Baobab Diaspora Visions: Prospectus 2016-2021 — Executive Summary

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DIASPORA VISIONS Prospectus 2016-2021 — Executive Summary

Prospectus 2016-2021 Executive Summary

Protecting the Earth

Saving Lands and Waters; Peoples, Cultures and Nations—

A Call to Action

Baobab Diaspora Visions Project: “Extending Roots and Branches” A Tree of Life venture Baobab Diaspora Vision’s goal: Reaching global youth

Dictionary:

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DIASPORA VISIONS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Baobab

Diaspora

Visions:

Prospectus

2016-2021

MISSION

The Baobab Diaspora Visions Project and EarthAfrica Media & News Service report on and educate about environmental, development, and conservation issues related to the increase of extreme weather events and the expansion of sustainable development initiatives (see Baobab Diaspora Visions: Prospectus 2016-2021, page 5).

The goal is to reach and inspire young adults worldwide (especially those of African descent); to make natural resource policy recommendations and to advocate on behalf of their communities and nations; and to offer platforms for their visions and voices through environmental storytelling. We focus on the needs of and opportunities for people of color globally as connected with environmental crisis mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency methods and technologies.

The Baobab Diaspora Visions Project is named after the Baobab tree that is found throughout Africa and in parts of Asia and is cherished as the “tree of life” for how it nourishes and sustains a diverse ecology of all living things. These ecological anchors store water in their trunks, a natural crisis mitigation strategy for drought conditions. We envision our work as a way of honoring the Baobab as we attempt, through using new-media tools and environmental and cultural storytelling, to similarly care for a diverse ecology.

METHOD Our coverage of global advancements in renewable energy, manufacturing, transportation, housing, agriculture, and health, primarily focuses on the impact of such trends on peoples of the African continent and those of the African Diaspora. Baobab’s citizen-journalists lead in telling the story of the climate crisis, global warming, extreme-weather events, and the necessity to embrace more sustainable Earth-saving measures through altering human activities and behavior. We emphasize how such initiatives simultaneously can be drivers of local, national, and global economic and employment opportunities (see Baobab Diaspora Visions: Prospectus 2016-2021, page 5—http://www.baobabdiasporavisions.org/prospectus).

Our theoretical environmental-policy framework is informed by principles of sustainable development, environmental security/human security, environmental justice, and community/cultural agency. Baobab’s content contributors— individuals and communities of all ages, professions, and backgrounds—are trained via storytelling workshops conducted on-location across the globe. Baobab provides a platform for those who are greatly affected by limited economic opportunities and deteriorating environmental conditions, including displacement from ancestral lands, but whose voices often go unheard. To this end, we utilize new media tools and cutting-edge and traditional journalistic strategies for newsgathering, storytelling, distribution, and accessing content.

We explore at-risk lands and waters regarded as sacred by indigenous peoples globally and intrinsic to a fluid spiritual and natural-world harmony linked to their varied histories, cultures, and ways of life; Baobab celebrates these sites of potential ecotourism as breathtaking examples of brilliant, though often unacknowledged, collective environmental stewardship.

Baobab collaborates with The Rhythm & Beat Project music/arts news service, and together we connect issues of environmental crisis and sustainability to international cultural expression, particularly music, spoken word, dance/ movement, and visual artistic practices (see Baobab Diaspora Visions: Prospectus 2016-2021, page 38). This serves to forge deeper interconnections between the individual, the community, and the natural world.

Table of Contents: General topics discussed in Baobab Diaspora Visions: Prospectus 2016-2021 (page 4), include: • Protecting Earth: A Call to Action—Saving Lands and Waterways; Peoples, Cultures and Nations.

• The Vision: A Green Industrial Rebirth, Led by Those Less Fortunate.

• The Wealthy Must Move from Greed and Respond to Protecting the Earth and the Poor from Climate Change: Pope Francis Delivers a Rare Encyclical Letter.

• Protecting the Earth Through Transferring Green Technologies to the South: Advancing Global Sustainability and Greater Economic Fairness.

• Devastating Environmental Conditions: A Growing Interconnected Concern Affecting Health, Security, and the Global Economy.

• Global Climate Meetings: Recognizing Escalating Problems, Failing to Act. • While Global Fora Are Crucial, More Diverse Engagement is a Must.

• Global Environmental Trends: Facing the Facts.

• The Rio Declaration: Ratifying Sustainable Development: Creating A Movement to Nurture and Sustain All Life on Earth.

• Focusing on Environmental Security/Human Security Initiatives.

• Insecurity and Displacement: The Rise of Climate Refugees • Embracing Environmental Justice: Reworking NIMBY Policies for a Fairer, Safer, Greener World.

• Storytelling, Education and Action: Baobab Diaspora Visions—Responding by Extending African Roots and Branches Via Media.

• What Is to Be Done: Building Sustainable Opportunities, Writing Stories and Lives into Equitable Policy.

• Reaching Global Youth and Serving Communities and Nations Through Environmental Research and Reporting.

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Introduction “Global Temperatures Highest in 4,000 Years: Warming Over Longer Period, Study Shows,” New York Times, Friday, March 8, 2013 Headlines like the one above tells the story of what the world is faced with. In what was at the time new research, first published Thursday, March 7, 2013, in the journal Science, researchers reported how global temperatures were warmer than at any point in the last 4,000 years. Think about that: warmer than at any time in 4,000 years! The researchers decried how the increase in warming, particularly rapid over the last century, and more specifically, the last couple of decades, is increasingly due to human behavior (see Baobab Prospectus, page 7). Today, we see the situation is even worsening.

For some, in the face of such conditions, they’ve said these words come to mind: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

Environmental disruptions and trends are the issues of the day. They are tied to everything, to all aspects of everyday life, everywhere throughout the globe. Environmental conditions as connected to the world economy and trade, energy production and energy usage, agricultural production and food distribution, industrial manufacturing and waste disposal, human and all species health, and indeed, protecting the Earth — these activities, overall, are growing interconnected international concerns.

The following annual events, increasingly tell parts of the story: Unprecedented torrential downpours leading to historic flooding in Texas, Alabama, and West Virginia, and elsewhere in the United States; historic flooding in France, Germany and throughout much of Europe; devastating typhoons, monsoons, cyclones, rainfall and mudslides in Bangladesh, India and China, and elsewhere in Asia; severe drought, depleted water resources, and wildfires in California and other western states; unusual deficits of rain, leading to harsh drought and food shortages through much of Africa. We’ve been warned for years that such conditions could become pervasive. Accordingly: •

As a result of such extreme-weather upheavals, nations, peoples and cultures worldwide are being forced to respond. As noted, environmental threats are impacting myriad daily human interactions and transactions on scales large and small: from global economies and trade to energy production and usage, agricultural production and food distribution, mass transportation, industrial manufacturing and waste disposal, and health. Extreme weather and its impacts are increasingly connected to everything—to all species and all aspects of everyday life, everywhere across the globe. Undoubtedly, this chain of events is one of the principal crises of our time.

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These conditions — especially as tied to extreme weather events and harmful development — are reaching across borders, fostering tensions between peoples, communities, cultures, governments, and nations. While residents in these diverse locations not only confront the environmental deterioration of their homelands as best they can, they also are increasingly faced with the additional stresses of environmental and human insecurity and environmental injustice. (See Baobab Prospectus, pages 26-32.)

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Baobab Diaspora Visions: Prospectus 2016-2021 stresses the need for communities globally, particularly those of color, to actively protect their neighborhoods and be more directly involved and responsive to the harsh weather-related emergencies impacting them. The report emphasizes that significant development and job opportunities can be linked to sustainability, and protection of the earth, and therefore can assist in reviving economically struggling communities.

The Baobab project and EarthAfrica news service were founded, as described, to “utilize new-media platforms for environmental storytelling featuring the voices of those rarely heard on such issues—although they are disproportionately impacted by weather extremes.” The goal, we explain, is to “reach and inspire citizens worldwide, particularly young adults, and especially those of African descent, to advocate on behalf of their communities and nations facing environmental threats.” Ultimately, the report is a call to action, emphasizing: “The dangers that the world is confronting demand personal, individual commitments. Multiply the emergencies that country-after-country and region-after-region are experiencing, and it seems clear: We must respond. We must change behavior. We must rapidly alter the way we are living.”

