Change Leadership – Page 19 – Anne-Maria Yritys

Climate Change Affects ALL Countries

October 20, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“UN Sustainable Development Goals. Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent, disrupting national economies and affecting lives.”

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If not many times before, year 2017 has proved how anthropogenic climate change effects countries and people around the world. Scientific research, even within climate research, of course has to extend over longer periods of time, suggesting that the disastrous climatic events that have occurred in 2017 will not immediately be acknowledged as human-caused climate change, but rather be added to long-term evaluations/observations of the world´s climate.

Whether anthropogenic or not, the continuous disastrous climate events around the world, including the unapologetically strong hurricanes Harvey and Irma that hit the East Coast of the United States this autumn, the still ongoing immensely destructive wildfire in Northern California, the loss of 40% of this year´s total crop yield in Finland due to excess rainfall, one of the worst droughts for decades hitting Southern Europe and destroying majority of crop in 2017, floods killing more than 1.200 people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal – is there any country that has not yet suffered from some kind of climate change related disaster in 2017?

The costs of the hurricanes Harvey and Irma alone in the United States could rise up to as high as 200 BILLION USD (200.000.000.000). Human (and, animal) lives being saved is of course more important than any amount of money, but can we afford these kinds of climate change and weather-related events? It is a fact that preventing further harm and taking necessary action will spare all of us and, in the long run, protect all of us from further damage and harm. It was not until the disastrous tsunami hit the South East Asia that the affected countries invested heavily into early (tsunami) warning systems, and e.g. hotels installing tsunami escape route signs. What else has to happen until necessary actions are being taken?

Watch Sky News´s video “Climate Change: What Happens If The World Warms Up By 2°C:

UN: Take Urgent Action To Combat Climate Change

October 19, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“UN Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”

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In 2015 the UN launched its Sustainable Development Goals with a target of reaching these by 2030. When looking at these Sustainable Development Goals and analyzing them, you will soon realize what they all have in common: climate change and climate action. Putting these goals together as pieces of a puzzle one realizes that climate change (and, especially anthropogenic climate change) is a common denominator, having a significant impact upon our ability to solve all other major local/global problems, such as hunger and malnutrition, poverty, HIV/malaria and other major infectious diseases, child/maternal mortality rates and so on. Climate change, in fact, makes everything even worse than it already is, and the effects of climate change throughout the world are jeopardizing all the good work and all the achievements that have already been made in the past decades to achieve zero hunger around the world and so on. In addition, completely new problems, such as overweight and obesity, have risen throughout our world in the past decades.

The UN is often being criticized for inefficiency in tackling global problems, and reaching the goals that have been set. Much is being discussed about the UN as an organization needing a face-lift, or at least renewing the organization in some ways. Of course, all businesses and organizations, in addition to individuals, are in need of constant improvement and change, because change is the only constant in this world, and the most dangerous thing for anyone to say is that things have always been this way, or we have always done things this way. Any individual or organization making these kinds of statements is wrong, and swimming in very deep waters. Never ever take things for granted or expect them to remain similar for a very long time.

As an intergovernmental organization, UN member states have signed up to provide the organization with 0,7% of its national budget each year. Most of the member countries never deliver even half of this, while some countries pay more than 0,7% of the national budget as a support for the work provided by the UN. The reasons for this may differ from country to country, but it is a fact that the lower the budget, the more tight it becomes for the UN to reach its goals. And, with constant opposition around the world, with e.g. high levels of corruption, any (charitable) organization will face difficulties. Instead, try to focus upon the achievements of the UN, its positive influence in the world, all the data, research and statistics provided by the UN and its organizations. Without these, our world could look darker than it is today, along with the fact that the UN has, through its work, inspired new NGO´s and startups.

Climate Change Major Risk To Food And Nutrition Stability

October 19, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“FAO Strategy on Climate Change. Rome, July 2017. The risks to food and nutrition stability are aggravated by the expected increase of the frequency and intensity of climate-related events.”

