UNEP Previews Global Resources Outlook 2019 | News | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD

The Global Resources Outlook 2019 analyzes the demographic and socioeconomic forces driving the extraction and use of natural resources globally, and reports on how these drivers and pressures have determined our current state.
The report assesses the environmental and well-being impacts, and considers the distribution and intensity of the environmental and human health impacts resulting from the changing state of our environment.

It concludes that decoupling of natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic activity and human well-being is an essential element in the transition to a sustainable future.

An average person living in a high-income country consumes over 13 times what is consumed by someone in a low-income country.

• The use of natural resources has more than tripled from 1970, and continues to grow; 
• Historical and current patterns of natural resource use are resulting in increasingly negative impacts on the environment and human health;
• The use of natural resources and related benefits and environmental impacts are unevenly distributed across countries and regions;
• In the absence of urgent and concerted action, rapid growth and inefficient use of natural resources will continue to create unsustainable pressures on the environment;
• The decoupling of natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic activity and human well-being is an essential element in the transition to a sustainable future;
• Achieving decoupling is possible and can deliver substantial social and environmental benefits, including repair of past environmental damage, while also supporting economic growth and human well-being;
• Policymakers and decision makers have tools at their disposal to advance worthwhile change, including transformational change at local, national and global scales; and
• International exchanges and cooperation can make important contributions to achieving systemic change.

Continue reading at: UNEP Previews Global Resources Outlook 2019 | News | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD

Resource extraction responsible for half world’s carbon emissions | Environment | The Guardian

Extraction also causes 80% of biodiversity loss, according to comprehensive UN study.
Extractive industries are responsible for half of the world’s carbon emissions and more than 80% of biodiversity loss, according to the most comprehensive environmental tally undertaken of mining and farming.
While this is crucial for food, fuel and minerals, the study by UN Environment warns the increasing material weight of the world’s economies is putting a more dangerous level of stress on the climate and natural life-support systems than previously thought.
Resources are being extracted from the planet three times faster than in 1970, even though the population has only doubled in that time, according to the Global Resources Outlook, which was released in Nairobi on Tuesday.
Each year, the world consumes more than 92b tonnes of materials – biomass (mostly food), metals, fossil fuels and minerals – and this figure is growing at the rate of 3.2% per year.

Massive dump trucks by the Syncrude upgrader plant, Canada. The tar sands are the largest industrial project on the planet, and the world’s most environmentally destructive. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
Since 1970, extraction of of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) has increased from 6bn tonnes to 15bn tonnes, metals have risen by 2.7% a year, other minerals (particularly sand and gravel for concrete) have surged nearly fivefold from 9bn to 44bn tonnes, and biomass harvests have gone up from 9bn to 24bn tonnes.
Continue reading at: Resource extraction responsible for half world’s carbon emissions | Environment | The Guardian

Trees may become the key to ‘greener’ foam products | Science News for Students

Made from wood pulp, they’re just as strong as Styrofoam — and work better at keeping things cold.
If you’re heading to the beach on a hot summer day, you don’t want to forget the cooler full of drinks. You might load that cooler with ice. However, ice on its own won’t keep things cold for long. That’s why a cooler packs insulation in its walls. The best insulators have long been plastic-based foams, such as Styrofoam. But a new type of foam made from wood pulp works even better. And it’s friendlier to the environment.

Unlike this Styrofoam cup, made from plastic, a new kind of foam is biodegradable. TOMSCHIRTZ/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS
Plastic foam is both incredibly useful and popular. Filled with millions of tiny air pockets, its frothy structure is both lightweight and strong. This material protects fragile packages during shipping. And when used as an insulator, plastic foam’s tiny bubbles help keep heat in — or out — for hours. That’s why people have relied on it for everything from cups and coolers to packaging and home insulation.
Continue reading at: Trees may become the key to ‘greener’ foam products | Science News for Students

10 things a committed U.S. President and Congress could do about climate change » Yale Climate Connections

The federal government has available to it, should it choose to use them, a wide range of potential climate change management tools, going well beyond the traditional pollution control regulatory options. And, in some cases (not all), without new legislative authorization.

There’s a big “if” behind that remark: It will take an exceptionally climate-savvy and climate-concerned Executive Branch to have the political will to initiate some of these steps. And there’s more: It likely will take supportive bipartisan majorities in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. More still: It will also take widespread and strong public support and citizen engagement, and, even then, strong leadership skills on the part of federal leaders.



It’s not clear when or if that time will come, nor what kind of climate catastrophe could precipitate such a coming-together. It brings to mind a phrase often attributed, but with some uncertainty, to Winston Churchill: “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities.”

Continue reading at: 10 things a committed U.S. President and Congress could do about climate change » Yale Climate Connections

Heat waves and climate change: Is there a connection? » Yale Climate Connections

Extreme heat may not trigger the same visceral fear as a tornado, but according to NOAA’s natural hazard statistics, it causes nearly twice as many fatalities in the United States each year – more than any other weather hazard. As the climate continues to warm, that number could rise dramatically in the U.S. and around the world.



Since the late 1800s, human-caused climate change has warmed the Earth’s average temperature by around 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). That doesn’t sound like much, but a relatively small warming of the average temperature results in a large jump in extreme heat.

Continue reading at: Heat waves and climate change: Is there a connection? » Yale Climate Connections

Mark Jacobson Has A Plan To Convert The World To 100% Renewable Energy. Is It Realistic? | CleanTechnica

Mark Jacobson is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford University. He is also one of our heroes here at CleanTechnica because instead of just writing papers and giving speeches about how important it is for the world to stop burning fossil fuels, he and his colleagues actually did the hard work of creating a road map that details precisely what each of the 50 US states need to do to transition to 100% renewable energy.



Continue reading at: Mark Jacobson Has A Plan To Convert The World To 100% Renewable Energy. Is It Realistic? | CleanTechnica

A 100% renewable grid isn’t just feasible, it’s in the works in Europe – ThinkProgress

Europe will be 90% renewable powered in two decades, experts say.
The myth that a very high level of renewables can’t be integrated into the electric grid is being demolished by the clean tech and battery storage revolution.
“By 2040, renewables make up 90% of the electricity mix in Europe, with wind and solar accounting for 80%,” predict the experts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) in their annual energy outlook released this week.
“Cheap renewable energy and batteries fundamentally reshape the electricity system,” explains BNEF. Since 2010, wind power globally has dropped 49% in cost. Both solar and battery prices have plummeted 85%.

A LARGE WIND FARM IN MECKLENBURG-WESTERN POMERANIA, GERMANY, MAY 14, 2019. CREDIT: BERND WÜSTNECK/PICTURE ALLIANCE VIA GETTY IMAGES.

Continue reading at: A 100% renewable grid isn’t just feasible, it’s in the works in Europe – ThinkProgress