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Words of Comfort For The Eco-Anxious

Fernanda Buriola was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil but now lives in Luxembourg. She has been writing for her own newsletter, Manhãs, for almost six years. Previous contributions were featured in the french magazine Zéphyr. She is most interested in writing about behavioral and natural science.

I was scrolling through Instagram, trying to escape reality for just five minutes, when I first came across the word “eco-anxiety.” I’d never heard the term before. Yet, the more I learn about it, the more I recognize the feeling.

I’ve been following Finn Harries for a long time now. He’s a designer and environmentalist. I don’t know anything about design, but I like his content on how architecture can respond to the climate crisis. Last summer, he posted the following message: “I’ve been battling with my mental health over the last couple of months. A big part of it is driven by the environmental crisis we’re facing. This even has its own term: eco-anxiety.”

Seeing Harries’s post, I paused to consider if I myself was eco-anxious. Of course, I care about nature, but I don’t lose any sleep over it. I figured climate scientists on the front line were the ones having a hard time, witnessing the realities of climate change on a daily basis and not being listened to. I never realized I could be having a hard time too.

Pain For The World

Lynda Sullivan, an Earth activist from North Ireland, told me she defines eco-anxiety as a “pain for the world.” The American Psychological Association, a reference for psychologists, defines it as “a chronic fear of environmental doom.”

According to a survey conducted by Sintra, a Finnish Innovation Fund, in 2019, a quarter of Finns experience some form of climate anxiety. Back in January, a YouGov poll said seven in ten young adults aged 18-24 in the U.K. were more worried about climate change than the previous year.

Official data and studies on eco-anxiety remain scarce. Nevertheless, in the last decade discussions on the effect of climate change on our mental health have finally started to get the attention they deserve.

Am I Eco-Anxious?

I’ve been struggling with my mental health since I moved to Belgium from São Paulo eight years ago, but I can’t tell how much of my struggle has been linked to the climate crisis. Worries about the world blend with worries about my own life.

When I was younger, I wanted to be a scientist of some sort: an ecologist, perhaps, or an oceanographer. I imagined myself learning more and more about nature, not only because Biology was my favorite subject at school, but also because a career as a scientist meant I could do something to reverse climate change.

I also wanted to be like my cousin. She is a biologist and the older sister I never had.

When it was time to decide on a career, I chose to act against climate change professionally by studying Biology. It was my first, small attempt to change the world—a desire common among young adults, my therapist tells me.

Over time I realized that nature doesn’t need saving—we do. Planet Earth will continue to spin, ecosystems will eventually regenerate, though maybe not back to how they were before. Now I fear what will happen to people, starting with the most vulnerable. Global warming, I realize, is a social issue.

Perhaps I would have finished my studies if I had been in Brazil, but in Europe, it proved almost impossible without the support I needed. At university—in a new country and culture, speaking a new language—I was at my most depressed. Completely alone, academic frustration merged with personal worries.

“I can do so much and yet so little. Does that make me eco-anxious?”

You can’t take care of the world if you’re on the wrong path. I changed mine—from Biology to Communication—yet my place on this planet remained a mystery. It is hard to feel useless when there is so much to be done.

As a response to my concerns, I put a lot of energy into controlling what was within my reach: what I consume, the waste I produce, what I eat. Everyday choices can leave me anxious and feeling guilty. There are days when this turns into hopelessness. I can do so much and yet so little. Does that make me eco-anxious?

A Spectrum of Emotions

I spoke to Caroline Hickman, a climate psychologist and researcher at the University of Bath, about my life choices, slightly compulsive recycling, and how my everyday fears for the planet, though scary, seem normal to me. Climate change was on the news before I was born, after all.

Hickman kindly explained that “anxiety is just one of the feelings people are dealing with [about climate change]. People are also struggling with despair and frustration and hopelessness.” So eco-anxiety might not be the best term; it is a catch-all for a whole range of feelings.

“Eco-anxiety is unlike ordinary anxiety, like worrying about finances or an exam, because this particular problem is not going away.”

If I can’t make the big important decisions, what can I do? That question can trigger in me a meticulous rethink of what I really want and need given the impact on the planet, or make me walk multiple blocks until I find that zero-waste store. But sometimes all the overthinking pauses and I find myself buying food in the closest shop. “These feelings come and go,” Hickman reveals, “but they don’t go away.”

Eco-anxiety is unlike ordinary anxiety, like worrying about finances or an exam, because this particular problem is not going away. Take the recent pandemic, for instance; no matter its impact on our lives, we are still capable of imagining a world without COVID-19 once a vaccine is developed. Similarly, most disgruntled employees can imagine getting a promotion or switching jobs. Life works in phases, usually. But if we can’t curb our carbon emissions fast, global warming will be a life-long, worsening reality for many of us, especially us younger generations, making it nearly impossible to envision a future without climate change.

A Normal Reaction to a Sick Planet

“Climate anxiety can be a problem if it is so intense that a person may come paralyzed,” researcher and professor of environmental theology at the University of Helsinki, Dr Panu Pihkala, wrote in a 2019 report, “but climate anxiety is not primarily a disease.”

Nonetheless, the report lists severe symptoms (states of depression, serious insomnia, compulsive behavior) and mild ones (occasional insomnia, effects on mood, milder symptomatic behavior). “Climate anxiety is combined in people’s lives with other anxieties,” writes Dr Pihkala, “such as those related to choosing a profession.” In case something else is causing deeper anxiety in a person’s life, he argues, climate anxiety should be taken seriously to better evaluate the overall situation.

In the U.K., Professor Hickman is now working to increase awareness among psychotherapists, doctors and teachers “so they can understand people’s distress through the lens of climate emergency.”

Action is no doubt the best solution, for the planet and ourselves. Putting ourselves to work can ease our minds. But are there other forms of self-care? As an exceedingly self-critical person, I was relieved to hear Hickman say we shouldn’t criticize ourselves for feeling out of balance. Easing up on the self-criticism, she told me, is a genuine way to look after ourselves.

“When feeling blue, it’s good to remember we are doing what we can. Or at least trying to.”

Like everyone I’ve talked to, she also agrees that eco-anxiety is a normal and understandable reaction to the problems we are facing. If you are in the habit of consuming information on climate change, it’s only natural you feel anxious about the existential threat it poses to humanity. “It is the people who are not anxious and angry that I would worry about,” she says.

When feeling blue, I believe, it’s good to remember we are doing what we can. Or at least trying to.

For Hickman, that means raising awareness about the emotional challenges of climate change. That, she tells me, is how she deals with her own anxieties.

In the final line of his Instagram post, Harries wrote: “We may be in a time of crisis but I’ve realized looking after our mental health and building our resilience is the first step to long term, meaningful action.”

This story, originally published by Are We Europe, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.

The Philippines lags in global push for renewables

The Philippines has been slow to action and way behind its commitments to global initiatives on reducing or avoiding gas emissions harmful to the environment, despite the existence of many laws seeking to promote the use of renewable energy sources. 

Instead of attracting investors in power projects run by non fossil fuels, the current regulatory environment has only discouraged foreign capital and even pushed big local players to put their money outside the country where the investment climate for renewable energy is considered “more hospitable.”

Globally, a lot is riding not only on turning to renewable forms of electricity generation, but also on moving away from fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and even natural gas, as the entire world has its sights on the 2050 goal of having greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduced to a net zero and limit global warming.

Against this backdrop, the Philippines appears to be gripped by inertia, especially when viewed along with the equally lofty goals of providing access to electricity for all and providing each household a choice of consuming electricity produced by renewable energy technology.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), based in France, notes that more and more countries are announcing pledges to achieve net-zero emissions—or balancing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere with the amount of emission removed or avoided.

