Tag Archives: Global

Trump and his key advisors stand to profit from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

On Monday at COP22, leaders of 7,100 cities in 119 countries announced progress on locally-driven emissions reductions is already underway.

Launched as the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, the group will formalize city-focused climate action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Local leaders committed to slash emissions by 27 percent by 2020 — higher than some national cuts promised in the Paris Agreement. An analysis from the European Commission shows a smaller group of 6,201 cities had already achieved reductions of 23 percent by September.

The coalition already represents 600 million people, or 8 percent of the global population. According to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, over 66 percent of people will live in cities by 2050, with the most urban growth occurring in developing countries.

Think of the cooperative as a mini-COP agreement of sorts, with cities accountable for establishing, measuring, and achieving climate goals.

“We need the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy to empower cities to take bolder steps in this fight, to challenge other cities to do the same, and to ensure that leaders from around the world recognize the significance of cities,” said Maroš Šefčovič, vice president of the European Commission, in a press release.

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Trump and his key advisors stand to profit from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

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Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a carbon tax on American-made goods if Trump pulls out of climate accord.

On Monday at COP22, leaders of 7,100 cities in 119 countries announced progress on locally-driven emissions reductions is already underway.

Launched as the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, the group will formalize city-focused climate action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Local leaders committed to slash emissions by 27 percent by 2020 — higher than some national cuts promised in the Paris Agreement. An analysis from the European Commission shows a smaller group of 6,201 cities had already achieved reductions of 23 percent by September.

The coalition already represents 600 million people, or 8 percent of the global population. According to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, over 66 percent of people will live in cities by 2050, with the most urban growth occurring in developing countries.

Think of the cooperative as a mini-COP agreement of sorts, with cities accountable for establishing, measuring, and achieving climate goals.

“We need the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy to empower cities to take bolder steps in this fight, to challenge other cities to do the same, and to ensure that leaders from around the world recognize the significance of cities,” said Maroš Šefčovič, vice president of the European Commission, in a press release.

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Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a carbon tax on American-made goods if Trump pulls out of climate accord.

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Why We Should All Live in Earthships

Over the years, as I’ve become more and more in touch with the ways of green and natural living, I’ve started to become more aware of the things in my home that aren’t quite what they could be. We rent now for a variety of reasons, but one reason I’m grateful for that is because we’ll have the opportunity to build the house of our dreams when we’re ready.

Researching the best ways to build that dream home is something I’ve developed quite a passion for. During my research, I stumbled upon a concept that I find pretty fascinating: Earthships.

No, I’m not planning to blast off the earth in a ship. But I am planning to build a home that has everything we need to live sustainably on earth, and you can live in a sustainable Earthship, too.

If you haven’t yet heard of Earthships, you’ll likely find them just as fascinating as I do if you care deeply about our planet. Here are some of the main features that make a home a sustainable Earthship.

Use of totally natural and/or recycled materials

A focus on the use of local materials is of great importance in the construction of an Earthship. The focus is on sustainability and accessibility of materials.

The most common materials that create the outer walls of an Earthship are old, recycled tires stuffed with earth. Then those tires are covered in mud. Recycled glass bottles and cans can be used to make more colorful and unique interior, non-weight-bearing walls.

The use of these materials has a variety of benefits. They are more durable and resilient than traditional building materials like wood. They hold up better in earthquakes and they don’t rot or become susceptible to termites over time.

Little to no need for heating or cooling systems

Did you know that our planet is capable of delivering temperature stability without the need for pipes or wires? The sun is basically a nuclear power plant and the planet is a thermally stabilizing mass.

The materials used to build Earthships take advantage of the natural properties of earth to maintain comfortable temperatures in nearly all climates. Depending upon the climate in your region, you can adjust the design of your Earthship to accommodate your heating and cooling needs naturally.

Total power autonomy

The design of Earthships allows them to survive off the power grid (or it can be tied in, depending upon your needs). They are designed to produce their own electricity by using solar power and/or wind power.

The energy is collected and then stored in giant batteries, which in turn routes electricity into your home. You can have all the comforts of a modern home in an Earthship with the right design.

