News Feeds | ecology.iww.org (2024)

Protect Thacker Pass - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thacker Pass Protectors File First-Ever “Biodiversity Necessity Defense” in Nevada CourtAlso pursuing “Climate Necessity Defense” and making allegations that mining company has violated their rights. Attorney: “They’re not criminals; they’re heroes.”

WINNEMUCCA, NV — In a first for the American legal system, the lawyers for six people sued by Lithium Nevada Corporation for protesting the Thacker Pass mine are arguing a ‘biodiversity necessity defense.’

The necessity defense is a legal argument used to justify breaking the law when a greater harm is being prevented; for example, breaking a car window to save an infant locked inside on a stifling hot day, or breaking down a door to help someone screaming inside a locked home. In these cases, trespassing is justified to save a life.

This week’s filing states that “Defendants possessed an actual belief that their acts of protest were necessary to prevent the present, continuing harms and evils of ecocide and irreversible climate change.”

“We’re in the midst of the 6th mass extinction of life on Earth, and it’s being caused by human activities like mining,” said attorney Terry Lodge, who is representing the protesters. “Our lives are made possible by biodiversity and ecosystems. Protecting our children from pollution and biodiversity collapse isn’t criminal, it’s heroic.”

Currently Earth is experiencing one of the most rapid and widespread extinction events in the planet’s 4-billion-year history.

Biologists report that habitat destruction, like the bulldozing of nearly 6,000 acres of biodiverse sagebrush steppe for the Thacker Pass mine, is the main cause of this “6th Mass Extinction.”

Permitting documents for the Thacker Pass mine show the project will harm or kill pronghorn antelope, golden eagles, mule deer, migratory birds, burrowing owls, bobcats, roughly a dozen bat species, various rare plants, and hundreds of other species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently being sued by environmental groups in an attempt to secure protection for a rare snail species who lives in Thacker Pass and who are threatened with extinction.

“Our ancestors fought and died for the land at Peehee Mu’huh,” says Dean Barlese, an elder and spiritual leader from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe who is one of the defendants in the case. “We’ve acted for the coming generations to protect Mother Earth.”

In their court filing earlier this week, Lodge and the other attorneys working on the case made several additional legal arguments, including invoking the doctrine ‘unclean hands,’ asserting that Lithium Nevada Corporation has “engaged in serious misconduct including violating the Defendants’ human rights, Defendants’ civil rights, misleading the public about the impacts of lithium mining and how lithium mining contributes to climate change and biodiversity collapse, and conducting the inherently dangerous and ecologically-destructive practice of surface mining at the Thacker Pass mine”.

They’re also arguing the “climate necessity defense,” reasoning that by attempting to stop a major mine that will produce significant greenhouse gas emissions, the protesters were acting to reduce emissions and stop a bigger harm: climate change.

According to permitting documents, the Thacker Pass lithium mine is expected to produce more than 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, roughly equivalent to the emissions of a small city and amounting to 2.3 tons of carbon for every ton of lithium that will be produced.

This legal strategy has been used by many fossil fuel protesters around the world for roughly a decade (and has been successful in a few cases), but this is the first time the same argument has been applied to a ‘green technology’ minerals mining project.

“Lithium Nevada, a mining corporation benefiting from the violence used to conquer Native peoples, is trying to bully peaceful protestors opposing the destruction of that massacre site,” said Will Falk, an attorney and one of the defendants in the case.

“People need to understand that lithium mining companies—like coal or gold mining companies—use racist and violent tactics to intimidate opposition.”

“The Indian wars are continuing in 2023, right here,” Barlese says. “America and the corporations who control it should have finished off the ethnic genocide, because we’re still here. My great-great-grandfather fought for this land in the Snake War and we will continue to defend the sacred. Lithium Nevada is a greedy corporation telling green lies.”

Bethany Sam:
“Our people couldn’t return to Thacker Pass for fear of being killed in 1865, and now in 2023 we can’t return or we’ll be arrested. Meanwhile, bulldozers are digging our ancestors graves up. This is what Indigenous peoples continue to endure. That’s why I stood in prayer with our elders leading the way.”

Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu:
“Lithium Nevada is a greedy corporation on the wrong side of history when it comes to environmental racism and desecration of sacred sites. It’s ironic to me that I’m the trespasser because I want to see my ancestral land preserved.”

“It is truly outrageous that we live in a society where our Supreme Court has granted constitutional rights to resource extraction corporations, making their destructive activities fully legal and virtually immune from oversight by We the People. Even their right to sue us is a corporate personhood right,” said defendant Paul Cienfuegos, founding director of Community Rights US.

“Lithium mining for electric vehicles and batteries isn’t green, it’s greenwashing,” says Max Wilbert, co-founder of Protect Thacker Pass and author of the book Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It. “It’s not green, it’s greed. Global warming is a serious problem and we cannot continue burning fossil fuels, but destroying mountains for lithium is just as bad as destroying mountains for coal. You can’t blow up a mountain and call it green.”

Earlier this month, the judge presiding over the case dismissed an “unjust enrichment” charge filed against the protesters, but allowed five other charges to move forward. The case is expected to continue for months.

About the Case

The lawsuit against the protestors was filed in May 2023 following a month of non-violent protests on the site of the Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada. Thacker Pass is known as Peehee Mu’huh in Paiute, and is a sacred site to regional Native American tribes. It’s also habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife.

Analysts say the lawsuit is similar to what is called a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” or SLAPP suit, aimed at shutting down Constitutionally-protected free speech and protest. It aims to ban the water protectors from the area and force them to pay monetary damages.

On September 12th, 1865, federal soldiers murdered at least 31 Paiute men, women, and children in Thacker Pass during “The Snake War.”

This massacre and other culturally important factors have made the Thacker Pass mine extremely controversial in the Native American community. Dozens of tribes have spoken out against the project, and four — the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, Burns Paiute Tribe, and Winnemucca Indian Colony — battled in court to stop the Thacker Pass mine. The National Congress of American Indians has also passed several resolutions opposing the project.

But despite ongoing criticism, lawsuits, and lobbying from tribes as well as environmental groups, ranchers, the Nevada State Historic Preservation Society, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, both Lithium Nevada Corporation and the Bureau of Land Management have refused to stop construction or change any aspect of the Thacker Pass mine.

In February 2023, the Bureau of Land Management recognized Thacker Pass as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as a “Traditional Cultural District,” or a landscape that’s very important to tribes. But the very day before, they issued Lithium Nevada’s final bond, allowing the Canadian multinational to begin full-scale mining operations.

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Categories: B4. Radical Ecology

La Via Campesina : International Peasant Movement - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 04:47

Brasilia, March 19, 2024.