Consider climate change and the climate crisis: As noted by scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), because weather conditions globally are rapidly changing, extreme-weather eventsare occurring more frequently (think Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane “Superstorm” Sandy, Super Typhoon Haiyan, and the California drought and wildfires), and these experts and others warn that immediate mitigation activities are necessary. Peoples of all ethnicities and nationalities worldwide are seeking to shape what soon is expected to become a global “carbon-free economy” linked to renewable energy and more energy-efficient consumer-product technologies (see Baobab Prospectus, pages 21-23).

These technologies, if shared broadly and equitably, will bring the world closer to successfully addressingclimate change, and offer other opportunities: As the report intones, “Communities can be revitalized. Nations rebuilt. Peoples and their ecosystems— lands, forests, and water resources—saved and made more productive. Economies made more prosperous. Millions of new jobs globally can be tied to this activity—all of which should be connected to safer, cleaner and more sustainable lifestyles.”

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1. Protecting the Earth: A Call to Action Saving Lands and Waters; Peoples, Cultures and Nations The following pages are highlights of the statistics, theoretical frameworks, and principles presented in Baobab Diaspora Visions: Prospectus 2016-2021. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Global Environmental Trends: Facing the Facts The following environmental concerns, many of which are tied to human activity and the intensification of global warming—have resulted in increasing deadly global trends since 2000, including the Earth’s 10 hottest years on record (note: the list in the Prospectus is more comprehensive, specifying 15 significant trends (see Baobab Prospectus, page 16).

• The overall climate crisis—the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and the global expansion of devastating weather events.

• Non-sustainable industrialization, over-consumption, and highly polluting waste disposal.

• Arctic ice melting at rates never before recorded, resulting in unprecedented global sea-level rise and the threatened existence of coastal cities and entire island nations (consider the warnings made by the Alliance of Small Island States—AOSIS).

• Hotter temperatures globally leading to severe droughts, increased desertification, and more destructive and hotter wildfires globally.

• Massive dust storms, heat- and wind-fueled, that travel for miles and last for days.

• Major shifts in precipitation, resulting in historic flooding and landslides and mudslides.

• Historically powerful and destructive hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons and other wind/rain-related weather events.

• Clear-cutting of frontier forests and other deforestation for agricultural or animal grazing purposes, or other degrading uses.

• Coral reef devastation due to coral bleaching, resulting in never before seen loss of sea life dependent on coral reefs, the “Amazons of the sea.”

• The increase of dead zones and algae growth caused by agricultural run-off and sewage in coastal areas where inland waters flow to the sea.

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Fact 1: Extreme weather emergencies threaten the planet and all life; thus the call for sustainable development that leads to more sustainable societies.

Fact 2: Harsh weather events and disproportionate exposure to highly polluting development activities and unhealthy waste collection and disposal, connected with limited availability of green technology, further complicate preexisting economic issues restricting African nations and communities, those of the African Diaspora, and other peoples of color.

Fact 3: Communities and groups most endangered by the climate crisis—climate change-induced environmental degradation as connected with human behavior, particularly industrial, are rarely the beneficiaries of Green Revolution thinking, planning and/or implementation of policies, investments in renewable energy and sustainable consumer products, and creation of “green” jobs to mitigate and address theseworsening environmental conditions.

Fact 4: Sustainable development must offer space to peoples in developing nations to design and benefit from the Green Industrial Revolution. And we in the industrialized world must join with them to imagine the future: a global society building together an equitable and sustainable world.

Fact 5: Such adaptation of human activities must be spurred by educating the public. To influence behavior worldwide, the utilization of traditional and new-media communication platforms is advantageous.

Consider these statistics and our potentially devastating warming-related future (see Baobab Prospectus, pages 12-32)

• The warming threat: Scientists with the UN Environment Programme warned in its 2013 annual “Emissions Gap Report” that warming trends are leading to a rise of 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels and alerted that such an increase would create catastrophic climate conditions on Earth. But the scientists also said that aggressive reductive actions by industries and governments that meet lower emissions targets by 2020, could begin altering impending accelerated temperatures and related destructive conditions. By 2015, scientists were warning to keep the warming threat below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

• Slowing warming: As such, the December 2015 Paris UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting established the more aggressive goals (although nonbinding) for limiting global average temperature rise by 2050 to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Scientists say the lower rate increase better ensures protecting the Artic and Antarctic ice sheets, slowing sea-level rise (in 2016 estimated to rise 3 feet by 2100), and saving island states and coastal cities.

• Food insecurity: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists in 2013 warned that increased warming might reduce food production by as much as 2 percent each decade through to the next century. This while food demands of the steadily increasing global human population—7.2 billion as of 2015 and easily anticipated to be more than 12 billion by 2100 (as projected by the London, England-based think tank Population Matters, among others)—are expected to rise by more than 14 percent per decade through the end of the 21st century.

• Climate migration/climate refugees: The Norwegian Refugee Council in 2016 reported, since 2008 some 26.4 million people annually were displaced due to floods and other natural disasters—the equivalent of one person per second. Similarly, the UN warned of unprecedented disruptions leading to mass migrations: by2020 some 60 million people will be forced to migrate. By 2050, some 200 million may be permanently displaced because of weather-related conditions.

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2. What Is to Be Done? Responding to Weather Extremes by Building Sustainable, Secure, and Equitable Green Opportunities The call for more “sustainable” societies is expanding. Communities of all ethnicities and nationalities worldwide are involved in attempting to shape what is soon expected to be a global industrial revolution linked to green, renewable energy and more energy-efficient consumer-products—in other words, "sustainable development” (see Baobab Prospectus, pages 18-25).

These communities are creating and negotiating initiatives that focus on the environment as connected with biodiversity, conservation, the climate crisis/climate change, health, energy demands and smart growth, transportation, housing, social justice, and global economic expansion. Tens of millions of new jobs globally are projected to be tied to this activity — all of which will be connected to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable lifestyles. Most importantly, consider this: Communities will be revitalized. Nations rebuilt. Peoples and their lands and water resources saved and made more productive.

Embracing Sustainable Development Policies to Ensure Security and Justice The Baobab Visions Project emphasizes sustainable development (along with environmental security and environmental justice) as the main theoretical frameworks and principles to guide its global climate, environmental and development research, and reporting. And as sustainable development policies are urged by global climate scientific groups such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Baobab discusses such policy principles—in essence “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”— and reports on the relationship of today’s needed actions to the historic 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden (and the Stockholm Declaration agreement), the 1992 “Earth Summit” adoption in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil of the Rio Declaration, and the Principles of Environmental Justice,” adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, October 24-27, 1991.

The Stockholm Conference and Earth Summit established the three pillars of sustainable development: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability. This includes the following principles of the Rio Declaration: The role of humans in sustaining the Earth, its ecosystems, and the well-being of its inhabitants; the sovereignty of states; the right to equitable development; environmental protection and development processes; eradication of poverty;prioritizing support for nations of the South; protecting ecosystems through state cooperation; and identifying and altering unsustainable patterns of production and consumption (see Baobab Prospectus, pages 18-25, including, “The first eight principles of the Rio Declaration...” page 20; also presented on page 28 of this publication).

Providing Financing and Transferring Green Tech to the South: Key to Justice Most significantly, Baobab Visions reports how experts say wealthy nations must adhere to financial promises such as the Green Climate Fund and to technology transfer commitments (Baobab Prospectus, pages 21-23) they previously made to assist poorer nations, including those with emerging market economies. As part of such commitments, wealthy states agreed to finance, support, and implement the mechanisms leading to poorer states’ (such as island nations—see reference to the Alliance of Small Island States—AOSIS, Baobab Prospectus, page 15, and page 15 this report) “adaptation” right now to the damages and impacts of climate change, and their transition to cleaner, renewable means of energy generation and usage. And demands for the world to embrace “resilience” redevelopment activities that impact the health and protection of natural ecosystems, as well as urban systems, such as land-use and architectural designs, building and construction methods and operations (including air conditioning and heating systems), and infrastructure (particularly transportation, and the impacts of industrial pollution and industrial-waste disposal). Adaptation and resilience are vital policy components specialists consider key to successful environmental mitigation, especially of climate change.