This Earthship is in Taos, New Mexico. Photo credit: Sue Stokes / Shutterstock.com

Sustainable, optimized water collection and use

While Earthships can have city water run to them, it’s not always necessary. Earthships are designed to collect water when it rains and snows.

That water is then used four times. The first time it’s used to bathe or wash dishes. It’s then cleaned and used to water indoor gardens. It’s then filtered again and used to flush toilets. Finally, it’s treated and used to water outdoor gardens.

Nothing goes to waste in the water use design, and the groundwater is never polluted, either.

Increased food independence

As mentioned above, Earthships are typically designed to have indoor and outdoor gardens. Because of the design of the water collection and use system, gardens can be watered using water filtered after other household uses.

You can grow pretty much any fruit or vegetable you want in your Earthship with the right plan. See the chart at the bottom of this page for more details on choosing plants for your Earthship.

Completely contained sewage treatment system

We discussed gray water being used to flush toilets after it has watered the indoor gardens. This gray water does not smell and is much more eco-friendly than using fresh water in your toilets.

In addition, once the gray water has been used to flush the toilets, it’s treated and ready to feed your outdoor garden. Don’t worry, the systems are designed to then flow to a conventional leach field, so there’s no worry about the treated water polluting aquifers. It’s really a well-thought-out design!

Examples of Earthships to inspire your design

This Earthship was created from bottles, tires and concrete. Photo credit: IrinaK / Shutterstock.com

Now that you know the general makings of an Earthship, let’s look at a few of the more popular designs. Earthships can come in all shapes and sizes!

If you’re not an architect, and you don’t want to hire one who’s well versed in Earthships, then your best bet is to go with the Global Model. It’s the most tested and built model to date, so you know it’s a good plan to go by. It’ll cost you about $230 per square foot to build the Global Model.

If that’s a bit rich for your blood (even though you’ll be able to rid yourself of most monthly household expenses) and you just want to get off the grid, then you’ll want to look at a Simple Survival design. You won’t get all the bells and whistles you can pack into the Global Model, but you will get what you need to survive.

Yet another option is to go with a Packaged Model. This design has some pre-fabricated components, so you don’t get as much flexibility in the design. However, you can lean on the expertise of the Earthship Biotecture to consult with you or even build your Earthship for you.

EcoWatch put together a stunning collection of Earthship photos you have to check out! It’s amazing how many different ways there are to style an Earthship.

Buy an already-built Earthship

Recycled tires make up a decorative element on one Earthship. Photo credit: Kangwan Nirach / Shutterstock.com

Want to live in an Earthship without needing to design and build your own? There are plenty of Earthships for sale around the country. There are also Earthship Villages where you can live near other like-minded people who care about the earth as much as you do.

Would you consider living in an Earthship? Why or why not?

Featured image courtesy of IrinaK / Shutterstock.com

About
Latest Posts

Chrystal Johnson

Chrystal Johnson, publisher of

Happy Mothering

, founder of

Green Moms Media

and essential oil fanatic, is a mother of two sweet girls who believes in living a simple, natural lifestyle. A former corporate marketing communication manager, Chrystal spends her time researching green and eco-friendly alternatives to improve her family’s life.

Latest posts by Chrystal Johnson (see all)

Why We Should All Live in Earthships – November 2, 2016
Fun (Really!) Alternatives to Halloween Candy – October 26, 2016
6 Inspiring Ways to Reuse Flower Arrangements – October 11, 2016

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Why We Should All Live in Earthships

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Congress pledges billions to the world’s small farmers

Congress pledges billions to the world’s small farmers

By on Jul 7, 2016 4:23 pmShare

Everyone in my Twitter feed has been yelling about the GMO-labeling bill that passed the Senate on Wednesday, but few people noticed the much more important bill that passed almost simultaneously. That bill, the Global Food Security Act, provides more than $1 billion a year to support small farmers in developing countries. In a time when Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on nothing, the measure passed the Senate unanimously — and now needs President Obama’s signature to become law.

