Category: Uncategorized

Amory Lovins, considered by many to be the king of energy efficiency, was born on November 13, 1947.  Lovins created and led the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a think-tank specializing in novel approaches to saving energy and, thereby, saving costs of constructing and operating buildings.  He is now listed as Chairman Emeritus and Chief Scientist for RMI

Lovins is a noble combination of contrarian and conventional thinking.  Biographies describe him as a physicist, but his academic career is much more ambiguous.  He studied at Harvard and Oxford, but quit both schools when they tried to make him choose a major.  Despite never earning a degree the usual way, he now holds a dozen honorary doctorates.  He remains an optimist, understanding that enormous opportunities exist to re-direct human existence into sustainable pathways.  The goal of RMI, he says, is to help direct “the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining.”

Realizing that goal requires a type of Renaissance Man, and Lovins meets the definition.  The range of his capabilities and interests is enormous, from basic sciences to economics to art and photography.  He is, by all accounts, a genius.  That distinction was validated by a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant and a long list of awards, including recognition as one of Time magazine’s “100 most influential people.”

He provides a unique perspective on energy usage (and most other aspects of modern life).  Emphasizing his upbeat approach, he says, “I don’t do problems.  I do solutions.”  His solutions for energy use are based on a holistic, rather than a compartmentalized, view.  Better design and materials in construction lead to lower energy use, which pays for the better design and materials.  He claims, and I believe him, that new buildings can be built that use only 25% of the energy of the buildings they replace.  He lives in a house in Colorado that is essentially “off the grid,” and allows tourists to see how he “walks the talk.”

Lovins was one of the first to warn the world about climate change.  In a 1976 article about energy strategy, written in response to the Arab oil embargo, he noted that reliance on fossil fuels would lead inevitably to climate change, only the timing being in question.  Consequently, he works with anyone whose better decisions can reduce dependence on burning carbon for energy.  When criticized for helping the Department of Defense become more efficient at conducting war, Lovins countered that the atmosphere doesn’t care where the emission savings come from—and neither does he.

He believes that energy conservation is the absolute top strategy for reducing human dependence on fossil fuels.  He coined the term “nega-watts” to indicate the reduction in energy generation that can be achieved by conservation.

I have heard Lovins speak several times.  Each has been mesmerizing, both by the power and simplicity of his ideas and the joy with which he shares them.  Most of the energy in automobiles is used to move the weight of the car, not the passengers—so let’s make cars with carbon-fiber lightweight frames.  Plumbers like to run pipes at right angles, but routing them on the diagonal can reduce costs.  Opportunities to save are everywhere.  And while we might say he thinks out of the box, he would disagree: “There is no box.”

References:

Kolbert, Elizabeth.  2007.  Mr. Green; Environmentalism’s optimistic guru Amory Lovins.  The New Yorker, January 22, 2007.  Available at:  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/01/22/mr-green.  Accessed November 13, 2017.

Rocky Mountain Institute.  Amory Lovins.  Available at:  https://rmi.org/people/amory-lovins/.  Accessed November 13, 2017.

Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was an Indian conservationist born on November 12, 1896 (died 1987).  Ali became one of the world’s foremost ornithologists, earning the moniker “The Birdman of India.”

Ali was born in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the youngest of nine siblings.  As a boy of ten, he shot a bird with an air gun.  He realized it wasn’t a common House Sparrow and asked his uncle to help identify the bird.  His uncle took him to the director of the Bombay Natural History Society, who identified it as a Yellow-throated Sparrow and showed the young Ali around the museum.  Ali was hooked—he became a regular at the museum and from then on birds were central to his life.

He was educated for business, however, and moved to Burma for several years to help develop his family’s tungsten mines.  He chose that assignment on purpose:  “I took the opportunity in Burma where the mining business was all in thick forest….That part of the country…was particularly good for birds.”

His interest in ornithology took him on a rambling life journey.  He studied zoology, but never completed a degree.  He was a guide and lecturer at a new Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai.  He traveled to Germany for two years to study birds and learn bird-banding.  He spent some years in a coastal community where he studied the nesting habits of weaverbirds—a topic that he later said was his most rewarding—and rediscovered a species of weaverbird thought extinct.

