Beyond Recycling
Communities around the world are doing more than we know to halt the process of climate change. Many of the initiatives have been collected in the book Drawdown (reduction or decline in greenhouse gases) edited by Paul Hawken; here are some of them. What can you and your community do? There’s a great battle going on. The rise of consumerism as the great index of human progress is pitted against the planet’s natural ability to maintain balance in the face of depleting resources, not just oil and gas and minerals but loss of wildlife and biodiversity. We are in the midst of what is being called the sixth mass extinction. The previous five mass extinctions took place over millions of years: 443 million years ago: a severe ice age led to sea level falling by 100m, wiping out 60-70% of all species which were prominently ocean dwellers at the time. Then soon after the ice melted leaving the oceans starved of oxygen. 360 million years ago: a pro...