Not just a drop in the ocean

Hi friend,

📢 Climbs onto soapbox 📢

If you ever thought you were too small to make a difference, the news coming out of Ecuador this week reaffirms a truth we all need to remember: every little action matters.

Using their votes – a seemingly insignificant ‘x’ on a piece of paper – Ecuadorians put an end to oil drilling in a protected area of the Amazon, forcing the state oil company to end its operations there. Collectively, those votes added up to a massive victory for the indigenous people and biodiversity in the region.

Many of us, in our daily lives, underestimate the potential of our individual contributions.

Will cutting out meat for one meal a week make a difference?

Will rejecting the sandwich encased in single-use plastic make a dent in the plastic pollution crisis?

Will cutting down on food waste in our homes reduce methane emissions?

Probably not.

Taken in isolation, these actions are akin to farting against thunder. Like adding a drop of water to the ocean. But we have to remember that every drop counts. And together? We ARE an ocean.

When we raise our voices, loudly and persistently, the world has to listen. It’s the collective call to action that will cut through the noise of staggering statistics and insurmountable odds to (hopefully) reach the ears of those in power.

And now, momentum is gathering in unexpected places: millionaires, actors, and massive corporations are stepping up to the plate, penning open letters to world leaders, using their voices to demand change in their industries, to tax the rich, and to accelerate climate targets.

So, even if it feels like you’re yelling into a void, yell anyway. The echoes might reach unexpected places.

Embrace the optimism and hope that spring from every victory, no matter how small.

We're all part of this narrative, and every single thing we do (or don't do) adds a new twist. Every act, every voice, every single little choice becomes part of a bigger wave of change. Don't underestimate your power; don't dismiss the impact of your actions.

Our collective strength is in our individual actions – and we've got a planet to save.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

— Tarryn ✌️

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This week's climate and sustainability news worth noting

🌍 Africa hosted its first climate summit as part of Africa Climate Week. Here are some highlights:

• African leaders released the Nairobi declaration calling for debt relief and financing to help deal with the climate crisis, as well as global carbon taxes and increased representation of African countries in the governance of multilateral banks.

• The UAE pledged US$4.5 billion in clean energy investments in Africa. The UAE will also buy $450 million of carbon credits from the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI).

• Climate Asset Management will invest $200 million in projects that will produce ACMI credits.

• Britain said UK-backed projects worth $62 million would be announced over the course of the summit.

• Germany announced a $65 million debt swap with Kenya to free up money for green projects.

🏞️ The Biden Administration has partnered with six environmental and conservation advocacy groups to advance the conservation of public lands in the western US. It also announced that it will cancel seven Trump-era oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and protect more than 13 million acres in the federal National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. But then it went and lifted protections from pollution for millions of acres of wetlands after the Supreme Court found that it lacked the authority to regulate them. The move could leave many wetlands subject to pollution without penalty and could jeopardise drinking water sources 🤦🏻‍♀️

👏 Ecuadorians voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon, which means the state oil company must end its operations in a region that’s home to isolated tribes and is a hotspot of biodiversity.

🤑 Nearly 300 millionaires, economists, and lawmakers have signed an open letter calling on world leaders to increase taxes on the ultra-rich. They say that decades of tax cuts to the world’s richest have contributed to a rise in extreme inequality. You can sign the petition here.

🛢️ Exxon, the largest oil producer in the US, says oil and gas are still projected to meet more than half of the world’s energy needs in 2050, with the world failing to keep global temperature increases below 2°C. It projects the world will reach 25 billion metric tons of energy-related CO2 emissions in 2050 – more than twice the amount the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says is needed on average in its Lower 2°C scenarios.

♹ The UN Environment Programme has published the first draft of a new global treaty intended to eliminate plastic pollution through to 2040. The draft states that nations should aim for the “prevention, progressive reduction, and elimination of plastic pollution throughout the lifecycle of plastic”.

🇦🇺 Three states in Australia – Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia – implemented new rules banning single-use plastics, microbeads, and polystyrene. Queensland will also ban the mass release of balloons.

🧑🏽‍⚖️ The High Court has agreed to hear a joint challenge by green groups to the UK Government’s updated net-zero strategy. The hearing concerns a package of policy measures announced in March 2023, including the revised net-zero strategy and Carbon Budget Delivery Plan. Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth, and the Good Law Project will argue that these documents do not set out measures that would fully deliver the level of economy-wide decarbonisation committed to under the Climate Change Act.

⛏️ A new report shows that while most of the G20 countries reduced the pollution caused by coal, China’s carbon emissions went up by 30% in 2022, as compared to 2015. That makes China one of the top three biggest polluters from coal power on a per capita basis. However, Australia and South Korea remained the top emitters in 2022, despite achieving reductions of 26% and 10%, respectively, since 2015.

