Blogs
REDD+
As part of REDD+, industrialised countries have agreed to reduce their carbon dioxide productions. They have also agreed to slow down, if not stop altogether, deforestation. Another aim of the agreement is to bring back traditional flora and fauna, while also reducing poverty in the areas where REDD+ will take place. REDD+'s main solution is to make a tree more valuable to be left standing than to be cut down. This allows forests to remain to retain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, effectively reducing the effects of excess carbon on climate change.
Lubicon Solar Energy Initiative
The Lubicon solar energy initiative in northern Canada is run by the indigenous people in Alberta. After a pipeline owned by Plains Midstream Canada leaked 28,000 barrels of crude oil near Little Buffalo, the Lubicon Lake Band decided to chart a new course for its community. With hopes of a cleaner future, the Band built the Piitapan Solar Project: an 80-panel installation. Today, the Piitapan project feeds clean green energy into the community’s health centre, and ensures renewable energy will be available for the community’s future generations. Support from Bullfrog customers provided the initial funding for the 80-panel installation. Activist and student Melina Laboucan says it's one small part of what she hopes will be a larger movement in the community to stop the overuse of oil and gas. Laboucan said putting a community-owned solar installation in the middle of oil country sends a message to the Canadian and Alberta governments to move towards renewable energy. Using the sun to power the community's health centre will save thousands of dollars in electricity costs. She says it is guaranteed to last at least 25 years but could work for 50 years. Laboucan says it wasn't easy to get the project off the ground. She raised money for more than a year and eventually collected more than $45,000. The project received money from energy and environmental organizations, and from actress and activist Jane Fonda. The panels are raised more than 4 metres in the air — the 20.8 kilowatt system produces 24,750 kilowatts hours of usable energy every year. Since Alberta is one of the sunniest provinces in Canada, including the reflection off the snow in the winter, it could lead to a booming industry in the province.
Fracking Protests in Algeria
Fracking is the process of drilling into the earth to release and collect natural gas. As well as releasing polluting gas into waterways, and possibly increasing earthquakes, escaped gas spills into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.In 2015, in response to fracking in Algeria, Mahad Gasmi and others protested against fracking through a series of protests and sit-ins.
Mahad Gasmi reported that:
“Fracking operations have been suspended until now which in my opinion is a major success, even if only symbolic.”
Thus, protests are effective to a degree against specific causes of climate change.
Indigenous Environmental Network
The Indigenous Environmental Network aims to reduce a number of environmental and economic justice issues including climate change. The IEN creates Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities. Through their protection of sacred forested lands, they contribute to the amount of trees which retain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Analysis: How Effective is Each Strategy
REDD+ is very effective in reducing carbon in the atmosphere as trees retain and store carbon. The Lubicon Solar Initiative reduces contributing factors to climate change as it means that energy will be sourced from renewable solar energy rather than oil. However, this could be further improved if the Government funded a solar energy initiative to promote the widespread use of solar energy. The protests to fracking in Algeria caused fracking to be suspended; however, this is only a temporary fix to a regional issue. The indigenous Environmental Network helps reduce the number of sacred sites destroyed by developers. This helps reduce the number of forested areas cut down (which allows carbon to escape from the trees and enter the atmosphere), although this is not a widespread solution as these are small areas.
What are Effective Ways to Reduce Climate Change?
To reduce the effects of climate change, we must target major contributors to greenhouse gasses. By protesting and suspending fracking, producing clean renewable energy to replace fossil-fuel energy, and protecting carbon-retaining forests through REDD+ and the Indigenous Environmental Network, carbon emissions are effectively reduced. However, individually, these strategies do not significantly reduce climate change and its effects; to successfully do this, we must employ a range of strategies which combine to reduce the threat of warming temperatures on our Earth.
By: Erin McConnell, Claire Curtis, Rhys Simpson and Amy Tomlinson
