Podcasts about united nations environment program

The City of Toronto has been named a "role model city" by the United Nations Environment Program for Supporting Urban Ecosystems. It's part of an initiative the UN calls "Generation Restoration," part of their Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. To find out why Toronto has been named a role model, and what that city can teach others across the world about fostering and protecting their urban ecosystems, we speak to Kim Statham, director of Toronto Urban Forestry, and Wendy Strickland, project manager for the Toronto Ravine Strategy. Listen to the episode to hear how cities can play a role in ecosystem restoration.

China does not acknowledge or accept the European Union's final ruling to impose additional tariffs on electric vehicles manufactured in the Chinese market, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday, vowing to take all necessary measures to protect the interests of companies.10月30日，中国商务部表示，中方对欧盟对华电动汽车加征关税的终裁结果不认同、不接受，将继续采取一切必要措施坚决维护中国企业的合法权益。The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, announced on Tuesday the conclusion of its anti-subsidy investigation, resulting in the imposition of definitive countervailing duties on EVs produced in China. The measures will expire at the end of a five-year period unless an expiration review is initiated before that date, the commission said in a news release.10月29日，欧盟常设执行机构——欧盟委员会发布消息称结束了反补贴调查，决定对从中国进口的电动汽车征收最终反补贴税。欧盟委员会在新闻公告中称，除非在此之前启动失效审查，这些措施将在五年期满时失效。In response, China has filed a complaint under the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement mechanism.对此，中方已在世贸组织争端解决机制下提出诉讼。China has repeatedly pointed out that the EU's anti-subsidy investigation into EVs manufactured in China is irrational and fraught with numerous noncompliance issues, and is a protectionist move under the guise of "fair competition", the Ministry of Commerce said in an online statement.商务部的一份声明称，中方多次指出，欧盟对华电动汽车反补贴调查存在诸多不合理、不合规之处，是以“公平竞争”为名行“不公平竞争”之实的保护主义做法。Noting that the EU is still willing to continue talks on price commitments for Chinese-made EVs, the ministry said that China always advocates the resolution of trade disputes through dialogue and consultation.商务部指出，欧方表示将继续与中方就价格承诺进行磋商，中方始终主张通过对话磋商解决贸易争端。The EU's new tariffs will range from 7.8 percent for the Chinese output of United States EV maker Tesla Inc, to 18.8 percent for Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, and up to 35.3 percent for Shanghai-based carmaker SAIC Motor Corp, in addition to the EU's existing 10 percent duty on imported cars.除欧盟现有的10%进口汽车关税外，欧盟的新关税将从美国电动汽车制造商特斯拉公司在华产品的7.8%，到浙江吉利控股集团的18.8%，以及总部位于上海的汽车制造商上汽集团的35.3%不等。Other Chinese EV manufacturers face an average tariff of 20.7 percent, with rates reaching up to 35.3 percent for those classified as "noncooperative".其他中国电动汽车制造商面临的平均关税为20.7%，而那些被归类为“不合作”的公司将被征收高达35.3%的关税。SAIC Motor expressed disappointment on Wednesday with the decision and said that it plans to pursue necessary legal action by filing a lawsuit with the Court of Justice of the European Union to ensure its legitimate rights and interests.10月30日，上汽集团对这一裁定“深表遗憾”，并表示拟采取必要法律措施，将本案起诉至欧盟法院，维护自身合法权益。The Chinese automaker said that it is implementing a series of measures to strengthen its resilience against the EU's trade barriers.上汽集团表示，它正采取一系列措施以增强自身应对欧洲贸易壁垒的适应能力。These tariffs on Chinese, European and US EV producers operating in China neither enhance the EU's resilience in EV manufacturing nor promote innovation or job creation. Instead, they represent a politically motivated approach, the Brussels-based China Chamber of Commerce to the EU said on Wednesday.对在华经营的中国、欧洲和美国电动汽车生产商征收关税，既不能增强欧盟在电动汽车制造领域的应对能力，也不能促进创新或创造就业。10月30日，总部设在布鲁塞尔的欧盟中国商会表示，欧方所采取的终裁措施是政治驱动下的做法。Market watchers warned that these additional tariffs will likely intensify trade friction between China and the EU, and may trigger a global rise in trade protectionism within the automotive industry.市场观察家警告说，这些额外关税可能会加剧中国和欧盟之间的贸易摩擦，并可能引发全球汽车行业贸易保护主义的抬头。Zhang Yongjun, secretary-general of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, said that based on the principle of reciprocity, the EU's decision will inevitably trigger countermeasures, potentially having an impact on competitive EU export industries that trade with China.中国国际经济交流中心秘书长张永军表示，根据对等原则，欧盟的决定将不可避免地引发反制措施，有可能对欧盟对华贸易中具有竞争力的出口产业造成影响。"Under such circumstances, European consumers may suffer, facing either increased costs for Chinese EVs or limited options from alternative suppliers," he added.张永军补充：“在这种情况下，欧洲消费者可能会受到影响，要么面临中国电动汽车成本增加的问题，要么面临替代供应商选择有限的问题。”Wei Jianguo, former vice-minister of commerce, said that the EU's move could weaken Chinese investors' confidence in Europe, especially those in the automobile, power battery, industrial parts and logistics industries.商务部原副部长魏建国表示，欧盟此举可能会削弱中国投资者对欧洲的信心，尤其是汽车、动力电池、工业零部件和物流行业的投资者。Erik Solheim, former executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, told China Daily on Wednesday: "Tariffs on superior Chinese electric cars go contrary to all economic wisdom. It will make us all poorer and slow down the green transformation in Europe.10月30日，联合国环境规划署前执行主任埃里克·索尔海姆告诉《中国日报》：“对中国优秀的电动汽车征收关税违背了所有的经济智慧。它将使我们变得更加贫穷，并减缓欧洲的绿色转型。”"Green competition is a race to the top, tariffs and protectionism is a race to the bottom. Europe should invite investments from BYD and all the other Chinese car makers to help share technology and help shape competition so that European car makers can catch up."“绿色竞争是向上的竞争，关税和保护主义是向下的竞争。欧洲应该邀请比亚迪和所有其他中国汽车制造商投资，帮助分享技术，帮助形成竞争，这样欧洲汽车制造商才能迎头赶上。”Also on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated China's opposition to the EU's tariff measure. The move clearly violates WTO rules and contradicts the principles of free trade, Wang said while meeting in Beijing with Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen.同样在30日，外交部长王毅重申中方反对欧盟加征关税的举措。王毅在北京同芬兰外长瓦尔托宁举行会谈时表示，此举明显违背世贸规则，违反自由贸易原则。China has always believed that openness leads to progress while protectionism has no future, and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization serves the interests of all parties, Wang added.王毅表示，中国始终认为开放才能进步，保护主义没有前途，普惠包容的经济全球化符合各方利益。Believing that dialogue is the best path forward, Chen Huiqing, head of the legal service branch at the Beijing-based China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, said that talks remain the most effective way to prevent the escalation of bilateral economic and trade tensions.总部设在北京的中国机电产品进出口商会法律服务部主任陈惠清认为，对话是最好的出路，并表示会谈仍是防止双边经贸紧张局势升级的最有效途径。Currently, technical teams from both sides are engaged in a new phase of consultations, according to the Ministry of Commerce.据商务部消息，目前，双方技术团队正在进行新一阶段磋商。countervailing duty反补贴税World Trade Organization世界贸易组织tariffn. 关税trade barrier贸易壁垒

Jan Raes shares his journey from IT and banking to becoming a climate and circular economy finance expert at UNEP. He discusses the intersection of finance and sustainability, the importance of authentic leadership, and the value of international experience in shaping a meaningful career. 00:31- About Jan Raes Jan is a Belgian native living in the Netherlands. He studied in locations such as Louisville, Belgium, Copenhagen, Denmark, the Netherlands, California, and Harvard. He worked for various US-based IT firms during his first 10 years of professional life. He then switched to a major Dutch bank where he worked for 20 years, and held multiple roles like the Climate and Circular Economy Expert, Change Manager, Compliance Manager, and Information Manager.  Recently he moved to UNEP, which is the United Nations Environment Program, as the climate and circular economy expert. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tbcy/support

To halt and reverse the terrible trends in nature loss and climate change requires collaboration at international levels. With every country coming to the table with its own interests and agenda, it is no small task to agree joint commitments that stand a chance of changing the global outlook. Thankfully, there are good people in the room equal to the challenge.Among them is Dr Cyriaque Nikuze Sendashonga, who has worked in the policy and politics of biodiversity conservation for over forty years. She has had influential roles with the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Environment Program, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and more. In this wide-ranging conversation she explains how her deep Catholic faith has been a source of hope and helped her persevere, both in work and in withstanding the traumatic personal losses she has suffered along the way.

Join host Norbert Wilson and co-host Kerilyn Schewel in the latest episode of the Leading Voices in Food podcast as they dive deep into the world of small-scale fisheries with two distinguished guests: Nicole Franz from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and John Virdin from Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Discover the significant role small-scale fisheries play in food security, economic development, and community livelihoods. Learn about the unique challenges these fisheries face, and how community-led climate adaptation alongside top-down national policies can help build resilience. This episode also highlights collaborative efforts between academia and organizations like FAO, painting a comprehensive picture of the state and future of small-scale fisheries. Interview Summary Kerilyn - So, Nicole, let's begin with you. Why is your work at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization focused on small-scale fisheries and fishing communities? And could you share with us how they are different from fisheries more broadly? What's unique about them and their role in food production? Nicole - Yes. Let me start with the latter question. And I think the first thing is to clarify actually what are small-scale fisheries, no? Because sometimes if you think about small-scale fisheries, what most people will have in mind is probably that of a man in a small boat fishing. But in reality, it's a sector that is much more diverse. There are, for example, women in Indonesia that are collecting clams by foot. Foot fishers. Or we have examples from small-scale fisheries that are fishing boats in Norway, which are comparably small, but if you compare them, for example, with how small-scale fishing looks in a place like Mozambique, it's a very different scale. But all of that, however, is comprised in what we understand as small-scale fisheries. It is also important to understand that when we talk about small-scale fisheries in FAO, we don't only limit it to what is happening in the water, the harvesting part, but we also include what happens once the fish is out of the water. So, once it's processed, then, and when it's traded. So, so it's a whole supply chain that is connected to that small-scale fisheries production that we understand as being small-scale fisheries. And with Duke University, with John who is present here, and other colleagues and other colleagues from World Fish, we did a global study where we tried to estimate the global contributions of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development. And what we found was that at least 40 percent of the global catch is actually coming from inland and marine small-scale fisheries. And that's, that's enormous. That's a huge, huge amount. More important almost is that, that 90 percent of all the people that are employed in capture fisheries are in small-scale fisheries. And that is the human dimension of it. And that's why the community dimension is so important for the work. Because it is that big amount of people, 61 million people, that are employed in the value chains. And in addition to that, we estimated that there are about 53 million people that are actually engaging in small-scale fisheries for subsistence. So, if we consider those people that are employed in small-scale fisheries, plus those that are engaging for subsistence, and all their household members, we're actually talking about close to 500 million people that depend at least partially on small-scale fisheries for their livelihoods. We also looked at the economic dimensions of small-scale fisheries, and we found that the value from the first sale of small-scale fishery products amounts to 77 billion. So, these numbers are important. They show the importance of small-scale fisheries in terms of their production, but also in terms of the livelihood [00:05:00] dimension, in terms of the economic value that they generate. And, last but not least, we also looked at the nutritional value from small-scale fisheries. And we estimated that the catch from small-scale fisheries would be able to supply almost 1 billion women globally with 50 percent of the recommended omega 3 fatty acid intake. So, I think with all of these numbers, hopefully, I can convey why the focus on small-scale fish is, in the context of food security and poverty eradication in particular, is of fundamental importance. Kerilyn - Thanks, Nicole. That's really helpful to get a kind of global picture. If I could follow up to ask, what regions of the world are small-scale fisheries more common, or do economies rely on them? And in what regions do you see them disappearing? Are they common in countries like the US, for example? Well, they're certainly more common in what is often considered as a Global South. In Asia in particular, we encountered the largest total numbers, absolute numbers, in terms of people involved in terms of production. But also in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean. In the Pacific, obviously, they play a crucial role. They are more and more disappearing in the US, for example, in Europe. We see that it is a livelihood that is no longer very common. And one of the features we see there that it's an aging sector, it's a shrinking sector, for a number of reasons. But they still define the characteristic of certain areas where they really are part of the identity and of the local culture, even in the U.S. or in many, many places in Europe. Norbert - Nicole, this is really fascinating. Thank you for sharing this broad overview of what's happening and who are small-scale fishers. What are some of the common challenges that these small-scale fishers and fisheries face? And what is FAO's response to those challenges? Nicole - Well, where to start? There are so many challenges. I think one fundamental challenge that is common across all regions is securing access to fishing grounds. But not only to fishing grounds, but also to the coastal areas where operations, where they land the boats, where they, where the process of fish, where the fishing villages and communities are located. In many areas around the world, we see expansion of tourism, expansion of urban areas and coastal areas. The increase of other industries that are competing for the space now, and that are often stronger economically more visible than small-scale fisheries. So, the competition over space in those areas is quite an issue. But there are also many challenges that are more outside of the fishing activity directly. For example, often small-scale fishing communities lack access to services. We had basic services such as education or health services, social protection. And in many cases, women are particularly disadvantaged in relation to access to these services. For example, women that are involved in harvesting or in processing of fish in small-scale fisheries, they often do not know where to leave their children while they are at work because there's no childcare facility in many of these villages. And there are 45 million women that are engaged in small-scale fisheries around the world. Another set of challenges relates to the value chains and the markets. Often there's limited infrastructure to connect to markets. The processing and storage facilities are not adequate to bring the product to the market in a state that allows it to then fetch good prices and to benefit from the value chain. Often small-scale fishers and fish workers are also not well organized. So, they become more subject to power imbalances along the value chain where they have to be price takers. Now they have to accept what is offered. That also relates often to a lack of transparency in relation to market information. And of course, then we have another set of challenges that are coming from climate change that are becoming more and more important. And from other types of disasters also. One thing that brings together all these challenges, or makes them worse, is often the lack of representative structures and also institutional structures that allow for participation in relevant decision making or management processes. So that small-scale fishers and fish workers don't even have an opportunity to flag their needs or to propose solutions. So, FAO has facilitated a process to develop Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food security and Poverty Eradication. Quite a mouthful of a name. In short, we call them small-scale fisheries guidelines. In which all the major challenges in a way are compiled in one document together with guidance on how to address them. And these guidelines are the result of a participatory development process. So, they are really informed by the involvement of fishing communities from around the world, but also other stakeholders. And they have been agreed on and have been endorsed by the almost 200 members of the FAO. We are now working with countries, with the small-scale fishing communities around the world, with other partners, including Duke University, to help implement these small-scale fisheries guidelines. Norbert - Oh, this is really fascinating and it's important work. I'm intrigued with the participatory process. How are small-scale fisher organizations involved in this? Are you working with different organizations? Or is this more individuals who are just interested in this issue coming to the fore? This is through organizations at all levels. Be it at the national level where we are, for example, facilitating the formation of new women organizations in a number of African countries. Be it at the regional level, in particular in Africa, there are existing structures in the context of the African union, which has established so called non state actor platforms for fisheries and aquaculture, which we are supporting in order to bring their voice into the processes and to facilitate peer learning. And then there's a number of global social movements and producer organizations for small-scale fisheries that we are working with and using them as a facilitator to involve as many as possible. And gather as much insight that is coming from the membership of those organizations to then bring into global, regional, national processes from our side. Norbert - This is really important to hear how different forms of governance and at different levels are playing a part in developing these guidelines. Thank you for sharing that, Nicole. I'd like to turn to you, John. You have more than 20 years of experience in studying and advising government policies to regulate human use of the oceans. With a particular focus on marine conservation practices. How has your thinking about marine conservation changed over the last 20 years? John - Yeah, it's changed a bit. As you mentioned, my interest in work has been on ocean conservation and how it can alleviate poverty. A lot of times that has meant managing fisheries to address poverty. And I think in the past, that meant that I was really focused on what governments could do to increase the efficiency of fisheries. The economic efficiency. How do we increase incomes, how do you increase revenues for communities? All very important, but for all the reasons that Nicole mentioned, I spend a lot more time now thinking about the process rather than the outcomes, and thinking about what institutions are in place, or can be created, to help empower small-scale fishing communities to have much more of a voice in the decisions that affect them. In how the resources are used. How the space is used. And Nicole outlined really well a lot of the challenges that are facing communities from increased industrialization of ocean use to the squeeze from climate change and the effect on resources. And even the fact that climate change may be driving people to the oceans. I mean, as farms and agricultures maybe fail or face challenges, oceans are often open access, and can even be a sink for people to make a livelihood. And so, yet more pressures coming from outside these fisheries. How can fishers have a greater voice in making the decisions that impact them and safeguarding their livelihoods? Norbert - Thank you for that. I'm interested in understanding how do these fisher folks, who are trying to organize and are organizing, how does that interact with sort of larger markets? I mean, I would imagine a number of these folks are catching fish and other seafood that goes into global markets. What's the interaction or challenges that may happen there? John - As Nicole mentioned, because small-scale fisheries are so diverse you have markets in many places. These may be located near an urban center where you can have easy access. You can get fresh fish in a cooler and put it on a plane and off it goes to an export market. We found that, what may be surprised us, is a significant number of small-scale fishers are exporting in some cases. So, then that can be challenging because you might get higher prices, which is a good thing. But it might drive, for example, more fishing effort. It might drive higher levels of exploitation. It might change traditional practices, traditional rules for fisheries. It might really change how fishers organize in a given place. So, the access to export markets, even say an island setting, has kind of scrambled past fisheries management in some places and can be an outside force. Kerilyn - John and Nicole, I want to ask you both a question now about painting a picture of these communities that you're working with. You both mentioned how diverse small-scale fisheries can be. I was wondering if you could just share what one community in particular looks like that you've worked with? What are the challenges that a particular community faces, or alternatively, where do you see things actually working well? So Nicole, could I ask you to respond first? Nicole - I'm working more with global processes and the global level. So, through that, I have the privilege of working with representatives from many, many communities. So maybe what I can share is the feedback that I'm getting through that, in terms of the change that we can observe, and that is affecting fishing communities around the world. I think one thing that is being brought up as a concern by many is what I mentioned before. It's a process of aging in fishing communities and often a lack of capacity to retain young people in the sector. And that has different reasons. Now there are all of these challenges that small-scale fisheries have to face and that are difficult to overcome. So, that often drives people, in particular young men, to leave the communities. Or within the communities, to look for other alternative livelihoods now and not to take on the skills of fishermen or getting engaged in small-scale fisheries more broadly. So, in some cases, yes, it's not only other activities within the community, but really leaving the community and leaving in some cases also the country. What we see there is that sometimes people that have the skills, maybe still as a fisher, they have tried to fish. So, they have a knowledge of fishing. They emigrate out into other countries. And in some cases they are then hired into industrial fisheries where they work on industrial boats that go out fishing for longer periods of time. But where they at times end up in situations that can be called slave labor, basically, that are subject to serious violations of human rights. And that is in a way generated by this vulnerability to the poverty that is still there in those communities. The lack of being able to make a living, a decent work in the fishing community. So, that is something that we have seen is happening. We have also seen that in some cases, there's an involvement of fishers into say more illegal activities, be it in drug trafficking, be it also into the trafficking of people. I'm thinking even about the Mediterranean. I'm working out of Italy, Rome. We have a lot of immigration from North African countries, for example, coming through that route. And oftentimes it happens that the transport of migrants is actually carried out by fishers and their boats because they have the skill to navigate the sea. And they make a better living by transporting illegal migrants than going fishing. So, those are some of the challenges we hear. And the other one is there in relation to what is now a concept that is getting more and more traction. It's often known as the blue economy, which is, in a way, looking at the ocean as the last frontier for economic development. And that includes on the one hand, the expansion of previously existing industries, such as tourism. But also the expansion of newer sectors such as alternative energy production. Think wind parks now in coastal areas. So, what happens here is that in many cases, this adds again, additional pressure on the available maritime space. In the water and on the land. The expansion of marine aquaculture is another example. So, that also is something that we hear is becoming an issue for small-scale fishing communities to defend the space that they need to maintain their lifestyle. Kerilyn - John, is there anything you'd like to add on this question of how fisheries are changing? John - Very, very briefly. Taking the example in West Africa where I've spent some time over the years, you certainly have some communities there where it actually doesn't seem as if the fisheries are changing as much in the sense it's quite static and stagnant. And this could be caused by a lot of the reasons that Nicole mentioned, but the community, the economy, the fisheries aren't growing. People, young people may be leaving for a number of reasons, but it doesn't have to be that way either. I mean, there are positive examples. I was in Liberia last week, and there, from the numbers that the government has, small-scale fishing communities are growing. The number of fishers are growing. They've actually made a conscious effort to protect a certain area of the ocean just for small-scale fisheries. And to prohibit trawling and to give the communities more space to grow and operate in the 20 years since the conflict ended there. So, again, it doesn't have to be sort of stagnant or grinding on in some of these communities as they cope with competition for resources, for example, competition for space from others. Where they were given that space, in some cases in Liberia, they've grown. That may have its own challenges but. Kerilyn - Interesting. In the back of my mind, when thinking about these communities and aging and migration of younger generations away from these livelihoods, you know, as someone who studies the relationship between migration and development, I think it's a common trend where, you know, as countries develop, young people leave traditional economic activities. They get more educated, they move to cities, they move abroad. To what degree is this somehow just part of these countries' development? Should we expect young people to be leaving them? And to what degree might we think differently about development in a way that would enable more young people to stay? And I think, John, you mentioned a really interesting point about how protecting the space For these small-scale fisheries to operate is one thing that seems to have kept people engaged in this livelihood. I'd be curious if there's other things that come up for you. Other ways of thinking about enhancing the capability to stay in small-scale fishing livelihoods. John - Sure, and I'd be curious what Nicole's seeing from her perspective. I think, to some extent, it's a different question if small-scale fisheries are economically viable. And so, what I think Nicole and I are referring to in many cases is where for a lot of these external pressures upon them, they may not be as viable as they once were. And that has its own push on people, whereas where fishers are empowered, they have more of a voice in what happens to the fisheries and controlling those spaces and resources, and it can be more economically viable in these fisheries. That presents a different set of choices for young people then. So that's where we've really focused is: okay, what is the process by which small-scale fishing communities have their voices heard more, have much more of a say and much more power in the use of the fisheries, the use of the coastal areas, the things that affect those fisheries and their livelihoods? And then we can see what those choices might look like. But Nicole, I'm not sure if that's consistent with what you've seen in a number of places. Nicole - Yes, and maybe to also rebalance a bleak picture I painted before. Like John said, there are obviously good examples. I think an important condition is probably a linkage to markets. Non-economic viability in many ways does play a role. And there are examples of how that can happen in different ways. For example, in Morocco, the country has made quite a significant investment to build a whole series of ports for small-scale fisheries. Specifically, along the entire coastline of Morocco where they are providing a port that is not just a landing site for small-scale fisheries, but it provides like a system of integrated services. There's an auction hall. So, the fish comes in, it's immediately kind of weighted. They get the information, the label for what they have brought in, then it goes into an auction that has set rules and everybody is tied to. But in that same area, for example, there's also a bank or there is an office that helps with the access to social protection services, for example. So, it's a whole integrated service center, and that really makes a difference to help make the sector more efficient. But at the same time, also really keep the tradition. So, it's not only economic efficiency, but by having all these different centers, it allows to maintain many people employed and to also maintain the characteristics of each of those different lending sites. That's one example. I was in Korea last year and there, they were doing something similar. They are reviving some of their traditional fishing villages where they are also investing in those fishing communities and providing them with funding to set up, for example, restaurants that are run directly by those involved in the fishery. Those are particular places that are close to cities. In my case, I was in Busan. So, it's very closely connected to the consumers now that come out there. They are focusing on certain products in these villages that they are famous for traditionally. They have little shops and they're starting e-commerce for some of the products. So, the way they package, and the label has become much, much wider than before. So again, that has revived a bit those communities. In Italy, it's a country that's famous for its food, you know. And they are in the region that's called the Amalfi coast. There's a tiny village and it's famous for the production of a value-added product made from tiny sardines that are fished by the small-scale fisheries boats. And they are processed in a very particular way. And there is like a label of geographic origin of this product, and it can only come from that village. And it has a high price and has it's like a high-end product, so to say. And in a way these are also approaches that provide dignity to this profession. And a sense of pride which is really important and should not be underestimated in also increasing the willingness, for example, of young people to be part of that and maintain the viability of the sector. John – I'd like to just add, I think that's a really important point on the dignity and pride and the importance of these fisheries in so many places and cultures. I mean, I'll never forget talking to a minister of finance in one country and starting to try to make the economic case for supporting small-scale fisheries. He cut me off in about 30 seconds and started talking about growing up fishing in the village and going back home for vacations, and just the importance to the entire community of fishing to him and just how much it was a part of the fabric of the culture. Kerilyn - I love that. That does seem so important and wonderful to hear those very specific examples that do give some hope. It's not just a bleak future. Norbert - You know, it's great to hear how government policy is helping shape and reshape these fisheries in a way that allow for economic viability and also these are opportunities to connect communities to these traditions. And so, I find that really fascinating. I want to kind of push a little bit beyond that and bring back the idea of how to deal with climate that was mentioned earlier. And also change our focus from government policy to sort of what's happening within these small-scale fisheries and fishery organizations. So Nicole, a lot of your work focuses on building more inclusive policy processes and stakeholder engagement. And so, from your perspective, how does community-led climate adaptation, rather than top down adaptation agendas, lead to different outcomes? Nicole - Well, I think one way that seems quite obvious, how community-led adaptation can lead to different outcomes is simply that in that case, the traditional and the indigenous knowledge that is within those communities will be considered much more strongly. And this is something that can be really critical to crafting solutions for that very site-specific context. Because the impact of the climate change can be very different in every region and every locality not due to that specific environment that it's encountering there. And holding the knowledge and being able to observe the changes and then adapt to them is something that certainly a community-based approach has an advantage over something that would be a coming from a more centralized top down, a little bit more one-size-fits-all approach. And this can then imply little things like, for example, if the water temperature changes, we see a change in the fish behavior. Now we see how certain stocks start to move to different environments and others are coming in. So, the communities obviously need to adapt to that. And they do that automatically. Now, if it changes, they adapt their gear, they adapt to the new species that is there. So, in many cases, there are solutions that are already happening, and adaptations that are already happening that may not carry that label, that name. But if you look at it, it is really what is happening, no? Or you can see in some cases, that for example, there are initiatives that are coming also spontaneously from the communities to replant mangrove forests, where you can observe that there is a rising seawater level that is threatening the communities and where they have their houses, where they have their daily lives. Now, you can see that through NGOs and often there is support projects for that. But you can also see it happening more spontaneously when communities observe that change. So, the top-down approaches often they lack that more nuanced, site-specific considerations in their approaches and the consideration of that specific knowledge. On the other hand, it needs to be said though, that the top-down approaches can also play an important role. For example, countries develop their national adaptation plans. And those plans are usually, you know, developed at a higher level, at the central level. And often fisheries and aquaculture are not necessarily included in those plans. So that is something where the top-down level can play a very important role and really make a difference for small-scale fisheries by ensuring that fisheries and aquaculture are included in a sector. So, I guess that in the end, as always, it's not black and white. No, it's something that we need to take into account both of it and have any climate change adaptation approach to small-scale fisheries being grounded in both. And have a way to bridge the top down and the bottom-up approaches. Norbert - I really like this idea of bridging between the top down and the bottom-up approaches, understanding the local knowledge that's there. I would imagine that's also knowledge that when used to make decisions makes it easier for people to stick with those decisions, because it's a part of their voice. It's who they are. And then the other side, it's critical to make sure that those plans are a part of a larger national move, because if the government is not involved, if those higher-level decision makers are not involved, they can easily overlook the needs of those communities. I really appreciate hearing that. I think sometimes we hear this tension. It needs to be one or the other. And you're making a really compelling point about how it has to be integrated. John, I'm really intrigued to see from your perspective. How do you see this top down versus bottom-up approach working in the work you've done? John - I'll do what I typically do is echo and agree with Nicole, but just to give an example that I love. I teach this one in my classes. There's an old paper by Bob Johannes, a marine ecologist. And the standard practice in managing fisheries as government scientists is you count the fish, you then set limits for them, often from the top down. And his point was in the case of Indonesia, if you look at the reef fisheries that go through most of the communities, one tool to assess the fish stocks is to do a visual census. You swim transects along the reefs and you count the fish. So, he did a back of the envelope estimate and he said, well, if you're going to do that through all the reefs throughout Indonesia, it would probably be finished in about 400 years. And that would give you one snapshot. So, he's saying you can't do this. You have to rely on the local knowledge in these communities. I don't want to romanticize traditional knowledge too much, but I just can't imagine how policies would effectively support adaptation in these communities without building upon this traditional ecological knowledge. Kerilyn - John, since coming to Duke from the World Bank, you've regularly collaborated with non-academic partners like the FAO as well as the UN environmental program. Can you tell us more about how your partnership with the FAO and your work with Nicole more specifically began? John - Sure. I think more than anything, I got really lucky. But when I first came to Duke, I started working with a colleague, Professor Xavier Basurto at the Marine Lab, who I think is one of the world's leading scholars on how communities come together to manage common resources like fish stocks. We organized a workshop at Duke on small-scale fisheries. We got talking to Nicole, invited her and some of her colleagues at FAO to that workshop, together with others, to think about a way forward for small-scale fisheries for philanthropy. And I think from those conversations started to see the need to build a global evidence base on how important these fisheries are in society. And Nicole could probably say it better, but from there, she and colleagues said, you know, maybe you all could work with us. We're planning to do this study to build this evidence base and maybe we could collaborate. And I think we're very fortunate that Duke gives the space for that kind of engaged research and allows us to do it. I don't think we knew how long it would be when we started, Nicole. But over five years and 800 researchers later, we - Javier, Nicole, myself, and so many others - concluded with this global study that we hope does have a little bit clearer picture on the role of these fisheries in society. Kerilyn - Nicole, from your side, what does an academic partner bring to the table? What's your motivation for partnering with someone like John or Duke University more specifically. Well, I think as FAO, we like to call ourselves a knowledge organization, but we're not an academic institution. We don't conduct research ourselves, no? So, we need to partner around that. We work with the policy makers though. So, one of our roles, in a way, is to build that. To broker and improve the science policy interface. So, this is why collaboration with academia research for us is very important. And what we experienced in this particular collaboration with Duke University to produce this study called Illuminating Hidden Harvest, the Contributions of Small-scale Fisheries to Sustainable Development was really that first we realized we have a shared vision, shared objectives. And I think that's fundamental. Now, you need to make sure that you have the same values, how you approach these things. And in this case, it aligned very well that we really wanted to take in a way, a human-centered and multidimensional approach to look at small-scale fisheries. And then it was also very important to understand what every partner brings to the table, no? The different strengths that we have. And then based on that, define the roles and what everybody's doing in a project. And the added value for us was certainly the capacity from the Duke University side to help develop the method that we develop for the country case studies that we conducted in 58 countries. And not only to develop that method, but then we had a postdoc at Duke University for this project, who was actually then engaging with all of the people. People in these 58 countries. And, and she was. coaching them in that methodology, actually in three languages, which was quite amazing. It was very, very thorough. We could not have done that. And we had a lot of other students from Duke University that helped us once we had the data gathered. To then screen that data, harmonize that data, clean that data, obviously under the leadership of John, Xavier and other colleagues, no? So that was really something that was adding a lot of value and actually also helped us to get to know a lot of the students from Duke. And some of those then ended up also becoming consultants working with us more broadly on small-scale fisheries. So that was certainly great, great value for FAO as collaboration. BIOS Nicole Franz, Equitable Livelihoods Team Leader, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Nicole is a development economist with 18 years of experience in intergovernmental organizations. She holds a Master in International Cooperation and Project Design from University La Sapienza, Rome and a Master in Economic and Cultural Cooperation and Human Rights in the Mediterranean Region. From 2003 to 2008 she was a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). In 2009-10 she was Fishery Planning Analyst at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, focusing on fisheries certification. Since 2011 she works for the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division where she coordinates the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) with a focus on inclusive policy processes and stakeholder empowerment. Since 2021 she leads the Equitable Livelihoods team.  John Virdin is director of the Oceans Program at the Duke University Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. He has a total of over twenty years' experience in studying and advising government policies to regulate human use of the oceans, particularly marine conservation policies to reduce poverty throughout the tropics. His focus has been largely on managing fisheries for food and livelihoods, expanding to broader ocean-based economic development policies, coastal adaptation and more recently reducing ocean plastic pollution. He directs the Oceans Program at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, aiming to connect Duke University's science and ideas to help policymakers solve ocean sustainability problems. He has collaborated in this effort with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, as well as regional organizations such as the Abidjan Convention secretariat, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission of West Africa and the Parties to the Nauru Agreement for tuna fisheries management in the Western Pacific. He co-created and teaches an introductory course for undergraduate students to understand the role of ocean policy in helping solve many of society's most pressing development challenges on land. His work has been published in books, edited volumes and a number of professional journals, including Nature Ecology and Evolution, Ecosystem Services, Environment International, Fish and Fisheries and Marine Policy, as well as contributing to China Dialogue, The Conversation, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and The Hill.    

