We began our Environmental Progress News as a way to share positive steps that were being done to address climate change. Our focus has always been biochar. Biochar Growing as a Frontrunner Solution What is biochar? Arti‘s video gives a clear overview of what it is, how it is made, and why it is so…
Big Results in 2022! Our Biochar Project has grown by leaps and bounds this past year. Below is a recap from our Vice President Jason Highberger. He wrote “It’s kind of funny now but at the start of the year we were hoping that we could achieve 100 t CO2eq by the end of 2022…needless to…
Fire season – fueled by Global Warming? Have you noticed the increase in forest fires over the years? It is not your imagination, it is just another sign of the impact global warming is having on our environment. Over the past 5 years fire seasons have begun earlier, lasted longer, with more intense heat. We…
Bringing it down! In March of this year, we announced Biochar Life successfully completed the European Biochar Certification (“EBC”) standard for Artisan Farmer accreditation audit with the Ithaka Institute. Biochar Life is among the first organizations in the world to receive the new EBC “tropical farmer” accreditation. “Smallholder farmers in the developing world have the…
Sustainable Transportation is Our Future Reducing our Dependency on Fossil Fuels There are so many contributing factors to climate change, and each problem area needs to be clearly identified and solutions applied if we are going to succeed in reducing/reversing climate change. Warm Heart’s focus is on agricultural waste, we have identified the problem, and…
Harnessing the Power of the Sun August is the hottest month of the year. Temperatures continue to rise, reaching new highs, bringing extreme heat waves, increased fire activity, and drought as the soil bakes and dries out. Thousands and thousands of people have died this year across the globe from the extreme heat. The increase…
Global Warming – A blessing in disguise? Rather than view it as a disaster about to strike, how about we look at it as a wake up call that we can do better? When you think about it, the things we have done to create an imbalance in nature that has brought on climate change…
What is Carbon? Too much carbon is being blamed for causing global warming. What exactly is carbon? Watch this video “Keeping Up With Carbon” to get a better grasp of what carbon is and where the problem is. Decarbonization: What It Is and Why It Matters? by Jasmine Gordon In the growing discourse about climate…
How Affluent is Your Lifestyle? by Carol Culver De Leo Each and every one of us has our own unique carbon footprint based on our lifestyle choices. The way we choose to live our lives has an impact on our environment and on each other. For some of us our footprint is smaller due to…
Carbon Overload Think of it this way. You are filling your bathtub for a nice relaxing soak. Let’s say your cell phone rings, you step outside to answer the call and get distracted. Your tub continues to fill and begins to overflow. Before you know it, your house is totally flooded, your children are floating…
Marking a Milestone The Big News! Biochar Life, PBC, (“Biochar Life”) an impact venture of Warm Heart Worldwide (“Warm Heart”) is pleased to announce the completion of their European Biochar Certification (“EBC”) standard for tropical farmer accreditation audit with the Ithaka Institute. Biochar Life is among the first organizations in the world to receive the…
How can we improve this world we all share? Our world needs to change. How we live. How we treat one another. How we balance human needs with the environment and all the life we share our earth with. Unfortunately, we have neglected to pay attention to the damage that was being done to our…
New Year Resolutions Many see the beginning of the New Year as a time to make a commitment to improving their lives through New Year’s Resolutions. Quit smoking, lose weight, get more exercise, read more, reduce my carbon footprint, the list goes on. For some unfortunately the resolutions are broken within a few days of…
Our newsletter format is still in a metamorphosis stage! This month’s issue provides a simplified overview of climate change and how it affects all of us. It is important to first understand what changes are occurring and why, and what we can do to bring a balance back to our environment. Impacts of a Changing…
A Few of Our Favorites We are working on big changes to our Environmental Newsletter which we will reveal in our November issue. Stay tuned! This month we are highlighting our favorite articles and features from 2021. We hope you enjoy this stroll down memory lane and maybe check out some of the issues you…
Tackling Climate Change Head On Carbon sinks are one of the most productive solutions for tackling climate change. This month’s articles explore: Why “Keep Carbon” in the Soil? How Do We Convince Farmers to Stop Burning? Africa: Turning a Major Problem into a Grand Solution Why Smallholder Farmers are Important Players How to Reduce Your…
Stories of Inspiration When we first started our Environmental Progress Newsletter our focus was on shining a beacon of hope by sharing stories of progress in finding and enacting solutions to global warming. Our area of activity is in biochar and reforestation, demonstrating how it can be done and is a big part of the…
Get Thrifting! By Petra Nordal, Age 16 One of the most trendy and accessible ways to be sustainable is thrifting. The fashion industry is 10% of the entire population’s carbon emissions. Transportation of clothes, manufacturing, throwing them away all contribute to the fashion industry’s carbon footprint.The fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water…
Carbon Removal One Drop Too Many When I was a child, i loved frogs. I was so happy the day I finally caught one! I took him home with me to keep him as a pet. I had no place to keep him, so I made him a home in the basement of our house….
