Maybe kids should run the world

Hi friend,

It’s been a weird, infuriating, and promising week in the climate space, peppered with victories and regressions.

Promising…

because the UN Children’s Rights Committee has drawn a line in the sand, making it clear that children have a right to a clean and healthy environment and that governments are responsible for protecting them against the immediate and future impacts of climate change.

Young people are fighting for those rights in the courts, with a group of youngsters in Portugal hauling 32 European Union countries to court for dragging their feet on climate change.

Infuriating…

because while 15-year-olds have the balls to challenge authorities in court, authorities don’t have the balls to stand up to corporate bullies, many of which cause climate damage up to seven times their annual profits.

SEVEN TIMES!

Think about it. Shell reported record first-quarter profits this year of US$9.6 billion. That suggests it may have caused environmental damages of up to US$67.2 billion! (This is just an example; don’t sue me).

But instead of taxing these companies or implementing policies to force change, politicians do stupid shit, like relaxing water pollution laws and standing by while fossil fuels are subsidised at a rate of US$13 million A MINUTE.

Climate-change-denying politicians in Florida are particularly annoying, pointing fingers at the people who have actually taken action (even if you don’t support Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act) and pushing ahead with plans to teach schoolchildren that climate change is a myth on the same day that an “unprecedented storm” ripped through the state.

Weird…

because a biotech company is throwing millions into a project to resurrect the woolly mammoth to benefit the world’s ecosystems.

Now, I’m no biotech scientist, but wouldn’t that money be spent to prevent at-risk species from going extinct??

Like the Takahē bird in New Zealand, which was thought to be extinct, but this week was released back into the wild thanks to dedicated conservation work.

Or the 10,000 baby penguins that drowned in Antarctica because there were no ice sheets for them to stand on.

It's a topsy-turvy world where children are often more sensible and forward-thinking than the adults in power.

Maybe they should be making the big decisions. Bring back Kid President!

— Tarryn ✌️

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This week's climate and sustainability news worth noting

☢️ Japan has started releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. In response, China immediately banned all aquatic products from Japan, and Hong Kong implemented import controls on Japanese seafood. This is despite assurances from the International Atomic Energy Agency that the impact from the release of the water will have a “negligible” environmental impact. The first discharge – about the equivalent of three Olympic swimming pools of water – will take place over 17 days. The release of all the contaminated water will take about 30 years.

👏 Children have the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and it’s up to governments to provide it, says a new report from the UN Child Rights Committee. Climate change is affecting children's rights to life, survival, development, and mental health, and there’s a “clear emerging link” between climate change and rising eco-anxiety and depression among children. The Committee says UN countries must act to protect children from the immediate harmful effects of climate change, as well as the future effects, which at this rate will be catastrophic.

🧑🏽‍⚖️ Six young people from Portugal (some as young as 15) are taking 32 European countries to court over their inaction over climate change. The case – filed in September 2020 against the 27 EU member states as well as Britain, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, and Turkey – seeks a legally binding decision that would force the governments to act against climate change. The hearing is scheduled for 27 September and the youngsters hope their legal battle will inspire others to demand environmental justice worldwide.

🤨 Carbon credits from some forest conservation projects are being inflated, and may not actually be offsetting even close to the amount of emissions they're claiming. In some cases, they may not be offsetting any at all, a new study has found. Once again, carbon certification group Verra is at the centre of the controversy. Of the 18 projects looked at, researchers estimated, on average, the number of carbon credits generated was around three times the additional carbon actually stored. Based on the initial project estimates, as many as 60.2 million out of 89 million carbon credits will come from projects that produced no significant reduction in deforestation or CO2 emissions. (I’ve written before about why carbon credits and offsetting are bullshit. You can read more here.)

📈 Every ton of carbon is four times more damaging to the world now than it was 10 years ago. The implications of these findings for climate policy are significant. The central estimate is that the social cost of carbon (its effect on human health, agricultural productivity, and sea level rise) becomes 2.2% larger every year. Researchers have called for intensified efforts to reduce emissions and for a reassessment of the carbon price and carbon tax.

🚜 Applying ground-up silicate rock to Midwestern farm fields can capture significant amounts of carbon dioxide and prevent it from accumulating in the atmosphere. Called enhanced weathering, silicate rock is applied to farmland to capture carbon released in row-crop agriculture before it reaches the atmosphere. As the rock weathers, calcium and magnesium are released and react with dissolved CO2 to produce bicarbonate, essentially locking up the gas and redirecting it harmlessly into groundwater.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 A population ecologist has warned that humanity is on the verge of a massive population correction. William Rees says the planet can only support so many people and when a certain threshold is reached, a population correction occurs. Overpopulation is already stressing the planet and many of Earth's cycles are being disrupted, such as weather patterns and the global nutrient cycle. Rees thinks a population correction could happen this century, in the form of war, famine, habitat instability, or disease, but that it can also be avoided if we get our shit together.

