August is a busy month the world over but especially in India.
This year in the lead up to our 80th Independence Day and 387th Madras Day (Founded: 22 Aug 1639). There are other natural and international landmarks to keep in mind which in turn shape the definition of Independence in the AI, information and internet age that is the 21st century.
Friendship
India celebrates the first Sunday of August as Friendship Day, while the UN observes it on July 30th, which this year was Earth Overshoot Day.
Friends they say are the family we choose and a good friend can make us better while a bad friend can ruin us. In geo-strategy and geo-politics that shape International Relations, friends matter. Be it Chanakya's Arthashastra, Machiavelli or Sun Tzu's Art of War, a nation's friends matter. In the interesting times we live in India's international influence, allies and influence are a key component of its development in 80 years of independence and millennia of civilizational centrality.
Under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the progress of the SDGs is also dependent on cooperation between nations, institutions and individuals - SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals
Natural Resources that Need Protection
In August we observe International Marine Fish Day (Aug. 6th), Indigenous Peoples (August 9th) & World Lion Day (August 10, 2026) all in the first ten days of the month.
By supporting, empowering and protecting these initiatives and keeping in mind the significance year round, we can ensure that Life on Land (SDG 15) and Life Below Water (SDG 14) thrives among others.
Empowering Indigenous People ensures multiple SDG wins.
Ensuring that marine fish thrive requires that our oceans are healthy which again boosts multiple SDGs.
The Lion, like all wild cats, is an apex predator and healthy lion population are indicators of its thriving ecosystem. Protecting lions, increasing their habitat and prey by ensuring thriving, forests, grasslands and mangroves without human and industrial encroachment is a win-win for us all. As the Apex Predator, the lion thrives in a healthy ecosystem with minimal man-animal conflict and instead harnessing their presence to build local community stakeholdership in their success means growing sustainable tourism, and economic growth by creating new income streams. Thus ensuring sustainable communities living in areas with thriving forests and lions benefit from forest and predator health.
Thus the news that Asiatic Lions have been spotted in Gujarat's mangroves in Amreli district is cause for celebration as it is an indicator of the mangroves thriving.
Swadeshi & Swaraj: Handloom & Independence
National Handloom Day is observed on August 7th in India. To honor the Swadeshi Movement that launched in Calcutta on 7 August 1905, National Handloom Day is observed across India. Textiles, especially hand woven natural fabric are woven into the fabric of Indian society just as much as the Khadi is woven into the Indian Independence Movement.
Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB) of Government of India
The standard Indian Flag is made from Khadi fabric.
Thus the days observed in the first third of August echo what one values about India's Independence 80 years on. As we move towards the Viksit Bharat (Developed India) with Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) at its core, we need to ensure that our development embraces concepts of Sustainable Development and the Circular Economy. Also in our quest to become a developed nation the easy and moral method is to ensure that our most vulnerable and marginalized populations are empowered and mainstreamed in the roadmap to development:
Reduced Inequalities, Climate Action and ensuring our air, water, soil and environment thrives so that life thrives are hallmarks and the gold standard of an Empowered and Independent, Model Developed Nation.
30 July 2026 is Earth Overshoot Day for this year. As mentioned in the post during the COVID19 pandemic when earth overshoot day was pushed to 22 August 2020 due to the restrictions of lockdown:
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity has
exhausted nature's budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we are
maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and
accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The result of overconsumption, extractive policies, overexploitation of resources, use-and-throw lifestyles, linear instead of circular economies and of course unsustainable development.
Perhaps there is a message that Earth Overshoot has been falling in July, a month observed as "Plastic Free July" centering a RE-Plastic (REplacing, REducing, REcycling & REusing Plastic) Lifestyle. Eschewing the throwaway (single-use/disposable/wasteful) culture will go a long way in extending natural resources longer into the year - thus delaying our dependence on resources of future years and generations.