😷 Pollution is so bad in Indonesia that the country has nearly halved output at a major coal-fired power plant near the capital Jakarta. The city topped global pollution rankings a few times last month.

💨 Meanwhile, in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency has delayed plans to tighten air quality standards for ground ozone pollution (smog) until after the 2024 presidential election. This is despite a recommendation by a scientific advisory panel to lower air pollution limits to protect human health.

🦏 African Parks, an NGO dedicated to safeguarding wildlife and ecosystems across Africa, has taken a bold step to rescue and rewild over 2,000 southern white rhinos over the next decade.

🍄 The Fungi Foundation says fungi should be recognised and protected on equal footing with plants and animals when discussing conservation issues and legal frameworks. Fungi have long sustained and enriched life on Earth, yet we are only just beginning to understand the intricacies of fungal lives. “Whenever referring to the macroscopic diversity of life on Earth, we should use ‘flora, fauna, and funga’, and ‘animal, plants, and fungi’. Through language, we can trigger change. Accounts of the living world that do not include fungi are accounts of a world that doesn’t exist,” says Giuliana Furci, CE of the Fungi Foundation. I’ve written before on the importance of language when talking about sustainability. Read it here.

🐸 A UN report assessing the impact of 3,500 harmful invasive species found economic damages of at least US$423 billion every year, with the alien invaders playing a key role in 60% of recorded plant and animal extinctions. Scientists expect the situation to get worse as warmer temperatures further drive the expansion of invasive species.

💀 A billion people could die from climate catastrophes over the next century or so, possibly more. After analysing 180 articles on the human death rate of climate change, researchers estimated that every thousand tons of carbon that humanity burns indirectly condemns a future person to death. And for every 0.1 °C degree of warming from now on, the world could suffer roughly 100 million deaths.

🎬 More than 100 actors have pledged to a sustainability campaign focused on implementing and improving sustainable practices within the UK entertainment sector, in a bid to decrease the carbon emissions associated with the film and television industry. The ‘Green Rider’ campaign will enable artists to negotiate bolder sustainability standards on set before signing a contract, such as no private jet use and limiting off-site food procurement. Signatories include Bill Nighy, Stephen Fry, David Harewood, Bella Ramsey, Hayley Atwell, and Maxine Peake.

🔬 News from the labs:

• ☕️ Researchers find that adding charred coffee grounds to cement could produce concrete that’s 30% stronger.

• 🥬 Artificial methods of growing lettuce produce twice the amount of the crop as traditional field-based methods.

• ☀️ Researchers in the UK have developed a ‘solar leaf’ that can harvest up to 13.2% more of the sun’s power than a conventional cell.

🌀 Wild weather:

• 🥵 The world experienced the hottest summer on record since record-keeping began in 1940.

• 🇦🇺 Australia recorded its warmest winter on record.

• 🇬🇷 More than 600 firefighters battled a fire that raged in Greece for two weeks, killing at least 20 people and burning through 200,000 acres. It was Europe’s deadliest and the largest single fire in its history. To add insult to injury, torrential rains led to flooding in Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria.

• 🇺🇸 Floods left thousands of people stranded at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada.

• 🇹🇼 Typhoon Haikui left hundreds of thousands of homes without power in Taiwan.

• 🇪🇸 Record rain causes flooding in Spain.

And in business news

✍🏻 A group of businesses in India have written to the G20, urging them to adopt credible climate targets and consistent policies for rapid decarbonisation of the private sector. The companies, including Infosys, Heineken, Tech Mahindra, and IKEA, have proposed several government recommendations, including phasing out fossil fuels, achieving power grid decarbonisation, creating clear plans for hard-to-decarbonise sectors like steel and concrete, accelerated electric vehicle deployment, and providing climate finance to the global south.

📢 Another group of businesses, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, and GSK, have urged the EU to accelerate its climate targets and set out a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 90% by 2040.

🪀 Tesco has partnered with toy and games giant Hasbro and recycling specialist Wastebuster to launch its first in-store recycling scheme for plastic toys in the UK.

Well, that's confronting

Greenpeace France’s video campaign against fossil fuel sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup 2023 shows the amount of crude oil that the global fossil fuel industry produces in 3 hours and 37 minutes (that’s more than six-and-a-half stadiums worth of oil every 24 hours).

One small thing you can do

Sign the letter to tax the world’s richest citizens (some of whom pay lower tax rates than ordinary people).

✍🏻 👉 TaxExtremeWealth.com

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

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

If you thought your voice was too small, listen to the ferocious war cry of a very angry frog.

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