· By Amelia Coy
I = Change
We have partnered up with i=change, donating $1 from every order to a charity of your selection. To coincide with our 'Rising Tides' collection, we have chosen to support three charities that support our planet.
Clean the sea
Over 160 million tons of plastic is produced each year to create single-use disposable items and packaging.
With no established system to close the loop, this has led to over 70 years of accumulation of plastics in landfill (40%) and the environment (32%), with only 10% being recycled.
Plastics end up in waterways and oceans, breaking down into ever smaller pieces called micro-plastics, well known for entering the food chain through the water, air and food that we consume.
Seabin Smart Tech, similar to a rubbish bin X pool skimmer, removes floating plastics as small as 2mm, filtering 600,000L of water per day from oil and surface pollutants.
Find out more
https://iequalchange.com/projects/clean-the-sea/
Restore the reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living organism and one of the most bio-diverse places on earth. It’s under threat. The Reef also supports the culture and livelihoods of 70 Traditional Owner groups, who have been its custodians for over 60,000 years.
Since 1985, the Reef has lost 50% of its coral cover due to climate change and poor water from land-based run-off. More than 10 million tonnes of sediment from eroded gullies flow onto the Reef every year, smothering corals and seagrass, creating algal blooms, degrading water quality, and weakening the Reef’s ability to recover.
Coastal wetlands are essential. They act like kidneys, filtering out the sediment from agriculture, industry and urban land use. But over 50% of wetlands have already been lost.
Greening Australia and Traditional Owners are working to restore 2,000 hectares of eroded land and 10,000 hectares of wetlands by 2030. This will prevent 400,000 tonnes of sediment from polluting the Reef each year, improving water quality, the Reef’s resilience to climate change, and the livelihoods and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians.
Find out more
https://iequalchange.com/projects/restore-the-reef/
Restore the land
Since European settlement, over 90 million hectares of land across Australia has been cleared, threatening species and the productivity of farmlands. Climate change will only exacerbate the impact with reduced rainfall, increased temperatures, droughts and more frequent extreme weather events.
Greening Australia aims to restore 330,000 hectares of native trees across Australia by 2030. Drawing on the expert input of Traditional Owners, scientists and local land managers, we will plant 500 million trees and shrubs to store carbon, create quality habitat for native wildlife, and restore degraded farmland. These 500 million trees and shrubs will absorb over 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2030, and reduce atmospheric carbon pollution.
This is one of the world’s largest and most ambitious ecological restoration programs.
Find out more
https://iequalchange.com/projects/restore-the-land/