As his reputation as an ornithologist grew, he received opportunities to survey bird populations and behavior in many regions of India.  This was heaven to him.  Never a fan of taxonomy and nomenclature, he thrived on the observation of living birds in nature.  “I feel strongly like retiring from ornithology, if this is the stuff, and spending the rest of my days in the peace of the wilderness with birds, and away from the dust and frenzy of taxonomical warfare.”

He did not retire from ornithology, but made it his own.  Among many publications, he produced two seminal works.  First was The Book of Indian Birds, a popular book that raised interest in the observation and conservation of birds.  Second was the authoritative 10-volume Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, which he co-authored with S. Dillon Ripley, who would go on to become the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Ali became one of India’s most prominent conservationists.  He consulted with the governments of Jawaharlal Nehru, convincing him to continue support of the Bombay Natural History Society, and Indira Gandhi, who made him an Elder of the government.  He fought successfully for the protection of the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and Silent Valley National Park.

For his ninety years of dedication to conservation, Ali was honored with the highest recognitions from around the world.  He received both the second and third highest civilian awards in India, and was the first foreigner to receive the Gold Medal of the British Ornithologists’ Union.  He was honored by the Soviet Union, the United States, the Netherlands and the IUCN.  Several bird species, bird sanctuaries and institutions are named after him.

Yet neither awards nor reputation motivated him.  Birds did.  A short film of his life ended this way:  “In the autumn of his life, yet young at heart, Salim Ali is out all the time, walking, looking, listening.  In the company of birds, he is never lonely….for to be with birds is very heaven.”

References:

Maps of India.  12 November 1896:  Salim Ali, Indian ornithologist and naturalist, was born.  Available at:  https://www.mapsofindia.com/on-this-day/12th-november-1896-salim-ali-indian-ornithologist-and-naturalist-was-born.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

New York Times.  1987.  Salim Ali Dies in India; Authority on Wildlife.  New York Times, June 21, 1987.  Available at:  http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/obituaries/salim-ali-dies-in-india-authority-on-wildlife.html.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

The Famous People.  Salim Ali.  Available at:  https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/salim-ali-7423.php.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

The Logican Indian.  2016.  Meet Salim Ali – The Birdman of India.  April 1^st, 2016.  Available at:  https://thelogicalindian.com/rewind/meet-salim-ali-the-birdman-of-india/.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the world’s most famous actors and also a fervent environmentalist, was born November 11, 1974.  Over the past two decades, DiCaprio has used his celebrity fame to bring attention—intense attention—to the world’s major environmental issues, especially climate change.

DiCaprio was born and raised in Los Angeles.  He claims that from his first memories he was captured by an environmental image.  His parents hung a poster of a famous painting over his crib—Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.  The painting represents the beauty and largess of Eden, followed by the disastrous fate of Adam and Eve and their descendants for not nurturing it.  Over the years, he came to understand the painting as a metaphor for the environmental damage that humans were causing to the earth.

DiCaprio has gone on to enormous success as an actor, of course, winning the 2016 Oscar for Best Actor and becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest box-office draws.  But, he asserts, love of nature and concern for the environment have always been part of his true persona. “I remember the thing that I got the most sad about when I was little was the loss of species that have been as a result of mankind’s intrusion on nature,” he told Rolling Stone Magazine.

He got serious about making a difference after a meeting with former Vice-President Al Gore.  In 1998, he created the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation “with the mission of protecting the world’s last wild places.”  Today the foundation works across a range of environmental issues, including protected areas and climate change.  It has given more than $80 million in grants (at least $30 million of DiCaprio’s own money) to projects in 50 nations.  His social-media presence on environmental matters reaches more than 50 million people.  In 2007, he wrote, produced and narrated a feature-length documentary, The 11^th Hour, in which he interviews world leaders on environmental issues.

For his work, DiCaprio has been designated a UN Messenger of Peace for Climate Change and won the Clinton Global Citizen Award.  He serves on the board of the World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and several other groups.

DiCaprio says that he is “consumed by [environmental issues].  There isn’t a couple of hours a day where I’m not thinking about it.  It’s not ‘aliens invading our planet next week,’ but it’s this inevitable thing, and it’s so terrifying,” he told Rolling Stone.  Amid that fear, however, he works to stay optimistic.  He continues to use his acting fame as access to people with the power to make positive change.  For example, he was present at the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, recognizing the treaty as a positive step toward a sustainable future without reliance on fossil fuels.

