%A #Muslim symposium in Istanbul encouraged interfaith dialogue about #climatechange: a lack of renewable resources and the need to find better alternatives.% - http://clapway.com/2015/08/21/muslim-leaders-against-climate-change-101/

At the International Islamic Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul earlier this week, audiences received a rich and passionate lesson on modern climate change. The two-day symposium was host to a variety of high-profile Islamic and non-practicing speakers; among them were professors, business-owners, religious leaders, UN representatives and others. The symposium encouraged interfaith dialogue about a worldwide problem: a lack of renewable resources and the urgency to find better alternatives.

CLIMATE CHANGE IS A QUESTION OF MORALS

“Faith communities increasingly recognize that the climate crisis is also a moral crisis,” reads the official Islamic Climate Declaration website. The group urges the Muslim public to acknowledge and fight the damages of climate change from a moral standpoint. Nearly 23% of the world’s population identifies as Muslim, and Islamic leaders assert that when united as a community this group has the ability to impact world-wide change through positive action. The Islamic Climate Declaration calls for renewable energy research and conscious, global efforts toward conservation and accountability — and asserts that it is a Muslim’s moral duty to work towards these ambitions.

IT’S “NOT MUSLIM” TO ALLOW ECOLOGICAL DISASTER

The group insists that those with Muslim faith know that humanity was born to serve Allah and to do well for other humans and creatures. The current gaining rate of climate change, they argue, is detrimental to our environment and goes against God’s will and his gifts — air, water, earth, the elements that allow us to live and continue on as a species. From the Islamic Climate Declaration’s viewpoint, it is crucial to honor the earth, as the earth was borne of God.

CATHOLICS ALSO CONCERNED FOR ENVIRONMENT’S FUTURE

Said Islamic leaders are not the only religious icons who have recently called for faith-inspired conservation efforts. Pope Francis, Catholicism’s oft controversial current pontiff, published his encyclical Laudato si’ (Praise Be to You, subtitled On care for our common home) in late May 2015. In it, he decries environmental decline and calls upon humanity to take immediate action in view of global warming. Both the Islamic Climate Change Declaration and Pope Francis call for the end of short-sightedness and suggest that what’s truly vital lies within the bigger picture: humanity’s long-term impact on the planet. “What will future generations say of us, who leave them a degraded planet as our legacy? How will we face our Lord and Creator?” the Islamic Climate Declaration asks. Religious leaders are changing the dialogue on global climate change, and appealing to the moral dilemma may prove rewarding in their case.

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Muslim Leaders Demand Immediate Force Against Climate Change

Why This New Adidas Shoe Concept Is an Environmental Game Changer - http://clapway.com/2015/07/05/why-this-new-adidas-shoe-concept-is-an-environmental-game-changer870/

I recently had a conversation with a friend about recycling and how vital it is to the Earth that we do so. He didn’t really understand why it was so imperative and even told me, “I don’t believe in that.” Of course, we all hear about recycling constantly from Public Service Announcements and so-called yuppies that drive their Priuses to work and stand outside of schools with their clipboards making people late for class, “Can I talk to you for a moment about how you can save the whales?” But have you physically seen any of the damage being done?

What Happens When We Don’t Recycle?

Several beaches around the North Pacific Ocean become littered with marine debris. These patches of beaches are known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and span from the west coast of North America all the way to Japan. According to recent findings, National Geographic tells us that 70% of the trash collected in the ocean sinks to the bottom floor.

We also have an overabundance of landfills. Various landfills turn out to be buried over and, after a certain amount of time, become the new home to parks and golf courses, or other recreation areas. Isn’t that a lovely image in your head, taking your kids to the park that was once a landfill full of many different kinds of waste? However, there is some good that might come from newer landfills. Decomposing trash specifically creates Methane gas, which some landfills will collect and convert to an alternate energy source.