🇬🇧 The UK has relaxed water pollution rules placed on housing developers in England because it wants to fast-track development. Developers won’t have to prove that their work won’t pollute nearby water with nitrates and phosphates. The UK is also allocating £16 million to restore 35,000 hectares of peatland in England.

🇺🇸 All but one Republican candidate in the US denied climate change during the first 2024 presidential primary debate on the same day that Hurricane Idalia pummelled the very states they were representing.

🇪🇸 The Spanish government approved utility Endesa’s proposal to close its As Pontes coal plant by August 2024 and replace it with wind farms. Meanwhile, France has extended the life of its last remaining coal power station until August 2024 to get through winter. That said, the amount of electricity generated from fossil fuels in the EU plummeted by almost one-fifth in the first half of the year – bringing the share of coal, oil, and gas in the electricity mix to a record low.

🇨🇳 China’s multimillion dollar “war against pollution” is paying off. Pollution levels in China have fallen 42% from 2013 levels. Researchers from the University of Chicago noted that the fall in global pollution levels was entirely due to China’s staggering progress, without which, global pollution would have increased.

🐧 Around 10,000 baby emperor penguins drowned in Antarctica last year after sea ice broke up early, causing the chicks to fall into the water and drown or freeze. This is the first widespread regional breeding collapse recorded in emperor penguins, and scientists are blaming climate change.

🦣 A biotech company plans to bring back woolly mammoths by 2027 using genetic information from the remains of mammoths and Asian elephants. The company, Colossal, is making a colossal (sorry) US$60 million investment into the project, saying bringing back the mammoth can have a beneficial impact on the world’s ecosystems.

🔬 News from the labs:

• 🥤 27 out of 39 brands of straws (including paper and bamboo) contain PFAS, a “forever chemical” that lingers almost permanently in air, water, and soil.

• 🔥 Domestic firelighters emit more black carbon, a major contributor to global climate change, than all biomass fuels combined.

• 🧫 Researchers identify a type of bacteria that not only eats low volumes of methane but thrives to the extent that it can increase its own numbers.

• 🧪 Scientists have turned polyolefins, commonly used in single-use packaging, into molecules that underlie surfactants, the main components of detergents and other chemicals.

• 🏭 Researchers have developed a cost-effective metal-organic framework that efficiently captures CO2 from industrial emissions.

• 🪰 Dead black soldier flies could be turned into biodegradable plastic.

🌀 Wild weather:

• Hurricane Idalia wreaked havoc in Florida, prompting Georgia to issue a state of emergency. The National Hurricane Center described the storm as “an unprecedented event” with storm surges made worse by a rare blue supermoon. Two people died, 40 schools closed, and 280,000 people were left without power. An oak tree fell on Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ home. I wonder how he feels about the “climate hoax” now and if he’ll go ahead with plans to teach schoolchildren that climate change is a myth.

• Greece battles the worst wildfires since record-keeping began, with 209 fires breaking out in one day.

• A hailstorm in Germany damaged 80% of buildings in the town of Bad Bayersoien, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency.

And in business news

🤑 Fossil fuels are being subsidised at a rate of US$13 million A MINUTE. The International Monetary Fund analysis found the total subsidies for oil, gas, and coal in 2022 were a record $7 trillion. That’s equivalent to 7% of global GDP and almost double what the world spends on education. Ending the subsidies should be the centrepiece of climate action, the IMF said and would put the world on track to restrict global heating to below 2C, as well as prevent 1.6 million air pollution deaths a year.

🤯 Many of the world’s corporations may be responsible for climate damages SEVEN TIMES their annual profits, with the average firm liable for damages equal to 44% of their profits. As if that weren’t shocking enough, researchers say these numbers are likely significant underestimates because they come almost entirely from disclosures that those companies have made voluntarily.

🛩️ Google says it’s made a major AI breakthrough that could dramatically reduce the amount of contrails – the long, white lines that appear behind planes that account for more than a third of the global warming impact of flying. Google used data and AI to generate routes for pilots that avoided creating contrails by 54%. Meanwhile, a bunch of aviation industry leaders – including Airbus, Qantas, Breakthrough Energy, Boom Supersonic, World Energy, Salesforce, JetBlue, and Deloitte have launched the Sustainable Aviation Challenge to support entrepreneurs developing sustainable technologies for aircraft and decarbonisation of the sector.

One small thing you can do

Reduce the font size before you print anything.

If you absolutely must print that 23-page document, reduce the font size and print on both sides of the paper to reduce waste.

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

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

Wildlife observers in New Zealand are celebrating a major conservation victory.

The Takahē bird, which was formally declared extinct in 1898, is gradually increasing its presence in the country’s woods.

Authorities released 18 takahē to the Greenstone Valley near Queenstown – a site where they haven’t lived for over a century.

Watch them go!

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