References:

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.  About Us.  Available at:  https://www.leonardodicaprio.org/about/.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

Rodrick, Stephen.  2016.  Inside Leonardo DiCaprio’s Crusade to Save the World.  Rolling Stone Magazine, February 18, 2016.  Available at:  http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/inside-leonardo-dicaprios-crusade-to-save-the-world-20160218#ixzz41ZKd1Lf7.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

World Wildlife Fund.  Leonardo DiCaprio.  Available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/leaders/leonardo-dicaprio.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

So, here’s a question for you:  What world-renowned book began as an argument among hunting friends over the fastest game bird in Great Britain?  Yes, indeed, it was the Guinness Book of World Records.  And here’s how it happened.

On November 10, 1951, a group of friends were out hunting for birds in County Wexford, in the southeastern corner of Ireland.  The shooting was good, but the hunters had missed on several shots at the Golden Plover, a common gamebird throughout Europe and western Asia.  It is relatively small, weighing about half a pound, with brown plumage on the back and sides and a white streak running from the top of its head, down the neck and across the breast and belly.

That evening, some of the party claimed that they had missed their shots because the Golden Plover flew so fast, the fastest gamebird in Europe, they claimed.  An argument began, with others claiming that, no, the Grouse was the fastest bird.  But with no authoritative source available to consult, the argument remained unresolved.  One member of the hunting party thought that a reference book ought to be available to answer such questions and that it might be popular in Great Britain’s 80,000+ pubs.

That farsighted individual was Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Breweries.  Beaver was a visionary with a history of making things happen.  A civil engineer by training, he led the assembly of the famous Mulberry Harbor as part of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.  He also worked actively on air pollution issues in England, chairing the Committee on Air Pollution that led to the first comprehensive British Clean Air Act of 1956.

A few years after the Golden Plover-Grouse argument, in 1954, Beaver decided it was time to act on the idea for a fact book.  To produce a book of world records, he engaged a pair of twin geniuses, Norris and Ross McWhirter, who ran a company to provide authoritative data to the London newspaper industry.  They set to work gathering the data, by sending hundreds of letters “to astrophysicists, physiologists, zoologists, meteorologists, vulcanologists, botanists, ornithologists, microlepidopterists, concologists, virologists, economists, numismatists, criminologists, etimologists, incunabulists, campinologists, gemmologists, metrologists, pryphologists, toxicologists, spelæologists, malocologists, herpetologists, hagiologists, horologists, mycologists, and gerontologists.” Working flat-out, they compiled all the information that flowed in and completed the first 198-page version by the fall of 1955.

The first edition of The Guinness Book of Records was an immediate success, selling out 100,000 copies by Christmas.  After 63 years of publication, it is the world’s best-selling copyrighted book.  The first edition contained about 4,000 entries; the current database of records contains over 47,000.

Interestingly, for 35 years, the book failed to answer the question that started it all—which is the fastest gamebird in Europe?  The Guinness answer appeared in the 36^th edition, published in 1989:  “Britain’s fastest game bird is the Red Grouse (Lagopus l. scoticus) which, in still air, has recorded burst speeds up to … 58-63 mph over very short distances. Air speeds up to … 70 mph have been claimed for the Golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria) when flushed, but it is extremely doubtful whether this rapid-flying bird can exceed … 50-55 mph – even in an emergency.”  Not very conclusive, eh?  Let’s discuss it over another pint!

References:

Book-of-records.  Guinness Record Book Collecting—The History of the Book.  Available at:  http://guinness.book-of-records.info/history.html.  Accessed November 9, 2017.

Claxton, Stuart.  2011.  The Very First Guinness Book of World Records.  The Blog, Huffington Post, 09/11/2011.  Available at:  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/stuart-claxton/the-very-first-guinness-b_b_956684.html.  Accessed November 9, 2017.

Guinness Storehouse.  Archive Fact Sheet:  Guinness Book of Records.  Available at:  https://www.guinness-storehouse.com/Content/pdf/archive-factsheets/advertising/guinness-book-of-records.pdf.  Accessed November 9, 2017.

