Sustainability/Biodiversity Archive

Guatemala Market | Credit: Ingo Bartussek, Shutterstock

Nov 13, 2024 Tackling Climate Change Through Global Food Systems at COP29 in Baku

Posted at 13:07h In Articles, Environment Well-being, Farm Animals, Sustainability/Biodiversity, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The climate change conference COP29 is currently taking place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. This year's conference includes a pavilion dedicated to global food systems, aimed at creating a platform for "collaborative dialogue, knowledge sharing, and decision-making" regarding the important role of agriculture and...

Little brown bat with white-nose syndrome, Ryan von Linden/New York Department of Environmental Conservation), Public Domain, https://www.fws.gov/media/little-brown-bat-white-nose-syndrome

Sep 19, 2024 Vultures in India & Bats in USA: Impact on Animal Welfare & Human Health

Posted at 15:31h In Articles, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Well-being, WellBeing News, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

A report by Frank and Sudarshan, ecological economists at the University of Chicago, provides an excellent example of how human and environmental well-being is connected to the well-being of animals – in this case, to the health of the vulture population in India. Ecological economics,...

Artificial Coral Reef | Credit: Placebo, iStock

Jul 08, 2024 Nature Restoration and Rewilding

Posted at 10:35h In Climate Change, Ethics, Regulation, Law, Land Management, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

On Monday, June 17, 2024, 20 out of the 27 countries in the European Union (EU) voted to adopt the world's first Nature Restoration Law. The law passed with a slim majority, as Leonore Gewessler, the Austrian Minister for Climate Action, decided at the last...

Humpback Whale | Credit: Lightleak Films, AdobeStock

May 20, 2024 Animals, Biodiversity, and Climate Change

Posted at 10:55h In Articles, Climate Change, Land Management, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Tales of WellBeing, Well-being, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

On December 19, 2022, representatives from 188 countries adopted a new agreement on biodiversity, now known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The 2022 GBF aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by adopting four overarching global goals and 23 targets, including conserving 30%...

Family planting a tree | Video credit: DC Studio, Shutterstock

May 08, 2024 Global Trees and Climate Change

Posted at 17:06h In Articles, Climate Change, Environment Well-being, Sustainability/Biodiversity, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

As a graduate student at Yale University School of Forestry, Thomas Crowther was intrigued by a question his roommate was asked: how many trees were on Earth? While his roommate didn't see the significance of the question, Crowther took up the challenge of using a...

Earth Day | video credit: smartboy10, iStock

Apr 17, 2024 Earth Day

Posted at 12:31h In Articles, Climate Change, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Tales of WellBeing, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

April 22, 2024, will be the 54th anniversary of the first Earth Day.The 1960s decade in the USA was a time of widespread citizen protests and demonstrations. Citizens used protest marches and sit-ins to campaign for civil rights. Women demanded equality in the labor market...

Recycling food | Photo credit: Ryan J Lane, iStock

Apr 04, 2024 The Food Waste Challenge

Posted at 20:12h In Human Well-being, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

In a critical step towards global sustainability, the United Nations (UN) adopted seventeen Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) in 2015. SDG12 addressed consumption and production. Its third indicator target (SDG 12.3) focused on food waste and loss. The UN set a target of halving food waste by...

Feb 20, 2024 Beaver: Nature’s Ecosystem Rewilders

Posted at 14:21h In Animal Sentience, Animal Well-being, Articles, Environment Well-being, Land Management, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Tales of WellBeing, Wild Animals - By John Hadidian, PhD

In 1700, so many beaver pelts were stored in Montreal warehouses that they threatened to glut the market, something that traders had already experienced in previous years. So, fearing that prices in Europe would crash, orders were given to pile up and burn fully three-quarters...

Wolves | Credit: Film Studio Aves, iStock

Feb 05, 2024 Animals and Healthy Ecosystems: It’s Complicated!

Posted at 14:23h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Sustainability/Biodiversity, WellBeing News, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Wild animals are integral to healthy ecosystems; even small changes in species composition may affect biodiversity. For example, a recent paper reports that an invasive ant from Mauritius has adversely affected lion predation in Kenya by reducing the impact of native ants who protect acacia...

Circular Economy | credit: Igor Starodubtsev, Shutterstock

Jan 09, 2024 A Circular Economy and “Feel Better”

Posted at 10:18h In Education, Land Management, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Resources, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

Increasingly, the world recognizes human population growth, excess consumption, overuse of natural resources, and degradation of the natural environment as threats to planetary sustainability.Linear vs. Circular EconomyThe current global linear economic framework, characterized by resource extraction, product manufacture, and consumption, followed by product disposal, is...