Andrew Lewin discusses the recent election of Brazilian oceanographer Leticia Carvalho as the next Secretary General of the International Seabed Authority. Carvalho's victory could potentially impact the future of deep sea mining. Tune in to learn more about what this means for the ocean and how you can take action to support ocean conservation. Link to article: https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/brazils-carvalho-to-lead-isa-following-predecessors-controversial-term/ Follow a career in conservation: https://www.conservation-careers.com/online-training/ Use the code SUFB to get 33% off courses and the careers program.   Do you want to join my Ocean Community? Sign Up for Updates on the process: www.speakupforblue.com/oceanapp   Sign up for our Newsletter: http://www.speakupforblue.com/newsletter   Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3NmYvsI Connect with Speak Up For Blue: Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube Leticia Carvalho, a Brazilian oceanographer, has been elected as the next Secretary General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), marking a significant shift in leadership for the organization. Carvalho's election brings a new era of transparency and accountability to the ISA, as she has emphasized the importance of these values in her campaign. With a background in oceanography and experience as an international civil servant for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Carvalho is well-positioned to lead the ISA in a sustainable and responsible manner. As the first woman, first oceanographer, and first representative from Latin America to hold this position, Carvalho's election is a historic moment for the ISA. Under the previous leadership of Michael Lodge, concerns arose regarding transparency and neutrality within the ISA, particularly in relation to deep-sea mining activities. Lodge's tenure saw efforts to finalize the mining code for deep-sea exploration, but this was not achieved during his term. Allegations of advocating for mining companies and misusing agency funds further raised doubts about the ISA's commitment to marine environment protection. Carvalho's election signifies a move towards a more balanced approach to deep-sea mining, focusing on transparency, sustainability, and marine habitat preservation. Her dedication to upholding the ISA's mandate and promoting sound ocean governance, prioritizing the precautionary principle, sets a positive tone for future deep-sea mining regulation. As the ISA progresses under Carvalho's leadership, there is an opportunity to advocate for a new direction in deep-sea mining that considers the long-term health of the ocean and its benefits for future generations. Carvalho's election is a victory for those supporting responsible ocean management and establishes a foundation for a more inclusive and transparent decision-making process within the ISA. The push for deep-sea mining has raised significant concerns about transparency, environmental impacts, and the necessity for sustainable practices. Leticia Carvalho's recent election as the next Secretary General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) underscores the importance of addressing these issues. Carvalho's victory over the previous Secretary General, Michael Lodge, who faced accusations of supporting mining companies and lacking transparency, signals a shift towards more accountable and environmentally conscious leadership within the ISA. Deep-sea mining is a contentious issue involving the extraction of seabed minerals for various purposes, including addressing metal shortages and providing materials for renewable energy technologies like electric car batteries. While proponents argue for the essential nature of these minerals for technological progress, critics warn of potential irreparable damage to the seabed and marine environment. The lack of understanding regarding the impacts of deep-sea mining, such as disruption to oxygen production and biodiversity in deep-sea habitats, underscores the need for caution and comprehensive regulation. The ISA, as the governing body overseeing deep-sea mining activities, plays a crucial role in ensuring that mining operations are conducted sustainably and transparently. Carvalho's focus on transparency and commitment to upholding the ISA's mandate to protect the ocean and marine habitats signal a positive step towards responsible deep-sea mining practices. The ISA's role in balancing the interests of mining companies, environmental conservation, and the well-being of future generations underscores the complexity of the issue and the importance of thorough deliberation and regulation before granting exploitation licenses. The concerns surrounding deep-sea mining echo past environmental challenges, such as the negative impacts of fossil fuel extraction and land-based mining activities. The rush for short-term economic gains has often led to long-term environmental degradation and social consequences. By prioritizing transparency, environmental protection, and sustainable practices, the ISA under Carvalho's leadership has the opportunity to champion a new approach to deep-sea mining governance that safeguards the health of the deep sea and its benefits for future generations. Overall, the episode highlights the critical need for transparency, environmental stewardship, and sustainable practices in the context of deep-sea mining. Leticia Carvalho's appointment as the new Secretary General of the ISA represents a significant step towards addressing these concerns and ensuring that deep-sea mining is conducted responsibly and in the best interest of the ocean and its ecosystems. One of the key takeaways from the episode is the significance of Leticia Carvalho's appointment as the next Secretary General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Her election marks a pivotal shift towards prioritizing sound ocean governance, the precautionary principle, and the protection of deep-sea ecosystems for future generations. Carvalho's victory over her predecessor, Michael Lodge, by a significant margin reflects a clear mandate for change within the ISA. Lodge's tenure was marked by accusations of favoring mining companies and lacking transparency in the ISA's processes. In contrast, Carvalho's campaign emphasized the importance of transparency in decision-making within the ISA, signaling a commitment to open and accountable governance. The appointment of Carvalho, as the first woman, first oceanographer, and first representative from Latin America to serve as the ISA Secretary General, brings a fresh perspective to the leadership role. Her background as an oceanographer and experience working with the United Nations Environment Program positions her well to advocate for the protection of deep-sea ecosystems and the sustainable management of seabed resources. The episode highlights the potential risks associated with deep-sea mining, including irreparable damage to the seabed and marine environment. Carvalho's stance against granting exploitation licenses before robust regulations are in place underscores her commitment to upholding the precautionary principle. By prioritizing environmental protection and sustainable practices, Carvalho aims to secure the health of the deep sea and its benefits for future generations. Overall, Carvalho's appointment represents a significant step towards fostering responsible ocean governance and ensuring the long-term health and sustainability of deep-sea ecosystems. As she takes on her new role in January 2025, there is optimism that under her leadership, the ISA will champion a new way forward that balances the needs of industry with the protection of the marine environment for the benefit of present and future generations.

In today's episode, Paul is joined by Professor Jacqueline McGlade, the Co-founder and Chief Scientist of DownForce Technologies. Jackie has had a long career in public policy. Before founding DownForce Technologies, she was the Chief Scientist of the United Nations Environment Program and Head of the European Environment Agency. In the conversation, Jackie outlines her extensive career in environmental science, how her company uses technology to measure soil carbon, and the practical applications of this data for farmers. She also shares how her experiences living in Kenya have influenced her approach to environmentalism and her insights on the intersection between modern technology and traditional knowledge in the fight against climate change.   Resources and links: DownForce Technologies website Professor Jacqueline McGlade on LinkedIn   Connect: Future Fork podcast website Paul Newnham on Instagram Paul Newnham on X Paul Newnham on LinkedIn Disruptive Consulting Solutions website SDG2 Advocacy Hub website SDG2 Advocacy Hub on X SDG2 Advocacy Hub on Facebook SDG2 Advocacy Hub on LinkedIn This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

At least 40 percent of the land in the world is degraded. This is according to the United Nations Environment Program, which says the problem has affected around 3.2 billion people globally due to desertification. As the international community marks World Environment Day today, the UN predicts that more than three-quarters of the global population will be affected by drought by 2050. Maureen Ojiambo reports.

'Planet versus the plastics' is the new call to arms for Earth Day 2024, which is calling for a 60 per cent reduction in plastic use by 2040. The United Nations Environment Program has found humans produce 400 million tonnes of plastic waste each year.

'Planet versus the plastics' is the new call to arms for Earth Day 2024, which is calling for a 60 per cent reduction in plastic use by 2040. The United Nations Environment Program has found humans produce 400 million tonnes of plastic waste each year. - 'Планета против пластике' је нови позив на за борбу поводом Дана планете Земље 2024. То је позив на смањење употребе пластике за 60 одсто до 2040. године. Програм Уједињених нација за животну средину открио је да људи производе 400 милиона тона пластичног отпада сваке године.

Coral reefs are literally the foundation for much of the life on Earth. These living cities are made up of animals –coral – which exist in symbiosis with algae.They are home to thousands of species of fish, as well as important to the lives of as many as a billion people who rely on their production of food, their protection of coastal areas, and their attraction for tourists. They're ancient, too, and have survived for millions of years. But now coral reefs are under threat, from pollution, changing temperatures, and disease.  Alizée Zimmermann, executive director of the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund, says she was startled to see one particular disease, stony coral tissue loss disease, kill off 500-year-old corals in the span of a few weeks.Her organization has started to preserve coral species, maintaining them in a lab to save them for when they might safely be returned to the sea. It's a complicated project and they are racing against time to save species before they go extinct. It's too late for some. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that 14 percent of the world's corals died between 2009 and 2018. To stop stony coral tissue disease from killing off selected colonies in the ocean, Alizée's team has even had to apply a specially formulated antibiotic to save these creatures and the ecosystem they comprise. In this episode of One World, One Health, Alizée explains why corals are so important to everyone, and she talks about some of the creative ways she and her colleagues are working to save these animals that are so important to so many.

Voters in the city of Jerusalem go to the polls this week for municipal elections. The current mayor is expected to win another five-year term. But this is not a typical election, with the war in Gaza now well into its fifth month. Plus, every year the world uses up to 50 billion metric tons of sand, according to a United Nations Environment Program report. This is not sustainable and it's already having a negative environmental impact. And in Dubai, where temperatures regularly rise above 100 degrees, the city has set up destination night beaches. And they are thriving. 

Karen McDonald Gayle is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) a regional umbrella environmental fund that uses a flexible structure to facilitate innovative solutions and consolidate regional conservation impacts. Karen is a Jamaican national with over 25 years of experience in civil society participation, public sector policy development, and project design, Karen is a regional Conservation Trust Fund (CTF) management expert. She has served on multiple national boards, is a founding member of the Jamaica Institute of Environmental Professionals, and former CEO of Jamaica's largest environmental grant-making institution – the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) working regionally with the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Environment Program. Karen McDonald Gayle is sharing her extraordinary journey with us on “Getting to the Top!” a space dedicated to showcasing the career paths of transformational leaders in the hope that we can either inspire others on their leadership journey to shoot for bigger and more transformational change or to help those potential leaders to chase C-level or managerial positions, aiming to close the gap in the most needed diversity at the top of all of our organizations in search of a better world.

In this episode, Paul and I explore the ambitious new action plan unveiled by the United Nations Environment Program aimed at reducing plastic waste by a whopping 80% by the year 2040. As doubts rise about the effectiveness of recycling, given the presence of approximately 13,000 potentially toxic chemicals in plastics, it's clear that recycling alone is not the solution. Join us as we delve into the complex and challenging steps outlined by the UN agency to significantly curb our plastic pollution problem.

Lowering carbon emissions remains a key part of fighting climate change, but scientists are exploring other options. The United Nations Environment Program is calling for more research into solar geoengineering to reflect some of the sun's light away from the Earth. We talk to Daniel Schrag, director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment; Andrea Hinwood, an environmental scientist with the UN Environment Programme; and Tero Mustonen, an adjunct professor in the University of Eastern Finland's department of geographical and historical studies.

If you are enjoying this consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron http://patreon.com/user?u=82757269 Episode Overview: Origins of Nisan - Nairobi, village wisdom, love and community. Stark differences between social and economic classes and the dangers they bring. Matriarchal lineage - How did having strong females in your family impact you? Culture, symbols and the unspoken. Spirituality, Your 6 languages spoken and the journey of learning them. Power of language and how has that shaped you as a person. Validity of one's story regardless of their command of a language. Communication, vocal and active listening. The toughest moment in your life. What does it mean to live, What is true legacy? How Nisan helped create 20-30k jobs in Africa and attracted 50m investment. How did you outsmart big corporations and single-handedly won government contracts? Importance of integrity and values. ADHD - pros and cons, How do you deal with yours? What did your multiple kidnappings teach you? Your 3 most important life lessons. Your purpose. Nisan's recipe for happiness. About Guest: Nisan Abdulkader, dual Yemeni-Kenyan, is an FDI expert, humanitarian, speaker and a force for change in developing world. She worked in senior public and private sector roles across the globe including in Tunisia, Kenya, South Africa, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Syria, Italy and Canada. Nisan began her career in consulting and program management roles at UN agencies including Consortium for agricultural research (CGIAR), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy and the United Nations Environment Program in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia. Since 2014, Nisan has advised over 30 government investment authorities in emerging markets on how to best respond to the significant FDI opportunity which has created an estimated 50 million high value jobs across sectors like Agriculture, Healthcare, Tourism, ICT and Manufacturing. Specifically, Nisan supports IPAs to understand the services they need to optimize market share which typically cover activities like investment strategy development, aftercare & business retention, investment prospecting approaches as well as defining capacity building requirements of government authorities. Nisan holds the Mary Brooks Law Award, the Social Business Impact Award and the Extraordinary Young 30 Under 30 Award from the Government of Canada. She holds an honours B.A in Political Science, Management and International Development Studies from McGill University in Canada and a Diploma of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies from Harvard University. Nisan speaks 6 languages: Arabic, English, Italian, French, Swahili, Spanish. Find Nisan on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nisanabdulkader Instagram: https://rb.gy/gkcr2e Find Dana on: Instagram https://rb.gy/pm0wwp Watch the full podcast episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@IsThisItPodcast If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5 star rating on here, this will help me get this across to more people :) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dana-grinberga/message

Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York-based investment firm comprised of venture capital, growth equity, private equity, project-based finance, and an innovation center that's focused on building the circular economy. Ron spent his early childhood years in Israel, moving to Philadelphia around the age of five.  He studied History and Economics at the University of Massachusetts and after graduating, joined Andersen Consulting as a trainee, then moved on to Deloitte Consulting. In 2004 he co-founded RecycleBank while studying for his MBA and then he went on to become New York City's Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling, and Sustainability, during the Bloomberg administration.In 2013, Ron was named the city's ‘Public Official of the Year' by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earth Day New York. Throughout his career, he has earned numerous business and environmental awards, including recognition as ‘Champion of the Earth' by the United Nations Environment Program and receiving a Medal of Excellence from Columbia University, where he earned his MBA and later served as an Adjunct Professor in its business School from 2010– 2018.  In 2021, he received the Social Enterprise Center Award for Excellence in Teaching.  A former member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute, he holds multiple recycling industry technology and business method patents. In this episode, we learn more about the circular economy and why it has a clear competitive financial advantage.  We hear about Closed Loop Partners' investment strategy, as well as some real-life examples of circular economy investments they have made.  Ron shares how he verifies impact and measures outcome, and we learn how Closed Loop Partners' Innovation Center came about.Show notes: https://sri360.com/podcast/ron-gonenAbout the SRI 360° Podcast: The SRI 360° Podcast is focused exclusively on sustainable & responsible investing. In each episode, Scott Arnell interviews a world-class investor who is an accomplished practitioner from all asset classes. In my interviews, I cover everything from their early personal journeys—and what motivated and attracted them to commit their life energy to SRI—to insights on how they developed and executed their investment strategies and what challenges they face today. Each episode is a chance to go way below the surface with these impressive people and gain additional insights and useful lessons from professional investors. Connect with SRI 360°: Sign up for the free weekly email update: https://sri360.com/newsletter/ Visit the SRI 360° PODCAST: https://sri360.com/podcast/ Visit the SRI 360° WEBSITE: https://sri360.com/ Follow SRI 360° on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/SRI360Growth/Follow SRI 360° on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/SRI360Growth/

For the first time in history, on Oct. 26th “the U.S. joined a legally binging global measure specifically to combat climate change.”The Montreal Protocol was established at a meeting of the United Nations in 1987 and has over time evolved to not only phase-out Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which were deemed the most harmful to the ozone layer at the time but also to reduce and eliminate Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and Hydrofluorocarbons which replaced CFCs, but also contribute negatively to climate change.The United Nations Environment Program estimates “the Montreal Protocol will prevent over 443 million cases of skin cancer, 2.3 million skin cancer deaths, and 63 million cataracts" in the United States alone. Researchers have found that roughly 2.5 °C of warming by 2100 is being averted by aspects of the Montreal Protocol unrelated to HFCs.The Montreal Protocol is an example of a rare huge success of diplomacy and treaties concerning climate change.We can still do more. We can reduce methane emissions and carbon emissions. One of the easiest ways that we can reduce carbon emissions by reducing energy consumption with more sustainable air filters and air filtrations systems as 13% of Canada's green house gas emissions are from the buildings sector. Find out more https://lnkd.in/dDZ3KAXhYale Climate Connections, EPA, UNEPCamfil Canada Air Filtration Expert Berni Baier https://www.linkedin.com/in/berni-baier-5a047014/?originalSubdomain=ca

Sami Dimassi, Director of United Nations Environment Program in West Asia and Tatiana Abella, Founder of Goumbook join us on the Morning Majlis to discuss the pressing issue of food wastage. As part of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, the panelists discuss the initiatives in the UAE and how they are targeting the hospitality sector. Listen to #Pulse95Radio in the UAE by tuning in on your radio (95.00 FM) or online on our website: www.pulse95radio.com ************************ Follow us on Social. www.facebook.com/pulse95radio www.twitter.com/pulse95radio www.instagram.com/pulse95radio

The United Nations Environment Program, UNEP, turns 50 years old this year. And in early June world leaders are gathering in the city where UNEP was born to commemorate this milestone in a conference known as Stockholm+50.  Maria Ivanova wrote the book on the absolutely fascinating history of the United Nations Environment Program.  She is a professor of Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of the book "The Untold Story of the World's Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at 50."  We kick off discussing the historical context in which UNEP was born before having a broader conversation about some of the key decisions and key moments from the 50 year history of the UN's first global environmental body.  