Guinness World Records.  Our history.  Available at:  http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/about-us/our-history/.  Accessed November 9, 2017.

“Panda-monium” might be described as a state of excitement generated by the beautiful and exotic Asian animal, the giant panda.  That excitement was fueled for the first time in the U.S. when a live baby panda arrived during 1936.

Reports of the mysterious giant panda had occurred in western culture since the mid-1800s, but only in 1919 did the first complete specimen—a stuffed mount still on exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History—arrive to prove its existence.  A decade later, the sons of Teddy Roosevelt shot a panda on a hunting expedition to China.  But still no live pandas had been seen by the general public.  A rich New York adventurer, Bill Harkness, set out to change that.  He went to China to capture and bring home a giant panda, but died there while waiting for a permit from the government.

His young wife, Ruth, decided to fulfill her husband’s journey.  “I inherited an expedition, and what else could I do?” she later wrote.  With no experience as a world traveler or animal handler, she set out in September, 1936, to bring home a living panda.  She traveled to Shanghai and acquired the services of a dashing 22-year-old Chinese adventurer, Quentin Young; she and Young soon became lovers, adding to the intrigue and romance of the expedition.  With an entourage of 16 bearers and a cook, they trekked through the countryside for six weeks before reaching panda habitat.

On November 9, 1936, they had arrived at the bamboo forest where pandas were know to live.  That day, they heard a shot in the forest and followed the sound.  They discovered an infant panda in the hollow of a tree and, believing that the gunshot had killed the mother, they brought the infant back to their camp.  “Automatically I reached for the tiny thing,” she wrote.  “The warm furriness in my hands brought reality to something that until then had been fantasy.”  They had planned to bring back an adult panda, but Harkness had prepared for this possibility as well, bringing baby bottles, nipples and dried milk on the expedition.  She cared for the panda as if it were a human baby.  They named the panda Su Lin, meaning “a little bit of something precious.”  Su Lin did well, growing steadily on the trip back to Shanghai.

Harkness was first denied permission to export the panda, but she persevered.  For a $20 fee, she received paperwork recording the export “one dog.”  Upon returning to New York, Harkness kept the panda in her apartment; together they were regulars on the society pages of New York newspapers and magazines.  Soon, she gave Su Lin  it to Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo.

Su Lin became an instant celebrity.  Over the year that the panda lived at the zoo, more than 300,000 people came to see it.  Helen Keller and Al Capone were among Su Lin’s visitors.  Su Lin lived for only a year, but soon other pandas showed up at zoos across America.

By the late 1950s, however, the door to importing pandas slammed shut as the U.S. forbid any purchases from communist China.  By then all pandas at American zoos had died.  The giant panda again arrived in the U.S. as a gift from China’s President Mao Tse-tung when President Richard Nixon visited the country in 1972, beginning the resumption of normal diplomatic relations with the country.

Since then, “panda-monium” has returned.  At zoos across the world, pandas are the main attraction.  The panda is the logo for the World Wildlife Fund.  Panda movies are top box-office draws.  This is all good news for the species.  China has recognized the importance of the animal as a symbol of environmental stewardship and has increased protections, including putting more panda habitat in reserves and reversing deforestation of the panda range.  Consequently, the IUCN recently noted the improved condition of panda populations by moving their status from “endangered” to “vulnerable.”  About 2000 giant pandas now live in the wild in China, all in habitat reserves.

References:

Bowes, Claire, and Alison Gee.  2013.  Ruth Harkness and Su Lin:  The first panda to leave China.  BBC News Magazine, 2 December 2013.  Available at:  http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25136118.  Accessed November 8, 2017.

Harkness, Ruth.  1938.  The Lady and The Panda–An Adventure.  Carrick & Evans, Inc., New York.  288 pages.

Heller, Chris.  2015.  How America Fell in Love With the Giant Panda.  Smithsonian.com, September 21, 2015.  Available at:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-america-fell-love-giant-panda-180956692/.  Accessed November 8, 2017.

IUCN.  Ailuropoda melanoleuca.  IUCN Red Book.  Available at:  http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/712/0.  Accessed November 8, 2017.