Illustration Credit: Global Footprint Network 2026,
www.overshootday.org and www.footprintnetwork.org
With wars in multiple parts of the world literally burning through resources explosively, it seems counterintuitive that earth overshoot day is nearly a week later this year. While we would tend to pat ourselves in the back that last year's earth overshoot day fell on July 24th 2025 and in the Fire Horse Year 2026 it has been pushed back almost a week to July 30th 2026, it must be noted this is just an accounting correction due to "upward data revision in the Ocean Carbon Absorption" rather than significantly improved resource conservation and ecological restoration (see image below for AI summary of why this stretch happened):
See more at: https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
If the whole world lived like Indians , we won't overshoot the earth's budget of annual ecological resources, see this DWTV's coverage of Earth Overshoot Day 2025:
Data Revisions: Upward adjustments to ocean
carbon-absorption metrics and minor account updates shifted the baseline
calculation 8 days later.
Real-World Change: Actual rising human consumption
widened the ecological deficit, pushing the date 2 days earlier.
Net Effect:
Combining the +8 day data correction and -2 day consumption acceleration
resulted in the net 6-day calendar delay.
True Trajectory: Despite the later
calendar date, resource consumption pressure worsened, making 2026 the highest
state of ecological overshoot to date.
As mentioned in the DWTV report, less waste, more recycling, reducing food waste, overconsumption and shifting to green energy all will help push back Earth Overshoot Day.
Thus centering a Circular Economy model, slow fashion, zero-waste, Net-Zero eco-conscious lifestyles - Sustainable Development - will make us live within our planetary resource budget. This way of life itself is Climate Action - SDG 13 as the ecological footprint and carbon footprint of our lives shrink. This is much needed in a world bearing the brunt of climate change.
It's easier said than done as there are entrenched systems that pushback on changes in consumption patterns. This video by creator AliMcForever "Burning Carbon" explains it succinctly:
Here's to hoping that we can shift to a more ecologically conscious and environmentally freindly way of life thus living within our planetary resource budgets!
Women and the mental load, unpaid labour, exhaustion and rage all with the ever present, imminent threat of violence thus constant vigilance.
This post is harder to write. It is so personal, and so ubiquitous. I have been discussing this in some form or the other for over two decades ever since my peers and I entered the workforce. Although there were ever-present calls on our leisure even in girlhood, and need for constant vigilance all our lives the disproportionate unpaid labour, mental load, the mental and physical exhaustion, and accumulated rage became constant on having to work as well as put in hours of unpaid, unacknowledged domestic labour.
Paris Paloma's song "Labour" is more an anthem for us women than a popular, viral backgorund score for reels.
"All day everyday therapist, mother, maid."...Sing it sister!
See also this op-ed from Ashoka University's Sumana Roy in the Delhi edition of The Indian Express:
The sub-stack "Swarna's mumblecore" has a very insightful piece "Why brown daughters don't burn the house down." It echoes and emphasizes the impotent fury and constraints on us "brown daughters" who don't give in to the feminist rage to burn it all down and re-build a feminist world. It also shows how the domestic labour and invisible load is particularly invisible even to girls and women intergenerationally and within the family.
While the following image I have shared from a talk by Seema Kulkarni on Reporting on Climate & Gender: A Rural Perspective, shared in my blog post "Women Farmers & the Burden of Unpaid Labour" on 5 April 20206, its a disproportionate statistic that repeats across classes, across salary scales, across urban and rural regions and across borders. Gender is the only constant.
As reports continue to flood media in all its forms of unchecked and mostly fatal violence and sexual violence against women and girls in public with impunity the rage bubbles forth more often.
In the translated captions of Chinese vertical form micro dramas, there is a repeated line calling for women to vent their frustrations and rage out load so as to avoid developing "breast cancer" or "lumps in the breast." The link between autoimmune conditions and unexpressed rage and unprocessed trauma is scientifically documented. Internalization of rage, the stigma associated with women expressing rage and social conditioning of frustrating gender roles as well as the need for constant vigilance overextends our nervous systems, pushes our hormones out of whack and repeatedly manifested silent, suppressed rage as depression, exhaustion and autoimmune conditions in women.
A powerful point is made in the following movie review, when the reviewer talks about the Netflix Crime Comedy's Maa Behan [Mother Sister] being ahead of its time and bashed by audiences (from 8 mins 43 seconds) in this Tried & Refused Productions video "5 Powerful Bollywood Movies Unfairly Treated by the Audience" That of the toll/tax to patriarchy where competent and extraordinary women compromise and accept the most mediocre of men just for the safety offered from belonging to a man: Someone's mother, sister or wife.
