Presently crop failures are increasing around the world and this will only get worse unless we act. Large teams of scientists researching crops are examining ways to help them survive our warming planet. They’re looking at less commonly known plants which can survive in harsh climates to help modify our crops.

It’s an urgent mission. A food crisis is looming, says the International Panel for Climate Change, with floods and droughts linked to climate change already affecting the supply and price of food. A recent report warns that the amount of crops produced globally is set to drop by as much as 30 percent in the next 30 years. Water shortages add stress to the system, threatening supplies of wheat, maize, and rice—which are included in about half of all the calories we consume.

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The idea is to help crops become stronger and more adaptable through a breeding process that tweaks domesticated varieties with genes borrowed from those untamed cousins that survive drought, salinity, or disease.

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Aid to poorer nations isn’t always a direct transfer of wealth, it can be training or other social support. Indeed, it’s often argued that giving money directly can increase corruption and that the recipients don’t have the knowledge to know how to use money. This attitude of (some) charities is patronizing and is increasingly questioned by groups that argue people should receive donated money directly. This is exactly what some recent researchers did and discovered that entire communities benefit when money is given directly to those who need it most.

“That’s a really big income transfer,” notes Miguel. “About three-quarters of the income of the [recipient] households for a year on average.” It also represented a flood of cash into the wider communities where they lived. “The cash transfers were something like 17% of total local income — local GDP,” says Miguel.

Eighteen months on, the researchers found that, as expected, the families who got the money used it to buy lots more food and other essentials. 

But that was just the beginning.

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Enviromentum wants to change the discussion around the climate crisis to be more positive. They do this through the practice of motivational interviewing which engages the interviewee in a meaningful way to them. The idea is to maintain a conversation that’s positive while also getting people to realize how they can improve the world. If everyone makes a tiny a change to their lifestyle we can collectively see massive positive change.

Motivational Interviewing is the most evidence based way to help people change. The approach is so simple, and humble it attracts next to no attention, yet this doesn’t change its effectiveness. 

People change for their own intrinsic reasons. Motivational Interviewing is the process for helping people to explore those intrinsic motivations with us. As Motivational Interviewers we help people resolve feelings of ambivalence and our collaborative spirit helps people get more deeply in touch with their reasons – in a way that enhances their self-worth.

Motivational Interviewing enhances the autonomy of individuals to decide for themselves what is best for them based on their own reasons. By realizing that others have the right to choose for themselves, we change the spirit in which we communicate with others, and this ripples through every statement we make.  We become less pushy, and less focused on our own reasons for others to change, making space for their reasons, their plan of action, and ultimately their choice to change or not change.

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Ontarios’s very unpopular Conservative party is trying its best to not conserve women’s rights and this is obviously causing issues. The majority of people in the province don’t want women to lose legal protections – particularly when it come to health care. The anti-women political drive is being led by Sam Oosterhoff who has made news before when elderly people showed up to his office and read books (yes it’s as ridiculous as it sounds).

So what’s so good about this?

Women have started to show up to Oosterhoff’s media appearances dressed as Handmaids from Handmaids Tale as a quick symbol to show the intentions of the Conservative party. What’s more is that the protests are working and their movement is growing.

Saturday’s protesters weren’t just from Niagara, with many coming from across the GTHA and were mobilized quickly. It was just Wednesday (May 15) that Burlington’s Jennifer Botari invited three friends to join a private Facebook group called “Handmaid’s Local 905.” By the end of the week, the group had 3,000 members, and nearly a dozen other chapters sprang up across the country.

“In less than three days, we have a movement of thousands that have come out,” she said. “As fast as I can find people to run the locals, we’re bringing them online.”

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