It’s surprising enough that members of Congress agreed to anything, and more surprising still that they agreed on something truly important. Some 70 percent of the people living in extreme poverty around the world are farmers. With simple tools and training, which this bill finances, those farmers can dramatically increase their harvests and their quality of life. They can send their children to school instead of the fields while growing more food on less land. In fact, helping small farmers is perhaps the most important way we can curb environmental damage.

At the G8 summit in 2009, Obama committed to fight poverty by helping farmers. He followed through later that year with his Feed the Future program, and it’s already delivering results. Susan Rice, the former U.N. ambassador and Obama’s National Security Advisor, highlighted some of them: The program has increased the incomes of small farmers by “more than $800 million” and helped feed 18 million children, according to her calculations.

Now, Congress has formalized that program into law and funded it through 2018. It’s heartening to see Congress pass this with overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans. “The fact that the Senate passed the legislation without opposition and that the House legislation was cosponsored by nearly one in three members … shows that Congress understands the economic and national security importance of prioritizing global food security,” said Doug Bereuter, a former U.S. Representative at the Chicago Council, a nonpartisan think tank, in a statement.

It’s also heartening to see lawmakers pay attention to people in other countries and act so decisively to help them. Finally, it shows that it’s possible to take commitments made at gatherings of global leaders and turn them into binding laws. Keep your head up, Paris climate agreement!

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Congress pledges billions to the world’s small farmers

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Antarctica’s CO2 Levels Are Now the Highest in 4 Million Years

Mother Jones

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Oof. We just passed yet another climate change milestone, and it’s a particularly troubling one. Carbon dioxide levels in Antarctica recently hit 400 parts per million, according to an announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday. It’s the first time in 4 million years that the region has reached such levels.

Carbon dioxide—a heat-trapping gas produced by burning fossil fuels—is the primary driver of global warming. Carbon dioxide levels have been on the rise all over the world, but because Antarctica is so remote, the pollutant has accumulated more slowly there. Antarctic CO2 concentrations first surpassed the 400 ppm mark on May 23, according to measurements taken at the South Pole Observatory.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

“The far southern hemisphere was the last place on earth where CO2 had not yet reached this mark,” Pieter Tans, the lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, said in a statement. “Global CO2 levels will not return to values below 400 ppm in our lifetimes, and almost certainly for much longer.”

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Antarctica’s CO2 Levels Are Now the Highest in 4 Million Years

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Even the world’s largest food company knows the American diet is an environmental catastrophe

Even the world’s largest food company knows the American diet is an environmental catastrophe

By on Apr 30, 2016 7:00 amShare

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

If the rest of the world ate like Americans, the planet would have run out of freshwater 15 years ago, according to the world’s largest food company.

In private, Nestle executives told U.S. officials that the world is on a collision course with doom because Americans eat too much meat, and now, other countries are following suit, according to a secret U.S. report titled “Tour D’Horizon with Nestle: Forget the Global Financial Crisis, the World Is Running Out of Fresh Water.”

Producing a pound of meat requires a tremendous amount of water because farmers use tons of crops such as corn and soy to feed each animal, which require tens of thousands of gallons of water to grow. It is far more efficient when people eat the corn or soy directly.

The planet is a on a “potentially catastrophic” course as billions of people in countries such as India and China begin eating more beef, chicken, and pork like their counterparts in Western countries, according to the 2009 report released by WikiLeaks and first reported by Reveal at The Center for Investigative Reporting in a cache of water-related classified documents. The Chinese now eat about half as much meat as Americans, Australians, and Europeans, a figure that continues to rapidly rise as more Chinese are lifted out of poverty and into the middle class.

And Nestle — which makes Gerber baby food, Nescafe, Hot Pockets, DiGiorno pizza, Lean Cuisine, Stouffer’s, Nestea, Dreyer’s, and Haagen-Dazs ice cream — is deeply concerned.

Here are some of the takeaways, with key quotes from the secret report:

Global water shortages are just around the corner.

“Nestle thinks one-third of the world’s population will be affected by fresh water scarcity by 2025, with the situation only becoming more dire thereafter and potentially catastrophic by 2050.”

Major regions, including in the United States, are being drained of their underground aquifers.

“Problems with be severest in the Middle East, northern India, northern China, and the western United States.”

Excessive meat-eating is driving water depletion.

