In this study by the University of Auckland and the University of Cambridge, crows drop objects into tubes filled with water, raising the water level and obtaining a food reward. Researches found that this species of crows can solve a science puzzle about as well as the average 7-year-old kid.
Mark Carney, named UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, says the smart money is on transition from fossil fuels
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Environmental and banking system protestor wears a mask of Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney as they demonstrate outside the Bank of England demanding that the bank rule out investment in high-carbon sectors in London, Britain July 11, 2019. (Peter Nicholls/Reuters)
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"Every major company needs to have a strategy for net-zero," says Mark Carney, the next UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.
In conversation with The Sunday Edition's host Michael Enright, Carney stressed that citizens in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom have agreed, through their elected parliaments, to meet the target of the 2016 Paris Agreement to limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees C. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that target cannot be met without reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
"It would be a bit odd if you're running a company and you haven't thought of your strategy to move to net-zero — or for a net-zero world — unless you're just planning on running down your company, in the next decade or so," said Carney, whose term as Governor of the Bank of England ends next month.
The UN will be hosting its 26th climate change summit — known as COP26 — in Glasgow this November and Carney already is working toward "a position where climate issues are part of every single professional financial decision, so decisions by banks, insurance companies, pensions, investors." He says pressure is building across the financial world to prioritize the state of the planet.
Giant dump trucks are loaded with raw tar sands at the Suncor tar sands mining operations near Fort McMurray, Alberta, September 17, 2014. In 1967 Suncor helped pioneer the commercial development of Canada's oil sands, one of the largest petroleum resource basins in the world. Picture taken September 17, 2014. (Todd Korol/Reuters)
"They're going to need an answer to the question, 'What's your plan for a transition to net-zero?'" Carney said. "What's absolutely essential, though, is that we can see what those plans are — and not just plans and objectives for three decades down the road, but short-term milestones that investors and banks and citizens can monitor, to see if these companies are moving towards where they say they're going to go."
Carney argues it would have been easier to meet climate change targets with an earlier start, but it is not too late.
"One of the judgments and one of the big conversations and decisions we all need to make is what's the timeline, what's the path from where we are today to where we need to get to?" he said. "There is more in the ground that has been discovered — between oil, gas and certainly coal — than can be consumed, can be burned, and still meet our climate objectives."
Despite these admonitions, Carney avoided responding to questions about the current standoff in Canada over resource development. Wet'suwet'en solidarity protesters have been shutting down rail lines, roads, bridges and ports across the country, in an effort to halt development of the Coastal GasLink project in British Columbia.
"Well, this is where I'm going to plead the fact that there is a very large ocean and an entire continent that surrounds me from that issue, which is hugely important and absolutely deserves the attention that is being given to it," Carney said.
Pre-construction work on the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline is underway along the Morice Forest Service Road near Smithers in northern B.C. (Chantelle Bellrichard/CBC)
He pointed out that Canadians have stated through the political process that they want the country to move to net-zero by 2050, "and now it's the responsibility of the private sector and the public sector and third-sector NGOs and Canadians to bring this together into a strategy, to go from where we are today to where we need, where we want to go."
Carney met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December, but says they did not discuss these issues at that time.
Although he acknowledges change will not happen overnight, Carney says he is committed to putting climate change much higher on the government and corporate agenda.
"The thing that I'm working on is to make sure the financial system is thinking every day, every minute of every day, about that issue. And it's putting money behind those who are solving the problem — or are part of the solution — and it's taking money away from those who aren't moving fast enough," he said. "It's time to get on with it. It's transition, transition, transition."
Carney added that this is a scenario he wants to avoid: "The biggest risk is that we talk and talk and talk about this for another five or 10 years, and then we have to make even more drastic adjustments to stabilize the climate."
Click 'listen' above to hear the full interview.
The Sunday Edition
Mark Carney, named UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, says the smart money is on transition from fossil fuels
FOÇA FILM DAYS 2018
CORTO E FIENO - RURAL FILM FESTIVAL 2018
RURAL FILMFEST 2018
The harvesting season has once again returned to Las Varas del Zumajo estate in La Mancha.
Every nine years, the cork oak trees are ready to give away their precious bark, and a crew of expert axemen from Extremadura descend upon the forest in the months of July and August to work on the saca, or cork extraction.
Cork harvesting takes place in a dehesa, that is an agroforestry system which exists in the Iberian peninsula where human intervention is compatible with the conservation of nature, vegetation and fauna. Here, locals work hard to make the most of the resources available to them, respecting the production cycles and the environment.
Spain produces 22% of the world’s cork and in this estate, up to nine tonnes are obtained daily, the corcheros working on 20 to 200 year old trees. Using only their axes, wooden poles, ladders and hands. Respecting the tree, making sure it suffers no damage.
This short film is a witness account on the demanding yet respectful artisanal approach to cork harvesting, which has marked and influenced the region. A depiction of a rural Spain that still exists, where the landscape plays a unique and vital role. Where man does not affect the environment negatively, but rather defines it.
The once-in-a-decade harvest of cork requires blunt force and tender care in equal measure A hugely satisfying portrait of production, this short documentary observes workers in Spain’s La Mancha region as they harvest cork from a quercus suber (commonly known as a cork oak). The process requires immense patience: each tree must be 25 years old before its uniquely light and durable bark can be harvested, and even after the tree has reached maturity, it can only be stripped again roughly every nine years thereafter. At harvest time, teams skilfully remove the bark with small axes, making sure not to harm the tree and risk damaging the renewable resource. Part of a series of short films about life in rural Spain, Cork shows harvesters in a delicate dance of force and care, simultaneously exploiting and stewarding the land.
“There are things that attract human attention, and there is often a huge gap between what is important and what is attractive and interesting." - Yuval Noah Harari “Something special awaits you each day. All you need is to recognize it and make the most of it. Have a positive attitude throughout the day and then that today is going to be the best day of your life.”
~Anonymous
Be Grateful For Every Second Of Every Day That You Get To Spend With The People You Love Life Is So Very Precious #TuesdayThoughts
‘This unimportant morning Something goes singing were The capes turn over on their sides ...’ Lawrence Durrell — Cities, Plains and People, 1943-46 Ph. Durrel and Henry Miller, Corfu — A Writers’ Frienship
