Humans have had an unprecedented impact on land – with vast consequences for climate change, food systems and biodiversity, a major new UN report concludes.

It says that human activities have already altered 70% of the Earth’s land surface, degrading up to 40% of it. Four of the nine “planetary boundaries” – limits on how humans can safely use Earth’s resources – have already been exceeded.

In this article, Carbon Brief walks through five key takeaways from the UN’s milestone Global Land Outlook Report.

Announcing World Environment Day, 5 June 2022...

World Environment Day 2022 is the biggest international day for the environment. Led by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and held annually since 1973, it has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach - celebrated by millions of people across the globe. This year's celebration is hosted by Sweden and “Only One Earth" is the campaign slogan, with the focus on “Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature” (UNEP, 2022).

“Only One Earth” was the slogan for the 1972 Stockholm Conference; 50 years on, this truth still holds – this planet is our only home. With nature in emergency mode, this year's #OnlyOneEarth campaign urges each of us to celebrate the planet through collective environmental action. #OnlyOneEarth advocates for transformative environmental change on a global scale. The campaign shines a spotlight on climate action, nature action and pollution action while encouraging everyone, everywhere to live sustainably (UNEP, 2022).

While our individual consumption choices do make a difference, it is collective action that will create the transformative environmental change we need, so we can advance to a more sustainable and just Earth, where everyone can flourish. Please share your events and actions by taking part in the Earth Action Numbers, and using #OnlyOneEarth and #WorldEnvironmentDay on social media (UNEP, 2022).
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https://www.un.org/en/observances/environment-day
https://www.unep.org/
https://action.worldenvironmentday.global/
https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/get-involved/practical-guide
https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/get-involved/resources
https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/latest/live-updates
https://trello.com/b/7EYjAExk/world-environment-day-2022
https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/latest/associated-events
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CIPLOajR58
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1298.html
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/90-years-of-our-changing-views-of-earth/
https://explorer1.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/earth-from-space/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/150721-pictures-eart…
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-captures-epic-earth-image
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/amazing-earth-satellite-images-from-2021/

Green Economy, Green Growth

Intelligent Revolutions, a Possible Solution for Global Crises

Today, all human-caused crises such as climate change, military conflicts, vaccine injustice, racism, sexism, et cetera are deeply connected to human nature. Our endless hunger for something free, for example, has led to exploiting natural resources in such a greedy way as to bring about massive extinction everywhere, potentially causing our own extinction.
Why are most people reluctant to take action against the climate crisis? It's probably because candidates will hardly become leaders if asking the voters to do more work or to make less money. Besides, is it fair for a few nations to protect the global environment arduously while the rest of the world seems motionless? Is it necessary for a few individuals to sacrifice modern comforts for human future while a growing number of drug addicts, alcoholics and gluttons are wasting much more resources than the few can possibly save?
I think intelligence holds the key to overcoming the dark side of human nature and to promoting the bright side. Making continuous improvements on mental ability is our only way to survive and to thrive in the long term. Without major advances on intelligence in general population, I'm afraid that most would just keep doing business as usual in the midst of global warming. To make great leaps in our brainpower, intelligent revolutions are urgently needed.
To start the revolutions, I suggest providing everybody with so many books and films in digital form that most people would enjoy art and science for a whole life. All creative works should be free for everyone while their intellectual property must be protected.
If intelligent species ever fail in survival, it’s only because they haven’t got enough time to become intelligent enough. Let’s start intelligent revolutions sooner than later.

Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Expands Engagement Activities Supporting Nature-risk Framework Development

At this week's World Economic Forum in Davos, the TNFD announced three engagement initiatives, involving further stakeholders in the design and development of TNFD's recommendations.

▶ Six TNFD Consultation Groups in Australia & New Zealand, India, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom
▶ Four piloting program partnerships: FSD Africa, Global Canopy, UNEP FI, WBCSD
▶ Engagement of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities globally in partnership with IUCN

Regarding the third point, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) steward much of the world’s natural resources and play a vital role in safeguarding nature. Their communities are also highly dependent on nature for their livelihoods and Indigenous-led enterprises are often pioneers in sustainable business models. TNFD is partnering with IUCN to engage with IPLCs and ensure their voices are included in the development of the TNFD Framework.

For more information regarding each of these recently announced TNFD engagement activities, follow the link below.

Big Oil and Climate Change Revisited...

This is my third and last post in the series following the PBS FRONTLINE program “The Power of Big Oil.”

Within this series, FRONTLINE examines the fossil fuel industry’s history of casting doubt and delaying action on climate change, tracing decades of missed opportunities and ongoing attempts to hold Big Oil to account. This recent FRONTLINE series investigates the decades-long failure to confront the threat of climate change and the role of the fossil fuel industry.

