Environment
We believe in creating a world with sustainable and equitable stewardship of Earth’s ecosystems for optimal functioning both globally and locally. Environmental sustainability encompasses a large number of areas, including biodiversity, oceans and water, forests, land, natural resources, global warming, air pollution, ecosystem management, disasters, chemicals, waste, and more. Clearly, the environment global grand challenge is closely linked to other GGCs including food, energy, prosperity, water, health, and disaster resilience.
According to the World Resource Institute, more than 30 percent of the world’s forests have been cleared, another 20 percent have been logged and identified as downgraded, and much of the rest has been fragmented—only about 15 percent of the world’s forests are left intact. National Geographic notes that half of deforestation is due to farming, livestock grazing, mining, and drilling. According to the UN SDGs,more than 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods and ecosystems as a whole are linked to $125 trillion in human livelihoods and well-being per year. Furthermore, the World Wildlife Fund says that forests are home to 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and are critical to mitigating climate change and supporting other ecosystems.
Similarly, the World Wildlife Fund notes that oceans contain the greatest diversity of species on the planet, feed more than one billion people per year, and are also critical to mitigating climate change and supporting other ecosystems. The UN SDGs note that more than three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. Oceans are facing overfishing, warming and acidification, the loss of coral reefs, and pollution, especially by plastics.
Climate change is also a critical threat to humanity. According to NASA,rising temperatures due to human activity are simultaneously melting ice caps—resulting in rising ocean levels that threaten societies—and creating heat waves, droughts, floods, and other
Articles – Good topics for articles include anything related to your company – recent changes to operations, the latest company softball game – or the industry you’re in. General business trends (think national and even international) are great article fodder, too.
Mission statements – You can tell a lot about a company by its mission statement. Don’t have one? Now might be a good time to create one and post it here. A good mission statement tells you what drives a company to do what it does.
Company policies – Are there company policies that are particularly important to your business? Perhaps your unlimited paternity/maternity leave policy has endeared you to employees across the company. This is a good place to talk about that.
Executive profiles – A company is only as strong as its executive leadership. This is a good place to show off who’s occupying the corner offices. Write a nice bio about each executive that includes what they do, how long they’ve been at it, and what got them to where they are weather patterns that impact agriculture. Industrialization not only impacts the climate, but also causes air pollution, which the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates results in 4.2 million deaths per year. Additionally, WHO estimates that more than 91 percent of the world’s population now lives in areas where air pollution exceeds healthy limits. A number of exponential technologies can help solve the environment global grand challenge. Satellites, drones, robotics, and sensors are improving the collection of environmental data as well as contributing to concrete solutions that can help restore the environment. For example, the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch program combines satellite data with crowdsourced data to monitor deforestation and makes it actionable to governments, companies, journalists, and citizen groups. Rainforest Connection and tribes in the Amazon have used Google’s open source AI software TensorFlow to create a scalable real-time alert system for illegal logging in the Amazon. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has opened up satellite data on oceans to the world, helping more people participate in scientific research and solutions. Similarly, space companies like Planet Labs provide satellite data on fishing boats, oil spills, and maritime activity.In May of 2019, the XPRIZE Foundation awarded prizes to several companies working in autonomous ocean exploration, including ones mapping the seafloor and detecting underwater biological and chemical signals.Tools like FishFace, developed by the Nature Conservancy and Refind Technologies, are creating image recognition techniques to better manage fish. Greenwave is pioneering high-tech underwater farms to grow sustainable seafood as well as transition fishing communities into 21st century jobs. The Ocean Cleanup Project is building autonomous, energy-neutral, scalable boats with the goal of cleaning up more than five trillion tons of pollution that currently litter the oceans, starting with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
In addition, innovations in the food industry like cultured meat, and energy industries like renewables, are promising given that environmental destruction, pollution, and global warming are largely caused by these two sectors.