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What kinds of climate-related events can you think of in your own living environment in the (recent) past that affected food (or, even fresh water) stability? Everyone who is consuming media products (i.e. reading/watching) news either in printed versions or digitally, has certainly become aware of a number of climate-related natural events, if not globally, at least locally. I have personally noticed that climate change-related news (broadcasting) has increased in the past years. To some extent, I maybe notice climate-related news since I am personally interested in the topic, but it certainly is not only a subjective perception. Perhaps, at this very moment, someone is conducting research upon the topic, or at least it could be a possible topic for research, especially since news are always to some extent locally tailored, and we do cannot read/watch everything on the news what is happening worldwide (unless we specifically do research upon a specific topic/geographical area).

Following article, published in PNAS vol. 114 no. 19 (Diffenbaugh, N.S., Singh, D., Mankin, J.S., Horton, D.E. & al.), presents research findings from a group of Earth System scientists through observations and a climate model ensemble: Quantifying the influence of global warming on unprecedented extreme climate events

Due to heavy rainfall in Finland this year, and in autumn 2017, we lost 40% of total crop yields this year, whereby farmers affected are obliged to seek financial aid from the state and from the European Union. However, according to LUKE – Natural Resources Institute Finland, 2/3 (around 67%) of ALL grain produced in Finland every year is used to feed animals. This signifies that majority of all grain produced goes to feed animals that end up being eaten by us consumers (human beings).

Does this make any sense at all? What do you think? Looking forward to any comments/thoughts on the topic.

Climate Change Impacts Food Safety & Health

October 18, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“FAO Strategy on Climate Change. Rome, July 2017. Climate change affects food utilization primarily through its impacts on food safety and health.”

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What does the FAO mean by food utilization? Food utilization means our ability as human beings (or, even animals!) to have a balanced diet, whereby our bodies ingest and metabolize everything that we intake, either through drinks and/or food. It starts with drinking enough clean, fresh water, which helps our bodies function properly. Without enough clean, fresh water intake our bodies dry out, which naturally affects our metabolism. Clean, fresh water is the most valuable fluid for our bodies. Many groceries, especially fruits, salads, and vegetables, are rich in water. E.g. cucumbers consist to at least 90% water, which makes them part of a healthy diet. Some of the water our bodies need to function properly can thus be taken in through eating a balanced and healthy diet.

The problems that climate change creates to food safety and health include:

Environmental pollution causing complex problems to all our ecosystems, e.g. pesticides in agriculture and plastic pollution in our water sources and oceans. All that we put out into our atmosphere, including greenhouse gases, end up EVERYWHERE in our local and global ecosystems, affecting all life upon Earth. The more we pollute our environment, the more we end up polluting ourselves. If we for example consume seafood that has digested micro-plastics, this micro-plastic may very well end up in our personal digestion when we eat the seafood that has been polluted.
When our soils are being damaged e.g. through poor soil management and unsustainable agriculture practices, the soils lose valuable nutrients, resulting in a vicious circle where land must constantly be managed more and more efficiently while at the same time losing valuable nutrients. This has been understood by responsible farmers who are taking action and focusing upon organic agriculture.

Learn more about sustainable food by watching Earth Horizon Production´s video “Eco Eye 14, EP07 – Sustainable Food:

Climate Change Affects The Purchasing Power of Consumers

October 18, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“FAO Strategy on Climate Change. Rome, July 2017. Climate change compromises food access by affecting the purchasing power of consumers, especially the poor.”

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Food security and access to (healthy) food, according to the FAO – World Agriculture: Towards 2015/2030, currently relies rather upon socio-economic conditions than agroclimatic ones, whereby the effects of climate change on food security are complex in terms of assessing its in/direct impacts on food security. Furthermore, according to FAO, does food security rely more upon PESTLE factors in societies across the world, including poverty reduction, women´s education and quality of drinking water.

