Sustainability / Green design

belated? pre-mature, redumbdant? SEE STABILITY ~ CHAOS

added b/c it's a dirty/ fighting word to nat ass scholars

NO MERRI

Vaden cuts usda research 2026

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mta endorse

Sustainable Economies Law Center

Sustainable Living Systems

Transition Sarasota

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see urban plan 15 min city agenda 21 reboot

aha wow all with names 1/18 are bogus/front/crypto?!

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https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/right-wing-media-use-misinformation-around-15-minute-cities-pivot-toward-climate

mma 4 23

Misinformation surrounding a plan to reduce traffic in the city of Oxford, England, is the latest example of how three years after the onset of COVID-19, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers have seamlessly transitioned into climate change denial, and how this message is proliferating not just in Europe, but now in the U.S. as well.

The Oxford plan, which aims to cut down on daytime traffic and greenhouse gas emissions from cars, has been conflated with a broader “15-minute city” urban planning concept, which calls for communities where necessities are within walking/biking distance. The plan recently made headlines when right-wing media influencers presented it as one component of the sprawling “Great Reset” conspiracy theory, saying its goal is to lock down residents and essentially turn cities into open-air prisons. Backlash, led in part by climate change denier Jordan Peterson, was so severe that academics and politicians who support the plan or the related idea of a 15-minute city got death threats.

What is a 15-minute city?

In a nutshell, the concept of the 15-minute city is that life’s necessities such as schools and grocery stores should be just a short walk or bike ride away. According to Carlos Moreno, an urban planning professor who helped lay out the plan in Paris, cities should be “designed so that we can live, work and thrive in them without having to constantly commute elsewhere.” The goal is to foster healthier habits and stronger social relationships between neighbors by prioritizing green space, accessibility, and safety for human bodies, bikes, and public transportation, rather than cars.

The City of Oxford is implementing a separate strategy, Local Plan 2040, to help achieve these goals. But that’s not what has drawn so much attention in the media.

The traffic plan approved by the Oxford County Council which triggered backlash is meant to reduce commuting time and greenhouse gas emissions from excess traffic. According to a fact check from the Associated Press: “Oxfordshire has approved a plan to put ‘traffic filters’ on some main roads, restricting drivers’ access during daytime hours and freeing up space for buses, cyclists and pedestrians. But car owners can apply for daylong permits to bypass the new rules, and many other vehicles are exempt. All parts of the county will remain accessible by car, officials said.”

Right-wing opposition to the 15-minute city has been firmly rooted in COVID conspiracy theories

Despite what is actually happening in Oxford, right-wing influencers have painted the plan as a thin veneer for controlling every aspect of residents’ movement with the goal of preventing them from owning cars or leaving town at all. According to DeSmog, in 2022 in England, COVID-19 conspiracy theorist David Fleming, along with figures tied to climate denial think tank Global Warming Policy Foundation, created a group to oppose the plan and spread false claims via leaflets to Oxford residents. One founding signatory was Del Bigtree, a U.S. filmmaker and founder of the Informed Consent Action Network, an anti-vaccine group.

The seeds for the conspiracy theory to take root in the U.S. were planted back in April 2020. Frequent Fox News guest and climate change denierSteve Milloy warned of an impending “climate lockdown”and the idea proliferated, with figures like Laura Ingraham and Alex Jones claiming in 2021 that COVID-19 lockdowns were conditioning the public for even more stringent mandates in the name of climate change.

15-minute city fearmongering comes to the US

The ideas driving the 15-minute city are not new. New urbanism and public transit enthusiasts have been gaining traction on social media as Gen Zers and millennials lament their childhood confinement to suburbs that felt unnavigable and isolating. For years, but especially post-pandemic, cities across the globe have prioritized walkability and mixed-use development.

Right-wing media are working hard to maintain the status quo in part through elaborate conspiracy theories about 15-minute cities or anything seemingly related. Right-wing media figures including Australian anti-lockdown campaigner Bernie Spofforth, Turning Point USA contributor Drew Hernandez, and Swedish climate change denier Peter Imanuelsen have insisted they are being spearheaded by The World Economic Forum. In truth, the WEF has mixed things to say about the concept.

Right-wing culture warrior James Lindsay, said in a March 7 segment on One America News’ Morning News with Stephanie Myers that 15-minute cities are a means of “more social control.” He went on to say that they would lead to “new kinds of car non-ownership subscription borrowed models, kind of like Uber, but with no owner. All these things going, so that you don't have freedom of movement” before falsely claiming that in Oxford, “you can only leave your zone so many days a year” and “absolutely no vehicle that emits any kind of ah, you know, I guess CO2 or whatever was allowed to drive during certain hours.”

