August Environment Report by Denise Clegg
In a June 2019 article in Forbes Magazine with the above name, author Jeff McMahon discusses three unusual ways to affect climate change. His source is Project Drawdown a world-class research and communication organization which serves as a non-partisan, noncommercial, highly trusted source of solutions to reverse global warming. See https:// www.drawdown.org/ for more information about their work. When you read the solutions that are written about in McMahon’s article you think, “Huh, why didn’t I think of that.”
First, educating girls and empowering women. Hmm! Who makes the most decisions in your family related to consumption? What you consume, how it’s prepared, what you wear, your purchases, all are decisions made by women. Couple that with education about family planning and you will understand how important the education of women is to the sustainability of the environment.
Second, protecting native lands. Because native peoples tend to keep their lands as nature intended, they are richer in biodiversity and biomass. Plants are not competing but coexisting. If you see an aerial photo of a native land versus a cultivated forest you can identify the richness in color of the native land. That color richness identifies increased stores of carbon.
Third, capturing refrigerants. It is not only the energy used by these machines that are a problem, but also the energy to manufacture them and the refrigerant materials themselves that wreak havoc. Even though we have changed the cooling materials, the currently used hydrofluorocarbons are 1000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. Trapping heat is what climate change is all about. To read the complete article go to https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/06/10/three-surprising-solutions-to-climate-change/#4a9282bb6742
What can we do to preserve pollinators?