The content from digital creators Rachael Kliendienst's "Women in Charge" series [now (23 July 2026) up to a month in charge] and Tara Joon's "Grandma's Advice" (141 reels) clearly demonstrate through overemphasis on the competence and constraints on women and how far we can go if those constraints were lifted. The obvious and self-evident solutions that get overlooked in the patriarchal system.
Status Update - Day 5: Women in Charge
It's actually a win-win if Gender Equality the 5th Global Goal (Sustainable Development Goal - SDG 5) is made central to the development roadmaps. For now most action plans that centre the "Women, Peace & Security" agenda is more elaborate plans and policies rather than ground reality.
Source: Asian College of Journalism - Climate Media Hub: Reporting on Climate and Gender.
Lost opportunity for a better world ... a major loss when the direct link between the education levels of girls and women and the development potential of a nation is highlighted.
Dr Kate Adams on Education of Women as
development predictor:
Yet there are so many barriers to education, opportunity and financial independence of women. The rage persists.
We are more than midway through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a global call for action led by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that aims to
"prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems
worldwide, aiming to revive 1 billion hectares of land and protect marine
environments."
It's a good time to access our progress and check out the main threats to ecosystems and the innovations and innovators tackling it.
Overwhelmingly environmental threats include the climate crisis, deforestation, soil degradation, air pollution, water pollution and plastic pollution. In nearly all cases innovators leading the charge have overwhelmingly been young people.
Threats to ecosystems are directly and indirectly risks to human security and innovations - be they recognized, award winning and community level life-changing - have come from young people who have seen a problem and found solutions for it.
The search engine Ecosia's planting of over 250 million trees in key ecosystems thus restoring vital natural resources has been a major win fr Ecosystem Restoration.
Young Innovators nationally and internationally, individually and through innovative community intervention have played a vital role in improving ecosystems as well as lives and livelihoods.
The focus of this post will be young Indian Innovators whose innovations have led to climate action (SDG 13), environmental cleanup as well as improved lives.
Source: Ideal City 2026: Nature Research Intelligence/Springer Nature
SDG 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure
Young Indian Innovators boosting SDGs
Three 16-year-olds Indians from Delhi-NCR, Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal, and Avyana Mehta, won the $100,000 Grand Prize of Earth Prize 2026 after becoming Regional Winners from India with their innovation Plas-Stick. Seeing the problem of microplastic pollution in water resources everywhere they came up with a low-cost innovation to ensure clean water for all, especially in rural India where access to safe drinking water and affordable tech to clean were both challenges. Their innovative use of ubiquitous tamarind seed powder to bind and remove microplastics rightfully earned then the Earth Prize 2026.
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Mahek Parvez then a student pupil leader of a leading school in Chennai (Tamil Nadu, India), Chettinad Vidyashram as a teenager designed a "refrigerator" that functioned without electricity or a coolant. This innovation that won the Lexus Design Award India improved lives and livelihoods as well as cutting down food wastage (SDG 12, SDG 2) and carbon footprint (SDG 13) of food produce.
The "SunHarvested CoolRooms" which triples shelf-life of fruits and vegetables was a response to the young lady witnessing the problem of spoiling produce and the challenges of access to electricity and affordable cooling solutions and solved the problem by applying basic physics innovatively.
This led Mehak to a Research internship at IIT-Madras' Prof. KS Reddy Sustainable Cooling Heat Transfer & Thermal Properties lab (2023-2024), the Lexus Eco Award and graduate studies in the United States.
Seeing local dobhis (laundry persons) handle coal under the scorching sun - polluting the air and adding to greenhouse gases led to Vinisha, the Earthshot Prize's youngest ever nominee to design Iron Max - the Solar Ironing Cart even before she was a teenager after months of researching and innovating a solution.
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These innovations all improved ecosystems as well as lives and livelihoods.
SDG10 - Reduced Inequalities
Nearly 15 years ago, then 12 year old Shalini Kumari from Patna, Bihar saw her her grandfather using a walker because of limited mobility struggle with steps and designed the adjustable walker that can be used to climb steps as well as walk on flat surfaces. By improving the access of people with limited mobility, Shalini's retractable walker improved mobility and lives of people with limited mobility. To date it remains a cost-effective and life-changing innovation in the lives of many. Improved mobility in many ways is empowerment.