“Nestle starts by pointing out that a calorie of meat requires 10 times as much water to produce as a calorie of food crops. As the world’s growing middle classes eat more meat, the earth’s water resources will be dangerously squeezed.”

There’s plenty of water to feed everyone a diet that’s not so meatcentric.

“Nestle reckons that the earth’s maximum sustainable freshwater withdrawals are about 12,500 cubic kilometers per year. In 2008, global freshwater withdrawals reached 6,000 cubic kilometers, or almost half of the potentially available supply. This was sufficient to provide an average 2,500 calories per day to the world’s 6.7 billion people, with little per capita meat consumption.”

The American diet is eating the world dry.

“The current U.S. diet provides about 3600 calories per day with substantial meat consumption. If the whole world were to move to this standard, global fresh water resources would be exhausted at a population level of 6 billion, which the world reached in the year 2000.”

This is an even bigger problem now that other countries are eating like America and the global population’s set to grow by 2 billion by 2050.

“There is not nearly enough fresh water available to provide this standard to a global population expected to exceed 9 billion by mid-century.”

So what’s Nestle’s prediction for the future? Think “Mad Max” …

“It is clear that current developed country meat-based diets and patterns of water usage do not provide a blueprint for the planet’s future. Based on present trends, Nestle believes that the world will face a cereals shortfall of as much as 30 percent by 2025. [Nestle] stated it will take a combination of strategies to avert a crisis.”

Why is this the first time you’re hearing this from the world’s largest food company?

“Sensitive to its public image, Nestle has maintained a low profile in discussing solutions and tries not to preach … the firm scrupulously avoids confrontation and polemics, preferring to influence its audience discretely by example.”

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Even the world’s largest food company knows the American diet is an environmental catastrophe

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You can wave goodbye to this global warming goal

You can wave goodbye to this global warming goal

By on Apr 20, 2016comments

Cross-posted from

Climate CentralShare

Global leaders are meeting in New York this week to sign the Paris climate agreement. One of the expressed purposes of the document is to limit warming to “well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C.”

A Climate Central analysis shows that the world will have to dramatically accelerate emissions reductions if it wants to meet that goal. The average global temperature change for the first three months of 2016 was 1.48 degrees C, essentially equaling the 1.5 degrees C warming threshold agreed to by COP 21 negotiators in Paris last December.

February exceeded the 1.5 degrees C target at 1.55 degrees C, marking the first time the global average temperature has surpassed the sobering milestone in any month. March followed suit checking in at 1.5 degrees C. January’s mark of 1.4 degrees C, put the global average temperature change from early industrial levels for the first three months of 2016 at 1.48 degrees C.

Climate Central

Climate Central scientists and statisticians made these calculations based on an average of global temperature data reported by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But rather than using the baselines those agencies employ, Climate Central compared 2016’s temperature anomalies to an 1881-1910 average temperature baseline, the earliest date for which global temperature data are considered reliable. NASA reports global temperature change in reference to a 1951-1980 climate baseline, and NOAA reports the anomaly in reference to a 20th century average temperature.

NASA’s data alone showed a February temperature anomaly of 1.63 degrees C above early industrial levels with March at 1.54 degrees C.

Calculating a baseline closer to the pre-industrial era provides a useful measure of global temperature for policymakers and the public to better track how successful the world’s efforts are in keeping global warming below agreed-upon thresholds.

A similar adjustment can be applied to some of the temperature change projections in the most recent IPCC report.

The IPCC AR5 Working Group 1 Report contains projections of future global surface temperature change according to several scenarios of future socio-economic development, most of which are presented using a baseline of 1986 to 2005. The IPCC chose this baseline in order to provide its readers a more immediate base of comparison, the climate of the present world, which people are familiar with. But these representations may suggest that the Paris goals are easier to reach than is true.

The IPCC’s presentation of these scenarios was not designed to inform the discussion about warming limits (e.g., 1.5 degrees C, 2 degrees C goals of the Paris COP21 agreements). But the Panel does provide a way to make its projections of future warming consistent with discussions about targets.

