Steve Zwick

Opinion: Six Lessons from the History of Natural Climate Solutions

When popular media get natural climate solutions wrong, it’s usually because they’re struggling to understand complex mechanisms that have evolved over more than 45 years. Here is a brief look back on that evolution. Second of a three-part series.…

Opinion: Where Does Healthy Critique End and Cynical Denial Begin?

The science-denial movement delayed action on climate change for decades, and now the same tropes are creeping into coverage of emerging climate solutions. Here’s one way of differentiating between honest inquiry and something more nefarious. The…

Opinion Will Coverage of Climate Solutions Suffer the Same Fate as Coverage of Climate Science?

News outlets are finally allocating resources to coverage of climate solutions, and most reporters are trying to get these complex issues right. Some, however, are repeating the same mistakes that derailed coverage of climate science itself for…

Shades of REDD+: New Series to Explore History and Future of Forest Finance

On the causal front, they’re being set by farmers to clear land for cattle and soybeans. On the consequential front, they’re being set at a time when the Amazon no longer serves as a firewall. Put another way: past actions have made the forest…

Is 2019 Summer the Season of Trees and Climate?

Now to the news, starting with the good part: in July, a team of European researchers drew massive media attention after arguing that the planet could absorb two-thirds of all the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted since the Industrial Revolution just by…

Americans Deserve Better Coverage of Carbon Finance

The climate challenge is complex, and so are the solutions emerging for meeting it. Unfortunately, the same sloppy reporting that got us into this mess is now threatening to keep us here, says Ecosystem Marketplace editor Steve Zwick and COTAP…

Opinion: ProPublica’s REDD+ Belly Flop

Mainstream media outlets have been congratulating themselves of late for becoming just 20 years too late on climate change, and now the same institutions that have consistently failed to cover the enormity of the challenge are failing to cover the…

38 | Natural Climate Solutions at Katowice Climate Talks

It’s not all doom and gloom as year-end climate talks enter their final days in Katowice, Poland, with many observers seeing increased support for natural climate solutions such as better management of forests, farms, and fields. Such solutions can…

Six Weeks Left to Comment on Trump Administration Clean Water Rule

For decades, the federal government has protected wetlands and tributaries that flow into rivers, streams, and lakes of the United States. Now President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler have proposed a new rule that would leave more…

Opinion: The New Green Dealers Want us to “Sky Farm”. That’s a Good Thing!

The forests, farms, and fields of the United States mop up a staggering 15 percent of the country’s industrial greenhouse-gas emissions, but this capacity will plunge as the climate changes. That’s why every credible climate solution incorporates…

Analysis The US is Finally Having the Only Climate Debate That Matters: How to Fix the Mess

The emerging “Green New Deal” seems to offer something for everyone – except climate-science deniers. Criticized by some for being short on details, the proposal actually seems designed to propel solutions that have been languishing for decades –…

Forests, Farms, and the Global Carbon Sink: The Genesis

Agriculture, deforestation, and forest fires generate up to 40 percent of all man-made greenhouse gasses, but farmers are only now beginning to play a role in global talks through a process known as the “Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture”. In this…

Forests, Farms, and the Global Carbon Sink: It’s Happening

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we need carbon sinks if we’re to meet the climate challenge, and farmers have the ability to turn forests, fields, and farms into just that. Unfortunately, they’ve been slow to embrace the…

Can Indigenous Leader Nara Baré Derail Brazil’s “Tropical Trump”?

They’ve been called the “guardians of the forest”, but Indigenous leader Nara Baré says that’s not how the incoming president views them. “Bolsonaro sees indigenous people as a threat to the economic development of the country, and he has no…

When Your Day Job Is Restoring Streams And Saving Species

15 October 2018 | Rick Wilson loves the thousand acres of land he bought to expand his ranch in Denton County, Texas, but it didn’t come cheap, and he was nervous about making ends meet – until he got a letter from a man named Adam Riggsbee, offering…

When It Comes To Envirotech Adoption, NGOs Can Lead Us Out Of The Woods

This story is cross-posted on the World Economic Forum web site 1 October 2018 | Facebook seemed so frivolous when it first emerged 15 years ago, but look at it now: this glorified chatroom has completely upended the very sector it seemed destined to…

Former UNFCCC Boss Yvo de Boer Still Working the Climate Puzzle, but From a Different Angle

For four tumultuous years, Yvo de Boer was the public face of global climate talks, but since 2010 he’s been working quietly on low-profile projects that he hopes will have a high impact on climate change. Now, as President of the Gold Standard, he’s…

A New Green Deal For The Netherlands: Will the Dutch Embrace Voluntary Carbon?

“[If you have] an office park, the Building Act says how much energy efficiency you need,” he explains. “But if you go to zero energy use, you do much more.” When it comes to fixing the climate mess, he wants everyone to do much more than the law…

Now on Bionic Planet: 2017 Climate Change Year in Review

I’ve produced 19 episodes of Bionic Planet since the election of Donald Trump, mostly focused on the work of people trying to fix the climate mess — and in today’s episode I look back on some of the ones that seemed to resonate most with listeners.…

How Staples and the Dogwood Alliance Hope to Save the Forests of Appalachia

Mark Buckley still remembers the confusion he felt 17 years ago, when environmentalists started picketing stores affiliated with his employer, office supplies retailer Staples. “Initially, we were a little taken aback,” he recalls. “We weren’t quite…