In the same segment, host Stephanie Myers again suggested that residents of 15-minute cities would be allocated 100 passes per year permitting them to leave their designated zones. In reality, Oxford drivers will always be able to get wherever they want using alternate routes, as only some roads will have traffic filters. Both Myers and Lindsay are misleadingly referencing the fact that local residents will have to apply for 100 day-long permits per year, where they can use any road at any time of the day free of charge.

On an April 6 segment of OAN’s Tipping Point with Kara McKinney, Jeffrey Tucker, former editorial director for the Koch-funded Foundation for Economic Education, blamed Dr. Anthony Fauci for 15-minute cities. Tucker said Fauci, who served as chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and was a lead member of the White House COVID-19 Task Force under Trump, wanted people “imprisoned in our local communities and condemned to forage and eat bugs” and that he and the ruling oligarchy would insist on “no football games, no concerts, no amusement parks, certainly no church. They want us doomed to a kind of a pre-medieval existence with them in charge.”

In the interview, Tucker also used the familiar trope of Democrats supposedly being soft on crime, but he claimed it was intentional. “They really want to dismantle our cities. There’s no better way to do that than through crime,” he said. And the fact that cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco are “collapsing in a miasma of blood and weed” would supposedly give them an excuse, he said.

Climate change denier Marc Morano spoke about 15-minute cities on an April 10 segment of OAN’s In Focus. Morano told OAN contributor Alison Steinberg that 15-minute cities are “conjuring up a little place called … East Germany, where you literally had to apply to the government in order to go from place to place. … All of this again is so that we will stay at home. That's actually the goal. They loved COVID lockdowns.” Steinberg asked of “radical leftists”: “Do you think they really realize — hey, you're not going to be able to drive to go get your little soy crackers that you like eating every night while you’re watching and playing your video games?”

In an April 11 segment of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle,Laura Ingraham spoke with U.K. professor Norman Fenton, who claimed 15-minute cities are “absolutely catastrophic” and that “the idea is essentially to stop you — yeah, it’s to stop you going out of the zone, stop you traveling wherever you want. … But in practice, people will have to go out of the zone to get to work, to take their kids to school and stuff like that.”

Fenton is a memberof HART (Health Advisory and Recovery Team), described by The Daily Dot as “a group of prominent proponents of an anti-vaccination, anti-lockdown, anti-mask strategy.” He has inaccurately suggested that the spike in second-wave COVID-19 deaths in 2021 may have been caused by vaccines.

Before turning his attention to 15-minute cities, Fenton also railed against the UK government's net-zero emissions target, misleadingly conflating it with a report on absolute zero emissions, which is not a current policy goal. He suggests that the government might prohibit airplane travel and shipping in the U.K. by 2050. This is not happening.

Online, one American anti-vaccine group seems particularly concerned about Oxford. Children’s Health Defense, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vax group, promoted a video of a young girl making a speech at a protest in Oxford calling 15-minute cities a “dystopian reality” on Telegram and on Twitter. One article on the group’s news site gives credence to the idea that 15-minute cities could in fact lead to “climate lockdowns.” The group also promoted a February protest against 15-minute cities in Oxford. Kennedy recently announced his bid for the presidency.

Infowars promoted a video that compares a hen house to a 15-minute city because “it’s a spot-on illustration of how they view the people as vassals, or serfs – who only exist to produce eggs to be harvested.” The Telegram channel for the anti-vax group The Truth About Cancer wrote that 15-minute cities are proof that “we are under attack” from the “globalist ghouls.”

For online conspiracy theory networks, anti-15-minute city propaganda has been a gateway to climate change denial

On social media, an infamous COVID-19 conspiracy theory network has also signaled a shift to climate change denial, with the 15-minute city as a catalyst.

A channel that has been promoted by White Rose, an international disinformation group that operates on a network of Telegram channels, is among those promoting conspiracy theories about the 15-minute city, in addition to climate change denial.

The channel, Wide Awake Media, has 26k subscribers on its Telegram channel and has recently been gaining traction on Twitter. It has occasionally featured posts about climate change but started posting more often on the topic in January 2023 when the topic of 15-minute cities was becoming popular in right-wing media. This topic has provoked violent responses suggesting that leaders who support green policies should be killed.

On March 31, Wide Awake noted on both Twitter and Telegram that it had turned its attention to climate change, calling it a scam and comparing it to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[twit]

members of White Rose, which made headlines for distributing anti-vax stickers, posters, and leaflets, have also discussed the group’s shift to 15-minute cities. The group has repeatedly promoted Wide Awake, which primarily sells merchandise promoting conspiracy theories, in its channel.

