Reducing Deaths And Anxiety: Why Trees Should Be Cause Célèbre For Our Health And Well-Being

Preserving trees is increasingly recognized as hugely important for our future happiness and well-being. Concerned citizens can play a significant role in looking after our natural heritage trees by being their eyes and ears, looking out for their best interests and thereby creating conditions for a better future at both local and global levels

Could humanity’s hoofprint overwhelm nature?

Humanity’s global footprint is greatly affected by food and the way it is produced. Agriculture already occupies nearly half the useable land surface of the planet – 80% of which is devoted to meat and dairy. As an equation, humanity’s footprint has three components: the number of consumers multiplied by the amount consumed multiplied by the way those resources were produced. Future sustainability relies on addressing all three components of humanity’s footprint: population, consumption and method of production. Global action is therefore needed to alleviate poverty, address overconsumption of livestock products and move food systems to regenerative forms of conservation agriculture

Hybridized Discontinuous Galerkin/Hybrid Mixed Methods for a Multiple Network Poroelasticity Model with Application in Biomechanics

The quasi-static multiple-network poroelastic theory (MPET) model, first introduced in the context of geomechanics [G. Barenblatt, G. Zheltov, and I. Kochina, J. Appl. Math. Mech., 24 (1960), pp. 1286-1303], has recently found new applications in biomechanics. In practice, the parameters in the MPET equations can vary over several orders of magnitude which makes their stable discretization and fast solution a challenging task. Here, a new efficient parameter-robust hybridized discontinuous Galerkin method, which also features fluid mass conservation, is proposed for the MPET model. Its stability analysis, crucial for the well-posedness of the discrete problem, is performed, and cost-efficient parameter-robust preconditioners are derived. We present a series of numerical computations for a four-network MPET model of a human brain which demonstrate the performance of the new algorithms.</p

Sustainable Diets: another hurdle or a better food future?,

The notion of sustainable diets has emerged forcibly onto the food policy agenda in recent years, but has also met resistance. The article reviews the case for sustainable diets. It counterbalances the current dominant policy emphasis on raising food output as the best route to a sustainable food future. The article suggests that a process of democratic experimentation is underway. Some official guidelines have emerged alongside a mix of civil society and academic formulations. More coherence of data, principles and purpose is needed at the global and regional policy-making levels for these to become effective in the common task of reducing the food system’s negative impact on health, environment and economies

Covid-19 : How Industrial Animal Agriculture Fuels Pandemics

The battle against the Coronavirus pandemic is without doubt the biggest global crisis in a lifetime. Could it be that the way we now produce so much of our food worldwide is already brewing up the next one? Whilst society has gone into battle with the virus, our invisible enemy, the truth is we've been locked in an almighty battle for some time now. At its heart lies factory farming. Keeping animals caged, crammed and confined - the way most farmed animals are now reared - provides the ideal breeding ground for new and more deadly strains of virus. Swine flu and highly pathogenic Avian flu being but two examples. Whilst Covid-19 is believed to be born out of the ill-treatment of animals caught up in wet markets and the illegal wildlife trade, it shows strong parallels with these other viruses of factory farmed origin. Both Swine flu and Avian Influenza - originating in pigs and chickens - have been devastating. The 2009 Swine flu pandemic went on to kill possibly half a million people worldwide. The next pandemic could well come from an incarcerated pig or chicken. From animals 'grown' like mere commodities and fed on the fruits of deforestation. Without ending the intensive farming conditions that promote the emergence of novel strains of viral disease, the next pandemic could well be on our plate.La batalla contra la pandemia de Coronavirus es sin lugar a dudas la mayor crisis global en toda la vida. ¿Podría ser que la forma en la que ahora producimos gran parte de nuestros alimentos alrededor del mundo está ya preparando la siguiente? Si bien la sociedad ha entrado en batalla con el virus, nuestro enemigo invisible, la verdad es que hemos estado atrapados en una batalla todopoderosa desde hace algún tiempo. En su corazón se encuentra la ganadería industrial. Mantener a los animales enjaulados, hacinados y confinados - como se crían hoy en día la mayoría de los animales de granja - proporciona el caldo de cultivo ideal para cepas de virus nuevas y más mortales. La gripe porcina y la altamente patógena gripe aviar son solo dos ejemplos. Si bien se cree que el Covid-19 nace del maltrato de animales enjaulados en mercados húmedos y el comercio ilegal de vida silvestre, muestra fuertes paralelismos con estos otros virus que tienen su origen en la ganadería industrial. Tanto la gripe porcina como la gripe aviar - que se originan en los cerdos y las gallinas - han sido devastadoras. La pandemia de gripe porcina de 2009 terminó probablemente con la vida de medio millón de personas en todo el mundo. La próxima pandemia bien podría provenir de un cerdo o pollo encarcelado. De animales "cultivados" como meros productos básicos y alimentados con los frutos de la deforestación. Sin poner fin a las condiciones de cultivo intensivo que promueven la aparición de nuevas cepas de enfermedades virales, la próxima pandemia bien podría estar en nuestro plato

Reducing Deaths And Anxiety: Why Trees Should Be Cause Célèbre For Our Health And Well-Being

Preserving trees is increasingly recognized as hugely important for our future happiness and well-being. Concerned citizens can play a significant role in looking after our natural heritage trees by being their eyes and ears, looking out for their best interests and thereby creating conditions for a better future at both local and global levels