Rizzo, Johnna.  2013.  Picture Archive:  Baby Giant Panda Su-Lin, Circa 1936.  National Geographic News, April 19, 2013.  Available at:  https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130418-baby-panda-china-zoo-pandacam-science-animals/.  Accessed November 8, 2017.

The natural habitat for the human species has become the city.  Therefore, to make a sustainable world, we need to make sustainable cities.  World Town Planning Day, also known as World Urbanism Day, is celebrated on November 8 to highlight just this need.

World Town Planning Day was the idea of urban planner Carlos Maria della Paolera (1890-1960), who helped found the discipline of urban planning after World War 2.  He was a professor of town planning at the National University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 1928 until his death.  He created World Town Planning Day in 1949, and it is now celebrated in 30 countries around the world.

The urban environment is a major determinant of our ability to create a sustainable earth.  Today, more than half of all humans live in cities; in North America and Europe, that percentage reaches closer to 80%.  The trend towards urban living will continue, so thinking about how cities function and the ecological footprint of urban residents is crucial to our future way of life.

Much can be done, through planning and strategic investment, to reduce the ecological footprints of urban dwellers.  Cities have some built-in advantages.  First, of course, the high population density means less land per person is consumed in living space.  Also because of the high human density, many functions can be much more efficient in cities than in the country.  Public transportation, water purification, waste collection and processing, material recycling and co-generation of heat and electricity are all possible in cities, but less effective for rural communities.  Moreover, ideas and strategies are found in abundance in the innovation, entrepreneurship and skills of urban residents.  As Julian Simon wrote in “The Ultimate Resource,” the human mind is the answer to our future—and there are many minds in cities.

But cities will only work well if people wish to live there, rather than migrating to green space at the edge of the suburbia.  And political will and community commitment are essential to assure infrastructure investment will be made as needed. Consequently, developing and executing plans for livable cities and economic progress is a future imperative.

Gil Penalosa is an urban planner with a firm grasp on this reality.  Through his program, “8 80 Cities,” he asserts that a city built to provide a high quality of life for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old will be a sustainable city.  Thus, he believes “pedestrian mobility” is key to developing desirable communities.  Walking and riding bikes must be safe, attractive and accessible for all.  For example, he promotes the idea of using urban streets, busy with traffic on weekdays, as open spaces for community use on weekends—for walking, cycling, farmers’ markets, community festivals and other locally desirable functions.

As a friend of mine told me many years ago, “If you love the country, live in the city.”  Today I would add, “If you love the country, make that city sustainable.”

References:

8 80 Cities.  Creating Cities for All.  Available at:  http://www.880cities.org/.  Accessed November 7, 2017.

American Planning Association.  2017.  World Town Planning Day. Available at:  https://www.planning.org/international/worldtown/.  Accessed November 7, 2017.

Rees, William, and Mathis Wackernagel.  1996.  Urban Ecological Footprints:  Why Cities Cannot be Sustainable—and Why They are a Key to Sustainability.  Environmental Impact Assessment Review 1996:16:233-248.  Available at:  https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0195925596000224/1-s2.0-S0195925596000224-main.pdf?_tid=357a2330-c3eb-11e7-ba37-00000aab0f6c&acdnat=1510080244_e5c81e0a86c4a03b6c37d781c815c1cc.  Accessed November 7, 2017.

Prabook.  Carlos Maria della Paolera.  Available at:  http://prabook.com/web/person-view.html?profileId=1117639.  Accessed November 7, 2017.

United Nations.  2014.  Our urbanizing world.  Population Facts, Population Division, United Nations, August 2014.  Available at:  http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/popfacts/PopFacts_2014-3.pdf.  Accessed November 7, 2017.

The codification of a nation’s constitution may seem like an odd entry for a conservation calendar, but Costa Rica made an enormous sustainability decision with one simple eight-word statement—Article 12:  “The Army as a permanent institution is proscribed.”  Instead of funding an army, Costa Rica chose to fund peace and prosperity, creating an educated, healthy and environmentally conscious society.

Costa Rica stands out from other Latin American countries by its stable government and commitment to peace.  That commitment was made law when it passed a new constitution on November 7, 1949.   It was the first nation in the world to make such a decision.

