A Green Degree

This blog intends to bring a new perspective on all things 'green' and sustainable, covering (mostly) energy, politics, the economy & more, what I feel as the most pressing concerns we face. In short, sustainability needs to progress & become the social everyday. That's my passion, and our solution. Screw business as usual people!













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June 4th 2012

1 note |#

Having only just finished revising and taking an exam in payments-for-ecosystems (PES), it’s great to see a tangible effect in the real world through this video rather than a simplified textbook version. 

This PES scheme focuses on multiple different people throughout the African landscape, including farmers, fishers and teachers, all who are utilising such schemes to promote healthy living and biodiversity growth, all in the name of sustainability. Considering Africa is a highly degraded region and has only been showing signs of taking on board sustainable lifestyles in recent times, it’s inspiring to see the people in this video talk about it so enthusiastically as they do.

Combined with this is some brilliant photography (the cameras are insane quality, as you’d expect from Vimeo) and music, all of which make a wonderful 6-and-a-bit minute experience I highly urge you to check out. Might make you slightly more optimistic about society, ya never know.

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/2012_lpr/africa_ecological_footprint_report_2012/

Posted at 1:12pm and tagged with: vimeo, video, africa, PES, payment for ecosystem services, agriculture, sustainable, biodiversity, fishing, inspring, photography,.

April 11th 2012

Ecosystem Services: 'Human harm to oceans comes with staggering price tag: study'

Reblogged from plantedcity|76 notes |#

plantedcity:

From The Times Colonist:

A Canadian researcher is at the centre of a provocative new international study that puts an eye-popping price tag on the damage being done to the world’s oceans and fisheries - a cost that could reach $2 trillion a year by 2100 - from carbon emissions, over-fertilization, over-fishing and other human impacts.

University of British Columbia fisheries economist Rashid Sumaila, a leading critic of international fishing policies, is co-editor of the 300-page Valuing The Ocean report released last week at the high-profile Planet Under Pressure environmental conference in Britain.

The study, touted as a “unique,” monetary assessment of global ocean health and threats, is the latest attempt by ecosystem-conscious scientists to affix financial value to planetary resources taken for granted in traditional models of economic activity.

…

The project was coordinated by the Swedish-based Stockholm Environment Institute, which said in a statement that “the ocean is the victim of a massive market failure,” and that “the true worth of its ecosystems, services, and functions is persistently ignored by policy-makers and largely excluded from wider economic and development strategies.”

Sumaila said that “the combined global and local threats to the ocean are unprecedented in human history. Incremental change and business-as-usual will not suffice.”

But the global ocean crisis “can be rectified,” the UBC researcher added, “if the ocean and the services it provides are placed at the heart of global efforts to build a green economy for the future.”

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: Hani Amir via David Suzuki)

That’s a staggering percentage of the global economic output of today.

Can we really afford to pay that? I don’t think so.

Posted at 9:12pm and tagged with: global economy, ecosystem, money, payment for ecosystem services, nature, climate, environment,.