The Environmental Security/Human Security & Environmental Justice Vision: A Green Industrial Rebirth, Led by Those Less Fortunate Changing climatic and environmental conditions often result in struggles over natural resources—such as wetlands, rivers and seas, and the health of coral reefs and forests—these issues of environmental security reach across borders, sowing tensions, even violent confrontations, between peoples, communities, cultures, governments, and nations.

Thus, the importance of participation in global forums and meetings, especially participation of the world’s least fortunate. While poorer stakeholders of diverse relational zones respond to the environmental deterioration and resultant devastation by extreme-weather events as best they can, it’s difficult because they are faced with additional stresses caused by environmental and human insecurity and environmental injustice. Policies connected with the rarely discussed insecurity and injustice frameworks are addressed in the Baobab Diaspora Visions project reports (Baobab Prospectus, pages 34-37, and in this publication, pages 15-20).

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As seen with the increasing media attention given to international climate meetings and conferences, a number of communities of all ethnicities and nationalities worldwide are involved in the response to the climate crisis, climate change and global warming, and the intensification of extreme-weather events. Collectively they are attempting to mobilize others as they hope to shape what they believe can soon be an expansive period of the protection of the Earth and its ecosystems and species, tied to a global industrial revolution linked to “green,” renewable energy and more energyefficient consumer-product technologies (Baobab Prospectus, pages 15 and 16).

Thus, the call for global equitable greenhouse gas reductions and for the scaled elimination of the burning of fossil fuels for energy generation, to be replaced by increased renewable-energy sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen and biofuels. And thus, the appeal for the adaptation to greener, better financed, more thoughtfully designed, and resilient industrial manufacturing and waste disposal activities overall, and for other forms of more “sustainable” lifestyles, including organic agricultural approaches—in short, for all that is termed sustainable development, and environmental security, human security, and environmental justice.

“Consider: Millions of new jobs globally can be tied to this activity— all of which will be connected to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable living. Most importantly, consider this: Communities can be revitalized.

Nations can be rebuilt. Peoples and their lands and water resources and ecosystems can be saved and made more productive.”

These developments and challenges are particularly critical to Africa and peoples of the African Diaspora, peoples of color globally, and, in general, the world’s poorest citizens. These groups must demand, must be encouraged, and must be allowed to be part of the sustainable development solution as they are the ones disproportionately affected by extreme weather events.

A green, industrial rebirth should not only provide riches for those already flush with wealth; appropriate preparations must be made, and planning must be coordinated with and for those not so fortunate. It will take vigilance, however, to build a truly broad and inclusive movement to ensure that the majority of the world’s citizens benefit from these economic, industrial, and environmental opportunities, especially those who are lower-income, the most vulnerable (particularly children, teenagers, and young adults) andwho are often ignored by the various decision-makers in civilsociety, among businesses, and in government.

These trends in sustainable development indeed point to opportunities in expanding green economies and green jobs. That is, if all goes well, and fairly. In too many nations — particularly African nations, and others of color of the Global South that are of the African Diaspora, including less-developed communities of color in the North — the global economic slowdown of 2007 has resulted in years of income losses and other hard times: job deficits through business and plant closures; land, including farms, becoming less fertile and abandoned; increases in poverty through loss of homes and declining health; millions of young adults fighting to secure jobs that pay a living wage.

Sustainable development policies are designed to address such realities — not just to avoid environmental degradation, but also to build societies anew. That is, if we’re to truly protect the Earth. We must use our imaginations and envision the future: Societies that rapidly and equitably prepare for and share in a more just and sustainable world.

This project, therefore, while appealing to all, is especially an attempt to reach young adults and children globally. The Baobab Diaspora Visions Project seeks to assist in motivating this group to fortify and rebuild at-risk communities—across Africa, the African Diaspora, and throughout other marginalized nations, communities, and peoples worldwide—and to define their role in global society through sustainable development and protection of the Earth, via the use of media tools and cultural inspirations.

Baobab’s theoretical environmental-policy s t o r y t e l l i n g framework, including our global mediat o o l s a n d r e p o r t i n g , r e s e a r c h a n d w r i t i n g training workshops, is informed by principles of sustainable development, environmental security/human security, environmental justice, and community/cultural agency. Baobab’s content contributors—individuals and communities of all ages, professions, and backgrounds—are trained in storytelling workshops conducted on-location across the globe (Baobab Prospectus, pages 34-37).

Baobab provides a platform for those who are greatly affected by deteriorating environmental conditions, including displacement from ancestral lands, but whose voices often go unheard. To this end, we utilize new media tools and cutting-edge and traditional journalistic strategies for newsgathering, storytelling, distribution, and accessing content.

• Baobab will provide a platform for those who are greatly affected by deteriorating environmental conditions, including displacement from ancestral lands, but whose voices often go unheard.

• We will document the human safety and economic benefits of the Green Industrial Revolution by reaching communities through newsgathering, storytelling, education, presentations, and advocacy.

• We will train “citizen-storytellers” globally through the use of traditional, community-based education and communication methods and new-media digital tools, distribution platforms, and outlets.

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Developing, Strengthening, and Activating the Climate Financial Marketplace Overall, achieving global emissions reductions requires a high level of practical policy commitments. In particular, finance has a pivotal role to play in supporting industrializing and Global South nations’ overall development and energy needs congruent to efforts to de-carbonize their economies, while adapting and making their infrastructures more resilient against the impacts of climate change. This is only fair since industrialized nations of the North are responsible for most of the carbon emissions from industries over the last 100 years that have contributed to their economic expansions (Baobab Prospectus, pages 24 and 25).

As described, dating to the Earth Summit of 1992, the climate crisis, climate change and development are intrinsically linked. And more than two decades ago, it was recognized that external development financial flows have a critical role to play in supporting transitions from fossil fuel-driven economies, especially among rapidly industrializing nations.

The Paris agreement, however, serves as a more comprehensive financial, energy and technology trigger signaling to financial markets that a fundamental global shift is underway to renewables and zero-carbon energy sources such as wind, solar and hydrothermal, (and advanced batteries for energy storage), as dependable and financially viable alternatives to fossil fuels. For instance, in the U.S., the costs of solar power have declined by 80 percent since 2010, and energy generated today is less costly than that produced by power plants. Wind is down in costs by 60 percent. Consider: • Some expect the Paris agreement will assist investors to feel more assured that the world economy is on the verge of transition from fossil fuels.

• Some expect an even more rapid growth to renewables from being 10 percent of the total energy supply. For instance, globally solar and wind account for only 1.6 percent of total energy used.

• Accordingly, it is expected that a global market for instruments such as a carbon tax, carbon trade initiatives and more accountable carbon offsets will be established — these mechanisms will assist in generating funds to further stimulate technology developments and link the cost of carbon to making renewables more competitive. In the U.S., such mechanisms are already in place in California, New York, and Massachusetts.

Achieving an efficient and effective allocation of finance will be critical to support global climate change goals.

Independent data, therefore, are instrumental in delivering accountability and building trust, and promoting consistency, comparability and transparency (Baobab Prospectus, pages 21-25).

Financial instruments such as the Global Climate Facility, a public-private partnership established as a funding base for industrializing countries established on the eve of the Earth Summit in 1992, undoubtedly becomes increasingly important.

More recently, in 2013, 194 countries agreed (non-binding however) to invest $100 billion annually in the Green Climate Fund, a green technology instrument established to foster tech innovations. Other significant funds include the Adaptation Fund, Amazon Fund, the Congo Basin Fund, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and the Forest Investment Program.

Most importantly, independent assessment agencies such as the Climate Funds Update, a joint initiative that monitors dedicated climate change funds from donor pledges to actual disbursement of financing. This information is broadly available through the Climate Funds Update’s website, (www.climatefundsupdate.org), which provides independent information and analysis on bilateral and multilateral instruments (Baobab Prospectus, pages 24 and 25).