But the IEA says that even if fully achieved, these pledges so far put forward by governments fall well short of what is required to achieve net zero by 2050.

For the Philippines, the government in April 2021 committed to the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change to reduce and avoid 75 percent of GHG emissions for the period 2020-2030. This goal covers the sectors of energy, transport, industry, agriculture and wastes.

The big “but” is that only 2.71 percentage point of this goal is unconditional, which the Philippines can do on its own. The main part, or 72.29 percentage points, is conditional. This means that its policies and measures will have to conform with the Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate change adopted in 2015.

Legal framework

Thus far, the Philippines’ toolbox that is helping these efforts include the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, the Biofuels Act of 2006, the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, the Climate Change Act of 2009, and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act.

Last month, amid mounting criticism of failing to address a rising threat of power shortage, the Department of Energy (DOE) said that over the past five years, it had completed the mechanisms under the Renewable Energy Act to facilitate greater private sector investments in renewables. These include the traditional ones—hydro and geothermal—as well as solar photovoltaic, wind and biomass.

One facet of this that the DOE is drumming up is the participation of consumers by producing on their own the electricity that they need, or to choose renewable energy as the source of electricity delivered to their premises.  

The mechanisms, the DOE said, include the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) policy, Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) policy and Enhanced Net-Metering System. These three, among others, are geared toward achieving a 35-percent share of renewable energy in the country’s power generation mix by 2030. 

The RPS is a market-based policy mechanism that requires power utilities to increase the use of renewable energy by 1 percent a year beginning in 2020 until 2030. The GEOP provides end-users the option to choose renewable energy facilities as their source of energy. Meanwhile, the net metering program enables ordinary electricity consumers to become a “prosumer,” with the ability to generate electricity for their own consumption and sell any excess generation to the distribution grid.

Wrong direction

According to Noel Estoperez, professor at Mindanao State University’s Iligan Institute of Technology, power generation using renewable energy started in the Philippines in 1913 with the 560-kilowatt Camp John Hay hydroelectric power plant that was developed by missionaries. As this flourished, hydro power was nationalized 23 years later through the law that also created National Power Corp. (Napocor).

Geothermal power came much later in 1979 in Tiwi, Albay. According to Guido Delgado, former president of Napocor, this facility that was initially rated at 55 megawatts and three years later at 330 MW, took 12 years to achieve commercial operations starting from a ceremonial lighting held in 1967.

After decades of incubation as a technology, solar and wind power started delivering to the Philippine grid in 2005. Biomass followed suit in 2009.

But in the Philippine Energy Plan 2018-2040, which was not finalized until November 2020, the energy department reiterates its stance of maintaining a “technology neutral approach” for an optimal energy mix.

This is explained as giving priority to “a reliable, sustainable and affordable energy mix” that will meet the country’s supply needs.

As of 2020, the share of renewable energy in the power mix was 29.2 percent, or 6,825 MW out of 23,410 MW of dependable generating capacity. The DOE defines dependable capacity as the capacity that “can be relied upon” or the performance that a power plant can actually deliver vis-à-vis its installed or nameplate capacity. This was a reduction from 32.5 percent in 2005 when solar and wind debuted in the mix and total dependable capacity across the archipelago was 13,595 MW.

Over the same 15-year period, the share of coal-fired power plants alone jumped to 43.8 percent (10,245 MW) from 25.2 percent (3,432 MW). Apparently, coal-based power may not be ecologically sustainable, but it is reliable and affordable.

Coal-based plants run round the clock as baseload facilities to cover the minimum demand while renewable energy facilities are dispatched mid-merit at best, to augment the baseload output when consumption kicks up. Also, power produced by coal-based energy arguably remains to be the lowest-cost for consumers.

Oil-based power plants—mainly used in small islands and also for additional capacity when demand peaks—accounted for 13 percent (3,054 MW) in 2020. In 2005, oil’s share was higher at 22.4 percent (3,403 MW). 

Rounding up the fossil fuels that fire up generators is natural gas—also used for baseload plants—which represented 14 percent of total dependable capacity in 2020 (3,286 MW), going down from 19.9 percent (2,703 MW) in 2005.

In terms of actual output, renewable energy technologies accounted for 21.2 percent or 21,609 gigawatt-hours out of a total of 101,609 gWh in 2020. This was lower than the 32.4-percent share in 2005, when renewables generated 18,609 gWh out of a total of 56,568 gWh. That was the first year when renewables were part of the power generation mix, with a combined 19 gWh from solar and wind. Biomass power plants came online only in 2009.

Policy backlash

This technology-neutral policy is, in fact, a double-edge sword. On the one hand, neutrality means not promoting any technology such as renewables. The result is the end of subsidies for renewable energy platforms, particularly solar and wind power, at a time of healthy investor interest.

As recently as 2019, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi was reiterating that power-generation projects should be competitive rather than dependent on incentives such as the Energy Regulatory Commission-approved Feed-in Tariff rates and guaranteed dispatch—which are forms of government subsidy.

One result of this policy materialized in the form of big renewable energy facilities abroad that are backed by local companies, and foreign companies looking at other markets instead of the Philippines. 

In April 2019, the Ayala group’s power generation platform AC Energy (Acen) marked the commercial operation of its first project in Vietnam. This was the $294-million, 330-MW Ninh Thuan solar farm, a joint venture with Vietnamese partner BIM Group.

Fernando Zobel de Ayala, president of Ayala Corp., who attended the ceremonial switch on, described the project as “a very large and meaningful investment” for Acen.

“Vietnam’s government has been very aggressive in attracting investments in renewables, particularly solar and wind,” Zobel said back then, noting that the Ninh Thuan facility was part of a renewable energy boom in Vietnam.

Eric Francia, president and chief executive of Acen,  would be echoing this as recently as last month, when he said: “Vietnam is an ideal place for sustainable investments as it leads the race to clean energy transition in the post-COVID world.” 

Over the next two years from the inauguration of the Ninh Thuan solar farm, Acen would announce renewable energy-related partnerships in India and Australia.

Other Philippine players such as the Aboitiz group are taking steps in the same direction. Aboitiz Power Corp., which had also explored Vietnam, is looking at opportunities in Indonesia.

More coal plants  

The Philippines’ policy of neutrality in power generation technology, on the other hand, also means not discouraging any technology such as coal-fired plants. Advocacy groups like the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development call for a ban, despite the coal industry flexing “clean coal technology” innovations through high-efficiency, low-emission generators in tandem with “carbon capture storage and utilization.”

Also in 2019, Cusi told the committee on appropriations at the House of Representatives that a “moratorium on any technology is a disservice to our country.” On Oct. 27, 2020, the DOE chief would announce at an international forum that the government has decided on a moratorium on new coal projects.

The DOE would take almost three months, releasing in mid-January 2021 a written advisory that spelled out the policy. The umbrella group Power for People (P4P) Coalition finds this “underwhelming” considering that the ban was about no longer accepting new applications for endorsement of coal projects, instead of outrightly disallowing the construction of any new coal-fired facility.

According to P4P, there are at least 8,070 MW of coal-based generating capacity in the pipeline that will still be left untouched by the DOE’s “alleged effort to pursue a more sustainable power sector.”

In a 2018 report on its assessment of the Philippine energy sector, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) notes that compared to fossil fuel-based power generation, the permitting process for renewable energy development is more complex.

