Finding a healthy and balanced lifestyle has been an ongoing process for me. What foods and practices are healthy for me and the environment? Which choices make me feel proud to say that Im doing my best?

Avoiding factory-farmed foods is a practice that I maintain for reasons, including the fact that, "Millions of animals are crowded togethercausing significant environmental threats and unacceptable health risks for workers, their neighbors and all the rest of us". 

Here are a few brief takeaways for you:

1. Sustainable Table:

"Factory farms emit harmful gases and particles such as methane and hydrogen sulfide, which can contribute to global warming and harm the health of those living or working nearby".

2. Sustainable Table:

"Air pollution results from the overuse of machinery, the mismanagement of manure, and the irresponsible feeding practices that characterize industrial farming".

3. Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production:

"Every day, doctors use antibiotics to treat thousands of sick children and adults. Humans depend on these life-saving medicines for their personal health. But did you know that as much as 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are being fed to cattle, swine, and poultry on industrial animal farms, for purposes other than treating disease?"

Maintaining a diet free from factory-farmed foods feels both healthy and intuitive to me. Many times, food that is served to us originates from practices that are not healthy or kind to any party or place involved, including the animals, those working within factories, and the surrounding soil and air.

Some healthy food for thought:

• Research where your food is grown and packaged
• The fewer ingredients, the better
• If you don’t understand an ingredient, write it down and research what it is and why it has been added to the item

 

I have been recycling for about three decades now.

Started in the '80s, back in my home country, where I was thrust in the role of organizing the recycling effort for about 200 families in my neighborhood at the start of the first national recycling campaign. It involved talking to a lot of people, handing them plastic bags of different colors and convincing them to separate their trash into paper, plastic/glass and, well, trash. The idea was good, but lacked municipal support (containers and transportation for the recyclables) and faded away after a few months.

In the '90s, when I lived in North Baltimore, I used to drive twice a month to the closest recycling center with bags, full with paper, plastic and glass. The recycling centers at the time were improvised weekend affairs on a companys parking lot, and there were only a few of them.

The last 15 years, living in NW Washington, DC, I have continued to recycle, and probably do a better job now as there are recycling bins on every floor of our building, right next to the trash chutes.

Moral of my story: recycling works better when it is organized well and easier to do. But isnt that also true of many other things? Why have I been doing it? It is not so much about "doing the right thing", I have to admit, it is more about the reluctance to throw away limited resources that can be re/used again in a variety of ways.

Recycling, for me, is part of a generally green lifestyle (a separate, much larger topic I will not indulge in in this limited space) as well as particular fondness for a green sport and recreation activity, as the attached photo reveals.

Yes, we can do our bit, make a difference, each of us in our own way, but we can do much more together with the right institutional support, with the right international frameworks in place well, I am preaching to the choir, I know, so will stop here. Keep recycling, my friends!

When I moved to the US I realized that the consumption habits related to my new household and everyday life were not the most sustainable. Air conditioning 24 hours a day, and to always use the drying machine instead of drying your clothes naturally in the sun is something unbelievable in my home country (Portugal) and not the right path if you care about your impact on the environment.

So, after this consumption shock, I realized that I had to green my routine and thats when I decided to transform the 12x5 backyard garden of my house into a vegetable garden.

Gardening and growing your own vegetables is easier than it seems and is also a fulfilling experience. Gardening is an action that is more than a funny, relaxing, and rewarding outdoor exercise. It requires you to learn more about crops, watering methods, soil characteristics, and to feel the real impacts of climate change on living species. Besides this knowledge advantage, growing your own vegetables will bring you several benefits. It allows you to really know what you are eating, to always have fresh vegetables, to try better tasting food since you will be sure to avoid pests and food modifying processes, and to reduce food waste. At the same time, you will save money on groceries and you will even be able to involve your family and friends in an outdoor activity a great way to engage everyone in sustainable actions and to promote a green lifestyle. You will be making an healthier and smarter choice for you and for the planet!

With a small sunny piece of soil, a packet of seeds, and the right mood to become a modern farmer everyone can grow his or her own vegetables. Here I am with my beautiful first pumpkin, happy and ready to celebrate Halloween, or to transform it into a delicious pumpkin cake!

Got a personal climate change story to share with us, then submit it to Voices4Climate for a chance to win!

I am still surprised by how much climate change denial we come across.

