Jaden Smith is supporting Earth Day Network’s Canopy Project, which plants trees in impoverished areas around the world. They want to plant 10 million trees in five years.
Learn more at The Canopy Project.
I am celebrating Earth Hour this year not because it saves a whole lot of energy; I will admit that one hour doesn’t make a whole lot of difference and that driving to an Earth Hour event across town might be counterproductive. I am celebrating Earth Hour to stand up against negativity. To stand with millions around the world in a visible demonstration that we actually care about the planet, about climate change, about the future.
via I am tired of the damn trolls. This year I am turning out the lights for Earth Hour and you should too, Saturday night at 8:30
"Environmental debates are often framed with an Us Versus Them dynamic. If we are to achieve our goal of protecting the environment for future generations, we should strive not to let the debate be seen as a fight between environmentalists versus fossil fuel workers, but rather a fight between moral or immoral choices."
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The elephants were killed close to the Chad border with Cameroon and their ivory hacked out. It is the worst killing spree of elephants since early 2012 when poachers from Chad and Sudan killed as many as many as 650 elephants in a matter of weeks in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park.
“This is completely shocking,” said Céline Sissler-Bienvenu, Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in France and Francophone Africa.
“Elephants in Central Africa continue to be under siege from unscrupulous poachers. The killing of 86 elephants, including pregnant cows, is evidence of the callous brutality demanded to feed the appetite of the ivory trade.”
""Last month, after the Sierra Club announced they were encouraging civl disobedience for the first time in its 120 year history, 48 individuals, including Sierra Club director Michael Brune, NASA climate scientist James Hansen and 350.org founder, Bill McKibben were arrested outside the White House. Following those actions and the climate rally in Washington D.C., I wrote a post making the case for civil disobedience for climate change. Looking back at my post, I see I am talking about why people feel compelled to engage in civil disobedience, but not the effectiveness of those actions. With the decision over the pipeline looming and speculation that Obama will approve the construction growing, it is a good time to think about the role civil disobedience can play in the climate movement and where it can go from here."
The world is changing constantly and there is so much to document across the globe. Believing we have enough images in photographer’s archives to do the trick is ludicrous. But more importantly than that, we need both past and current images. Older images are in fact being used constantly to make a point. Not only are older photographs often used in new awareness campaigns or in articles on the topic, but older photographs are also used as a comparison to show what once was, and what now isn’t.
(via Conservation photography and necessary evils : TreeHugger)
"As Lloyd has noted on TreeHugger before, stopping the Keystone pipeline won’t keep the tar sands in the ground or the carbon they will produce out of the atmosphere. Trans Canada could build a pipeline to the west or continue shipping the oil by rail, but as KC makes clear, to not speak out against this pipeline is to concede defeat. And when the stakes are a ruined atmosphere or a chance at preventing catastrophe, what choice do we have?"
Remember 127 Hours with James Franco? The film about the climber that amputates his own arm to escape from beneath a boulder? That is based on the true story of Aron Ralson. In addition to being a speaker, writer and adventurer, Ralston is also a wilderness advocate. He wrote a touching piece about the need to protect the Greater Canyonlands of Utah and is asking President Obama to make it happen. Read and add your voice.
"So here’s where we go from here: If you were happy to hear Obama mention his desire to address climate change, you have just opted-in to the movement that will force him to act on this pledge. The cynics among us may claim that Obama’s pledge was empty, merely soundbites he won’t back up with action. To the cynics I say, call his bluff. Join the earnest among us and let us all together pressure this President, this Congress to act. What actions you take will be up to you, but act you must. If we don’t, we too are making empty promises. It was fitting then and it is fitting now to quote Ray Bradbury’s line on optimism: “Action is hope. At the end of each day, when you’ve done your work, you lie there and think, Well, I’ll be damned, I did this today. It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how bad—you did it. At the end of the week you’ll have a certain amount of accumulation. At the end of a year, you look back and say, I’ll be damned, it’s been a good year.” Let’s make 2013 a good year. Let’s help this President achieve the lofty goals he’s set for himself. Let’s make Obama’s second term the one upon which future generations look back and say, I’ll be damned, they really did it."
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The votes are in and Sandra Steingraber is TreeHugger’s 2012 Person of the Year!
In today’s you’ve got to be effing kidding me category: Climate activist Tim DeChristopher is out of prison, serving the remainder of his two-year sentence at a halfway house in Salt Lake City, Utah. That’s good news, but in a bizarre and unjust twist, DeChristopher is barred from working on any “social justice” work. What the?
WHAT!? How cool are these trees!
See more here: Giant 3D Portraits Turn Trees into Monuments to Activism in Australia
Annie Leonard and The Story of Stuff project are back with another great video. The Story of Change looks at the what really causes change and why shopping can’t save us.
How do you inspire people to make change? Simply throwing facts at them won’t work.
Simran Sethi (University of Kansas professor, all-around green star, and way-back-in-the-day TreeHugger TV alum) has a new TEDx talk on how we need to rethink what it means to be an environmentalist and find common ground with our political adversaries. Watch it right now!
"People ask me all the time if I’m optimistic or pessimistic. Optimism and pessimism—who cares? That’s just an opinion about the future. I want realism. I just want to know what’s really going on. I want to be able to read the data, and then have an intelligent, grown-up, mature conversation about it. I’m not worried about being hopeful. You know, hope is overrated. It’s a great frame of mind, but it isn’t a strategy. Now, it’s absolutely useless from now on to quibble and to try to soft sell any of this stuff. And try and compromise and make people feel okay. We have to just start saying what’s actually going on."
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We spoke with Rex Weyler, co-founder of Greenpeace International about the origin of Greenpeace, his views on ecology, climate change and a lot more.
Read it here: Inventing the Great Green Stunt: Interview with Rex Weyler, Co-Founder of Greenpeace International
