Happy MLK , Jr. Day! And Happy Anniversary to Us! WRI’s “Future of the UNFCC” Webinar, Soul & Soil

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! HAPPY TWO YEAR!

Happy two year everybody!

Huh?

You heard me correctly. Today is the first anniversary of The Climate Daily. One year ago, we launched it with three equally important goals in mind. One, finding people and organizations taking action to combat climate change and to amplify their voices.

And according to several surveys, Black, Latino and Indigenous Americans are more concerned about climate change than their white counterparts, not a widely known fact. So 1A, finding and amplifying the voices of BIPOC subject matter experts. And 1B—building a community of listeners.

We started this thing with no budget and a big dream. Grace Rodgers was our first reporter and co-host. When she left to continue her graduate degree, Maude Madison stepped in brilliantly. We’re a tiny, scrappy team—Maude and me, Shruti Kulkarni, our social media maven and Jayk Cherry –audio engineer extraordinaire.

Along the way, two really special interns came in and out of our orbit—Matthew Ridgeway and Jacob Robbins. And who can forget the Farai Chideya and the Ford Foundation, who believed enough in my dream to give us a grant to seed The Climate defray production costs.

We are eternally grateful to them, but most of all to you, fair listeners. It’s you, your comments, your feedback and your consistency that keeps us going and keeps us growing. So happy first anniversary, everybody. And onward into year two!

WORLD RESOURCE INSTITUTE’S WEBINAR ON THE FUTURE OF THE UNFCCC

Since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, many countries have stepped up their efforts to combat climate change. Solar and wind power have grown exponentially and over 1,100 companies are now committed to credible net-zero targets.

Yet despite these promising signs, the world remains far off track from achieving the objective of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations … [to] prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.”

When the UNFCCC was established in 1992, CO2 levels in the atmosphere were 359 parts per million (ppm), whereas today they stand at 418 ppm — and continue to climb. Countries’ latest climate plans put the world on track for 2.5°C of warming by the end of the century.

That is nowhere near achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit warming to 1.5°C/ almost 3 degrees Fahrenheit. And COP26 cannot be considered a success.

Given this disconnect, it’s no wonder that youth activists have called out the UN process for not being up for the task of limiting warming to 1.5°C/ almost 3 degrees Fahrenheit. combating the climate crisis. How could UNFCCC be improved? How can the UN climate process best respond to the urgency of the climate crisis?

The World Resources Institute invites us all to join them for an engaging webinar on how to make the UN climate process more effective in the years ahead. It’s scheduled for: January 24, 2022 from 9:00 am – 10:00 am EST US/ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Central European Time

The event will cover everything from making the institutional design of the UNFCCC fit for purpose, reflecting on the experiences from the last 30 years, evaluating the role of the secretariat, and strengthening accountability. Speakers include:

• Laurence Tubiana, CEO European Climate Foundation
• Ineza Grace, Co-Director, Loss and Damage Youth Coalition
• David Waskow, International Climate Director, World Resources Institute
• Helen Mountford, President and CEO, ClimateWorks

To register, visit TheClimate.org/episodes, and click on the super lengthy link in the Deeper Dive section of this story.

DEEPER DIVE: WRI WEBINAR REGISTRATION, Paris Agreement

SOUL AND SOUL & SOIL, BAHAMAS

Bahamian natives and childhood friends Nicholas Fox and Jeremy Em recently became compost warriors and want you to know the Bahamas is about more than just tourism.

The two lost touch as kids, but ran into each other as adults at a local park. There they discovered they had mutual interests. Nickolas is a gardener and composter and Jeremy was interested in making soil from coconut husks. Having not seen each other for lo, those many years, they decided that forming a company would be a great idea. And so their composting company Soul & Soil, was born in August 2020.

The pair use five-gallon buckets to collect organic waste. They collect from businesses like breweries and landscaping companies. They’ll even stop and pick up bags of leaves on the side of the road otherwise headed for the landfill.

Why does Soul & Sioil matter to us? As an island nation, the Bahamas are some of the most susceptible to climate change. Plus, only 1% of the Bahamas is farmable land, which this country imports 90% of its  food. Says Nickolas,  “We have to take charge. Position ourselves to be in a position to deal with the effects of climate change. And the way to do that is through food security to feed our future.”

Check out links to Soul and Soil, Bahamas. And oh by the way, not to be confused with The Soul and Soil Project out of Asheville, NC. More on them soon!

DEEPER DIVE:  The New Providence Ecology Park, The Tribune, Twitter

THE SOUL AND SOIL PROJECT, ASHEVILLE, NC

Well, since you mentioned them, why not highlight them right now? I’m talking about the Soul and Soil  Project, located in Asheville, NC.  We’re still waiting for a member of SOUL AND SOIL to confirm when it was established, but We do know its Facebook page was created in January 2015.

While doing research on the compost company of a similar name in the Bahamas We discovered THIS SOUL AND SOILproject . THIS SOUL AND SOIL project is all about the Manifesto:

• Heal the Earth | Heal the Soul through Compassionate Agriculture which includes carbon sequestration and farming for the future not for the next crop and 
• Create + Connect through Art + Music to inspire, express, and use blogs + videos as outreach tools, AND
• Deconsumerize by increasing awareness of society’s ecological + social impact, and that society can reduce harm + invest in a healthier world. They do that by ReDucing thru Conservation, ReUsing by Creating new from old and ReCycling | particularly food via Composting

And why does this matter to us? The SOUL AND SOIL Project vision says it all. The project envisions communities empowered and connected by locally-thriving and just food systems, embodying human creativity and cooperative systems reflecting Nature’s principles of Reciprocity and Sustainability – systems that can be adapted and applied to any climate conscious community on the planet.

SOUL AND SOIL does this with programs it’s developed. One is the Ecology Research Farm, which commits to growing nutrient-dense, organic foods in a way that heals the soil.  Resilient local food systems will be key to lessening the worst effects of climate disruptions. The other is Regenerative Consultancy. Their people create local designs for healthy ecosystems—including gardens, farms and even businesses.

Want more? Check out soulandsoilproject.org or click on the links in the Deeper Dive section of this story at TheClimate.org/episodes.

DEEPER DIVE: S&S Project, FB, Liberation Tools