Recently Connect4Climate ran the iChange competition, challenging students to present the climate challenge in a 30-second video. We received great responses from around the world and compiled a video with some of the best for MTV. Posting this on our YouTube channel quickly resulted in more than 7000 views, a hearty discussion, and this comment: lol i havent even watched this video. but ive read some of the comments. global warming is a MYTH!

 

What? Such outright denial! How can this be when the science is so overwhelming clear, when world leaders have shown their support for climate action, when reports left right and centre highlight the dire impacts of climate change, not least the World Banks own 4ºC report?

I couldnt let such comments go without responding.

The report, Hearth and Hiraeth: Constructing Climate Change Narratives around National Identity draws on the findings of a major programme led by Connect4Climate's partner COIN for the Welsh Government. This programme developed language and narratives that could work with all social groups and be applied in all its communications.

The two-year programme built on the latest research into climate change attitudes and a detailed analysis of cultural values. It conducted rigorous testing of messages in groups that had been recruited according to a values-based segmentation model. It is one of the first programmes in the world to apply the research into values-based climate communications across an entire country.

Energy is the single largest driver of development around the world. Access to adequate amounts for our burgeoning global population is one of the main challenges the world faces. For Africa, access to energy is very much tied to the environment; charcoal and firewood are the main sources of energy for much of the continent.

According to a recent study, Africa has a population of 300 million knocking on the door to middle class status. This upward mobility will put extreme demands on the continent’s struggling public resources like water and electricity. Middle class growth equals more consumption, and more consumption equals higher demand to power the continent’s purchasing habits. Cell phones, televisions, permanent housing, cars and office buildings all require energy.

The question is how can African states meet this increasing demand for energy without further harming the environment? The answer is not easily agreed upon, nor is there a single solution to the problem. Solar, wind, and hydro sectors, all have their implementation challenges across the continent’s large and varied landscape.

The answer perhaps lies in the smart implementation of a combination of the above energy innovations. It is only when we dig a little deeper that we understand how energy generation is acutely affected by climatic changes. Take for example East Africa’s challenge of generating enough hydro energy while maintaining a balance with the environmentally delicate Nile basin. Two publications recently looked closely at East Africa’s energy challenge. ESI-Africa looked at the challenges facing the countries dependent on the River Nile for hydro electricity:

Nile Technical Advisory Committee chairperson Fred Mwango told a Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) meeting here that Egypt and Sudan were still wary of water security due to their countries' geographic locations.

Stretching more than 6,600km from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean, the Nile is a vital water and energy source for the nine countries through which it flows.

Less than 20% of the 300 million inhabitants of the NBI countries had access to electricity, while in some the figure was as low as 3%.

Annual per-capita electricity consumption in the Basin ranges from 1,800kWh in Egypt to only 20kWh in Burundi, whereas per capita consumption of 500kWh is considered a minimum level by today's standards.

Meanwhile, AFREPREN/FWD, looked at some solutions the region could implement to address the single-source problem:

Countries using renewable energy sources to diversify their electricity appear better able to survive the impacts of severe droughts than those relying exclusively on hydropower. For example, Kenya is more resilient than Tanzania and Uganda to drought-induced power generation shortfalls, because Kenya uses a wider range of renewables, including geothermal power, biomass generation and, to a lesser extent, wind.

Diversification as a strategy will need technologies able to adequately meet the needs of a growing continent. Africa contributes over a billion of the Earth’s now 7 billion humans. Solar energy, for all its renewability, lacks mature distribution strategies--although several small initiatives, like our partner Solar Sister in Uganda, are working to that end. Additionally, the cost of solar power is still out of reach for those needing to power more than a desk lamp.

The call for diversification of sources of clean energy is all well and good, but particular attention must be paid to the need to invest in next generation infrastructure to deliver power to the last mile. While solar power offers the ability to leap-frog the need for an energy distribution infrastructure, large-scale use of solar power will still require investments in infrastructure. For example, Egypt’s first solar thermal plant, which went live earlier this year just outside of Cairo, required a $220 million investment.

There exist vast opportunities to spur green economies to address the problem of energy poverty on the continent. But is the continent ready to accept that challenge? How can Africa collectively mobilize to maximize its efforts towards a zero emissions energy strategy? Should funding organizations re-strategize priorities towards energy infrastructure development on the continent? Energy poverty and environmental concerns are complexly intertwined. But the deeper the complexity, the more marketable opportunities there are for the continent. Perhaps a great starting point to set off a needed discussion on this topic is, “what happens if Africa doesn’t find an adequate solution to power its growing middle class?”

