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Visit conservation.org and around the world. to find out how you can help the organi-zation’s reforestation efforts in the Amazon GET INVOLVEDLearn more about Australia’s bushfire emergency and how you can help at world animalprotection.org.
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York City Council’s downtown offices during a tic...” sings a small group of Christmas carolers, “IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOKhunched under an awning just outside the New groupRgone global. ebellion has^ EBy Adrienne Gaffneyxtinction apoc-a-lyp-
red scarves with sewn-on patches represent-Twelve Days of Crisis,” a series of global protests ing the hourglass logo of international climate action group Extinction Rebellion, the carolers project an energy that’s both festive and dour. Their subversive performance is part of “The chilly December downpour. Bundled in bright designed to build awareness about the urgency of climate change. “Extinction Rebellion was the first thing that really spoke to me as far as action that aligned with the current ecological emer-gency,” says member Christina See, a graduate
who serves as the local chapter’s coordinator deliberately disruptive. “It’s not just like, ‘Hey, of political strategy. The group’s tactics, which have ranged from supergluing themselves to roads, trains, and buildings to attempting to shut down airports and oil rigs, are extreme and often student in food policy at New York University, let’s sign some petitions,’” she says. “It’s about taking real action.”when a diverse group of about 15 activists met at Gail Bradbrook’s house in the Cotswolds. Brad-Extinction Rebellion began in April 2018
brook, a molecular biophysicist who’d been a part of antifracking protests and the Occupy movement, was joined by others accustomed to making splashy statements for the cause. There was her former partner Simon Bramwell, who spent several weeks in a tree in Bristol to fight a proposed bus path back in 2015 (he was unsuccessful), and Roger Hallam, an organic farmer who staged a hunger strike in 2017 to get King’s College London to divest from fossil fuel
occur with a warming of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.) areas that have been damaged back to life.” “But we’re no longer in a position to only reduce emissions. Wof care, especially if they aren’t native to the area; from the atmosphere. From our perspective, the most cost-effective way to do that is by bringing many scientists suggest the tipping point could newly planted trees often require a fair amount they envision planting saplings in the ground. But even if they do thrive, the resulting monocultural When most people think of reforestation, e have to actively remove carbon
forests are not as biologically diverse as naturally growing forests. Thus the process Conservation International supports in the Amazon—which is derived from the practices of indigenous people—instead involves spreading a mixture of around 90 different native seeds. In addition to being cost-effective and low-maintenance, this method produces thick growth that can absorb up to 40 times more carbon than a monocultural forest.
ing sure the process benefits them economically is Brazil, all Amazon landowners must maintain up essential, says MIndigenous people are paid to collect seeds and Conservation International–Brazil, since “if you don’t see a value in the forest, you cut it down.” In then spread them by hand; farmers also spread to 80 percent of their land as forest, and many of the acres Conservation International hopes can be regenerated have been provided by farmers trying to come into compliance with the law. Engaging those who live in the area and mak-auricio Bianco, vice president of
have suggested that if 20 to 25 percent of the global climate emergency,” Bianco says. “WAmazon is cleared, it could reach its own tipping point and become a savanna. Already, 17 percent is gone. “If we lose the Amazon, we are not go-ing to reach what we need to do in terms of the the seeds with soybean machinery. Scientists start somewhere.” Conservation International is doing is a drop in the ocean of what is needed, but it’s important to ▪ hat
HUNDREDS OF KOALAS WERE RESCUED AND TREATED AT A MAKESHIFT FIELD HOSPITAL ON KANGAROO ISLAND OFF THE SOUTH COAST OF AUSTRALIA.
PERSPECTIVES|Fashioning Change