Global Warning
Global Warning is NGO Sustainability's monthly newsletter that covers the latest news in sustainability. Global Warning is written and edited entirely by our interns and features a variety of content, including articles, special reports, and book reviews.
Issue NO. 154 (August 2024)
This edition includes:
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A report on four SDGs post-COVID-19
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An inside look at "Matter of Degrees" Podcast
Issue NO. 153 (July 2024)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Vice President Kamala Harris
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A report on the overturning of Chevron Deference
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 152 (June 2024)
This edition includes:
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A biography on William Heher, a local leader and teacher at Trumbell Highschool in Trumbell, CT
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A report on World Environment Day
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 151 (May 2024)
This edition includes:
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A biography on John Podesta, the US Special Envoy for Climate
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A report on PFAs
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 150 (April 2024)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Leena Ylä-Monon the Executive Director of the European Environmental Agency
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A report on Earth Day 2024
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 149 (March 2024)
This edition includes:
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Art from Paul Bond - “The Waterhouse”
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A report on the United Nations Ocean Conference 2025
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 148 (February 2024)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Virginijus Sinkevičius, the European Commission's current Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries
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A report on energy justice in Puerto Rico
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 147 (January 2024)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Michael Bloomberg, a global leader in business and climate change advocacy
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A report on COP28 and plastic packaging
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 146 (December 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on the Director-General of the IRENA, Francisco La Camera
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A report on COP28 and the importance of trees
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 145 (November 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on US Economist and director for Columbia University's Sustainable Development, Jeffery Sachs
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A report on Danish Energy Resilience
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 144 (Ocotober 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on US actress and climate activist, Jane Fonda
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A report on UN Climate Goals and Achievements
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 143 (September 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Dr. Michal Mlynar
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A report on the Held v. State of Montana case
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The latest in sustainability news
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And more!
Special Edition: The Road to COP28
This edition is a special issue covering international negotiations and the state of our climate in the run up of this year's COP28 in Dubai.
Issue NO. 142 (August 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Jim Skea
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A report on upcoming UN summits
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The latest in sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 141 (July 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Governor Jay Inslee
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A report on NGO Sustainability at the HLPF
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The latest in sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 140 (June 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Ajay Banga
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A report on the recent Canadian wildfires.
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A book review of "The Atlas of Disappearing Places"
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And more!
Issue NO. 139 (May 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Rena Lee
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An report on the 28th Session of the ISA
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A book review of "Nowhere Left to Go"
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A selection of the latest sustainability news
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And more!
Issue NO. 138 (February 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Csaba Kőrösi
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An update on COP28
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A report on the 2023 UN Water Conference
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A report on the U.S. Bipartisan Senate Ocean Caucus
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An introductory analysis of Pratt's Sustainable Packaging Initative
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And more!
Issue NO. 137 (January 2023)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Sheldon Whitehouse
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Poetry by Sylvia Stults
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An introductory report on the Tennessee Clean Water Network
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A final analysis of COP27
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And more!
Issue NO. 136 (November 2022)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Simon Stiell
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A preliminary report on COP27
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And more!
Issue NO. 135 (October 2022)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Yvon Chouinard
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Poetry by Sylvia Stults
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A report on the Earthshot Prize Council
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A report on artist Duke Riley's Brooklyn Museum exhibition, DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash
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And more!
Issue NO. 134 (September 2022)
This edition includes:
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A biography on Inger Anderson
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Poetry by Hilda Raz
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Information on Climate Week NYC
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A special report on the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
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A book report on "Breaking Boundaries: The Science of our Planet"
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And recent sustainability news!
Issue NO. 133 (August 2022)
Featuring:
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A biography on David Wallace-Wells
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Poetry by Caroline Ebeid
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A special report on the 2022 UN World Ocean Conference
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And recent sustainability news!
Issue NO. 132 (July 2022)
Featuring:
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A biography on Hazel Henderson
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Poetry by Simon Barraclough
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A special report on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
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And recent sustainability news!
Margaret Renkl
Margaret Renkl, is an American nature writer and New York Times opinion columnist who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Renkl is the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (Milkweed Editions, 2019) and Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South (Milkweed Editions, 2021. She’s a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina. In her nonfiction book, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss, she interweaves short pieces on nature and the natural world with family stories and memories from Renkl's life. In her other book, Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and...
Art Cooley
Art Cooley, was a high school biology teacher who was part of a small band of people whose concerns about issues like the toxicity of the pesticide DDT led them in the late 1960s to start the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which went on to become one of the nation’s largest environmental organizations. Cooley died on Sunday January 30, 2022 in Grand Junction, Colorado at the age of 87. In the fall of 1965, he and about two dozen scientists, conservationists and high school students began gathering monthly in their homes in New York’s Long Island. They discussed environmental issues facing Island including preserving wildlife habitats and solutions to address the issue of groundwater...
