? Don’t Forget to Update Your Voter Registration Record

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Earth Week Daily Action: Register to Vote

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Earth Week Daily Action: Go Paperless

by MaureenMahler Posted on April 20, 2016

Paper is the bane of the planet’s existence. Mine, too.

Paper is pretty cheap in the scheme of things, so most people don’t think twice about how they use it. But every aspect of producing paper takes a significant environmental toll:

* Forests may be clear cut for the pulp used to make paper fibers.

* Water is polluted when the fibers are bleached and washed.

* A variety of toxic chemicals, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide are emitted by paper plants, polluting the air.

* Burning energy to power paper processing operations creates more air and water pollution and contributes to climate change.

* Throwing away paper adds to the huge piles of waste and trash we’re already trying to contend with.

The numbers back up these statements. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, discarded paper accounts for about 35 percent by weight of municipal solid waste (before recycling).

Pulp and paper are the third largest industrial polluters of air, water and land both in Canada and the U.S., says Environment Canada. Over 6.5 million trees were cut down to make 16 billion paper cups used by U.S. consumers only for coffee in 2006, using 4 billion U.S. gallons of water and generating 253 million pounds of waste.

Paper in all its forms is the biggest source of trash and clutter in my home. Unwanted junk mail piles up. Paper wrapping when I get a package. Food and consumer goods packaging when I shop. Receipts. Even though I’ve sworn to live paper-free, it’s almost impossible to do.

Still, I have cut down my paper use significantly. One day during Earth Week, turn your attention to getting rid of as much new paper coming into your home as you can.

Here’s How

* Cancel newspaper and magazine subscriptions and read online: I reduced my overall paper consumption probably by 20 pounds a weekan entire recycling bin’s worthwhen I started reading publications online. It saved me a lot of hassle, too, since dragging a recycling bin full of paper down to the street could be quite a chore. If you love reading the Sunday news on paper, make an exception for that one day’s delivery. Otherwise, go digital.

* Pay bills online: Most companies prefer to bill their customers digitally, since it saves them money and resources, too. Another advantage of online bill paying is that you can tie it directly to your checking account. You’ll see exactly how much money you have in your account before you pay each bill, which will reduce the likelihood that you’ll overdraw the account. Many businesses will offer a bonuslike increased airline miles, so some cash back transactionswhen you make the switch.

* Get off junk mail lists: Drop by this earlier post I wrote about “best ways to stop junk mail and control catalog clutter.” It offers everything you need to know to stop the onslaught of unwanted paper from coming to your mail box.

* Refuse receipts: Do you really need a receipt when you buy your groceries or get a tube of toothpaste from the drug store? Probably not. I’ve stopped accepting receipts when I shop unless it’s for a durable good, clothing or some other item I might want to return. This has been a great way to reduce paper clutter not just in my home, but in my purse, as well. Some stores and many banks now let you elect to have an electronic receipt sent to your email address if you really need the record of what you’ve bought.

* Share documents electronically: Minimize what you need to share with others by filing and emailing digital documents rather than creating paper ones.

* Use mobile apps and email to recordtickets, purchases, and appointments: There’s no need to print out a paper version of a ticket when you can pull it up on your phone.

* Use your own reusable carry out containers: Going to your favorite restaurant, or even the fast food joint up the street? Take your own reusable containersso you won’t need their wrapping and packing.

* Switch to a reusable grocery bag: You’ll have no need for throwaway, single-use bags when you use your own reusable cloth one.

* Take a reusable mug when you get coffee: You’ll avoid the throwaway paper cup, the lid and the cardboard sleeve that protects your hand from the hot cup.

Need More Suggestions? See These Related Posts on Care2:

4 Eco-Friendly Ways to Manage Your Money
11 Ways to Reduce Your Garbage
25 Ways to Reduce Food Waste

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Earth Week Daily Action: Go Paperless

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Could a Typo Help Save the Planet?

by HubertElzy2 Posted on April 18, 2016

Mother Jones

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This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The United States and China are leading a push to bring the Paris climate accord into force much faster than even the most optimistic projections—aided by a typographical glitch in the text of the agreement.

More than 150 governments, including 40 heads of state, are expected at a symbolic signing ceremony for the agreement at the United Nations on April 22, which is Earth Day.

It’s the largest one-day signing of any international agreement, according to the UN.

But leaders will really be looking to see which countries go beyond mere ceremony and legally join the agreement, which would bind them to the promises made in Paris last December to keep warming below the agreed target of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

So far, the US, China, Canada and a host of other countries have promised to join this year—boosting the hopes of bringing the Paris deal into force before the initial target date of 2020—possibly as early as 2016 or 2017, according to officials and analysts.

That is well before the timeline originally envisaged at Paris. Environment ministers attending the World Bank spring meetings this week said the faster pace indicated serious commitment to dealing with the global challenge.

The accelerated timeline would have one obvious advantage for Barack Obama. The standard withdrawal clause on any such agreement would force a future Republican president to wait four years before quitting Paris, according to legal experts.

An earlier start date could also turbo-charge the agreement, providing momentum for deeper emissions cuts.

It could also help efforts to attain the more ambitious goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C (2 degrees F)—which would give a better chance of survival to small islands and other countries on the front lines of climate change.

Christiana Figueres, who heads the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, has said global emissions need to peak by 2020 to have any chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C. There has already been about 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F) of warming above pre-industrial levels.

“Early entry into force—we are very committed to making that happen,” Catherine McKenna, Canada’s environment and climate change minister, told a panel at the World Bank last week. “We can’t just now rest on our laurels and have a nice signing on Earth Day, and then we all go home.”

She told the Guardian Canada was committed to signing the agreement this year.

The push to bring the climate agreement into force quickly is in sharp contrast to the earlier international efforts to fight climate change through the Kyoto Protocol, which did not take effect for four years.

Eliza Northrop, an analyst at the World Resources Institute, said there was growing momentum behind an early approval of the agreement.

“It’s likely it could come into effect in 2017. It could even happen this year,” she said.

Governments at the Paris climate meeting had initially set the start date of the agreement in 2020—with intense discussion over whether that start date should be at the start or end of the year, according to diplomats.

The 2020 date remained in the negotiating drafts almost until the very end, the diplomats said. But unaccountably the final draft prepared by France left out the entire clause. By that point, after a few late-night negotiating sessions, a number of countries did not notice the omission.

The agreement, the first time all countries agreed to emissions cuts and other actions to fight climate change, aims to limit warming to below 2 degrees C and move towards a zero-carbon economy by the end of the century.

But it’s a tall order. The agreement needs to be approved by 55 countries accounting for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions to come into force.

The US and China committed to join the agreement this year—but that still leaves a gap of more than 15 percent of global emissions.

A number of countries, including India and Japan, require their parliaments to approve the Paris agreement—a process which could take time.

The European Union will need agreement from its 28 member states before it can join the agreement—which makes it highly unlikely to be in a position to join early on.

“The assumption is that you have to do this without the EU to get to that 55 percent hurdle, if you want to see that in the next year or so,” said Alden Meyer, strategy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

That will force governments to cobble together a coalition of smaller countries if they hope to reach the 55 percent emissions threshold.

Possible contenders include India, Mexico, the Philippines, and Australia.

So far, about 10 countries have said they would join the agreement this year.

On Wednesday, Román Macaya, Costa Rica’s ambassador to Washington, said his country would join the agreement in 2016. Palau, Switzerland, Fiji, and the Marshall Islands have also said they will approve the agreement this year.

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Could a Typo Help Save the Planet?

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