When you think of the words “innovation” and “technology,” what do you immediately associate them with? Most likely, it’s something to do with modernity, futurism, and development. The word that probably won’t make the list is “ancient.” And yet, ancient natural technologies might well give us the answer to adapting to climate change that we desperately seek in modern innovations.

Looking both forward and backwards

For decades, we’ve assumed that, in the face of development, the destruction of nature is inevitable. Thus we tend to shrug off tree-felling in favor of flashy apartment complexes or ignore the razing down of critical forests to make way…

The food industry can make or break our fight against climate change in many ways. The world is at quite the precipice today: high populations and global income mean we need to produce more food; increased food production leads to compounding biodiversity loss and climate change acceleration.

Our food systems are effectively the world’s largest production line. They generate enough greenhouse gases to heat the planet above the 1.5ºC mark — and that’s even if other sources of these gases, like fossil fuels and manufacturing, were eliminated.

Our approach to food production has gone through many changes. In the beginning…

When you look at numbers around climate change, the chances of understanding them are probably slim. They feel abstract and far removed, especially if they’re on a global scale. Unfortunately, that’s preventing us from making massive and necessary changes to bring climate change under control. They make climate action feel inaccessible and only for the larger organizations, which is far from true (although that doesn’t mean individual action will resolve everything).

Rosalind Redhead, the Independent London Mayoral Candidate for 2021, aims to humanize these numbers and outline changes that can be made beyond ‘reduce, reuse and recycle.’ And how is…

When it comes to climate change, we’re forever looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. We’d like to be told that there’s a proper way to decelerate these scary changes — but most often than not, we’re told we’re only moving closer to disaster.

But recent studies have offered a ray of hope: positive tipping points that can spark cascading changes that accelerate not climate change, but climate action.

What are tipping points?

Malcolm Gladwell calls a tipping point “moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” …

Not all scientists wear lab coats or call themselves scientists. They might be students, teachers, activists, organizers, children, politicians… the list goes on. But in the context of citizen science, they’ve contributed as much to the study of our environment and climate action as any scientist might hope to.

“More power to the people” has been a common refrain in environmental action. Task lists that include “don’t leave the tap running” and “say no to plastic” have long been part of school curricula. But citizen science is scientific research and inquiry at the grassroots level.

What is citizen science?

Citizen science allows everyone, regardless…

Sustainability programs, if carried out correctly, can be powerful agents of change and innovation.

That said, a lot of company-driven sustainability programs look great on paper but don’t fly in real life. Many are generic and tend to be for show rather than impact. They don’t consider a company’s strong points, only catering to popular notions of sustainability to be seen. Surface-level tactics have grown threadbare and can even develop a sense of boredom and resistance in company teams because they’re monotonous.

On the other hand, some companies have created plans that not only involve their products and processes but…

In 2015, the United Nations decided to establish the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 goals dedicated to building a more sustainable and equitable world. Every year since, governments, businesses, and enterprises have been encouraged to adopt one or more of these goals and use their power and privilege to help the world reach them.

The goals any company chooses would differ, obviously, depending on what industry they’re in and what resources they have at their disposal. But there is one activity that can hit the mark on all 17 sustainable goals. It can be carried out by literally anyone…

Plenty of systems we use today once begun on a very small scale, with only a handful of enthusiasts using them. Cut to a few years later, and these same systems have whipped up a storm in their respective industries. Think back to the World Wide Web, which is perhaps the best example of this catapulting. Today, we can’t imagine the world without the web — indeed, we wouldn’t be able to write to you about it, without it.

Sustainability is also expected to follow a similar trajectory, and I am inclined to agree.

Sustainability has been a “nice to…