Biodiversity

Articles

Genetic Gold Mine

The wheat genome — much larger than the human genome, and packed with lost alleles for resilient wheat in a warming world. Plant researchers in the UK and China united to sequence the source code of long lost wheat varieties. And, at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israel’s never-ending occupation of Palestine has been declared illegal. The GPM speaks about the ruling with former UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk.


Apes on Steroids

The Great Acceleration: Earth systems commandeered by permanent human growth economics, fueled by coal, oil and gas. A quarter of the planet’s core energy base — natural primary productivity — appropriated for human food, fiber and fuel production. The GPM speaks about human socioeconomic metabolism and appropriation of net primary production with Vienna University ecologist Fridolin Krausmann. And, about the mid-20th century Great Acceleration with Georgetown University historian John McNeill.


Tipping Points

In the heart of one of Canada’s biggest cities, paradise. Below a city dweller’s feet, a pulsating, living network. All around us on this living planet, the clear and present danger of sliding into oblivion.



Land & People

Clinging to the walls of a fertile valley beneath the city of Bethlehem, a half dozen kilometers south of Jerusalem, alienated from the holiest of Palestinian towns by walls, barbed wire and a string of mega-colonial settlements, boxed in by settler-only roads and militarized checkpoints, Mazin and Jessie Qumsiyeh and their friends are planting native Palestinian seeds, growing fruits and vegetables, raising chickens, rabbits and fish, and offering up habitat for birds, insects and other wildlife. Rescuing their beloved landscape cruelly scarred by land thieves without true roots.


Tipping Points

Oceans of clean energy on humanity’s doorstep — wave, tidal, surface heat and, wherever freshwater flows into the sea … salt gradient energy. Tipping points in Earth systems. Unstable states world governments need to prepare for now. And, America’s Passionate Attachment to Israel. Loyalty is a must.



Planetary Boundaries Breached

Six out of nine planetary systems key to the survival of the human species have been compromised, breaching the estimated boundaries of Earth system stability and resilience and pushing it “well outside of the safe operating space for humanity.” The GPM spoke with Katherine Richardson, lead author of “Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries.”


Bosses Old & New

In West Africa, French colonialism officially ended in the 1960s. Six decades later, neocolonialism lives on. These days, America is the world’s preeminent imperial power and NATO its most powerful tool. In Cambodia, French colonists are long gone. Military chiefs and their rich clients rule the roost, much to the detriment of biodiverse ecosystems.


Green Planet Monitor Podcast

Humanity’s impact on Planet Earth has a name: the Anthropocene. The start of Earth’s human age can be pinpointed in ice and biological cores, and the bottom sediments of bays and lakes — including a small lake in southern Ontario. But human beings have no control. And now we stand at catastrophe’s door.



Green Planet Monitor Podcast

A US Supreme Court ruling throws American wetlands under the bus. In the oven, wheat and corn flour turn into bread and tortillas; spread on farm fields, rock flour reacts with carbon dioxide, turning into carbonates that get stored – forever. And, sharp questions off his tongue and a smartphone in hand, a Canadian activist ambushes politicians.



Do Animals Dance?

Do Animals Dance? features a couple of tunes by a guy named Shawn O’Halloran, talented singer-songwriter from Hamilton, Ontario, who passed away long before his time, back in 2019. Animals Like to Dance is one of fourteen songs Shawn wrote for The Earth Chronicles, on commission — all amazingly well written; clever lyrics, and well performed, accompanied by veteran Hamilton-area percussionist, Paul Panchezak.



Green Planet Monitor Podcast

“War is not healthy for children and other living things.” It isn’t healthy for Planet Earth’s climate system either. The cradle of crop diversity here on Planet Earth – Ethiopia. And, Israel-Palestine – a discreet toponym, six syllables tripping off the tongue.




I Know Who I Am

I met Vivien Sansour for the first time back in 2016, in her home town of Beit Jala, on the southern edge of Bethlehem, in Israeli-occupied Palestine. An anthropologist by training, Vivien has turned to the promotion of food and the cultural sovereignty tied to growing one’s own and saving the seeds, as her life’s work.