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The Rarely Told 411 on Sustainable Development Policies: A Movement to Nurture and Sustain All Life on Earth

“[Sustainable development is] … development that not only generates economic growth but distributes itsbenefits

equitably; that regenerates the environment rather than destroying it; that empowers people rather than marginalizing them. Itis development that gives priority to the poor, enlarging their choices and opportunities and providing their participation in decisions that affect their lives. It is development that is pro-people, pro-nature, pro-jobs, and pro-women.”

—United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, known as the “Stockholm Declaration,” was a breakthrough document adopted by government officials of a broad range of nations at a conference in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 16, 1972. The needs for an agreement linked to the environmentalism and preservation and protection of natural resources, had been urged by environmentalists, development specialists and anticolonial liberation forces, among others, for many decades. World officials at the historic meeting explained they “considered the need for a common outlook and for common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment.” The document of seven proclamations and twentysix principles, said in the first three proclamations:

1. Man is both creature and moulder of his environment, which gives him physical sustenance and affords him the opportunity for intellectual, moral, social, and spiritual growth. In the long and tortuous evolution of the human race on this planet a stage has been reached when, through the rapid acceleration of science and technology, man has acquired the power to transform his environment incountless ways and on an unprecedented scale. Both aspects of man's environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to hiswell-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights the right to life itself.

2. The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue, which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world; it is the urgent desire of the peoples of the whole world and the duty of all Governments.

3. Man has constantly to sum up experience and go on discovering, inventing, creating, and advancing. In our time, man's capability to transform his surroundings, if used wisely, can bring to all peoples the benefits of development and the opportunity to enhance the quality of life. Wrongly or heedlessly applied, the same power can do incalculable harm to human beings and the human environment. We see around us growing evidence of man-made harm in many regions of the earth: dangerous levels of pollution in water, air, earth and living beings; major and undesirable disturbances to the ecological balance of the biosphere; destruction and depletion of irreplaceable resources; and gross deficiencies, harmful to the physical, mental, and social health of man, in the man-made environment, particularly in the living and working environment.

This was one of the first documents produced by global leaders to recognize how the healthfulness of the Earth was critical to the well-being of humans, and other species, and how mitigating industrial production and other development activity was needed, especially in industrialized countries since they were the greatest polluters.

“Significantly, the agreement was broadened and sharpened in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at COP 21 in Paris in 2015, as poorer, struggling states also demanded that wealthy states adhere to financial [through the Green Climate Fund] and technology commitments previously made to assist poorer nations, including those with emerging market economies in pursuing the three pillars of “sustainable development”: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability—in essence, ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’”

Needed Support Through Globally Significant Adaptation and Resiliency Policies

Included were more calls for immediate support for the mechanisms leading to “adaptation” to the damages and impacts of climate change and in the transition to cleaner, renewable means of energy generation and usage. And the demand for embracing “right now” more “resilience” planning and redevelopment activities—affecting the health and protection of natural ecosystems, as well as urban systems, such as architectural designs, building and construction, land-use, and infrastructure (particularly transportation), and altering the impact of industrial pollution and waste disposal activities. (Adaptation and resilience are both vital policy components environmental specialists consider key to achieving successful climate-change mitigation—Baobab Prospectus, pages 15, 22-25, and said here on page 10).

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More Diverse Engagement at Global Forums Is Crucial; G-77 States Must be Heard and Embraced…

The 2015 COP 19 conferees had a lot to discuss. Only a few months earlier than the November-December meeting, China, India, Bangladesh, and other parts of Asia were struck by devastating heavy rains and unusually powerful winds and rainstorms, resulting in heavy flooding and deadly landslides and mudslides. Unusually severe weather had also occurred that year worldwide, from throughout Asia to Europe, Australia to Africa, and the Americas— North, South, and Central, and the Caribbean.

At the COP, representatives of the Global South and East who are among the world’s poorest citizens were in attendance as well, primarily as part of a united front of developing and struggling nations that has long been known as the Group of 77 (G-77). The name dates to the 1964 UN conference on trade and development and the nations primarily of the Global South in existence at that time, many newly “independent”—the body is now made up of 132 countries (including China, even though since 2010 it has had the second largest economy in the world.) The body includes members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)—many of which are low-lying countries facing current emergencies and not faraway catastrophic losses from global sea-level rise.

The group was particularly forceful in calling for a response to the increase in extreme weather events as they demanded that the world take immediate action, arguing that climate change must be responded to with greater urgency and that the wealthier nations must meet their commitments—indeed making them binding—to reaching specific targets in decreasing their greenhouse gas emissions. Some Northern-based NGOs, who also are calling for a greater response to climate change by their governments and by corporations and industries headquartered within their countries, supports the Group of 77’s push for action now.

Significantly, the Group of 77 included a call for greater support for mechanisms leading to “adaptation” to the damages and impacts of climate change and the transition to cleaner, renewable means of energy generation, storage, transmission, and usage. And demands for support of “resilience” planning and redevelopment activities affecting the health and protection of natural ecosystems, as well as urban systems—architectural designs, building and construction, land-use, and infrastructure (particularly transportation), and altering the impact of industrial pollution and waste disposal activities. (As mentioned, adaptation and resilience are both vital policy frameworks considered key to achieving successful climate-change mitigation—see Baobab Prospectus, pages 15- and 22-25).

The G-77 nations accused wealthy countries of vacillating and delaying in providing this previously agreed-to support, as well as in changing their highly polluting activities to meet agreed-upon emissions caps. (At previous COPs, developed nations had agreed to cap their emissions to keep the rise of global temperatures from exceeding 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels—as referenced in the UNEP Emissions Gap Report —most have not met those commitments, which were non-binding.) And then, in a show of unity and to add greater volume to their voices, most of the representatives from the Group of 77 walked out of the COP 19 conference (Baobab Prospectus, pages 15-16).

The anger and frustration of these G-77 leaders continued through the international meetings that followed. Finally, nearing the end of COP 21 in Paris in December 2015, representatives from the wealthier nations worked harder to relieve the impasse (Baobab Prospectus, page 23-24), leading to the historic climate change agreement achieved at the end of the Paris meeting. Still, even then, some of the more important goals of the Group of 77 were not achieved.

The conditions confronting the G-77 nations, and most other nations of the world are indeed extensive. Some are listed in the chart “Global Environmental Trends: Facing the Facts” (Baobab Prospectus, page 16, and annotated on page 8 of this publication)—these are only a few examples of the expansion of environmental devastation due to extreme weather events and destructive human activities.

Again, consider Pope Francis’ encyclical letter referenced on Baobab Prospectus’ page 16): “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together.

We cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet. ‘Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest... Yet, they are the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people…Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.”

So, yes, if we are going to actively be engaged with the global community, and if we are to properly support those already being impacted and threatened by climate change, and therefore in greatest immediate need, it seems clear: We must respond now. We must change behavior now. We must rapidly alter the way we are living.

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3. Focusing on Environmental Security/Human Security Initiatives “...[Human and environmental security] amounts to human well-being: not only protection from harm and injury, but access to water, food, shelter, health, employment, and other basic prerequisites that are due every person on earth. In short, every human being’s need for overall safety and quality of life.”

— Norman Myers, Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability Another global concept closely aligned to sustainable development are the theoretical frameworks known as “environmental security” and “human security.” The idea of human caused environmental insecurity is critical to the discussion of more comprehensive protections of the Earth and our communities, and the citizens living within those communities, and that the ways in which global societies traditionally discuss “security” must be reframed.

Among some government officials and policymakers globally, the concept of security has too long only been shaped to address armed conflict between states or equated with military threats to a country’s borders. Security, while generally discussed in militaristic terms, must now be discussed differently, and must increasingly be analyzed in relationship to the environment, the conservation of natural resources, and in relationship to the healthfulness of people as it applies to those natural resources. Our sensibilities must be broadened to understand that human security relates to the healthfulness and flourishing of forests, watersheds, oceans, croplands, and atmospheric conditions. Environmental security is also still being too often deliberated in traditional “military security” terms, with the environment and natural resources considered in the context of “national security interests” such as the need for oil or the defense department’s “vision” of transitioning to renewables as vitally significant, primarily, to the effectiveness of future military operations (Baobab Prospectus, pages 26-32).