Strong Communities Make a Better World Every community has an opportunity to address local issues that are contributing to climate change. The challenge is identifying the problem and then applying a solution. When members of a community come together great progress can be made to make changes to alleviate global warming. It all starts at…
Celebrating Earth Day 2021: Restoring Our Earth Why do we need to restore our earth? Our universal abuse of natural resources has created an imbalance in nature, contributing to the beginning of extinction. Over the last 100 years over 500 species have already gone extinct. If we do not act now many more animals face…
Stop the Smoke 2021 Once again we are headed into smoky season in Northern Thailand, India, and China, as farmers harvest their crops and burn the crop waste in open fields. Warm Heart’s Stop the Smoke campaign focuses on removing the source of the smoke before it becomes a problem. Our solution has been to…
Smoky Season is Around the Corner According to the UN report, “the share of small-scale food producers in terms of all food producers in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America ranges from 40 to 85 per cent”. If you live in a farming area you are probably inundated with smoke polluting your skies as…
2020 – Looking Back – And Forward! Everyone has experienced the impacts of the pandemic that swept across our world in 2020. For some the effects were disastrous, while for others it may have just been an inconvenience. Science is moving quickly, faster than ever before, to develop a vaccination to fight off COVID-19. Success…
Effects of Global Warming on Land and Sea When you hear the term “Global Warming” you may mistakenly assume that local temperatures will rise. What you need to understand is that global warming does not refer directly to your local weather. The impact of global warming affects our global climate, which then affects local weather….
We Are Not the First Sapiens to Experience the Impact of Climate Change Just the first with the capacity to respond to it! The climate change that we face today is not the first that has fundamentally altered life on earth. In fact, over the eons, the earth has grown hotter and colder several times…
Malthus’ Revenge or Human Creativity to the Rescue? By Dr. D. Michael Shafer, Co-Founder of Warm Heart Worldwide Massive fires are burning out of control in the American West. The Greenland ice cap is beyond repair. With one exception, world leaders are wringing their hands. Can we save civilization as we know it from climate…
Aftermath of COVID-19 The pandemic has had a huge impact on how we interact with one another. Our world has become more reliant on internet communication than ever before. This month we are going to take a lighter look at some of the impacts, and what repercussions and benefits we may expect from a growing…
Current World Crisis vs Growing Future Crisis: Climate Change Covid-19 – Not the First, Nor the Last Throughout history, disease outbreaks have ravaged humanity, sometimes changing the course of history and, at times, ending entire civilizations. Dating back as far as 5,000 years ago an epidemic wiped out the entire population of a prehistoric village…
It is alway heart warming when people reach out from around the world and share how they are using the technological information we provide. Each life we are able to touch and change makes every effort worthwhile! After viewing our video on how to make styrofoam bricks (what is called “thermocol” in India) Bharani reached…
Lockdown does not mean shutdown! We said, “Do something to Stop the Smoke!” Shangri-La Did! Keeping up with Gabriele Lombardo, General Manager of the Shangri-La Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, is hard. The wiry Sicilian never stops and never stops doing and doing and doing…. Warm Heart sat down with Mr. Lombardo in October 2019…
Is there a silver lining? The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted our normal lives, to put it mildly. Is there any silver lining to this dark cloud? We think so. We think that the pandemic’s silver lining is the life raft Covid has thrown the world by stopping those normal lives long enough for the environment…
As we enter April we hope you and your family are safe and staying home to help stop the spread of the Corona Virus. It is a different world right now. It is encouraging to see the world coming together (by staying apart!) to work together to eliminate the Corona Virus threat. We hope when…
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. International Women’s Day began in 1911 with the support of over a million people. The celebration has continued to grow around the globe, and is…
