Carbon Markets Protecting Forests

Carbon Markets Protecting Forests 

Lots of Enviro Good news today! Forest protection, social entrepreneurs, and the hope to influence policy makers.

Steve Zwick of Ecosystem Marketplace (SZwick@ecosystemmarketplace.com) writes about reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in his article for Huffpost Impact. The blog is part of a Social Entrepreneurs' Challenge to "identifying workable solutions to sticky environmental challenges." Ecosystems' parent organization, Forest Trends was invited by the Skoll Foundation to take part in the challenge.


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Buddhist Monks in Cambodia are using REDD to their advantage with the end result being the protection of close to 50,000 hectares of forest.


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Similar work is being done in Kenya  where REDD has  provided "solutions that are acceptable to both the rural communities and to the marketplace."

Social entrepreneurship is a great step in the right direction. We are most likely not going to eliminate the global monetary system and attempts to continue to do so will use up valuable time and energy. It's not wrong to have, want, or use money. It's very exciting to see that good works is becoming good business!

The Environment vs GMO's

Science and nature still locked in impasse

Earlier this year 14 year old Rachel Parent debates Kevin O'Leary  on the issue of GMO's.

This is a great example of the dynamic of science versus nature. The heated debate, like so many others of its kind, also reflects that people like to take a vehement stand. We fight for something we believe will have good results by standing against something we believe will have bad ones.

There is also no faster way to get publicity, than by offering folks the opportunity to say 'yay' or 'nay' to something that impacts their daily life; especially when it comes to our most basic needs. 

Parent admits she is against scientific interference of nature's organisms but also repeatedly makes clear her main point; that we be given a choice as consumers. She wants clear labeling on all GMO foods. David Suzuki's Queen of Green offers more insight into the debate by providing information that can help the consumer understand more about this very contentious issue. In this post, we find the bottom line again, that "It is the basic right to choice..." which is most at stake.

Shark Tank's, O'Leary, represents the corporate view very well. His hopes for a better food source are legitimate, yet, he doesn't appear to be well enough informed and seems to rely solely on Parent's young age to give him the edge in the debate. He even mentions his daughter; how she changed her mind about GMO's when she did the research. Unfortunately, his old-school approach cost him the debate. 

Is this old-school approach representative of the scientific community? In other words, are science and corporate interests inseparable as cooperators? It's what we've come to expect. Scientific research is costly and moves forward with financial support. Maybe we've left the support of our scientific community in the hands of established big business far too long. It's time to build new partnerships. Shift the direction of our future from a rigid bottom line that fears change. By now we've learned that our economy will not collapse if we change the way we do things. Green can also be big business.

"Stranded killer whale rescued from B.C. bay", is a hope-filled tale if you're looking for a great whale rescue story.

This B.C. event took place over the last few weeks and has a happy ending for all concerned. Yes, it's just one life saved in a sea of trouble, but, for the time being it's a positive note.

And, as the old saying goes, they made a difference to this one.

There is so much going on in the world that makes environmental sense. The Facebook page Grow Food, Not Lawns, has a lot of  great stuff about what you can grow and how to go about it. It's time well spent and you can jump into discussions along the way. I found that most of the comments people post are helpful and positive.
Via a post on The Yardener I got to watch a tutorial about building an English Wattle Fence and was delighted when the host mentioned that the materials were clippings. What a great way to make use of tree prunings!
My quest for good news on the environmental front continues.

I think the best news is that so many people are looking at the reality of what is working in our behaviour towards the environment and what isn't. It seems a real mess; well, it is a real mess, but there are a lot of solutions that are being recognized as valid. People are singing out from such mountain tops as TED Talks. I found my way to Naomi Klein: Addicted to risk today (the You Tube version worked better on my computer) and loved her direct and very human approach. The power of story, I do not mean the content marketing view here, rather, the stories we live out every day without questioning the value of the belief woven through the fabric of each character and episode. If we want a new ending, we need a new story.

The topic for this post is water. More specifically, storm water. Because we have paved so much of our world, water behaves differently when it falls from the sky. It no longer has the same freedom and collects in runoffs that can get out of control if the rain-fall is sudden and sustained.

Primarily US based, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) website has a great page of feature stories that can give some insight about storm water and how it's different from other types of water-flow and runoff. According to their twitter page, they are a "Not-for-profit technical & educational organization representing water quality professionals around the world." You can follow them @WEForg if that's your thing.

Is the management of storm water going to turn out to be a viable solution? That remains to be seen. The point is that we keep trying things and aren't too proud to say, "Woops! That didn't turn out so well. Lets try something else."

I don't know about you, but, the biggest problems I see when it comes to the destruction of our environment is that we can be stubborn about changing the way we do things.

Welcome to the first step I make towards a more meaningful involvement in matters 'environmental.' This is an intro blog where I will post at least once a week. My posts will include enviro-do-gooders, technological developments for health conscious folks, and links to good feeling news.

I'm not trying to be an ostrich, nor am I asking you to hide from the scary stuff that we need to change. I need to remember the good stuff though, so I don't feel hopeless, and figured that maybe I'm not alone in this. Balance is the key to happiness, I hear.

Monica