It should be clear that the world cannot be at peace — in essence, secure, or safe — unless people have other forms of security in their daily lives. Very simply, that is people are secure when their daily needs — for food, shelter, health care, education, employment; and clear air, clean land, and clean water, all of which are clearly necessary for survival — are nurtured and secured.

As seen with the above discussion of the sustainable development framework, environmental insecurities can be a combination of the degradation of local ecosystems and that of the global ecosystem, including threats of water scarcity, water pollution, lack of access to safe sanitation, threats to the land (deforestation, overgrazing, chemical contamination, desertification, among others), as well as air pollution and climate change due to the buildup of greenhouse gases. Many environmental threats are chronic and long lasting, while others are sudden and violent. Environmental security, as seen with Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and more recently Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy, also translates to safety from extreme weather episodes and the avoidable conditions and economic hardships connected with such weather extremes if appropriate protective measures are taken. And appropriate support in attempting to recover from the devastating impact of these harsh weather events, especially when human activity, including discriminatory planning or regulatory processes, is involved in causing or accelerating hardship (Baobab Prospectus, pages 26-32).

Embracing Environmental Justice: Reworking NIMBY Policies for a Fairer, Safer, Greener World “[Environmental Justice...] affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction; demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias; calls for universal protection from...production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food; demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation...”

—Excerpted from the preamble of the “Principles of Environmental Justice,” adopted at the First National Leadership Summit for Environmental Justice, October 1991 (see list of Principles, page 19, next spread)

Highly polluting development activities further complicate the global attempts to address climate change because these industrial mechanisms also hinder the already precarious survival conditions in lower-income regions (primarily populated by people of color) and other types of marginalized communities globally. Such mechanisms and activities include the use of low-income areas and neighborhoods as districts zoned or simply used for highly polluting industrial production or highly polluting waste disposal activities. Residents in these areas charge that they are being targeted as global “dumping grounds.”

Generally speaking, wealthier communities of wealthier nations live under laws that normally do not allow such manufacturing or waste disposal to occur in or near their neighborhoods (euphemistically known as NIMBY—Not In My Backyard—policies). (Baobab Prospectus, pages 30-32).

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Insecurity and Displacement: The Rise of Climate Migration and Climate Refugees For most of 2015, the year continued on pace to become the hottest year of global average temperatures ever recorded. And heat-related extreme weather events increased globally, and climate disruptions became increasingly prevalent and dangerous.

Wind-related storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, mudslides, heat waves, dust storms and drought are expected to cause even greater disruptions in the decades to come. Heat-caused parched, depleted land, loss of water resources and declining food production is a particular concern, as well as health. Scientists warn that in the decades ahead, entire regions and nations are under threat of extreme-weather events, and massive environmental-related population shifts can be anticipated (Baobab Prospectus, pages 27 and 28).

For instance, the Norwegian Refugee Council has reported that since 2008 approximately 26.4 million people annually were displaced due to floods and other natural disasters—the equivalent of one person per second. Similarly, the United Nations has warned of unprecedented disruptions leading to mass migrations in the years to come: As early as 2020, it is estimated some 60 million people will be forced to migrate. By 2050, some 200 million may be permanently displaced. Consider the following environmental and human insecurity events linked to warming (Baobab Prospectus, pages 27 and 28): • In 2015, South America’s and Central America’s average monthly temperatures were the warmest since at least 1910.

• Africa saw its warmest August since at least 1910. In sub-Saharan Africa more than 60 million people who are already going hungry are likely to see their situation worsen due to increasing drought.

• In Europe, Denmark, Austria, England, Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, among others, all saw increases in average monthly temperatures in 2015, with many experiencing their highest on record, especially in November. Parts of eastern Russia and Mongolia experienced record warm temperatures.

• Political analysts assert drought led to the higher food prices that sparked the Arab Spring, as well as uprisings in Syria.

• Outbreaks of dengue fever throughout Southeast Asia is linked to higher temperatures being caused by climate disruptions. The World Health Organization reports that infection rates of dengue fever have increased thirty-fold over the last 50 years.

Scientists warn of possible mass migrations even within the United States, the world’s wealthiest nation, with rising sea levels, torrential rainstorms, and extreme wind events such as tornadoes and hurricanes expected to increase in devastation (Baobab Prospectus, pages 27 and 28).

• A National Academy of Sciences study reports that some 400 U.S. cities are expected to be impacted by rising sea levels no matter what mitigation measures are taken to decrease carbon dioxide emissions.

• Major storms that used to be projected to occur only once every 500 years are now expected to happen every 25 years.

• In multiple U.S. states, 2015 was another record wildfire year, and more than 9 million acres burned in wildfires across the country—such burn rates have been recorded only four times in U.S. history.

Thus, an increasing severity of heat-related drought conditions across much of the United States, causing conditions of surface soil moisture depletion, decreasing aquifers and groundwater storage loss are all increasing concerns from ongoing drought.

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Principles of Environmental

Justice

The following set of principles were adopted at the First National, People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, October 24 -27, 1991, attended by some 1,100 people in Washington, DC. It remains one of the most significant meetings, and the principles a foundational document, to address environmental and sustainable development issues for people of color globally. The principles establish the guidelines and framework that Northern nations should respect and abide by when considering issues of justice and equity among nations of the South and communities of people of color in the North. For more information, see documents of the summit sponsor, the United Church of Christ: https://www.ucc.org/what-we-do/justice-local-church-ministries/justice/faithful-action-ministries/environmental-justice/principles_of_environmental_justice/

PREAMBLE WE, THE PEOPLE OF COLOR, gathered together at this multinational People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, to begin to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities, do hereby re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, languages and beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves; to insure environmental justice; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods; and, to secure our political, economic and cultural liberation that has been denied for over 500 years of colonization and oppression, resulting in the poisoning of our communities and land and the genocide of our peoples, do affirm and adopt these Principles of Environmental Justice:

1. Environmental justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to befree from ecological destruction.

2. Environmental justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.

3. Environmental justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.

4. Environmental justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing and the extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food 5. Environmental justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples.

6. Environmental justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.

7. Environmental justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.

8. Environmental justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment, without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.

9. Environmental justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.

10. Environmental justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation. of international law, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

11. Environmental justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.

12. Environmental justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and providing fair access for all to the full range of resources.

13. Environmental justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.

14. Environmental justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.

15. Environmental justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.

16. Environmental justice calls for the education of present and future generations, which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

17. Environmental justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth’s resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to ensure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.

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Media Must Prioritize Environmental Security, Human Security, Environmental Health, and Environmental Justice Issues It is not often that international media exposes the disproportionate, unbalanced, and unequal burden on society’s poorest and least powerful citizens living in or in close proximity to heavy manufacturing processes and severe pollution. This added burden of impoverishment is defined as environmental racism—thus the campaign for environmental justice.

The residents of these poorer districts already confront environmental degradation daily and try to adjust to it as best they can. Then, after an extreme weather-related emergency, the communities often are exposed to heightened contamination through the waste release or dispersal from nearby industrial sites of manufacturing byproducts and supplies (such as chemicals used in production). And among these neighborhoods, such environmental catastrophes, both natural and human caused, often lead to disproportionate incidents of displacement, homelessness and relocation, economic ruin, and the tragic separation from historic areas of forbears (think New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Princeville, North Carolina after the flooding of the Tar River in 1999, and the decades-long chemical poisoning of Mossville, Louisiana from the 1980s-’90s—Baobab reported on all of these incidents). Devastating health deficits are also a result (Baobab Prospectus, pages 30-36).

Rarely do mainstream media outlets report on the disproportionate effects of extreme weather-related environmentalindustrial accidents on communities of color, particularly on those in lower-income regions (consider the chemical corridor stretching from the U.S. states of Louisiana to Texas—a corridor commonly referred to as “Cancer Alley”). Rarely is it acknowledged that these communities house the full horizontally-integrated spectrum—producers, production sites, and waste storage facilities—of the most physically and environmentally costly and least profitable arm of the chemicalindustrial extractive, refining, and manufacturing industries. Rarely do we consider that across the globe, low-income communities of color sacrifice their health and the health of their lands for the sole consumptive benefit of the wealthy classes of industrialized, and even industrializing, nations (Baobab Prospectus, pages 30 and 31).

