Want to Be the Change? Here’s How

Paul Smith — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:46:10 +0000

These days there is an increasing amount of people who care about the health of the planet, their community, their family, themselves. Where they come from is also increasing in breadth, now including people far beyond the usual suspects, even from 5 years ago. You don’t have to be a Greenpeace activist chaining yourself to ships to make an impact these days. In fact, it seems there’s an overwhelming amount of options, big and small, to make a positive impact. It’s enough to leave anybody dumbfounded as to what to do.

Along comes Be The Change, an environmental leadership program from Silicon Valley based Acterra. They sum it up best when they say:

The program emphasizes building skills that enable people to act within the organizations where they work, live, worship and play to bring about significant changes in how they relate to the natural world.

Awesome.

Odds on Earth

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:51:39 +0000

The recent news that Lake Mead has a 50-50 chance of going dry in the next 13 years was scary enough, but there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of ominous Earth news these days. Based on recent research, here are some of the odds we’re facing:

Amount of coral reefs that will be in ocean waters too acidic for them to survive by 2050: 98 percent

Increase in number of days with conditions favorable for severe storms by 2100: 100 percent

Odds that inland regions of Australia could see temperature increases of more than 4 degrees Centigrade if carbon dioxide emissions remain high: 20 to 50 percent

Number of additional people at risk of hunger due to climate change by 2050: 132 million

Amount by which wheat production in Bangladesh might decrease by 2050 due to climate change: one third

Amount of Asian biodiversity at risk because of climate change: half

Chance that the Atlantic Ocean’s “conveyor belt” that keeps weather mild in Europe could shut down sometime this century if no changes are made to climate policy: 45 percent

Chance that the Atlantic Ocean’s “conveyor belt” that keeps weather mild in Europe could shut down over the next 200 years if no changes are made to climate policy: 70 percent

Green Options » acterra

Want to Be the Change? Here’s How

Odds on Earth