Two other notable parts of the constitution further determined the course of Costa Rica’s future.  The constitution guarantees free education to all citizens.  As a consequence, Costa Rica has a 99% literary rate, among the highest in the world.  Combined with other social programs, Costa Ricans are healthy and happy—the happiest nation in the world, according to several indices.

Regarding the environment, Article 50 of the constitution makes environmental quality explicit:  “All person have the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment.”  Article 89 further codifies the Costa Rican commitment “to protect the natural beauties….”

We are fortunate that Costa Rica had the foresight to recognize its exceptional ecological treasures and to conserve those for their own and our benefit.  The country has protected more land—about 25% of the surface area—in parks and other reserves than any country in the world.  Good thing, because Costa Rica holds 6% of the earth’s biodiversity in just 0.03% of the land area.  As a consequence, ecotourism is the country’s largest industry and has reduced poverty in rural areas by 16%.  They are doing well by doing good.

            And the world keeps beating a path to Costa Rica’s door.  Nearly 3 million people visited the country in 2016.  Most were from the U.S. (about 40%) and Europe (about 20%).  The average American visit was 11 days, focused almost entirely on the natural wonders of the nation.   

Costa Rica’s commitment to sustainability does not end with national parks and ecotourism.  The nation has declared a goal to become the world’s first carbon-neutral state by 2021, the date of its bicentennial (a few other countries are competing for that honor, as well).  Their electricity already is about 98% renewable, mostly from hydro-electric dams, but also from wind, solar and geothermal.  They intend to offset any ongoing emissions from diesel transportation by increasing the area and maturity of forests, which absorb carbon dioxide.  The goal may not be reached, but the intention itself shows the extraordinary commitment of Costa Ricans to approaching a sustainable lifestyle.  As the Costa Rican president said at a sustainability conference in January of 2017, the nation’s decision to become carbon-neutral “was in no way improvised—it’s the constitutional right of the people to enjoy a clean environment.”

References:

Central America Data.  2017.  Costa Rica:  Flow of Vistiors Up 10% in 2016.  Available at:  https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Costa_Rica_Flow_of_Visitors_Up_10_in_2016.  Accessed November 7, 2017.

Climate Action.  2017.  Costa Rica pledges carbon neutrality by 2021.  Climate Action, 20 January 2017.  Available at:  http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/news/costa_rica_pledges_carbon_neutrality_by_2021. Accessed November 7, 2017.

Constitute Project.  Costa Rica’s Constitution of 1949 with Amendments through 2011.  Available at:  https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Costa_Rica_2011.pdf?lang=en.  Accessed November 7, 2017.

Embassy of Costa Rica.  Environment.  Embassy of Coast Rica, Washington, DC.  Available at:  http://www.costarica-embassy.org/index.php?q=node/12.  Accessed November 7, 2017.

“The Monuments Men” was a recent book and movie that told of the heroic efforts by American and European soldiers and civilians to recover cultural treasures stolen during World War II.  Art and architecture suffer greatly during wars, either as collateral damage or through direct attack.

But a much more insidious form of damage occurs to a more essential aspect of civilized life:  the environment.  And so, the United Nations, starting in 2001, has designated November 6 as International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict.  The day recognizes the need to protect the natural environment before, during and after military actions.

The environment suffers inherently during armed conflict.  Wartime action by its very nature destroys landscapes, whether cities, farms, forests, streams or coastlines.  During the Vietnam War, for example, vast areas of forest were defoliated using environmental poisons, including dioxin in the form of Agent Orange.  During World War 2, Allied forces developed techniques to destroy dams and did so to a series of dams in Germany.

Armies and refugees also heavily exploit natural resources for food and for products to pay for supplies.  During decades of strife in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, elephants were poached in large numbers, for the meat but also for the tusks, which could be traded on the black market in exchange for weapons and ammunition.  Hippopotamus populations were heavily overharvested for food, and forests were cut for fuel.  In the early 2000s, UNESCO put all five World Heritage sites in Rwanda on its endangered list.

Military action also sabotages the environment as a way to thwart the opposing side.  During the first Iraq War in 1991, retreating Iraqi forces started more than 600 oil wells on fire and opened valves on oil lines.  Nine months passed before all the fires were extinguished.  The losses and damages exceeded those of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by orders of magnitude.

