Tag: water

Chocolate?

Can Chocolate Be Sustainable?

Today, the demand for chocolate continues to rise while the effects of climate change threaten to impact chocolate production. Chocolate is sweet, but what about its environment impact?

Cacao production was predominately in West Africa, however, it has expanded to South America to keep up with the market. Some research suggests that cacao farmers clear tropical forests to plant new cacao trees rather than reusing previously used land, becoming one of the leading causes of deforestation. 

A study in 2012 investigated the effects of deforestation and found that their sample cacao plantation could store approximately 40 metric tons of carbon per hectare over its production lifetime! The World Resource Institute did the math and if you apply this to a 2,000 hectare planation–YIKES! The net carbon emissions from land-use change will be 0.6 million metric tons (more than 660,000 tons) of carbon dioxide.

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Why Ayana Johnson’s Educating for Sustainability talk blew my mind

Photo by Jenny Levine

On April 2nd, 120 students, faculty and curious New Yorkers alike filled into Kimmel to hear Educating for Sustainability’s 2018 speaker, Dr. Ayana Johnson. I wrote a Women’s (Green) History Month spotlight about Dr. Johnson, so I already knew she was an impressive individual, but her talk kind of blew my mind.

Many of the people in the audience were interested in topics of sustainability and ocean conservation, but we all had something to learn from Dr. Johnson’s pioneering work. 

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Women’s (Green) History Month: Ayana Johnson

Courtesy of www.aauw.org

In the last installment of Women’s Green History Month we honor NYU Environmental Science Department’s very own, Dr. Ayana Johnson. A mentor to many in ES, the Brooklyn native attended Harvard then graduate school at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Dr. Johnson was not satisfied just seeking a career in marine biology (which is already a pretty cool job) but decided to amplify her skills and talent for public speaking and pursued the often frustrating effort to change policy.

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Women’s (Green) History Month Spotlight: Ta’Kaiya Blaney

Courtesy of owlconnected.com

Another week, another amazing environmentalist to celebrate. In honor of the second week of Women’s History Month I present you a truly inspiring young woman, Ta’Kaiya Blaney. 

Blaney is from the Tla’Amin First Nation in Canada and witnessed firsthand the effects of deforestation. The British Columbian logging industry’s rapid pace made it so that her Nation’s elders could no longer build traditional canoes.  

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Women’s (Green) History Month Spotlight: Sunita Narain

Courtesy of Wikimedia

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating four leading ladies of sustainability. Whether they are prominent in environmental activism, climate research or just plain awesome we want you to know the important and diverse faces of the modern green movement.

The first spotlight is activist Sunita Narain, one of  India’s most respected environmentalists. She led the Centre for Science and Environment since 1982 where she’s been busy fighting for better air quality in one of the world’s most polluted cities, New Delhi. 

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