Jan 16 2009
Some Good News from Other Parts of the World
It’s so great to read some good news in other parts of the world. It seems like more and more people are taking climate change seriously and are doing something constructive about it. For example, a massive tree-planting project has been launched by Peru’s Ministry of Agriculture, as reported by Andina.
The goal is to plant 40 million trees by February 20, 2009. It is hoped that it will “capture more than 570,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually”. Wow. This is incredible news! According to the article, climate change plays a key role:
Forest plantations or so-called carbon sinks have played a critical role in the climate change negotiations and constitute a central element in the scheme to limit atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations set out by the Kyoto Protocol.
This campaign was launched in reaction to a scientific report presented in May 2008 to the European Union-Latin American Summit.
The report predicts that economic losses from extreme weather shifts and disasters, including floods, droughts, freezing downpours of hail and landslides, could reach $30 billion by 2025 - the equivalent of 4.5 percent of Andean Community nations’ GDP - potentially blocking development in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia.
Deforestation and a 30-year temperature rise that is 70 percent higher than the world average along the eastern valleys of the Andes is threatening the ecological collapse and drying out of the Amazon rainforest, the report says.
That’s some pretty dire news for Latin America. I’m glad Peru is taking it seriously and is doing something about it. An immediate benefit? This tree-planting campaign is creating about 130,000 temporary jobs.
Elsewhere in the world, France is taking the plant-based diet seriously as an important solution to combating climate change. Within this week, three major French newspapers published a news story about the importance of a vegetarian diet on health and one linked it to climate change. (Thank God for translations tools on the internet. J)
The Metro’s headline for the article, “To Be Vegetarian without Deficiencies,” explained that our daily nutritional needs can be met through a plant- and fruit-based diet without requiring meat or fish. On the side, the article quoted the Chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, “If you eat less meat, you’ll feel better and the planet also.”
Another French newspaper, Le Figaro , published another article the following day about the health benefits of the vegetarian diet. The article also points out that according to the study by the FAO, 20% of greenhouse gas emission worldwide comes from the production of meat.
Similarly, in today’s edition, Le Monde published an article with the headline “Eating vegetarian is the best for health.” The article quoted Professor Fernand Lamisse, a nutrition specialist at the University de Tours, “The choice of vegetarian food is almost always accompanied by a healthier life.”
Hats off to France’s The Metro, Le Figaro, and Le Monde for reporting on such beneficial information.
Good news has also come from New Zealand. Over $10 million has pretty much been allocated for research on climate change. Wow. The money will be used to develop technology to help reduce methane emissions from livestock and also to measure the impact of climate change on the economy.
Let’s hope more good news will come from all over the world as more countries and governments place human life and thus the preservation of the planet as more important than anything else.
Image from Andina archive