We, the social movements of the rural world, waters, and forests, articulated within La Via Campesina Brazil, gathered in Brasilia from March 17th to 19th, 2024, publicly express our total rejection of the European Union – Mercosur Agreement. The Agreement under discussion represents a setback for Brazil and the Mercosur countries in terms of socio-economic development, as well as a frontal attack on the sovereignty of our countries. There is nothing new in the current terms of the Agreement, which has already been rejected more than 20 years ago. The current text of the Agreement, resumed in 2019, represents the essence of Bolsonaro’s DNA with no commitment to the development of our country.

The Agreement assumes neo-colonial characteristics in its conception and threatens, in its terms, our peoples and territories, posing a danger for peasant agriculture, traditional communities, and delivering our common goods to the interests of international capital, thus consolidating the export-oriented nature of our economy, which is basically to continue exporting raw materials to meet the demands of European countries in exchange for industrialized products. Therefore, we want to publicly denounce to the Brazilian people the risks that the Agreement presents both for peasant family agriculture and for the Brazilian industry, if it is to be signed. We ask that President Lula listen to the clamor of the people of the rural world, waters, and forests and put an end to the ongoing negotiations and make room for the construction of a popular project for national development in Brazil.

The post Brazil: Declaration of La Via Campesina Brazil on the EU-Mercosur Agreement appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Categories: A1. Favorites, A3. Agroecology

Mining.Com - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 03:41

Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST), the owner of Western Australia’s biggest open-pit gold mine, the Super Pit, is seeking approval for a significant expansion for the already massive operation.

The project would add seven years to the Super Pit productive life, keeping it open until 2034. The mine, formally named Fimiston Open pit, is one of the four assets that make up Northern Star’s Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) operations, about 600 km east of Perth.

The proposed expansion includes widening and deepening the current pit, as well as scaling up the Fimiston II tailings storage facility and building a new TSF (Fimiston III).

It also involves clearing of up to 1868 hectares (ha) of which 1,580 ha is native vegetation, the applicationto Western Australia’s environmental authority shows.

In total, Northern Star expects to increase the area of the development to 7,795 hectares, up from the currently approved 5,914 hectares, it said.

There has long been speculation about the fate of the Super Pit, but a few months after acquiring the asset in 2020, Northern Star provided a clear signal that was committed to continue mining until the mid-2030s.

The company, the top publicly traded gold producer in Australia, allocated last year A$1.5 billion ($982 million) to more than double processing capacity to about 27 million tonnes of ore per year by 2029 at its Kalgoorlie operations.

Soaring gold prices have sparked significant activity in the Australian bullion sector. Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) in December agreed to buy an 80% stake in the Northparkes copper-gold mine in New South Wales from Chinese miner CMOC Group. That followed the high profile acquisition of Newcrest by gold giant Newmont (NYSE: NEM) for more than $15 billion.

Last month, Red 5 (ASX: RED) acquired Silver Lake Resources (ASX: SLR) to build a mid-tier gold producer valued at $1.5 billion, and Perseus Mining (ASX, TSX: PRU)is ready to take on OreCorp (ASX: ORR).

Categories: J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

Rocky Mountain Institute - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 03:00

We are in a race against time to clean up centuries of pollution in our atmosphere and rebalance our climate. While carbon dioxide rightly receives attention as the prime warming culprit, another greenhouse gas — methane — wreaks more havoc in a shorter timeframe than CO2.

Methane’s effect on our atmosphere cannot be overstated. If CO₂ pollution wraps one blanket around the earth, methane pollution is like wrapping the earth in over 80 blankets. The good news is that cutting methane emissions now, before it super-heats the planet, results in immediate climate and public health benefits.

But methane has proven a challenge to track consistently. It’s invisible, for one, as well as odorless, pressurized, and leaky. But we know where to spot it. Methane’s biggest human-caused sources are oil and gas, coal mines, waste facilities, and agricultural operations like large animal feedlots. These emissions can be persistent, like a landfill that spews methane for months on end, or highly intermittent, like a gas flare. Plus, emissions can be big and concentrated (like a super-emitter event) or less concentrated and diffused over a big geographic area. In short, they are highly complex and therefore really tough to track and quantify.

So, where to start? The first step is to better monitor these emitting events, and the facilities where they happen. Until recently, this tracking has been intermittent, with methane surveys mostly taking place on the ground with handheld devices. Other strategies, like aerial flyovers, have helped improve transparency but are not up to the task of monitoring the truly planetary scale of methane pollution and in prioritizing actions that can reduce emissions now.

Now, a new generation of nonprofit (NGO) satellite missions is rising to the challenge. With the launch of MethaneSAT in early March by the Environmental Defense Fund, the first by a non-governmental organization (NGO), there are now more than a dozen satellites scanning the Earth to identify key sources of methane and other climate pollutants.

And MethaneSAT is just the first of other NGO satellites to come. RMI is playing a leading role in this quest. Later this year, Carbon Mapper — an NGO spearheading the first-ever public, private, nonprofit coalition — is working with Planet Labs, a satellite developer, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to launch its first hyperspectral satellite which will detect high emissions point sources of methane (and CO2) acting like a zoom lens that can spot leaks down to a specific facility or piece of equipment with unprecedented precision. RMI is a member of the Carbon Mapper Coalition along with Planet, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, California Air Resources Board, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and philanthropic partners.

For global emissions, the wave of new sky-high NGO sensors means that we are closer than ever to getting a handle on the methane menace — and putting a stop to it.

Seeing the invisible

Methane is not visible to the human eye, so how can satellites see it? Fortunately, the technology to allow this is not a giant leap. In fact, it’s available in most college physics labs.

The key sensor, called a spectrometer, works a little like a camera. Point the camera at an area: It will show you an image. Point a spectrometer at an area: It shows the kinds of light that get absorbed by whatever the spectrometer is focused on.

To find methane, we’re looking for a signature pattern that only CH4 — the methane molecule — produces when absorbing sunlight. This pattern is only visible on the infrared spectrum at a particular wavelength.

An imaging spectrometer, which will measure the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide, sits integrated at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in August, 2023. Source: Carbon Mapper

Scanning the whole planet

To monitor the scale of methane emitters across planet Earth, the spectrometer needs to go high — very high. After months of tests to prove its spaceworthiness — including subjecting it to intense vibrations to simulate a launch as well as the subzero temperatures it will encounter in the vacuum of space — the methane detector is mounted onto a satellite and rocketed into space.

Once anchored in orbit, satellites can begin to search for methane as they swing around the earth.

A satellite flight path demonstration (Source: CarbonMapper).

All the methane they can see

As the scale of the methane problem has become known, governments, nonprofits, and private entities have begun to fill the knowledge gap, all launching their own satellites with unique and complementary capabilities.

Some can see at a continent level (called area flux monitors), while others are able to pinpoint leaks right down to the source (these are called point source monitors). Some can view an area multiple times a day (essential to track variability in leaks), while others can check on a weekly or monthly basis.

Below is the current state of methane detection satellite operations, but the field is growing still. The European Space Agency is set to launch Sentinel-5 this year, with its CO2M satellite following in 2025; while MERLIN, a partnership between the French and German space agencies, is slated for a 2027 launch.

