The Big Banks’ Green Bafflegab

The Tyee

Profit, profit, profit.

Look behind their pro-climate ads and do what they do. Follow the money. Story here.

RELATED:

How ethical are ethical funds?

Humanity is waging war on nature, says UN secretary general

António Guterres lists human-inflicted wounds on natural world in stark message

World is ‘doubling down’ on fossil fuels despite climate crisis – UN report

Pumpjacks dot the landscape in southwestern Manitoba. A PinP image.

New UN climate report is bleak, but there's a solution - trees.

CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL

(Note - this report came out last year. But it bears repeating.)

Humanity must overhaul the global food system to stop the climate breakdown, according to a dire report released in 2019. Story here.

When trees are grown together with crops and livestock, as an integrated production unit, numerous benefits can be observed. Trees have been shown to indirectly increase crop yields, improve soil and water quality, increase biodiversity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase carbon sequestration. (Source - Climate Connection.) Scenes such as this, where trees were planted in rows, as "shelterbelts," used to be common on the Canadian prairies. But, no more.

Many farmers are now slashing and burning such trees, so their huge farm machines can operate more efficiently, such as this one in southwestern Manitoba. A PinP photo.

On Wells and Wellness: Oil and Gas Flaring as a Potential Risk Factor for Preterm Birth

Environmental Health Perspectives

Cattle graze in a field as gas flares from a pumping installation on the Eagle Ford Shale in Karnes County, Texas. The shale oil boom is going strong on a formation that stretches for about 500 kilomtres across south Texas, one of the most prolific oil patches in the U.S. Excess gas is burned off at oil pumping stations which dot the countryside. A Greenpeace photo.

Several studies have examined the association between unconventional oil and gas development and adverse birth outcomes. But up to now, no study is known to have looked specifically at flaring—the controlled burning of natural gas at the well site to relieve pressure or dispose of waste gas.1 In a recent article in Environmental Health Perspectives, investigators report their findings on flaring and maternal and fetal outcomes. Details here.

Just 1% of Farms Control 70% of Global Farmland: Study Finds 'Shocking State of Land Inequality'

ECO WATCH

RELATED:

Concentration Matters. Farmland Inequality on the Canadian Prairies

British chicken driving deforestation in Brazil’s “second Amazon”

THE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

This satellite shot shows soybean production in Cerrato, Brazil. Green represents
areas cleared before 2001 and purple - between 2007-2013. NASA.

Soya used to feed UK livestock linked to industrial-scale destruction of vital tropical woodland. Story here.