The continued popularity of 15-minute city conspiracy theories proves that climate change denial is the perfect place for anti-vax and anti-mask enthusiasm to thrive as COVID-19 becomes less prominent in the news cycle but their need to prove they are “wide awake” persists. We have also seen that it can be easily adapted for U.S. audiences with their specific villains, such as Fauci, and framed as an affront to American values, such as our obsession with cars.

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4 23 rww

a so-called “15-minute city” is a concept in urban planning that seeks to create urban areas in which the daily necessities of life—education, work, shopping, health care, leisure—are accessible via a 15-minute walk or bike ride from any point within the city. The 15-minute city concept is also a target for conspiracy theorists, so naturally former Rep. Michele Bachmann has gone all in on spreading baseless conspiracies about the idea.

On Wednesday night, Bachmann, who now serves as dean of the School of Government at Pat Robertson’s Regent University,appeared on a World Prayer Network livestream, where she baselessly claimed that 15-minute cities are really an “electronic leash” designed to prevent anyone from traveling more than 15 minutes away from their homes.

“The 15-minute city is a planned city, a planned community:{ where people are allowed to travel by foot 15 minutes from their house,” Bachmann }:{. “}::{So, it’s really a leash, an electronic leash. You see where this QR code comes in on our phones; this contains people to an area that is no more than 15 minutes from home.”}:

“These are so-called smart cities where individuals will be tracked and traced and surveilled, and we can move about freely within 15 minutes from home,” she continued. “In the former Soviet Union, their people were allowed to go 50 miles from home—any further, they had to get permission of the government—so this is a move of totalitarianism, where there’s a limitation on freedom of movement. In the United States government under our Constitution, every American has the right to travel, so this is clearly an unconstitutional move." [vid]

the World Prayer Network is an outgrowth of a prayer movement that began in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, when religious-right activists began to gather together several times a week to pray for God to intervene and overturn the results. Founded by right-wing activists Jim Garlow and Mario Bramnick, the World Prayer Network livestreams have since become a conduit for the promotion of wild conspiracy theories, many of them spread by Bachmann, who is a regular participant.

Tags: Michele Bachmann World Prayer Network

Julia Watson

Design by Radical Indigenism

on Tuesday September 15, 02020 at 5:00pm PT

watch this talk on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Long Now Live

Long Now Talks explore compelling ideas on long-term thinking from speakers around the world.

Watch and share the live streams of our talks on YouTube, Facebook, Twitterand Long Now Live.

Responding to climate change by building hard infrastructures and favoring high-tech homogenous design, we are ignoring millennia-old knowledge of how to live in symbiosis with nature. Without implementing soft systems that use biodiversity as a building block, designs remain inherently unsustainable.

There is a cumulative body of multigenerational knowledge, practices, and beliefs designed to sustainably work with complex ecosystems. Watson's work reconnects with this sophisticated global body of knowledge.

Julia Watson teaches Urban Design at Harvard and Columbia University and is author of Lo-TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism (02019). Her work focuses on experiential, landscape, and urban design, with an ethos towards global ecological change.

Olafur Eliasson’s Vision of a Sustainable Future

The impact of Olafur Eliasson’s remarkable body of work becomes clearer as the climate crisis intensifies.

Surface Magazine

https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/new-report-details-10-critical-transitions-to-tackle-the-climate-crisis-and-feed-the-world/

The ways humanity produces and consumes food cause up to 30 percent of planet-warming emissions, generate widespread malnutrition, and perpetuate poverty and inequality—but a new report released Monday claims that 10 global transformations over the next decade could help the international community tackle the climate crisis and feed over nine billion people.

The report, *Growing Better: 10 Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use*(pdf), comes from the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), which launched in 2017 to bring together organizations representing key actors—from business and civil society leaders to scientists and policymakers—to transform global food and land use systems.

...no lnx

New report details 10 ‘critical transitions’ to tackle the climate crisis and feed the world

Jeanne Menjoulet

Written by Jessica Corbett / Common Dreams September 16, 2019

The report, Growing Better: 10 Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use (pdf), comes from the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), which launched in 2017 to bring together organizations representing key actors—from business and civil society leaders to scientists and policymakers—to transform global food and land use systems.

“The term ‘food and land use systems’ covers every factor in the ways land is used and food is produced, stored, packed, processed, traded, distributed, marketed, consumed, and disposed of,” the report explains. “It embraces the social, political, economic, and environmental systems that influence and are influenced by those activities.