War and the environment also share a more direct relationship.  According to the UN, since the 1960s, at least 40% of all internal armed conflicts have been fights over natural resources—from diamonds to water rights.  And battles over natural resources don’t tend to go away; the UN estimates such fights are twice as likely to resume than are conflicts based on other reasons.

Ban Ki-Moon, former Secretary General of the UN said in 2014:

The environment has long been a silent casualty of war and armed conflict. From the contamination of land and the destruction of forests to the plunder of natural resources and the collapse of management systems, the environmental consequences of war are often widespread and devastating.

Fortunately, the legal underpinnings of environmental protection during war are beginning to be established.  As early as 1977, the Geneva Conventions added protection for the environment.  The Red Cross and Red Crescent have adopted environmental guidelines during wartime.  An ongoing working group of the United Nations continues now to develop standards for the “Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts.”  Aspects of their draft text include (1) designation of areas to be protected because of exceptional environmental importance or concern, unless a direct military objective; (2) prohibition against general environmental damage unless involved in direct combat; (3) no environmental damage as reprisals; and (4) special consideration for environmental losses that may be widespread, long-term or severe.

References:

Enzler, S. M.  2006.  The impact of war on the environment and human health.  Lenntech.  Available at:  https://www.lenntech.com/environmental-effects-war.htm.  Accessed November 6, 2017.

Jacobsson, marie G.  2016.  Working to Protect the Environment in Armed Conflict.  Medium, United Nations Environmental Programme.  Available at:  https://medium.com/@UNEP/working-to-protect-the-environment-in-armed-conflict-ce9aff1aa479.  Accessed November 6, 2017.

Mathiesen, karl.  2014.  What’s the environmental impact of modern war?  The Guardian, 6 November 2014.  Available at:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/06/whats-the-environmental-impact-of-modern-war.  Accessed November 6, 2017.

United Nations.  International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, 6 November.  Available at:  http://www.un.org/en/events/environmentconflictday/index.shtml.  Accessed November 6, 2017.

United Nations.  2016.  Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict.  General Assembly.  Available at:  http://legal.un.org/docs/index.asp?symbol=A/CN.4/L.870/Rev.1.  Accessed November 6, 2017.

Ethelwynn Trewavas, one of the world’s foremost fish taxonomists of the 20^th Century, was born on November 5, 1900 (died 1994).  Among her research projects that studied fish from around the world, Trewavas is most remembered for her work on the fishes of Lake Malawi, Africa.

Trewavas was born in Penzance, Cornwall, England, where her father was a harbor master and where she was seldom far from the water.  As a young university student, she was assigned to study the classification of fishes at the British Museum in London (now called simply the Natural History Museum).  While sketching fish in one of the museum’s galleries, she was noticed by the head of the museum’s fish section and taken to see the collections in the back rooms.  From then on, fish captured her heart, mind and career.

After finishing her university training, she taught school for several years.  “I learnt,” she said, “among other things, that I was not a brilliant teacher, and longed to go more deeply into zoological studies.”  And so she did. She earned a doctorate in biology, interestingly not on fish, but on frogs.  From 1928-1961, she worked at the museum as an ichthyologist, rising eventually to be Deputy Keeper of Zoology.  She retired officially in 1961, but kept at her research, perhaps being more productive after her official duties were removed.  According to colleagues, she remained professionally active to the very end of her life.

Her research in ichthyology reaches across several types of fish, both marine and freshwater, but her fame is tied most directly to her work on African fishes and, particularly, to those of Lake Malawi.  She worked specifically on cichlids, publishing early and definitive descriptions of their taxonomy.  Cichlid taxonomy is particularly difficult because of the large number of species present in any waterbody and the subtle differentiation among species on the basis of morphology, color and, especially, behavior.  It has been noted that throughout her career, whenever Trewavas undertook the analysis of a new collection of specimens, a major revision of cichlid taxonomy resulted.  Her monumental works on the cichlids of Lake Malawi appeared at the end of her active research career, first in 1983, and then followed by another co-produced volume in 1989.