While the race is on to reduce emissions in Europe's cities, how can they create a long-term net-zero future and move to a circular economy. We look at what's required to make this shift in mindset and how cities should start going about this work. While there are several common challenges that all cities face, it is also clear that cities are uniquely positioned to drive this transition. The podcast includes experts from the United Nations Environment Program, Researchers in the field of circularity and Environmental planners from the city of Lahti, a city chosen to the European Green Capital Award as the first city in Finland. Episode guest appearances· Andreas Gyllenhammar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Sweco· Sharon Gil, Program Manager, United Nations Environment Program· Charlie Gullström, Research and Innovation Strategist, Sweco· Jenni Rahkonen, Environmental Coordinator, City of Lahti· Colm O'Callaghan, moderator, Brid Agency About the Urban Insight podcastThe Urban Insight mission is to share solutions for future city planning and initiate a dialogue about sustainable urban development. Sweco proudly presents this Urban Insight podcast – where science, facts and expertise combine with entertainment and an interest in developing the sustainable cities of the future. We focus on the biggest challenges of our time, exploring the citizens perspective and highlighting best practises from frontrunner cities and organisations around the globe. We discuss the best solutions and how to scale up together. Since 2018, Urban Insight reached 28 million people through news, press and media. Enjoy our podcast series highlighting key actions to deliver on the 2030 Agenda and beyond!During 2022, the Urban Insight podcast will focus on circularity and the key role of cities in achieving this. You can find more insights on our webpage: www.swecourbaninsight.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the second episode of our Women's History Month SWSP x Girl Security series, Suzanne Spaulding is joined by Ilinca Drondoe, Girl Security Scholar, and Molly Kellogg, Gender, Climate and Security Advisor at the United Nations Environment Program. The group discusses the intersection of climate, gender, and security, as well as steps to take to get more involved in climate action.

Report 56, “Montana Ski Resort Goes Woke, Sewage On the Slopes."In this report, we will look into the how a ski resort up near Big Sky Montana wants to use treated wastewater (sewage) for artificial snow on their slopes. Issue, no proper test exists today because of the complex compounds found in the wastewater as stated by Birguy an expert on wastewater treatment."Modern wastewater treatment plants mostly reduce solids and bacteria by oxidizing the water. They were not designed to deal with complex chemical compounds," _— Birguy Lamizana-Diallo, program management officer at the United Nations Environment Program and an expert on wastewater treatment.You can also read the full written report here with all sources.Grab a pen and notebook and enjoy the report.Consider a MembershipBy joining, you will receive access to all past and future books and reports + more.https://www.subscribepage.com/wiv_membershipSubscribe to my Free Newsletter and keep current with my new work as it unfolds.https://www.subscribepage.com/wivfreeFollow on Telegramhttps://t.me/wivupdatesSupport the show (https://www.subscribepage.com/wiv_membership)

Report 56, “Montana Ski Resort Goes Woke, Sewage On the Slopes.”In this report, we will look into the how a ski resort up near Big Sky Montana wants to use treated wastewater (sewage) for artificial snow on their slopes. Issue, no proper test exists today because of the complex compounds found in the wastewater as stated by Birguy an expert on wastewater treatment.“Modern wastewater treatment plants mostly reduce solids and bacteria by oxidizing the water. They were not designed to deal with complex chemical compounds,”— Birguy Lamizana-Diallo, program management officer at the United Nations Environment Program and an expert on wastewater treatment.Sources for Sewage on SlopesScott, Tia-Marie, Patrick J. Phillips, Dana W. Kolpin, Kaitlyn M. Colella, Edward T. Furlong, William T. Foreman, and James L. Gray. 2018. “Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility Discharges Can Substantially Increase the Pharmaceutical Load to U.S. Wastewaters.” Science of the Total Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.160.Jordan Christman. 2017. “New Study Linking Wastewater Discharges to Feminized Male Fish.” Cwsc. July 24, 2017. https://www.ourwatersecurity.org/single-post/2017/07/24/new-study-linking-wastewater-discharges-to-feminized-male-fish.Start writing today. Use the button below to create your Substack and connect your publication with WIV Reports — Uncensored This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkinverse.substack.com/subscribe

Todd Miller is an entertainment CEO who has extensively researched and aggressively experimented with the work-life equation for over twenty-five years. He authors the book “ENRICH” where he incorporates time-honored business processes that teach skills to create optionality, even in the most uncertain times.Todd has been featured in The Asian Wall Street Journal, CNBC, BusinessWeek, and numerous publications and podcasts around the world. He has addressed international conferences ranging from the United Nations Environment Program and the BusinessWeek Leadership Forum. At age 53, Todd has stepped back from a full-time career and is now retired on the Andaman Sea in Thailand, where he devotes his time to enriching connections with people and projects.Listen in as they discuss:Todd's background and how cash flow helps him to reach his goals.The importance of creating more than one stream of income.How to build financial securityAnd, more!Todd also shares with us the reasons behind the cash-flowing assets he acquired and why he wrote his book ENRICH.TIP OF THE WEEKMark: My tip of the week is in enrich101.com; create wealth in time, money, and meaning. Learn the enriching way of creating more control, time in your life, and many more. Check out enrich101.com and get the book Enrich!Scott: Check out the article On a Journey on Newsweek. Basically, if you want to conquer a major goal: Think big, start small, take action, and follow the steps in the article then you will achieve it.Todd: My tip is to act intentionally to create your financial security. What 75% of Americans do not do is make financial planning. Once you make that plan, take ownership with that plan, then wake up each day and ask yourself, "What can I do this day to help advance and to actualize that financial plan?" If you act with such intention, you can thank me later because the results are profound and it enables me, for example, to fast track my financial freedom. Same for anyone, but it's the question of acting intentionally and taking control.WANT TO LISTEN MORE?Did you like this episode? If so, tune into another one of our exciting episodes with special guest Jonathan DeYoe as we talk about behavioral wealth management and overcoming biases.Isn't it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

“We live in buildings and cities because that's what generates a living for a lot of people, but where we're most comfortable as humans is when we're in nature. Your generation owns this. Don't let anybody take it from you or damage it because you own it. The next generation is the one that owns it and view it with a sense of ownership and a sense of pride and a sense of protection because there are a lot of benefits you get from nature.”Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Noise can have a major impact on people's well-being,  according to the new Frontiers Report published in the United Nations Environment Program. - Ο θόρυβος μπορεί να έχει σημαντικό αντίκτυπο στην ευημερία των ανθρώπων, σύμφωνα με τη νέα έκθεση Frontiers που δημοσιεύθηκε στο Πρόγραμμα Περιβάλλοντος των Ηνωμένων Εθνών. Η αστική ηχορύπανση εξελίσσεται σε παγκόσμια απειλή για τη δημόσια υγεία σε πόλεις όπως το Ισλαμαμπάντ στο Πακιστάν.

Noise can have a major impact on people's well-being, according to the new Frontiers Report published in the United Nations Environment Program.

There's grim new reports about potential causes and effects of climate change. The United Nations Environment Program has projected intense wildfires linked in part to climate change could increase 50 percent by the end of the century, and the International Energy Agency said energy sector emissions of methane are 70 percent higher than governments claim. William Brangham reports. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

There's grim new reports about potential causes and effects of climate change. The United Nations Environment Program has projected intense wildfires linked in part to climate change could increase 50 percent by the end of the century, and the International Energy Agency said energy sector emissions of methane are 70 percent higher than governments claim. William Brangham reports. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

There's grim new reports about potential causes and effects of climate change. The United Nations Environment Program has projected intense wildfires linked in part to climate change could increase 50 percent by the end of the century, and the International Energy Agency said energy sector emissions of methane are 70 percent higher than governments claim. William Brangham reports. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Damon Stanwell-Smith spent 3 years on the British Antarctic Survey base and since became an expert in remote-location research  management in polar, temperate and tropical environments. He has worked in International marine consultancy for the United Nations Environment Program's World Conservation Monitoring Centre and is is now head of Science and Sustainability for the Norwegian company Viking where he has spent the past 2 years creating first of their kind expedition ships. Damon shares insight around a career in conservation and how the wilderness - in particular Antarctica and the open sea - can shape us and teach us the very essence of our human nature.Free resources featuring Damon sharing insight and expertise can be found at viking.tv.The Rooted Healing podcast is hosted by Veronica Stanwell.  Find out more about our work and offerings at rootedhealing.org. Become a patron from £1 per month to support this show via Patreon.com/rootedhealing.Find out more about our next gathering, Soul Medicine.Deep thanks for the ongoing music contributions to our episodes: Navajo Winds and Lichens by Mike Howe and Herbs by Dorrie Joy and James Watts.

Matt Prindiville is the CEO and Chief Solutioneer for Upstream®, a norms-disrupting non-profit sparking innovative solutions to plastic pollution and today's one-way “throw-away” society. In this role, Prindiville works with entrepreneurs, policymakers and culture hackers to ideate and accelerate the transition from single-use to reuse. His responsibilities include content creator, spokesperson, brand strategist, executive leader, fundraiser, and relationship cultivator. Prindiville is a recognized thought leader within the plastic pollution community and helped found the global Break Free from Plastic Movement, the Cradle2 Coalition and the Make It Take It Campaign; and spearheaded the establishment of the Electronics Takeback Coalition, the Multi-State Mercury Campaign, and Safer Chemicals and Healthy Families Coalition, where he worked on dozens of successful legislative policy campaigns. Most recently, he has advised the United Nations Environment Program on their plastic pollution strategies and written for The Guardian, GreenBiz, and Sustainable Brands among other publications. Prindiville's work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, Fast Company, on NPR's 1A, Jack Johnson's Smog of the Sea film, and 60 Minutes, among others. For more information visit UpstreamSolutions.org and www.mattprindiville.com. Follow Upstream on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. For a podcast on the story of Upstream listen here. https://upstreamsolutions.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

“We live in buildings and cities because that's what generates a living for a lot of people, but where we're most comfortable as humans is when we're in nature. Your generation owns this. Don't let anybody take it from you or damage it because you own it. The next generation is the one that owns it and view it with a sense of ownership and a sense of pride and a sense of protection because there are a lot of benefits you get from nature.”Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

“We live in buildings and cities because that's what generates a living for a lot of people, but where we're most comfortable as humans is when we're in nature. Your generation owns this. Don't let anybody take it from you or damage it because you own it. The next generation is the one that owns it and view it with a sense of ownership and a sense of pride and a sense of protection because there are a lot of benefits you get from nature.”Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

The potential for endocrine system disruption is of great concern, especially in early life, when developmental programming of organ systems is susceptible to permanent and lifelong disruption. The international medical and scientific communities have called attention to these issues in several recent landmark reports, including a scientific statement from the Endocrine Society in 2009,42 which was updated in 2015 to reflect rapidly accumulating knowledge3; a joint report from the World Health Organization and United Nations Environment Program in 201343; and a statement from the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics in 2015.44 Chemicals of increasing concern include the following: bisphenols, which are used in the lining of metal cans to prevent corrosion45; phthalates, which are esters of diphthalic acid that are often used in adhesives, lubricants, and plasticizers during the manufacturing process17; nonpersistent pesticides, which have been addressed in a previous policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics and, thus, will not be discussed in this statement46; perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), which are used in grease-proof paper and packaging47; and perchlorate, an antistatic agent used for plastic packaging in contact with dry foods with surfaces that do not contain free fat or oil and also present as a degradation product of bleach used to clean food manufacturing equipment.48 Additional compounds of concern discussed in the accompanying technical report include artificial food colors, nitrates, and nitrites. Environmentally relevant doses (ie, low nanomolar concentrations that people are likely to encounter in daily life) of bisphenol A (BPA)4 trigger the conversion of cells to adipocytes,9 disrupt pancreatic β-cell function in vivo,49 and affect glucose transport in adipocytes.9–11 Phthalates are metabolized to chemicals that influence the expression of master regulators of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors,21 with specific effects that produce insulin resistance in nonhuman laboratory studies. Some studies have documented similar metabolic effects in human populations.22 Some phthalates are well known to be antiandrogenic and can affect fetal reproductive development.18,19,50 Authors of recent studies have linked perfluoroalkyl chemicals with reduced immune response to vaccine27,28 and thyroid hormone alterations,29,51,52 among other adverse health end points. Perchlorate is known to disrupt thyroid hormone34 and, along with exposures to other food contaminants, such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers,53–55 may be contributing to the increase in neonatal hypothyroidism that has been documented in the United States.56 Artificial food colors may be associated with exacerbation of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms.57 Nitrates and nitrites can interfere with thyroid hormone production40 and, under specific endogenous conditions, may result in the increased production of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds.37,38 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/Teddy-G/support

Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

“We live in buildings and cities because that's what generates a living for a lot of people, but where we're most comfortable as humans is when we're in nature. Your generation owns this. Don't let anybody take it from you or damage it because you own it. The next generation is the one that owns it and view it with a sense of ownership and a sense of pride and a sense of protection because there are a lot of benefits you get from nature.”Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

“We live in buildings and cities because that's what generates a living for a lot of people, but where we're most comfortable as humans is when we're in nature. Your generation owns this. Don't let anybody take it from you or damage it because you own it. The next generation is the one that owns it and view it with a sense of ownership and a sense of pride and a sense of protection because there are a lot of benefits you get from nature.”Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

“We live in buildings and cities because that's what generates a living for a lot of people, but where we're most comfortable as humans is when we're in nature. Your generation owns this. Don't let anybody take it from you or damage it because you own it. The next generation is the one that owns it and view it with a sense of ownership and a sense of pride and a sense of protection because there are a lot of benefits you get from nature.”Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York Based investment firm that focuses on building the circular economy. In his fulfilling career, Ron has been recognized as the “Champion of Earth” by the United Nations Environment Program. Serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City under the Bloomberg Administration, Ron Gonen is a visionary and his idea of the circular economy is certainly the way of the future.In 2021, he released his first book with Penguin Random House, The Waste Free World: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet, highlighting how companies that utilize circular economy business models will generate the most value and lead their industries. Earlier in his career, Ron was the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank from 2003-2010. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and past term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a number of technology and business method patents in the recycling industry.· www.closedlooppartners.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

In this episode of the Dialogues for the Common Good I discuss with Pushpam Kumar, Chief Environmental Economist at the United Nations Environment Program about “The Economics of Biodiversity: Insights from UNEP”.

Catherine is here today with Dr. Lucy King. Dr. Lucy King is a zoologist and the Head of the Human-Elephant Co-Existence Program for the research charity Save The Elephants based in Kenya. She has been researching the use of honey bees as a natural deterrent for crop-raiding elephants since 2006 publishing her findings in numerous scientific journals and has featured in various natural history documentaries on BBC, Discovery and Al Jazeera. Her Doctor of Philosophy thesis, through Oxford University and in partnership with Save the Elephants and Disney's Animal Kingdom, was awarded the Thesis Award 2011 from the United Nations Environment Program's Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species. She has won the St Andrews Prize for the Environment and Future for Nature Award for her work. A member of IUCN's African Elephant Specialist Group she has been working hard to spread ideas for coexistence between elephants and people, helped by her TEDWomen talk that was listed 4th in the top 10 TED talks for 2020 with a reach of 2.4 million views. Since 2018 she has been supporting women's groups in Kenya to find alternative ways to live in harmony with elephants and in 2020 finished construction on a Women's Enterprise Center in the heart of a human-elephant conflict hotspot next to Tsavo National Park, which will help provide alternative income generating projects to at risk women. Find Out More About Dr. Lucy King Visit the Elephants and Bees Website Connect with Dr. Lucy King on Facebook Follow Dr. Lucy on Instagram @lucyeking99 Are you interested in making a donation towards Dr. Lucy's efforts? You can do so easily on their website by following this link https://elephantsandbees.com/donate/ It's now time to tune into this one very inspirational human being. Enjoy!

We were joined today by author, Ron Gonen to discuss his book, The Waste-Free World- How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More and Save the Planet The Waste-Free World reveals the history of wasteful consumption, which has cheated us out of taxpayer money, lucrative innovation, and a habitable planet. And it makes a powerful, forward-looking case for a circular economy in which production, distribution, consumption, and reuse of products and materials both heals the planet and creates enormous economic opportunity. Ron Gonen is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm and innovation center focused on building the circular economy. Closed Loop Partners maximizes value by aligning capitalism with positive social and environmental impact via investments in material science, advanced recycling technologies, supply chain optimization and sustainable consumer products. Prior to Closed Loop Partners, Ron served as the Deputy Commissioner for Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City during the Bloomberg Administration. He was previously the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, where he also earned an MBA. Ron has been recognized with a number of business and environmental awards including recognition as a 'Champion of the Earth' by the United Nations Environment Program which is the highest distinction for environmental protection given by the United Nations and recognizes outstanding visionaries and leaders in the fields of policy, science and entrepreneurship, the Medal of Excellence from Columbia University which recognizes alumnus for excellence in scholarship, public service and professional life, named by NRDC/Earth Day NY as the Public Official of the Year in New York City, a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and the Social Enterprise Center Award for Excellence in Teaching at Columbia Business School. For more on Ron, visit: https://www.closedlooppartners.com/team-members/ron-gonen/ More about Houston Money Week visit: www.Houstonmoneyweek.org http://www.cheatsheet.com/personal-fi...​ Financial Advisor Magazine Articles: http://www.fa-mag.com/news/advisors-s...​ http://www.fa-mag.com/news/on-it-s-80...​ You can listen live by going to www.kpft.org and clicking on the HD3 tab. You can also listen to this episode and others by podcast at: http://directory.libsyn.com/shows/vie...​ or www.moneymatterspodcast.com #MoneyMattersHouston​​ #ChristopherHensley​​ #HoustonMoneyWeek​​ @LoopFund

When it comes to sustainability and related issues, many of us might feel hopeless and like there is nothing for us to do. This is, in part, due to the negative messaging around these challenges. Today’s guest, Dr. Leyla Acaroglu, has an entirely different way of thinking about these obstacles. Not only is it imbued with hope, but it draws on systems thinking and holistic views of sustainability to show that change is possible. Leyla is a sociologist, Founder of the UnSchool of Disruptive Design, a UNEP Champion of the Earth, and the Founder of the CO Project Farm, a unique educational ecotourism property in Portugal. In this episode, Leyla talks about circularity and why we need to move away from the linear, exploitative economy that currently exists. We hear how starting UnSchool was a rebellion against the mainstream education she had spent all of her academic life in, and she shares some of the provocative design frameworks they teach at UnSchool. Leyla acknowledges that change is slow, and by using a systems thinking lens, people are better able to understand their actions as related to much broader contexts. She talks about how this way of viewing the world keeps her hope alive, along with the importance of acknowledging our agency and actions, and the changes we can make in our immediate worlds. Check out the full episode at one of the links below for more on Leyla’s worldview, positivity, and zeal for a better world.The conversation took place live on Clubhouse under the Impact Everywhere Club. See upcoming conversations here!Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Google PodcastsSubscribe on Apple PodcastsKey Points From This EpisodeThe current linear economy is problematic because it is based on the extraction and exploitation of nature and results in waste that also harms the natural world. At both ends of the linear spectrum, there is room for the loop to be closed.Sustainable design encompasses more than just material choices. It is concerned with considering the whole-life environmental impact of a product, so it draws on life cycle assessment and systems thinking.The two massive systems at play in the economy are the force of the market and how it incentivizes behavior. As consumers, we drive demand, so when we make different decisions, companies respond to them.Changing an organization from within is different from building one from the ground up. The UnSchool provides participants with tools on how to move the needle in existing organizations. By mapping systems dynamics, they can understand the limitations, opportunities, points of interventions, and how to use their agency.The Anatomy of Action concept Leyla and her team designed for the United Nations Environment Program that helped people embrace a more sustainable lifestyle is based on five categories: food, stuff, move, money, and fun. These are five areas everyone makes lifestyle decisions in.