The New Adidas Shoe Concept

The company is attempting to aid in the environmental fight against excess trash with a new Adidas shoe concept, made almost entirely out of ocean debris collected by The Sea Shepard Conservation Society. Even the net used to gather the trash was incorporated into the design. They announced Monday that they had created the initial prototype, an idea that comes from a new partnership between Adidas and Parley for the Oceans. Parley is an environmental organization that is attempting to stop pollution of the oceans, and will likely gain extra attention after this partnership. This specific shoe may or may not ever come to fruition, but the company is said to begin incorporating more recycled plastic into its shoe lines by early 2016. The goal was to show people what great accomplishments we are capable of when we put effort into coming up with an action plan to find a solution to the problem.

As you’ve seen from my previous blogs, I deeply care about the way we treat our earth and I am passionate about informing people, specifically due to the fact that I myself was uninformed for quite a while. I think it’s incredible that a giant corporate company like Adidas is not only showing support for this cause, but also setting the example that successful action can be taken. Ultimately, we can aid in the rehabilitation of our environment when we recycle and use recycled goods like the new Adidas shoe concept.

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Why This New Adidas Shoe Concept Is an Environmental Game Changer

Don"t be a doomsayer about dooms day. We"re already making it! - http://clapway.com/2015/06/29/the-myth-of-the-sixth-mass-extinction-how-fear-draws-attention-from-conservation-234/

While a study published last week about the sixth mass extinction is still spreading across the internet, scientists and conservationists are urging the public to redirect their efforts from the study’s fear-mongering media hype towards a more productive focus on active conservation changes.

Is The Sixth Mass Extinction a Myth?

As social media continues to fan the flames of our impending self-destruction in the “sixth mass extinction,” the much-sensationalized study is drawing criticism from the scientific community. The study was co-published in Science Advances by Gerardo Ceballos and Paul Ehrlich.

Ehrlich’s credentials should not be discredited as he is well-known in the scientific community. However, he has also been dubbed the Doomsday Prophet Professors by some for his incredulous cataclysmic warnings of certain doom, all of which have been, so far, false.

The new study concludes that with current estimates, there has been “an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity” that proves the sixth mass extinction isn’t just coming, it’s already upon us.

Study Findings and Dissent from the Scientific Community

While the study isn’t inaccurate, scientists and researchers want the public to know there is a sixth mass extinction underway. However, this event, called the Holocene extinction has been happening for the past 12,000 years. Yes, we are in the sixth mass extinction. Yes, many thousands of species have been eliminated (between 20,000 to over hundreds of thousands). But no, it’s not the time to give up all hope and accept the cruel fate we have thrown upon ourselves.

The study pins humans as the primary cause for the extinction with the researchers estimating that the extinction count is at 477 species over the last 10,000 years. Ehrlich says this rate of species extinction is the highest ever in 65 million years.

Some researchers dissent from this finding, including mass extinction expert Seth Finnegan.

“This study doesn’t take the inferential approach. They are tallying up well-documented, well-observed extinctions of mammals,” says Finnegan, assistant professor in the integrative biology department at UC Berkeley.

Don’t Lose Hope! Alleviating the Sixth Mass Extinction Damage through Conservation Efforts

Many news sources have cited the study as evidence that we currently in the sixth mass extinction, which has started and is being increasingly exacerbated by human existence. With thousands of species being threatened within these reports of mass extinction, the public response has been one of generalized fear and hopelessness, which is precisely the opposite of what scientists are urging us to do with this recently highlighted information.

The study also concluded that it “is still possible through intensified conservation efforts” to slow down the rate at which the extinction is moving. Rather than rely on the fatalistic terms of Erhlich, who insisted we are “sawing off the limbs that we are sitting on,” we can apply the knowledge gleaned from the study to focus on how we can improve our situation as recommended by a world leader in present-day extinctions.

Dr. Stuart L. Pimm suggests that conservationists should not be doomsayers, but instead should spend time using the very innovations that garnered the fear-mongering results to prevent extinctions. In a study published last year, Pimm offers a different view of the current mass extinction that focuses on protecting nature and providing suggestions to diminish its effects.

Rather than accept our doomed fate as one of extinction, with concentrated, real conservation efforts, we can alleviate the effects of the sixth mass extinction, bringing hope to the world rather than casting a dim shadow on our lives.

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Be inspired by nature’s abilities with Atmoph:

The Myth of the Sixth Mass Extinction: How Fear Draws Attention from Conservation