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Michael Klusek
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JPMorgan Chase Joins Effort To Save Endangered Forests And Stop Global Warming
May 24th
JPMorgan Chase Joins Effort To Save Endangered Forests And Stop Global Warming.
JPMorgan Chase Joins Effort To Save Endangered Forests And Stop Global Warming
Author: Rainforest Action Network
Published on Apr 26, 2005, 00:55
Rainforest Action Network today commended JPMorgan Chase on its adoption of a comprehensive environmental policy to address the challenges of global warming and deforestation and recognize the rights of indigenous nations. The policy sets new best practices on the environment in several critical areas including carbon mitigation and reduction, endangered forest protection, independently certified sustainable forestry as well as land and consultation rights of native communities everywhere. It is the first policy of its kind in the financial sector to create a special heading acknowledging "No Go Zones," a major step forward in the effort to protect ecosystems that are most valuable intact and untouched by industry. Developed in cooperation with groups including Rainforest Action Network, the new policy marks another environmental milestone in the private financial sector and follows the adoption of similar policies by Citigroup and Bank of America last year.Major advances include:
• Global Warming: JPMorgan Chase will encourage clients to develop carbon mitigation plans that include measurement and disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions as well as plans to reduce or offset them. In a financial industry first, the bank will internalize carbon pollution for power sector projects by integrating the financial cost of greenhouse gas emissions into its analysis
• Sustainable Forestry Certification: The policy makes JPMorgan Chase the first private bank to state a preference for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.
• Illegal Logging: The policy will require JPMorgan Chase clients that “process, purchase or trade” forest products from high-risk countries to have certifiable chain of custody systems in place to ensure that the wood comes from legal sources.
• Human Rights: The bank recognizes the right of indigenous individuals and communities to “self determination over issues affecting their lands and territories, traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used.”
• Project Finance: JPMorgan Chase joins the Equator Principles, lowers the application threshold to $10 million, and broadens the scope to include “all loans, debt and equity underwriting, financial advisories and project-linked derivative transactions,” specifically naming the mining, forestry, and oil and gas industries.
• Private Equity Risk Management: The policy marks the first time that any financial institution has integrated environmental risk management into the due diligence process for its private equity divisions.
• Leadership on Public Policy: In another industry first, JPMorgan Chase has agreed to arrange cooperative meetings with other financial institutions to advocate for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and “focus on specific projects to alter the emissions trajectory of the US economy.”
Unity School Earth Day event saves 375 acres of rainforest
May 24th
It wasn’t an everyday sight at Unity School: baby Red Slider turtles, a humpback whale rib bone, scaly lizards, and two marine and wildlife experts from Florida Flora & Fauna to relate stories about these and more critters during their 18th Annual Earth Day celebration.
The celebration at the Delray Beach school also included a fundraiser for tsunami relief and rainforest restoration program.
Under the direction of Student Government and the Builder’s Club/Kiwanis, students at Unity School raised more than $4,400 for Tsunami Relief entitled “Change for Positive Change”. The coins were collected in a massive water bottle, symbolic of the disaster. Each day, dozens of students dropped off their allowances and their parents’ change from the stores to practically fill the bottle a hundred times.
School officials also announced that Unity School has saved 375 acres of rainforest through its Earth Days.
The festivities included talks from Delray Beach’s Recycling Director Jennifer Buce and a couple of Delray Beach lifeguards who educated students about where and when to join the sea creatures swimming in the ocean.
The 400 students, aged 2 to 14 and sporting “Save the Planet” t-shirts, were watching with wide eyes and gaping mouths at the affair entitled “Blue and Beautiful – Planet Earth.”
Florida Flora & Fauna experts Marti and John Welch of St. Lucie displayed live sea animals and artifacts such as a whale’s rib bone over eight feet long, to the entire school. Students of all classes were able to touch and some of the marine animals with one finger.
The animals showed students the real sensations of the vast array of scales, spines and skin that the creatures sport, said school officials. Some of the critters, such as the spindly sea urchin, which can emit a poison, were displayed in the boldly etched “Look, Don’t Touch” tank.
“Not all the children can see these creatures in the water, so we bring the creatures to them,” Marti Welch said with a big smile.
“Our children amaze us, showing how inquisitive they are about creatures on Earth Day,” Unity School Headmistress Maria Barber said. “Our students are very tuned in to being good earth-keepers. I see them around campus and in town, picking up litter and cleaning the beaches. Some send in their allowances to save the rainforest. I’m very grateful and satisfied that these young people are learning lifelong lessons about keeping our environment safe.”
Amazon deforestation in Brazil back to alarming level
May 24th
Scope: Amazon deforestation in Brazil back to alarming level.
Friday May 20, 8:32 AM Scope: Amazon deforestation in Brazil back to alarming level (Kyodo) _ The statistics released by the Brazilian government concerning deforestation levels in the Amazon rainforest last year have alarmed environmentalists. The world’s largest tropical forest lost 26,130 square kilometers of original vegetation in the period, according to the Environment Ministry. The annual devastated area is the second largest since 1995, when 29,059 square km of the rainforest was destroyed. The destroyed area may be even larger because the National Institute of Space Research, which produced the statistics based on satellite images, will close the study only by the end of 2005. Environmentalists say the Brazilian authorities are not doing enough to conserve the rainforest. "Sustainable development has not yet been adopted by the federal government and by most state governments as a policy for the Amazon, although this is the base of documents, projects and official speeches," said the Brazilian branch of WWF, the international environmentalist organization.
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