Climate Change, Food Security, and Biochar What do these all have in common? Climate change is impacting our food security, changing weather patterns are wreaking havoc on small farmers. According to UN reports, “the share of small-scale food producers in terms of all food producers in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America ranges from…
Best wishes for 2020! We are taking a break this month with our newsletter. Smokey season has already begun here in Northern Thailand, and we are putting a lot of energy into biochar training before the season hits us full blast. We hope to have really positive information to report soon. In the meantime, we…
We are trying something new with our December Newsletter! We are making it interactive, we hope you will be inspired and participate! The first 2 weeks of December United Nations Climate Conference will be meeting to discuss the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. Groups and individuals from around the globe are joining…
A simple technique for making biochar from crop waste is rapidly catching on and spreading through East Africa. Most of those who live in East Africa see wide, treeless vistas of straggly corn, degraded, dusty, red soil. Rains are increasingly unpredictable and storms more terrible. Temperatures are rising, crop pests multiplying and old diseases spreading…
The Power of One Thinking about climate change can be overwhelming. Too often people, like you and me, feel powerless to do anything significant to make a difference. I can recycle, and try to live my life leaving behind as small a carbon footprint as I can, but how is that going to help alleviate…
The Amazing Resilience of Mother Nature Chernobyl Revisited Thirty-three years ago the environment suffered from the disastrous meltdown at Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant. 30,000 people had to be evacuated, a 2,000 square mile area was designated as an uninhabitable Exclusion Zone. The damage to the local environment and wildlife within the exclusion zone was devastating….
Adjusting our Attitude in August Fashioning a Sustainable Trend in Conscious Consumer Clothing Environmentally Smart Movement – Buy less, choose well, make it last!!! “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. “– Chief Seattle,…
May your July be Joyful! It’s easy to point out what’s not working. To find solutions requires conscious action, effort, and positive energy. The world is facing a serious problem with plastic pollution. How can we turn this pollution problem into plastic possibilities, opportunities, and global goodness? “Turn your obstacles into opportunities and your problems…
Kudzu Come Kudzu Come Kudzu, conquer the Earth!Far worse than oxygen dearthA horrible greenhouse gasIs accumulating alas!Come cool the Earth ; breathe this menaceThat runs the earthly furnace.Overwhelm the forests of concrete,On every bare spot set your feet,Cover all the expanses in green;Let no naked ground be seen.Man cannot stop burning coal and gas,CO2 is…
A glimpse into the future Climate changes are already here. The people living in the African Sahel, located between the Sahara Desert and the equator, have always lived with an inhospitable climate. But now they are trying to survive the impacts of climate change – rising temperatures, prolonged drought and unpredictable weather patterns. Climate change…
Earth Day + Protect Our Species = Stop The Smoke What do all of these species have in common? (Hint: It is related to Climate Change) Answer: They are all facing extinction! (Click on any image to read about their plight) All species on earth are impacted by Climate Change. Since humans are assumed to…
What’s with the freezing temperatures? [smartslider3 slider=”6″] “We are witnessing the severe impacts of climate change throughout the world. Every credible scientific source is telling us that these impacts will only get worse if we do not address climate change and it also tells us that our window of time for addressing it is closing…
Current Environmental news that matters “Biochar can be used to address some of the most urgent environmental problems of our time – soil degradation, food insecurity, water pollution from agrochemicals, and climate change“Dr. Johannes Lehmann, Cornell University Our January issue focused on Biochar in Africa, highlighting Sister Miriam’s progress with her biochar project. This month…
Current Environmental news that matters The new year brings forth the promise of new success in our efforts to educate enough people about Biochar to have an impact. This month’s issue is focused on one such success from 2018. Help us make “biochar” a common, everyday word when talking about reversing climate change! Biochar in…
Fire Disasters Becoming Common
The 2018 fire season was extreme, causing devastation all around the world. Was this an unusual year or can we expect the same again? Is this the new norm?