Food and Land Use Coalition

@FOLUCoalition

New @FOLUCoalition report highlights the benefits of transforming global #food and #land use systems and the costs of inaction, revealing benefits that far outweigh the costs & proposes actionable solutions, many already in existence: http://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org #InAllOurHands

Embedded video

Transforming these systems “can help bring climate change under control, safeguard biological diversity, ensure healthier diets for all, drastically improve food security, and create more inclusive rural economies. And they can do that while reaping a societal return that is more than 15 times the related investment cost (estimated at less than 0.5 percent of global GDP) and creating new business opportunities worth up to $4.5 trillion a year by 2030,” says Growing Better. “Delivering such a transformation will be challenging but will ensure that food and land use systems play their part in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris agreement targets.”

The report estimates such a transformation would also save $5.7 trillion per year in damage to people and the planet by 2030. As Jeremy Oppenheim—FOLU principal and the report’s co-lead author—put it, “This is the closest to a win-win we will get, reaping huge social, economic, and environmental benefits.”

“This report proves for the first time that it is possible, indeed economically attractive, to feed nine billion people with nutritious diets within planetary boundaries and to do so in a way that is good for rural communities,” Oppenheim said in a statement.

“The only question is whether we have the political will and business leadership to take on this agenda,” he added. “We can either seize the opportunity to transform our food and land use systems or frankly, sleepwalk our way into an ecological and human disaster.”

Based on current trends, the report warns, the alternative to rapidly reforming food and land use systems is saddling humanity with “a scenario wherein climate change, sea level rise, and extreme weather events increasingly threaten human life, biodiversity and natural resources are depleted, people increasingly suffer life-threatening, diet-induced diseases, food security is compromised, and socioeconomic development is seriously impaired.”

The 10 transitions proposed in Growing Better are healthy diets, productive and regenerative agriculture, protecting and restoring nature, a healthy and productive ocean, diversifying protein supply, reducing food loss and waste, local loops and linkages, digital revolution, stronger rural livelihoods, and gender and demography. They are presented in the form of a pyramid, sorted across four themes: nutritious food, nature-based solutions, wider choice and supply, and opportunity for all. The report details essential actions for implementing each transition as well as projected financial costs and benefits by 2030.

Healthy diets is at the top of the pyramid. “Global diets need to converge towards local variations of the ‘human and planetary health diet’—a predominantly plant-based diet which includes more protective foods (fruits, vegetables, and whole grains), a diverse protein supply, and reduced consumption of sugar, salt, and highly processed foods,” Growing Better says, referencing an EAT-Lancet Commission report from January.

Growing Better also builds on recent reports from bodies of the United Nations. In May, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found that human activity has pushed a million plant and animal species to the brink of extinction and warned that “we are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health, and quality of life worldwide.”

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report in August warning that, as the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Susan Casey-Lefkowitz summarized, “the world must take immediate action to transform the way we use our land—forestry, agriculture, industrial, and urban development—in order to avoid a climate catastrophe.”

The good news, according to FOLU report lead author Per Pharo, is that “there is no system level trade-off between food production and environmental protection. Even with a growing global population we show that there is enough land to provide nutritious diets for all while at the same time protecting and restoring nature and slashing greenhouse gas emissions and delivering better, more inclusive development.”

“We can do this by halting and then reversing the destruction of forests and other natural ecosystems, protecting biodiversity, and improving freshwater and ocean health and productivity,” Pharo said. “We have found that these strong health and development gains can be achieved without further encroachment on nature, and in fact sparing 1.5 billion hectares of land which would otherwise have been used for agriculture.”

Achieving these gains for humanity and the natural world, however, requires a global shift in priorities—as illustrated by Damian Carrington reporting on FOLU’s recommendations for The Guardian, which highlighted that “the public is providing more than $1 million per minute in global farm subsidies, much of which is driving the climate crisis and destruction of wildlife.”

“There is incredibly small direct targeting of [subsidies at] positive environment outcomes, which is insane,” FOLU’s Oppenheim told Carrington. “We have got to switch these subsidies into explicitly positive measures.”

Damian Carrington

@dpcarrington

$1m a minute: the farming subsidies destroying the world

- ‘Perverse’ payments must be redirected to measures such as capturing carbon,says @FOLUCoalition report

Story by me

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/16/1m-a-minute-the-farming-subsidies-destroying-the-world?CMP=share_btn_tw …

$1m a minute: the farming subsidies destroying the world

‘Perverse’ payments must be redirected to measures such as capturing carbon, report says

theguardian.com

https://kpfa.org/episode/talkies-april-10-2019/

mapping pjt UCB

kristina sp hill resilient by design challenge WS

use sys waste prouct to make ponton 3 story bldg // Steiger Island dutch? heavy salt water will lift freshwater that will flood cities (1 mi inland?!)