For one, the issuance of a Renewable Energy Service Contract must undergo a competitive selection process. Also, incentives for renewable energy such as duty-free importation and income tax reduction can be accessed only after the project has been issued the contract.

“The same regulations and permitting processes are applied to all renewable energy projects whether large or small scale, including renewable energy deployment in mini-grids to enhance energy access in areas that are not yet energized or that receive limited power supply,” the ADB said.

“The transaction cost and time for undergoing such lengthy regulatory processes can make smaller renewable energy projects unattractive to investors,” it adds.

Not enough

Still, the DOE has lists of “awarded” renewable projects, those that have been green lit and which include projects in predevelopment and ongoing development stages.

In terms of potential generating capacity, these projects total 11,284.92 MW of hydro; 814.2 MW of geothermal; 11,892.31 MW of solar; 5,760.58 MW of wind, and 182.03 MW of biomass. All in all, these represent 29,034.04 MW of additional capacity for the entire Philippines.

Assuming that all these projects are realized, they will cover almost a third of the additional 90,584 MW that the country needs in order to meet the projected peak electricity demand in 2040 under a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario.

But in a clean energy scenario (CES), the Philippines needs more additional installed capacity at 93,482 MW.

“The high requirement for additional capacity in the CES is attributed to having more renewables in the system, specifically solar and wind that are considered variable capacity,” the PEP 2020-2040 explains.

This downplays a generator’s capacity as described by the manufacturers—thus called “installed capacity” or “nameplate capacity.” It is more practical to look at the dependable capacity, much more so with solar and wind, considering that these are intermittent and dependent respectively on the intensity of sunlight and the movement of air.

Also, the PEP 2020-2040 clarifies that the CES does not mean all-renewable. In fact, the scenario takes into account capacity contribution from natural gas—crude oil’s twin and coal’s less-polluting cousin—and “other low-carbon and highly efficient technologies.” This latter part suggests that coal remains in play.

Further, the two-decade plan tags the investment cost of the needed additional capacity under the BAU scenario at $104.7 billion. The cost of additional build needed for the CES is $124 billion, higher by 18 percent.

And this is partly why industry players balk at the idea of a swift and wholesale shift to clean energy, despite civil society’s assertion that the technologies and natural resources are readily available to make the transition.

Expensive technology

“I think, at the end of the day, there must be a commercial basis as to the choice between coal and [natural] gas for example or even renewables, and at the same time we are mindful of the power rates that we will charge to the consumers,” Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) chair Manuel V. Pangilinan says at a press briefing held last July.

Not only is Meralco the biggest electricity distributor in the Philippines, it is also building up a considerable presence in power generation.

“It’s alright to talk about renewables and gas, but if it translates into higher prices, that obviously will be met with some resistance, particularly politically,” Pangilinan points out.

Additionally, Pangilinan argues that the shift to renewables is a difficult choice, especially if the question of “who will pay for the cost of migration” is left unclear.

“I wish it were [an easy choice], but renewables don’t provide the kind of capacity that will supply the reserves that we need moving forward,” he adds. “I don’t think it’s a clear-cut case for renewables.”

In other words, the question is about balancing the cost against the pace of the energy shift. Currently, coal and gas cover Meralco’s baseload supply needs while renewables are primed to exclusively provide the company’s mid-merit requirements—which represent 29 percent of contracted capacity.

Meralco has also made a commitment to invest in and develop at least 1,500 MW of renewable energy projects over the next five to seven years.

Ray Espinosa, president of Meralco, points out that considering the prevailing sentiment to move away from coal, the burden of providing baseload supply falls on natural gas —now considered as the “transition fuel,” since it is cleaner than coal albeit still formed from fossils and thus rich in carbon.

Coal-free target

Indeed, other players like the Ayala group have set a goal of having their power-generation business coal-free by 2030. In 2019, AC Energy and Infrastructure Corp. completed the divestment of its 60-percent interest in the 632-MW GNPower Mariveles coal-fired plant in Bataan. This was sold to its partner, the Aboitiz group.

Ayala is in the process of offloading its 85-percent interest in the 552-MW GNPower Kauswagan coal-fired plant in Lanao del Norte; the remaining 35-percent stake in the 244-MW coal-fired plant of South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. in Batangas, and the 40-percent stake in the 1,336-MW coal-fired plant of GNPower Dinginin in Bataan.

The Aboitiz group itself has announced a P190-billion investment program to achieve a 50-50 balance in its renewables business and its conventional thermal generator assets.

“If decarbonizing the system is the goal, Meralco cannot do it alone without working with the rest of the power industry and of course with the government,” Pangilinan said. “Government has got to participate in that transition, which will be painful if done in a short timeframe.”

Alas, P4P, the consumer welfare coalition, laments the continued nonmention of the energy sector in President Duterte’s latest and final State-of the Nation Address last month.

Achievable goal

According to the IEA, global carbon dioxide emissions are expected to reach new record levels starting 2023 amid government spending shortfalls in the transition to clean energy, especially in emerging and developing economies.

“Since the COVID-19 crisis erupted, many governments may have talked about the importance of building back better for a cleaner future, but many of them are yet to put their money where their mouth is,” Fatih Birol, executive director of IEA, said in a statement.

“Despite increased climate ambitions, the amount of economic recovery funds being spent on clean energy is just a small sliver of the total,” Birol said.

Based on an analysis of 800 national policies including several that are implemented by the Philippine government, the agency found that governments have mobilized $16 trillion in fiscal support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However, only 2 percent or about $320 billion of the total is earmarked for clean energy transitions.

“Not only is clean energy investment still far from what’s needed to put the world on a path to reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century, it’s not even enough to prevent global emissions from surging to a new record,” Birol said.

Birol said the path to net-zero emission by 2050 “is narrow but still achievable,” but governments must act now by leading clean energy investment and deployment “to much greater heights beyond the [pandemic] recovery period.

This story, originally published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters. 

Glaciares. El Adiós de los hielos.

No hay hielos eternos. Cuando algo dura más que nosotros nos parece que está siempre, pero el tiempo geológico es tan diferente al humano que hay palabras que no sirven. «El término hielo perpetuo es muy literario y bonito, pero no es real. Ni siquiera al planeta Tierra se le puede considerar perpetuo…». Ignacio López Moreno, investigador del Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC) nos recuerda que, a lo largo de la historia geológica, los glaciares han desaparecido y se han vuelto a formar, siguiendo las grandes fluctuaciones climáticas que se han ido sucediendo, helando y deshelando la Tierra. La diferencia es que ahora estamos aquí para verlo, pues «esta es la primera fase de retroceso glaciar generalizada que sucede en un planeta poblado». En algunas zonas, «mucha gente va a sentir las consecuencias de dicha desaparición o sencillamente nos vamos a entristecer por perder un elemento tan fascinante de nuestros paisajes». A la vez, «dado que el hielo es un archivo de información ambiental», añade Ánchel Belmonte, estudioso de las cuevas heladas del Pirineo, «la fusión de hielo glaciar o subsuperficial constituye una pérdida de información sobre el pasado de la Tierra». Y esa información nos permite entender los procesos ambientales actuales y futuros que acarrea el cambio climático. Por eso, antes de que se vuelvan agua, urge leer los mensajes que atesora. 

Los investigadores tienen cierta sensación de cuenta atrás. «Somos unos ‘desglaciados’, nuestros glaciares están próximos a desaparecer, pero todavía queda mucho trabajo científico por hacer…», dice López Moreno, recordando la expresión que le gusta usar de broma a su amigo y colega Jorge Luis Ceballos, que estudia los glaciares de Colombia. El glaciar de Monte Perdido acaba de dejar leer unos capítulos de su historia que han sorprendido al equipo liderado por Ana Moreno, investigadora del IPE. 

