Waiter, there's a climate activist in my soup.

Hi friend,

Have you ever been so pissed off with someone that you wanted to throw a bowl of soup in their face?

I did this week when I read that a Melbourne mother had to deliver her baby on the side of the road after climate protesters blocked the freeway – and her route to the hospital.

Now, I delivered my daughter with no drugs. It took months of mental preparation and acceptance that it would probably feel like my spine was being ripped from my body at the time (it did), but it was something I felt strongly about doing. And I know that birth plans hardly go to, erm, plan (mine was to have a water birth, but I’ll spare you the details of how it actually played out) but I can’t imagine being forced to give birth without drugs, ON THE SIDE OF A GRIDLOCKED FREEWAY, if that was never in my plan, but I digress.

If you’ve read this newsletter for a while, you’ll know that I’m all for climate action, but not when it disrupts lives and livelihoods to the extent that a mother cannot get to a hospital because someone is trying to make a point.

The same goes for the protesters who chucked soup at Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre Museum in Paris in January. I struggle to see how this helps the cause.

Will the freeway protesters take responsibility for the tonnes of unnecessary tailpipe emissions from the hundreds of cars left idling for four hours? The women who lobbed paint at the Mona Lisa were trying to raise awareness about sustainable food systems while ironically wasting food and angering the very people they’re trying to get on their side.

All they’ve achieved is that they’ve left a bad taste in people’s mouths when it comes to climate action. They’re not helping the movement and making all of us who do actually care look like a bunch of crazy troublemakers with little regard for people, culture, or common sense.

It’s become clear over years of climate activism that tying yourself to a tree or gluing yourself to a wrecking ball, or throwing food at famous artworks is not effective nor worth the jail time.

What many people don’t realise is that climate action doesn’t have to be disruptive, one-time events that appear in the news for the sensationalism factor but are forgotten about in a week.

The most effective, impactful way we can take climate action is through small changes that we make quietly at home and in our lives. Little things like remembering to take shopping bags to the store, taking a reusable water bottle everywhere you go, and substituting red meat for one meal a week. And when these things become habits or ingrained in the way you do things, add something else and keep stacking from there.

Compared to blocking freeways and hauling soup, these actions seem insignificant and like they won’t make a difference. And in the grand scheme of things, by themselves, they probably won’t. BUT if millions of us start making small changes at home, all our actions combine and snowball into something big. Every action counts. Every change counts. And little by little, a little becomes a lot. And before we know it, our “inconsequential” decision not to put bananas or avocados in single-use plastic bags becomes a pretty big deal.

By making small changes in our own lives, we can inspire others to do the same, and collectively, we can make a bigger impact than any dramatic protest.

— Tarryn ✌️

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The good news

🐝 Vermont has joined Ontario, Quebec, and the EU phasing out pesticides known for harming bees by 2029, with most spraying ending by 2025.

🫛 Canada's Food Guide now includes evidence that partially substituting red and processed meat or dairy (25% to 50%) with plant protein foods like nuts, legumes, and tofu can increase life expectancy and decrease emissions.

🛑 A man in California became the first person in the nation to be arrested and charged with sneaking banned gases, used in outdated fridges and air-conditioners and a potent planet-warming gas, into the US.

🕺🏼 The first of three Earth Aid Live concerts will take place across six countries, including London, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro, in August 2025, with others planned for 2030 and 2035. Earth Aid Live intends to provoke wider climate action in its audiences, spanning “individual action, community engagement, corporate participation, and intergovernmental collaboration”. 

The bad news

🇺🇸 The US election is down to Joe Biden vs Donald Trump, and the outcome could have devastating consequences for life on Earth. The two are worlds apart when it comes to the climate, but most people either don’t know or don’t care that another Trump presidency would undo much of the progress that’s been made under Biden’s confusingly named Inflation Reduction Act, which is actually one of the biggest and most impactful climate policies in the world.

And let’s not forget that when Trump was president, he withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, the world’s biggest climate treaty, and rolled back more than 100 environmental policies. The really bad news? Trump is leading in the polls. Now would be a good time for Taylor Swift to chime in with her Biden support 😬.

🐝 Research finds that carbon emissions alter the scent of flowers, making it harder for insects like moths and bees to find and pollinate them.

Business news

❌ The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) passed the first nationwide climate disclosure rules for the US. And even though they’re the bare minimum, Republican-led states are not happy, with some intending to challenge the rules in court. The laws will only apply to large businesses and only if they consider the emissions “material”, or of significant importance to their investors. There are so many ways to twist this that it paves the way for greenwashing.

👩🏻‍⚖️ Manufacturers and 24 US states sued the Environmental Protection Agency over the Biden administration’s decision to tighten limits on fine industrial particles, one of the most common and deadliest forms of air pollution.

🇸🇬 Singapore’s national water agency and carbon removal company Equatic plan to build the world’s largest ocean-based carbon removal plant. It will remove 4,000 tonnes of carbon from the ocean every year and use a hydrogen byproduct as an ingredient in clean fuel.

🚘 German startup e-Revolt has developed a method that can fit EV batteries in up to 42 mainstream car models in around eight hours. The one-size-fits-all model can be applied to popular cars, including the Volkswagen Golf and Polo, Audi A3, and Seat Leon.

🌀 Wild weather:

• 🌨️ A “blockbuster blizzard” dumps 7 feet of snow and brings a snow tornado to Sierra Nevada.

• 💨 Thousands of tumbleweeds blew into Utah and Nevada as severe weather continues to sweep the western US.

Well, that's interesting

Water cremation

Most of us have thought about what should happen to our bodies when we die.

I’ve always thought I’d be cremated, once they’ve removed all my useful and reusable organs.

But did you know that a single cremation emits more than 240 kilograms of carbon emissions? In the US alone, cremations account for about 360,000 metric tonnes of emissions every year.

There are greener ways to dispose of your body, like human composting, burying the remains in a biodegradable container that turns into a tree, or something new I learnt about this week: a process known as alkaline hydrolysis or ‘water cremation’.

The process breaks down the body using a very high-pH solution, resulting in a sterile liquid that can be easily disposed of, and embrittled bones that can be returned to loved ones as “ash.” It uses significantly less energy and produces significantly less pollution than traditional methods.

One small thing you can do

Think about what should happen to your body when you die.

Death is uncomfortable to think and talk about, but it’s coming for all of us, so we might as well be as prepared as possible, if for no other reason than to make the grieving process easier for those we leave behind.

Research your options, put it in your will, and make your last action on this Earth as light as possible.

Because lots of little actions combined can add up to something remarkable.

I'll leave you on this happy note...

Thanks, human.

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