Elon Musk
From his advocacy to his companies, he is without doubt, one of today’s most prominent influencers when it comes to climate issues. Elon Musk co-founded and leads Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and
The Boring Company. As the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon leads all product design, engineering and global manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, battery products and solar energy products. Since the company’s inception in 2003, Tesla’s mission has been to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. Tesla launched Model S sedan in 2012 which received Consumer Reports’ Best Overall Car and has been named ultimate car of the year by Motor Trend...
Dr. E.O. (Edward Osborne) Wilson
Dr. E.O. Wilson, an evolutionary biologist, author, and professor, who produced groundbreaking research on biodiversity, passed away this month. He was considered the world’s leading expert in myrmecology: the study of ants. He wrote influential scientific books, two of which, titled “On Human Nature” and “The Ants,” won of the Pulitzer Prize.
Dr. Wilson co-authored a book that proposed the theory of island biogeography, which states that larger islands have a greater number of species than smaller islands. This theory became essential to conservation biology, as researchers could use it to predict how many extinctions would follow habitat destruction. By the 1980s, more species...
Looking Towards Glasgow Webinar.
The question before us as we anticipate the opening of the Glascow Conference, COP26, in a few days, is whether the decision makers there will listen to the science, reflect on the many climate related catastrophes the world has experienced since the Paris Agreement in 2015, and agree to action plans to match all our aspirations. What are those aspirations... to slow, then reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the increasing, nearing irreversible climate changes that we have all witnessed in these past years.
“Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Study of Humanity’s Role in Changing Climate”
The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to three scientists, Klaus Hasselmann, Giorgio Parisi, and and Sykuro Manabe, for their creation of climate models that have been foundational to our understanding of climate change. Dr. Manabe, a meteorologist and climatologist at Princeton University, has been credited for creating the first computer model that connected carbon dioxide emissions to global warming. Dr. Hasselmann, a physicist and oceanographer, created a model that connected weather phenomena to long term climatic trends. Finally, Dr. Parisi, a theoretical physicist, discovered the interconnections between disorder and fluctuations in natural systems like the Earth’s climate. This marks the first time a Nobel Prize has been awarded for climate science...
“Finding the Will to Stave off a Darker Future”
Humanity has known of the threat that climate change poses since 1988 when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was founded, and climate scientist James Hansen declared that “the greenhouse effect has been detected, it is changing our climate now” to the U.S. senate. In the three decades since, we have done little to prepare for the coming challenges, especially in the U.S., the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases. The U.S. has hindered and wasted global opportunities to combat climate change from rendering the Rio Declaration of 1992 toothless, congress not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, always claiming that the U.S. bore a disproportionate burden to reduce their gargantuan amount of emissions...
Patricia Epinosa
In July 2016, Patricia Espinosa took office as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international initiative designed to prevent anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from altering the earth’s climate, ecosystems, and humanity’s food security, and development. She is also a member of International Gender Champions, a network of leaders dedicated to gender equality.
Prior to her UNFCCC appointment, Executive Secretary Espinosa served as the ambassador of Mexico to multiple countries and as Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 until 2012. She specializes in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality, and human rights. She has assisted the Secretary-General, the United Nations System, and Parties to the Framework in securing the Paris Agreement in 2015.
DR. YOGI GOSWAMI, Ph.D., PE
Dr. D. Yogi Goswami is a Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Clean Energy Research Center at the University of South Florida. He is also a Co-Founder and Chief Science and Technology Advisor of Molekule, Inc.
He has published as an author or editor 22 books and more than 400 scientific papers. He is the emeritus editor-in-chief of the preeminent solar scientific journal Solar Energy. He also holds 31 patents and has been inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame.
Internships Lead to Job Opportunities
A Chance Meeting at NGO Sustainability Would Come Full Circle. Back in 2019, what now seems like an eternity ago, Muzna (a graduate student from Pakistan) was interning at NGO Sustainability where Melissa had interned the year before. In a brief meeting among some of the then-current and previous interns, Melissa shared with the group her experience entering grad school and the impact that Roma & NGO Sustainability had on her journey there. Little did they know, that connection would come full circle, bringing Muzna and Melissa to work and live together one year later.
At the close of the 2020 school year, Melissa and Muzna were both graduating from their graduate programs; Melissa with a Master of Science from the ESTEEM program at Notre Dame and Muzna with a Master of Science from the University of Michigan...
Francis A. Via, Ph.D.
Francis A. Via has more than 30 years of experience in directing industrial R&D, intellectual property, and market development at Stauffer Chemical Company, Akzo Nobel Inc., and GE. He achieved more than a dozen commercial successes with novel materials and advances in process technology. These yielded hundreds of millions of dollars in new markets or savings, in catalysts and separations processing, polymers, specialty chemicals, and pharmaceutical intermediates.