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What’s new about nonprofit-led satellites — and what can we do with this data?

Nonprofit-led satellite programs like MethaneSAT and Carbon Mapper fill a crucial gap in our detection capabilities by virtue of their owners. Unlike national operators, no government can cut their funding, and unlike commercial operators, no bottom line need be met. The higher sensitivity of their sensors will also allow these new players to provide more actionable, timely, granular data than is currently on offer. MethaneSAT and Carbon Mapper satellites will also be complementary — with the former able to capture wide areas like basins, and the latter able to focus in on point sources.

Carbon Mapper and MethaneSAT also differ from the public and private options in their mission: these satellites are not for private use or scientific research, they are for climate action. They are open-source by design, helping feed methane measurements into a burgeoning field of independent emissions monitors—like RMI’s OCI+ platform and Climate TRACE — and allowing all stakeholders to benefit, and take action, based on the data returned from the satellites.

With all this information public, it will put pressure on emitters to clean up their acts. And with the US government’s methane fee on the horizon, oil and gas facilities have even more incentive to plug the leaks as quickly as possible.

With no time to lose as we reach crucial climate tipping points, these satellites are an essential tool protecting us and our communities from the aftermath of rising global temperatures. As more eyes take to the skies, methane will be invisible no more.

Read more:

Methane-Detecting Satellites 101: The Completeness Quotient

The post Methane Satellites 101: More Eyes Take to the Skies appeared first on RMI.

Categories:

The Carbon Brief - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 03:00

Restoring tree cover is now firmly established as a strategy for removing carbon from the atmosphere to help tackle climate change.

But there is an elephant in the room when it comes to estimating just how promising a climate solution it is in different locations. This is “albedo” – the fraction of the solar radiation that is reflected from the Earth’s surface.

In essence, brighter surfaces – such as a large snowy expanse or a grassland – will generally reflect a high proportion of sunlight back into space. Trees, meanwhile, tend to be darker coloured and absorb more sunlight, keeping it on Earth – usually in the form of excess heat.

Because restoring tree cover often involves replacing brighter land covers – such as grasslands – with darker ones – namely, trees – this can lead to some degree of global warming.

In some locations, this warming can partially or even completely outweigh the benefit of increased carbon uptake by the trees. Many know of this problem, but it has been difficult to quantify the impact of albedo in specific locations.

In our new study, published in Nature Communications, we map albedo change from restoring tree cover and show that carbon-only estimates of the global climate benefits of tree-planting may be 20-81% too high.

Our maps reveal that the climate benefits of tree-planting in savannahs in Africa and central Asia would be the most reduced by albedo. But we show that it is possible to find places that provide net-positive climate mitigation benefits in all biomes.

Tree cover affects albedo

It is getting harder to ignore albedo when planning projects to restore tree cover for climate mitigation.

For example, a recent study published in Science showed that albedo, among other factors, could substantially reduce the climate mitigation benefit of restoring tree cover.

However, despite its importance, albedo is often only given a brief mention as an important factor in research attempting to quantify the climate benefits of restoring tree cover. Its impact is frequently not accounted for – or only via coarse adjustments.

In some places, restoring tree cover modifies albedo enough to dwarf smaller changes in carbon, leading to an overall (net) increase in global warming. In other locations, the impact of albedo does not outweigh the carbon removal, contributing to an overall global cooling effect.

Understanding and quantifying these variations in albedo and carbon change is crucial to the success of a project that aims to restore tree cover for climate mitigation.

Yet there has been a lack of tools to provide this information. Our study sets out to change that.

Mapping albedo change

Our study provides the maps that quantify the absolute and relative changes in albedo anywhere on Earth where we might grow trees.

We first created a series of 24 maps that quantified how albedo would change if an area transitioned from one of four open land cover classes – such as grassland or croplands – to one of six different forest-cover classes, such as deciduous broadleaf or evergreen needleleaf forest. These are useful for individual projects that know their starting and end conditions.

GlossaryCO2 equivalent: Greenhouse gases can be expressed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e. For a given amount, different greenhouse gases trap different amounts of heat in the atmosphere, a quantity known as the global warming potential. Carbon dioxide equivalent is a way of comparing emissions from all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide.CloseCO2 equivalent: Greenhouse gases can be expressed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e. For a given amount, different greenhouse gases trap different amounts of heat in the atmosphere, a quantity known as… Read More

However, to examine general global patterns, we used a data-driven approach to model the albedo change resulting from the “most likely” open-to-forest transition for each part of the world. We then combined that with a map of maximum potential carbon storage to map net climate impact in carbon dioxide equivalents.

In this map (below), red and orange shading indicates regions where restoring tree cover leads to net warming and blue indicates regions where restoring tree cover leads to net cooling.

Map showing the net climate impact of tree-planting, accounting for both albedo change and carbon storage to estimate maximum climate mitigation in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per hectare. Red and orange shading indicates regions where restoring tree cover leads to net warming, while blue indicates regions where restoring tree cover leads to net cooling. Source: Hasler et al (2024).

The map shows that, in many places, increasing tree cover is likely to contribute to global warming. These include the dryland ecosystems of central Asia and the Sahel region of Africa, as well as northern reaches of North America, Europe and Asia.

However, all biomes had at least some climate-positive locations, indicating that the coarse exclusions used in the past have missed opportunities. Moreover, some locations experience little to no albedo change, such as in south-east Asia, central Africa and the Amazon.

This map makes it possible for people to determine the best places to restore tree cover to achieve climate mitigation, as well as evaluate different scenarios of where restoration of tree cover might happen.

For example, we examined three previously published global studies of large-scale increases in tree cover. We find that, after accounting for albedo, the global climate mitigation benefit of restoring tree cover may actually be 20-81% lower than expected from carbon-only estimates.

Notably, the study with the greatest deduction included large areas of tree-planting within the tundra and other locations where we predict very negative climate outcomes. We show that constraining this study’s tree-planting to only the more climate-positive areas – about a third of the total area (311m hectares instead of 889m hectares) – would lead to a 2.5-fold increase in mitigation potential.

This demonstrates the value of strategic project placement to maximise climate benefit, because it is possible to achieve more mitigation with less investment of space.

Forest restoration projects

Encouragingly, our study also finds that hundreds of thousands of on-the-ground tree-planting projects tend to be concentrated in places where the potential for carbon removal is high and albedo change is moderate.

One example is the moist tropical ecosystems in Brazil and Indonesia. Most of these on-the-ground projects can be found at Restor, a data-driven and community-based platform that aims to accelerate restoration and makes it possible for the first time to evaluate outcomes of the global restoration movement.

This suggests that ongoing or planned projects are concentrated in places that are good for achieving climate mitigation. However, the majority – around two-thirds – of these on-the-ground projects still face an albedo offset of at least 20%, indicating that most – if not all – projects should consider albedo change in their accounting.