Se habían propuesto desvelar cada uno de los renglones del diario secreto del glaciar de Monte Perdido y, entre las incógnitas congeladas, estaba su edad y también algunas claves sobre su futuro. «Ha sido una sorpresa encontrar hielo tan antiguo», asegura Moreno. «Modelos teóricos del movimiento del hielo en un glaciar como Monte Perdido nos hablaban de unos 200 años», explica. 

En 2017 subieron hasta allí para hacerse con una columna de hielo que se convirtió en el primer sondeo de hielo continental extraído en la península ibérica. Aplicando la técnica de carbono 14 a pequeños restos orgánicos conservados en el hielo, han podido determinar que este glaciar está presente desde, al menos, los últimos 2.000 años. Aunque retrocedió, siguió formando parte del paisaje en los periodos cálidos de época romana y durante la Edad Media, sin llegar a desaparecer. Ahora, la situación es otra. 

Porque a lo inesperado de encontrar vestigios tan antiguos se añade la novedad de comprobar que al diario de este glaciar también le faltan hojas, las más recientes. Echar en falta niveles altos de hollín, mercurio o el plomo asociado a la gasolina -el sello de la actividad humana actual- indica que en un siglo se ha fundido el hielo acumulado en los últimos 600 años. Esta enorme pérdida de hielo reciente «nos habla de una fusión muy rápida -dice Ana Moreno-; ahora mismo prácticamente no hay acumulación». 

Cuenta atrás. 

Los continuados estudios del grupo de López Moreno sobre los glaciares pirenaicos llevan la cuenta y detallan que «desde mediados del siglo XIX ha desaparecido el 90% de la superficie cubierta por hielo (había mas de 2.200 hectáreas); en 1985 quedaban unas 800 hectáreas de glaciares y ahora apenas superan las 200. El número de glaciares ha disminuido de 39 a 21». Entre 2011 y 2020, «lejos de parar esa tendencia -destaca este experto-, se ha perdido el 21% de la superficie helada y tres glaciares se han considerado extintos». En este breve periodo, «los glaciares han perdido de media 7,1 metros de espesor de hielo (la altura de una casa de dos plantas) y las pérdidas en algunos sectores concretos llegan casi a los 30 metros. Cuando medimos el espesor de hielo que queda, apenas encontramos sectores que superen los 20 metros». La conclusión es evidente: «Los glaciares van a desaparecer del Pirineo en muy pocas décadas, tan solo algunos quedarán como formas muy residuales». 

Los investigadores de varios centros de investigación españoles, liderados desde el Pirenaico de Ecología, integrantes del proyecto ‘Explora Paleoice’ que ha puesto edad al glaciar de Monte Perdido notaban cerca ese tic-tac: «Sentíamos que había una oportunidad con este proyecto porque es verdad que la situación está cambiando deprisa», señala Ana Moreno que, con sus ojos de geóloga, comprende que «no es más que una consecuencia del aumento de temperaturas global. Otros paisajes aparecerán y otros glaciares volverán… ¡en unos miles de años!». 

En el Pirineo hay por ahora numerosas cuevas con depósitos de hielo, que también es objeto de estudio. «Ahí parece que está más protegido -indica Moreno-. Aún así, en todas se ve una importante tasa de fusión y pensamos que acabará desapareciendo». 

Investigadores como ella o como su compañero del IPE Ignacio López Moreno son conscientes de que «los glaciares que estudiamos actualmente van a cambiar y a degradarse de forma muy rápida en las próximas décadas, pero también, desde un punto de vista científico, es superinteresante estar en una de las zonas del planeta donde podemos observar y estudiar las últimas fases de nuestros últimos glaciares». Además, «este proceso nos permite ver cómo la vida ocupa estos espacios anteriormente helados. En el Pirineo se están formando lagos que son una oportunidad única de ver cómo nuevas especies se van sucediendo y asentando en ellos, la formación de suelos y la llegada de vegetación son cuestiones de gran interés». 

Atentamente sigue el nacimiento de estos ibones, hijos del deshielo, Javier San Román, geólogo y coautor junto a José Luis Piedrafita del libro ‘Glaciares del Pirineo’. El ibón del Aneto, a 3.105 metros, que en 2015 ya medía 0,05 hectáreas, ocupaba en 2019 seis veces más (0,3), con una profundidad de 4 o 5 metros. Para él, en medio de la tristeza de saber que «esa magnífica masa de hielo que estás contemplando, con sus bandeados, grietas y bloques de roca incrustados, va a desaparecer», dar la bienvenida a estos lagos que están surgiendo donde antes estaba el glaciar es como «un premio de consolación, una especie de reencarnación». En el Pirineo «hay pocos casos recientes de aparición de lagos, y son pequeños, pero en los Alpes es una pasada -refiere San Román-. En el glaciar del Ródano, por ejemplo, ha aparecido un lago de unas 10 hectáreas en los últimos 15 años». 

Los glaciares están retrocediendo en prácticamente todo el planeta, «solamente en algunos sitios donde las temperaturas aún son bajas (a pesar de que hayan aumentado) y donde además la precipitación se ha incrementado han mostrado balances de masa positivos», señala López Moreno. Es el caso de algunas zonas en el norte de Noruega. Pero los glaciares tropicales y los situados en latitudes bajas del hemisferio norte, como los del Pirineo, están en una situación crítica y desaparecerán en las próximas décadas. «Los glaciares de mayor entidad situados en latitudes más elevadas son lógicamente los que perdurarán más tiempo e incluso podrán superar los escenarios más pesimistas de calentamiento global», prevé. 

Estos cambios tienen consecuencias. «El hielo glaciar es de vital importancia por muchas razones -destaca Belmonte, que es coordinador científico del Geoparque Mundial de la Unesco Sobrarbe-Pirineos-. Millones de personas en todo el mundo dependen de los recursos hídricos que genera su fusión estacional, particularmente en Asia (glaciares del Himalaya) y Sudamérica (de los Andes). La disminución de los glaciares se traduce allí en una menor disponibilidad de agua para riego y boca». López Moreno añade que «al mismo tiempo se incrementarán los riesgos naturales asociados a avenidas fluviales por desbordamientos en lagunas de montaña, debidos a ritmos de fusión muy acelerados, o por colapsos de glaciares que pueden represar ríos, liberándose posteriormente grandes cantidades de agua». 

Además, la fusión de los glaciares impacta directamente en el ascenso del nivel del mar, un problema de gran envergadura que no tardará en ser acuciante. «El calentamiento global va a hacernos más ‘daño’ y ‘antes’ por la inundación de playas, deltas, ciudades…», augura San Román. 

En zonas con glaciares más pequeños, como el Pirineo, «la principal implicación es la pérdida de un paisaje muy característico de nuestras montañas, la imposibilidad de estudiar un archivo ambiental muy valioso y, sobre todo, una evidencia muy palpable de que el clima de nuestras montañas se está calentando», valora López Moreno. 

Esa media de 7 metros de espesor de hielo, en algunos sitios hasta 30 metros, perdida en los glaciares del Pirineo entre 2011 y 2020 representa décadas o siglos de registro ambiental que ya no se podrán analizar. Por ello, «mientras quede hielo», es tan interesante estudiarlo y los científicos instan a guardar parte congelada para los investigadores del futuro. 