Todd Miller is an entertainment CEO who has extensively researched and aggressively experimented with the work-life equation for over a quarter century. While scaling the corporate ladder, Miller skillfully structured two sabbaticals, intentionally created a family through adoption, cycled coast to coast across two continents in support of children’s charities, and explored more than 100 countries on all seven continents. Drawing on ENRICH principles, Miller built time wealth and passive income while working full time. At age 53, the American-born author has retired on the Andaman Sea in Thailand, where he devotes his time to enriching connections with people and projects. Miller has been featured in The Asian Wall Street Journal, CNBC, BusinessWeek, and numerous publications and podcasts around the world.  He has addressed international conferences ranging from the United Nations Environment Program and the BusinessWeek Leadership Forum. Recognition for ENRICH: “21 Books To Read in 2021” – Forbes “8 Books to Help You Find Financial Bliss” – Entrepreneur “20 Reading Suggestions for a New and Improved You in 2021” – USA Today “Top 20 Books for the Young and Experienced Entrepreneurs” – Business Insider “Top 20 Books to That Will Help You Create The Best Business & Impact In Life in 2021”– Yahoo! Finance “Best Financial Education Books” – Business Yield     ENRICH has been featured in: Forbes | USA Today | Entrepreneur | Business Insider | Yahoo! Finance | Millennial Money | Money Savage | Thrive Global | The Freelancer’s Show | ValueWalk | REI Mastermind Network | Business Yield | The Book of Money & Finance  www.Enrich101.com

Great conversation with Svein about Climate Change, Renewable Energy and nature news. He is now director Klima 2020, and former UN Director. CV - Svein Tveitdal Born: Arendal, 7. November 1947 Education: Master of Science, Norwegian University of Technology, Trondheim, Norway 1972 Work experience:  2007- Owner and CEO: Klima 2020 www.klima2020.no  2009 Planning and participation in UN SG Ban Ki-moons trip to the Arctic  2008- 2014 Project Manager Climate Partners: www.klimapartnere.no, a private/public network in South Norway with focus on challenges and opportunities related to climate change and climate neutrality  2008 - 2014 Environmental Ambassador to the city of Arendal  2006 – 2007 Senior Advisor, UNEP/GRID-Arendal  2003 – 2006 Director, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) www.unep.org Nairobi. Responsible for Division for Policy Implementation and Division for Environmental Conventions including the IPCC secretariat. Polar advisor to the Executive Director.  1992 - 2003 Managing Director UNEP/GRID-Arendal www.grida,no  1999 – January to May, Non Profit Management course at Harvard Business School and visiting fellow at the World Resources Institute, Washington DC : www.wri.org  1978 – 1992 VIAK A/S, Various positions including international director. Founder of UNEP/GRID-Arendal  1976 – 1978 General planner, The Norwegian State Electricity Board  1973 - 1976 Surveyor in Blom Survey and the Norwegian Mapping Authorities Current activities:  Lecturer, article writer and participation in the public debate on the global climate crises, 300 000 followers on Twitter: @tveitdal  Consulting, Climate leadership, Climate communication  Board participation Current Board positions: Chairman of the Board Norwegian Rainforest Foundation https://www.regnskog.no/en/ Chairman of the Board, Klima2020, Climate Change consultants http://www.klima2020.no Chairman of the Board Purity Holding, Green IT provider. http://www.purity.no Member of the Board, Frameworks, Internet publishing, environmental information http://www.frameworks.no Member of the Board, Sagene Bryggeri http://www.sagenebryggeri.com/ Previous Board positions: Chairman of the Board, Stiftelsen Miljømerking (ECO-labeling) 2012-15 http://www.svanemerket.no/english/ Chairman of the Board, The Energy Farm, Centre for Bio energy in Norway 2011-16 http://www.energigarden.no/engelsk/index.html Chairman Siftelsen Asplan Consulting Company http://www.asplanviak.no/ Vice Chairman of the Board The Energy Farm International Foundation (Dr. RK Pachauri chair) Board member NORFUND (Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries) 2008-14 http://www.norfund.no/ Board member of The Norwegian Grandparents Association to Combat Climate Change http://www.besteforeldreaksjonen.no Leader Klimavalg 2013, 101 Norwegian organisations http://www.klimavalgalliansen.no/ Publications: 2010: “Climate in Peril” a Popular guide to the IPCC reports http://www.grida.no/publications/climate-in-peril/ Editions in all UN languages and Norwegian 2013: “Green Shift” A handbook for environmentally friendly regions in Europe. English and Swedish editions http://alexandersoninstitutet.se/pub/greenshift/

In Episode Two of State of the Planet we talk to Doctor Henry Neufeldt Head of Section, Impact Assessment and Adaptation Analysis at the UNEP DTU partnership. We discuss what Adaptation means, the impact of COVID-19 on Adaptation, the 2020 Adaptation Gap Report, the role of planning, finance and implementation and the Global Stocktake. If you enjoyed the show please do subscribe and share your feedback. What would like to hear more about? What climate issues do you think we should address next? Who would you like us to feature?If you would like more information on the UN Environment Programme or the Adaptation Report please check out the following links:UNEP.ORG , UNEP Adaptation Report Resource and this video You can also follow the United Nations Environment Program on social media: FacebookTwitterInstagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode One of State of the Planet we talk to Valerie Kapos, Head of the Climate Change and Biodiversity Programme of the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre. She talks about why adaptation is so important and gives us an insider's view on Nature-Based Solutions as the way forward to adapt to climate change.If you enjoyed the show please do subscribe and share your feedback. What would like to hear more about? What climate issues do you think we should address next? Who would you like us to feature?If you would like more information on the UN Environment Programme or the Adaptation Report please check out the following links:UNEP.ORG , UNEP Adaptation Report Resource and this video You can also follow the United Nations Environment Program on social media: FacebookTwitterInstagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Todd Miller is an entertainment CEO who has extensively researched and aggressively experimented with the work-life equation for over a quarter century. While scaling the corporate ladder, Miller skillfully structured two sabbaticals, intentionally created a family through adoption, cycled coast to coast across two continents in support of children’s charities, and explored more than 100 countries on all seven continents. Drawing on ENRICH principles, Miller built time wealth and passive income while working full time. At age 53, the American-born author has retired on the Andaman Sea in Thailand, where he devotes his time to enriching connections with people and projects. Entrepreneur magazine recognized ENRICH as one of “8 Books to Help You Find Financial Bliss.” Miller has been featured in The Asian Wall Street Journal, CNBC, BusinessWeek, and numerous publications and podcasts around the world.  He has addressed international conferences ranging from the United Nations Environment Program and the BusinessWeek Leadership Forum. As you can already tell we have made some changes and a few more are on the way. If you are interested in what we have planned, head over to Patreon.com/REImastermind, and support the show today. Financial contributions are always appreciated along with a like, share, and review.  It really helps us grow and reach more people with this valuable information.  See you next time and tell a friend! Website Patreon YouTube Facebook Twitter "You can invest 10,000 hours and become an expert or learn from those who have already made that investment." - JD

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop TODAY'S HEADLINES: Intensive care units are filling up with coronavirus patients across the country. Which means that some of the sick people aren’t going to get the care they need. Meanwhile, Texas Republicans want the United States Supreme Court to overturn the presidential election in four other states. And Donald Trump wants every Republican in Congress to sign on to the case. And lastly, New York’s massive state pension fund is divesting from fossil fuels companies. Experts say it could push more major investors to follow suit. THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW: The death panels are coming. More than a third of Americans live in areas where hospitals are running critically short of intensive care beds, according to federal data analyzed by the New York Times. And one in ten Americans lives in an area where intensive care beds are either completely full, or fewer than five percent of beds are available. At these levels, maintaining existing standards of care for the sickest patients may be impossible. The new data shows that some areas – like Amarillo, Texas, Coral Gables, Florida, and Troy, Michigan – are seeing rates of serious illness from Covid-19 that approach the levels seen in New York City during the worst weeks of the spring. Political leaders in many states are ramping up measures to try to slow the spread, the Times reports. Governor Michelle Lujan (LOO-HAN) Grisham of New Mexico, where ICUs are full across the state, is expected to soon announce that hospitals can ration care based on who is most likely to survive. Survival rates from the disease have improved as doctors have learned which treatments work, the Times says. But hospital shortages could reverse those gains, risking the possibility of increasing mortality rates once again. There is some evidence physicians are already limiting care, according to Thomas Tsai, an assistant professor of health policy at Harvard University. For the last several weeks, the rate at which Covid-19 patients are going to hospitals has started decreasing. That suggests that there’s some rationing of care as hospitals remain full, Tsai told the Times. The best way we can ease the burden on hospitals is to stop the spread – so stay home or else mask up. Texas Election Lawsuit 'Absurd' No matter how hard he scrubs, the stink of failure clings to Donald Trump. Reuters reports that an attempt by Texas Republicans to have Trump’s election loss upended by the US Supreme Court is almost certain to fail. Texas on Tuesday sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in a case brought directly to the high court. The suit asks justices to throw out the voting results in those four states. It argues that changes made by the states to expand mail-in voting amid the pandemic were unlawful, Reuters reports. Election law experts who called the lawsuit laughable. Rebecca Green, a professor at William and Mary Law School in Virginia, told Reuters that Texas does not have legal standing to challenge how other states handled the election. She said QUOTE It is so outlandish. It is totally contrary to how our Constitution mandates that elections be run. The idea that a state could complain about another state’s processes is just absurd ENDQUOTE. Trump said yesterday on Twitter that he'll intervene in the case, which was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Meanwhile, a Republican congressman who filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit said yesterday that Trump is anxiously awaiting a list of lawmakers who support the effort. The Washington Post reports that Trump called Congressman Mike Johnson of Louisiana yesterday morning. Trump asked Johnson to request that all Republican members of the House and Senate join their brief. In a letter to colleagues, Johnson said they are not seeking to litigate particular allegations of fraud – no doubt because the allegations are bogus. Rather, the Post reports, they are urging the Court to conduct a careful, timely review of the allegations. Seeing as how the Court just declined to hear another of Trump’s baseless election complaints, that’d be a big surprise. Finally, the Post reports, the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday night to reject an appeal from Trump’s campaign to overturn the state’s election results. Loooooser! Fossil Fuels Divestment Spreads now any rich people? Let them know that the world’s wealthy will need to reduce their carbon footprints by a factor of thirty to help curb climate change. The figure comes from findings published yesterday by the United Nations Environment Program and reported in the Washington Post. Currently, the emissions attributable to the richest one percent of all people account for more than double those of the poorest fifty percent. Shifting that balance will require swift and substantial lifestyle changes, the Post says, including decreases in air travel. But there are also changes that only institutions, not individuals, can make. And some are. According to the New York Times, one of the world’s largest and most influential investors – New York State’s pension fund – will drop many of its fossil fuel stocks in the next five years. It will also and sell its shares in other companies that contribute to global warming by 2040, the state comptroller said yesterday. With $226 billion in assets, New York’s fund holds sway over other major investors. Its decision to divest from fossil fuels could help push global markets away from oil and gas companies, experts and activists told the Times. One thousand two hundred and forty six institutions have committed to shedding their investments in fossil fuels, the Times reports. Sixty thousand individuals have also divested. The total combined value of their portfolios is $14.1 trillion. The movement to dump fossil fuel stocks began as an effort to make an ethical statement and to cast polluters as pariahs, much like the push to divest from apartheid-era South Africa. But as the market shifts, coal and increasingly oil and gas have become riskier investments. It was bound to happen eventually – and hopefully not too late. AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES: NBC News reports that immigrant and child advocates are increasing pressure on President-elect Joe Biden. They want him to commit to allowing parents separated from their children at the border by the Trump administration to return to the US to be reunited. Biden has said he would establish a taskforce dedicated to reuniting separated families, but his transition team has yet to reveal detailed plans. Get on that, Joe! Trump is facing a rebellion among Congressional Republicans over his threat to veto the annual Pentagon spending bill, Politico reports. A House vote on Tuesday night suggests Trump’s veto will be overridden, which hasn’t happened to him before. Well, there’s a first time for everything. Cuba said this week it has attracted $1.9 billion worth of foreign investment over the past year despite tighter US sanctions. Reuters reports that Cuba has reduced obstacles to foreign investment. For example, only projects regarding extraction of natural resources and public services will now require a majority Cuban stakeholder. What would Che say? The Federal Trade Commission and more than forty states accused Facebook yesterday of becoming a monopoly by buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition, the New York Times reports. The prosecutors called for Facebook to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, and for new restrictions on future deals. Great, now when do we start redistributing Mark Zuckerberg’s personal fortune? That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report. DEC 10, 2020 - AM QUICKIE HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner WRITER - Corey Pein PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, to discuss the significance of International Human Rights Day, Black Alliance for Peace's upcoming webinar, "People(s)-Centered Human Rights: The Black Radical Alternative," and the challenges of reconciling the popular conceptualization of human rights with anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Tina Landis, organizer and author of the new book, ‘Climate Solutions: Beyond Capitalism,' to discuss the new report by the United Nations Environment Program suggesting the world's wealthiest 1% must cut their emissions by a factor of 30 to meaningfully address climate change, how the rich account for such a disproportionate carbon footprint, and why any real solution to the climate crisis demands a shift away from the capitalist economic system.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Monica Cruz, co-host of Breakthrough News, to discuss the car caravan of taxi drivers from New York City calling for a "people's stimulus" outside Congress, the basic demands which protest leaders want to see extended to all working people in the US, and how New York's taxi medallion program and the rise of rideshare apps are causing many cab drivers to go broke.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Danny Haiphong, Contributing Editor of Black Agenda Report, Co-Host of The Left Lens, and co-author of “American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People's History of Fake News―From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror,” to discuss president-elect Joe Biden's nomination of Susan Rice as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, the recently-leaked audio recording in which Biden seems to caution NAACP leaders against demanding police departments be defunded, and the need to look beyond the Democratic Party for real progressive change going forward.

In this segment of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqma are joined by Tina Landis, organizer and author of the new book, ‘Climate Solutions: Beyond Capitalism,' to discuss the new report by the United Nations Environment Program suggesting the world's wealthiest 1% must cut their emissions by a factor of 30 to meaningfully address climate change, how the rich account for such a disproportionate carbon footprint, and why any real solution to the climate crisis demands a shift away from the capitalist economic system.

In this keynote, Lucas and Bryn will engage in discussion with Dave Finch, engineer, New York Times bestselling author, and producer of the Moore's Lobby podcast on All About Circuits. The keynote session will be followed by a live Q&A with the audience.   About Lucas di Grassi Born in Sao Paulo, Lucas di Grassi is one of developers of the highly successful, electric-powered Formula E. Lucas also is a member of the board and developer of Roborace, the racing series for electric cars run by artificial intelligence which is set to become the most efficient developing environment for connected AI-based technology. Recently, Lucas was announced as partner and ambassador for the Electric Scooter Championship (eSC), a new international series aimed to promote both competition and technology development for urban micro-mobility. Di Grassi drew international attention when he drove a Formula E car on the North Pole ice cap to set an alert to global warming. In May 2018, Lucas was appointed ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program with the mission to increase awareness about poor urban air quality, which causes over 6 million premature deaths around the world. Lucas is the most relevant driver of the FIA Formula E history having amassed the impressive sequence of three thirds and a second championship season places, plus the 2017 world title. Having previously competed in Formula One, di Grassi is again a title contender of FIA World Formula E Championship for the official Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler team.   About Bryn Balcombe Bryn Balcombe is the Chief Strategy Officer for Roborace. He received his BEng in Mechanical Engineering and Vehicle Design from the University of Hertfordshire. Balcombe previously spent 16 years working with Formula One racing, architecting communication systems for vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity, as well as implementing the Formula One Global Media Network. He has experience on projects ranging from circuit development to full tracking systems and automated vehicles. Balcombe is the founder of ADA.ngo, a non-profit alliance developed to ensure the safe and ethical deployment of human-centric artificial intelligence in automotive applications to prevent road traffic injuries. ADA.ngo supports the use of motorsports as a means of accelerated R&D for automotive AI. He additionally serves as the Chair of ITU Focus Group on AI for Autonomous and Assisted Driving for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU FG-AI4AD), where this focus group serves as a forum for international organizations such as governments and research institutions can collaborate to evaluate AI-assisted and automated vehicle safety. 

David Suzuki and Face2Face host David Peck talk about anger and hope, the 60th Anniversary of The Nature of Things, the reality of climate change, robust science, human control and economics as the dominant narrative.TrailerMore info hereSynopsis:To launch the 60th season of CBC’s The Nature of Things, David Suzuki goes to the front lines of the climate rebellion, and into the streets that raged with protests this summer, to paint a vivid portrait of a generation in revolt.In Rebellion, David Suzuki profiles activists in the revolt, from Greta Thunberg with her Fridays for Future strikes, to Gail Bradbrook of the Extinction Rebellion movement that has seized headlines with their dramatic actions. Rebellion also features interviews with leading figures in the climate crisis, including Sir David Attenborough, known the world over for his brilliant nature documentaries and now his passionate call for governments to wake up to the climate catastrophe.“Suddenly people are hearing,” Attenborough tells Suzuki. “And suddenly young people, particularly, are saying it out loud, and they’re saying to the older generation, which I guess contains us both: How could you let this happen? You knew about it, how could you let this happen?”Audiences will hear from veteran activists and new ones: actor Jane Fonda rallying in front of the Capitol in Washington; Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement that has had a major impact on the US election; legendary climate activist Bill McKibben of 350.org, as he dramatically leads an occupation of the Chase Bank; and leading activists in India, like Bhavreen Kandhari and her “army” of children, as well as acclaimed climate scientist Sunita Narain, who takes aim at the US and Canada for their “massive carbon footprint.”Rebellion is an action-filled documentary that captures the beginnings of a movement that is changing the world. Directed and produced by the family documentary team of Mark Starowicz and Caitlin Starowicz (She Walks with Apes, Mommy Wildest).For civil rights leader and activist, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, climate protest and the fight for racial justice are intertwined. “This movement is now beginning to understand what it means to take care of humanity,” he says in Rebellion. “It’s a time to care about our brothers and sisters here on this planet.”About David:Award-winning geneticist and broadcaster David Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990. In 1975, he helped launch and host the long-running CBC Radio’s, Quirks and Quarks. In 1979, he became familiar to audiences around the world as host of CBC TV’s The Nature of Things, which still airs new episodes.From 1969 to 2001, he was a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, and is currently professor emeritus. He is widely recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology and has received numerous awards for his work, including a UNESCO prize for science and a United Nations Environment Program medal. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada.He has 29 honorary degrees from universities in Canada, the US and Australia. For his support of Canada’s Indigenous peoples, Suzuki has been honoured with eight names and formal adoption by two First Nations.In 2010, the National Film Board of Canada and Legacy Lecture Productions produced Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, which won a People’s Choice documentary award at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. The film weaves together scenes from the places and events that shaped Suzuki’s life and career with a filming of his “Last Lecture”, which he describes as “a distillation of my life and thoughts, my legacy, what I want to say before I die."Image Copyright and Credit: CBC and David SuzukiF2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.For more information about David Peck’s podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After bearing witness to the collision of two Standard Oil of California tankers in the San Francisco Bay, Dr. John Francis stopped using motorized vehicles, a commitment that lasted 22 years. Soon after he made this promise, he decided to take a vow of silence, which lasted for 17 years. In this episode of For The Wild, Dr. Francis shares how his journey came to be and the profound impact that silence and slowing down can have on us. In a world polluted by noise, how can we experiment with silence? What other forms of communication and Earthly rhythms arise when we do so? Dr. John Francis is a National Geographic Explorer, environmental educator, and a former United Nations Environment Program goodwill ambassador. Music by Rajna Swaminathan, Cooper-Moore, and Carter Lou McElroy. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references and action points.

Let's learn from a Chef, Farmer, Entrepreneur, and Global Youth Leader In this episode, we will be joined by Louise Mabulo, the founder of The Cacao Project. She is also the Young Champion of the Earth 2019 of United Nations Environment Program, a Regional Impact Coordinator for Asia & The Pacific, and a Junior MasterChef Finalist. Learning time with Louise Mabulo as she will share the origin story of the Cacao Project. some reasons why you should invest in Agriculture, some tips on how to find your WHY, advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, and more.

In this keynote, Lucas and Bryn will engage in discussion with Dave Finch, engineer, New York Times bestselling author, and producer of the Moore's Lobby podcast on All About Circuits. The keynote session will be followed by a live Q&A with the audience.   About Lucas di Grassi Born in Sao Paulo, Lucas di Grassi is one of developers of the highly successful, electric-powered Formula E. Lucas also is a member of the board and developer of Roborace, the racing series for electric cars run by artificial intelligence which is set to become the most efficient developing environment for connected AI-based technology. Recently, Lucas was announced as partner and ambassador for the Electric Scooter Championship (eSC), a new international series aimed to promote both competition and technology development for urban micro-mobility. Di Grassi drew international attention when he drove a Formula E car on the North Pole ice cap to set an alert to global warming. In May 2018, Lucas was appointed ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program with the mission to increase awareness about poor urban air quality, which causes over 6 million premature deaths around the world. Lucas is the most relevant driver of the FIA Formula E history having amassed the impressive sequence of three thirds and a second championship season places, plus the 2017 world title. Having previously competed in Formula One, di Grassi is again a title contender of FIA World Formula E Championship for the official Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler team.   About Bryn Balcombe Bryn Balcombe is the Chief Strategy Officer for Roborace. He received his BEng in Mechanical Engineering and Vehicle Design from the University of Hertfordshire. Balcombe previously spent 16 years working with Formula One racing, architecting communication systems for vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity, as well as implementing the Formula One Global Media Network. He has experience on projects ranging from circuit development to full tracking systems and automated vehicles. Balcombe is the founder of ADA.ngo, a non-profit alliance developed to ensure the safe and ethical deployment of human-centric artificial intelligence in automotive applications to prevent road traffic injuries. ADA.ngo supports the use of motorsports as a means of accelerated R&D for automotive AI. He additionally serves as the Chair of ITU Focus Group on AI for Autonomous and Assisted Driving for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU FG-AI4AD), where this focus group serves as a forum for international organizations such as governments and research institutions can collaborate to evaluate AI-assisted and automated vehicle safety. 

Leonie Schreve is de Global Head Sustainable Finance van ING. Voorheen was zij actief in de top van de paardensport.  Leonie groeide op in Twente en deed de middelbare school in Almelo en Hengelo. Ze voltooide zowel een Master in Filosofie met specialisatie in Bedrijfsethiek, Master in Milieuwetenschappen en een Master International Sport Management, deze studies onder andere aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam en het Cruyff Instituut. Daarvoor was haar leven nagenoeg volledig gericht op eventing, ook wel military genoemd, waarbij de combinatie van snelheid, beheersing en behendigheid van paard en ruiter de grote uitdagingen vormen. Ze had veel succes, in 1992 werd ze zelfs Europees kampioen bij de jeugd en werd opgenomen in de Nederlandse ploeg bij de senioren en leek op weg naar deelname aan de Spelen van Atlanta in 1996. Twee jaar voor dat olympische toernooi kreeg Leonie op 17-jarige leeftijd een verkeersongeluk waardoor haar Olympische ambities geen doorgang meer zouden kunnen vinden en ze moest haar leven omgooien. De twee rode draden werden milieu en haar liefde voor de topsport. Ze werkte voor Oneworld, als consultant voor Royal Haskoning DHV op het gebied van Corporate Social Responsibility en de laatste 17 jaar voor ING, waaronder in het Corporate Environmental and Social Risk Management Department en de afgelopen 7 jaar, zoals gezegd, als Global Head Sustainable Finance. Naast haar fulltime banen werkte Leonie onder andere als zelfstandig consultant, als Vice President voor een organisatie die “Sport and Sustainability International” heet met haar zetel in Genève, was ze bestuurder van de Atletiekunie en was ze tussen 2015 en 2018 bestuurder bij de "United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative” afgekort als UNEP FI. UNEP FI is een samenwerkingsverband tussen het United Nations Environment Program en de mondiale financiële sector, gericht op het mobiliseren van finance in de private sector ten behoeve van duurzame ontwikkeling. Ook leuk om te vermelden is dat Leonie in 2007 winnaar was van de Financial Times Chairman's award for Leadership in Sustainable Project Finance”.    *** Volg Leaders in Finance via Linkedin. *** Vraag voor een gast? Stel hem! Iedere week is er een nieuwe luisteraarsvraag die aan bod komt. *** Op de hoogte blijven van Leaders in Finance? Abonneer je dan op de nieuwsbrief. *** Zou je graag een bepaalde gast willen zien bij Leaders in Finance of ken je iemand die je wil voordragen? Laat het ons weten via gasten@leadersinfinance.nl  ***  Vragen, suggesties of feedback? Graag! Via email: info@leadersinfinance.nl  ***  Als je de Leaders in Finance podcast leuk vindt, zou je dan een review willen achterlaten bijvoorbeeld bij Apple Podcasts? Of ons willen volgen bij Spotify. Veel dank, want sommige mensen gaan alleen luisteren naar deze podcast als ze weten dat er genoeg anderen zijn die het leuk vinden!  ***  Leaders in Finance wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door Interim Valley, FG Lawyers en Bizcuit. Meer informatie over onze sponsoren is te vinden op onze sponsorpagina.     

