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CURATED ECOLOGICAL NEWS Pastoralists living in balance with the land
“Navigating northwards from the town of Isiolo within The Rift Valley of Central Kenya, the landscape may at first appear stark, empty, devoid of human activity, but pastoralists abound. A large herd of goats is followed by a young boy moving them around for grazing for his family. Soon, once one knows what to look for, one sees all the land is in use, fully, and being well tended by the experts who have been doing so throughout generations. “Pastoralists tread lightly, living in balance with the land. Not a single thing is wasted. They take only what the Earth offers, and nothing more. Pastoralists, being semi-nomadic, are often moving, following the cycles of the rain patterns, and quite literally living off the land. This is the very definition of resilience, and it was being lived before the word existed. “Governments of several East African countries might want to push pastoralists from the land to create space for development, or outside actors want to take the land for ‘conservation’, but our partners are the true conservationists.” More at: Multi-generational Indigenous food forests
“Dr. Chelsey Geralda Armstrong, an Indigenous Studies assistant professor [at Simon Fraser University], recently published a study in which she documents four sites that are ecologically more diverse than the conifer forests surrounding them. And for good reason: each is on an Indigenous reserve and marks the site of an ancient community of master horticulturalists. “It’s an old settler myth that North America was ‘undeveloped’ by Indigenous peoples, who subsisted as hunter-gatherers and therefore didn’t deserve to claim stakes in any particular land. This self-serving cultural ignorance operated even with relatively advanced anthropologists like Franz Boas who focused on Indigenous men and ignored women. So he missed that the clam gardens designed and maintained by women, which could sustain a population well over 100,000 in the centuries before contact. “Equally ignored was another sophisticated practice found mostly among inland peoples: the forest garden. Armstrong’s report compares forest garden ecosystems, which she describes as ‘managed perennial fruit and nut communities associated exclusively with archaeological village sites. We find that forest gardens have substantially greater plant and functional trait diversity than periphery forests even more than 150 years after management ceased’, She writes. “Indigenous peoples didn’t just wander the woods looking for salmonberries; they created convenient nearby gardens in which salmonberries grew next to Pacific crabapple, hazelnut, high bush cranberry, red elderberry and a small number of other edible, storable plants. ‘For millennia’, Armstrong writes, ‘Indigenous peoples increased plant productivity and availability through long-distance transplanting, controlled burning, weeding, fertilizing, coppicing and pruning (to increase flowering, yields of fruit, promoting health and vigor, and to control size)’.” More at: Agroforestry for food, carbon capture, and diversity
“Agroforestry is the interaction of agriculture and trees, including the agricultural use of trees. Agroforestry is agricultural and forestry systems that try to balance various needs: 1) to produce trees for timber and other commercial purposes; 2) to produce a diverse, adequate supply of nutritious foods; and 3) to ensure the protection of the natural environment so that it continues to meet the needs of the present generations and those to come. Agroforestry involves a wide range of trees that are protected, regenerated, planted or managed in agricultural landscapes as they interact with annual crops, livestock, wildlife, and humans. “Suitable trees used for agroforestry activities should: be multipurpose trees, be resilient, maintain landscape integrity, not be invasive, be easy to prune, maintain, and grow, be resistant to grazing, fix nitrogen in the soil, have the potential to grow with mixed crops, produce biomass, and have high-density wood, which has a high heating value. “Currently, agroforestry and its ability to sequester carbon has made the practice at the forefront of sustainable agricultural systems that can not only help the world reach climate goals, but also diversify income for farmers, as well as provide opportunities for food security, soil protection, wildlife habitats, and community empowerment. According to the World Resources Institute, the U.S. alone could use agroforestry to remove around 156 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, and sequester 6 gigatons of carbon a year globally.” More at: Climate lawsuit: Peruvian farmer v. RWE German power supplier
“A Peruvian farmer is suing a German energy giant over the threat to his home from a mountain lake overflowing with glacier meltwater. Saul Luciano Lliuya, 45, lives in Huaraz, a city in Peru’s central Ancash region. It lies more than a mile below Palcacocha, a high altitude lake that is brimming with 35 times more water than usual. Peru is home to 70% of the worlds tropical glaciers — but they are disappearing rapidly. Should it burst its banks, Palcacocha’s waters would likely wipe away Lliuya’s home, as well as the homes of an estimated 50,000 other people living in and around Huaraz, potentially with them inside. “In response, Lliuya is using a German property law to target RWE, a power company whose coal-powered energy plants make it one of Europe’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases. The case is the culmination of a near 10-year legal battle for Lliuya, and is the first to be heard of nearly 50 similar climate civil claims in different nations around the world. “RWE, which has never operated in Peru, denies legal responsibility. It argues climate change is a global issue caused by many contributors. The climate crisis should be resolved by government policy, the company says, not in court. The case is being held near RWE’s head offices, in a district court in Hamm, northwestern Germany. It is expected to take several weeks.” More at: Scientists: decarbonize plastics, agrichemicals, and electricity
“In a review published in the peer-reviewed journal Oxford Open Climate Change, top scientists issued an urgent warning that fossil fuels and the fossil fuel industry are driving not only the climate crisis but also public health harms, environmental injustice, biodiversity loss, and the plastics and agrichemical pollution crises. The review presents the solutions already available to transition rapidly and fairly to affordable clean, renewable energy and materials. “The science can’t be any clearer that fossil fuels are killing us’, said Shaye Wolf, Ph.D., climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the report. The review recommends ambitious targets to reduce primary plastics production and plastic chemicals of concern, as well as sustainable agricultural practices to limit fossil-fueled petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers. The review also discusses transitioning from fossil fuels to clean electricity.” More at: Plastic pollution in food production, packaging, supply chains