What impacts the purchasing power of consumers, in general? Simply stated, inflation has a major influence upon the purchasing power of consumers. In economy, what matters is not necessarily the amount of money available, but what the purchasing value is of that currency in the (world) economy. The higher the inflation, the lower the value of a currency, and the more actual currency is needed to purchase something, e.g. food. If inflation is high, and e.g. food prices simultaneously rise, it is a natural consequence that consumers will need more currency to buy a product. And, if there is not enough currency available (what concerns especially majority of poor people worldwide), there is also no possibility of buying a certain product. High taxation on food products, and a small amount of population (limited market), and a lack of competition on a market also affect food prices. If, e.g. only one company has a monopoly on a specific market, it will have the competitive advantage of setting the prices, while on competitive markets with a number of providers prices tend to be lower thanks to a healthy amount of competition.

Moreover, if and when resources are scarce (added to low purchasing power), prices tend to rise, whereby those with low income have no possibility of purchasing products above a certain price limit, unless income/wages simultaneously go up equally much to support the purchasing power of consumers. In developed economies therefore, inflation generally tends to be at very low and stable levels, while factors such as a low rate of development, wars, and other major PESTLE factors influencing an economy, such as general instability, corruption etc. tend to raise inflation to sometimes almost incomprehensible numbers.

Watch United Nations video “Hunger is there because people do not have the purchasing power” (Olivier De Schutter):

Food Availability Worldwide Will Be Compromised By Climate Change

October 17, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“FAO Strategy on Climate Change. Rome, July 2017. Food availability will be compromised by projected yield declines across the crop, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture sectors.”

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It is time for the world population to rethink and to change old habits, find completely new solutions and innovate to create a sustainable world. There is no single country in this world that will be spared from the consequences of climate change. We have already consumed most of this world´s fresh water resources, and are now consuming ground water. Needless to say, nothing on this planet can exist without fresh water. We need fresh water for EVERYTHING.

We simply cannot afford continue poor soil management practices, cutting down too many forests/tropical forests, polluting our environment and the air we breathe, over-fishing, and consuming too much of everything without any proper action and or understanding of what kinds of impacts this has on our environment and nature, ourselves and our livelihoods, and ultimately, future generations. How we live and consume today has a direct impact on our society as a whole, and on what we leave behind to our children, or the children of other people for those who have no biological children.

Anthropogenic climate change is not something that occurs only to a number of regions or people in this world. It affects all of us. And, the faster we take responsible actions and reshape our consumption habits, the faster will we experience positive results, and, can look forward to more healthy years on our planet. Climate change, affecting all of us, also requires that everyone of us takes action on a personal level by improving our individual consumption habits. We can all very easily make smarter choices and influence businesses to become increasingly much sustainable, because healthy environments and healthy lives are rights that belong to all of us. We all deserve to live in clean and peaceful environments and societies.

Climate Change Is Threatening Food Security

October 17, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“FAO Strategy on Climate Change. Rome, July 2017. Food security. Climate change stands to undermine the four dimensions of food security.”

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How does the FAO define food security, and what are the four dimensions of food security according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations?

Read the complete report here: FAO Strategy on Climate Change, Rome, July 2017

Quite simply, FOOD SECURITY can be defined through following criteria:

FOOD AVAILABILITY, e.g. crop yields, amount of (safe) seafood etc.
FOOD ACCESS, for example purchasing power of consumers
FOOD UTILIZATION, primarily food safety, food-borne diseases and nutritional value of a specific food product
FOOD STABILITY, suggesting that e.g. natural disasters may cause hazards to e.g. crop yields

Watch following panel discussion, where representatives from both National Geographic and the FAO discuss Food Security in an Insecure World – Future of Food:

Climate Change A Threat To Eradicating Hunger And Malnutrition

October 16, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“FAO Strategy on Climate Change. Rome, July 2017. FAO envisions a world free from hunger and malnutrition. Climate change stands to endanger this vision.”