IPCC estimates, using the best and longest record available, show that the difference between the 1986-2005 global average temperature value used in most of the Panel’s projections, and pre-industrial global average temperature, is 0.61 degrees C (0.55-0.67). Neglecting 0.61 degrees C warming is not trivial, and makes a significant difference for the assessment of the goals established in Paris. In fact, 0.61 degrees C amounts to about half the warming already experienced thus far.

To capture this warming and display the IPCC warming time series relative to the pre-industrial period, Climate Central adjusted a well known IPCC projection (SPM7(a)) to reflect a 1880-1910 baseline. This adjustment has a significant effect on the dates at which the 1.5 and 2 degrees C thresholds are crossed, moving them up by about 15-20 years.

If current emissions trends continue (RCP8.5) we could cross the 1.5 degrees C threshold in 10 to 15 years, somewhere between the years 2025-2030, compared to 2045-2050 when a 1985-2005 baseline is used.

The dramatic global hot streak that kicked off 2016 doesn’t mean the world has already failed to meet the goals in the Paris agreement. Three months do not make a year, and it is unlikely that 2016 will exceed the 1881-1910 climate-normal by 1.5 degrees C. This year is also in the wake of a strong El Niño, when higher-than-average temperatures would be expected.

And of course, exceeding the 1.5 degrees C threshold for even an entire year would not mean that global temperatures had in fact risen to that point, never (at least within our lifetime) to drop back below it as it’s too short of a time frame to make that determination.

But the hot start for 2016 is a notable symbolic milestone. The day the world first crossed the 400 parts per million (ppm) threshold for atmospheric carbon dioxide heralded a future of ever increasing carbon dioxide. So too, do the first three months of 2016 send a clear signal of where our world is headed and how fast we are headed there if drastic actions to reduce carbon emissions are not taken immediately.

Background

On Dec. 12, 2015, the 21st Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change approved the Paris Agreement committing 195 nations of the world to “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C.” The pact commits the world to adopt nationally determined policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions in accord with those goals.

The 2 degrees C goal represents a temperature increase from a pre-industrial baseline that scientists believe will maintain the relatively stable climate conditions that humans and other species have adapted to over the previous 12,000 years. It will also minimize some of the worst impacts of climate change: drought, heat waves, heavy rain and flooding, and sea-level rise. Limiting the global surface temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C would lessen these impacts even further.

1.5 and 2 degrees C are not hard and fast limits beyond which disaster is imminent, but they are now the milestones by which the world measures all progress toward slowing global warming. And yet it is surprisingly difficult to find objective measures that answer the question, where are we today on the path toward meeting the 1.5 or 2 degrees C goals?

Every month NOAA and NASA update their global surface temperature change analysis, using data from the Global Historical Climate Network, and methods validated in the peer-reviewed literature (Hansen et al. 2010; NCDC). The monthly updates are posted on their websites, and made available to the public along with the underlying data and assumptions that go into their calculations.

These calculations are enormously useful for understanding the magnitude and pace of global warming. In fact, they are the bedrock measurements validating the fact that our planet is warming at all.

But none present their results in comparison to a pre-industrial climate normal.

Methods and Results

The NASA and NOAA monthly updates are presented as anomalies, or as the deviation from a baseline climate normal, calculated as an average of a 30-year reference period, or the 20th century average; they do not represent an absolute temperature increase from a specific date. NASA presents their results in reference to a 1951 to 1980 average temperature, NOAA in reference to a 20th century average temperature.

The NASA results, calculated by Goddard Institute for Space Studies, are published monthly on the NASA/GISS website (GISTEMP). NOAA methods and monthly updates are published via the National Centers for Environmental Information here.

Climate Central used data from NASA and NOAA to create an 1881 to 1910 climate normal for the months of January, February, and March. We then compared the reported monthly 2016 anomaly for each of these months to this “early-industrial” baseline reference period.  These anomalies were then averaged to produce a mean monthly NASA/NOAA anomaly for each month. The results are presented below.

The NASA anomaly is considerably higher than the anomaly reported by NOAA. This reflects the fact the NASA’s calculations are tuned to account for temperature changes at the poles, where there are far fewer monitoring stations. NOAA relies only on historical station data and makes no adjustment to account for sparse records at the poles, where warming has been more rapid relative to non-polar regions.