Deshielo global 

Nuestro planeta gotea, pierde hielo a velocidad creciente. Un grupo de investigación británico de la Universidad de Leeds ha constatado cómo se acelera la fusión del hielo en todo el mundo. Es el primer estudio sobre la pérdida global de hielo que se basa en observaciones de satélite, concretamente de ERS, Envisat y CryoSat y de las misiones de la Agencia Espacial Europea Copernicus Sentinel-1 y 2. El trabajo concreta que, entre 1994 y 2017 se perdieron 28 billones de toneladas de hielo, a un ritmo de 1,3 cada año. La velocidad del deshielo aumenta en mayor medida en la Antártida y Groenlandia. Y, a pesar de que los 215.000 glaciares de montaña que existen almacenan tan solo el 1% del volumen total de hielo de la Tierra, han contribuido a casi una cuarta parte de las pérdidas de hielo globales durante el periodo de estudio. 

La mayor parte del hielo de la Tierra se encuentra en los glaciares de los casquetes polares (Antártida y Groenlandia) -los icebergs o témpanos son fragmentos desprendidos del frente de glaciares que desembocan en el mar-. En menor medida, en los glaciares de montaña (Himalaya, Andes y otras cordilleras). Hay también hielo bajo la superficie terrestre atrapado en suelos permanentemente helados (permafrost), particularmente en latitudes altas del hemisferio norte. A la lista hay que añadir las «acumulaciones menores, pero de gran valor ambiental y científico, del interior de ciertas cavidades, las cuevas heladas», apunta Ánchel Belmonte. Finalmente, «tenemos las banquisas, el mar congelado, cuyo deshielo no contribuye directamente al ascenso del nivel del mar, como sí ocurre con la fusión de los hielos continentales, sea cual sea su ubicación». Sin embargo, puede haber una influencia indirecta, según señala Isobel Lawrence, investigadora del Centro de Observación y Modelado Polar de Leeds: «Una de las funciones clave del hielo marino del Ártico es reflejar la radiación solar, lo que ayuda a mantener fresco el Ártico. A medida que el hielo marino se contrae, los océanos y la atmósfera absorben más energía solar, lo que hace que el Ártico se caliente más rápido que cualquier otro lugar del planeta». Se calcula que por cada centímetro que suba el nivel del mar, aproximadamente un millón de habitantes de zonas bajas de la Tierra estarán en riesgo de tener que desplazarse. 

A todo ello se suma que unos y otros hielos son parte del medio físico de múltiples ecosistemas, por lo que su desaparición compromete la existencia de numerosas especies. Y la fusión del permafrost tiene consecuencias particulares; para Ignacio López Moreno, «quizás el impacto en desestabilizar infraestructuras construidas sobre él, el retroceso espectacular de la costa en muchas zonas litorales del Ártico por erosión y la emisión del metano almacenado en los suelos helados, que es un gas de efecto invernadero muy potente, sean las más significativas». 

This story, originally published by Heraldo de Aragón, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.

In A Light That Is Leaving

Eco-anarchists are fighting for the preservation of Germany’s forests

In the woods between Cologne and Aachen, secrets are whispered, communications are encrypted, meetings are arranged by nightfall, and barricades are constantly built and destroyed at every entrance point. Here, it always feels like the apocalypse is about to occur.

There are people living in this forest—somewhere between ten and one hundred, no one will say—and they are waiting it out until the inevitable “Day X,” when they will be evicted, their treehouse homes destroyed by the police, and the last of the forest will be cut down forever.

Hambacher Forest in Germany is home to a group of eco-anarchists fighting against Germany’s second biggest power company, RWE.

The threat of the neighboring lignite mine being expanded looms closer as more and more trees are cut down every year. The occupation is reflective of a larger ongoing political and environmental conflict over brown coal in the country. While generating 35% of its energy from renewable resources and planning to phase out nuclear power by 2022, Germany still deforests to mine lignite.

But there is no big battle scene to be found in “Hambi” as it is affectionately known, just the slow tedium of a constant struggle. Treehouses are built and evicted every few months. People come and go, and in between arrests and clashes, there is a lot of waiting around for the end of the world.

On September 13, 2018, what the activists have named “Day X,” or Eviction Day, finally arrived. The police began a massive eviction of the area in what is estimated to be one of the largest and longest police operations in North Rhine Westphalia. Special forces and police systematically evicted and destroyed the treehouses and arrested activists for 5 days before a journalist accidentally died, halting the process temporarily. The area was marked as a danger zone, which restricted the rights of the occupants, and prevented civilians from entering the forest.

At the end of the eviction, the activists were already planning to rebuild the occupation and continue resisting, but the future of Hambacher is worrying. Day X will probably come eventually.

Already, there is just 10% left of the 12,000 year-old natural resource it once was. Much like the rest of our planet, it walks a critical precipice. “In a light that is already leaving” is more the story of the frustration we feel when we look at the state of the world around us, when it isn’t enough to share a Facebook link or stand in the street with a protest sign. What else do we have, if not our need to keep fighting in the face of the end of the world? And why must we wait for the end of the world to act?

‘So we wait, breeding

mood, making music

of decline. We sit down

in the smell of the past

and rise in a light

that is already leaving.’

– Rita Dove, November for Beginners

This story, originally published by Are We Europe, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.

Lost in Space Junk

They say what goes up must come down. When it comes to space, however, this expression doesn’t ring so true with space debris now reaching crisis proportions. 

In fact, there are currently around 28,600 debris objects tracked by space surveillance networks and many more objects not able to be tracked at all.

However, regulating the use of space and keeping countries accountable for debris, is no easy feat, said Steven Freeland, Emeritus Professor at Western Sydney University and Professorial Fellow at Bond University specialising in Space Law.

“I’m not saying it’s impossible, and that we should just throw our hands up and wait for disasters to happen,” he said. “There’s a lot of discussion and a lot of work being done already, but it’s not easy and that’s really the point.”

Although Australia is not a top contender in the global space industry, Celine D’Orgeville, Professor at the Australian National University, sees Australia having a strong political influence in global discussions. 

“There is room for Australia to take a little bit of leadership and guide this conversation at the policy level, I don’t know if Australia will do it but there is an opportunity,” she said.

As each year more satellites are sent up to space, our reliance upon this technology increases. From Wi-Fi to online banking, if a major collision was to knock out functioning satellites our lives would be dramatically changed, Professor Freeland said. 

“So, to the extent we continue on a ‘business as usual’ basis to create unacceptable amounts of additional debris to the point where we create irreversible damage, or at least for generations and generations, then that will have devastating effects on the world, the economy, lifestyles, infrastructure; in essence, everything about the functioning of our society may collapse.”

While countries are entering legal discussions in an attempt to regulate the use of space, researchers are investigating potential ways to mitigate collisions and ‘clean up’. 

However, even new technologies can’t escape the inherently political nature of space exploration. 

Professor Freeland said many countries are concerned.

“If you develop the technology to clean up the debris – and that technology will be essential – we still need to deal with the lingering question as to how to prevent you from using that technology to grab my ‘live’ satellite, upon which I am dependent, which would of course, compromise my ability to function,” he said.

“The issue is intensely legal and it’s intensely political. You can’t separate the two.”

Professor D’Orgeville said doing technology in space is not difficult, but it’s something we can do and learn to do better.

“Doing it well and preserving space, that’s the political dimension and it’s definitely, from my point of view as a scientist, more complicated,” she said.

This story, originally published by Central News, a multi-platform news service based at the University of Technology Sydney, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.

