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Climate Change

A map of the United States post land-ice melt.


Land ice: We got a lot of it.

Considering the two largest ice sheets on earth — the one on Antarctica and the one on Greenland — extend more than 6 million square miles combined ... yeah, we're talkin' a lot of ice.

But what if it was all just ... gone? Not like gone gone, but melted?

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Science

Kenyans got a 'special holiday' to plant trees that could significantly fight climate change

The government hopes that 100 million trees will be planted on the holiday.

Kenyans plant trees on its new "special holiday."

Kenya celebrated its first “special holiday” dedicated to planting trees on Monday, November 13. The day was declared on November 6 by Kithure Kindiki, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for the Interior, who wrote, “The public across the Country shall be expected to plant trees as a patriotic contribution to the national efforts to save our Country from the devastating effects of Climate Change.”

To support the country’s efforts, the Kenyan government made 150 million seedlings available to its citizens via public nurseries and hopes that each of them will plant two trees to help reverse the effects of climate change.

The government hopes that 100 million trees will be planted on the holiday.

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Science

Video shows African Union's vision to plant a 5,000-mile 'green wall' across the continent

The Great Green Wall will protect millions of people from the devastating effects of climate change.

A map of the Great Green Wall of Africa project

A new video by Our Eden traces the timeline of one of the most ambitious environmental projects in world history, the Great Green Wall in Africa. Eleven countries from the African Union have come together to build a 5,000-mile wall across the entire width of the continent made from trees and grass by 2030.

The project aims to prevent the entire Sahara Desert from moving southward into the Sahel region, which is home to over 100 million people and growing. The problem is climate change is causing the Sahara to expand into the Sahel at a breakneck pace of up to 30 miles every year.

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Science

'The Goldilocks Mission' series aims to use TV to teach important lessons on climate change

"There is no more important story to be told than the realities of the climate crisis and its effect on our kids’ futures."

"The Goldilocks Mission" wants to teach climate change with entertainment.

The health of our planet has been a hot topic of discussion for quite some time now. I distinctly remember when I begged my mom to buy me a new hairspray bottle because of some special I saw on MTV (or some other channel geared towards teens) declaring Aquanet enemy No. 1 of the ozone layer.

There's an entire generation of near middle-aged adults who will go into a panic if they see someone throw away a six-pack plastic ring without cutting it because one time in 1992 there was a commercial that showed how damaging they were to sea turtles. Clearly, marketing environmental concerns to adolescent-aged children is effective if you want to see an impact.

Since the late 80s and early 90s theoretically sent aerosol spray products into a free fall, the ozone layer has slowly been healing itself. Was that the doing of determined teenagers? Eh, I'd like to think our awareness of it helped to bring forth more conscious adults and scientists who worked to make changes in the future.

But we still face environmental catastrophe due to climate change, and one Canadian film producer, John Geddes, is hoping to home in on some of that 90s strategy to tackle the elephant on the planet.

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