Climate Central

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You can wave goodbye to this global warming goal

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That cheap dress on Facebook is a scam for your wallet and the planet

That cheap dress on Facebook is a scam for your wallet and the planet

By on 6 Apr 2016commentsShare

Cheap fashion has hit a new low.

We already know that getting that flimsy asymmetrical tunic to your closet comes at a heavier cost to water, CO2, and human rights than its price tag reflects. But now, when you order some cheap clothing online, you might be sent a different item than the one you thought you paid for.

A recent Buzzfeed exposé details the scam: Chinese-based retailers snatch images from the web and use them to market women’s clothing on Facebook, advertising dirt cheap prices. Then, after a poor, unwitting soul orders one of these items, the company ships them something that only vaguely resembles the product in the image:

Rosewholesale Scam/Facebook

For obvious reasons, we’re guessing the person who ordered this chic gray frock was not pleased to be sent a mauve trash bag with sleeves instead.

Buzzfeed points out that this ruse — perpetrated by a host of clothing companies that go by names like Zaful, RoseGal, and DressLily — has churned up tens of thousands of complaints over the past year. According to Buzzfeed analysis, at least eight of these companies are affiliated with a single Chinese clothing company, ShenZhen Global Egrow E-Commerce Co., which made more than $200 million in sales in 2014 and is chaired by multi-millionaire Yang Jianxin.

As always, be careful on Facebook, folks. This scam is a cruel trick, but then again, the whole fast fashion industry is playing a cruel trick on us — and the planet. Watch us explain why:

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That cheap dress on Facebook is a scam for your wallet and the planet

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Map: 116 environmental activists were killed in just one year

Map: 116 environmental activists were killed in just one year

By on 4 Mar 2016commentsShare

The death of Honduran environmental and human rights activist Berta Cáceres this week is an unspeakable tragedy — but it’s not unique. In fact, environmentalists have historically been targeted for their actions, and for speaking out about environmental injustice.

Last April, a report found that in 2014, at least 116 environmental activists were murdered. Of these, the largest percentages were protesting the activities of hydropower, mining, and agribusiness companies. Global Witness compiled the killings into a map by country, giving a startling picture of the dangers facing environmentalists around the world:

Global Witness noted in a statement that many of the murders catalogued “occurred in remote villages or deep within the jungle, where communities lack access to communications and the media.”

Like Cáceres, who was cofounder of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras, 40 percent of the victims were from indigenous communities. Also like Cáceres, who was fighting a grassroots campaign against proposed hydroelectric dams on land belonging to indigenous people, many of them were battling for the right to keep the land that already belonged to their people.

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Map: 116 environmental activists were killed in just one year

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2015 Was by Far the Hottest Year on Record

Global warming is real. Scientific Visualization Studio/Goddard Space Flight Center 2015 was almost certainly the hottest year since we began keeping records, according to data released today by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In a press release Wednesday, NASA stated that it was 94 percent confident that last year was the warmest since 1880. Here’s a chart from NOAA: NOAA/NASA “Record warmth was spread throughout the world,” said Thomas Karl, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. “Ten of 12 months were records. That’s the first time we’ve seen that.” NASA/NOAA Shattered global temperature records are becoming increasingly commonplace, thanks to climate change; with today’s announcement, all five of the hottest years on record have occurred in the last decade. But the amount by which 2015 shattered the previous record, in 2014, was itself a record, scientists said. That’s due in part to this year’s El Niño, characterized by exceptionally high temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. NASA/NOAA But Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said the effects of El Niño only really appeared in the last few months of the year, and that 2015 likely would have been a record year regardless. “2015 was warm right from the beginning; it didn’t start with El Niño,” he said. “The reason this is such a record is because of the long-term trend, and there is no evidence that trend has slowed or paused over the last two decades.” NASA/NOAA Schmidt added that El Niño is likely to persist into 2016, which means we could be in for a record-breaking year yet again. Credit:   2015 Was by Far the Hottest Year on Record ; ; ;

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2015 Was by Far the Hottest Year on Record

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