This too must change.

As first stated in the introduction and then elsewhere, consider: Tens of millions of new jobs globally can be tied to this activity—all of which will be connected to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable living. Most importantly, consider this: Communities can be revitalized.

Nations rebuilt. Peoples and their lands and water resources and ecosystems can be saved and made more productive.

These are the environmental security/environmental justice stories global media must tell.

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4. Storytelling, Education, and Action Baobab Diaspora Visions — Responding by Extending African Roots and Branches via Media The Baobab Diaspora Visions Project and EarthAfrica Media & News Service report on global environmental and conservation developments and trends in renewable energy, housing, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, health, and, of course, jobs, especially as connected with the needs of working-class communities of color. Our coverage particularly focuses on the impact of such trends on the African continent and on peoples of the African Diaspora globally. The Rhythm & Beat Project serves as an additional distributor of the Baobab Diaspora Visions project content, connecting it to global cultural trends, particularly music, and including spoken word, dance/movement, and visual artistic practices (Baobab Prospectus, pages 34-38).

Baobab Diaspora Visions addresses these environmental concerns by focusing on stories that report the theoretical frameworks of sustainable development, environmental security, human security, environmental justice, and community/cultural agency. As described in our “Mission and Method” statement (page 5 of both the Baobab Prospectus, as well as this publication), the Baobab Diaspora Visions Project is named after the Baobab tree that is found throughout Africa and in parts of Asia and is cherished as the “tree of life” for how it nourishes and sustains a diverse ecology of all living things. We envision our work as a way of honoring the Baobab as we attempt, through the use of new-media tools, and environmental and cultural storytelling, to care for a diverse ecology.

Reaching Global Youth and Serving Communities and Nations Through Storytelling Baobab Diaspora Visions is anchored by storytelling. It provides a platform for frontline communities to offer their own perspectives, to propose visionary policy, and to share the strategies and tactics they have developed to push a sustainable agenda that will safeguard their futures. Our mission is to present their stories in their own voices, through the lens of their own experiences. These are the stories of people harshly affected—their struggles and their losses, their histories altered by extreme weather events, whether washed away by floods or encroached upon by spreading deserts (known as desertification—the process by which fertile land becomes desert, generally due to drought, deforestation or poor farming techniques). In such cases, many people are forced to relocate and rebuild far away from familiar ancestral lands. Such devastation, while often individual, intimate and personal, is also communal. Therefore, these are the stories of families, of villages; yes, of entire communities, of whole cultures and of legacies rapidly forced to change (Baobab Prospectus, pages 34-37).

We share stories of their joys and their successes, as well as their challenges in the face of such debilitating disruptions.

Readers, viewers, listeners are inspired, though they also are saddened, pained or angered, depending on the circumstances, as they share in the role of bearing witness to this critical moment in human history. Examples of community-oriented actions by young people committed to overcoming environmental emergencies are manifold and will not be hard to find. For instance, in the Sudan in Northeast Africa, when flash floods ravaged much of the country in August 2013, Sudanese young adults formed emergency response teams to aid in the evacuation. They used social media tools to share information, created a system for critical risk assessment, and strategized how best to organize rescues. Yet the success of their mobilizing efforts received only scant international attention. Especially meaningful here is the fact they primarily did this work on their own— without governmental or NGO assistance. It is critical that their story be heard more broadly so that it can be replicated.

Similar examples of young people committed to assisting communities after weather emergencies were witnessed in the United States in New York City when the Occupy Wall Street movement extended its mission and evolved into “Occupy Sandy.” Teams of young adults utilizing the internet established relief sites throughout Greater New York and coastal New Jersey; mobilized volunteer crews totaling tens of thousands from across the globe; provided 10,000-30,000 hot meals per day; ran clothing distribution drives; assisted with mold remediation, debris removal, and re-construction; identified emergency shelter; and offered strategies and spaces for community re-organizing. The success of this effort is directly attributable to the strategies of facilitation, emergent leadership, and direct action practiced during what generally was perceived only as a basic political demonstration. They provided this support consistently and over an extended period (in fact, some groups continue to provide support more than three years later), in some of the poorer, hardest-hit neighborhoods, and did so even when governmental agencies or more traditional charitable or assistance groups were absent or ineffective due to stifling bureaucracy. And very few news organizations reported on their efforts—maybe still influenced by much of the media’s lack of appreciation of the Occupy Wall Street activism in support of the “99 percent” versus the power of the wealthy “1 percent.” (Baobab Prospectus, pages 34 and 35).

These are some of the stories the Baobab Diaspora Visions Project was established to tell.

In contrast to and in concert with our compassionate and empathetic storytelling, the Baobab Vision project’s content is supported by the accuracy, credibility, and objectivity of scientific, economic, and technical data and analysis related to the environment and sustainable development. Much of this information is difficult to synthesize into “hard” or “feature” news or to package as topical “broad-market” news stories. The often-complex details of environmental issues and policy research can be a challenge to translate for broad, non-specialized audiences. The Baobab Diaspora

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Visions project has that expertise. Our team has worked with some of the world’s leading scientists, economists, and health professionals in translating for laypersons the complexities of environmental change.

By pairing compassionate storytelling with objective reportage, the Baobab Visions project “puts a human face” on the hard facts.

We use digital newsgathering and distribution techniques to disseminate such stories. Our small reporting, editing, and production staff develops the content and is designed to manage independent contributors from around the globe. We produce the original content of hard news stories, features, and profiles, and are seeking to secure contracts to aggregate content from a variety of sources, including student reporters worldwide. We are structured to utilize multimedia storytelling platforms: words and pictures and sound, captured through video, audio, and photography (including slide-show pieces with audio and still photographic images). Our content is developed to be distributed and marketed throughout Africa and the African Diaspora, including all of North, South and Central America; the Caribbean; Asia and Europe.

Such broad reporting and distribution goals reflect our commitment to environmental and development issues affecting African peoples in the developing world, as well as those living in the Global North (particularly in underdeveloped sectors, both urban and rural). Our digital distribution strategy is designed to utilize a range of Online media including television channels, podcasts, a multimedia, multi-platform website featuring blogs and a webzine, and social media outlets including Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Our website will host an online library and archive that includes our documentaries, mini-docs, and b-rolls; podcasts, audio interviews and transcripts; and music presented on its own and as soundtracks to our EPKs, mix tapes and documentaries. This material ultimately will be available for subscription and rental.

Baobab’s content is distributed by EarthAfrica Media and News Service, alongside that of The Rhythm & Beat Project—a web-based popular digital news service operation and a cultural magazine that presents audio and still and video images—which includes general-issue reporting on global arts and culture (e.g. music, dance, and visual arts), as well as coverage of politics and policy-related trends linked to media trends, education, health, travel and new technology (Baobab Prospectus, pages 34-38).

Most importantly, as part of our education and outreach activities and during our travels within the U.S. and elsewhere, we assist in training local residents of all ages, though particularly students, to produce and distribute these stories via a multimedia toolkit. By assisting in building local capacity, we not only contribute to the accelerated development of local communications practices, but also simultaneously develop our own resource bank of stories by stringers based in local communities globally. General education, outreach and mobilization activities based on our reporting, such as speaking engagements at schools, community organizations, and professional groups, also are a primary service.

Finally, consider this statement from the 1995 report “A Seat at the Table: The Role of Journalism in the Digital Era,” published by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. The study, which helped to envision the 21st Century new-media era to come, ultimately, speaks to the potential of a service such as the Baobab Diaspora Visions Project: “...With so much information available, the ability to select relevant, credible news will make editing expertise more important.

Citizens will grow to rely more on reputation or brand information to separate credible news from disparate data, especially in universally accessible venues as the Internet. Brand identity will take on new importance to distinguish the unique news presentations in the future. Context, interpretation, and viewpoints will become more important.”

