Social Change

Each year since 2010 the Green Market Oracle publishes a series of posts addressing a wide range of green school-related subjects. In addition to green school buildings, and their reliance on renewable energy this series has reviewed hundreds of sustainability-focused schools. courses degrees and accreditation as well as a wide range of related topics.  The eleventh edition of the Green School Series includes 23 posts bringing the total number of posts in this series to 422 (to see all the posts click here). Posts in the 2020 and 2021 Green School Series address topics like disinformation, academic programs, school rankings,...

On the fourth of July 2021, Americans need to declare their independence from Republican lies and dirty sources of energy. Two hundred and forty-five years ago, US colonies freed themselves from the injustice of British rule, now America needs to free itself from the tyranny of disinformation and fossil fuels. The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. On that day, thirteen American colonies proclaimed their freedom from Great Britain. Today America needs to free itself from the unholy alliance between the fossil fuel companies and the GOP that is driving disinformation...

This is a time of reckoning, a time to listen, a time to make space for Indigenous voices, and a time to support Indigenous solutions. Canada Day 2021 takes place against the backdrop of the tragic discovery of more than 1000 unmarked graves of Indigenous children that have been found on the grounds of residential schools. Until recently, the children of Canada's First Nations were forcibly enrolled in 139 residential reform schools. These prison-like schools were institutionalized instruments of cultural genocide. They separated Indigenous children from their parents, deprived them of their culture, their language, and their identities. These children...

Sustainability problems are global in scope and addressing them requires international cooperation.  Even local environmental issues have implications for global sustainability.  The global nature of sustainability threats both multiplies and amplifies the need for collaborative approaches and common solutions. International cooperation involving multiple stakeholders is the most powerful and effective policy instrument we have. States that work with actors to create networking opportunities and secure voluntary agreements are more likely to achieve their policy objectives.  International communities working together can circumvent protracted legal challenges, public disagreement, and conflict. Cooperation is both desirable and necessary for a wide range of sustainability-related...

There are a rapidly growing number of governance arrangements that seek to counter disinformation. Battles have ensued as opposing stakeholders vie to influence public discourse. The application of an overlapping four-stage analytical framework reveals major challenges in the fight against disinformation. While an evaluation of the effectiveness of these governance arrangements shows mixed results, best practices are emerging which offer a promising roadmap. The problem of (climate) disinformation and social media Disinformation is as old as civilization and it has been a problem since the advent of written language. However, the rise of social media has exponentially accelerated its reach....

This summary of the top 100 tools, techniques, strategies, and resources to combat disinformation is divided into six categories: Education, government, influencers, journalism/media, techniques, and technological solutions. Education • Inserting factually accurate information in a stream chat or in place of the removed content. This idea is being similarly accepted by governmental agencies like the Department of Homeland Security. (Lonstein, 2020).• Teach analytic thinking and actively open-minded thinking are associated with updating beliefs in response to corrections (Martel et al, 2020)• Help social media users with educational efforts that differentiate between real information and disinformation• Climate education (Hess and Collins,...

As our window of opportunity to act is rapidly closing, an ever-increasing stream of warnings is adding urgency to calls for climate action. Year after year we have set new high-temperature records and we are rapidly approaching the upper threshold temperature limit laid out in the Paris Agreement. Repeated warnings have called us to recognize that we are on the cusp of the end of civilization. New reports confirm that humanity is in the process of destroying civilization. One such state of the planet report is titled, "Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere".The report says that in just over half a century...

On Earth Day President Joe Biden is convening a historic two-day virtual climate summit that heralds the return of the United States to the forefront of the climate fight. On April 20-22, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will come together with 38 other world leaders to discuss global efforts to address climate change. The summit will include all 17 leaders of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate who together are responsible for about 80 percent of global emissions and GDP. It also includes the heads of countries that are especially vulnerable to climate...

Despite the clear scientific consensus, Climate change denial is being kept alive by conservatives. In the United States, this is evident in the major gulf separating Republicans and Democrats. Such divisions are also present in Canada and Australia. At the Canadian Conservative convention in March, delegates refused to support a policy shift that would have acknowledged climate change. Even when conservative leaders try to pivot away from climate change denial, the rank and file refuse to follow. So what is it about conservatives in the U.S., Canada, and Australia that makes them such passionate deniers of reality?   The one thing that conservatives...

We live in a world awash with disinformation and fake news. Social media platforms divide people and put them into partisan echo chambers moving them away from fact-based journalism and funneling them towards sources of information that confirm their biases. For decades sophisticated climate disinformation campaigns have concealed the facts and sown doubt about the science. Lobbyists paid for by the fossil fuel industry have deliberately deceived the public about the climate impacts of coal, oil, and gas. Billions have been spent on multi-faceted disinformation initiatives designed to undermine consensus. Traditional energy interests have colluded with the GOP to erode...