None of this is to criticise projects that fall in places with negative climate outcomes. There are many wider reasons for restoring tree cover in a given landscape, beyond climate mitigation, including cleaner water, wildlife habitat, stabilised soils, sustainable livelihoods and cooler local temperatures.

However, for projects where the emphasis is on achieving climate mitigation, it is important to consider changes in albedo alongside changes in carbon removal, especially now that the tools are available to do so.

Workers plant trees at the afforestation area by the Yarlung Zangbo River in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

In general, climate accounting is not for the faint of heart. There are many factors such as albedo that can alter the total climate mitigation of natural climate solutions. However, we are in a critical time when pragmatic decisions need to be made now about which climate solutions to deploy and where.

Alongside our study, we have produced a dedicated web platform – called “naturebase” – to help policymakers, practitioners, communities and governments identify where, why and how to implement nature-based projects with the highest carbon mitigation.

This tool includes maps, data and case studies to show how different natural climate solutions – including restoration of tree cover – could benefit the climate across the world.

Policymakers and land managers are under growing pressure to make complex choices in line with global agreements. We hope that the science in our study and the tools in the naturebase platform will help enable smarter, more nature-positive decisions.

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The post Guest post: Mapping where tree-planting has the greatest climate benefit appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Categories: I. Climate Science

Yale Environment 360 - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 01:23

A Spanish company is aiming to factory farm octopuses for their meat, contending that it would help conserve the creatures in the wild. But critics argue that caging these highly sensitive mollusks, whose intelligence science is still revealing, would be cruel and inhumane.

Read more on E360 →

Categories: H. Green News

Out among a scattering of islands spilled like beads into the Indonesian shallows, an extended experiment in coral restoration has revealed something marvelous: With a tender touch and a community to care for it, a reef can fully recover from the devastation of blast fishing in just four years.

The Spermonde Archipelago, which lies a dozen miles off the coast of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, was long home to some of the most dynamic reefs in the world, where schools of fish rainbowed over coral blanketing the seafloor. But dynamite fishing turned swaths of those wonders into wastes. That was until 2018, when academics, government agencies, nonprofits, and local communities came together to restore them with a novel approach developed over years of testing and refinement. Now, a team of marine biologists and reef ecologists has released the first results in a suite of studies investigating the program’s achievements. The study, published earlier this month in Current Biology, shows that the method can help reefs rebuild in just a few years.

“We do always refer to corals, in particular in reefs, as these slow-growing ecosystems that take a long time to recover, which they are,” said Rebecca Albright, a coral biologist at the California Academy of Sciences who was not involved in the study. “So showing that they can regain rapid growth within four years is very encouraging.”

Promoting this recovery in Sulawesi is particularly important, because the island sits at the center of the Indonesian archipelago and in one corner of the Coral Triangle. This region, and Indonesia in particular, is home to the largest concentration of reefs and coral habitat in the world. Yet many of these vibrant ecosystems were pulverized by decades of fishers dropping explosives into the water to concuss fish they could then scoop out of the sea. With loose rubble then left to tumble in the currents, corals had little hope of recovering on their own. Any coral spawns that might settle and grow were liable to be crushed by errant rocks.

To overcome this, the Mars Coral Reef Restoration Program — a nonprofit funded by the Mars corporation known for M&Ms, Twix, and Snickers — brought together restoration experts who developed what they call the reef star: a six-legged steel spider coated in sand, to which coral fragments harvested from nearby healthy reefs or found rolling with the tides are strapped. Restoration workers, often members of local communities, deploy them across dozens of sites. These webs provide the protection and stability the transplants need to grow, while also settling the debris created by blast fishing. Without such help, researchers believe that corals — those strange yet essential sea creatures — might never have returned to the damaged areas.

Within a year of placing the reef stars, the fragments grew into colonies. By year two, the branches of neighboring colonies knit into a marine embrace. By 2023, the former fragments had grown into orange bushels, broad yellow pads, and twisting pink tentacles that trains of fluorescent fish explore.

A diver installs a reef star in a degraded coral reef to stabilize loose rubble and kickstart rapid coral growth. The Ocean Agency

Scientific analysis confirmed what the eye could see. By measuring something called a carbonate budget — a way of understanding how well a colony can grow its limestone skeleton in the face of erosive forces like fish, divers, and passing vessels — researchers found that the rate of growth for sites established just four years before matched that of healthy, undamaged coral growing nearby.

Studying this growth helps scientists to understand how well a reef fulfills its role as the star of a healthy ecosystem providing habitat for marine life. “The 3D structure of the reef is basically the city where these animals live,” said Ines Lange, a coral reef ecologist and lead author of the paper. “So providing an actively growing three-dimensional structure is the basis for this whole ecosystem.”

The rate and state of growth also reveals whether the reef can be expected to once again protect coastlines from storm surges and coastal erosion — and grow quickly enough to keep up with rising seas to continue doing so. The results show that won’t be a problem around South Sulawesi. Other restoration efforts, like those in the Florida Keys, tend to string up a few strands of coral fragments or pepper the seafloor with them in a way that felt, for Lange, “like a little tiny garden.” But at the Mars program sites, “It’s like they put a forest there.”

“I think it was the first time I saw a restoration site that was a proper reef,” she said.

These sea groves are populated primarily by branching, arborescent coral sprouting from the reef star arrays in the coastal shallows. They’ve created a terrain flourishing with life that turns the aquamarine waters into a Technicolor dreamscape. Overall, the method has proven itself even to those watching it unfold from afar.

“The Mars project has set the bar really high for how you can do evidence-based reef restoration,” said Lisa Boström-Einarsson, a coral reef ecologist with the University of Exeter.

Though not affiliated with the study, Boström-Einarsson has collaborated with two of its authors on a previous paper. Unsurprisingly, the world of coral reef conservation remains small, despite the great need for its work.

Four years ago, Boström-Einarsson compiled a systematic and comprehensive review of reef restoration projects, which she is in the process of updating based on the progress made in such efforts globally in the intervening years. That background led her to conclude, after reading Lange’s paper, that “it’s a gold-standard study on a gold-standard project.”

A healthy coral reef in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ines Lange

Still, Mars’ reef stars are suited best to sites like South Sulawesi, where the trauma is physical. When reefs have been broken by widespread blast fishing or gored by ship groundings — of which there are hundreds every year — the study shows the devices can help heal those injuries. But in areas like the Great Barrier Reef, which has been marred by recurrent bleaching events that offer little of the reprieve reefs need to recover, they can only do so much; the repeated heat waves spurred by elevated temperatures make the water itself hostile to coral. Nonetheless, the Mars program launched an effort late last year to adapt its approach for Australia’s iconic reef. The kinds of coral most sensitive to warming are also those best fit for the Mars method.

In the waters of South Sulawesi, the restoration team favored branching corals, both because they make up the bulk of the healthy reefs in the region and because they grow quickly — Boström-Einarsson called them “weedy coral.” But the treelike Acropora can’t stand the heat the way their massive, slow-growing cousins the brain coral can; Acropora are among the first to bleach when temperatures climb. So, while the marine meadows at the restoration sites have prospered in recent years, more remains to be done to make them resilient to warming seas.