Why The World is Our Oyster and Nonprofits are the Pearl with J. E. Rash J.E. Rash, President, and Founder Legacy International will be sharing about the ocean of service and the need to create a new tomorrow today and discuss The importance of clear values-based programs, trainings, projects, staff choice. And culturally sensitive understanding of the communication styles, needs of those you serve. Listen, Observe, Value, Engage Unify LOVE U J.E. Rash is a lecturer, writer, and consultant in dialogue, NGO development, conflict resolution, and education. His career includes studies in law, religion, and alternative medicine, work in professional theater and media, and the design of educational training programs for inner and outer leadership.  Entrepreneur, innovator, and visionary, Mr. Rash has founded and leads four organizations, each with a 40-year record of success. His flagship organization, Legacy International, (http://www.legacyintl.org), is a U.S.-based international non-governmental organization, dedicated to equipping emerging leaders with the skills to transform their values and vision into sustainable success. Utilizing cutting edge methods for professional development, Legacy international focuses on a values-based approach to capacity building, catalytic leadership, networked thinking, socially responsible entrepreneurship, diversity training, conflict prevention, and youth and women's empowerment. Throughout his work, Mr. Rash seeks to build bridges of understanding and to develop practical interfaces among people of diverse backgrounds by emphasizing universal values, social responsibility, mutual respect and tolerance.  Under Mr. Rash's direction, Legacy international has become a global leader in Helping People to Help Themselves and Others with over 10,000 alumni in 102 countries. Legacy International trains and mentors community leaders helping them to develop and implement practical, community-based solutions to critical issues. Community by community, program participants leave a lasting Legacy of: Increased and sustainable citizen participation in local problem solving Increased capacity in non-governmental organizations Increased cross-sectoral collaboration More constructive options and opportunities for the next generation In 1987, J.E. Rash received the Friends of the United Nations Environment Program 500 Award for outstanding contributions to the environment.  He has presented at the United Nations, the World Bank, the Asian Conference on Religion for Peace; Islamic Unity Conference; University of Colorado's Golda Meir Center for Political Leadership; and International Symposia on Science and Consciousness in Olympia, Greece and Cancun, Mexico. He has addressed numerous college and academic audiences and served on Ph.D. committees at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI). J.E. Rash is committed to creating a positive legacy for future generations who will be faced with planetary challenges and opportunities of heretofore unseen magnitude. He often quotes: “you cannot change a community until you change yourself.' And seeks to encourage people to balance their outer life and goals with a rich and contemplative inner life and practice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stan Behal is an amazing photographer who has captured some of the most iconic images in sports history over the last 30+ years. He's covered diverse subjects including the Olympic Games, Parisian fashion, humanitarian and environmental concerns, and professional sports. He's been honoured with many awards throughout his career from the National Newspaper Awards, the United Nations Environment Program, the National Press Photographers Association, and the International Photography Awards, to name only a few. On this episode, host Angela de Burger chats with Stan about his career as a photojournalist, balancing technical know-how and a creative eye, and the magic moments he's been able to capture. He shares his experiences photographing scenes that depict social issues, news stories, as well as athletes and personalities such as Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors, Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, José Bautista, Gaël Monfils, Wayne Gretzky, George Clooney and President Barack Obama.  Say hi to Stan:  Website: http://stanbehal.com  Twitter:   https://twitter.com/StanBehalPhotoShow mentions - people who inspire Stan:   Photojournalists who try to affect change around the world.    World Press Photo - https://www.worldpressphoto.org----Creative Pulse Podcast socials:  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/creativepulsepodcast  Twitter https://twitter.com/CreativePulseTWMusic credit: https://www.purple-planet.com

Glass is very popular in the zero waste world. We know it's BPA free, and we know it's not going to end up as microplastic in our environment, or leaking out into our hot beverages. But glass is difficult to recycle, it's expensive to collect and reuse glass bottles, and glass is easily breakable. How can we increase recycling and reuse rates of glass?  Ionut Georgescu is the CEO of a non-profit called End of Waste Foundation, a blockchain service platform that's funded by environmentally conscious citizens and businesses. The funds are used to develop new technologies and offset costs associated with glass recycling.    Ionut has been a waste management expert for more than 15 years, he's worked closely with the European Commission as a Waste Director for the Romanian Ministry of Environment, and as the Chief of Staff of the President of the United Nations Environment Program.

“Leadership is also about driving positive change” - we aim to showcase how young leaders like yourself utilise their ideas and entrepreneurs skills to create innovative solutions for building more sustainable communities. In collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program, our guest on this episode Sonika Manandhar, is recognised as UNEP Champion of the earth. Sonika tries to build more sustainable communities in Nepal through tackling multiple issues at the same time.  Vote for us with one click at the MyRodeCast competition at: www.aies.ec/podcast-competition  Curious about more leadership? Attend our free Global Leadership Day and sign up at: www.global-leadership-day.com. Music by DJ Nobrauws.

World Environment Day - 5th June

“Leadership is also about acting sustainably” - we aim to showcase how young leaders like yourself utilise their ideas and entrepreneurs skills to create innovative solutions for building more sustainable communities. In collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program, our guest on this episode is Omar Itani. He was recognised as "Champion of the Earth" by the UN Environment Program for his brilliant efforts to reduce clothing waste in Beirut, Lebanon.  Vote for us at the MyRodeCast competition at: www.aies.ec/podcast-competition  Curious about more leadership? Attend our free Global Leadership Day and sign up at: www.global-leadership-day.com. Music by DJ Nobrauws.

Plastic Plague Series: PART 7 (of 7) THE FUTURE: how Solutions, Policy, & Resistance around plastic can elevate, inspire, and drive change at a systems-level approach. Our guests, Matt Prindiville of Upstream Solutions, Sam Pearse of Story of Stuff, and Emily Parker of Heal the Bay, speak with our host, Jessica Aldridge of Adventures in Waste. There is no one silver-bullet solution or intervention point. The story of plastic we knew from the 1970s and 80s is a different story than what we know today. The finger of responsibility no longer points only at the consumer, but we all have the opportunity to play our role when it comes to creating and demanding the future we want to see. We are up against a take and make economy [that not only ends up disposing of packaging, but also energy, water, resources, and PEOPLE!] where packaging is not the only disposable, but so is energy, water, resources, and PEOPLE! How do we create the change and connect the dots for everyone who uses, disposes of, or is in some way effected by plastic. Matt Prindiville, Imagineer & CEO of Upstream [https://www.upstreamsolutions.org/], is a recognized thought leader within the plastic pollution community and advises the United Nations Environment Program on their plastic pollution strategies. He is one of the founders of the global Break Free from Plastic Movement and the founder of the Cradle2 Coalition and Take It Make It Campaign. Sam Pearse, Lead Campaigner of The Story of Stuff Project [https://www.storyofplastic.org/], is working at the intersection of storytelling, plastics policy, and corporate campaigning. He comes from a background of campaigning on environmental, human rights, and security issues. Emily Parker, Coastal and Marine Scientist for Heal the Bay [https://healthebay.org/], works to protect our coastal and marine resources. Her work focuses on plastic pollution, marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries management, and climate change. Hosted by Jessica Aldridge from SoCal 350 and Adventures in Waste [adventuresinwaste.com/] Engineer: Blake Lampkin Executive Producer: Jack Eidt Producer: Georgia Tunioli Show Created by Mark and JP Morris Music: Javier Kadry Episode 66 Photo Credit:

In episode 42 of The Charity Charge Show, Stephen Garten chats with Matt Prindiville, the Executive Director of UPSTREAM. Matt is a recognized thought leader within the plastic pollution community and advises the United Nations Environment Program on their plastic pollution strategies. He is one of the founders of the global Break Free from Plastic Movement and the founder of the Cradle2 Coalition and Make It Take It Campaign. He helped establish and advance the Electronics Takeback Coalition, the Multi-State Mercury Campaign, and the Safer Chemicals and Healthy Families Coalition. Matt has written for the Guardian, GreenBiz, and Sustainable Brands among other publications. He's been featured in the Economist, the New York Times, on NPR's 1A, Jack Johnson's Smog of the Sea film, and consulted with 60 Minutes on their plastic pollution special.

The United Nations has named the years 2021-2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which seeks to scale up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. For more information, mosey on over to decadeonrestoration.org. The coordinator of this Decade is Tim Christophersen from the United Nations Environment Program. His focus is on cultivating grassroots support, political will and economic investment to support this grand effort. This is just the beginning of this story about the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. It hasn't even gotten started yet. 

Delegates, civil society and government officials from around the world are gathering in Madrid, Spain this week for the next big international climate change conference, known as COP 25. On the agenda are strategies to accelerate progress towards the Paris Agreement Goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius. But to reach the Paris Agreement goals, new research shows that countries need to dramatically reduce what is called the fossil fuel production gap. This gap is the difference between the fossil fuels that countries are planning to produce in the coming years and the necessary reduction in fossil fuel production required to halt global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius. The study was co-produced by a number of international non profit and research organizations and the United Nations Environment Program. The lead partner on this report was the Stockholm Environment Institute, and on the line with me is a scientist from the Stockholm Environment Institute, Peter Erickson. We kick off discussing the concept of a "production gap" before having a longer conversation about the report's findings and why this report is such an important contribution to our collective understanding of actions that need to be taken in order to limit greenhouse gas emissions.  

Economics and business as we know it are broken, and they're amplifying many of our societal problems - our environment being a big one. Can we actually make meaningful steps to addressing climate change, for example, unless we solve this core problem that's fueling it? *New podcast alert*   Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - the monetary value of all finished goods and services made within a country during a specific period of time. It provides an 'economic snapshot' of a country, particularly with its growth rate - on an international stage, a higher GDP will win a 'seat at the table', nationally, our politicians will often promote it, economic growth, when they're vying for votes. But what are we growing? In reality, GDP is an abstract number that can only see quantitative things - we're not people, we're consumers. Our resources aren't of value unless we create products with them - when you clear cut trees, the environmental impact of this isn't accounted for in that number... actually, the number just goes up because our domestic product is higher. When there's an oil spill that needs to be cleaned up, that number goes up. When there's a war, that number goes up.  I think we all can agree that it's not good to have an oil spill, and yet, it makes the economy stronger. That same paradox exists with climate change. Relying on GDP as a measure for success means we have to continually have 'growth'. To support this, we have to buy more products and make more, preferably with short lifespan so we can sell even more. If the pressure for 'short terminism' wasn't there, what kind of creativity and innovation would we come up with for our products? As you may imagine, this has largely shaped corporations as we know them today. Did you know that the modern concept of GDP wasn't developed until 1934, becoming a mainstay in 1944 - it hasn't even been 100 years. Clearly, it's not working for us anymore - so how can we start to change that?   While this conversation may seem outside of the scope of cosmetics, if we actually want 'sustainability' in our industry, this should be a part of that discussion. As someone who runs a corporation myself, this is something I find myself thinking about a lot - how can we do business better? If you're interested in the topic of sustainability, whichever angle you're coming at it from, if you haven't considered the role our economy is playing as a roadblock for moving forward, this episode would be a good one to listen to. Featured in this discussion - Dr. Yannick Beaudoin, former chief scientist of GRID-Arendal, a collaboration center of the United Nations Environment Program, and current Director General (Ontario and Northern Canada) for the David Suzuki Foundation.

Water-related investing gains traction and has profit potential. Beyond Burger sizzle heightens interest in plant-based food producers. Unilever and Nestlé cited. Coldwater poured on cruise line investing. Morningstar ratings changes will allow investors to directly compare company sustainability scores across industries. Canada’s Responsible Investing Association website offers terrific new resources including investment values screening tool.   PODCAST: Water and Veggie Investing, Cruise Line Greenwashing Transcript & Links August 2, 2019 Hello, Ron Robins here. Welcome to my podcast Ethical & Sustainable Investing News to Profit By! for August 2, 2019 – presented by Investing for the Soul. investingforthesoul.com is your site for vital global ethical and sustainable investing information and resources. If you hear any terms in this podcast that are unfamiliar to you, just Google them. Also, you can find a full transcript, live links and often bonus material to these podcasts at their editions’ podcast page located at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts ------------------------------------------------------------- Now many sustainable investors are getting excited about investing in water — that is companies and funds engaged with water in some way. Writing in the New York Times in an article titled, As Fresh Water Grows Scarcer, It Could Become a Good Investment, Tim Gray says, and I quote, “The prospect of shortages in the years ahead could make water a precious commodity… The United Nations Environment Program has predicted that half the globe’s population could face severe water stress by 2030. Annual expenditures of $200 billion, up from a historical average of about $40 billion to $45 billion, are needed now to keep spigots running, the U.N. said in a 2016 report.” End quote. In his article, Mr. Gray discusses several leading funds in this sector. The first is the AllianzGI Global Water Fund (AWTAX: Nasdaq) which is an actively managed fund that holds companies – and quoting the article – “[that provide] products or services to help overcome water scarcity and remedy infrastructure shortcomings… Created in 2008, the AllianzGI fund returned an annual average of 9.83 percent over the 10 years that ended in June, compared with 5.37 percent for its average Morningstar peer.” End quote. The second fund he writes about is the Calvert Global Water Fund (FWAX: Nasdaq), which is a passively managed index fund that, and I quote, “[is] divided into four subgroups — utilities, infrastructure outfits, technology providers and efficient users like Taiwan Semiconductor… The fund returned an annual average of 8.56 percent over the 10 years that ended in June.” Close quote. The third series of funds are under the umbrella of Invesco. They have three ETFs: Invesco Water Resources ETF (PHO: Nasdaq) which holds US companies, and for global holdings Invesco Global Water ETF (PIO: American Stock Exchange). Both are based on Nasdaq indexes. The third fund is the S&P Global Water Index ETF (CGW: NYSE Arca). The Water Resources and Global Water funds, and quoting the article, “[have] ‘more focus on companies developing technology around delivering clean water,’ while the S&P index fund leans more toward utilities, which make up about half of its assets, said J. Jason Bloom, senior director of Global Macro E.T.F. Strategy at Invesco... The S&P Global Water Index fund returned an annual average of 11.05 percent for the decade that ended in June.” Close quote. Mr. Gray mentions two funds other funds First Trust Water ETF (FIW: NYSE Arca) and the Tortoise Global Water ESG Fund (TBLU: BATS Stock Exchange). Points to consider when investing in water include the possibility of regulatory controls and ethical considerations regarding its pricing – especially for poor people. So, though water investing looks attractive, you need to weigh your own ethical values. ------------------------------------------------------------- Continuing the water investment theme – and this being vacation time for many – some listeners might be thinking about cruise lines as an investment. Well, as far as cruise lines go, Tim Nash writing for Corporate Knights throws cold water on two of the leading global cruise line companies. Mr. Nash’s article is titled, Tim Nash’s Sustainable Stock Showdown: Can plastic pledges save troubled cruise lines? In it he reviews Carnival Corporation (CCL: NYSE) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL: NYSE). Mr. Nash writes that Carnival was in the news recently as it pledged to end the use of all single-use plastics by 2021 and that this came a month after the company was fined $20 million for dumping overboard plastic waste near the Bahamas and prior to that was forced to pay a $40 million fine for illegally dumping oil. So, is Carnival becoming environmentally conscious or is this new gesture just a token event? One wonders… Concerning Royal Caribbean, Mr. Nash comments that and I quote, “Royal Caribbean has a dashboard of environmental goals for 2020 such as emissions reductions, sustainable sourcing and destination stewardship, but it doesn’t disclose targets or indicators.” End quote. My perspective is that without targets and authoritative independent review of them it’s just greenwashing. In conclusion, Mr. Nash says, quoting him, that, “The reality is both of these companies have leaky sustainability strategies, which could end up costing investors. Carnival Corporation has somewhat better transparency in its reporting but with a high carbon intensity, a poor CEO-to-worker pay ratio and a low tax responsibility, I wouldn’t blame sustainable investors for jumping ship.” End quote. ------------------------------------------------------------- Most cruise lines are noted for the terrific meals; however, I wonder if any of them are yet offering the Beyond Meat burger! Its stock has been on a tear. It’s been one of the most amazing IPOs in history with its recent stock price over $200 – over eight times its IPO price of May 2! Presently though, it’s run into some headwinds as company insiders and executives plan to sell stock in a significant secondary stock issue. Some additional treasury stock will be sold too. Again, the conclusion drawn from Beyond Meat’s success is the massive interest in meat alternatives which correspond, generally, to the significant rise in veganism and vegetarianism globally. This trend and investments related to it could become a core holding for ethical and sustainable investors. Among the global food companies best positioned for plant-based food product sales are Unilever (ULVR: London Stock Exchange) and Nestlé (NESN: Swiss Stock Exchange) this according to UK-based FAIRR, a US$5.3tn-backed investor coalition, says Andy Coyne in an article titled, Unilever, Nestle among best prepared for plant-based future. ------------------------------------------------------------- Many of you no doubt visit the Morningstar site for investment and sustainability information. You’ll be happy to know that Morningstar is improving its sustainability rankings. Quoting from an article titled, Morningstar Updates Sustainability Ratings, Gabriel Presler writes on their UK site, that, “The goal is to provide investors with a greater understanding of how the companies in their portfolios are managing their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact compared to their peers. This rating change will allow investors to directly compare companies across industries.” End quote. A criticism of mine has long been the need to be able to compare sustainable investing, ESG attributes, etc., across companies in the same or similar industries. So, this change is truly welcome. ------------------------------------------------------------- Two other quick bits of potentially useful information. For Canadian ethical and sustainable investors, Canada’s revamped Responsible Investing Association website offers some terrific new resources. For instance, not only is it easy to find Canadian licensed responsible investing advisors, but investors can find Canadian mutual funds, ETFs, etc., that reflect their values by using the site’s new questionnaire feature. Simply go to https://www.riacanada.ca/ri-marketplace/ The second item is yet another warning about the proceeds of green bonds not going where you think they should be going. In a Financial Times article, titled, Clearer metrics are needed to assess green bond authenticity, Joshua Kendall, a senior ESG analyst at Insight Investment, writes that “Imagine lending money to a company to invest in green projects – and that group then using the proceeds to pay off other debt. That money has no discernible environmental impact and there is nothing you can do: it is all in the contract… Only a third of green bonds issued in the past three years met our three-stage criteria for sustainable issuance. This leads us to question the ‘green bond’ label and, more generally, it could undermine the authenticity of dedicated green bond funds.” Close quote. The conclusion? Before investing in green bonds or green bond funds be very clear about what they’re investing in really does meet with your expectations! ------------------------------------------------------------- So, these are my top recent news stories and tips for ethical and sustainable investors. Again, to get all the links or to read the transcript of this podcast and sometimes get additional information too, please go to investingforthesoul.com/podcasts and scroll down for this edition. And be sure to click the like and subscribe buttons in iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you download or listen to this podcast and please click the share buttons to share this podcast with your friends and family. That way you can help promote not only this podcast but ethical and sustainable investing globally. And remember, I’m here to help you grow in your investment success – and investing in opportunities that reflect your personal values! Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the content of this podcast or anything else investment-related. I can’t say I’ll have all the answers for you and some answers I can’t give due to licensing restrictions. But where I can help I will. Now, a big thank you for listening. Come again! My next podcast is August 16. So, bye for now. © 2019 Ron Robins, Investing for the Soul.