“Agriculture and food systems are major sources of plastic pollution across the entire plastics lifecycle related to (1) plastic polymers and chemicals, (2) land use, (3) trade and waste, and (4) environmental and human health. Two examples — food production and packaging — illustrate this relationship. “Agriculture, fisheries, and aquaculture utilise an estimated 3.5% of global plastics, with diverse uses including polytunnels, mulches, feeding equipment, nets, encapsulated fertilisers and seeds, irrigation, and storage equipment. To give a sense of scale, an estimated 13% of China’s cultivated land mass is covered in plastic film mulch4, while Spain’s ‘Mar de Plástico’ greenhouses and polytunnels are visible from space. “Beyond the farm gate, the $400-500 billion annual food and drink packaging industry represents an estimated 10-20% of all plastics ever produced. Some of these plastics support the long supply chains of the modern food system by preserving food, extending transportation time and shelf life, and enabling the mass production and long-range distribution of foodstuffs. “However, these long, complex and often vertically integrated supply chains are recognized as part of an increasingly fragile food system that is failing to deliver healthy and sustainable diets. Plastics were never designed to be recovered, and food system plastics are among the most challenging to retrieve due to spoilage and single-use design (i.e. packaging) and disintegration during use (i.e. agricultural mulches). “More than 98% of plastic polymers are derived from fossil fuels, requiring chemical and energy-intensive processes that produce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other pollutants. The vast quantities of plastics used in agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture and fisheries are utilised for less than one year, poorly managed, lost or discarded, constituting major sources of macro, micro and nano plastic (MNP) pollution.” More at: Reusable food containers just got easier
“Zero Waste Europe in collaboration with Reloop and TOMRA published a report assessing the climate impact of reusable packaging. The report finds switching to reusable containers from single use (plastic and paper) in an efficient manner leads to an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The authors developed models for single-use and reuse systems to quantify the climate impact for various take-away food packaging items – burger boxes, pizza boxes, bowls, sushi boxes, cups for cold drinks, and cups for warm drinks. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new federal food code supplemental guidance makes it easier for states to allow people to refill and reuse containers in restaurants, bulk grocery store aisles, deli counters and at events. Said Kelley Dennings, at the Center for Biological Diversity, ‘These updates will help us fight single-use waste by making it easier for restaurants, grocery stores and concerts to offer reusable containers and allowing customers to bring them from home’. How much emissions are reduced depends on the type of container, but reusable cups save emissions after six uses and reusable bowls save emissions after 13 uses.” More at: PFAS in sewage sludge: Not in Lawrence? Maybe in Olathe?
“Sewage sludge, or biosolids, is frequently applied to farmland in Kansas to enrich the soil, and Kansas does not have any regulations on this practice aside from what is established by the Environmental Protection Agency. But environmentalists — and the EPA itself — have recently raised concerns about biosolids being contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” which normal wastewater treatments can’t remove. “In Lawrence, Kansas, officials don’t think there’s much risk of harmful chemicals getting into the nutrient-rich sludge. ‘We do not anticipate seeing levels in our biosolids that will be of concern since there are no known PFAS sources in Lawrence’, said Michael Leos, of the Lawrence’s Municipal Services and Operations Department. “Some other states are implementing bans on using biosolids as fertilizer. In 2022, Maine became the first state to ban it after PFAS contaminated crops and water on over 50 farms where sludge had been spread. Beginning in October of last year, Connecticut followed suit. And at least one other city in northeast Kansas, Olathe, is interested in taking extra precautions. “In Olathe, city officials are exploring a new method at its Cedar Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant that will process the waste in a different way. At high pressure and temperature, the bonds between molecules in the waste will start to break down, and this will allow for the removal of pharmaceuticals, PFAS and other chemicals. This will reduce environmental impact and potentially recycle valuable minerals for other uses such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and copper.” More at: Not a theory, a conspiracy of oil-gas, plastics, and agrichemicals
“A recent study reveals a strong connection between three fossil fuel-based industries — oil and gas, plastics, and agrichemicals — and their use of social media to deny climate change and delay climate action. Electricity and transportation, plastics, and agrichemicals all rely on the same feedstock: fossil fuels. Researchers wanted to understand how frequently the groups interact with each other on social media and if they share similar messaging on climate change. “One multi-year analysis of more than 22,000 tweets from Exxon Mobil-funded think tanks and industry groups found that they’ve frequently disseminated the ideas that climate change isn’t threatening. In 2015, oil and gas companies were active on Twitter during international negotiations over the Paris Agreement, promoting the incorrect notion that Americans didn’t support taking action on climate change. “Other branches of the fossil fuel industry — including plastic producers and agrichemical companies — have also taken to social media to discourage actions to reduce the use of their products. In a new paper published last week in the journal PLOS Climate, researchers suggest that climate communications from these three sectors—oil and gas, plastics, and agrichemicals—are ‘aligned and coordinated . . . to reinforce existing infrastructure and inhibit change’. “From 2008 to 2023, nine of the nation’s largest oil, agrichemical, and plastics trade groups and corporations posted thousands of tweets on the social media platform X, and their messaging on environmental issues was strikingly ‘obstructive’ for climate policy and action, a study published today in the journal PLOS Climate concludes.” More at: | 