Just a student of Class 8, her life-changing innovation won her the Ignite Award 2011.
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More recently WALK by Lifespark Technologies - a smart gait support system for Parkinson's Patients was also an innovative solution Amey Desai designed in response to his grandfather's struggles with Parkinsons Disease that has gone on to empower and improve the life, gait and safety of many suffering from the sudden fall/freeze inducing neurological condition as well as similar conditions.
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Avishyant Panda, IAS, of the 2017 batch through his innovative community-level intervention across Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra ("Lungs of Maharashtra") has reduced inequalities and built a climate-resilient, water-secure community. His efforts at watershed management, tree-planting and water bodies restoration boosts multiple SDGs: SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities through community empowerment, SDG6 - Access to Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 11 - Sustainable Communities, SDG 13 - Climate Action, SDG 14 - Life Below Water, SDG 15 - Life on Land.
July brings monsoon to a large part of India and heavy rains in many parts of the world. While a welcome break from extreme heat and heatwaves, monsoon brings its own kind of mayhem.
And considering India is a water-stressed country that has overdrawn its groundwater as well as having large parts of the country in drought and drought-like conditions saving water is always a priority. This is the situation in most regions of the world. Even in flood-prone weather communities and governments need to remember to 'Catch the Rain'.
Catch the Rain Pledge of Government of India
The Government of India during the period of March 22 to November 30 has called for efforts to enhance rainwater harvesting and 'Catch the Rain'. The Jal Shakti Abhiyan's Catch the Rain (JSA:CTR) campaign calls for
Water Conservation at the household level
Rainwater Harvesting from the household and community levels all the way to the state and national levels
Mapping and Geo-tagging Existing Water Bodies Across the Nation
Reviving and Restoring water bodies and wetlands
Afforestation (Especially in watershed regions)
Water Security and Conservation Education
Jal Shakti Kendras - district level centers for water management information
EcoBloc & Rainwater Harvesting
The above The Better India reel shows the "smart drain" EcoBloc made using recycled plastic that harvests storm water. A solution by Chennai's R.R. Sivaram implemented in thousands of locations across Tamil Nadu and India harvesting millions of liters of rainwater from surface runoff. - a win-win for SDG 12 and SDG 6 - responsible consumption and production of plastics and water - ensuring clean water and sanitation in drier non-monsoon periods.
Sponge City Model
The Sponge City model of flood mitigation and rain and storm water harvesting is mentioned in the last post of May 2026 (28 May 2026), "Ecomodernism in the lead up to Environment Day."
Sponge cities are prime example of nature-based solution. Tested by Chinese Landscape Architect Kongjian Yu (who passed away in September 2025) in 30 cities in China with plans for over 500 more. It includes harnessing
porous pavements,
green rooftops,
rain gardens
wetlands
to manage water, support biodiversity and improve air quality.
Reviving Water bodies and Wetlands
A major reason for both Heat Island Effect and increased instances of floods in urban areas is the encroachment and mismanagement of water bodies and wetlands. Thus whether in Summer or in Monsoon weather-proofing requires healthy wetlands and water bodies. The bonus of healthy water bodies and wetlands is the boost to biodiversity - a boost to Life Below Water (SDG 14) and Life on Land (SDG 15).
Enhancing Watershed Areas
Water security is holistic and involves securing water resources, forests, wetlands, soil and biodiversity from overexploitation. Watershed management is vital to water security. Especially ensuring natural resources in rain-fed and rain-collecting areas that replenish both surface and ground freshwater resources is vital to ensure human security and sustainable development - especially SDG 6 and SDGs 13, 14 & 15.
A Climate Resilient & Water Secure Future
While being inundated by news of floods, landslides and infrastructure destroyed by heavy rains, cloudbursts and thunderstorms one is always reminded of the power and fury of nature and the man-made disasters we create by destroying natural protection against such monsoon mayhem.
Revived and restored floodplains, wetlands that function fully as the sponges to storm water that they are and, forests and grasslands that anchor soil and prevent landslides are vital to survive the monsoon. Most especially in the watershed regions but also in urban areas where man-made flooding has become the norm rather than the exception from Millennium City (Gurugram) to Maximum City (Mumbai) to our Software and Startup Hub (Bengaluru).