Dr. Via began his career with Stauffer Chemical Co. and, with its acquisition by Akzo Nobel in 1987, he became part of that R&D leadership team.
Architect Bruce Becker
Architect Bruce Becker is a graduate of the Yale School of Architecture, with a focus on sustainable design. Becker is also a developer, playing both roles for many of his projects—the majority of his buildings have achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification since the early 2000s. Becker believes that pursuing energy efficiency and sustainability is an essential part of design practice. Apart from the obvious environmental benefits, his methods save money on variable costs like electricity, heating, and cooling.
One of Becker’s current projects, an iconic building in New Haven designed by Marcel Breuer, has garnered attention for his goal of creating the first net-zero hotel in the country. In 1920 Breuer was one of the youngest students at the famous German art school, Bauhaus. During his time there he designed some of the most recognizable chairs in the world, the Wassily and the Cesca Chair.
Bill McKibbin, "the nation's leading environmentalist"
As author and journalist, Bill McKibben has mobilized increasing popular support and stronger action against the threat of global climate change within the United States. Born in Palo Alto, McKibben received his B.A. from Harvard University and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities. In 1981, McKibben interviewed former president Ronald Reagan, and it was this interview that prompted him to dedicate his life to environmental protection. McKibben, a global thinker, has educated citizens through his 17 published books. The End of Nature, released in 1989, pushed boundaries, regarded as the first book about climate change for a general audience. Bill, known as the nation’s leading environmentalist, also frequently contributed to magazines such as the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and Mother Jones.
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist and activist
Like the waves of the ocean that she has dedicated her life to protect, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a force to be reckoned with. Widely considered the most influential marine biologist of our time, Johnson began her career with a BA in environmental science and public policy from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her dissertation focused on the ecology, socio-economics, and sustainable management of coral reefs. She has continued this multi-disciplinary focus throughout her career by specializing in urban ocean conservation. As a Black woman who spent her childhood in Brooklyn, New York, Johnson is adamant that sustainable ocean solutions should be intersectional.
David Attenborough, English broadcaster and natural historian
With pleasant emphatics and a grandfatherly kindness, the English broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough has inspired global passions for nature and awe at Earth’s vast grandeur. He began his career with the BBC in 1952, and in 1954 he had his first television series called Zoo Quest, where he and a reptile curator, Jack Lester, filmed live animals in the wild and in zoos. Although only his first show, it expanded the BBC’s scope of educational programming offerings. In 1972, after 20 years, he left the BBC to work on personally-written and narrated freelance projects, winning multiple BAFTAs and Emmy’s...
“No, Wind Farms Aren't the Main Cause of the Texas Blackouts”
Individuals incorrectly blamed Texas' widespread electricity failure during the recent storm on renewable energy. The governor of Texas responded to the events saying, "It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas as well as other states to make sure we will be able to heat our homes."...
“Can climate change action lead to better inclusion?”
It is widely recognized that climate change perpetuates social inequalities. Individuals who are economically and socially marginalized are likely to be the most impacted by the consequences of climate change. Geographically, Asia faces immense vulnerability due to their amount of low-lying coastal areas. Demographically, the United Nations estimated that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women and only 30% of members of national and global climate negotiating bodies are women...
"Democracy is a fragile thing, and it requires constant tending and vigilance to survive”
The appointment of former Secretary of State John Kerry as the Special Presidential Climate Envoy marks a historic first. Never before in United States history has there been a climate-oriented cabinet-level position on the National Security Council. Both President Joe Biden and Kerry have committed to major climate action...
"Chinese Eco-Activist: Ou “Howey” Hongyi"
Ou “Howey” Hongyi (欧泓奕) is an eco-activist representing China and her city of Guilin as part of the Fridays for Future movement. Ou, recently turned 18, has been greatly influenced by 17-year-old Swedish eco-activist Greta Thunberg; recognized for her bold activism following her school strikes in Sweden...
"The Maritime Aquarium"
The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, CT plays an important role in both monitoring ecosystem health and educating the local community. Originally founded in 1988, Maritime staff includes experts in the fields of conservation and animal husbandry...
“The Role of the Ocean in Climate Change and Sea Level Rise” Webinar
On Thursday, October 8th, NGO Sustainability Co-Hosted a UN Side Event: “The Role of the Ocean in Climate Change and Sea Level Rise.” The webinar was co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Portugal, Kenya, and Sri Lanka, and Roth Capital...
"Representative Lucy Dathan Runs for a Second Term"
Representative Lucy Dathan has been a tireless champion for environmental protection throughout her career and she firmly believes that no matter what, everyone deserves the right to clean air and water...