The Rhythm & Beat Project Engaging the Environment Through Voice, Music, and Movement The Rhythm & Beat Project’s cultural emphasis is on what might be called roots or folk music—especially those musical forms with origins in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora—and identifies less on what’s generally regarded as “commercial pop.” African and African-derived music is intrinsic to world cultures and histories (and often is categorized in the broad “world music” genre). The rhythms and beats, and the voices and stories speak to the experiences of all peoples—our hardships, joys, histories, beliefs, faiths (Baobab Prospectus, pages 38 and 39).

This music, the Rhythm & Beat Project collective believes, and our cultures at large, is not to be taken lightly. Music should not be used to sell us cheap, to degrade us, or to denigrate our ways of life. We are at a critical moment in human history; the crisis we face represents the result of a long dissociation—a cognitive dissonance—from our lands, our environment, and our ancestors, our Earth. So, it is only fitting that we offer you—as the African American musician Hannibal does at the opening of his unique musical collage, African Portraits—the Rhythm & Beat project as a libation, a tribute to ancestors, culture, and the spirits of those yet to come. Hannibal intones (Baobab Prospectus, page 38): “For as long as I can remember, I’ve had these hums in my head. It took me years to find out what those sounds were, and I found out when I went to Africa. I spoke to the holy man, and he said, ‘The sounds are the spirits of your people whose souls have no resting place.’ When I came back to New

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York, I realized these sounds were the spirits of the people thrown overboard in those ships during the Middle Passage. My desire to write something to commemorate their existence—to write something that would help them find peace—was the main impetus for ‘African Portraits’.”

These are the words of Hannibal—trumpeter, composer, conductor, historian, educator, cultural anthropologist, visionary. His African Portraits is a magnificent oratorio—an opera—chronicling the Pan African experience, from life on the continent, through the Middle Passage and enslavement, and to the present (see the reference to him in the article often included as an appendix to this report: Hidden Treasures: Traveling Through Africa and the African Diaspora for Black Gold). The journey is recreated through traditional African rhythms, spirituals, jazz, R&B, the blues, and hip-hop, among other genres. Because of what Hannibal has done with his opus, we mention him in this overview and interweave his piece “Libation Song” as introductory rhythms to tie together our content, particularly the ideas—thematic and harmonic—presented on the website (Baobab Diaspora Visions: Prospectus 2016-2021, page 38).

The sounds we present are classical and global: Afrobeat, highlife, juju, mbaqanga, and marika; soukous, bikutsi, talking drum, mbalax, chimurenga, and kizomba; reggae, mento, ska, rock steady, lover’s rock, nyabinghi drum, dub, toastin’, and dancehall; calypso, soca, steel drum, compas, rara, and zouk; salsa, merengue, choro, bossa nova, reggaeton, samba, frevo, cancion, rai, and fado; hip-hop, R&B, jazz, spirituals, gospel, zydeco, and funk; blues, rock and roll, disco, house, trance, bounce, and soul. And this is only a sampling of how we do it.

Included as part of The Rhythm & Beat Project content are artist features and profiles, reviews, biographies, news briefs, and discographies of musicians—including those who receive little, at least at the onset of their careers—recognition outside of their homelands. Digitally streaming music, audio and video clips of interviews, CD and album cover art, photographs, and related artwork (including audio/ video of spoken word, dance/movement, and visual practices) are all presented.

Most importantly, the Rhythm & Beat Project features music that connects to the vitality of the Earth and the biodiversity of its natural habitats. Thus, the Project is a special opportunity to unite global communities at the frontlines of climate change in a celebration of the creative spirit, and for youth and elders to embrace and exchange the love of song, movement, and art as catalysts for empowered action towards community sharing, restoration and preservation.

Such cultural tributes will be framed within information about the environment and sustainable development trends and activities designed to save and revive peoples, communities, nations, and indeed, the Earth overall.

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40 Conclusion

Again consider the opportunities described in the introduction of the prospectus and this publication:

including

organic

agricultural

approaches—in

solution as they are the ones disproportionately industrial rebirth should not only provide riches

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Rio Declaration: The First Eight Principles…

Out of the 1992 Earth Summit conference, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, came The Rio Declaration, which consists of 27 principles intended to guide future global sustainable development activities by “working towards international agreements which respect the interests of all and protect the integrity of the global environmental and developmental system, recognizing the integral and interdependent nature of the Earth, our home.” Included here are the first eight.

Principle 1. Human beings are at the centre of concern for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.

Principle 2. States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.

Principle 3. The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.

Principle 4. In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral partof the development process chain and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

Principle 5. All States and all people shall cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living and better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world.

Principle 6. The special situation and needs of developing countries, particularly the least developed and those most environmentally vulnerable, shall be given special priority. International actions in the field of environment and development should also address the interests and needs of all countries.

Principle 7. States shall cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem. In view of the different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command.

Principle 8. To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.

To review the full Rio Declaration text, see Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3-14 June 1992.

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The Project’s Founder/Director Frank Dexter Brown is a media professional, academician, and an award-winning producer of environmental/ sustainable development, political, and arts/cultural-related content. Brown is a Pan-Africanist who has published extensively as a writer and editor with African American media, and whose work has circulated globally: he was co-founder/director of the Frontline States Media Project, the groundbreaking, United Nations Council for Namibia-funded news service that reported on South Africa’s 1980s regional war; founding editor of YSB (Young Sisters and Brothers), the award-winning, internationally circulated magazine primarily targeted to African American young adults, distinctive in its presentation of diverse peoples and nations of Africa and the African Diaspora; media director with the Washington, DC-based World Resources Institute research organization— where he synthesized and made accessible to broad audiences the work of scientists, economists and health specialists that focused on the climate crisis, climate change and global warming; biodiversity, forestry, and water resources; particulate air pollution, and the environment, health and wellness; transportation, construction, sustainable technologies, renewable energy, and global economics—and for whom he attended the Conference of the Parties 3 (COP 3) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in Kyoto, Japan. He also directed communications for the Washington, DC-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, once the nation’s premier African American think tank producing social, economic and political policy research.

Brown also is an educator, researcher, and administrator, who develops media and environmental curricula and programs, and lectures on journalism, multimedia, and storytelling; sustainable development and renewable-energy trends; and the importance of media tools in developing more productive, inclusive and diverse societies. He has taught at a variety of universities and colleges, where his responsibilities have included creating and launching journalism degree programs and serving as journalism program coordinator. As an education consultant, he develops media and environmental programs and curricula for K-12 school systems, universities, and communitybased training workshops, and lectures to community groups, educational institutions and governmental agencies globally, especially as connected with the environment, equitable sustainable development policies, social justice, health, the arts and culture, and the use of media tools in educational advancement and community prosperity. He serves as a motivational speaker on building coalitions and reviving communities through inspiring young adults to public service, particularly using media, the arts and culture. Brown, a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, has been featured in “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.”

Brown’s Baobab Diaspora Visions project, a multimedia news and education collaboration, was initially conceptualized in 2013 for submission as an academic abstract for the Diversity and Multiculturalism in the Global Community Conference of The Frederick Douglass Institute, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and the Center for International Education, the University of Cape Coast, Ghana — Ghana Interdisciplinary Collaborative Conference, the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. The project offers a storytelling platform for sharing global narratives of environmental crises and success, to help ensure just and unbiased sustainable-development mitigation activities and opportunities in protection of the Earth. This occurs through an interwoven quilt of content in the form of print articles, policy review, video and audio documentaries and podcasts, oral narratives, direct action, and music and dance/movement activities featuring scientific and economic data, and poignant, often ignored and silenced, community and cultural voices.

These visual images are excerpts from designs produced for articles and editorials written or coauthored by Brown, and in some cases, includes his photography.