How deforestation in the Amazon and global warming are related to droughts and flooding in Rio Grande do Sul

A boat in a flooded street in Montenegro during the July floods: 2020 had various extreme climate events in Rio Grande do Sul. CREDIT: JEFFERSON BOTEGA / AGENCIA RBS

Civil Defense estimates billion-real losses due to extreme climate events in Rio Grande do  Sul (RS). The most recurring among those events is drought, which has struck the state hard in the last two years. According to the institution, between October 2019 and January 2020, 105 municipalities declared a state of emergency due to drought, with estimated losses of R$ 3.2 billion to the RS economy regarding both private and public properties. The 2020-2021 scenario is no different – in the same time period, 107 municipalities entered a state of emergency, with losses estimated to be R$ 2.6 billion. 

News of natural disasters have been commonplace to the RS population, due to lack of rain or due to damage caused by excessive rain, another very common kind of extreme event. A remarkable example can be seen in Camargo, which has about 3,000 inhabitants and is  situated in the state’s northern area. In February 2020, five days after declaring a state of emergency due to drought, the municipality was struck by heavy rain and wind which unroofed 70 houses. The state of emergency was renewed for different reasons. 

“We had already been having issues with lack of water and great losses in agricultural production. Practically 70% of the municipality’s revenue comes from the primary sector. We  had already been dealing with that hardship and now, tomorrow we’ll be declaring a state of emergency and disaster even, I believe, due to the heavy wind”, declared then the mayor at  the time, Eliani Trentin. 

Climatologists believe that extreme situations should become even more commonplace in the following years. That is one of the various effects caused by global climate change. An analysis from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published on  January 14 showed that global temperatures rose 1.02°C in 2020 in relation to the moving  averages from the years 1951 and 1980, which makes last year the hottest ever measured by the institution. 

“The previous record warm year, 2016, received a significant boost from a strong El Niño [a change in water surface temperature distribution in the Pacific Ocean]. The lack of a similar assist from El Niño this year is evidence that the background climate continues to warm due  to greenhouse gases”, stated Goddard Institute for Space Studies director Gavin Schmidt in  a press release. [Obs.: busquei e utilizei a frase original do diretor] 

Beyond global warming, the Brazilian scenario contributes significantly to the extreme events with deforestation, according to climatologists. The deforestation rate disclosed by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) grew 9.5% in a year, reaching 11,000  square kilometers in deforested area between August 2019 and July 2020 – a time interval which calculates the complete rain/drought cycle. The goal proposed at the Copenhagen Climate Convention (in Denmark) in 2009, which was undersigned by Brazil, was less than a third of said number (around 3,000 square kilometers). 

According to Francisco Aquino, a climatologist from the Geography Department of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), deforestation in the Amazon is directly correlated to the drought seen in Rio Grande do Sul. 

“The humidity circulation in the atmosphere has been undergoing changes, and so have the water regimes. Adding it to human activity, this causes an environmental crisis. ‘Crisis’ is a good word to use at the moment.”, the climatologist states. 

Aquino muses that excessive deforestation causes changes in the water regime – the set of variations in rains and rivers – all over Brazil, not just in the Amazon. That is due to the humidity in northern Brazil helping keep an equilibrium between rain and drought periods. 

“The Amazon has often supplied the south region and gotten a water deficit. The humidity it  creates, right now, may not be enough to provide for itself. What the scientific community has been warning is that we’re reaching the limit for the systems to augment these flaws and  for the ecosystems to collapse. They won’t be able to recover if we don’t stop logging. We’ve  got record numbers in the Amazon due to lack of oversight, since somebody does logging  and then creates a fire to clear the area. The fire spins out of control due to the region being  drier than it should be.”

Meteorologist Cátia Valente, who is responsible for the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Defense Situation Room, muses that the connection between both facts may not be easily noticeable. According to her, peak deforestation periods are small in comparison to the time scale of  climate change. However, Cátia emphasizes that extreme events are becoming the rule: 

“They have been more and more frequent and intense. Whether they’re related to climate change, science can say.” 

Cátia notices that the presence of the La Niña phenomenon, which causes a cooling of Pacific Ocean waters, has had an enormous impact on rain distribution in Rio Grande do Sul in the last few years. 

“In the summer of 2020, we had a prolonged drought, which extended into autumn. La Niña acted during the spring, disfavoring rain once again. We’ve had a few big rain events, in the  northern part of the state, but they were one-offs. Last year, we did not recover from the  water deficit that had been happening since the summer. Thus far, we’ve had a hydrological deficit of 300-800 mm accrued in the state”, the meteorologist clarifies. 

Cátia is one of the people responsible for sounding the alarm for extreme climate events, which people can receive through text messages on their cell phones. Forecasting the next  months, she declares that the rain from the beginning of January improved the situation slightly, but the state’s water system “continues to be compromised”. 

“At least until the middle of next year, we’ll be having irregular rain and water deficit issues. The outlook is that the situation could improve starting this year’s second half, with the Pacific Ocean being less cold. At least until the middle of the year, the scene doesn’t look  good”, she states. 

Meanwhile, professor Francisco Aquino notes the necessity of enhancing environmental oversight, not simply to reduce deforestation in the Amazon, but also to recompose the climate system as a whole – which includes reducing the damage of the drought in Rio  Grande do Sul. 

“A forest like the Amazon doesn’t have big stretches of drought and dryness. It is exuberant due to refuelling and recomposing itself. What’s been happening in the last four decades is that every year we cause damage. When public policy is favorable towards oversight, 

towards control, you realize that the system recomposes itself, it wants to improve. When we loosen oversight and control, the system degrades swiftly”, Aquino states. 

The impact of climate change in practice: see, in the gallery below, extreme events captured by GZH photographers in Rio Grande do Sul throughout 2020 

Extreme climate events, including rapid yet violent storms, cause effects on agriculture that  are felt even in the lives of urban area dwellers. In June 2020, the effect of drought on the  RS per capita income was to the tune of 3.3%, directly affecting the production of soy  (-27.7%), corn (-19.3%) and tobacco (-22%). Produce such as sweetcorn, spinach and  green beans had reduced harvests due to lack of rain, which raised their prices in supermarket shelves. 

“It affects general biodiversity. The produce is more expensive. You’re going to plan the net  50 years knowing you’ll be spending more money on insurance, on losses. Every farmer, when they go look for more financing, more insurance, faces greater risks. The bank says  there is greater risk because climate change is real. It’s automatic”, says Aquino. 

The climatologist muses that the pandemic shows predatory relationships towards the environment will worsen these problems in the years to come. 

“The pandemic is a fruit of deforestation, of environmental issues, of general degradation. It’s a typical example of how detached our lifestyle is from the planet’s reality. For some people, we may have investments and profitability, using natural resources as aggressively as possible, without thinking of tomorrow. This will utterly doom us all.” 

Cátia Valente also proposes that environmental education is essential to improve conservation efforts and reduce damage to nature, but that it will bring a fresh coat of belonging to new generations. 

“The community must feel like they belong to the environment. We must explain what  climate change is, why and how it happens and, at the same time, make it so the neighborhood kid knows all the garbage they use goes somewhere and may influence stronger rainfall to come and all its consequences. I believe in environmental education and in the actions of the community, in the neighborhoods, in the more practical sense. Science needs to work more in management, with public policies, bringing universities to the decision  making process, with public and private initiatives”, she states.

This story, originally published by Zero Hora in Brazil, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.

Climate change is the front-page story of the rest of our lives

David Callaway is founder of Callaway Climate Insights, a former editor of USA Today, and former president of the World Editors Forum.

San Francisco – The text from my local police department came without warning or detail – mandatory evacuation. A fire had started in the hill above my neighborhood minutes ago, and suddenly, early on a sunny Thursday morning last month, we were told to run for our lives. 

