More Climate Champion Shout Outs! Climate Crusader–Ursula Chanse, World Champ Skier Mikaela Shiffrin Blasts FIS!

MORE CLIMATE CHAMPIONS REFORESTATION CAMPAIGN SHOUT OUTS!

Big shout outs to three more Climate Champions: Shawneequa “Shawnie” Callier, Suzanne M. Madison and Matthew Ridgeway for contributing to The Climate’s 50/100 massive tree reforestation campaign. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. 

Why is The Climate Daily working with 30 tree-planting partners to help its listeners to participate in massive reforestation campaigns around the globe? Because many of our listeners have asked us to help them find ways other than listening to The Climate Daily podcast to take positive action to offset the worst effects of climate change. Because scientists all agree that reforestation, to the tune of 1 trillion trees by 2030 will help remove as much as 20% of carbon dioxide emissions we need to in order to help reverse climate change.  Our 50/100 campaign allows you to donate $50 or $100 towards planting a 10K tree, 20-acre forest. Not only will you get a social media shoutout, a receipt for taxes, your family will also be proud of you.

If you’d like to be part of a small group of people making a massive impact in a short amount of time, click on the link in the Deeper Dive section of this story @34.203.12.8/episodes and donate now. Because now more than ever, it’s time to move fast and grow trees.

DEEPER DIVE: The Climate’s 50/100 Reforestation Campaign, Trillion Tree Project

CLIMATE CRUSADER, URSULA CHANSE

Meet climate crusader, Ursula Chanse, is the Director of Bronx Green-Up and Community Horticulture at The New York Botanical Garden. Since 2005, she’s managed Bronx Green-Up, the community gardening outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden. As director of the Bronx Green-Up program, Chanse and her team provide technical support to community gardens. When the pandemic hit, she worked directly with community farm hubs organizing biweekly Zoom meetings to help with problem solving, resource sharing and harvest distribution, and providing more than 10,000 herb and vegetable seedlings.

The NYBG provides horticulture education, training, and technical assistance to Bronx residents, community gardeners, urban farmers, local schools, and community organizations. Her background includes organic agriculture, public health, community education and advocacy work. Chanse recently said, “We came together with longtime community partners early in the pandemic, realizing that food insecurity has always been a big issue in the Bronx.” Why does Ursula Chanse matter to us? In her own words, “There’s definitely a lot of community gardening interest now, and more urban farm spaces.” She’s guiding us all to re-localize control of food growth, a key to developing resilience in climate change.

DEEPER DIVE: Farm School NYC, Bronx Green Up, Ursula Chanse YouTube Profile

WORLD SKI CHAMPION MIKAELA SHIFFRIN PENS OPEN LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL SKI FEDERATION

US Winter olympian Mikaela Shiffrin has led calls for ski chiefs to change their approach to sustainability in a bid to make winter sports justifiable to a public ever more aware of climate change. Shiffrin is a two-time U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup alpine skier. She is a four-time Overall World Cup champion, a four-time world champion in slalom and a six-time winner of the World Cup discipline title in that event. At 27-years old, she’s a grand dame of the sport and has been around.

That’s why she decided to use her voice for the climate. She wrote an open letter called “Our Sport is Endangered” to International Ski Federation (FIS) president Johan Eliasch.  Citing race cancellations due to lack of snow, fewer pre-season training options “because glaciers are shrinking at a frightening pace” and the inability to produce artificial snow because of rising temperatures, “the public opinion about skiing is shifting towards unjustifiability”, the letter reads. “That’s why we as a winter sports community have to take the lead in the fight against climate change and make our sport climate neutral as soon as possible.” 

The letter was signed by Shiffrin and almost 400 other winter athletes. All supporting the idea that FIS’s current sustainability efforts were “insufficient”.  The letter signees called for the FIS to commit to reaching net-zero for all operations and events by 2035 or before, achieve the 50% emissions reduction by 2030, to install a sustainability department and guarantee full transparency. They also demanded that an effort be made to cut carbon emissions by creating “a geographically reasonable race calendar” so the North American swing is done in one go, something they argue would “reduce approximately 1,500 tons of CO2”. 

Why does Shiffrin’s open letter matter to us? It’s a vulnerable and brave stance taken by a world class athlete, recognizing there may not be a future for hers or any winter sport in the next generation.

DEEPER DIVE: We Don’t Have Time, Open Letter to FIS