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Frank Dexter Brown Founder Project Director Content Developer Executive Summary Design

Baobab Diaspora Visions: A Project of EARTHAFRICA MEDIA NEWS SERVICE TM & EDUCATION CONSULTANTS (a tree of life venture) 202.554.3392 (cell) | 424.227.6097 (office) info@baobabdiasporavisions.org frankdexterbrown@gmail.com

www.baobabdiasporavisions.org © April 2016

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Imani Jacqueline Brown Prospectus Design Editing and Research Zenzi Whitsett Research Assistance

Contents & Conceptual Visions/Photo Captions & Photo Credits Cover & Designed Title Page (pages 1-3) Front Cover (Top)/Page 1: September 13, 2013: Baobab trees in the landscape of Madagascar reflected in a pond. © Dennis Van De Water | Dreamstime.com Cover (bottom right): (undated) Wind turbine farm in Denmark sea. © Tebnad | Dreamstime.com Cover (bottom left): July 29, 2013: Workers remove crude oil from Ao Prao Beach, Koh Samet, Rayong, Thailand. © Jukuraesamurai | Dreamstime.com Designed Title Page (Pages 2 and 3): July 29, 2013: Crude oil on a beach in Ao Prao Beach, Koh Samet, Rayong, Thailand. © Jukuraesamurai | dreamstime.com

Executive Summary Mission & Method; Introduction (pages 4-7) Page 5 (top) January 2008: African warming; drought. Image from Baobab visual presentation; photographer credits unavailable. | Page 5 (bottom) July 2014: Extreme weather events intensify California wildfires; image from Baobab visual presentation; photographer credits unavailable|Photos 1.0.| Page 7 (top): July 2009: Water level receding at San Luis Reservoir, California. © Publicimage | Dreamstime.com Page 7 (bottom): November 4, 2012: Destroyed beach house in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Far Rockaway, New York. © Zhukovsky | Dreamstime.com

1: Protecting the Earth: A Call to Action—Saving Lands & Waters; Peoples, Cultures, Nations/Global Environmental Trends & Statistics, Facing the Facts (pages 8 and 9) Page 9 (top): (undated): Coal-mine workers in India. © Samrat35 | Dreamstime.com Page 9 (bottom): Bissa ethnic women of Burkina Faso, West Africa, working on their sustainable development agriculture projects. © Torsius | Dreamstime.com

2. What is the be Done: Responding to Weather Extremes; Vision: A Green Industrial Rebirth, Led by those Less Fortunate (10-15) Page 11 (top): Providing Financing and Transferring Green Tech to the South: Expansive dust storm. © Adobe Stock Page 11 (bottom): Embracing Environmental Security Policies: August 30, 2007: A person walks on a base of dry lake in Karanganyar, Java, Indonesia. Global climate change as an effect of global warming makes unpredicted weather in Indonesia. © Garudeya | Dreamstime.com

Embracing Sustainable Development Policies to Ensure Security & Justice Page 13: Developing, Strengthening, & Activating the Climate Financial Marketplace (Examples of South investment opportunities, left to right): 1. Solar panel field. © Fotoeye75 | Dreamstime.com. | 2. September 13, 2013: Sustainable agriculture seen with Baobab trees and flowers in the landscape of Madagascar reflected in a pond. © Dennis Van De Water | Dreamstime.com. | 3. Wind turbine farms © Tebnad | Dreamstime.com. | 4. Summer/Fall 2009: “Green roofs,” or as some say, “white roofs,” can be linked to homes and office buildings, and other facilities. Image from article “Snapshots of Green” by Frank Dexter Brown, Summer/Fall 2009, Prince George’s Suite Media | © Raoul Dennis.

Page 15: G-77 Voices Must be Heard/Embraced: November 17, 2013: Remains of Palo Catholic Church after devastated by Typhoon Haiyan (also called Yolanda), Palo, Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan carried winds of more than 120 miles per hour — the most powerful ever recorded at the time. Thousands were made homeless and were forced to relocate. Similar displacement of populations has occurred in many other island nations, particularly with coastal cities (see AOSIS). © Hrlumanog | Dreamstime.com

3. Focusing on Environmental Security & Human Security, Health, & Environmental Justice (EJ) Initiatives (pages 16-19) Page 17 (top): Ultimate Security: The Basis of Political Stability: April 20, 2012: Flooding in Amlamethi, Gosaba, Sundarban,West Bengal, India. Stagnant water marooned more than two million people for several days. © Samrat35 | Dreamstime.com Page 17 (bottom): Reconsidering Environments: Makoko fishing community in Lagos, Nigeria. © Joshua Wanyama | Dreamstime.com Page 18: Climate Migrants/Climate Refugees: Sandstorms are an increasing problem.| Photographer credits unavailable. Photos 1.0; March 2013. Drought caused loss of herds and reasons for migrations. | Photographer credits unavailable. Both issues require EJ-related adaptation/resiliency initiatives and policies, including global financial commitments, to fight the expanding climate crisis.

Page 19: Environmental Justice Principles: March 2018: Polluting smokestacks near communities of color are a global problem. | Photographer credits unavailable; Worldwide flooding, events such as this emergency in South Africa, are becoming common. | Photographer credits unavailable. Both issues require EJ-related adaptation/resiliency initiatives and policies, including global financial commitments, to fight the expanding climate crisis.

4. Media Must Prioritize Environmental Security/Environmental Justice Issues & Storytelling, Education & Action (20-25) Page 20: Info=Change: Young-adult photographers and videographers such as those pictured here are part of Baobab Visions training programs. | © Adobe Stock.

Page 23 (top): Reaching Youth/Serving Communities Through Visual Storytelling:. April 2015. Image from Baobab visual presentation | © Photos 1.0.

Page 23: (bottom): Environmental Engagement Via Voice, Music & Movement: Members of the Community Reproductive Health Workers (CRHW) perform a play at a village in Uganda reflect the cultural collaborations between Baobab Visions and the Rhythm & Beat project. © Alan Gignoux | Dreamstime.com Page 24: Greening Our Home: The stories of youth farming/gardening programs such as this one in Prince Georges County, are a prominent feature of the Baobab Visions training program. Image from article “Snapshots of Green” by Frank Dexter Brown, Summer/Fall 2009, Prince George’s Suite Media | © Raoul Dennis.

Sustainable Development Research & Renewable Energy Opportunities/Ventures for Nations of the South (& Communities of Color in the North) Page 25 (top): Green Markets: June 15, 2015: Solar panels for sale outside a shop in Hell Ville, Nosy Be, Madagascar. © Antonella865 | Dreamstime.com Page 25 (bottom): Cultivating Wind Power in the South: March 22, 2013. (Wind Turbines) Arcus in South Africa.. | Photographer credits unavailable.

Conclusion (pages 26 and 27) The Path of Our Dreams & Our Future: September 17, 2013: Children run down the Avenue of the Baobabs, Madagascar. The Avenue or Alley of the Baobabs is a prominent group of baobab trees lining the dirt road between Morondava and Belon’i Tsiribihina in the Menabe region in western Madagascar. © Dennis Van De Water | Dreamstime.com

The Rio Declaration: First Eight Principles Page 28: A Framework for Life & Renewal: Solar panel field in desert. © Fotoeye75 | Dreamstime.com

Contents & Conceptual Visions/Photo Captions & Photo Credits Page 30: September 17th, 2013: Baobab trees at night in Madagascar. © Dennis Van De Water | Dreamstime.com Page 31 (This page, miniature thumbnail images, left to right): 1. July 2014. Globally, wildfires like this are on the rise. Image from Baobab visual presentation; photographer credits unavailable. | 2. Hurricanes and other wind storms are increasingly powerful because of the climate crisis. Image from Baobab visual presentation; photographer credits unavailable. 3. March 2, 2009: Common murre covered in crude oil on the beach, Texel, The Nethelands. © Wimclaes | Dreamstime.com. 4. Flooding events such as here in Europe are growing in danger. Image from Baobab visual presentation; photographer credits unavailable. 5. Similarly, fooding throughout Asia has become increasingly devastating. Image from Baobab visual presentation; photographer credits unavailable.

Back cover, Page 32: July 2014. Hurricane seen over planet Earth from orbit. © Mechanik | Dreamstime.com

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EARTHAFRICA MEDIA NEWS SERVICE & EDUCATION CONSULTANTS™ P.O. Box 9235 Inglewood, California 90305 (c) 202.554.3392 (o) 424.227.6097 info@baobabdiasporavisions.org www.baobabdiasporavisions.org