“You can put a bunch of coral back out into place, but that doesn’t mean you’re building a resilient reef,” Albright said. “You have to have diversity.”

Lange said the Mars program is bolstering the ecosystems’ resilience, transplanting massive corals and providing the surfaces they need to establish, settle, and mature. This is just one area that reflects the responsive approach Boström-Einarsson said the Mars program has brought to its efforts by listening to scientists, considering their evidence, and tapping their expertise.

Read Next It’s not just coral. Extreme heat is weakening entire marine ecosystemsin Florida. Abigail Geiger & Gabriela Tejeda

But to avoid what Boström-Einarsson called “scientific colonialism” — in which researchers from well-funded institutions visit under-resourced areas to collect data before scurrying home — the Mars program has built partnerships with local communities and universities. They are involved in everything from building the reef stars and installing them to maintaining and monitoring restoration sites, all of which gives them a sense of ownership over the project by making them guardians of the reefs.

And that may be one of the most important outcomes of a project like this. After all, coastal communities in places like South Sulawesi benefit most from rebuilding the reefs that protect them from the storms and surging seas that climate change brings. But the researchers acknowledged that restoration efforts like these are but Band-Aids: They aren’t a substitute for abating emissions and mitigating climate change so reefs can escape the endless onslaught of bleach-inducing, coral-killing heat waves.

“We’re not saying we can repair all the coral reefs in the world with this method,” Lange said. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do something on the scale that we can to change something for a local community, because it makes a huge difference for them.”

So, if for that reason alone, these efforts matter — even in the wake of a warming world.

Correction: This story originally misspelled Lisa Boström-Einarsson’s last name.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline ‘Reef stars’ restored Indonesia’s blast-damaged corals in just 4 years on Mar 26, 2024.

Categories: H. Green News

Red Pepper - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 01:00

Unnecessary, high-risk police pursuits are proving fatal. In Greater Manchester, families demandin change, report the Northern Police Monitoring Project

The post Manchester families demand police accountability appeared first on Red Pepper.

Categories: F. Left News

Environment News Service - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 00:55

Categories: H. Green News

Environment News Service - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 00:53

Categories: H. Green News

Food Tank - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 00:00

New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently announced budget cuts that include the elimination of funding for community composting programs. In response, a coalition of community groups is invigorating its base to keep these initiatives alive.

The New York City Compost Project is a partnership between the City of New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) and community organizations. The organizations include GrowNYC, Lower East Side (LES) Ecological Center, Big Reuse, and Earth Matter, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Queens Botanical Garden, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, and The New York Botanical Garden. Operating 75 compost sites in all five boroughs, the Program provides education and composting opportunities for City residents.

Earth Matter, a New York City-based community and environmental organization, has received funding from the city to facilitate the NYC Compost Project. Earth Matter “makes compost using people’s food scraps to be put back onto the green infrastructure that New York City is so proud to invest in,” Marissa DeDominicis, the organization’s Executive Director, tells Food Tank.

But the ability of organizations like Earth Matter to operate is at risk. The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025 includes cuts to DSNY that will lead to the defunding of the NYC Compost Project. According to composting advocates, these changes will lead to a loss of jobs and the closing down of drop-off sites.

Since the announcement, community groups released a petition to reinstate community composting programs, which now has more than 50,000 signatures. GrowNYC, an organization that receives city funding to operate 52 compost drop-off sites throughout the city, is the original author behind it. In 2022 alone, the organization diverted almost 2.7 million pounds of food scraps from landfills to compost, according to itswebsite.

Immediately following the Mayor’s announcement, GrowNYC reports that they were preparing to lay off employees within their composting programs. For now, ananonymous donor has enabled their composting work to continue through June 2024, but layoffs may be imminent.

Other organizations are searching for, and in some cases successfully identifying, similar funding streams.Mill Industries Inc. and Friendsand community members recently announced a donation to LES Botanical Garden, Earth Matter, BigReuse, and GrowNYC so that these organizations can also continue their composting work.

DeDominicis tells Food Tank that Earth Matter is also working with city councilors to push for the restoration of funding and is hoping for additional funds by the beginning of the next fiscal year in July.

In response to criticism, DSNY points out that New York City is expanding their citywide curbside compost collection. It is projected to be the “nation’s largest and easiest curbside composting program, picking up compostable material from every resident on their recycling day and putting that material to beneficial use,” a DSNY spokesperson tells Food Tank.

The Department currently collects compost in Brooklyn and Queens andby October 2024, they are planning to serve the remaining boroughs. New Yorkers can also compost food scraps in the Smart Composting bins that are located around the city.

DeDominicis tells Food Tank that these bins don’t turn food scraps into soil. She explains that the city transports the waste to facilities that turn scraps into biogas, creating non-compostable slurry as a byproduct, also according toan investigation byCurbed. Smart Bins are alsopredominantly available in Manhattan and Brooklyn. But community compost drop-off sites, meanwhile, are set up in all corners of the city for greater reach.

DeDominicis also argues that the NYC Compost Project provides an important connection to the community. According to Natural Resources Defense Council research, 40 percent of the American food supply goes to waste. To limit food waste, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommendsthat before throwing food away in a landfill, people should compost it. But, DeDominicis notes that composting is a “lifestyle change.”

Earth Matter sees itself as both a community compost site and a classroom and the organization believes that “as people learn how to compost, they become the advocates, they become the educators, and they go back into their communities,” DeDominicis says.

“People can come to Earth Matter, actually see their food scraps…[and] the transformation into black gold,” DeDominicis tells Food Tank. She believes that the composting site is a place for New Yorkers to learn about where their food waste goes, “making people feel like they belong to a movement, and what they do is a basic act that can make change.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement?Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo by Charles Bayrer, courtesy of Earth Matter

The post Preserving Community Compost in New York City appeared first on Food Tank.

Categories: A3. Agroecology

Break Free From Plastic - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 00:00

This year, Women's Day aligns with the inaugural surge in e-commerce marketing following the New Year. Have you completed your shopping spree yet? According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China's total online retail sales reached 13.79 trillion yuan in 2022, with an increase of 4% year-on-year. Among these, the online retail sales of physical goods amounted to 11.96 trillion yuan, accounting for 27.2% of the total retail sales of consumer goods.

How can we swiftly address and reduce the ever-growing waste generated by delivery and takeaway services? What steps can society take to make e-commerce packaging more sustainable, specifically by minimizing the reliance on single-use plastics, curbing excessive packaging, and reducing waste overall? As e-commerce entities and packaging vendors, what strategies can we implement to guarantee the safe and convenient delivery of products to consumers, while also offering ample environmentally friendly choices?