Minutes later, another text. Fire out. To be honest, we hadn’t even had time to grab a bag. We were lucky. 

Climate change is the story of displacement and migration. Tens of thousands of people in the last few years around the world have lost their homes and their loved ones to global warming. Wildfires in Australia and the Western United States. Killer floods in China and Germany. Heatwaves across Europe and Canada. Stronger hurricanes and typhoons. Longer droughts and water running out, even as rising seas threaten to drown coastlines and island nations.  

Like it or not, climate change will be the front-page story for the rest of our lives. For journalists, the challenge of telling that story with facts and fairness is paramount to the global effort required to transition our economies from fossil fuels to renewable energy. 

As climate disasters have soared in the last few years, so has news coverage, reflecting a public interest that has begun to manifest itself in national elections as well as protests across the globe. Large news organizations such as The Guardian, The Washington Post and the South China Morning Post have built dedicated teams to the climate beat. 

Smaller, start-up news companies have formed to focus solely on the science, politics, and business of global warming. Climate Home News in the UK. Eco-Business.com in Singapore. Inside Climate News in the U.S. After 40 years in major newsrooms around the world, I’ve even started my own newsletter, Callaway Climate Insights, to focus on investing in climate solutions, from electric vehicles to off-shore wind. 

For all the activity, the news world’s attention to climate change is still in its infancy. Politicians still argue that it is a myth. People distrust the science, as we’ve seen with Covid. Some claim it’s advocacy journalism. Only when global warming comes to their doors do many people react. 

There has never been a greater need for journalism that has impact. Such as the Wall Street Journal coverage of the California fires two years ago, which found that the Paradise fire that destroyed a town and killed dozens was caused by the downed power line of public utility PG&E. 

Or the Guardian’s new series this summer, Climate Crimes, which covers the role Big Oil has played in polluting the atmosphere. Or the Washington Post, which won a Pulitzer Prize for a series on what would happen to the world if it exceeded the temperatures scientists said we must stay below. 

Or more recently, the decision by Britain’s Channel 4 to broadcast a controversial videotape of an Exxon lobbyist boasting that the company’s agreement to discuss a tax on carbon emissions was simply a stalling tactic. All forced attention to the issue. 

Behind the headlines, a wall of money is beginning to emerge for climate solutions from investors big and small who see the threat, and the opportunity, of the next few decades. More than $5 trillion has been invested in sustainable assets since 2018, according to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance.

That money is looking for entrepreneurs who can find ways to create networks of charging stations across the world for electric vehicles. Or remove plastics from the ocean. Or suck carbon from the atmosphere and bury it deep in the earth. 

Companies in battery technology, off-show wind farms, solar products, and plant-based food are going public and rewarding investors for their support. The stories of these companies, the winners and the losers, and which ones will be the next global leaders as the world begins to shift, will be written by journalists. 

In less than six weeks, in early November, the United Nations will convene a global summit called COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, which is being billed as the last chance for the world’s countries to agree on climate goals. Those include eliminating coal usage, adapting electric vehicles worldwide, and support for poorer countries most affected by the ravages of global warming. 

Democratic governments respond to the will of their people, which will need to hold them to account in the coming decades to make the changes so important to mitigating the worst of global warming yet to come. That will is reflected and often can be raised by journalists telling important stories, with facts and science. 

How news organizations respond to this challenge will in no small part dictate the credibility they are given by the free world in coming years as the climate emergency comes to all of our doors.

This story, written by David Callaway, the founder of Callaway Climate Insights, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters. 

Help kids discover climate change

  • Young children are passionate about our planet — and they can learn more about climate change while they build their news literacy skills and knowledge of science. On World News Day, participating newsrooms can download and republish this sample KidsScoop page, Going Green.

Kid Scoop is a youth feature appearing weekly in more than 300 newspapers, reaching over 7 million young learners and their teachers. The lively and educationally sound Kid Scoop activities propel children into many parts of the newspaper — reading news written by professional journalists.

Skipping the straw in Lebanon

  • Abu Alfabegan, founder of Skip The Straw Lebanon persuaded Beirut restaurants to stop using plastic straws. She is profiled by Rory Rusnak, founder of the Ireland-based Youth for Positive Change. The interview is part of the World Teenage Reporting Project — Climate Champion Profiles.

So, to start, could you give us some background info on what Skip the Straw Lebanon is and why you started it?

Skip the Straw Lebanon is an environmental campaign aimed at eliminating the use of plastic straws in restaurants and cafes in Lebanon. I directly collaborate with restaurants and cafés to help them switch to plastic-free alternatives and provide them with a ‘We Skip the Plastic Straw’ door sticker (made of recycled paper) once they have made the switch – as a way to show their customers their dedication to the environment.

As part of Skip the Straw, I also sell reusable glass straws at Lebanon’s first zero-waste store, EcoSouk, and started a petition to the Ministry of Environment to ban plastic straws across Beirut, which has now garnered more than 48,000 signatures!

I was inspired to start Skip the Straw Lebanon after watching a video online of a young woman from California who convinced her colleagues to stop using plastic straws and, after gaining enough traction, then created a campaign to make plastic straws illegal across her state. The documentary lay in my subconscious for quite a while and then one day I happened to come across a stand selling glass straws, I remembered the video, and decided to buy one. From then on, I made a pledge to stop using plastic straws and became more aware of the impact plastic pollution has on our oceans and marine life. I soon realized that a lot of other people weren’t aware of the plastic-pollution epidemic and so I created Skip the Straw Lebanon as a way of educating others on how we can move to a post-plastic world!

In your experience, how receptive have restaurants been to “skipping the straw” and going plastic-free?

Before Lebanon plunged into economic crisis, I found that many restaurants, especially smaller ones owned by the younger population, were very receptive to the idea of sustainability. They were taking real strides in replacing plastic items and trying to cut their waste. With larger restaurants it was more difficult, but generally all restaurant owners/marketing managers had positive attitudes towards our campaigning for plastic-free businesses. Unfortunately, when our economic crisis started a year and a half ago, it became increasingly difficult to approach restaurants as their main concern was trying to stay afloat – as opposed to thinking about sustainability.

In August of this year, Beirut was devastated by an explosion which left important resources (such as food and water) in great demand. Was your work – and other environmental advocacy – negatively impacted by this tragic event?

After the explosion, all efforts were going towards repairing homes, providing food and water to those who had lost access and raising funds for medical supplies. At that time, everyone’s concern was to help others. I truly believe that people in Lebanon, especially the younger population (who are often involved in environmental and other forms of advocacy) had the interest of the population in mind – because when you see your people covered in their own blood on the street, when you see your city, your windows, literally blow up in front of your eyes, your first instinct is to act.

On a positive note, a large-scale glass recycling movement developed after the explosion. People donated their broken window shards to local recycling companies and the shards were upcycled into traditional Lebanese water pitchers. Many, many people bought the pitchers (myself included.) These same recycling companies also helped to ensure that no rubble or other remains of fallen buildings were gone to waste. In this regard, I’d say that the environmental advocacy movement continued, albeit in a different form, after the explosion.

I constantly saw the phrase ‘We Will Rebuild Beirut’ on social media after the explosion. Given my environmentalist background, I thought about what I could do to help not only rebuild Beirut, but rebuild it green. This is where my idea for a large-scale, multistakeholder project came from. I will be launching the project later this year, hopefully. So stay tuned!

In 2019, Lebanon became the first country in the Middle East to open a zero-waste store. Similarly, with the establishment of groups like Fridays for Future Lebanon and yours, it seems like Lebanon is in the midst of an environmental awakening. Have you noticed a shift in the way the climate is spoken about recently?