affects infrastructre /adaptation

baynature.org

https://breakthroughcommunities.info/about/

https://kpfa.org/episode/talkies-november-14-2018/

transition city, solar

Co-Directors of the Breakthrough Communities Project

Carl Anthony, architect, author and urban / suburban / regional design strategist, is co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Project. He has served as Acting Director of the Community and Resource Development Unit at the Ford Foundation, responsible for the Foundation’s world wide programs in fields of Environment and Development, and Community Development. He directed the Foundation’s Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative and the Regional Equity Demonstration in the United States. Carl funded the national Conversation on Regional Equity (CORE), a dialogue of national policy analysts and advocates for new metropolitan racial justice strategies. He was Founder and, for 12 years Executive Director, of the Urban Habitat Program in the San Francisco Bay Area. With his colleague Luke Cole at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, he founded and published the Race, Poverty and the Environment Journal, the only environmental justice periodical in the United States. He has a professional degree in architecture from Columbia University. In 1996, he was appointed Fellow at the Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

rus https://vimeo.com/241052056

https://www.amazon.com/Earth-City-Hidden-Narrative-Race/dp/1613320213

The Earth, the City and the Hidden Narrative of Race – A Book by Carl ...

https://www.earthcityrace.net/

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:{A Book by :{Carl:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: C. :{Anthony:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: ... My lifetime search yielded discoveries of ways to heal the wounds of:{racism:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:, build equity, and bring people together to protect and ... front cover of The :{Earth:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:, the :{City:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: and the Hidden Narrative of :{Race:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: by :{Carl:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:.:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

Carl Anthony - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Anthony

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:{:{Carl Anthony:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: (born February 8, 1939) is an African American architect, regional planner, social .... of:{Race:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: (2017)[edit]. Anthony's memoir, The :{Earth:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:, the :{City:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:, and the Hidden Narrative of :{Race:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:, addresses regional equity and climate change.:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

Early life · ‎Urban Habitat (1989–2000) · ‎Publications

Resume….Photos

Paloma Pavel, PhD, President of Earth House Center, is co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Project and served as Director of Strategic Communications for the Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative at the Ford Foundation. Pavel’s academic background includes graduate study at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Harvard University. Her research at LSE addresses South African Economics in the pre- and post-Apartheid eras. Her dissertation (Organizational Culture and Leadership Development) was part of a five-year study by the Carnegie Foundation on the workplace in America, which culminated in the publication Good Work. She has taught at many Bay Area institutions, including the California Institute for Integral Studies, where she co-chaired the graduate degree program in Organizational Development. Pavel is a frequent lecturer and keynote presenter nationally and internationally on the theory of living systems and urban sustainability. At MIT Press, she co-edits the Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Books series with Robert Gottlieb. Dr. Pavel is editor of Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the Next American Metropolis (MIT Press, 2009).

omg

no link image

https://www.alternet.org/environment/what-trumps-withdrawal-unesco-means-environment

What Trump's Withdrawal From UNESCO Means for the Environment

President Trump continues to isolate the United States from the global community.

By Giovanni Ortolani / AlterNet December 26, 2017, 8:30 PM GMT

The Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary in the Philippines is a World Heritage Site that supports threatened and endemic flora and fauna.

Photo Credit: Roy F. Ponce/UNESCO

The U.S. is quitting UNESCO, the United Nations organization that coordinates international efforts to foster peace and sustainable development and to eradicate poverty. The Trump administration made the announcement October 12. The withdrawal takes effect Dec. 31, 2018.

"This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO," said Heather Nauert, a U.S. State Department spokesperson in a press statement.

The U.S. says it will seek to stay engaged with the organization as a non-member observer state in order to "contribute U.S. views, perspectives and expertise on some of the important issues undertaken by the organization," including the protection of World Heritage Sites and the promotion of scientific collaboration.

Saint Mary Lake and Wildgoose Island, Glacier National Park, a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site. (Photo courtesy of U.S. National Park Service)

Trump isn’t the first U.S. president to have antagonism toward the organization. Although America has played an important role in UNESCO since its creation after World War II, Trump's predecessors have been quarreling with it since the 1970s.

"We were in arrears to the tune of $550 million or so, and so the question is, do we want to pay that money?" Nauert said at a news briefing, making clear that "with this anti-Israel bias that’s long documented on the part of UNESCO, that [U.S. relationship] needs to come to an end."

But what does the Trump administration’s withdrawal mean for UNESCO environmental programs worldwide? And will the loss of U.S. money matter?

UNESCO declares 2015 the International Year of Light at the Paris Climate Summit. President Trump’s announcement that the U.S. is withdrawing from the world scientific body has spurred concern at the harm the decision will do to the planet. (Photo by Athalfred DKL on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-ND)

UNESCO environmental and science programs

The U.N. Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization was founded in 1945, and is a catalyst for far-reaching and important environmental and sustainable development initiatives. Today it’s the only UN organization with a clear science mandate, and it works on a broad scope of environmental issues, directing projects from a scientific, cultural, social and educational perspective.

UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector, headquartered in Paris, has a staff of 120, with 54 field offices around the world, and hosts major international programs in the freshwater, ecological, earth and basic sciences. Its activities deal with the ecological sciences (Man and the Biosphere Program and World Network of Biosphere Reserves), water security (International Hydrological Program and World Water Assessment Program), and earth sciences (International Geoparks and Geoscience Program, and disaster risk reduction).

Man and the Biosphere is one of UNESCO’s best-known programs, with its World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Launched in 1971, MAB seeks to improve relationships between people and their environments by protecting areas nominated by national governments. MAB reserves remain under sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they’re located, but enjoy international recognition.

"Biosphere Reserves are learning places for sustainable development whose aim is to reconcile biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources," read a recent UNESCO press statement when it added 23 new sites to WNBR. The Trump Administration is voluntarily withdrawing 17 sites from the program. However, withdrawal isn’t unusual and other countries including the U.K., Austria, Australia, Norway, Bulgaria, and Sweden have withdrawn MAB sites in the past. Among those being withdrawn by the U.S. currently is the Hubbard Brook, New Hampshire, U.S. Forest Service reserve, where groundbreaking forest ecosystem and climate research has been ongoing for decades.

Today WNBR encompasses 669 sites in 120 countries, including 16 transboundary biosphere reserves, covering over 680 million hectares (2.6 million square miles) of inland, coastal and marine areas, and representing all major ecosystem types and diverse development contexts. These areas are home to approximately 207 million people ranging from rural and indigenous communities to urban dwellers.

In the 1960s, UNESCO launched an international campaign to save the Abu Simbel Temple monuments in Egypt from being flooded by Lake Nasser as it backed up behind the Aswan High Dam. The project drew unprecedented international attention and praise for UNESCO’s protection of the world’s cultural heritage. (Photo on VisualHunt.com)

Water programs

The International Hydrological Program does scientific, educational and capacity building around water issues. IHP promotes an interdisciplinary, integrated approach to watershed and aquifer management, and does international research in the hydrological and freshwater sciences.

It also assists UNESCO member states in water security efforts, addressing challenges such as water-related disasters and hydrological changes, groundwater, water scarcity and quality, and ecohydrology—the study of the interrelationships between hydrological and biological processes required to enhance water security and lessen ecological threats.

The World Water Assessment Program produces an annual World Water Development Report, a coordinated effort achieved across the U.N. system and provides a clear picture of the state of the world’s freshwater resources to member nations.

Pamukkale, Turkey, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its hot springs and enormous white terraces of travertine, a carbonate mineral sediment left by flowing water. (Photo on Visualhunt.com)

Earth science programs

UNESCO's programs in earth sciences support research that informs current challenges such as evidence of global change from the geological record, geoscience of the water cycle, or environmental geodynamics.

The Environmental and Health Impacts of Mining Activities in Sub-Saharan African Countries is a good example of how valuable this knowledge can be. This program aims to understand how mining activities (particularly abandoned mines) negatively affect soils, animals, plants and fungi, surface and groundwater, and the health of neighboring communities. It also experiments with the most appropriate mining rehabilitation technologies and provides science-based data to governments and local authorities on both land-use planning and technologies to mitigate environmental disaster in contaminated regions.

UNESCO Global Geoparks are areas where landscapes and sites of international geological significance are managed via a holistic approach to protection, education and sustainable development. As of today, there are 127 Geoparks in 35 countries, ranging from Vietnam to Brazil.

The organization also supports the meaningful inclusion of local and indigenous knowledge in biodiversity conservation and management, especially climate change assessment and adaptation via the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) has its own membership and a separate chapter in the Organization’s program and budget. IOC is the only body devoted to marine science within the UN system, and the United States has been involved in it since its establishment in 1960, mainly through the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The future of that relationship is uncertain now.

The U.S. has played an important role in many IOC programs critical to ocean health and the well-being of coastal communities. For instance, the Global Tsunami Warning System that covers four major ocean basins (Pacific, Indian, Caribbean, and Mediterranean/North Eastern Atlantic), or the Harmful Algal Blooms program, which develops research and provides guidance to address “red tides” now threatening a wide range of coastal economic sectors (fishing, tourism, navigation, aquaculture).

NOAA and NASA are also pivotal to IOC’s Global Ocean Observing System: the U.S. has in particular been leading the deployment of Argo floats around the globe to enhance measurements of ocean temperature, salinity and currents. The U.S. is a key contributor to observations of sea-level rise, ocean water acidification and a number of other variables to enhance understanding and predict trends and impacts of climate change, El Niño and other ocean-related phenomena. It is uncertain precisely how that relationship will function in future.