Part One charts the fossil fuel industry’s early research on climate change and investigates industry efforts to sow seeds of doubt about the science. Part Two explores the industry’s efforts to stall climate policy, even as evidence about climate change grew more certain in the new millennium. And as leading climate scientists issue new warnings about climate change, Part Three examines how the fossil fuel industry worked to delay the transition to renewable energy sources — including by promoting natural gas as a cleaner alternative (PBS, 2022).

This series comes shortly after the recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stating that rapid action is needed in order to reduce planet-warming emissions of greenhouse gases and limit climate disaster, and outlining possible ways in which the world can take action to cut such emissions in half by 2030. “We are at a crossroads,” IPCC chair Hoesung Lee said in an announcement about the report. “The decisions we make now can secure a livable future.”

In related matters, the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) (1989–2001) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and publicly challenged the science behind global warming. The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations. The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States. The coalition knew it could not deny the scientific consensus, but sought to sow doubt over the scientific consensus on climate change (New York Times, 2009).

Weblinks are provided to sort fact from fiction and to separate truth and what we know as reality from fear, doubt, myth, and misinformation.
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https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-power-of-big-oil/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/resources/press/press-release/
https://www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg1/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/
https://www.climate.gov/
https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/climate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Climate_Coalition
https://www.desmog.com/global-climate-coalition/
https://climateinvestigations.org/global-climate-coalition-industry-cli…
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/science/earth/24deny.html
https://www.energyandpolicy.org/global-climate-coalition-utilities/
https://www.pbs.org/show/climate-change-facts/
https://www.noaa.gov/climate
https://climate.nasa.gov/
https://www.wri.org/climate
https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/climate#:~:text=WMO%20supports%20….
https://unfccc.int/
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6-HphcS89…
https://climate.esa.int/en/esa-climate/esa-cci/climate-change-initiativ…
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/space-daily/climate.asp
https://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gcom_c/
https://glad.umd.edu/
https://acespace.org/
https://www.fao.org/climate-change/our-work/what-we-do/en/

Big Oil and Climate Change: Doubt (Part 2), Aired April 26, 2022...

This is my second post in the series following the PBS FRONTLINE program “The Power of Big Oil.”

In The Power of Big Oil, a new three-part documentary series, FRONTLINE examines the fossil fuel industry’s history of casting doubt and delaying action on climate change, tracing decades of missed opportunities and ongoing attempts to hold Big Oil to account.

The documentary series comes on the heels of a new report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) saying that rapid action is needed in order to reduce planet-warming emissions of greenhouse gases and limit climate disaster, and outlining possible ways in which the world can take action to cut such emissions in half by 2030.

“We are at a crossroads,” IPCC chair Hoesung Lee said in an announcement about the report. “The decisions we make now can secure a livable future. We have the tools and know-how required to limit warming.” FRONTLINE has been covering climate change and other environmental threats for years and across platforms. With the premiere of The Power of Big Oil, revisit more than a decade’s worth of reporting. By Patrice Taddonio, April 12, 2022, (PBS, 2022).

Part One: Denial, premiered April 19 and charts the fossil fuel industry’s early research on climate change, investigating industry efforts to sow seeds of doubt about the science. Part Two: Doubt aired April 26, and Part Three: Delay premieres May 3 (PBS, 2022).

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The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) (1989–2001) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and publicly challenged the science behind global warming. The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations. The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States. The coalition knew it could not deny the scientific consensus, but sought to sow doubt over the scientific consensus on climate change (New York Times, 2009).

Weblinks are provided to sort fact from fiction and to separate truth and what we know as reality from fear, doubt, and misinformation.
___
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-power-of-big-oil/#video-2
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-power-of-big-oil/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/resources/press/press-release/
https://www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg1/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/
https://www.climate.gov/
https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/climate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Climate_Coalition
https://www.desmog.com/global-climate-coalition/
https://climateinvestigations.org/global-climate-coalition-industry-cli…
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/science/earth/24deny.html
https://www.energyandpolicy.org/global-climate-coalition-utilities/
https://www.pbs.org/show/climate-change-facts/
https://www.noaa.gov/climate
https://climate.nasa.gov/
https://www.wri.org/climate
https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/climate#:~:text=WMO%20supports%20….
https://unfccc.int/
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6-HphcS89…
https://climate.esa.int/en/esa-climate/esa-cci/climate-change-initiativ…
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/space-daily/climate.asp
https://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gcom_c/
https://glad.umd.edu/
https://acespace.org/
https://www.fao.org/climate-change/our-work/what-we-do/en/

Hi there from Chelmsford, England on behalf of Project Globalymbe. We are very much looking forward to discussing Stockholm+50 and IPBES9 conferences. Tally ho! Andrew.