This week, let's talk about the father of Earth Day! He did a lot of great stuff - like pushing for side effects to be listed with medications - and preached some racisms. Why do people suck so much? Resources Wikipedia Nelson Earth Day Founding of Earth Day Death-related article 95 speech on Earth Day Is the way we think about overpopulation racist? I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why. (Roberts) Environmentalism’s Racist History Perpetuating neo-colonialism through population control: South Africa and the United States Is Thanos Right About Killing People In 'Avengers: Infinity War'? Featured image from NASA Transcript Welcome to another edition of the Spooky Sconnie Podcast, the podcast that talks about everything, spooky paranormal, and weird in the state of Wisconsin. Since it's April, I thought that it would be remiss of me to not discuss the founder of Earth Day and the actual founding. And it was created by a Wisconsinite naturally. His name was Gaylord Nelson and he was born on June 4th, 1916 in a city called Clear Lake. Um, it's located up in Polk county which is kind of the upper north western corner of the state and it's about an hour away from Minneapolis. Nelson's father's parents - so his parental grandparents - were immigrants from Norway who moved to the area in 1878 and I couldn't find much about his maternal grandparents, but his mother was a nurse. Um, at least she completed the training to do that, but she spent most of the time kind of at home, spending time with the kids, that kind of stuff. ----more---- She taught Nelson a lot about the natural landscape and the world around him - while Nelson's father who was a doctor and very politically active, taught him about political life. And this reminded me a lot actually of college in an interesting way. Um, one of my history professors in college who I love, uh, we had a course on feminism in history and we talked a lot about the two spheres of the world in about the same time period. You had the domestic sphere, which was the realm of the woman who, you know, cleaned house and all of that. And then you had the public sphere, which was the realm of the man who did all of the outward things and voted and all that crap. So I had, this was a really clear cut example of that, which was interesting. In the time period we're talking about Clear Lake was not a great space to be in. There was a lot of pollution. Um, there was a lot of poverty. Of course, we're talking leading up to the Great Depression, which was not great anywhere, but especially in kind of tiny towns and rural areas. The Great Depression, you know, brought a lot of itinerant workers to the area. Um, a lot of people got grumpy about itinerant workers and not only was there an uptick in just general assholery, um, there was a lot of racism, a lot of extra bigger tree going on. And, and it's not exactly xenophobia because that's not, it's not exactly what this is what you can have people coming in from other spaces that are not your own space, I guess for lack of a better word xenaphobia is what was going on. Um, a bunch of the county's farmers actually went on strike in 1933 and it forced the local creamery to close down, which I think was interesting. Um, the works progress administration launched a bunch of projects in the region to do things like build roads, take care of wetlands, built the town's first sewer system, you know, things like that. Um, and Gaylord Nelson actually took a job shoveling stone on one of the crews, um, right after graduating from high school in the mid 1930s. And not only was it a lot of hard work, he also really didn't like the fact that he contributed to disturbing and destroying a lot of really beautiful natural habitats in the area and ruining fresh water in the name of progress. And that kind of pushed him to go to college. He followed his older sisters to San Jose State University. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what is actual major was in some sites said economics. Others said political science. Uh, I guess we don't know. I probably could have found out if I dug deeper, but I did not have time. It's okay. He really loved kind of exploring California and looking at all of the beautiful nature in the area, especially at the time period. And he would always come back home during the summers and worked in a cannery. He graduated in 1939 and in 1942 he also completed a bachelor of law degree at the UW law school here in Madison and was set to begin practicing law, but was quickly drafted into the army. While there he made first lieutenant, trained as a medical technician, um, commanded a segregated black company, and then spent the rest of the in Okinawa and actually met his future wife there who was a nurse named Carrie Lee Dotson. I honestly, I think it's really cute that his path, you know, like I don't know how his father and mother met, but to have to medically minded people in a relationship and then be somewhat medically minded and wind up in a relationship with another person similar. I think it's kind of cute. I'm a nerd. Um, when he came back from the war, the political landscape of Wisconsin was shifting a lot. The Republican Party, and when I'm talking about this right now, I'm not talking about the same Republican Party we see today. We're talking about the Republican Party of Lincoln era ideals. So think slightly more liberal than actual Republicans we think of today. So, they had enjoyed almost an exclusive rule of the state of Wisconsin since, uh, before the civil war. So really long standing and you know, there may be like rifts between groups in the party. There were some third parties, the popped up, but nothing that really stuck around significantly. And during this time period though is when things did start to shift from Lincoln era, republicans to Fox News he era Republicans - obviously, uh, you know, no TV yet, but that's kind of what was happening. And it was, uh, destroying the ideals of the party, shifting the party's platform, shifting who wanted to stay in the party. Um, and this was not something specifically limited to the Republican Party at the time, was kind of a everybody thing. I mean, think about it with the war, with the war ending, with all of the things that had just gone on, um, there was a lot of isolationism like, why the hell did we get in the war in the first place? It's not our business. Um, and that's kind of the, funny enough, that's one of the things that, um, at the time started help shifting, um, political ideologies. It's not much different than today, right? Where we have people questioning why are we getting involved in this conflict or that conflict? And not necessarily thinking about the, the general human rights of people everywhere. I don't know. That's a tangent. Um, so during this time period, Philip and Robert La Follette, um, who, who are the sons of the legendary progressive firebrand fighting Bob La Follette. Um, and we'll, we'll talk about him eventually. They had lead followers out of the Republican Party in 1934 and had suffered a lot of defeat and kind of came back and 46 and in that November, um, Bob the younger lost his Senate seat, which really signaled the end of an era here in Wisconsin. And you know, Gaylord Nelson was like, all right, I am going to try to bring this Republican progressivism to clear lake and I try to be in the state assembly. Let's do it. And he lost. Um, at the time though, he decided he was gonna move back to Madison. So he did that and he offered legal counsel to unions, spent time with a lot of friends from law school, really made some great connections. And then spent a lot of time talking with friends from law school and other spaces about rebranding the Democratic Party and about bringing that progressivism to this side. So what they really wanted to do was link people Milwaukee who were, um, you know, at the time, very pro union really, uh, you had a very large working class and then you had a lot of progressives who were feeling the pain of the shifting ideology and connect them with people in Madison who were and still are very much seen as, uh, a base of intelligence, right. Um, with the school here, with all of the educational opportunities, it's, it's kind of the smart kid town, um, to put up bluntly - not that people, Milwaukee aren't smart, but it's kind of seen as liberal safe haven. So to kind of link these two groups and see what they could do together, um, and see how much they could lift up people in rural areas and around the state. So in 1948 after what the capital times called a 'rip snorting hide tearing kind of campaign,' (oh my God) Um, won a seat in the state senate and he really championed advancing civil rights and reforming the government, um, and really pushing progressive ideals that people had been thinking about when Bob La Follette was really popular. Um, and, and making such big waves. He worked tirelessly throughout the state as the Democratic Party cochair for Wisconsin. And um, thankfully with, with all the work that he put in, um, you know, he, he was able to shift the state's political leanings and not single handedly mind you, but you played a major part. Through a large number of local and then statewide races through the 1950s, things began to change and shift back to more progressive ideologies and Democrats managed to replace Joe McCarthy - Yes, the motherfucker who haunted down leftists - with William Proxmire in 1957 and that was a huge win, not only for the state, but nationally and internationally. We had scared off a lot of entertainers, a lot of writers and artists who were very, very, very left leaning with the whole like Red Communist scare and McCarthy's, uh, for lack of a better term witch hunts. So it was really good to get him out. And maybe at some point if I feel like torturing myself, I will do an episode on him. I'm going to have to do it. I know I am, but not soon. The following year, so 1958 Nelson ran a successful campaign to be the state's second democratic governor of the century and the first governor ever from northern Wisconsin, which is pretty great. Um, he served four years as governor, uh, which was two, two year terms. And throughout his reign in, in the early 1960s, he pushed for better care and better protections for the environment. Um, he took what was at the time, a fairly large set of departments and divisions and Smush them down into the department of Resource Development, um, and established a youth conservation corps, which helped employ over a thousand young people and created green jobs for them where they were doing things to help preserve nature. And I'm really good things across the state. He also fought to earmark $50 million for the outdoor recreation action program, which, you know, bought up thousands of acres of land and converted them into public parks and wilderness areas. And those spaces serve, um, not only adds great spaces for families to visit and exist in, um, and you know, free, uh, entertainment spaces essentially. But they also really helped preserve a lot of wildlife. So I live in Madison. Um, you know, it's not necessarily - when you think of a college town, you don't think of deer walking down the road, you know, League of Turkey's crossing the road in the middle of your morning commute. And those things happen here and they have because we have the natural spaces that allow wildlife to thrive and live alongside humanity in a way that, um, uh, lots of places don't have because they didn't plan for it. And I think to Nelson's credit, um, he really helped create a space where wildlife and humanity could live side by side and not necessarily, um, but has a lot, unless someone's running late for work. And then there's a lot of honking - the Turkeys, uh, in our area that kind of wander about a two mile about area between like the school and our side of, um, like almost heading into Middleton, which is just a block over from us. And we'll see them walking down the sidewalk. They'll wait until they know it's safe to cross. Sometimes they'll stand in front of buses and it's always the dude's, and they will get very puffy and show off all their fancy feathers. And I just imagine Joe Pesci, that's the turkeys voice. I, I just kind of do, I'm gonna fuck you up. Like, I don't know. That is a super tangent too. I am so sorry. Not really though, because now you all envision what I envision every time I see the Turkeys job, she, um, another one of the things that Nelson really worked towards was ending the kind of lobbying system as it was set up then for the state of Wisconsin. If you're familiar with how lobbying works on the national level and how many people who are pro gun get a ton of money from, say the NRA or other, you know, uh, people who don't want to put so many restrictions on tobacco, get money from cigarette companies, et Cetera. Um, it's, I think it's a little better now than it was in the 90s. Thanks to some laws that had passed, but, um, it was bad. It was very bad and that was something similar going on in the state level here in the 60s, uh, like late fifties, early sixties. So he really switched that up. He, um, put a lot of restrictions on lobbyists so that they couldn't do that. He, um, just overall really consolidated the state government departments and made them work more efficiently. He really tried to champion, um, you know, racial - Oh my God, I'm having brain fog and I cannot think of the word that I want to use. Racial equity. Jeez, I'm so sorry. Um, just as an aside, if you don't have chronic illnesses, brain fog is something that's like almost a cognitive delay and you can't think of the right word or you might say Broccoli when you mean to say antidisestablishmentarianism like something that completely doesn't make sense. Anyway. So he really championed, um, racial equity and putting an end to discrimination, um, specifically on the basis of race or religion. Those were his babies. And he envisioned what he is quoted as talking about as "the creation of a social structure founded on quality instead of quantity and moral might instead of military might," which having been through war I'm sure came across really well to like, I've been through this, I helped treat people through this. It sucked. It was awful. Let's not do the military thing. In 1962, he was elected to the National Senate and served three consecutive terms. So he wound up serving from 1963 to 1981. And when he got there in [inaudible] 63, he basically immediately signed on as a cosponsor of President Kennedy's civil rights bill and participated in the march on Washington. Um, he also convinced JFK to start a national speaking tour to discuss conservation and environmental issues. And as President Johnson came into power, he really, um, Nelson pushed for advanced civil rights legislation and ending poverty. He really, really wanted to fight that. And I'm sure growing up during the Great Depression, um, and in a city where people were very, very hard hit by that pushed him to champion that cause he really saw these, um, things linked to his environmental agenda. Right. Cause it's not just about conserving natural resources, it's about using human resources. Well it's about, you know, uh, if we end poverty, there will be fewer excuses to do things that negatively impact the environment. Um, because we'll be able to live at a baseline that allows us to make smarter decisions and, um, do things that help protect the environment as opposed to negatively impacting it. In 1964 he wrote the following. We cannot let us situation continue in which millions of our fellow citizens do not have a suitable environment in which to live and raise their families. So he proposed a slate of federally funded green jobs. He talked to officials around the country and um, you know, talked a lot with President Johnson about how much, you know, Labor was out there not being utilized. Um, and how if we could create more jobs focused on environmentalism where you are not only help the environment, the create jobs that could help bring families out of the poverty cycle and lift them up. In 1965, he chided President Johnson for not doing enough to stop the lawlessness, terrorism and economic coercion in the Jim Crow south perpetuated against civil rights activists. He worked to secure federal protections for activists as a part of the civil rights act in 1968. He was an early and very passionate critic of the Vietnam War and also really disliked the misappropriation of public funds that was happening. Um, during the time period too. It became clear to him that spending so many public funds on even things like environmental Islam was not going to actually fix things. Yeah. DDT, a pesticide that was developed during this time period, um, and it was sprayed on lawns like here in the Madison area. And we watched as it began showing up and fish and groundwater all over the nation after it was used. Um, you know, other synthetic chemicals and things like detergents or as a result of mining practices and industrial production and pollution, you know, spread it throughout the water. He had smog all over because of no standards on car missions, contaminants in food, um, large numbers of pharmaceuticals showing up in waterways because people would just flush them instead of like turning them into the police, which is probably out of that system got started. Um, and really what he saw, and he talks about this in 1965 is that quote, man cannot live or act apart from his environment. And, and really what he saw was, you know, we were being so wasteful. We were being so thoughtless and careless, um, and not necessarily always have our own accord, right? The average person isn't like, 'oh, nothing's going to happen if I flush these down the toilet.' Like, they've got a other things going on. Right? But how do we lift up through education? How do we offer it up through, um, talking about it through public awareness so that we know that those things are great to do. Right? So he immediately called for sweeping government regulations, bans on pesticides like DDT and the end of the internal combustion engine, bans on dumping and waterways and oceans and even, um, had a constitutional amendment that guaranteed every person had the right to a decent environment, which I think is a fascinating idea. In July of 1967, there was a riot in Milwaukee that, um, turned deadly and I don't know the full story, so we'll probably explore that at some point. But he attributed this to thousands of citizens with inadequate educations, low incomes, poor housing, and poor job opportunities as a soldier in Johnson's war on poverty. He got more excited about that than the president did. He wanted to have a 10 billion with a B dollar program of public works projects and job training. Um, and wow Johnson was excited about that. He was like, I'll give you a 10th of what you asked for. And you know, Nelson proposed a ton of projects and they really took off, including things like the national teacher core, what's trained new educators, particularly a high concentration of people of color to then turn around and teach in impoverished schools. And kids began seeing themselves in their teachers. And I think that is incredibly amazing. During his 1968 reelection campaign, Nelson was praised by Vince Lombardi, the general manager and former coach of the green bay packers as the nation's number one conservationist at our banquet in Oshkosh. And Oshkosh is about an hour southwest of Green Bay or 25 minutes south of Appleton, if you know where those places are. Um, Nelson decided while his campaign, I don't know who exactly made the decision to turn that banquet speech into a radio and television campaign commercial and pissed Lombardi off because Lombardi was, uh, like he and his wife were very republican and the Republican Party was pissed too. So it did not, uh, make him friends with the Lombardy's. Let's just say that in 1970, Nelson called for congressional hearings on the safety of combined oral contraceptive pills, which are famously called the Nelson pill hearings. And as a result of the work that he did, side effect disclosure in patient inserts were required for the bill, which was the first disclosure for a pharmaceutical drug. I'm going to say it again. That was the first disclosure of side effects for a prescribed drug that got to patients. Holy Shit. Like I take a bunch of medications. Okay. Like I am alive because of that literally or inflammation in my body would probably have killed me by now. And the fact that I could potentially not have known about a side effect by being born just a couple of decades earlier, Holy Shit. And to not know which side effects are coming from which medications or side effects or even possible from some medications like birthdays. Great. And we'll get into it. But this, this is what makes Nelson cool in my mind. He made it so that patients knew what we were getting ourselves into and that is bad ass anyway. So, earth day. Or if they began as a teach-in about environmental issues and um, he really, Nelson wanted to propose a day where everyone around the nation could host like a teach in, you know, teachers could teach it to students and people could talk about it in library or universities and, and elsewhere, right, to really talk about environmental problems and what can we do to fix them. And immediately it took off national media, like picked it up and ran with it and his office got flooded by letters of support. Um, so he, he turned around and he created very small national office, um, that was there to help offer support to people around the nation that were going through, um, and creating grassroots efforts to educate and to enact change. He didn't like the idea of something like a top down organization because it never works out the way you want it to. Um, instead, he, he later reflected "earth day planned itself." An estimated 20 million Americans gathered on April 22nd, 1970 to talk about, um, the ecological troubles going on in their cities going on in larger spaces and not only to demand action from each other and to plan direct action, but also to demand action and accountability from their elected officials. And that's important. It really kicked off the, um, environmental decade, right? We think of the 70s, we think of vague he'd be is and Oh, all these people who on a leg not go to war and like not destroy the environment. So weird. Um, with, with all that Nelson did in the 60s, he tried to pass so many things. He tried to get so many things moving and now he was involved in so much. So not only did he, um, create earth, Earth Day, right? He's also involved in clean water act, the National Wild and scenic rivers act, the Federal Pesticides Act, the clean air act, the Environmental Education Act, the national hiking trails and national scenic trails act, and the establishment of the apostle islands national lake shore. That lake shore and where the apostle islands are - it's about two hours east of Duluth, Minnesota or like six hours north of Madison and it's beautiful - the water is gorgeous. I've not been myself, but I look at pictures and I go, 'I need to go to there.' Um, and it's just a gorgeous space and to be able to preserve that so that it's there for everyone to visit and enjoy. It was pretty great. He was also actually a pretty big advocate of small businesses, which I think is cool. He was a chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee and um, led efforts to authorize the first modern White House correspondence on small business, created the system of small business development at universities and really improve the way that federal agencies handle small business and other entities, um, through what's called the Regulatory Flexibility Act. I'm not going to talk about it. It's like over my head. But he did the thing. In 1973 he was one of three senators who opposed the nomination of Gerald Ford to be vice president, the other two word, Thomas Eagleton and William Hathaway. I couldn't figure out why, but I also didn't really look that hard into it. So hmm. After Nelson's 1980 defeat for reelection, he became counselor for the Wilderness Society in January of 1981 in September of 1980 or sorry, in September of 1995 in recognition of all of his work for the environment, he received the Presidential Medal of freedom. He viewed the stabilization of the nation's population as an important aspect of environmentalism. And these are his words: 'The bigger the population gets, the more serious the problems become ... We have to address the population issue. The United Nations, with the U.S. supporting it, took the position in Cairo in 1994 that every country was responsible for stabilizing its own population. It can be done. But in this country, it's phony to say "I'm for the environment but not for limiting immigration."' We're gonna get into that. Trust me. He also rejected the suggestion that economic development should be more important than an um, environmental protection because as he said, "the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around." At the end of the Cold War, um, he called for the US and Russia to allocate resources to working on environmental issues. He lobbied friends and Congress to stand up to, um, the vintage McCarthyism of the executive branch after the September 11th terrorist attacks, which I think is cool. Um, and then in the nineties, he really did get into this overpopulation idea. It's bad. We're going to go into it in just a second. I just want to like get to where he dies first and then we're going to go back into this. Um, do, do, do, do, do. So yeah. He received numerous awards and tuning, including two for the United Nations Environment Program. Um, he gave a speech about Earth Day in 1995 where he said some of the following: "All economic activity is dependent upon that environment with its underlying resource base. When the environment is finally forced to file under Chapter 11 because its resource base has been polluted, degraded, dissipated, irretrievably compromised, then, the economy goes down into bankruptcy with it because the economy is just a subset within the ecological system." - which, yeah, I mean, that makes sense to me. "We are dealing with a social, ecological and economic challenge unlike any other in our history. It is a challenge that begs for the kind of dedicated, inspirational leadership provided by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in their pursuit of victory in the Second World War. This challenge is far more serious than the military threat to the democratic west in World War n. Nations can recover from lost wars-­witness Germany and Japan--but there is no recovery from a destroyed ecosystem." - which again, like, yeah, that makes sense. In 2002, he appeared on the show To Tell The Truth as a contestant. Um, and then he died of cardiovascular failure at age 89 on July 3rd, 2005. There's a buncha places around the state named after him, including the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, or it's also just called the Nelson Institute here at Uw Madison. So now let's get into this overpopulation bullshit. So it's not great. It is not great fam. Um, some in the 1990s is when he starts championing this. There's this guy named Paul Ehrlich who is the author of, a classic book in Environmental Studies called the population bomb. And he served as an earth day adviser to Gaylord Nelson. And one of the things that Nelson wanted to push for, um, I think partially because of Ehrlich was for better family planning services and it wasn't because let's make sure people are ready to have kids. Let's make sure you know, people's choices as human beings are respected. It was because of concerns about overpopulation. He pushed the u s to shrink immigration quotas and help other nations establish their own population controls. And you know, people really push back because it's dismissive of things. The immigrants and people who go through asylum or like, apply for asylum. Go through. Um, it doesn't take into account disparities in various parts of the world. So the, the crux of the matter is the ideas about overpopulation are often rooted in racism, classism, ableism, and of course the cisheteronormative, white patriarchy. Um, often people who are harmed by these policies are not white. They are not middle to upper class, they are not abled. And often they're also not cisgender or heterosexual or men. And I think we have to sit with that thought, right? Sure. More people might live in different parts of the state and the different parts of the country, more people tend to move to cities because those are where the jobs are. That doesn't mean that we set - whether at the city, state, or national level - limits on how many people can live here. If we go back to the idea of America being like every person for themselves and the American dream and pursuit of happiness bullshit, which was never actually accurate, um, any of those limits would put a huge damper on all of that. And those, those ideas don't Mesh. Um, in a 2017 article for Vox, David Roberts dives deeper: 'In practice, where you find concern over “population,” you very often find racism, xenophobia, or eugenics lurking in the wings. It’s almost always, ahem, particular populations that need reducing. History is replete with examples, but perhaps the most germane recent episode was less than 20 years ago, at the Sierra Club, which was riven by divisions over immigration. A group of grassroots members, with some help from powerful funders, attempted to take over the national organization. These members advocated sharply restricting immigration, saying the US should be reducing rather than increasing its population. Their contention is that the country’s open immigration policies are hurting the environment by bringing in poor immigrants and making them richer, thus increasing their environmental impact. Of course, they swore up and down that xenophobia had nothing to do with it... I don’t doubt that it’s possible to be concerned about the environmental stresses population brings without any racism or xenophobia — I’ve met many people who fit that description, and there were well-meaning (if quite mistaken) population-focused groups in the ’70s and ’80s — but in terms of public discussion and advocacy, anyone explicitly expressing that concern starts out behind the eight ball. The mere mention of “population” raises all sorts of ugly historical associations.' Roberts is not wrong here at all. I think he's just leaving out pieces that maybe two years later we understand better or maybe it's because I'm disabled, Queer and Trans, I don't know, but we're not talking about the ableism. We're not talking about that. The US already places heavy restrictions on the number of disabled people that come come over because of what a 'strain' on our resources they would be - and let's not pretend the countries like Canada are any better. All the people after the 2016 presidential election telling me I should move to Canada - guess what? Canada won't have me because I will place too much of a burden on their healthcare system. First world countries already put these kinds of restrictions in place and we're supposed to think that making those restrictions broader and even more awful is going to help? All it's going to do is lead to population decrease because people are dying. And I don't know about y'all. I don't want that fucking shit on my conscience. (I almost said conference again, brain fog.) Um, and the way Roberts talks about this in the article, it's not about article. I definitely suggeste just reading it but do keep in mind it's from a very cis, Hetero Normative Lens, Aka there's binary gendered language and um, it's under the assumption that like parents who do the sex are going to have the kids because one does the eggs and one does the sperm and that's not reality. Um, yeah, so I've put a link to it in the show notes. I've put a link to a couple of other, um, pieces that are along a similar nature. There's a piece from the Guardian that discusses two sides of the issue, um, including like how beneficial large cities are, how they can be like technological-idea-producing cities out like, like San Francisco. That was phrased terribly - I am sorry. But like, cities tend to push technology further and it's like not only because of necessity but also like it just serves as an incubator. Green living tends to excel in cities too because you've got people like in San Francisco that are doing composting. They have city-wide composting. Madison just did composting for a while. It wasn't well like put out there. I had no idea until they stopped the program. Uh, now you got a bunch of people living in apartments and they have nowhere to do their compost. Like I know for a city, so rooted in environmental action, not great anyway. You know, it seems, it seems to me that the people who are against overpopulation are also against ways we might fight against that. (You know, like not ones rooted in white supremacist Bullshit.) If the concern was about actual quality of life or the environment, right, we would focus not on population density or overpopulation. Instead we'd put our energy into lifting up the quality of life of everyone, especially those living in large cities. We would focus on improving access to things like family planning, comprehensive sex ED, contraception. We would improve equality between the many genders, including pay, and destroy legislation that allows not only different genders, but disabled folks to be paid cents on the dollar. We'd improve adoption rates. We'd work better to like provide foster families with the resources and tools they need. We'd promote and accept families created in any form instead of telling Queer families they can't adopt more kids. We'd also stop approving and putting out articles, tearing down millennials like me who aren't going to have kids. But then again, I'm American and white, so my kids are the ones that they'd probably want to have around until they learned that I'm disabled. And that's what I got to say about that. Yeah, it's always good to end the episode on a great diatribe. Ah, yeah. Um, cool. Please, please, please, please, please, if you are listening on stitcher or apple podcasts or another program that allows you to rate, please do it. It helps people find the podcast. It makes me feel good and lets me put up cool things at work that say, 'hey, people should listen to my podcast cause other people like it.' Yes, I'm a nerd. I just started a fulltime job and um, and told people about the podcast. People are already excited about the prospect of listening to it. They probably will have forgotten the name of it, which I'm okay with. But um, it's exciting to be able to talk more about it as like something cool instead of like, oh yeah, I got this thing mumble, mumble, mumble. Anyway, please. Again, if you have the ability to subscribe, stitcher lets you do that. Well like every podcast app lets you subscribe I guess. But subscribe rate. Tell me what you think is going on that's good, or bad. Tell me if you think I should edit more then I do, which is not very much. Um, yeah, give me your thoughts. Send me emails to me. Facebook messages. Let's tweet at each other. Let's be friends. Um, I'd love to hear from people. I'd love to hear what people think is working, not working, what they'd like to see, all that stuff. Um, but for now, I have a date with some tacos and I hope soon who you also have tacos. You just listened to the Spooky Sconnie podcast. It is produced every two weeks by me, Kirsten Schultz. The intro, outro music is from Purple Plant. You can find show notes and more over at spookysconnie.podbean.com, including a transcript in case you missed anything. Take a minute and rate and subscribe if you can. You'll help more people see the show by rating and you won't miss a single episode if you subscribe, and that's pretty dope. You can support the show over at patreon.com/spookysconniepodcast and you can email me anything you'd like me to know at spookysconniepodcast@gmail.com. Meantime, sleep tight. Don't let the badgers bite. Bye.

Energy efficiency is an essential pillar of any emissions reductions target. Today we are talking with Martin Schoenberg, an energy efficiency project coordinator at the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative. We discuss what the UN is doing to help energy efficiency, what the largest opportunities are, and how energy efficiency is necessary to sustain both high standards of living and meet climate goals.

How do we make sense of the recent climate change news? And what can we do? On Saturday, January 26 at 10am at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church, the Climate & Energy Forum will host a discussion about the latest climate science and policy developments. Then, on February 7 at 7pm, the movie, The Venus Theory, will be shown at the Library.. Listen here as returning guests Michael Cox and Lara Hansen share information about these two upcoming events and talk about what individuals and the City of Bainbridge can do to mitigate and adapt to climate change. At the Forum, Michael and Lara will join with fellow presenters, James Rufo-Hill and Dr. Gary Lagerloef, to discuss highlights from various reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the United Nations’ Environment Program and Framework Convention on Climate Change. For more information on the Climate and Energy Forum visit: www.bainbridgeislandforum.org. The Venus Theory is being shown at the Library on February 7th as part of the Movies That Matter film series, a free monthly film series on environmental topics offered on the first Thursday of every month. This particular film explains the science behind global warming, and whether the Earth's temperature may one day equal that of Venus. For a full list of upcoming Movies that Matter screenings, visit http://www.sustainablebainbridge.org/pdfs/Movies%20that%20Matter%202018%20Flyer.pdf Credits: BCB host: Christina Hulet; audio editor and publisher: Diane Walker; social media: Jen St. Louis.