Reviving Shola grasslands in Nilgiris and the Western Ghats, protecting and restoring rainforests and forests in hill and mountain regions as well as checking unsustainable urbanization in sensitive ecosystems by fostering Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11) instead would ensure a climate resilient and water secure future for us all.
Big Apple First
The news of a planned Urban Forest in New York is a step in the right direction. In a city with such a high real estate value per square feet the declaration to prioritize greening to make the Big Apple climate resilient is a signal to the rest of the world. If New York and its NYC Urban Forest Plan can afford t make space for 30% tree canopy by 2040 then any other urban center can do it too.
In the midst of news about the heatwaves in Europe I read about what a privilege it is to be able to see three trees out of your home, school and workplace. A globally recognized pillar of urban planning and healthy living: the 3-30-300 rule put forth by forestry expert Cecil Konijinendjik. The core of which includes
3 trees in view
30% Canopy Cover
300 meters to a Park
This metric is failed by most global urban centers according to a Nature journal research.
I realize how privileged my life is that my part of the world checks off this 3-30-300 metric. Perhaps if more places met this criteria there would be less news of monsoon mayhem, wildfires or heatwaves.
In the news: an Extreme Heat event at London Climate Action Week (June 20-28, 2026) was cancelled due to Extreme Heat! If that isn't a scream for Climate Action (SDG 13) from our fast warming planet due to our actions I don't know what is!
First World Problems Lead to Action
Europe and North America's infrastructure is geared towards surviving winters rather than facing extreme heat and heatwaves in summer. As our climate crisis was in large part a legacy of the Industrial Revolution and industrialization originating in the First World (read: UK, Europe and USA and Canada,... Japan not so much!), climate action there and a policy shift towards a circular economy model will boost sustainable development and climate adaptation like nothing else.
Just as urban centers are perceived as the loci of effective climate action and climate policy locally and nationally, globally the First World - the Developed Countries are seen as climate action and more importantly climate finance hubs.
Talking long term, Spain's transition to solar energy with massive investment on revamping its grid to accommodate electricity generated from renewable sources is a huge win for climate action. Barcelona's affordable and climate smart housing is a great example of Climate Action and Just Transition. Spain is a bit of a poster child of climate action and just transition as it has long been facing extreme weather events (forest fires, flooding, heat waves) and economic crises which it has through recent policy sought to tackle together - sustainable development and just transition - climate justice for all!
Germany and the UK demolishing and retiring their coal-fire/thermal power plants also massively cut their carbon footprint. The growing contribution of renewable energy in American, British and European is both about energy security (while war rages in regions producing and in shipping routes of fossil fuels) as well as climate action through putting climate policy into practice.
Germany's super efficient waste recycling system (Gruener Punkt system since 1990) is another great example of the circular economy and success stories of both Responsible Production and Consumption (SDG 12) and SDG 13.
How India Beats the Heat
Tamil Nadu's Cool Roof Initiative promoted by UNEP award-winning TN Environment Secretary Supriya Sahu as well as a growing chain of climate-proof rest hubs for gig workers across India as well as insurance for income lost due to extreme weather are some concrete actions to tackle extreme heat across India.
The cool roof initiatives - painting the roofs with reflective weather-sheild white coating cools the temperure up to 5 degrees and is getting popular in lower income urban islands across India. It's a Just Transition win.
Reclamation and restoration of water bodies across India and Miyawaki Forest planting across urban India also counters the Urban Heat Island effect. But there initiatives are few and far between.
Heat Action Plans and Heat Emergency Rooms in place also tackles emergency situations that arise across Indian Summers both in northern dry heat hubs and southern hot and humid regions.
The Climate Crisis Discriminates
Climate Action Now
Climate Justice & Just Transition
On 1 June 2026 Global Parents Day (though India & US
celebrate Parents Day on 26th July - 26-7-26) was observed. As the climate crisis triggers extreme weather it puts older parents at risk and young people are actvely rethinking actually becoming parents.
Thus climate action like curbing individual, family, community and national carbon and ecological footprints is a great step forward.
As mentioned many times on this blog since January 2019, you can calculate your carbon footprint and work out how to adopt an ecofriendly lifestyle with Only Planet.