On the 14 November Connect4Climate hosted a live chat on the Guardian Climate Change Hub. The topic was “how to build a global coalition to end climate change” and the outcomes of this are to be used in the Be The Movement workshop tomorrow at the University of Warsaw in parallel to COP19.

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim was quoted as saying: "To deliver bold solutions on climate change, we need to listen to and engage broader and more diverse audiences."

The live chat presented the following guiding questions: What do cross-sectoral coalitions to end climate change actually look like? How do you get the science, politics, humanitarian, development, environment, business and donor communities all singing from the same hymn sheet and working towards the same goals? Who gets to decide what those goals are? In addition, how do you communicate the value of working in coalition?

I could go into my journey of environmental awareness, which is a winding path through veganism and vegetarianism, attempts at neutral impact living in the style of No Impact Man, and adventures in water-saving techniques (you learn to conserve water when you live in a flat with water flowing for only about 4 hours a day, and it’s senseless to waste water in a country with limited access), but there is a word limit on this blog post. Long story short, mindful living is a journey that touches on our personal ethics, habits with which we have grown up, and traditions in our own society. We all do what we can, and that with which we are comfortable. Meanwhile, each individual action amounts to a rain drop in a flood of positive change.

Here are a few steps I’ve taken that are fairly easy to replicate:

-As a renter, I cannot install low-flow toilets, so I like to fill used bottles with water, seal them, and submerge them in the toilet tank at home to save water.

-I always turn off my computer and monitor when I leave the office in the evening. It saves a miniscule amount of energy, but think of how much energy is wasted when millions of people leave their idle machines on.

-A few months ago, I won an annual membership to Capital Bikeshare during a safe cycling class they taught at the World Bank. After a cycling commute, I arrive at the office more refreshed and with a bit more money in my pocket than if I spent my morning sitting on a Metro train. (My coworkers, TMS Ruge and Simona Palummo have also blogged on manual commuting!)

-About 5 years ago I transitioned to a vegetarian, and mostly vegan, diet. You don’t have to be vegan to reduce your impact, but just replacing a few meals a week with plant-based foods can have a huge impact. Animal agriculture has been estimated to contribute anywhere from 18% (FAO’s 2006 report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow”) to 51% (The World Watch Institute’s 2009 “Livestock and Climate Change”) of total greenhouse gas emissions measured by warming ability (carbon dioxide equivalents). Animal agriculture also requires more land and water, and diverts food crops from human consumption to animal consumption, where energy is lost before reaching the table.

I hope these actions inspire you to examine where you feel comfortable making positive changes, and I invite you to share your stories in the Voices4Climate competition.

Our grandparents defeated racism through the Civil Rights movement, our parents dealt with fear during the Cold War; it now falls on us to make our mark on the world. Will our generation be characterized by combating terrorism, or could we strive for much more? This notion is what inspired our Sociology class to create this video.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/embed/_lHkE54Ye94]

 

In the beginning of the semester, we learned about the fundamentals of Sociology, what it is, how it has evolved, and the forces that have shaped it. One of the key components of Sociology is its basis around the idea of a social problem. These problems are defined as any issue that affects a large number of people, endangers the values of a group, and can be solved by collective action. This last part is what grabbed our attention.

Our professor, Dr. Leszek Sibilski, came forward one day and invited us to attend the Connect4Climate 'Right Here, Right Now' event at the World Bank on March 1, 2013. At the Bank, some of us heard the leaders of one of the world’s largest development organizations request that we take action. We could see the flags and faces around the room, representing all different types of people and ages. The most dominant age group, however, was the youth. This was a real wake up call for us. Few of us had ever seen so many young people gathered in one place to help combat climate change. We knew we were witnessing the start of something incredible.

The next class period, Dr. Sibilski asked us to create a punch line that we could use to get the attention of our generation to act. Each one of us went home that night and thought, why is it our job, why is it our problem? The truth is, it is our problem because it has been left to us. While science has only brought it into light within the past few decades, not enough action has been taken. The numbers presented by science talk about “the future” that is at risk from any of the impacts of climate change. The concept of the future has created this idea that the effects are far off and do not impact people’s present-day lives. While this may be true, our generation is the one that will feel these impacts. We are still young, the future is ours. As such, we must make sure that there is a future in which we can live the lives we want. Climate change is destroying that future. Without any action we are throwing away our future, simply hoping that it turns out well. 