Gisele Bündchen is an internationally renowned supermodel, a global ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program, and a freshly minted author—her book, Lessons, hit shelves last week. After meeting Gisele for the first time earlier this year, it was very clear to me that she was one of "us"—a true wellness warrior, someone whose life mission was to make the world a better, healthier, and happier place, someone who truly understood that mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and environmental well-being were all connected. I'm honored to call her a friend and a supporter of mindbodygreen—and the newest member of the mbg Collective. I was lucky enough to sit down with her at her house outside of Boston to dive deep into previously unshared facets of her life. Between her numerology readings (Gisele is an enthusiastic, borderline professional, numerologist), she opened up about the secret to making her relationship with her husband, Tom Brady, work and how having kids changed their lives. She's recently shared her struggles with anxiety for the first time ever publicly, and we explore her journey at an even deeper level, going into why and how the anxiety started and the practices she relies on to this day to feel better. She talks about the spiritual practices that have shaped her life and the various, well, lessons she's learned about meaning and purpose over the years. We also get into the nitty-gritty, more fun stuff: what she eats in a day, her morning routine, and more. Finally, we talk about our shared passion for the environment and how she thinks we all need to shift our thinking to effect real change. This episode is a must-listen if you're a fan of Gisele, an environmentalist, an anxiety sufferer, or simply a human being, trying to live the most fulfilling, satisfying life possible. Gisele will make you laugh and cry and inspire you in ways that will linger long after you've finished listening. To contact Jason with comments, questions, or speaker ideas, please e-mail podcast@mindbodygreen.com. For all sponsorship inquiries, please e-mail sales@mindbodygreen.com. Want to join our podcast email newsletter? Sign up here!

Martina is a marine scientist currently traveling from Tijuana to Patagonia on an 8 month tour educating as many people as possible on the issues and solutions to plastic pollution. At the same time she is earning her masters degree in environmental management with a focus on waste management strategies in remote coastal areas. In this episode we talk about her childhood in Argentina, her experience working in Panama with the United Nations Environment Program to ban single-use plastic bags, and her optimistic outlook on the future of how we interact with plastics. Follow Martina on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nimisvara Follow Martina on Instagram: www.instagram.com/martinademarcos Check out her Indigogo campaign: www.indiegogo.com/projects/dona-x-menos-basura-plastica-en-america-latina-grx-love-water#

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins made history earlier this year when she completed what is said to be the largest ever transfer of land from a private entity to a government. In a ceremony in Chile with President Michelle Bachelet at her side, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins formally handed over 1 million acres of land of while President Bachelet designated 9 million more acres to create vast new national parks. This created areas of protected wilderness about the size of Switzerland. That ceremony was the culmination of decades of work by Kristine and her late husband Doug Tompkins. Kristine was the longtime CEO of the outdoor apparel company Patagonia. Doug, who died in a kayaking accident in 2015, was the co-founder of the clothing companies North Face and Espirit. Together, the created the non-profit Tompkins Conservation. In this conversation, Kristine Tompkins discusses the origins of her work as a conversationist and as a pioneer of corporate social responsibility. She also describes the process of creating wilderness areas in partnerships with governments. We caught up while she was in New York to receive an award from the United Nations Environment Program.   

Join us on todays share with special guest Marilyn Mosley Gordanier, M.Ed.  Who is Marilyn? Marilyn Mosley Gordanier, speaker, author, and founder of Laurel Springs School, has more than thirty-five years' experience in the field of online learning, She created Laurel Springs School, the first online school in the United State, and premier provider of personalized education for over 85,000 students in grades K through 12.  She cofounded Eikoh Web Internet High School, the first distance-learning program in Tokyo, Japan and South Korea. She designed the first online environmental curricula for grades 4 – 12 called Kids4earth, Leaders4earth and Meetings With Remarkable Men and Women. The United Nations Environment Program has endorsed these courses. Ms. Mosley Gordanier has received the following awards: Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning, Outstanding Service to Environmental Education, the Global 500 Environmental Award and is a Nobel Earth Prize Finalist. She serves on the board of the Vatican Committee on the Restoration of Clean Water, the UN Global 500 Environment Program, the Captain Planet Foundation, USA Club of Rome and Educate Girls Now. To learn more or help STOP forced marriage please visit: https://educategirlsnow.org/ Ms. Mosley Gordanierhas served as the keynote speaker at environmental and educational summits in: UK, Italy, Paris, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Kenya and the United States.  Tune in, Call in, Skype in, Chat in and Lets Talk!  

United Nations creates World Environment Day. In response to growing concern about the planet’s sustainability, the United Nations held the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment from June 5 to 16, 1972. The conference concluded with a declaration that urged all nations to work for a better environment. The UN General Assembly also created the United Nations Environment Program, whose mission was “to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.” To commemorate that first conference, the United Nations created World Environment Day on June 5, 1972. Since then, numerous UN conferences on the environment have been held. However, each conference notes with increasing concern that not only has little progress been made, but environmental deterioration is accelerating rapidly. Many scientists believe climate change is the most serious threat facing the planet. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Renomado arquiteto e urbanista, há 50 anos ele busca, através das alternativas mais simples e econômicas possíveis, transformar os centros urbanos em lugares mais humanos Ele é um grande arquiteto e urbanista brasileiro que trata as cidades como organismos vivos e que há mais de 50 anos busca, através das alternativas mais simples e econômicas possíveis, transformar os centros urbanos em lugares mais humanos. Curitibano, ele foi prefeito da cidade por três mandatos, além de ter governado o Estado do Paraná por duas vezes. Suas gestões foram marcadas pelo avanço em questões como sustentabilidade e mobilidade, o que o levou a ser chamado de “revolucionário verde” pelo jornal britânico The Guardian, ser eleito uma das 100 pessoas mais influentes de 2010 pela revista norte-americana Time, e, ainda, ter faturado para a cidade de Curitiba, em 1990, o United Nations Environment Program, prêmio máximo concedido pela ONU na área de meio ambiente. Aos 78 anos, Jaime Lerner vem ao Trip FM refletir sobre o atual momento político brasileiro e sobre os principais desafios dos grandes centros urbanos. SET LIST Saulo Duarte e a Unidade – Amor de Piração Bod Dylan e Greatful Dead – I Want You Wilco – Jesus Etc G. Love and Special Sauce – Baby’s Got Sauce Tim Maia – Eu e Você, Você e Eu Ouça todas as músicas que rolaram no Trip FM em 2016

TOPICForests and Our Water Supply IN THIS EPISODE[02:19] Introduction of Laurie A. Wayburn. [02:39] Laurie shares when she realized forest and natural-resource conservation would be her life’s work. [04:28] Laurie elaborates on what she means by “wealth” in her quote, “Nature is central to our emotional, physical, and spiritual wealth and well-being…Nature is where our wealth comes from.” [06:23] Laurie describes the Pacific Forest Trust and what their mission is. [08:35] Laurie shares the extent of the drought and water crisis western states are facing and if there is a connection between the drought and frequent wildfires. [12:12] Laurie confirms the accurate description of California’s water availability and population. [12:29] Are there regional inequities in terms of accessing available fresh water sources in California, and are there really water wars happening in the West? [14:25] What are the challenges in California of preserving the relationship with those with the water supply? What is being done to preserve that relationship? [17:17] Laurie explains what could be done for the landowners in order to compensate them in a way that would preserve the water supply. [20:34] Laurie addresses the EPA’s waters of the United States rule of which water bodies, including wetlands, need to be protected. [23:17] Why is the concept of a water fee or tax—which could accumulate into a very large fund—so controversial? [27:22] Laurie shares where people can learn more about her work. [28:03] Laurie shares one change that would lead to smarter, more sustainable, and more equitable communities. [28:22] Laurie describes the action listeners can take to help build a more equitable and sustainable future. [28:36] Laurie explains what the forests in California look like 30 years from now. GUESTLaurie A. Wayburn is the Co-founder, Co-CEO and President of the Pacific Forest Trust. Ms. Wayburn is an accomplished forest and conservation innovator who advises policymakers at the state, regional, national, and international levels. She pioneers new approaches to develop sustainable resource economies using her deep experience in the fields of conservation, ecosystem services, and sustainability. A preeminent authority on the climate and ecosystem benefits of forests, she leads efforts enacting climate change policies that unite conservation and sustainable management with market-based approaches. She has received several highly prestigious honors bestowed for her leadership and is a frequent speaker, writer, and media commentator on working forest conservation. Prior to co-founding Pacific Forest Trust with Constance Best in 1993, Ms. Wayburn worked internationally for 10 years in the United Nations Environment Program and Ecological Sciences Division of UNESCO. She later served as Executive Director of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and was the Founder and first Coordinator of the Central California Coast Biosphere Reserve. Ms. Wayburn is a graduate of Harvard University and currently serves on the Northwest BioCarbon Initiative Steering Committee, the American Forest Policy Steering Committee, and the Land Trust Alliance Advisory Council. ORGANIZATIONThe mission of the Pacific Forest Trust is to sustain America’s forests for their public benefits of wood, water, wildlife, and people’s well-being, in cooperation with landowners and communities. For more than 20 years, Pacific Forest Trust has epitomized innovation, daring, and a savvy understanding of market forces to create new economic incentives that reward private forest owners for conserving their lands and practicing sustainable forestry. They are a visionary think-and-do tank of scientists, conservationists, policy wonks, entrepreneurs, and outdoor enthusiasts that have helped shape forest conservation and climate policy. Working closely with other forest stakeholders, from landowners to agencies to environmental nonprofit partners, they create and advance...

� The United Nations Environment Program says that resources are a factor in 40% of all organized armed conflicts, but only 15% of peace agreements even mention them. Today, we examine the role that carbon finance – especially REDD+ (reducing emissions from degradation of forests, plus other land uses) – can play in helping (or, if bungled, hindering) the peace process by stifling the use of blood diamonds and other conflict resources. Guests include: Canadian Environmental Consultant Art Blundell Liberian Environmental Campaigner Silas Siakor Saw Frankie Abreu, Director of Myanmar’s Tenasserim River and Indigenous People’s Network (TRIP NET) Colombian Vice Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development Pablo Viera Samper Kerstin Canby, Director of the Forest Policy, Trade, and Finance program at Forest Trends Accompanying panel discussion: https://www.norad.no/en/front/thematic-areas/climate-change-and-environment/oslo-redd-exchange/oslo-redd-exchange-2016/streaming-osloreddx/

This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news. President Xi Jinping has underscored the importance of combat effectiveness in the military academy. Xi made the remarks during an inspection tour of the top military academy, the National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army. Xi applauded the university's accomplishments. He encouraged the university to continue to improve its educational theories and training models, as this would boost the competence and professionalism of its faculty. The president said to build a world-class army, military-affiliated colleges must be elite academies, adding that reform and innovation would support this goal. The president urged all military academies to advance warfare strategies to create a military theory that is up-to-date, pioneering and unique. They were encouraged to closely follow global military developments, research the role of IT in military operations and address the problems in the country's combat readiness. Xi is also chairman of the Central Military Commission. He urged servicemen and women to adhere to the correct political direction. He also underscored the importance of military innovation, calling for more efforts to nurture, gather and retain talented servicemen and women. This is NEWS Plus Special English. No more side effects have been detected among the people vaccinated with suspected illegal vaccines. The National Health and Family Planning Commission says the observation was based on the analyses made by medical experts with a state-level database on vaccines. The commission has been working with local health departments to crack down on illegal vaccines, calling for local departments to report more information on the whereabouts of the illegal products. It was revealed recently that vaccines improperly stored and expired have been sold in 20 provincial-level regions since 2011. In a related development, the World Health Organization has released a notice, saying improperly stored and expired vaccines pose a very small risk of causing a toxic reaction. The notice says vaccines need to be stored and managed properly or they can lose potency and become less effective. It says however, improperly stored or expired vaccines seldom cause a toxic reaction, adding that there was likely minimal safety risk in this particular incident. You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Xinhua News Agency President Cai Mingzhao has pledged continuous support to the United Nations Environment Program on environment protection and sustainable development, and particularly to UNEP's efforts to stop illegal trade in wildlife. During his visit to the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi in Kenya, Cai said Xinhua will constantly explore new cooperation models with the U.N. agency with a view to make greater contribution to human development. Cai says Xinhua, China's state news agency, is willing to support UNEP's environmental campaigns including wildlife protection, through enhanced news coverage and interactions on official websites and social media platforms, as well as by jointly holding public service activities. Both organizations have agreed to combine resources to bring greater attention to the illegal trade in wildlife so that consumers understand the damage caused by their purchases, in an effort to reduce demand. UNEP deputy executive director Ibrahim Thiaw said Cai's visit has come at a critical moment, as UNEP is leading the United Nations campaign to combat the illegal trade in wildlife. He said the UNEP welcomes Xinhua's participation in its other major campaigns this year, including Marine Litter, Sustainable Tourism, and Air Pollution. This is NEWS Plus Special English. A new report says as of the end of last year, 4 million Chinese students had studied or were studying overseas since 1978 when China opened to the world. The report, by the Ministry of Educaton, features employment of students who have returned to China. It found that a total of 2.2 million students had returned. Last year, over 520,000 Chinese students went abroad for study, and 410,000 returned. Most of the returnees, around 75 percent of interviewees, were willing to work in eastern coastal cities. Almost half of the respondents said they were willing to stay in China's biggest cities including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen. More than 3 percent of interviewees hope to start their own business; and career development space is the most important factor for them in choosing jobs, followed by location and salary. Students majoring in management, science and economics are in greatest demand after they go back to China, followed by those who majored in engineering, arts and law. An official from the ministry says almost all of the students were studying abroad at their own expenses. The report is aimed at helping students and their parents to make better plans for their future studies. You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. The death of a 4-year-old girl, who was beheaded in a knife attack in Taiwan, has sparked widespread public anger on the island and criticism of calls to abolish the death penalty. The attack took place as the child was cycling towards a metro station with her mother in Taipei. The 33-year-old suspect attacked and decapitated the girl with a cleaver in full view of her mother. Bystanders heard the mother's screams and rushed to restrain the attacker until police arrived. The suspect, Wang Ching-yu had been arrested in the past for drug-related crimes and had twice sought medical treatment for mental conditions after physical altercations with his family. Television footage showed angry people gathered outside a police station in Taipei where the suspect was being held. Some attacked the suspect as he was being transferred to the prosecutor's office for questioning. Many went to lay flowers and toys at the spot where the girl was killed. Taiwan resumed capital punishment in 2010 after a five-year hiatus. Executions are reserved for serious crimes, including aggravated murder and kidnapping, but politicians are divided over whether or not to retain it. This is the second child-killing case in Taiwan in a year. This is NEWS Plus Special English. China's tuberculosis infection rate has been decreasing steadily over the past five years. According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the morbidity rate from TB has reduced from 71 in every 100,000 people in 2011 to 63 last year. The death rate caused by TB has also been following a downward trend, dropping from 3 in 100,000 people in 2011 to 2 in 2014, well below the international average of 15 in 100,000 people. The commission says a TB prevention and treatment system is gradually taking shape, which places a particular focus on groups including students and migrant workers. Last year there were 34,000 students reported to have contracted TB in China, down 29 percent compared with 2011. China has invested more than 7 billion yuan, roughly 1 billion U.S. dollars, on the prevention and treatment of TB during the past five years, and will continue to enhance the work. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. You can access the program by logging onto NEWSPlusRadio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That's mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues. Doctors from south China's Hunan Province performed a successful spinal surgery recently, using 3D printing technology on a man suffering from a spinal deformity. The surgery was conducted by a team from the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. It used a 3D-printed device to help the doctors determine the angle and depth of the incisions to ensure the accuracy of the operation. The patient had long suffered from spinal arthritis, leading to a severe humpback. His height decreased from 1.7 meters to 1.3 meters due to the deformity, and doctors cut parts of his spine to restore him to an upright posture. Due to the densely distributed nerves on the spine, the surgery required very high precision, and any mistake could result in paralysis of the patient. The 3D-printed nylon part is a precise model of the patient's spine, on which the position and depth of the incision are marked. Fastened to the spine, it made the surgery much easier for the doctors, cutting the surgery time by half, to five hours. The patient is expected to be able to walk in a week. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Enthusiastic visitors have snapped up the first batch of tickets in just five minutes for the opening day of the Shanghai Disneyland Park on June 16, temporarily crashing the official website. A statement issued by the Shanghai Disney Resort says it had received warm feedback since it started selling tickets online at noon on Monday. Within half an hour, clicks on the website shanghaidisneyresort.com reached more than 5 million. The massive volume resulted in the company's ticketing system malfunctioning temporarily. The statement says all official website ticketing systems and authorized partners' distribution channels functioned well later. But it did not say how many tickets were sold. Disney Resort's flagship store on Alitrip, one of its authorized ticket-selling websites, also sold out standard admission tickets and two-day tickets that include the opening day. According to Alitrip, more than 20,000 tickets were sold in 30 minutes. By 4 pm, the Alitrip store had seen 35,000 transactions of one-day tickets and 12,000 two-day tickets sold. Meanwhile, hotels at the resort are also open to bookings, with rooms at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel starting from 1,650 yuan, roughly 254 U.S. dollars, and those at the Toy Story Hotel priced at 850 yuan. This is NEWS Plus Special English. （全文见周日微信。）

This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news. A China-led space gravitational wave detection project is recruiting researchers from around the world. The Tianqin project was initiated in July by Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong province. It centers on research of key technology in space gravitational wave detection. To make the project more competitive, global talents in areas including gravity theory, space gravity experiments and precision measurement are sought with an annual salary of up to 1 million yuan, roughly 153,000 U.S. dollars. The president of Sun Yat-sen University and head of the Tianqin project Luo Jun says the detection of gravitational waves is a huge challenge, and the project is a feasible plan and reflects the research capacity of China. The 15-billion-yuan project aims to send wave-detection satellites into space in 15 to 20 years. Construction of a research center and observatory will start soon. American scientists have detected gravitational waves caused by two black holes merging around 1.3 billion years ago. It was the first time the elusive phenomenon was directly detected since it was predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. The detection of gravitational waves is believed to help scientists understand more mysteries of the cosmos. This is NEWS Plus Special English. The United Nations Environment Program, UNEP, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Tongji University of China to renew cooperation on areas that promote sustainable development and the green agenda. UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner and Professor Yang Xianjin, President of Tongji University, witnessed the signing of a new accord to elevate partnership between the two institutions to a new level. Steiner said during the ceremony held in Nairobi in Kenya that the partnership between the two sides is unique and has led to the establishment of a center of excellence on research and training to promote sustainable development. In 2002, UNEP and Tongji University jointly established the Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development at Tongji University to facilitate knowledge transfer on environmental sustainability. Steiner hailed the strategic partnership between the global environment body and Tongji University to advance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific and the global south. He noted that the institute has created a platform for promoting environmental and sustainable development discourse. He says Tongji University has a proud tradition of academic research and training that has created the next generation of entrepreneurs in green technology. He adds that a partnership between UNEP and the University has been instrumental in advancing the green agenda in Africa. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Chinese ambassador to Argentina has met with some 50 Argentine students who returned home after pursuing academic studies in China with grants offered by the Chinese government. Ambassador Yang Wanming urged them to promote exchange between Argentina and China. Addressing the students at the House of Chinese Culture in Buenos Aires, Yang expressed the hope that they will be able to apply what they have studied in China in their future careers at home. The program of government grants offered by China began in 2007 as a cultural exchange initiative. Each year, the Chinese government offers more than 30 grants to qualified Argentines for pursuing academic studies in China and this number keeps growing. One of the grant-holders said going to China was one of the best experiences of her life, and she always wanted to understand the Chinese culture, history and literature. To Alexandra Conconi, the experience of living in China will be a "huge help" because as a project coordinator at a local consultancy firm, she partially works as a cultural mediator when her company does business with Chinese companies, including Sinopec and electronic giant Huawei. Karina Fiezzoni, a lawyer with a law firm in Argentina, first went to Beijing to learn Chinese in 2004 and later acquired her Master's degree in China. Fiezzoni says her experience in China was crucial as there are many differences between the two countries, both in terms of culture and the law. She adds that she is helping investors from the two sides overcome problems they encounter due to the two countries' different legal systems. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. China is to increase to more than half the proportion of new energy vehicle purchases made by some government departments. The State Council, China's Cabinet, says the decision is aimed at increasing green development as the country attempts to rein in pollution. The government has been promoting electric vehicles as a way to reduce the smog that frequently blankets cities. The State Council says new energy vehicles should account for more than 50 percent of annual new vehicle purchases of central government organs, public institutions and some cities. The ratio was set at 30 percent in July. The State Council also announced a new set of other policies designed to encourage the use of new energy vehicles. As part of efforts to achieve "revolutionary breakthroughs" in battery performance, cooperation will be encouraged among enterprises, universities and research institutions. More battery charging facilities will be built, with the sector receiving increased investment and subsidies. Other measures include increasing the share of new energy vehicles in the public transportation system and enhancing their quality. The policies come as the central government looks to industry to push industrial upgrades, ease pressure on the environment and foster new growth engines. This is NEWS Plus Special English. A survey says middle school teachers in Shanghai are among the world's most qualified. The survey was conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It interviewed 4,000 Shanghai teachers from 200 junior middle schools in 2015 along with teachers from 37 other countries and regions. Shanghai's education impressed the world after students of the city won first place in the Program for International Student Assessment in 2009 and 2012. The program is the organization's math, science and reading tests for students from dozens of countries. The survey results show that almost 99 percent of the polled teachers in Shanghai have bachelor's degrees or higher, while the global average is 93 percent. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. You can access the program by logging onto NEWSPlusRadio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That's mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues. After life, would you like to be interred in a soulless box or have your ashes fertilizing living, growing flora? China wants you to choose the latter. According to a regulation unveiled recently, China will promote eco-burials to ensure a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. Eco-burials save the land, reduce funeral costs and do less harm to the environment. That is according to the document jointly released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and eight other central authorities. There are plans for facilities to support eco-burial services across the country by the end of 2020. The cremation rate will also be increased. Chinese traditionally believe that souls only rest in peace if their bodies are covered by soil. Due to land scarcity and pollution, ground burial is banned in most cities. However, it is still allowed in many rural and minority areas. The national cremation rate was 46 percent in 2014. Nowadays people are becoming more open to other options. By the end of 2014, Beijing had seen 78,000 eco-friendly burials. The change is also prompted by expensive entombing service. In Beijing, a tomb site for preserving the cremation urn can cost from 3,000 to more than 30,000 U.S. dollars. Many have to bury their family members in neighboring Hebei Province and some even joke that they can't afford to die. The ministry has said it will strive to encourage eco-burials across the nation, pushing tree, flower and sea burial in areas with strict cremation policies and encouraging deep burial, smaller tombs or replacing gravestones with trees. Those opting for eco-burials will be awarded by the government. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Rare brown giant panda Qi Zai has faced temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius in the remote Qinling Mountains of west China this winter, but has come through unscathed. According to staff with a "training base" toughening him up for release into the wild, the six-year-old male is the world's only completely brown giant panda, found among a colony of pandas with some brown in their coats. Qi Zai has been kept in the Wild Panda Training Base in Shaanxi Province's Foping Nature Reserve for two years. Staffers initially fed Qi Zai artificially, but have left him to fend for himself this winter. The Qinling giant panda is a subspecies of the giant panda family that was recognized in 2005. Qinling giant panda has a smaller and rounder skull, shorter snout and less fur than the more familiar Sichuan subspecies. The world's first brown panda was discovered in 1985 in the Qinling Mountains. Since then, there have been eight brown pandas found, but Qi Zai is the last remaining alive. Weighing around 105 kilograms, Qi Zai was energetic and ate 50 kilos of bamboo a day during the winter. The local animal keepers are preparing to allow it to mate with a black giant panda when it becomes sexually mature, which may help to figure out the genetic mystery behind his brown fur. This is NEWS Plus Special English. A Chinese museum has begun a process to preserve a giant sperm whale through a technique known as plastination, making the world's largest such whale specimen. The 14-meter and 41-tonne whale was one of two that ran aground on beach in east China's Jiangsu Province recently. The plastination involves replacing water and fat with plastics; and the whole process will take at least three years to complete. The Dalian Mystery of Life Museum in northeast China's Dalian City says after the plastination, the whale can be kept for at least 100 years. The museum completed the world's first finback whale plastination in 2009. The process took almost two years, and the seven-meter specimen is now housed in the museum. Whale preservation is a seriously disgusting task. A dead whale accumulates a lot of gas, and improper treatment could cause an explosion. This is NEWS Plus Special English. （全文见周日微信。）

Lisa Curtis, Founder & CEO of KuliKuli, discusses her mission driven business that sells moringa-based nutritional bars while paying fair wages to women in West Africa who grow itTRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Method to the madness is next. Speaker 2:You're listening to method to the madness. Eight Biweekly Public Affairs show on k a l x celebrating bay area innovators. I'm Lisa Kiefer and today I'm interviewing Lisa Curtis, the founder of the mission driven company, Cooley Cooley, that uses the nutritious leaves of the Maringa [00:00:30] tree to solve malnutrition and poverty in developing countries. They support the farmers who grow it and put the leaves in their nutritious health health-wise. Speaker 3:[inaudible] okay. Speaker 4:[00:01:00] Welcome to the program. Lisa Curtis. Yeah. So you are the founder and CEO of Kuli. Kuli. What does that mean? What's Cooley? Cooley? So we are creating an international market for Maringa in order to prove that, improve the health and livelihoods of women in west Africa. What is Maringa? I don't know. I've never heard of it. Yeah. Most people haven't. Uh, we're the first company to introduce it as a food product, um, to the u s [00:01:30] so it's one of the most nutritious plants in the world. It's actually a tree and we harvest the leaves and the leaves are even more nutritious than Kale. Um, they're kind of like a multivitamin. You're getting a lot of your calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, and potassium as well. So there's a lot of health bars out there. How is yours different from, you know, all the other ones that are on the shelf? Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a great question. So we are the only natural bar where you're getting a quarter of your calcium, iron and vitamin a for the day. Um, so all [00:02:00] of our bars have less than six ingredients are all natural and they make you feel really good. So what are the ingredients? And so in our Black Cherry Flavor, you've got cherries, dates, almonds, Maringa, and a little bit of a Gavi and the chocolate when you've got similar, except you add chocolate. Um, and then our crunchy, oh man, you just have four ingredients, dates, almonds, marine guy, and a little bit of a Garvey. So is it Moringa Allah, Farrah? Is that the name of the tree [00:02:30] or full name? Why don't we know about this here? That's a good question. Um, I mean, it is eaten all across, all across the tropical belt. So you find it everywhere from Africa to India to Haiti. Speaker 4:Um, but it doesn't grow very well in the United States. Um, and so most people just haven't, haven't come across it, but we're hoping that same way, you know, nobody really knew about keenwah or Chia seeds a few years ago [00:03:00] that we can help introduce Moringa. Well, how did you even come across this? Tell me a little bit about your story. Yeah. So I first started working with Maringa as a Peace Corps volunteer in Asia or West Africa. What year was that? Um, that was in 2010 and I had been in my village a few months and wasn't getting a lot of nutrients in my diet. So I was actually starting to feel a little malnourished myself. I was feeling really weak and really tired and just didn't have a lot of energy. Um, and so someone [00:03:30] in my village told me about Maringa and said, you know, this is incredibly nutritious. You have to eat it. Speaker 4:So I started eating it and did some more research and I was like, wow, this, this plant is amazing. Everybody should know about this. You started feeling better. Pretty much immediately I started feeling better, um, and started working with some women in my village to plan a whole way to get more marine there. Um, and to encourage them to really process it in a way that preserves the nutrients. So instead of taking the leaves [00:04:00] and boiling them for hours, actually powdering them and then adding that powder to their sauces or students do know how to do that well. So, uh, peace corps has been doing a big push around Miranda. So Peace Corps are a bunch of different NGOs. Um, even the governments of Senegal in Malawi have been really pushing Maringa as natural nutrition for the tropics. And this was going on when you were there for other reasons. [inaudible] Speaker 4:the Peace Corps. [00:04:30] I was a community development volunteer, so actually a lot of what I did was work in the health center. And that's how you heard about all of this. What country were you in? So I was in any share in west Africa. Um, and then actually, so I was start had just started all of these Maringa projects when there was a terrorist attack. Um, so there were two, two people who, um, two French men who got killed and in the capital city right across [00:05:00] the street from the Peace Corps office, all these people, no, I didn't know them, but it was a little terrifying. It was a bar that a lot of peace corps volunteers went to. So they evacuated us out of the country. We in like, you know, two days and we were, we were gone, um, and took us to Morocco and we basically had the option of going back and waiting for months and going on somewhere new or just any nurse service there. Speaker 4:Um, and I loved my [00:05:30] village and I didn't really want to go somewhere new, so I ended my service and actually went to India and started working with us social enterprise incubator. Um, and that was where I really started to think more about social enterprise and you know, kind of asking myself the question like, why isn't anybody doing some of this innovative work with nutrition? Like we've been shipping American corn over to Africa for the 50 years and it hasn't actually [00:06:00] really helped anyone. I'm like, we have this terrible history of just dumping stuff there and nobody knows what to do with it. Yeah, exactly. And training or came up with the idea, well maybe I can do something with Maringa and you know, maybe use that as a tool to help improve nutrition and livelihoods over there. So how long did it take you to research and figure this all out and what you needed to do it? Speaker 4:It's been a, it's been quite a process. So I, you know, I got back to the U S in, [00:06:30] uh, summer of 2011 and started kind of thinking about it then and then found one of my best friends since I was little, has been doing consumer packaged good consulting and taking basically, you know, general mills will come to them with the idea of we want to do a breakfast shake and then they'll formulate a product, take it through all the consumer testing and then actually take it to market. Um, and so she was like, well, we can do it. Like, let's, you know, let's start. So we started just testing [00:07:00] and farmer's markets, seeing what different levels of Maringa people liked. Um, you know, what different ingredients in a bar people liked. Um, and then last June we did a big crowdfunding campaign and raise 53,000 to do our first manufacturing run. Speaker 4:Kickstarter, Indiegogo. Okay. And how long did it take you to raise that money? While we raised 25,000 in a day. Oh my goodness. How did you market through your, um, it, it went viral. It was amazing. [00:07:30] Um, so, you know, obviously we all hit up all of our friends and family, but then had a lot of people who then sent it on to their friends who sent it onto their friends. I had this one email from my friend's mom's friend who had donated to our campaign and just said, you know, I love what you guys are doing. It actually made me cry watching your video and keep it a video. Made it that real video that, yeah, that really told the story. So I'm moving about the video. Tell me about that. When did [00:08:00] you make that video? We made the video, um, in May. Okay. Speaker 4:Yeah, I think it was moving because it was, it was a very personal story. I mean it was, it was Kinda me saying, I went to the BS score and I started working with this plan and it's amazing. And I, you talked about your own malnutrition. Yeah. Talked about that and talks about how this, this is one of the most nutritious plants in the world and grows naturally in a lot of countries that suffer from malnutrition, but it's being really under utilized and we have an opportunity [00:08:30] to get more people to grow it and use it, um, and do it in a way that is sustainable. So how are you doing that? I want to get deeper into that because so many times, you know, we take a product and we end up getting all of the product in the developing world and it doesn't leave anything for the people back there. Speaker 4:How are you managing that process? No, that's a great question. And one of the things we've been really careful to do is to grow more Meringa than we're actually importing here. [00:09:00] So our main partner is this awesome nonprofit in Ghana that does a lot of nutritional education, helps women set up cooperatives who grow Maringa, um, to use it in a way that preserves the nutrients and decel it locally as well as selling it to us. We're not fair trade certified yet. We should be soon, but we are paying very fair wages and so some of these women are making up to $300 a month, which for reference as a Peace Corps volunteer, I made $75 a month and they probably did play a lot in there. [00:09:30] Yeah, quite a bit. Is that nonprofit checking to make sure that the practices are clean and organic or you know, whatever. Speaker 4:Yeah. So we're working on organic certification and fair trade certification. Um, and so that, you know, it all is very fair trade in organic right now. But with the certification we can prove that to everyone. So it should have that pretty sound. How did you get such an astounding board or advisory board? I'm looking at some of these people that [00:10:00] knew me t and you know, some really great entrepreneurs. So how did you get there? Amazing. Um, I don't know. We've had an incredible, did they come to you or what happened? So, I mean, they've all come in different forms, but I think just people have kind of heard this story and then, you know, I've sat down and talked to them and they've been willing to help us. We've gotten an incredible amount of support from all different places because it's such [00:10:30] a big problem of being able to actually help those communities rather than just taking. Speaker 4:So tell me about yourself. You, where did you grow up and how did you get from a to B? How did you get from wherever you grew up to peace corps work? Not a very linear path. Um, I grew up in Alameda and actually almost went to UC Berkeley, but decided when my dad said that we could do lunch every Friday and [00:11:00] I could, you know, live at home if I wanted. I was like, oh no, I got to get farther away. So I went to Whitman College in Washington state and did a lot of environmental community organizing work. I actually worked with the United Nations Environment Program for a while, so I got to go to these big UN conferences and worked a lot on climate change and how do we mitigate that? And one of the things that you know, at, at a lot of these conferences, they're really frustrating. Speaker 4:But it was also really interesting to see the [00:11:30] perspective of India, China, Brazil, the, you know, the so called brick, um, of them being like, well, you know, you guys have been doing this polluting everything for the past hundred or more years and now we're trying to pull a billion, 2 billion people out of poverty. So why do we have to cut back when you've been doing this for so long? Um, and so that, that kind of really sparked my interest in international development and seeing [00:12:00] that as like sustainable development is the way forward and the only way that we can continue to live on, cause you're not planning, you're not going to stop development then. I don't think that we should. I mean I don't, I don't think it's fair. Yeah. So I spent a summer in Kenya. I'm working with a nonprofit there and actually helped us start a biodigester project. Speaker 4:So using cow dung, um, instead of rain forest trees for fuel. And yeah, I also [00:12:30] worked in the White House for a summer. You did for Obama? For Obama. What did you do there? Um, I was in the political affairs office, so I was writing political briefings for the president, vice president and first lady. Um, yeah, I actually meant to be pretty interesting. It was pretty interesting. It was pretty high pressure. I actually messed up on one. So Arlen Specter, um, it was a senator from Pennsylvania and changed his, changed from Democrat to Republican a couple of times and I put that he was Democrat [00:13:00] when he was Republican on one of the briefings and Joe Biden caught it. That was, but he was really nice. But yeah, that was sort of funny. So how long did that last? That intern, that was this an internship for a summer and then, yeah, just kind of, you know, I, I'm always, I've always been interested in politics but I think especially seeing the polarization of congress right now, I was like, I don't, I don't want to do this. Speaker 4:I would, I would rather go back and kind of do [00:13:30] some of the international development stuff. So applied for the Peace Corps and then right after graduation I went straight over to here. Okay. Did you get to travel much when you were over there to other places? You were just really, yeah, I traveled a bit when I was in India. I want to talk more about this process. Um, you've got back home and you, where did you come up with the recipe for these [inaudible] glue bars, by the way? Oh yeah. Think I'm going to taste it right now cause I haven't had lunch but, hmm. Wow. [00:14:00] This is a chocolate one. It's really moist. How'd you come up with the recipe? Um, so Valerie actually did one of my co founders. Oh, she the one you talked about earlier that she's the one was real consumer packaged good experience. Speaker 4:We kinda did it together a lot in our kitchen, just like mixing in different things and then testing it out on friends and family and then testing it out at the farmer's market. So local farmer around here? Yeah, in Oakland. And then how long was that process of the testing of the recipe? A year. [00:14:30] I mean we were all working other jobs and jobs and this was kind of a side project for awhile and at the same time as we were testing things here, like we were also developing relationships with different organizations in west Africa and sourcing Maringa and trying to kind of get that supply chain set up. Are you actually flying over there frequently to work with those people or do you have someone on the ground that you trust? I'm enough. I'm not going there as much as I would like. Um, and it's pretty pricey. Speaker 4:[00:15:00] I'm hopefully going there in the spring. So you just do it via the computer or, yeah, we have a call with them every other week. And just kind of talk through what's going on and then, you know, email communication. They must love you guys. They're really excited about us. I just saw that you got picked up by whole foods. Yeah. It was just right after your Kickstarter. Yes. Made it. Yes. So we whole foods was the first retailer to pick us up. They actually picked us up before we had a manufactured product. And so you mean while you were in the campaign mode [00:15:30] itself? Yeah, so they were, they've been awesome. So they started us in 10 stores and then they've just pushed us out. Starting next month we'll be in 20 more. Speaker 2:If you're just tuning in, you're listening to method to the madness. I Buy Biweekly Program on k a l ex celebrating bay area innovators. Today I'm talking with Lisa Curtis, founder and CEO of Cooley Cooley, introducing super [00:16:00] food bars made from marine gully [inaudible]. What does that mean to you? Like what are the challenges now, now that Speaker 4:you're actually getting popular? Yeah, it's, well, it's a good, good challenges. I mean, one of the things is just managing, managing our sales team. Like a lot of, you know, a lot of what we do is kind of educating people about Maringa, getting them to try the product [00:16:30] and then buy it. Um, so a lot of in store sampling demos and then on the west Africa side, like they've, they're definitely able to scale up with us at least for the next year. We think they've, there's enough marina, they're growing. And uh, one of the cool things about marina is you can plant it and harvest it within three months. Um, so it does it ready to go and doesn't take very long to get to the short cycle. Yeah. Very good. Right. So would you consider, are there other farms going in over there [00:17:00] of Maringa trees or, yeah, so that's what's over here with about 500 women and a few different women's cooperatives. Speaker 4:Um, and they're all growing Maringa and then, um, kind of taking it to a central spot and powdering it and then sending the powder leaves to us. Okay. And this is just niche air. God actually is our main spot. We're also working a bit in Asia. These years has been harder to export from New Jersey, so it's north of Nigeria. It's a landlocked desert. Um, [00:17:30] and so we, you know, I've been in touch with some of the women's cooperatives there and we've gotten some Maringa from them but had a little bit of a hard time getting out of the country. So is it just one, what other countries are you looking at for export later as you grow or are you yeah, so we are, um, so Ghana and you share Tanzania and Nigeria are the four countries that we all have that we've developed relationships with some cooperatives. Speaker 4:It also grows in other tropical areas like so [00:18:00] India, right? Yeah, so definitely India. Um, they actually don't use the leaves as much, but they do use the seed pods. Oh, they do. So they've been using it for some time. I mean, is this an old, it's in our vedic medicine. I mean the ancient Greeks and Romans used to eat Moringa. It's, it's very well known. And each day it was called today. Yeah. When the, how do they use the pods? What are they? You're putting it in nutritional bars. How are they eating it? So the, so the pods are kind of these long [00:18:30] string bean looking things and they actually put them in soups a lot. Oh, for flavoring. Yeah. And then the Philippines, they make Maringa Pesto, which we're hoping will be one of our products down the line. That's awesome. That's really great. Speaker 4:Super Food Pesto. Has there been an interest on the part of like the Nestle's of the world, these big corporations in Moringa and if or not, and why not? Why wouldn't they want to do something good like that? So generally what we've seen [00:19:00] with bigger companies like general mills and Nestle is that they're, they're not usually the ones to bring something totally new to market cause it costs them a lot in r and d to develop a product to get through their whole process and bring it. Um, and so then they won't do anything with Maringa until you've proven it. And then often what they would do is try to acquire us instead of compete or it can be, yeah. You sound like you have this [00:19:30] philosophy around sustainability, right? So were your parents enlightened about sustainability? Did you grow up in that atmosphere or just living in the bay area? Speaker 4:Did you pick up on this or did you absolutely pick it up when you were in college? Yeah, it's hard to kind of pinpoint men. My parents are pretty eco minded. You know, warehouse is always cold because nobody turns on the heat and it's true all around the bay area. Yeah. Yeah. High School, I have this distinct memory of [00:20:00] my high school Bentley didn't have a recycling program, which was like very frustrating to me as this eco kid. And my mom was like, well if you're, you know, if you don't like it, why don't you just do something about it. And so started this whole cans for habitat recycling program there. That was kind of my first taste of activism of, you know, they don't like it, fix it, and I'll do something about it. So I looked at your website and it's really nice. Speaker 4:It's really well done. Who did your website? Um, so one of my co founders, so there are four of us that [00:20:30] all are founders of Cooley Cooley. One of them is a software engineer and one's a graphic designer. So they did our website and we do sell quite a bit online. What is the website, by the way, if, if some of our listeners want to know more about you and your product, where would you send them? Ww Dot Cooley Cooley bar.com. And how do you spell that? K. U L I. K U L I v a r.com. All one word. I think you [00:21:00] told me earlier. But tell me again, what does was Cooley Cooley mean? Yeah, so it's a word in Hausa. It's actually this, what does the house as a tribe, right? Yeah. Houses a tribe. It's the, and it's also a language. It's the second most widely spoken African language after Swahili. Speaker 4:So, so Haley's east Africa, how says West Africa? Um, and Cooley who is actually this peanut paste that in Asia is often mixed with Maringa to make this really delicious snack. That's how I first started [00:21:30] eating marina. I was in these, these coolie Khalif snacks and that was kind of the inspiration for our cool. Equally. Cards have nuts in them as well. Yeah, they do not tasty. I'll tell you, I'm going to have another bite because it really is good. It's not dry. Yeah, there's not gy they're really delicious. So are you gonna what are you gonna be doing next? So we've got a whole sketched out a whole pipeline of products. I think next we will probably be looking to stay in the snack category. So [00:22:00] something like, you know, sort of Maringa fruit leather strips, doing maybe some savory snacks. Um, and then at some point we would love to do a Maringa bread fridge, like a Maringa energy drink. Speaker 4:Yeah, makes sense. And so would use the same manufacturing people to do your manufacturing for all these other coming products? Yeah, different factory. You'd have a different co-packer cause our co-packer just as bars all we'd have to find somebody else who can do something [00:22:30] different. And how did you find the manufacturing people talk to a bunch of them. So you went out and met with people? Well mostly via phone. Um, but like interviewed six of them. Um, and these guys were the best. I mean they, how did you even know how to do that? Google's amazing. I found most of them online. So you learned a lot of this on your own? Yeah, the whole business process. Oh yeah. It's been a really big [00:23:00] learning curve. We are, I mean, like you pointed out earlier, we have some amazing advisors and so, you know, we recognized pretty early on that we are a young team, but our advisory board has been helping us a ton. Speaker 4:So one of my philosophies is that the only failure in life is the failure to try. Um, and I think lots of people are afraid to start something or really, you know, throw themselves into their idea or their business or organization because of [00:23:30] a fear of failure. But you know, when you, when you really think about it and kind of write down like, okay, what's the worst thing that can happen? Um, it's not all that bad to fail. It's not bad. But I think, you know, sometimes people ask me like, you know, why are you doing this? This is so risky. It's like, well, I think if I didn't do it, I would regret that I never tried. Even if this totally fails, I will have learned so much and [00:24:00] have at least I, at least I tried, you know, at least I did something. Speaker 4:I try to keep that philosophy because so many people are afraid of just stepping out and good enough. All right. [inaudible] gonna land. Yeah. You know, we've, we've had kind of countless failures along the way just in, in doing something new, you're going to fall down sometimes, but you just got to get back up and correct it and move on. Yeah. Do you have any stories? I've, well, I've got one that I just think [00:24:30] proves that nature is the most hospitable country in the world. So I was walking down the street and you know, streets in my village for basically like mud paths full of like, there was cow dung, there was all sorts of stuff on in the street. And I had these little flip flops and I was going down and like, you know, maybe 10 or 15 minutes away from my house and my flip flop broke, the strap [00:25:00] came out and I was just like, ah. So frustrated. Didn't want to walk through all of the like mud and poop and everything. And this guy on the street who I'd never met in my life, takes his shoes off his feet, hands them to me and says, oh, well, you know, why don't you walk back to your house, get another pair. And then I'll just wait here. Speaker 4:I don't think that would happen anywhere else in the world. Did he speak to you in English or else your multi-lingual? How many languages tell me the languages. [00:25:30] Um, so I'm pretty decent in Spanish, French and Hausa and English. Did you know how so before you landed over there? No. Peace Corps taught us. Yeah. Peace Corps has an amazing language training program. So we picked it up really fast. So you're, you became fast friends with this guy that gave you the shoes. I bet. Yeah. I was just blown away. It was so great. What was the hardest part of getting this whole thing off the ground? [00:26:00] You had your Indiegogo campaign going out and seeking advisors. What part was the hardest thing of all? I think the hardest part was actually just starting, cause we spent a lot of time talking about it and like, you know, emailing different people and meeting with people to just kinda run the idea by them and spent way too long, like six months or something. Speaker 4:Just like just talking about the idea. [00:26:30] Um, and then finally we were like, you know, let's just, let's just try it. Let's just give it a go. Um, and get out there. And so what was the absolute first spark thing that you did? Um, so the first thing just, you know, making stuff in our home kitchen. Um, but then, you know, we, we actually got a commercial kitchen. I was amazed at what it takes to sell food in California. Does it take, tell me a lot. So it's a, it's a [00:27:00] good amount of money. He was like over $1,000, um, for all the permits and licenses. Um, and then, you know, we had to get food safety certified. So we had a food safety certification, we had a seller's permit, we had a business license, we had a manufacturing license and we had a health permit. Speaker 4:Um, and so each of those took months to get, just to have it at the farmer's market, just to sell at the farmer's market. It was an amazing hurdle [00:27:30] just to get there. And then once we were there, it was, you know, one of the big things that kept going through my mind is like, how do people make money doing this? Because you know, you, you, you pay like 50 bucks to every market that you do to the people running the market. Um, and then there's all the costs of goods that you're selling. And then, you know, we didn't pay ourselves, but if we had, there would have been nothing left over. So it was, when is the point [00:28:00] where you start making money? Well, food unfortunately isn't going economies of scale business cause you know in the u s we don't like to pay a lot of money for our food products. Speaker 4:What we've come to the conclusion is that we just have to grow pretty quickly and have to, you know, sell a lot of places. And once you have those economies of scale and manufacturing efficiencies, then it, it starts to get a lot of critical mass happens. Right? Yeah. Well this is just [00:28:30] a really cool story and I really liked the taste of your nutrition bars. Oh good. What could find them at whole foods? So squibble oh Berkeley bowls are helpful as well. Yeah. Oh that's good. And draggers and soon to be Molly stones. Okay, well if you don't see us, you should ask for us. And so what happens when I asked for it, they often make a note and a lot of these folks, a lot of these stories we've reached out to, but we want that when people ask for it, [00:29:00] then that shows the store that there is demand. So they're much more likely to actually put it on the shelf. Okay, good to know. Well, thank you for being on the program and wish you a lot of luck and Speaker 2:I'm so excited to finish this bar. It's so tasty. That was Lisa Curtis, the founder and CEO of Cooley Cooley. If you have any questions or comments about the show, find us on the k a l x website and drop us an email. Speaker 5:[00:29:30] [inaudible] [inaudible] Speaker 3:tune in again in two weeks at the same time. Have a great weekend. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.