Planet Aid Post For the Environment, For People

Vol. 5 No. 1 Planetaid.org

Future generations will inherit a hotter, more meteorologically turbulent planet beset by intense flooding, famine, and drought. If we don’t

correct course soon, conditions are likely to become very bad. But recent trends indicate that the future may have already arrived.

Across the planet, the bitter harvest brought on by excessive fossil fuel consumption and environmental destruction is taking its toll. An historic four-year drought has beleaguered California. Chile had its driest January in five decades. China was hit with heavy flooding that impacted 75 million people. In the Pacific, a record 13 cyclones occurred in a single season. In southern Africa, damaging flooding early in the year has been followed by a severe drought that is now threatening 49 million people with hunger and starvation. That is just part of the global pattern of extreme weather.

The Doomsday Scenario

In 2012, the World Bank warned of a “doomsday scenario” if the Earth’s temperature increased by a mere four degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Just one year later the Bank warned that “consequences are already being felt on every continent and in every sector.... More droughts, more floods, more strong storms, and more forest fires are taxing individuals, businesses, and governments.”

Global temperatures are indeed rising fast, setting new records year after year. In 2015 temperatures shattered previous records by a wide margin (overall 1.62 degrees higher than the twentieth century average). It also marked the 39th consecutive year (since 1977) that the annual temperature has been higher than the century average.

The current El Niño weather pattern is part of the problem, worsening an already bad situation. (El Niño is a normally occurring global weather phenomenon that originates from warm ocean currents in the southeastern Pacific.) This El Niño is among the most severe weather cataclysms to have ever occurred, creating intense droughts in some parts of the globe and severe flooding in others. Southern Africa has been hit the hardest this season. At least one million children are already suffering from severe malnutrition due to crop losses resulting from drought.

In Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, entire crops were lost because the rainy season abruptly halted, leaving the population with nothing to eat. Food has become alarmingly scarce and expensive; the price of white corn has risen by 150 percent from last season in South Africa alone. Countries have begun requesting immediate aid to alleviate widespread suffering.

The tragedies unfolding on the world stage will spread if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced quickly. It is with this backdrop that an international climate treaty was adopted in Paris in December 2015.

The so-called Paris Agreement, signed by 195 nations, went further than previous agreements by setting a limit on the rise of global temperatures to no more than a two degree Celsius increase above preindustrial levels. However, it is not at all clear how this limit will be achieved or if it is even possible. There are no mechanisms or plans within the agreement itself to avoid exceeding this two degree ceiling.

Developing Countries Seek Climate Justice

The Paris negotiations also confronted the issue of compensating those who suffered loss or damage resulting from climate change. Poorer developing nations, who have been bearing the brunt of climate impacts, had demanded that rich developed nations, whose wealth had been acquired through intensive fossil fuel use, compensate them for losses. However, developed countries, particularly the United States, refused to accept any legal remedy in the agreement that included compensation for losses.

In the end, the developed nations prevailed. The agreement acknowledged that loss and damage were issues, but it denied legal compensation. To help sway developing nations to accept the agreement anyway, the United States offered to double the money available for sustainable development grants that helped reduce the risk of loss and damage. The offer was accepted by vulnerable nations, but there remains a dispute as to whether the additional funding will do enough.

Climate change is the most pressing challenge of our time. The question of richer nations compensating developing nations will intensify and grow more contentious until a fair and equitable settlement is achieved.§

Global Warming’s

Bitter Harvest

This special Earth Day edition of the Planet Aid Post focuses on climate change and its implications for the developing world.

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Planet Aid Headquarters6730 Santa Barbara Ct.Elkridge, MD 21075410-796-1510

Planet Aid is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that recycles used clothing and shoes. It is registered with the U.S. Agency for International Development as a private voluntary organization (PVO).

One World University

Takes Action Against Climate Change

Students in the Community Development Program at One World University (OWU) acquire the skills needed to mobilize rural communities in rising

from extreme poverty. The challenges they face as professionals will be many, not the least of which are the added obstacles of drought, flooding, and other impacts imposed by climate change.

The people who live in the vicinity of OWU are very poor and barely scrape by to survive. When the local harvest fails for any of a number of reasons, the population resorts to cutting down trees to make and sell charcoal in the capital Maputo. The hillsides surrounding the villages, formerly lush with vegetation, have thus become increasingly bare. It is only a matter of time before the forests are completely cut down, leaving the population with nothing at all.

In response to this situation, the OWU community development students have taken action to help the villages near their campus. Their approach has been twofold: 1) help reduce the consumption of wood and 2) replant trees to restore forest resources.

Reducing Wood Consumption Wood fuel meets about one tenth of the world’s energy demand, with most users located in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Mozambique. It is estimated that nine out of ten people use wood as an energy source in the region.

The students sought to reduce wood consumption through the introduction of two technologies: firewood-saving stoves and solar energy panels.

The firewood-saving stoves are of a simple design, easily constructed using local clay. The stoves reduce wood fuel consumption by limiting the amount of oxygen that flows into the combustion area. This lowers the burn rate and cuts smoke emissions. The stoves also concentrate heat on the ceramic surface

beneath the cooking vessel, increasing the efficient utilization of each log’s BTU (British Thermal Units) value, while reducing heat loss. The impacts have included lowering wood consumption by one half to two thirds, while also slashing the amount of time villagers need to search for wood.

Duarte, a community development student who worked with the village of Porto Henrique, saw an immediate change once the stoves were introduced.

Carolina Manhique was among the stove recipients near OWU. Here is what she said about using hers: “The stove helps a lot because I don’t need to cut trees to have a lot of wood. Only three pieces of wood is enough to cook the food and it’s very easy to cook in this stove. So before I had the stove, I used to take a long time looking for wood to cook with, but now there is no need to take a long time. I can even look around the house and find some pieces of wood and it’s enough.”

Carolina Manhique

Bringing solar power to rural villages.

Planet Aid Post, page 3 For the Environment, For People

One World University is a unique institution of higher learning located in the rural Changalane area of southern Mozambique. Its operation is supported with funding from Planet Aid.

Students from all over the country, and from neighbouring countries too, come to OWU to take part in the unique learning experience available there. Two programs are offered: pedagogy (education) and community development.

The degree in pedagogy qualifies graduates to be instructors at teacher-training colleges and other educational institutions, and the program in community development focuses on students acquiring the necessary skills to lead local initiatives. The proximity to rural communities and schools gives students at OWU the opportunity to gain valuable practical experience and allows graduates to achieve a high level of professionalism.

One World University is operated by ADPP Mozambique, a local educational and development organization headquartered in Maputo, Mozambique.

“There has been a drastic reduction in the search for firewood, especially in the reduction of tree cutting for domestic purposes,” he said.

The stoves introduced by the students became very popular and villagers learned how easy it was to build them themselves. The idea caught on and it took only months before there were 1,000 such stoves in use near OWU.

Solar Energy Stations

In Mozambique, fires are lit in homes not only for cooking, but also to provide a source of light. So to further reduce wood consumption, students from OWU established six solar charging stations in local communities. The stations were utilized by 2,400 families, who each received a lantern that they were able to charge at the solar stations. Two stations were established at primary schools to allow adult literacy classes to be conducted in the evening.

In addition, 12 members of the local community received training to manage and maintain the stations. Children can now do their homework at night (free from smoke). Each charging interval provides light for two to three nights of use.

Planting Trees and Establishing Nurseries

Forests are a vital resource and provide habitat for local wildlife. They also help to fight climate change by sequestering carbon.

OWU both mobilized communities to plant new seedlings and established nurseries so that the efforts could multiply. At last count, the students and community members planted more than 15,000 trees, including edible varieties such as moringa, papaya, mango, orange, leucanina, and lychee. The students also helped establish community nurseries so that the development of seedlings would expand and grow. §

Now I can light the house at night and it’s not expensive because I use solar energy. I am very happy.

— Alberto ChivamboChangalane villager

Studying by solar-powered lantern light.

Lantern maintenance at the charging station.

A community tree nursery.

ADPP Mozambique and One World University are supported with donations from Planet Aid.

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The revolution to stop climate change has begun.

Photo courtesy of climaterealityproject.org

Planet Aid Post, page 5 For the Environment, For People

There are three basic steps to stopping global warming: 1) reduce consumption of fossil fuels that release carbon into the atmosphere, 2) reduce waste and recycle, and 3) plant trees and restore ecosystems and natural habitats that capture carbon from the atmosphere.

These are common-sense steps that underlie all consumer advice in reducing one’s personal “carbon footprint” (the sum of all emissions of carbon gasses resulting from individual consumption patterns).

But more is needed to stop global warming. What is needed is nothing short of a revolution! This revolution must change the economic system that is responsible for harming people and destroying the planet. Changing this system demands much more than modifying individual behavior to reduce carbon footprints. It means taking political action to refashion the power balance and bring about a more just and environmentally balanced world.

The climate treaty signed by 195 nations in Paris late last year recognizes that global warming is an urgent threat to all of human society. But the agreement assumes that renewable sources, such as wind and solar, will replace fossil fuel as they become more affordable in the energy market.

The problem with this market-based idea is that it ignores the fact that trillions of dollars are being invested in the production and distribution of fossil fuels. On top of that the fossil fuel industry has received and continues to receive substantial government funding. According to a recent report by Oil Change International, governments contributed an estimated $452 billion in fossil fuel subsidies in 2013-2014. As long as so much money is spent getting fossil fuels out of the ground, it is sheer fantasy to believe that the current system will change. The recipients of this substantial largesse will never, as the poet Dylan Thomas wrote, “go gently into that good night.”

As a testament to how far the industry has gone to retain power and profit, new evidence shows companies have been funding a massive misinformation campaign about climate change (see “The Climate Change Hoax,” pg 6).

Fortunately, a global revolution is underway to fight the immense power of the fossil fuel industry and change the current system. This revolution—being built by many organizations—addresses the shortcomings of relying on market mechanisms to eventually stop further destruction to the planet.

Among the most well-known organizations leading the charge is 350.org. This global movement was started by U.S. university students and has been organizing anti-fossil fuel campaigns in almost every country in the world. Its latest initiative is a divestment campaign aimed at pulling the financial rug out from under the fossil fuel industry.

The campaign, called “Fossil Free,” encourages institutions and individuals to get rid of stocks, bonds, or investment funds in the oil, gas, and coal industry. Student groups, faith-based organizations, community groups, and many others have been joining this campaign and organizing local grassroots initiatives around divestment.

The anti–fossil fuel revolution owes much to Naomi Klein, whose award-winning manifesto This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate has inspired millions all over the planet to take political action.

This provocative book, now a motion picture, throws back the curtain on the destructive force of unfettered industrial capitalism and sounds the alarm to change the system. Klein bluntly assesses that, “Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war.” Her solution: “build a mass movement capable of taking on powerful polluters.”

Additional political action will be necessary to pressure leaders to kick-start a new green economy. Planet Aid along with its sister organizations in the Humana People to People Movement are helping to raise awareness to climate change, while also assisting communities around the globe to cope with the impacts of extreme weather.

Join with us by using your voice. Let your community and the world know about the increasingly dangerous reality of climate change and help bring about a green economy today. §

Planet Aid headquarters in Elkridge, Maryland hosted a “Zero-Waste” delegation from Russia. The seven-member group of Russia’s leaders in waste and recycling management visited Planet Aid’s warehouse to learn about best practices in textile recycling.

The visit was arranged by the U.S. State Department under the International Visitor Leadership Program. Planet Aid was honored to have been chosen as the first stop

on the delegation’s three-week, cross-country tour.

The Russian visitors were curious to learn details about Planet Aid’s operations and what contributed to its success. Textile recycling is done on only a very small scale in Russia. Planet Aid President Ester Neltrup commended the group members for their leadership. “What you have to remember is that you are the pioneers, you are the ones that are first teaching people that this is an important thing to do,” said Neltrup. “One day you will discover that you are the leader in something new in Russia.”

Planet Aid Post, page 6 Planetaid.org

Planet Aid Local News

Climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that humans are causing climate change and that it has become very serious. Yet some people still believe that climate change is a hoax.

The “deniers” as they are called dismiss the science and cling to conspiracy theories that range from a plot by foreign nations to destroy America, to an effort by our own government to get complete control over people’s lives. In the United Kingdom, the deniers say that the idea of a warming planet was dreamed up by Margaret Thatcher as part of her campaign to break the U.K. coal unions.

Pope Francis has even come under criticism after publishing his climate change encyclical, which called for immediate action to stop further destruction. Because of his views on the climate, the Pope was accused of being part of a nefarious plot to establish a “New World Order.” Others have called him the Antichrist and “an eco-wolf in pope’s clothing.”

The climate change deniers are more than just a handful of oddballs making bizzare accusations. For nearly three decades, the largest fossil fuel companies have knowingly worked to deceive the public about the danger of climate change.

A July 2015 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) called The Climate Dossier made public internal fossil fuel industry memos that reveal how companies funded groups to create a public disinformation campaign, while internally they accepted the evidence that climate change was real. “These documents build a case for why these companies must stop sowing doubt and must be held accountable for their share of responsibility for global warming,” wrote the UCS.

The fossil fuel industry—like the tobacco industry before it—is noteworthy for its use of active, intentional disinformation and deception to support its political aims and maintain its lucrative profits.

—Union of Concerned Scientists

Inside Climate News added to the revelations about the deceit in a September 2015 report, “Exxon: The Road Not Taken.” Authors Lisa Song, Neela Banerjee, and David Hasemyer provide excerpts from internal company documents that show Exxon had long ago accepted that climate change was real. “Through their own studies and their participation in government-sponsored conferences, company researchers had concluded that rising CO2 levels could create catastrophic impacts within the first half of the 21st century if the burning of oil, gas and coal wasn’t contained,” write the authors.

In response to these revelations, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched an investigation in November 2015, demanding that Exxon Mobil produce financial records, emails, and other documents. The aim was to prove that Exxon Mobil had been funding denier organizations to malign mainstream climate science while defrauding the public and shareholders.

Schneiderman’s investigation was the first of its kind. His action was quickly followed by the California Attorney General’s Office. Now, the U.S. Department of Justice is also considering filing claims against those suspected of defrauding the public and investors.

All of this echoes the many years that the tobacco industry tried to persuade the public that smoking was harmless. In the 1950s and ‘60s, tobacco companies conducted secret research that showed smoking was indeed harmful and addictive. However, these same companies mounted a public information campaign that aimed to sow widespread uncertainty and doubt. After many years, the truth was revealed about tobacco’s harmful effects, but not before many lives had been lost. This type of tragic history should not be allowed to repeat itself today.

For more about what’s happening locally, visit “Your Local Planet Aid” at Planetaid.org.

Planet Aid’s new thrift outlet in Maryland has been going strong since its grand opening in 2015. Located near the City of Baltimore, the 32,000 square-foot retail space offers a wide variety of items.

“We put out probably 2,000 to 2,500 pieces a day,” said manager Tom Gentry. “We are proud to be able to offer good quality affordable clothing and other items to the community.”

The Thrift Center sells men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing and shoes, as well as jewelry, accessories, home decor, toys, movies, books, and games. There are approximately 50,000 items for shoppers to select from across more than 20 departments.

Planet Aid employs 22 full-time and 8 part-time staff at the Center. County Councilman Tom Quirk visited the facility to recognize its beneficial role. “It’s a good business for our community,” said Quirk. “I’m glad they’re here.”

Russian Delegates Tour Maryland Facility Community Welcomes Planet Aid Thrift Center

Planet Aid Manager Frank Fowler leads the delegation through the Elkridge warehouse.

Shoppers enjoy the wide selection of merchandise at the Planet Aid Thrift Center.

The Climate Change Hoax

Planet Aid Post, page 7 For the Environment, For People

What Planet Aid DoesPlanet Aid collects clothes, shoes, and other textiles for reuse and recycling through our extensive network of conveniently located yellow bins in 21 states. We sell the items we receive, and after covering our costs for our operations, donate the remainder of the funds to help the poor and disadvantaged all over the world.

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