Tag: climate

ENERGY: Fridays for Future

Posted on by Building The World
Will the Global Climate Strike Turn the Tide? Image: wikimedia.

September 20, 2019: millions of young people around the world gathered to protest the lack of action in recognizing, and acting to stop, climate change. It was a Friday unlike any other. Early estimates show wide turnout of three million “and that is before counting North and South America” tweeted Greta Thunberg. Overall, there were 2,500 events in 163 countries on seven continents.

Greta Thunberg. Photo: wikimedia.

Summarized by climate activist Greta Thunberg: “Right now we are the ones who are making a difference. If no one else will take action, then we will.” Thunberg, nominated for the Nobel Prize, began “Fridays for Future” by taking that day off from school to stand in front of the Swedish Parliament. Thus began a movement.

Flag of United Nations. wikimedia.

September 23, 2019: Will the world listen to the voices of its future leaders? What will the present world leaders, gathering for the United Nations Climate Action Summit do? Find out, here.

September 27, 2019: the next strike. Register here: Fridays for Future.

Al Jazeera. “‘No Planet B’: Millions take to streets in global climate strike.” 21 September 2019. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/planet-thousands-join-global-climate-strike-asia-190920040636503.html.

#FridaysForFuture. https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/

Sengupta, Somini. “Protesting Climate Change, Young People Take to Streets in a Global Strike.” 20 September 2019, The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/climate/global-climate-strike.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share.

Trannell, Kendall, Scottie Andrew, Nathaniel Meyerson. “These are the companies supporting the global climate strike.” 20 September 2019. CNN.com/business.  https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/19/business/climate-strike-companie-trnd/index.html.

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unporte

Droughts, Floods, and Climate

Posted on by Building The World
Water: image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Water problems plague California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas in the United States; recent monitoring systems reveal that 91.6 percent of California, in 2014, suffers from drought. Meanwhile, in England, floods ravage land adjoining rivers swollen with unrelenting rains. Political leaders have responded: U.S. Congress passed a $965 billion farm bill that will aid agricultural interests; while in the U.K., Prime Minister David Cameron pledged 10 million pounds for the Business Support Scheme. In England, water management has a proud tradition, notably the 1613 New River. An early example of a public utility launched through mixed public/private finance, the 80 million liter water resource (today, it’s more than double that amount) allowed London to respond to urban growth. California is considering improvements in desalination, to access the abundant seawater that could ease future droughts. In search of an ever-normal water supply, might the U.S. and U.K., as well as other areas of the globe suffering water problems, find inspiration in the development of one of the world’s first public utilities?

Desalination http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/parched-california-pours-mega-millions-desalination-tech-n28066

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.