Gear up for COP

News blues

More than 400 international health organisations and professionals, representing two-thirds of global healthcare workers, have signed an open letter calling on politicians to consider the health benefits of climate action ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.
“We know that climate change is impacting people’s health, this is increasingly visible around the world. We also know that many solutions to address climate change offer tremendous health co-benefits,” said Dr Jeni Miller of Global Climate and Health Alliance, the organisation which drafted the letter. “The health community is really seeing that if we don’t step up and call for action on climate change, we’re failing the patients and the communities that we care for.”

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Even Pope Francis is worried about political and corporate will, lack of focus, and inaction on climate change. Recently, 84-year-old Pope Francis told lawmakers to get their act together: “We owe this to the young, to future generations….” 

COP 26 information >> 

What is Cop26 and why does it matter? The complete guide and many things you need to know about the Glasgow conference seeking to forge a global response to the climate emergency.

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The Lincoln Project - and other media
Glenn Will Not Replace Us  (0:55 mins)

Quote: Patient Zero, if that person is ever found, will tell us how the current pandemic arose, but the search will also uncover the many ways dangerous diseases emerge. If the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is natural, then we can expect recurrences, as the processes that led to its interaction with humans — climate change, intensive animal farming, the encroachment of civilization into natural preserves, smuggling and consumption of exotic species — have only increased. If the virus was created in a laboratory, for whatever purpose, then it is a reminder that science is engaged in experiments that invite catastrophe with the smallest slip. In either case, Covid-19 is a harbinger.

— The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid
     Lawrence Wright

Healthy planet, anyone?

Creative thinking and doing….

In Nigeria, a country heavily reliant on revenues from its oil exports, entrepreneur Ifedolapo Runsewe has identified another type of black gold: used car tyres.
She has set up Freetown Waste Management Recycle, an industrial plant dedicated to transforming old tyres into paving bricks, floor tiles and other goods that are in high demand in Africa’s most populous nation.
“Creating something new from something that will otherwise be lying somewhere as waste was part of the motivation,” Runsewe said at her factory in the city of Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria.
“We are able to create an entire value chain about the tyres,” she said, holding a paving brick that is one of the company’s best-selling products.

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

No longer in the daily grind known as the commute, but I’m busy, nonetheless. More on that tomorrow…