Okavango Delta, Botswana, World Heritage Site. This permanent marshland and seasonally flooded plainisone of the world’s few major interior delta systems that do not flow into a sea. The Okavango Delta is home to some of the world’s most endangered species, including the elephant, cheetah, white rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, African wild dogandlion. (© Pete Hancock/UNESCO)

Who benefits, who is hurt?

"While the U.S. will remain engaged in many of these programs, the absence of U.S. funding makes it increasingly difficult to meet the challenges that are so vital to the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans," UNESCO spokesman George Papagiannis told Mongabay in an email, pointing out that "an ounce of investment is worth a pound of cure."

Papagiannis stressed a simple fact: UNESCO programs, and the critical environmental problems they seek to solve, do not only result in benefits to countries far from the White House, but instead greatly benefit the United States and millions of American citizens.

"A submerged lower Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy, or the blooming red tides that affect the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, are reminders that the U.S. is no safer than most countries from ocean-related hazards," he said, adding that no single country, regardless of national capacity, can tackle these cross-border issues on its own.

"Whether it is about safeguarding coastal economies and jobs, ensuring people's safety and public health, or protecting infrastructures, U.S. investments on IOC activities in ocean science and services create benefits to its citizens that far outweigh the costs," he said.

Ancient Maya city and protected tropical forests of Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico, a World Heritage Site—a valued natural and cultural landscape located in the central/southern Yucatan Peninsula. The site protects both the ancient Mayan city of Calakmul and a large section of the Mesoamerica biodiversity hotspot, which encompasses all subtropical and tropical ecosystems from central Mexico to the Panama Canal. (© Archivo/RBC-CONANP)

The IOC also provides an intergovernmental coordination platform for effective collective action, from which all member states benefit. Of course, that cooperative approach doesn’t fit in well with President Trump's "Make America Great Again," go-it-alone approach.

As an example, the UN General Assembly is discussing a proposal by IOC to declare 2021-2030 as the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development under the U.N.’s global coordination. "The U.S. government and its scientific institutions stand to benefit enormously from participating in this collective framework for coordinating and consolidating the observations and research needed to achieve the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 on the ocean," Papagiannis said, pointing out that "it will be the time to bolster innovative technologies and scientific knowledge to bring tangible wellbeing and economic benefits to U.S. citizens."

It is worth noting that much of UNESCO's work addresses the root causes of mass human migration, promoting sustainable and equitable management of national natural resources, and providing or fostering livelihoods, notably in Biosphere Reserves.

Loss of U.S. funding started in 2011

Strange as it may sound, there will be no immediate financial consequences related to the U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO because the United States has not paid its dues since 2011 during the Obama administration when the Palestinian Authority was accepted into the U.N. agency as a full member. The funding cut then was across the board, resulting in a 22 percent hit to the UNESCO budget more than $80 million per year, according to a Foreign Policy report. Since then, all parts of the organization have adapted to new financial realities.

Clearly, there have been consequences since 2011, and UNESCO has never fully recovered from the loss. The approved budget allocated to Science and the International Oceanographic Commission (IOC) for the 2010-2011 biennium was $59,074,000, while the approved expenditure plan for the current biennium (2016-2017) for Science and the IOC falls below that amount, coming in at $48,308,400.

The Isla Genovesa Booby Sanctuary, Tower Island, Galapagos World Heritage Site. (Photo by David Broad licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license)

As a result, the number of permanent science positions has decreased, while less funding has meant a sharp refocusing of the organization’s work. UNESCO’s Basic Sciences efforts were severely impacted, and the organization is no longer directly involved in earth observation and remote sensing projects, with few exceptions. That’s a serious problem when one considers the rapid natural changes underway due to climate change. Furthermore, UNESCO no longer spends regular budget on renewable energy activities, and its engineering activities have been strongly curtailed.

In addition to its assessed contribution, the U.S. used to fund projects directly, a procedure known as “extra-budgetary funding.” This means that UNESCO received money from the U.S. State Department, USAID, Department of Defense and National Science Foundation for seismicity and earthquake engineering in the Mediterranean and in Northeast Asia, and cooperation with the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. The last of the funds allocated as extra-budgetary were received in November 2011 and spent by 2014.

One discontinued project was the Open Initiative with the Space Agencies, which included NASA, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Geological Survey. This initiative used space imaging to monitor and protect World Heritage sites, and was discontinued five years ago. Interestingly that task has now been taken on by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which seems to value science more than the current U.S administration.

Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary, Philippines, World Heritage Site. This preserve showcases terrestrial and aquatic habitats at varying elevations, and includes threatened and endemic flora and fauna, eight species of which are found only at Mount Hamiguitan, including the iconic Philippine eagle and Philippine cockatoo. (© Roy F. Ponce/UNESCO)

Who is the real loser?

According to Papagiannis, "the withdrawal of the U.S. will have an impact on the United States' level of engagement in global science programs, and in the leadership of these programs."

But in statements emailed to Mongabay, a State Department official wrote “U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO does not alter U.S. policy of supporting international cooperation in educational, scientific, cultural, communication and information activities where there are benefits to the United States. By pursuing non-member observer status, it is our intention to remain participants in UNESCO programs, such as IOC, where non-member observers may have a role.”

However, the statement continues, the dimensions of this observer participation remain to be defined. Currently, the U.S. is focused on preparing its request for non-member observer status so that it may remain engaged on "non-politicized issues" undertaken by UNESCO.

"When it is in the U.S. interest," stressed the official, "the United States will continue to participate in UNESCO and UNESCO-related activities that do not require membership in the Organization."

Melinda Kimble, senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation, asserts that UNESCO's scientific and environmental programs provide core elements that support national and regional planning for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”—a commitment to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by 2030 worldwide adopted in 2015 by Heads of State and Government at a special U.N. summit.

“Clearly, an active and fully contributing U.S. could make a difference in sustaining UNESCO’s leadership in education, science and culture,” she told Mongabay.

This is not the first time the U.S. has left UNESCO. The Reagan Administration withdrew in 1984 because of concerns over many issues, ranging from Soviet Union disarmament proposals to the organization’s request for a budget increase. When the U.S. pulled out then, it was not in arrears and continued supporting UNESCO programs with voluntary financial contributions.

Karibik, St. Kitts, Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Many such sites include both natural and historical treasures. (Photo by giggel licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license)

Then after an almost 20-year absence, the U.S. rejoined the organization in 2003. President George W. Bush announced the move "as a symbol of our commitment to human dignity.… This organization has been reformed and America will participate fully in its mission to advance human rights and tolerance and learning."

As for Trump's planned withdrawal, Kimble agrees that “clearly, an active and fully contributing USA could make a difference in sustaining UNESCO's leadership in education, science and culture.” She notes that while the current pullout underscores U.S. skepticism about the U.N. system and multilateral action in many spheres, the real damage was done not by Trump but starting in 2011 with the U.S. failure to contribute financially.

“[T]he failure to pay dues has significantly undermined the capacity of the organization to deliver on its ambitious programs,” Kimble concluded.

Under the terms of the original 1945 treaty establishing the United Nations and UNESCO, the U.S. as a Member State remains obligated to paying its arrears. "But this is not just about the money," says Papagiannis. "This [withdrawal represents] a loss for multilateralism and a blow to universality, which are critical factors to addressing the issues that affect people everywhere in every country."

Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve (established 1976) is located in the southern Sierra Nevada of California, USA. (Photo by thor_mark on VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA)

In October, after receiving official notification by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova expressed profound regret at the decision.

"In 2011, when payment of membership contributions was suspended at the 36th session of the UNESCO General Conference, I said I was convinced UNESCO had never mattered as much for the United States, or the United States for UNESCO. This is all the more true today, when the rise of violent extremism and terrorism calls for new long-term responses for peace and security, to counter racism and anti-semitism, to fight ignorance and discrimination," she said in a press statement.

"I believe UNESCO’s action to enhance scientific cooperation, for ocean sustainability, is shared by the American people," she added.

As the world rushes headlong into a century of scientific uncertainty, where the climate, oceans, freshwater, ecosystems and human communities grow increasingly unstable and at risk, it remains to be seen just how long America will want to go it alone, rather than joining with the rest of the world to share in the costs and benefits of international science in order to serve the common good

https://www.alternet.org/environment/what-trumps-withdrawal-unesco-means-environment

NAS BS

3.4 billion see bak

https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/04/sustainability-trend-costs-students-money-peter-wood/

ref report

https://www.nas.org/blogs/dicta/sustainability_higher_educations_new_fundamentalism1

[pix po'd middle eastern looking guy; climate tshirt backwards]

“Sustainability” is a key idea on college campuses in the United States and the rest of the Western world. To many, sustainability is just a new name for environmentalism. But the word has come to mean something much larger: an ideology that demands new limits on economic, political, and intellectual freedom as the price that must be paid to ensure the welfare of future generations.

This report is the first in-depth critical examination of the sustainability movement in higher education. The movement, of course, extends well beyond the college campus. But the college campus is where the movement gets its voice of authority, and where it molds the views and commands the attention of young people.

Download the report (pdf): Sustainability: Higher Education':{s New Fundamentalism}: