Delegates from the world’s governments, and a range of scientists, advisers, and advocates have gathered in Doha, Qatar for the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP18) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As the conference enters its final days, they’ll be working to hammer out a deal that paves the way for a new global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

Most of negotiators at COP18 are looking at fossil fuels and energy inefficiency as the main culprits in the Earth’s warming and the cause of more frequent droughts, floods, and intensifying and unpredictable weather events (like Superstorm Sandy). Unfortunately, there’s been almost no attention to the negative effects of the industrial food system — and particularly intensive animal agriculture — on the global climate.

Talks on reaching a deal to address agriculture within the COP process broke down in Doha, with developing and industrialized countries splintered over mitigation (reducing GHGs) and adaptation (dealing with the very real negative effects of climate change on farming and food production). That’s a real shame, since the costs of continuing business as usual are staggeringly high. Read More

Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do.

Brighter Green is deeply saddened by the loss of Wangari Maathai (1940-2011), visionary founder of the Green Belt Movement; Nobel peace laureate; legendary advocate in Africa and beyond for social justice, human rights, democracy, and peace; and Brighter Green advisory board member.

Brighter Green Executive Director Mia MacDonald serves on the board of the Green Belt Movement-North America and had the honor of working with Wangari Maathai for a decade, beginning in 2001. Here is her remembrance of this extraordinary woman. Read More

Bad news for elephants from Africa: illegal killing is up and the ivory trade is increasingly being run by well-organized gangs. Seizures of illegal ivory doubled between 2008 and 2009. Key areas of elephant poaching are in west and central Africa, with Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo key sites. Thailand is a major intermediate destination for the smugglers. The final stop for most of the ivory is China. While China’s government has put in measures to stymie the operations of ivory smugglers, but the black market appears still to be flourishing. Another factor researchers note that’s fueling the ivory trail from Africa to China is the growing number of Chinese living and working in Africa. “As ever, more than any other country, China seemingly holds the key for reversing the upward trend in illicit trade in ivory,” reads a recent report.

Better news for elephants comes from India. Circuses and zoos no longer will be allowed to keep elephants. The 150 or so elephants held captive in these facilities will be transferred to sanctuaries or parks “as soon as possible.” Not all, however, will retire. Some will be assigned to wildlife patrols or to carry tourists. But at least the measure ensures equity: the few captive African elephants in India will also leave the zoos they’re in. Left unaffected, though, are the hundreds (if not more) elephants kept at temples throughout India. Many, sadly, spend most of their lives in chains, too. It’s hard to imagine that Ganesha, Hinduism’s elephant-headed god, the remover (and placer) of obstacles and the gods’ scribe, would be untroubled.

Photo: Mia MacDonald

Will world leaders agree on a plan to address global climate change? The question doesn’t yet have an answer. This week at the United Nations, Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai delivered a message to the heads of state assembled on behalf of civil society organizations across the globe. In her statement Maathai said that the realities of climate change are evident – “as erratic fires in California, devastating floods in Bangladesh, and West Africa or melting polar ice…” and called on the leaders, on behalf of their peoples, to “secure a fair, ambitious and binding deal.” Ten million people, Maathai added, are in need of food aid in Kenya, the result of intense drought and inadequate government policies. Such a situation may well signal the climate future for many countries and communities. Will the world’s leaders wake up to this in time? Will they heed the calls, and the science? Read More

The “Meat World: China” crew wrapped up the film’s three-week shoot in Guangdong province in southern China. They toured a computer parts factory and interviewed the chef in the industrial city of Dongguan, on the Pearl River. Then they travelled further north to their final stop, Guangzhou, a port in the Pearl River Delta and the provincial capital, where they had a spirited dialogue about meat and morals during an epic dinner’nearly five hours’ long, ending just before midnight. “The waitresses were very angry at us,” director Jian Yi says, “because we stayed so long and because we were so loud.” But before that dinner, a factory lunch. As the crew filmed, the chef cooked leafy greens and then meat in a set of large woks. One reason factory-style pig facilities have expanded in coastal Guangdong is to meet demand for pork from the province’s numerous factories. Each employs hundreds of workers (sometimes more) who eat lunch each day in the factory canteen. Neither the chef nor the workers Jian Yi interviewed had heard about the role of meat and dairy in global warming; the crew’s driver was perhaps the most surprised of all.
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