To address these questions, on the afternoon of March 4, 2024, a sustainable packaging forum host by the Guangdong Association of Circular Economy and Resource Comprehensive Utilization and the Plastic Free China, supported by Alashan SEE Pearl River Project Center, Huidu Environmental (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., the Guangdong Express Packaging Industry Green Development Alliance, and the Guangdong Packaging Technology Association was held in Guangzhou at the China Import and Export Fair Complex. The forum, conducted both online and on-site, linked pioneers in circular packaging from around the globe with leading Chinese enterprises, facilitating "mythical dialogues" within the industry to promote domestic and international industry exchange and dialogue.

The forum received support and attention from senior management departments and leaders of related units. Attendees included Luan Fang, the Deputy Director of the Guangdong Province Department of Industrial Energy Saving and Comprehensive Utilization; Qian Wang, the Deputy Director of the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology; Shangde Xian, the Vice President and Secretary-General of the Guangdong Provincial Association for Circular Economy and Resource Comprehensive Utilization, and Min Ren, the General Director of Adsale.

1. Collaboration Across the Board: Packaging Green Governance Enters an Era of Whole-Chain Management

Zhijian Fu, Chief Engineer of the Guangdong Provincial Association for Circular Economy and Resource Comprehensive Utilization, made an exciting call to action in his welcoming speech, "Packaging production enterprises should undertake the design of packaging reduction, product producers should optimize product packaging design, sellers should demand green product packaging and minimal packaging from suppliers, and consumers should adopt environmentally friendly purchasing, reuse, moderate consumption, and reduce the consumption of single-use plastic products."

Professor Huanzheng Du, one of the earliest scholars focused on the research of the circular economy and resource recycling industry, who also serves as the Dean of the UN Environment Programme-Tongji University College of Environmental and Sustainable Development and President of the China Synthetic Resin Association Plastic Recycling Committee, offered three expert suggestions on the development trend of sustainable packaging:

"First, integrate sustainable packaging with national green production and lifestyle; second, address packaging issues through resource recovery and circularity; third, solve packaging issues across the entire chain. Especially for e-commerce packaging, it involves many links from product producers, merchants, logistic companies to consumers, and recyclers to solve."

In response to the public’s concern about the environmental benefits of sustainable e-commerce packaging, Xue Zheng, the General Secretary of the Plastic Free China, highlighted with relevant data that the reuse model, as a globally recognized environmental solution, can contribute to a 20% reduction in plastic pollution, a benefit that cannot be overlooked.

As an environmental organization deeply involved in the delivery and takeaway sector, Plastic Free China has its observations and development suggestions for the circular delivery and takeaway model. Xue Zheng summarized that the government plays a crucial role in establishing a circular model. Under the current policy framework, the support for these policies at the local level still needs implementation, and it's essential to lower the initial costs for businesses.

Especially in terms of establishing related sharing and recycling systems, the government needs to act as a coordinator. Circular models, including delivery and takeaway, involve communication and collaboration among multiple stakeholders, requiring participation from various parties including consumers, and entities like government departments, associations, and charitable organizations play a significant role in facilitating this communication.

2. Creating a Wider Circular System Worldwide: Sustainable E-Commerce Packaging from Finland is also made in China

In the realm of e-commerce logistics packaging, Procter & Gamble, with its 187-year history, holds a significant voice. Today, over 50% of P&G's business comes from e-commerce. Wanmin Yang, Director of Supply Chain Packaging Innovation at P&G China, introduced the innovative "Air Capsule" circular box to the attendees. P&G has effectively achieved the goal of 80% of its business operations not requiring secondary protection by leveraging its "direct-to-consumer capabilities, actively expanding and creating direct e-commerce packaging, designing products suitable for the Chinese e-commerce environment through research, and developing green integrated packaging materials to reduce the need for secondary protection.

Contrary to a global FMCG giant like P&G, Huidu Environmental Technology is a tech company dedicated to the R&D, production, and operation of green, environmentally friendly circular packaging products. Discussing the challenges faced by circular packaging suppliers, Ruize Wu, Vice President of the South China branch of Huidu Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., stated that understanding and accepting the concept of "circularity" by customers, along with their awareness of the environmental benefits brought by circular systems, pose external challenges for Grayscale. Internally, the continuous development of product R&D capabilities, denser warehouse network layouts, more stable operational plans, and systems are goals that the company aims to achieve through ongoing accumulation.

Challenges similar to those faced by sustainable packaging companies in China are not unique. Jonne Hellgren, CEO and co-founder of Finnish sustainable packaging company RePack, mentioned that in Europe, where RePack's operations are concentrated, although their system is primarily based on the postal system, most circular and reusable systems are often "fragmented". Educating consumers and building a stronger circular system remains a significant challenge for businesses in the related industry.

It's noteworthy that RePack's collapsible packaging, adopted in the Asian market, is manufactured in China. Its superior quality and excellent foldability have made this packaging product very popular.

For companies supplying circular express packaging, advanced design technology and cost issues represent significant challenges faced by the entire industry. Wanmin Yang was candid about not fearing competition in terms of cost, stating, "If there are manufacturers who can produce at a lower cost than us, we can cooperate with them." Procter & Gamble's "Air Capsule" technology has also been made available for industry use. Roundtable participants unanimously agreed that only by expanding the industry, and continuously testing and verifying technology, can costs be reduced and efficiency improved, truly welcoming a "scale effect" and sustainable future for circular packaging.

3. Observing China's Takeaway Food Circular Packaging: A Strong Foundation for Scale, Awaiting Comprehensive Management Policies

Yichao Wang, co-founder and COO of Shuangti, points out that the university setting, with its relatively closed environment, enables schools to directly apply administrative measures. This unique ecosystem, where both the supply and demand are concentrated, paves the way for the efficient implementation of reverse logistics. Additionally, the student population is generally more receptive to new ideas and environmental initiatives. Hence, universities offer an ideal testing ground for advancing the use of circular takeaway food containers.

Shuangti has established an intelligent food container system based on the closed environment of schools, utilizing built-in chips and unique identification codes to smoothly track the entire distribution, sorting, recycling, and inventory of food containers. As of May 2023, in the pilot project at the Southern Medical University Shunde Campus, the average yearly circulation of each food container reached 63 times, helping the school reduce the use of 400,000 disposable plastic food containers.

Muuse is a smart platform for reusable packaging focused on Asia and North America. The company uses QR codes and RFID tags to track reusable containers, allowing users to easily borrow and return items among different participating merchants and return stations, and has established an effective management system to solve the problem of reverse logistics. Jonathan Tostevin, the founder of Muuse, participated in the forum's roundtable session online. He believes that the return rate of reusable takeaway food containers is crucial, and Muuse's reusable container return rate has reached 98%.

The construction of circular food takeaway food container systems, the improvement of policies and regulations, and how to better advocate for consumers and address hygiene issues became frequently mentioned key topics by roundtable guests.

