The planet Co-op website is designed to signpost the choices that people can take to fight Climate Change, collectively, hence the “Co-op” bit.  It aims to present a selection of solutions to those of us who want to take concrete action and encourage our families, friends and communities to also make choices that put the brake on Climate Change and other Environmental Degradation threatening the future of planet Earth.

Loss of biodiversity, Sea Level Rise, Soil Degradation, Water Degradation and Eutrophication, Plastic Pollution and other pollution, all require that we make different choices, in the first person, but also collectively, that requires access to information.

Whether it be eneregy, food, work, transport, housing or care, those choices have the potential to help turn the tide and begin reversing some of the damage humanity has done to our natural world.

No one can say which are the right choices for each of us, so here is a range of options and solutions available at present, including how-to guides, videos, articles, websites for various projects.

The site will continue to develop, in an ongoing effort to expand the range of choices. Everyone is welcome to send links they think fit into the overall aim of Planet Co-op.

“In November 2017, 15,364 scientists signed a World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Second Notice written by eight authors calling for, among other things, limiting population growth, and drastically diminishing our per capita consumption of fossil fuels, meat, and other resources. The Second Notice included 9 time-series graphs of key indicators, each correlated to a specific issue mentioned in the original 1992 warning, to show that most environmental issues are continuing to trend in the wrong direction, most with no discernible change in rate. The article included 13 specific steps humanity could take to transition to sustainability.

The Second Notice has more scientist cosigners and formal supporters than any other journal article ever published.^[1] The full warning was published in BioScience^[a] and it can still be endorsed on the Scientists Warning website.” – Wikipedia

For over 40 years climatologists have been tracking increases in our planet’s mean global temperatures. After much research and debate, most concluded that the process responsible for this sudden increase is the Greenhouse Effect. Human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the combustion of fossil fuels – petrol, diesel and gas – alongside methane emissions, from animal husbandry – persist in the atmosphere, and hold in heat, like a blanket. Increasing concentrations make the blanket ‘thicker’ and heat from the sun, volcanic and human activity, is trapped in this capsule of Greenhouse Gases gases (GHGs)

“The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.^[1]

The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of climate change, the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it.^[2] The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions.^[3][4][5] On 22 April 2016 (Earth Day), 174 countries signed the agreement in New York, ^[6] and began adopting it within their own legal systems (through ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession).” – Wikipedia

The scientific consensus is that we are running out of time to stop Climate Change from going critical.

“Since at least the start of the 20th century, the average global sea level has been rising. Between 1900 and 2016, the sea level rose by 16–21 cm (6.3–8.3 in). More precise data gathered from satellite radar measurements reveal an accelerating rise of 7.5 cm (3.0 in) from 1993 to 2017, which is a trend of roughly 30 cm (12 in) per century. This acceleration is due mostly to human-caused global warming, which is driving thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of land-based ice sheets and glaciers. Between 1993 and 2018, thermal expansion of the oceans contributed 42% to sea level rise; the melting of temperate glaciers, 21%; Greenland, 15%; and Antarctica, 8%. Climate scientists expect the rate to further accelerate during the 21st century.” – Wikipedia

This means that every continent will experience a rise, not only on its coastline, but within its very soils, as water soaks into soils, sands and invaades wetlands, along every coastline.

The flowchart below illustrates the processes that contribute to the transfer of toxic, pathogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic, man-made compounds into the seas, rivers, lakes and coastlines of the inhabited continents.

The earliest impacts of Sea Level Rise (SLR) will be on the fringe of the land, as the rising waters seep into and penetrate all waste-filled voids underground- yet these impacts have received absolutely no attention by the scientific community or media.

Amongst the earliest impacts of SLR on marine infiltration of and leaching from:

Loss of biodiversity or biodiversity loss is the extinction of species (plant or animal) worldwide, and also the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat.

The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, depending on whether the environmental degradation that leads to the loss is reversible through ecological restoration / ecological resilience or effectively permanent (e.g. through land loss). Global extinction has so far been proven to be irreversible.

Even though permanent global species loss is a more dramatic phenomenon than regional changes in species composition, even minor changes from a healthy stable state can have dramatic influence on the food web and the food chain insofar as reductions in only one species can adversely affect the entire chain (coextinction), leading to an overall reduction in biodiversity, possible alternative stable states of an ecosystem notwithstanding. Ecological effects of biodiversity are usually counteracted by its loss. Reduced biodiversity in particular leads to reduced ecosystem services and eventually poses an immediate danger for food security, also for humankind. ^– Wikipedia

Over the past few years, in what has been termed “Extinction Rebellion“, we have been hearing  protesters demand that “Governments do something to tackle Climate Change”.

Some of this is absolutely legitimate and right, however, we individuals have a much more immediate role to play:

By actin in the first person we can take the lead e in the process of changing OUR impacts on our planet to reduce, and even reverse our impacts. But that means changing the choices WE make:

• as buyers
• as tenants
• as colleagues
• as neighbours
• as homeowners
• as business owners
• to fund Virtuous Circles
• to de-fund Vicious Circles
• to build our own green jobs
• to own our own lives and future
• to build resilient, sustainable communities

Set-up local co-operatives and collective buying groups for:

• Sustainable food
• Sustainable housing
• Workers’ co-operatives
• Community Energy Co-ops
• Regional transport & Energy Networks
  
• Co-operative vehicle conversion projects
• Community Afforestation projects

Network with other groups and co-ops to make your £$€¥ buy BIG volumes of sustainable goods, and choose ethical wholesalers, asking them to buy from small farmers and even encourage them to form Farmers’ Co-operatives.

The Co-operative movement:

• A brief history of the Co-operative movement
• A history of the British Co-operative movement
• A list of notable co-operatives around the world – Wikipedia