Instead we must unite and take action. One of the critiques of our social movement video is that there are no real suggestions in our message. While this may be true, our goal is not to promote a certain action but rather the need for action as a whole. From what was said at the Connect4Climate event, the climate crisis is real and we must take action now. It was this message that inspired our class to make this video. We were tired of reading in our textbook about all the social problems that exist in the world. We wanted to do more. Rather then just studying Sociology, we wanted to create it. With the punch lines that we developed, we began filming. Every step of the way, Dr. Sibilski has encouraged us, making sure that the best shot was captured, and using his connections to improve our outreach and spreading our call to action around the world.

This entire experience has shown us what just a small action by a small group of people can do. The video we made has spread around the world and thanks to youtube, it has been seen on all six populated continents. We have hundreds of comments in a wide variety of languages. It is clear that our message is beginning to spread fast. The time has come now for our generation to unite and act to end climate change. So I must ask you now, will you join us?

A green wall in Madrid, Spain. Photo: Ivan Bruce

The thought that nature can also be an infrastructure is not new; nature can be harnessed to provide services within the urban environment, by reducing risk of flooding or excessive heat, or improving air quality. When nature is harnessed by people it is known as "green infrastructure." This type of infrastructure can be adopted on a range of scales and placed on a variety of different surfaces.  

Green infrastructure can be parks, forests, trees, gardens and more. But with the increasing trend of urbanization, the area dedicated to green spaces has significantly reduced in urban environments. Green spaces have been replaced with impermeable materials known as ‘grey infrastructure’ that have contributed to the increased frequency of flooding and raised the temperature of urban spaces. Overall lost green space also results in decreasing air quality, a rise in greenhouse gas emissions and reduced biodiversity. 

Urbanization has largely been driven by the move of people to cities, and this trend is dramatically increasing. By 2050 it is estimated that 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban areas. This fact alone is of great significance to resource availability, including access to clean drinking water, waste management, transportation and other aspects of modern day society. Furthermore, climate change will bring additional stresses to managing the urban environment. More extreme weather events, shifting resource availability and sea level rise will all have to be managed for a growing urban population.

Considering the effects of climate change and the increasing trend of urbanization, city officials, urban planners and architects are looking at ways to better integrate green infrastructure by creating resilient city plans. Such efforts can be seen in the Action4Climate documentary ‘Rotterdam - The Transition to Urban Resilience.’ The film is part of the URBES project, which with a focus on European cities as case studies, researches how cities can bridge the link between urbanization, ecosystem services and biodiversity.

 

Realizing that cities need to become natural systems is key in addressing climate change and creating healthier places to live, work and play. Increasing the provision of green infrastructure also has a direct impact in reducing the "heat island" effect, which can help address the health impacts of extended and more severe heat waves brought on by climate change.

Research has also shown that human wellbeing increases when people live near nature and water elements. Urban green infrastructure can play a role in bringing nature closer to people living in cities, allowing for greater interaction with green spaces. The concept of encouraging public places has been at the heart of urban design theory for centuries. Public spaces advance social vitalization in cities; green spaces can enhance public spaces for added benefit.

Another exciting concept for green spaces is urban agriculture or creating vertical farms that adopt intensive production methods to meet the demands of daily consumer needs. Such a method of food production is seen to be more conscious to the environment as it maximizes yields and removes many of the added burdens of traditional agriculture such as large transportation miles or unsustainable fertilization or irrigation practices.

The first commercial vertical farm, Sky Greens (pictured above), was opened early this year in Singapore. It provides fresh and locally grown produce, which is a rarity for Singaporeans as only seven per cent of produce consumed is grown locally. 

Rebuild by Design, an organization founded after the devastation that was left by hurricane Sandy, launched a competition to challenge architects, engineers and designers to create solutions to prevent damage in areas most vulnerable to weather events similar to Hurricane Sandy. The winning entry by BIG architects creates a series of parks which also function as protective system to Manhattan; the design is a great example of integrating green infrastructure to create spaces that both increase the quality of the public realm and provide protection against flooding and stormwater.

I highly commend the BIG U projecte must increase green infrastructure now so that cities are prepared before devastating weather events hit.

The application of green infrastructure can be adapted for many uses, from green walkways to living walls and garden roofs which all positively contribute to the city’s environment. However to date green infrastructure is still treated more at a conceptual level, as an unnecessary but pleasant addition rather than an integrated approach for city planning. It is clear that green infrastructure provides economic, ecological and social benefits.

Green infrastructure must be a priority. Let’s shift from grey to green.