Junmian Li, the founder of Laigewan (Shenzhen), emphasized that in addition to cooperation with takeaway platforms and catering businesses, the perfection of related legislation and policies is especially important for the development of the industry. Yi Ding, the roundtable host and the project manager of the Plastic Free China—Express Plastic Reduction project, added that the industry urgently needs to establish a comprehensive management system, clarify the regulatory departments for takeaway plastic pollution, and create a better support system to provide businesses with policy incentives and support.

Categories: J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

Ecologist - Tue, 03/26/2024 - 00:00

Categories: H. Green News

Green Energy Times - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 23:16

Headline News:

• “Geothermal Advancements, Incentives Could Help NM Meet Renewable Energy Goals” • About 75 years ago in Animas, drillers going after water for irrigation stumbled upon extremely hot water naturally bubbling up out of the ground. The spot would later become the location of New Mexico’s first utility-scale geothermal power plant. [AOL.com]

Animas, New Mexico (BAlvarius, CC-BY-SA 3.0, cropped)

• “Trader Joe’s Just Increased The Price Of A Banana For The First Time In Over Twenty Years” • Trader Joe’s told CNN that it raised the price of a banana to 23¢, an increase of more than 20%. The grocer has sold bananas for 19¢ each for over two decades. World Banana Forum experts had warned that climate change can drive up banana prices. [CNN]
• “Renewable Power Makes 1-GW Italian Battery Pact” • Altea Green Power is partnering with Renewable Power Capital to develop 1 GW of battery storage in Italy. The partnership is focused on ensuring strong involvement of local municipalities and stakeholders. It aims to achieve ready-to-build status for the pipeline in the next 2 to 4 years. [reNews]
• “Adani Eyes 45 GW Of Renewable Energy Capacity By 2030” • Billionaire Gautam Adani’s group is building the world’s largest renewable energy park in Gujarat, as it eyes a massive 45 GW capacity to generate electricity largely from solar. He said his group’s renewable energy arm, Adani Green Energy, is leading an energy transition. [Press Trust of India]
• “The TELO Electric Pickup Is A Tiny Truck With Big Features” • If you want to buy an electric pickup truck, your options are still fairly limited, but they are available. However, if you want to buy a little truck, not your standard full-size pickup, you are almost out of luck. TELO Trucks, however, might be about to produce a solution for that. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Categories:

Audubon Society - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 20:03

Categories: G3. Big Green

350 Portland - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 17:56

350PDX Community Engagement ManagerTo apply, please send your resume and a cover letter to jobs@350pdx.org with the subject line “Community Engagement Manager application.” Priority deadline is April 14, 2024.

Organizational Overview:

350PDX’s mission is to build a diverse grassroots movement to address the causes of climate disruption through justice-based solutions by inspiring, training and mobilizing people to act. We are a dynamic, volunteer-driven grassroots organization with thousands of supporters. We regularly engage hundreds of people to volunteer and/or take action. Our work is significant — the nation and world need compelling examples of communities that are addressing climate disruption head-on through bold and creative measures that bring diverse people together at a time of divisiveness and insufficient state and federal action.

Position Summary:

The Community Engagement Manager is responsible for building and maintaining the 350PDX community through relationship building, including volunteer onboarding, leadership development, and mobilization. They are also responsible for relationship building in the 350PDX donor community, getting to know new and existing donors and leading on donor fundraising campaigns.

Oversight:

350PDX is a peer-managed collective. This means we have no executive director or hierarchy within staff, and all staff members contribute to maintaining the ongoing functions of the organization. Each member of the collective manages, and is managed by, one other collective member.

Location:
Living in or relocating to the Portland area is a requirement for this position. 350PDX has an office in N. Portland and staff have the choice whether to work from home or the office, with most staff doing a mix of the two. We are very flexible with work location but expect that staff will attend at least some meetings and events in person.

Compensation:

This is a full-time position (350PDX considers full-time as 30 hours/week) starting on or after June 3, 2024, with an annual salary of $56,887. Benefits include generous PTO (3+ weeks/year) as well as an organization-wide 2-week vacation in the summer, flexible work hours, professional development funds, and $300/month toward company health insurance.

General Responsibilities: (15%)

• Work within peer management accountability structure to cultivate and maintain a culture of feedback, continuous improvement, and performance correction, as needed. Collaborate with peer manager, and managee, to set clear expectations and correct performance issues as needed by providing and receiving timely, clear, candid, actionable feedback in the moment and in regular peer management meetings.
• Support the recruitment and selection of staff and volunteers. Maintain familiarity with equitable hiring practices and targeted recruitment.
• Support the implementation of an organization-wide strategic plan based in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI). Weave JEDI focus into all aspects of position, including trainings, outreach, event planning, event accessibility, etc.
• Support organization-wide grassroots fundraising efforts including project-specific grants; uphold a culture that celebrates and elevates fundraising.
• Maintain a working knowledge of climate change issues and related social, political, legislative, regulatory and economic frameworks. Stay up to date on recent developments.
• General organizational upkeep, including: respond to organizational opportunities and threats, network with community leaders and organizations, facilitate internal and external communications, have fun with other collective members, etc.

Specific Responsibilities: (85%)

• Volunteer Management (40%)

• • Leads on volunteer onboarding (i.e. the stage after outreach once people have signed up to get involved), focused on building relationships, making folks feel welcome, and plugging them into a useful role. Includes orientations, one-on-ones, connecting people to teams and other volunteer opportunities, ongoing check-ins and leadership development.
  • Co-leads on mobilizing, with the Communications Manager. The Engagement Manager leverages their relationships with volunteer and donors to get those people to show up for our actions, events, volunteer opportunities, and donor drives
  • Co-leads Action Nights with Outreach & Organizing Manager
  • Maintains database of all volunteers and donors (we use Salsa CRM)
  • Co-lead big picture Movement Building planning with Outreach & Organizing Manager
  • Oversees conflict resolution involving volunteers

• Fundraising (40%)

• • Co-create annual / multi-year development plan with Grants and Operations Coordinator
  • Supports budget planning by adding anticipated fundraising goals for the upcoming fiscal years as well as contributing to team budgeting
  • Builds relationships with donors including major donors, and makes fundraising asks
  • Maintains donor database (we use Salsa CRM)
  • Bottom-lines a spring sustainer drive, an end-of-year donor appeal, and other appeals as needed, with support from rest of staff where appropriate (Comms support from Comms Manager, event support from Outreach & Organizing Manager, etc.)
  • Donor cultivation – appreciations, thank you letters, receipts, relationship building, and quarterly donor newsletter
  • Coordinates planned giving, employer matches, merchandise, and other fundraising streams, with support from other staff and volunteers
  • Manages fundraising volunteers/team as needed
  • Supports staff and volunteers to make asks and thrive as fundraisers, creating a culture of FUNdraising at 350PDX

• Professional Development and Accountability (5%, average)

• • Participate in study groups, courses, workshops, and/or conferences to continue developing 350PDX’s organizing knowledge and political ideology to be able to adequately inform others.
  • Attend neighborhood meetings, events from frontline organizations, etc. to ensure accountability to the communities we work with.

