2021 Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards, Climate Champ–Savanola Horne, The Land Loss Prevention Project, Catch “Internal Flight”

CLIMATE CULTURE–INTERNAL FLIGHT, THE MOVIE

Long before Will Smith teamed up with Disney to present “This is Planet Earth,” guitarist Estas Tonne teamed up with traveling photographers and filmmakers from Ukraine, Olga and Andrey Andreev’s from Paganel Studio the film short “Internal Flight.”

Estas Tonne weaves his expert combination of Spanish and gypsy guitar amongst the breathtaking footage from team of photographers and filmmakers. According to Tonne, “The goal was to reflect in their fullness the multicultural manifestations of Life on the Earth, as well as tremendous diversity of its landscapes. Film locations were carefully selected, compiled and laboriously unified into a coherent and completed picture. Their shoot began in Crimea (pre-Soviet invasion) and finished in the Peruvian part of the Amazon and Sacred Valley near Cusco. 

Why does taking 30 minutes to enjoy Internal Flight matter to us? Because it’s a meditative, 30-minute land and soundscape which can reinvigorate a day filled with doom and gloom climate change news into one buoyed with realistic hope of the ability of humans to coexist with Nature. 

Click on the Deeper Dive section of this story at theclimate.org/episodes to enjoy Internal Flight on Youtube.

DEEPER DIVE: YouTube, Estas Tonne, Paganel Studios

CLIMATE CHAMPION, SAVANOLA “SAVI” HORNE

CLIMATE CHAMPION SAVANOLA “SAVI” HORNE is the Executive Director of the Land Loss Prevention Project, an organization that works to stop land loss in African-American communities throughout North Carolina. The Land Loss Prevention Project was founded in 1982 by the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers to curtail epidemic losses of the state’s Black owned land. 

In an interview with Monica White of the Edge Effects podcast, Horne describes how she came to champion the plight of Black farmers. “I came to this work from a union perspective. I went to Rutgers Law School and worked for District Council 37 and, through marriage, found my way south. I had been in Zimbabwe for a year prior to coming to North Carolina, working with one of the most prominent African American NGOs in southern Africa, Africare.”

There Horne became interested in what it meant to be a smallholder farmer on land that is contested. At the time, 94% of all the arable land and 97% of the water rights in Zimbabwe were owned by the minority whites. Once back in the American South, she grew her knowledge of black farmers, discrimination, and dispossession.

Savi Horne is a recipient of the 2020 American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy, and Resources Stewardship.

DEEPER DIVE: LLPP, WaPo, The Hill, “Our Land, Our Lives” Video, EdgeEffects

THE LAND LOSS PREVENTION PROJECT

Speaking of Savi Horne and the LLPP, Did you know that the average length of time for a Black farmer to have their USDA loan processed by the federal government is 387 days? That compares to just over 30 days for the average white farmer loan. It’s discriminatory practices like that that the Land Loss Prevention Project was founded in 1982 by the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers.

It was to curtail epidemic losses of Black owned land in North Carolina. Land Loss Prevention Project was incorporated in the state of North Carolina in 1983. The organization broadened its mission in 1993 to provide legal support and assistance to all financially distressed and limited-resource farmers and landowners in North Carolina.

Land Loss Prevention Project’s advocacy for financially distressed and limited resource farmers involves action in three separate arenas: litigation, public policy, and promoting sustainable agriculture and environment.

The site offers several partner/collaborator resources to assist the limited-resourced farmer of color, including Agricultural Policy and Farmers Support Services, Grants and Research, Legal and Mediation services, as well as links to services unique to the Black farmer like Black Family Land Trust and the Farm Aid Hotline and.

Historically, two or more Black families have owned farmland in common. So when the primary farmer dies, heirs have been preyed upon by predatory developers and coerced into signing away their land rights. That’s why the LLPP’s relationship with the Center for Heirs Property Preservation is so vital.

Why does the work of LLPP matter to all of us? Did you know that Congressional aid for disadvantaged farmers that was authorized earlier this year as part of President Biden‘s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law is being challenged in the courts by white farmers, preventing roughly $5 billion from reaching Black farmers who are in desperate need of financial assistance? That’s why.

DEEPER DIVE: LLPP, WaPo, The Hill, “Our Land, Our Lives” Video

2021 COMEDY WILDLIFE PHOTO AWARDS

Okay, sometimes thinking about climate change gets to be a lot, even for solarpunk optimists like us here at The Climate Daily.

(We get it. We work rather stressful day jobs, so sometimes seeing the creative or lighter vision of what we’re fighting for helps ease the stress and reinvigorate the soul) That’s why when a site like The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards pops up in our inbox, we’re all in.

Website founder Paul Joynson-Hicks was living in East Africa and working as a wildlife photographer. One day, while looking through his photographs, he came across several that made him laugh out loud: an eagle looking at him through its back legs and a warthog’s bottom.

He realized that the humor of these photographs was both entertaining and a means to engage people with the threats facing these same animals. And so, in 2015, The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards was born.

Said Joynson-Hicks, “Our world is extraordinarily beautiful and interconnected, yet the human race is doing its best to over-exploit and damage it. Issues of wildlife conservation and sustainability are gaining momentum globally, yet the messages and images tend to be negative, depressing and enervating.”  

Six years on the competition has grown into a global competition. The competition consists of five still photography categories and one video clip category. This year’s competition is over, and the 2021 winners have been announced. The 2022 Awards will open next spring for entries.

The “overall” winner, as the website says, of the Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2021 is Ken Jensen with Ouch!  It’s a brilliantly timed photo of a Golden Silk Monkey in China, getting himself into a bit of trouble on a wire. For the gallery of all the other winners, you owe it to yourself to visit comedywildlifephoto.com and search for 2021 Winners, or just click on the link in the Deeper Dive section of this story at theclimate.org/episodes.

These photos are ridiculously funny. You can buy prints of the photos, too. And when you buy a print, a percentage of the revenue generated goes to the CWPA conservation charity.

DEEPER DIVE: 2021 WINNERS