Yes, definitely! The surge in environmentalism was particularly evident in 2019, before the pandemic, the explosion and the financial crisis. In the fertile period before the chaos, many environmental groups were gaining prominence and I noticed that our generation especially was becoming more aware of climate change and more interested in fighting for climate justice.

Now, with the plethora of crises that Lebanon is facing, it is difficult for any form of advocacy to gain traction. The public is too preoccupied with issues that relate to survival: getting food, medical supplies and internet access. But nevertheless we persist! Although I am not able to run Skip the Straw Lebanon right now, I am continuing my work in advocacy through an internship at a local nature conservation center as well as the large-scale project I mentioned previously.

Finally, what can people reading this – both within and outside of Lebanon – do to help Skip The Straw?

Skip the Straw Lebanon is all about cutting down on plastic – so, wherever you live, make changes to reduce your waste. By doing this, you’re helping Skip the Straw Lebanon (and so many other international campaigns) to eliminate plastic use! If you’re interested in our work, check out our Instagram page and follow us for updates!

This story, first published by Youth for Positive Change, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.

Sparkling teeth, cleaner planet

  • Meet the Indian teenager who has created a new kind of toothbrush that is designed to reduce plastic waste. Here, Saumya Chauhan, a student journalist for The Global Times at Amity International School in India, profiles the inventor, Dhruvi Gupta. The story is part of the World Teenage Reporting Project — Climate Champion Profiles.

Saumya Chauhan, currently a student at Amity International School, Pushp Vihar, is an avid writer and contributes regularly for The Global Times newspaper. A member of the school Student Council, Director of the school’s Interact (social wellness) club and an active environmentalist; she aspires to bring change in her community.

There is no planet B. And yet not many of us are walking the path that can help us save the planet we have. Dhruvi Gupta, a student of Class IX at Amity International School Vasundhara 6, is one of the select few who has chosen to walk the road less taken. With her innovation ‘Easy Brush’, she has not only rehashed the everyday task of brushing one’s teeth, but also minimising the waste that comes with using plastic toothbrushes. Dhruvi talks about how the idea of combining oral hygiene and concern for the environment took shape, the challenges, and what she hopes to see next both for herself and for the planet.

Toothbrush inventor Dhruvi Gupta

What inspired you to create a recyclable toothbrush?

I was travelling on a train when I noticed some vendors selling plastic toothbrush. As several people purchased the toothbrush, I pondered over the amount of plastic waste this single, frail-looking item would create. A little while later on the same journey as I used paper soap to wash my hands, I thought that if we could have an eco-friendly medium for a daily activity like washing hands, then why not use the same for brushing teeth.

Could you tell us how this toothbrush functions?

The toothbrush entails a very simple mechanism a paper strip that can be wrapped around one’s finger using an interlock system. One simply needs to dip this toothbrush in water and brush his/her teeth. Once used, it can easily be disposed of.

Why did you choose a toothbrush over other products?

600 million kg — that is the amount of plastic waste created every single year simply due to the disposal of plastic toothbrushes. This plastic can take almost 700 years to decompose as it is non-biodegradable. Since almost everyone uses toothbrushes on a daily basis, I thought of creating a biodegradable version to reduce waste.

Are these toothbrushes single use? If so, how can waste be reduced?

Yes, these toothbrushes are single-use, but the difference is that they are biodegradable and decompose after one or two weeks. These toothbrushes are also soluble in water which makes disposal easier. I have tested different kinds of paper to ensure durability and biodegradability, and reduce waste generation.

Can you walk us through the details of how this invention can save the planet?

This toothbrush is biodegradable; the components of the paste on the paper are herbal and the materials used to make the brush are herbal. The manufacturing would also be done in an eco-friendly manner. All these factors ensure that this product limits waste generation, thereby contributing to saving the planet.

Did you face any challenges while you were working on the toothbrush?

I faced a lot of challenges during this process. Creating a product that is meant for the masses means evaluating it on multiple criteria such as ease of usage, accessibility, cost and the like. At first, I was unsure as to how to go about it. But then, with the help of my school and teachers, I kept overcoming each challenge.

I created a survey that would help me understand the needs and expectations of my target audience. Ensuring that this survey is filled out by a significant number in itself was a task. The results of the survey helped me work on the problem of dispensing the product in a way that made it accessible and more eco-friendly.

Then there was the challenge of ensuring that people understand the concept of an unconventional toothbrush such as this and that it is just as effective. I also wanted the brush to reach all sections of society, which meant that I had to be mindful of the cost. Lastly, I also had to experiment with different recipes to make sure that the taste of the paste was appropriate for users.

In light of the current pandemic, we should be mindful of spreading infection. Since the toothbrush attaches to your finger, do you think that would be considered unsanitary? What precautions have been included in your design for the same, if any?

This product has been made under sterile conditions. After production, the pH levels of the brush were checked, and bacterial tests were also conducted. Since this product is related to health, I ensured that the hygiene aspect was taken care of. In India, people used daatun (tree twigs) that was held with fingers. This method has proven to be successful and if people wash their hands before use, there should be no problem.

Coming from your previous answer, traditionally in India, we used ‘daatun’/or dipped finger in toothpowder to clean. So how is this product different and better than that?

Daatuns are not used anymore as they are wooden and as a result, they wear off your gums and the skin of your cheeks. Tiny perforations on my toothbrush ensure that your teeth are cleaned without harm. Furthermore, herbal products which were not present in daatuns are used in the paste to ensure that the teeth become stronger.

Consumers often look for convenience, ignoring biodegradability. How would you convince people to use this eco-friendly alternative?

The ‘Easy Brush’ is easy to use, convenient and portable, which are all factors a consumer looks for in a product. I will make sure that this product is as accessible and cost-effective as a regular toothbrush. The herbal component will also attract consumers who are interested in natural ways to improve oral hygiene.

Do you have plans to expand this idea to other products in order to reduce plastic usage?

At present, I am focusing on creating a dispensing method for the brush so that it can reach all sections of society. I want to send this product to space and military agencies for testing as this is something that would be useful to them. I have also filed for a patent of this project. In the future, I would be working on other eco-friendly alternatives as well.

Do you think teens today are becoming more conscious of saving their environment? Being ‘just teens’, can they be as effective as adults?

I believe that irrespective of your age if you have dedication towards something, you can surely achieve it. Having said that, problems like global warming and climate change are more prevalent than ever today. Our earlier generations have lived in a world where it was not as relevant. Teens, on the other hand, are experiencing these problems and the following repercussions first-hand. Thus, they fully realise the impact these problems can have on their future. As a result, I feel the dedication of teens towards solving these issues is bound to be higher.

What are your hopes and fears regarding our environment?

Over the past few years, our environment has severely degraded. Renewable resources like air and water, of which we thought we would have an endless supply, are rapidly diminishing. Since teens, and others too, are becoming more aware of the situation, it makes me hopeful for our planet. A self-sufficient society is being created gradually and so many programmes are being launched in favour of the climate. Each citizen needs to be aware of their responsibility towards our planet in order to truly save it.

Who is your role model?

My mentor teacher and my mother have been my role models along this journey because they have helped me immensely and I have learnt so much from them. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, a renowned Indian physicist, inspires me to overcome my struggles and achieve my goals. I also look up to Greta Thunberg as well because she has motivated me and millions of other teens to act for our climate. I believe that if everyone has a good role model, then we can truly make a difference in this world.

This story, first published by The Global Times, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.