Required Qualifications:

• Experience with grassroots community organizing in climate justice, social justice, and/or labor movements, preferably in the greater Portland area
• Experience or demonstrated interest in welcoming and maintaining volunteers or donors to an organization
• Experience tracking volunteers or donors using a CRM or other system
• Experience or demonstrated interest in making fundraising asks to prospective donors
• Ability to work some evenings and weekends, as much as 3–5 times per month during busy periods. Schedules can be flexed for an average of 30 hours per week.
• Self-driven, able to work autonomously and move forward projects independently
• Detail-oriented, with strong organization and project management skills. Ability to plan effectively, meet deadlines and coordinate others’ involvement within a dynamic and fast-paced setting.
• Experience with justice and equity planning, policies, and practices. Commitment to dismantling systems of oppression that fuel the climate crisis and to understanding one’s own role as an individual in systems of privilege and power.
• Commitment to self and community care, including practices of stress management.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Demonstrated capability to exercise sound judgment and conduct one’s self in opposition to white supremacy culture, including when dealing with the public and with difficult situations.
• Experience or interest in collaborative decision-making models and consensus-based decision-making
• Commitment to centering, uplifting, and holding oneself accountable to the leadership of frontline communities, understanding that those most impacted by climate crises and environmental injustice must lead the transition

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with nonprofit management
• Understanding of basic financial management including budgeting, funding sources, expenditures, and practices for maintaining financial solvency
• Experience working in a worker collective or other non-hierarchical structure
• Speaks language(s) other than English

To apply, please send your resume and a cover letter to jobs@350pdx.org with the subject line “Community Engagement Manager application.” Priority deadline is April 14, 2024.

About the Staff Collective

350PDX’s staffing model is a non-hierarchical Staff Collective. Members of the collective are accountable to each other and to the organization’s leadership — there is no boss. Each member of the collective fills specific roles and serves on different management teams that are responsible for different departments within the organization. We chose a collective model because we wanted to staff the organization in a way that models our value of distributing power and having shared accountability for the whole. As a collective, we are all responsible for the health and wellbeing of the organization. We all have some shared responsibilities — to help raise money, to respond to opportunities and threats, and to work on organizational development projects. Because the collective structure is unique, we are building it as we go. We are looking for someone who is not intimidated by an evolving organizational structure and who is excited to help shape it. When issues arise, we all take responsibility for addressing them.

EEO

350PDX is a non-discriminatory organization that seeks to support and empower all those working within a diverse and inclusive climate justice movement. For that reason we adhere to both the letter and the spirit of applicable laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic prohibited by law. We actively strive to create a space of equity and trust for all who wish to contribute to our goals and welcome those who can teach us how to do this better. Any concerns about misconduct are received and dealt with seriously.

350PDX is committed to being an inclusive and collaborative group that values bringing a diversity of approaches and perspectives to the work we do. We try to build a workplace where everyone is treated fairly, respected, and enjoys working together. Women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people, and members of communities on the frontlines of climate change are especially welcome and encouraged to apply.

If you have suggestions for us, we value your input and encourage you to write to us at jobs@350pdx.org.

The post Community Engagement Manager appeared first on 350PDX: Climate Justice.

Categories: G2. Local Greens

Public Advocates - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 17:40

California’s Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) provides basic protections for renters against extreme rent increases and unfair evictions. A new law (SB 567) makes important changes that take effect April 1, 2024.

Read more about renters’ rights in California under this new law.

• En Español

The post Renters’ Rights under the Tenant Protection Act (2024) appeared first on Public Advocates.

Categories: E2. Front Line Community Green

Mining.Com - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 16:38

Central Asia Metals (LON:CAML)announced Monday an equity financing of £3 million ($3.8m) inAberdeen Minerals to acquire a 28.7% shareholding in the company.

Central Asia Metals owns and operates the Kounrad SX-EW copper operation in central Kazakhstan and the Sasa zinc-lead mine in North Macedonia.

Aberdeen Minerals is a privately-owned junior raw battery materials explorer based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It holds a 7,400-hectare land package, and CAML said it has already demonstrated the presence of a copper-nickel-cobalt deposit at its Arthrath project, originally discovered by Rio Tinto in 1968.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) last year produced areportidentifying areas of the UK prospective for critical raw materials.

The national-scale assessment is one of the first steps in the UK Government’s critical minerals strategy, which aims to make the UK more resilient to disruption in critical mineral supply chains.

The investment will fund further drilling, studies, and test work and CAML said in an emailed statement it believes that the UK in undergoing a mining revival, predominately driven by the green energy transition, making itan “exciting jurisdiction for exploration investment”.

The financing also comprises a conditional cornerstone investment of £3 million ($3.8m) at 8.5 pence per share, warrants to be granted to CAML to invest an additional £2 million ($2.5m) at 11 pence per share, which, if exercised, would take CAML ownership to 37.8%

“We are delighted to have secured a major, cornerstone investment from CAML, a UK company which has a track record in successful mineral production and delivering benefits for its host communities, employees, and shareholders,” Aberdeen Minerals CEO Fraser Gardiner said in a news release.

“Their backing is a solid endorsem*nt of the technical merits of our projects and our team’s exploration proposals. We look forward to working closely with them and sharing in future exploration success.

“The funding announced today provides a strong financial platform to progress our mineral exploration and development work in partnership with Aberdeenshire landowners, and to pursue local economic growth directly linked to the raw material needs of an energy transition,” Gardiner said.

Categories: J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

Solar Industry Magazine - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 14:51

New York has set new records for hourly wind and solar generation, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has reported.

NYISO says wind power facilities generated 2,176 MW during the 1p.m. hour on March 9 and served 12% of system load. Behind-the-meter and front-of-the-meter solar resources generated 3,832 MW during the 12 p.m. hour on March 12 and served 21%of system load.

“The contributions from wind and solar resources represent important, beneficial progress toward the state’s clean energy goals,” says Rich Dewey, president and CEO of NYISO. “As load continues to rise across the system, additional generation and transmission will be essential to serve demand and maintain grid reliability.”

The post NYISO Announces New Renewable Energy Generation Records appeared first on Solar Industry.

Categories:

North American Windpower - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 14:50

New York has set new records for hourly wind and solar generation, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has reported.

The not-for-profit corporation says wind power facilities generated 2,176 MW during the 1p.m. hour on March 9 and served 12% of system load. Behind-the-meter and front-of-the-meter solar resources generated 3,832 MW during the 12 p.m. hour on March 12 and served 21% of system load.

“The contributions from wind and solar resources represent important, beneficial progress toward the state’s clean energy goals,” says Rich Dewey, president and CEO of NYISO. “As load continues to rise across the system, additional generation and transmission will be essential to serve demand and maintain grid reliability.”

The post NYISO Announces New Renewable Energy Generation Records appeared first on North American Windpower.

Categories: