“With climate change, “we have to kind of hold hope and grief at the same time, like they’re kind of twins that we’re cradling,” Maine’s Gill said. “We have to both understand and witness what has happened and what we’ve lost. And then fiercely commit to protecting what remains. And I don’t think you can do that from a place of hopelessness.””

https://denverpost-co.newsmemory.com/?publink=06ec88e7e_1348481&vanity&fbclid=IwAR3PYVVmX8gtoxOD5ARrsDF-zQVz-g95Ji6lECUuUA0yjUH4GG4n4istMS4#.Ynmuu90lk24.facebook

The premise: Humans, like all living things, have a built-in drive to reproduce and consume resources beyond the ability of nature to support them. Unfortunately, we’ve evolved the ability to override the natural controls that keep other species from destroying their habitats, so that now we’ve caused a global collapse of Earth’s life support system. Corporations own our governments, and they fight all attempts to rein in our consumption. That’s why international efforts to address climate change and mass extinction have failed utterly. In a nutshell, we are programmed to self-destruct.

The challenge: Please prove Brown wrong by taking decisive action today, to stop global collapse. If the world makes the necessary commitment to a single-minded effort to rescue the web of life we depend on, we just might survive. Notes from a Dead Planet offers the solutions; it’s up to readers to apply them.

This is our last chance.

Notes from a Dead Planet is intended to be a living document. For a preview of the book, newslinks, and additions and revisions, do visit … https://www.deadplanet.org

By Michael Le Page, New Scientist, Sept. 13, 2018

We need to protect more land from development

If we want to avoid mass extinctions and preserve the ecosystems all plants and animals depend on, governments should protect a third of the oceans and land by 2030 and half by 2050, with a focus on areas of high biodiversity. So say leading biologists in an editorial in the journal Science this week.

It’s not just about saving wildlife, says Jonathan Baillie of the National Geographic Society, one of the authors. It’s also about saving ourselves.

“We are learning more and more that the large areas that remain are important for providing services for all life,” he says. “The forests, for example, are critical for absorbing and storing carbon.”

At present, just 3.6 per cent of the planet’s oceans and 14.7 per cent of the land is protected by law.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2179499-half-the-planet-should-be-set-aside-for-wildlife-to-save-ourselves/

In another alarming report about the spread of the toxic waterproofing chemicals, the state says all fish sampled in El Paso, Adams and Jefferson counties were contaminated. Is any level of human consumption safe?

https://coloradosun.com/2022/04/22/forever-chemicals-colorado-fish-samples-pfas/

Hundreds of people have been evacuated because of wildfires burning in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Popular lakes and national monuments have been closed — some because fire has moved directly over them.

https://coloradosun.com/2022/04/21/colorado-winds-fire-danger-west/