Earth Day 2019 - Project Drawdown

Often to mark Earth Day, we list some local events that contribute to the "greening" of our valley and list sustainable actions that we can all take.  Scroll down for that content...

This year the post is direr. Or, more hopeful depending on your disposition.  Small actions are wonderful, but not enough.  Mega steps are required if we want our next generations to be able to harvest food from the oceans, live in our coastal cities, and enjoy the diversity of fauna and flora that we do now.  There is no Planet B.

Today we see increasing extreme weather events and overwhelming scientific evidence of an anthropogenic-accelerated climate change.

As designers and occupants of this amazing planet, we must take responsibility for our role in the acceleration.  Other than designing for "resilience," what can be done to reverse global warming and related impacts?  Get informed.  Take action.

Here is the evidence that it is happening:

• Global temperature rise
• Warming oceans
• Shrinking ice sheets
• Glacial retreat
• Decreased snow cover
• Sea level rise
• Declining Arctic sea ice
• Extreme weather events
• Ocean acidification

CO2 measurement from ice cores

source: Nasa.gov


Edited by Paul Hawken, and released in 2017, Drawdown and the related Project Drawdown is a beacon of hope. As stated by The Nation book review, "It will give you the best kind of hope, the kind that balances realism with radical vision."  Credible, global scientists and researchers identified and modeled the "100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change...[and] uncovered is a path forward that can roll back global greenhouse gas emissions within thirty years."  That's not the 2030 goalpost that many had hoped for, but perhaps a more realistic 2050.

Blast from the past:  See sustainabilty initiatives and reports from 2009.

Local Events:

Virtual 5k or 10k (March - April)

REVIVE Earth Day Festival (April 21)

Project Green - Pittman Wash Trail Building (April 27)