Current Environmental news that matters Ocean Plastics November’s issue of Environmental Progress News looks at ocean plastics and why it is such a big deal, why you should care, what is being done, and what still needs to be done. Long Term Problem In 1907 when Bakelite first started the plastics revolution, they were not kidding…
Current Environmental news that matters Just Say No Last month we highlighted the story about Rise for Climate and how they were organizing rallies in cities and towns around the world to say “No more fossil fuel!”. Results? September 8th on 7 continents, in 95 countries, with 900+ actions, people worldwide demanded real climate action from…
Current Environmental news that matters Time for Action “We have to wake up to the fierce urgency of the now” Jim Yong Kim, President, The World Bank Mother Nature has been giving us a glimpse of what to expect in the way of climate change impacts from global warming. Extreme flooding in July, raging forest…
News Archive August 2018: Environmental News that matters Rising Waters July brought many weather related disasters around the world. Two major crisis, both related to rising waters, were covered internationally. “Global warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening.” James Hansen The Power of Water The flooding in Japan demonstrates the striking…
June 2018 Archive June 2018 Archive of Environmental Progress News offers two articles, “How We Think About Green Matters” and “Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors Across Cultures”. Where Do We Go From Here? We are living in an unsustainable world. How do you get 6 Billion People to wake up before it is too late? What…
Balance of Nature Unintentional consequences A case in Borneo illustrates the delicate balance of nature and the unintended consequences of human intervention.Back in the early 50s an outbreak of malaria in Borneo led the World Health Organization (WHO) to bring in massive amounts of DDT to kill the malaria carrying mosquitoes. They were successful in…
Earth Day 2018: End Plastic Pollution Plastic pollution litters our beaches and landscapes, clogs our waste streams and landfills, seeps its way into our oceans, killing marine life, infiltrating our food supply. Unless we take meaningful, positive steps to address the issue continued exponential growth of plastics threatens the survival of our planet. In response,…
Carbon Imbalance Last month our Environmental Progress News focused on the impacts of climate change. This month we are looking at what is triggering global warming, and causing drastic changes to our climate. There is no question about the damage excess carbon in the atmosphere (known as CO2) is causing. We have identified the problem, now…
Impacts of a Changing Climate There is no debate about whether our climate is changing. What we need to do is look at how climate change is impacting our world, understand what further changes to expect, and find ways to adapt. How do we survive, thrive? We can start with the most obvious, the melting…
Environmental Progress News January, 2018 “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” ~ Socrates New Year’s Resolutions What were your New Year’s Resolutions, if any? Some people pledge to themselves to quit smoking, eat less, lose weight, exercise more, spend more…
Environmental Progress News December, 2017 “The language may be different but the heart is the same. We are all one. We have a responsibility to each other and the world.” ~ Akiroq Brost – 195 Countries – – 6,909 Languages – – 4,200 Religions – – 6.5 Billion People – – 1 Mother Earth –…
Environmental Progress News November, 2017 “Let us take advantage of the opportunities presented by climate action and lay the foundations for a more prosperous and secure future for all.” ~ UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon Do Something! The 2016 Paris Climate Accord represented a huge diplomatic step forward as 168 countries agreed that we need to address…
Environmental News October, 2017 “All the human and animal manure which the world wastes, if returned to the land, instead of being thrown into the sea, would suffice to nourish the world” ~ Victor Hugo Ew! Getting down and dirty When you think of recycling, what comes to mind? Aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic bags, newspapers,…
Environmental News September, 2017 “There’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate.” ~ U.S. President Barack Obama What Can One Person Do? When you fully embrace the consequences of what we are facing with climate…