Although most of her work was based on museum analysis of collections by others, she visited Africa several times to collect specimens and observe local habitats.  At the age of 85, she learned to snorkel so she could observe cichlids in their natural environment.  She was responsible for the description of dozens of species, primarily from Lake Malawi, and 13 fish species are named in her honor.

As noted by her former colleagues, Trewavas was much more than a great taxonomist.  She was a humble scientist, always willing to acknowledge the collaborative nature of her work.  She was a compassionate, yet demanding mentor.  She cared deeply for everyone with whom she worked, always generous with her time and advice.

References:

Greenwood, P. Humphry.  1994.  Ethelwynn Trewavas 5 Nov. 1900-16 Aug. 1993.  Copeia 1994(2):565-569.

Noakes, David L. G.  1994.  An interview with Ethelwynn Trewavas.  Environmental Biology of Fishes 43:63-65.  Available at:  https://link-springer-com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/content/pdf/10.1007%2FBF02197834.pdf.  Accessed November 3, 2017.

Noakes, David L. G.  1994.  The life and work of Ethelwynn Trawavas:  beyond the focus on tilapiine cichlids.  Environmental Biology of Fishes 43:33-49.  Available at:  https://link-springer-com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/content/pdf/10.1007%2FBF00023799.pdf.  Accessed November 3, 2017.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) came into force on November 4, 1946.  The international treaty creating the group had been signed earlier, but it became operational with ratification by 20 countries.  It is noteworthy in conservation for its protection of World Heritage Sites.

Near the end of World War 2, European nations began to plan for the reconstruction of the institutions impacted by the Axis occupation of much of the continent.  Their chief initial concerns were to re-establish schools and universities—and assuring that wartime history would be recorded and taught objectively (for example, UNESCO operates a program to teach the history of the Holocaust).  As the war ended, 37 countries convened in London and agreed to the UNESCO Constitution, citing that “ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war.”  Since then, the number of member countries has risen to 195.

The ideals of encouraging education and common understanding of culture have yielded great benefit, but also ongoing controversy.  The United States quit the organization in 1984 under President Reagan, rejoined in 2002 under President George W. Bush, stopped making annual payments in 2011 (accumulating a $550 million debt) and announced in late 2017 plans to quit again.  Much of the U.S. ambivalence to UNESCO involves issues over its treatment of Israeli interests.

For conservationists, however, the centerpiece of UNESCO is the list of World Heritage properties.  In a separate convention enacted on July 12, 1973, the organization recognized a global need to identify and conserve important cultural and natural resources.  Today, 167 countries are party to the convention, which requires member states to propose sites for inclusion on the list, assure that designated sites will be protected and recognize that although sites may be within a single country, they represent a resource for the entire world.

UNESCO lists 1073 World Heritage properties.  The vast majority (about 78%) are cultural resources and about half of those sites are in Europe.  About 20% of the listed sites are natural, and 2% are mixed cultural and natural sites; natural sites are more equally spread across the world, but still with greater number in Europe, Asia and the Pacific.  The U.S. has 23 sites on the list, about half cultural and half natural.  All of the natural sites are also national parks—Yellowstone (one of the original eight sites), Yosemite, Everglades, Glacier, Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad, Hawaii Volcanoes, Wrangell-St. Elias, Mammoth Cave, Olympic, and Redwood.

The list also identifies sites that, although protected, are in danger.  Fifty-four sites are in danger, 16 of which are natural sites.  Eleven endangered sites are in Africa, and one is in the United State—Everglades National Park.

References:

Rosenberg, Eli and Carol Morello.  2017.  U.S. withdraws from UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural organization, citing anti-Israel bias.  The Washington Post, October 12, 2017.  Available at:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/10/12/u-s-withdraws-from-unesco-the-u-n-s-cultural-organization-citing-anti-israel-bias/?utm_term=.adc9fff6f2bd.  Accessed November 3, 2017.

UNESCO.  The Organization’s history.  Available at:  http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/about-us/who-we-are/history/.  Accessed November 3, 2017.

UNESCO.  UNESCO Constitution.  Available at:  http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15244&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.  Accessed November 3, 2017.

UNESCO.  World Heritage List:  United States of America.  Available at:  http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/us.  Accessed November 3, 2017.