Factual, concise and hard-hitting. This new website from Sweden shows the ACTUAL state of Swedish forests and the almost impossible challenge of preventing total biodiversity loss.
The fact that a large percentage of forests have already been clear-felled means that there is little chance these areas can recover their biodiversity. That just a few percentage of biologically and ecologically valuable forest has protected status has locked endangered species into such a small area reduces the chances of these species spreading.
The site also takes up the carbon sequestration function of Swedish forests and the challenge to have old growth continue to absorb carbon.
it is deeply instructive to take a look at Swedish numbers to see how they match the vision of Net Zero. An essay:
Sweden wants to be world-leading in the race to net-zero. Or at least that is the rhetoric you can find on official websites. For those interested in having an actual climate-safe future, it is deeply instructive to take a look at the numbers to see how they match the vision.
Today they are announcing that to improve our newsletter service they are going over to Substack. The newsletter is free, although they are planning, later down the line, to introduce a paying service for our more in-depth articles and other services.
Stephenhinton.org will be contributing articles primarily on the connection between the circular economy and Peace with the Earth.
The topic is more apposite than ever: with the whole basis of business being undermined by energy costs, wars going on and politics that seems to have lost its way we believe the one thing to aim for is the one thing that is a real thing: peace.
Peace is not about the way we run things, it’s about who we are. More than the sum of all our business successes and failures put together. More than ever we need to be reminded that in the middle of trying to keep the wheels of production going we need to feel peace.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be publishing highlights from the past eight years and going deeper into the four aspects of the business of business as peace.
Since humans started to sit around the campfire, the circle has been the natural way to meet. In the circle we are naturally equal and everyone’s voice is equally important. The circle is also the heart of something more powerful: a social technology that has helped people not only survive but also feel good and develop in equality and close contact; with themselves, nature and each other. Even under difficult conditions.
Many people today feel a concern about the development from a healthy culture to an unhealthy ditto – with exclusion, growing gaps, insecure economy. Some feel powerless.
Details
24 mars 2023 kl 18:00 – 26 mars 2023 kl 15:30
Kursgården Lindsberg, Lindsberg 10, 791 91 Falun, Sverige
Price: SEK 1580:- to 1780:- depending on accommodation required
COP15 started this week in Montreal, Canada. This is the UN’s biodiversity summit. In effect, it is an international meeting to discuss how to cope with and reduce the impact of global warming and environmental destruction on nature. As Carter Roberts, the US head of the World Wildlife Fund, put it: “It’s like two horsemen of the apocalypse — one is climate change and one is nature. They’re wound up with each other.”
“Humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction and governments must end the “orgy of destruction”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said at the beginning of the meeting. “We are out of harmony with nature. In fact, we are playing an entirely different song. Around the world, for hundreds of years, we have conducted a cacophony of chaos, played with instruments of destruction. Deforestation and desertification are creating wastelands of once-thriving ecosystems,” he said. “Our land…
Working hard to fan the flames of the green revolution by creating markets that local people own. The first ever presentation of the concept and software will be in Nora, Sweden. If you know anyone in the vicinity do encourage them to go.
We’ll talk about the myriad of alternatives opening up with new technology and how if you own a market you can fill it resiliently. And we’ll talk of the circular economy. Website is in English, invitation in Swedish. #technology#software#markets#circulareconomy
I thought I’d help #cop27 out by providing a decision tree for policy makers. Rather simplified, I think it needs to match the level of public dialogue going on. Feel free to suggest additions/corrections.
Copenhagen aims to be the first carbon neutral capital by 2025. This article explains how they plan to do it and hints at several obstacle along the way.
Plans to be the first carbon neutral capital by 2025
Copenhagen aims to be the first carbon neutral capital by 2025. Their report CPH 2020 Roadmap 2021-2025 lays out the challenges: fossil-based emissions come from two main sources: energy production and transport. The city aims to introduce some forty-seven different initiatives to completely remove fossil emissions from energy production and reduce transport emissions by just over 11% on 2018 levels.
FAST FACTS
AREA: Copenhagen city POPULATION: 620 000 EMISSIONS 2018: 1 500 000 tonnes CO2 per year BASELINE PROJECTION: 630,000 tonnes CO2 per year EMISSIONS 2050 with roadmap: 430,000 tonnes CO2 per year ROADMAP REDUCTION: 200,000 tonnes CO2 per year NUMBER OF ROADMAP MEASURES: 47
Energy generation
The bulk of reductions, 855,000 tons of CO2, will come from investments in renewable energy production. By 2025, Copenhagen’s production of electricity and heating will be mainly based on wind, biomass, geothermal energy, and waste. The district heating will be carbon neutral and the city will produce green electricity exceeding its consumption, in order to offset remaining CO2 emissions. The excess of green electricity will be exported to other parts of Denmark.
Energy consumption
Another way to reducing fossil fules in energy consumption is to reduce need for consumption. The Copenhagen plan contains measure to stimulate building insulation and smart energy regulation.
Transport
More than half of Copenhageners use bicycles as their main means of transport. The Climate Plan calls for 75% of all trips in Copenhagen to be on foot, by bike, or via public transport. The city also aims to make public transport carbon neutral and increase its use by 20%.
We will be discussing these plans from several perspectives in future blogs. For now, the plan has stirred controversy, see for example this article from The Conversation which says that reliance on unproven technology and external funding can both upset the best laid plans.
Do visit WAFA if you are in Copenhagen. Entry is free.
The Water, Air and Food Awards, WAFA, is a Copenhagen-based NGO dedicated to identifying initiatives that show practically what can be done to ensure water and food security and clean air.
By offering an annual award, WAFA identifies and showcases initiatives already working to remediate the earth’s environmental and social challenges.
The prestigious Award Events communicate positive messages of hope and invite sponsoring and partners to further support, spread and build on these grass-roots innovations.
Since 2010 WAFA over 400 applicants have gained approval and 14 have been awarded from countries as far apart as Canada, Jordan and India.
This year, the general public will be invited to vote for four winner among 14 finalists. To get informed about when voting opens, sign up for WAFA’s newsletter.
I am currently acting Program Office manager, and we are looking for several volunteers to take us from where we are today to the Award Ceremony on the 7th December.
Stephen Hinton Consulting 