Amazon, Facebook and Google have lofty goals for their effects on global society. But people around the world are still waiting for the positive results. Here’s what the tech giants could do.
The Amazon Basin creates the rain that nourishes farmland across Brazil, one of the world’s major breadbaskets.
Reuters/Bruno Kelly
Brazil’s president-elect wants to roll back environmental laws, saying they hurt rural growth. But preventing Amazonian deforestation has actually made farmland more productive.
Valero’s Benicia Refinery, less than 40 miles from San Francisco.
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Leftover lactose from cheese production shows early promise as a treatment that can help soils retain water and nutrients, making them more resistant to drought.
The ocean absorbs about 90 percent of the excess heat produced as climate change warms the earth.
Image Catalog
According to a new study, the oceans have absorbed more heat from climate change than previously thought. This could mean the Earth will warm even faster in the future than scientists have predicted.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with B.C. Premier John Horgan at a news conference where LNG Canada announced its decision to build an export facility in Kitimat, B.C.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
Burning natural gas produces less greenhouse gases than coal or oil. But the methane emissions associated with natural gas production and liquefaction threaten to erode its environmental benefits.
Biologists are gathering evidence of green algae (pictured here in Kuwait) becoming carbohydrate-rich but less nutritious, due to increased carbon dioxide levels. As science fiction becomes science fact, new forms of storytelling are emerging.
Raed Qutena
A study of the social cost of carbon emitted by the shrinking fleet of Texan coal plants suggests that closing more of them down would be good for the climate and public health.
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation; Jordan Fermanis, The Conversation; Justin Bergman, The Conversation, and Dilpreet Kaur, The Conversation
Food fraud, the centuries-old problem that won’t go away
The Conversation55.8 MB(download)
Dairy farmers used to put sheep brains and chalk in skim milk to make it look frothier and whiter. Coffee, honey and wine have also been past targets of food fraudsters. Can the law ever keep up?
The renewable energy industry can also create jobs.
(David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca/flickr)
Many Americans view the Amish as living simply and in touch with the land, but their views about the environment are complicated and not always ‘green.’
Many Caribbean reefs are now dominated by sponges.
from www.shutterstock.com
Marine sponges are ancient organisms that have survived mass extinctions. Many are more tolerant of climate change and may dominate over corals in future reef systems.
Bill C-69 would update the assessment process for new energy projects in Canada.
Shutterstock
The fund is to provide support against future droughts, helping primary producers, non-government organisations and communities prepare for and respond to their impact.
When subsistence farmers become climate refugees, who will help them pay the cost of relocation?
gregorioa/Shutterstock.com
Morten Wendelbo, American University School of Public Affairs
The $4 billion that foundations are pledging to spend within five years amounts to less than 1 percent of what businesses and governments spend on global warming every year.