A sustainable mode of transport is a great place to start and the fact that World Bicycle Day was observed on 3 June 2026 with the theme: “Cycling for a Greener
Future” is another obvious hint from the universe to adopt a sustainable way of life.
In a bit of good news the fact that Earth Overshoot Day is nearly a week later in 2026 than in 2025 is an indicator of a small step to responsibly use the planet's resources. Its on 30 July 2026 where last year we began living on borrowed resources on 26 July 2025 itself.
As mentioned in previous Juneposts in this blog, this month is about celebrating ecosystems and the solstice.
June 21st is the Solstice - Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere with the longest day and Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere with the shortest day. More recently June 21st has also been observed as International Day of Yoga. The sun salutation or Surya Namaskar being central to yogic practices thus apt to coincide with the Solstice.
Meanwhile June 17th is observed as the International Day to Combat Desertification and Drought with the 2026 theme being "Rangelands: Recognize, Respect, Restore" which dovetails well with the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) declaration of 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.
The Icelandic practice of Rettir - the annual sheep roundup is especially vital to the nation's horses, horse-riding traditions as well as the delicate ecosystems of that Land of Fire and Ice. The sheep and the horses in the pastures help maintain the highlands in spring as well as the flocks and herds health through the year. This traditional cherishing of the wild spirit - the roaming - of the horses and flocks feels especially right in 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse.
In the context of reversing desertification and grasslands and pastures, it becomes vital to talk of the solarization and use of solar sheep to fight the creeping desert in Talatan in China's Qinghai Province. As this Facebook reel puts it, the construction of the Talatan Solar Park -the size of Singapore at the edge of the desert has helped create a microclimate that sustains green cover - so much so sheep needed to be brought in to control the grass and weeds (Solar Sheep!) thus generating power, pasture and profits in the region.
Rangelands such as the Rakhals in the Salt Desert, Kutch district of Gujarat in India and the Gujjars and Bakkerwals - nomadic pastoralists of Jammu and Kashmir provide vital oases and ecosystem services respectively.
SDGs at Play
Healthy ecosystems and practices and people who consolidate them automatically boost the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a whole as well as directly and indirectly.
The ecosystem services of nomadic pastoralists such as the Gujjars and Bakkerwals in Jammu helo with watershed management (SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation) as much as SDG 15 - Life on Land.
The sensitive Rakhal rangelands and traditional knowledge that maintains them is vital in the harsh environs of the Salt Desert which is nevertheless home to a vast interdependent biodiversity thus healthy rakhals boosts SDG 15.
The introduction of the Solar Park at the edge of the desert in China ensured SDG 7 - Access to Affordable and Clean Energy as well as combating Drought and Desertification thus boosting SDG 15 as well as tackling the region's health and nutrition requirements (SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 3 - Good Health and Wellbeing).
Rainforests
The theme for Rainforests Day 2026, observed annually on June 22nd, the day after the June Solstice, is "The Forest Within You." Rainforests in addition to being the lungs of the planet and massive carbon sinks are also vital biodiversity and traditional medicine hotspots. They are also the source of our water security as many mighty rivers emerge from the rainforests that sustain life and livelihoods. Nothing heals like forests and forest products and this is exponentially more relevant with regard to rainforests.
In 2026, the search engine Ecosia reached and exceeded its goal of planting 250 million trees through its searches. Most of this was done through empowering local communities and restoring forests, watersheds and reviving biodiversity not just increasing green cover.
Rainforests also protect and support many indigenous and tribal communities that are imperiled by modern way of life. Thus it is heartening to hear news of the Amazon healing (RE-green - Earthshot Prize 2026 - Restore Earth) and Southeast Asian conservationists and environmental activists such as Theonila Roka Matbob in 2026, who halt its encroachment, like in Papua New Ginea's rainforests by the devastation of Rio Tinto the mining company, being honored with the Green Nobel - Goldman Environmental Prize 2026 as well as Whitley Award for Indonesia's Leuser Rainforest.
The $10 million XPrize for Rainforests is more tech focused but also focused on monitoring rainforests and enable local indigenous communities' stewardship of them, e.g., Limelight Rainforest.
Thus the restoration of ecosystems is helping slowly and locally and globally improving people, planet and prosperity - slowly but surely.
