🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #13
We only have 5 years left to save the world. This is no joke.
Hello all and welcome to Monday! 👋
Hope you've all enjoyed a great week! We've rounded up the usual menu of good reads and listens this week for you to get stuck into below.
George and Will💚
Quick Reads
💵 UK's ultra-wealthy commit £1 billion to climate action. As part of the impending G7 summit's push to urgently engage the world's largest economies on environmental issues, the UK is looking to its billionaires to play their part. Crucially, however, they are not being asked to divest their carbon-intensive investments, many of which are propping up the fossil fuel economy one way or another.
🇮🇹 Courts back another climate-first in Italy. Following on from Shell's unprecedented defeat in the Dutch courts only a few weeks ago, in Italy, climate activists are taking on their government for failing to show enough ambition on climate action. This one's a little way of a verdict just yet, but reiterates the power of the courts to hold governments and corporations accountable for the promises they make.
✊ Human rights must be at the centre of climate policy. Pakistan hosted this year's World Environment Day, where the key message was to put human rights at the forefront of any socio-economic transition to address climate change. Dynamic, intersectional solutions are essential to tackle complex environmental problems - particularly in Pakistan, with changing weather patterns already threatening many people's basic rights to water, food, health, and life.
💨 Air pollution and climate change driving health crisis. In India, a growing number of premature deaths are coming from respiratory diseases caused by toxic air. Climate change is set to make this even worse by creating conditions in which deadly water and airborne diseases can spread more easily. Another reminder that the impact we're having on the planet doesn't just damage the 'environment' - it puts us at risk too.
🌴 Playing with fire in the Amazon (literally). The world's largest carbon sink is edging closer to destruction as the Brazilian government continue to turn a blind eye to illegal logging. While this is hardly unsurprising given Bolsonaro's track record on both the environment and the pandemic, deforestation in the Amazon has now hit its highest rate in 12 years.
🤗 Major companies unite to push climate solutions. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Disney and Netflix, are joining environmental groups and the U.N. to devise ways to scale funding for climate solutions. The businesses are now seeking to tap into collective knowledge to help them achieve their targets.
🔥 WE HAVE 5 YEARS LEFT. This is no joke, passing the 1.5 degrees we need to keep below pre-industrial levels. This poses major risks as tipping points are hit and we reach a part of no turning back. Here's a summary. 👇
A Podcast Recommendation
How They Made us Doubt Everything
A fascinating mini-series about how some of the world's most powerful interests made us doubt the connection between smoking and cancer, and then how the same tactics were used to make us doubt climate change.
Powerful, interesting and really bloody infuriating. A must listen.
Just a quick one this week folks. Enjoy the sunshine, eat good food and drink coffee.
George