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Not only does the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations envision a world free from hunger, malnutrition, and poverty, but so does every responsible human being on this planet. Nevertheless, and despite of the current overproduction of food, have we so far failed in eradicating hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Instead, we have managed to create additional problems through poor leadership and management practices by actually increasing overweight and obesity in majority of countries today.

We actually have all the necessary knowledge and tools to combat both hunger, malnutrition, poverty, AND, overweight and obesity. This is only a question of rearranging and transforming our societies into places where every human being can blossom, feel loved and nourished, and have access to a healthy life.

In a free society, every individual would have to be personally responsible for his/her own health and well-being, but the world we live in today is far from free. We are not all free to choose what we eat, or how our societies are being led and managed, what is illegal, and what is legal. Therefore, an individual can only be as responsible for his/her personal well-being as is given the opportunity and resources by the surrounding society.

If we continue to treat our planet the way we do today, climate change will further on endanger the livelihood of all species, including us human beings, on Earth. In order to tackle climate change and to create a sustainable, ecological environment, it is necessary for all of us to take action and transform our economies/societies into sustainable places for all living beings.

This means, taking better care of our atmosphere/air quality, taking better care of our water resources, including fresh water resources, taking better care of our soils, and taking better care about nature in general, including our forests.

Thankfully, climate action is today being taken around the world, but we still do have a lot of work ahead of us, including educating people worldwide about climate change, and how to create sustainable living environments for us to live in, and for future generations.

Agriculture & Food Sectors Responsible For Climate Change

October 16, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“FAO Strategy on Climate Change. Rome, July 2017. The food and agricultural sectors are central for human development; they need to be at the centre of the global response to climate change.”

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The agricultural, farming and food sector being due to a large part responsible for anthropogenic climate change, it is a requisite for these to take urgent action in terms of transformation into sustainable development.

Sustainable practices within agriculture, farming and food production include:

Using ethical and sustainable practices throughout the whole process, especially taking into consideration soil management and production processes.
Keeping in mind the future, considering completely different/new options, i.e. changing into more climate resistant varieties and/or innovating completely new solutions.
The availability of a sufficient amount of information to the public about sustainable practices and the food sector in general to ensure that awareness is increased and that people have access to climate change education.

Note from author: Here in Finland, INSECTS are soon to find their way to grocery shelves. In future, those who are not either e.g. vegetarian or vegan, may well include fried grasshoppers into their regular dietary plan. In fact, insects are commonly eaten almost everywhere in the world, except for Europe and the USA.

Watch TEDx Nagoya University – Sustainable Food – Let´s Start a Revolution!, speech Gerardo Urbina:

Why Is Climate Change A Top-Line Corporate Priority?

October 15, 2017January 4, 2018 by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

“FAO Strategy on Climate Change. Rome, July 2017. FAO considers climate change a top-line corporate priority.”

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What does the FAO suggest by stating that climate change is a top-line corporate priority? Certainly, FAO is not the only organization where this has been understood, but in FAO´s role in supporting governments, producers, traders in addition to other stakeholders, the organization certainly has a responsibility to communicate the impacts of climate change effectively.

Climate change being a top-line corporate priority quite simply means that climate change should be taken seriously in any business/organization, by including climate change-related factors, risks, and sustainability into the overall business/organizational strategy. There are several reasons for any business/organization to do this, including:

Climate change IS a challenge and a risk to be taken seriously all over the world
CSR and sustainable management are today key for long-term success, not only because consumers, investors and other stakeholders will more likely consume/invest in ethical products/services, or transparent products/services that are economically and socially responsible.
Climate change, with its threats/possible consequences, should be part of any business´s/organization´s risk plan.
Climate change is not only a risk and a threat, but presents completely new opportunities and possibilities i.e. in terms of new product development and innovations.

Watch EPAIreland – Climate Change Now – Emissions, Limits and Possibilities – Ottmar Edenhofer:

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