🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #21
We have an exciting update...
Happy Monday all and welcome back to another week and another episode 👋
Another week down, and here we are in August. Yes, August - the height of the British summer. It certainly hasn't felt like that recently with the thunderstorms and torrential rain which have swept the country over the last week or so. Without trying to be too much of a Debbie-downer, this is a reality we're going to have to come to terms with - not just in the world's far-flung tropical hotspots, but in the UK too. This is a powerful reminder that climate change is very much a problem for the present, as well as the future.
And then there's more good news - we still have time to prevent the worst of these changes materialising. Yes, some of our key planetary tipping points are fast approaching and we can never be certain exactly where the pendulum may swing, but rapid climate action - with legally binding, ambitious emissions targets - can keep these extreme weather events within our control.
With that positivity in mind, let's dive into some of this week's edition, but before we do, we've got some exciting news...
Welcome Ella - Grumpy Optimist #3! 💚
We're very excited to say that we have a new Grumpy Optimist, so we want to say a huge welcome to Ella Simpson. Ella, George and I all met on the same course at university - and we can't wait for Ella to bring some of her great insight across a whole range of social and environmental issues into the blog.
Ella has also listened to George and I grumble throughout lectures for three years, so she knows when to tell us to shut up and stop moaning. So this should be fun!
So, time to crack on with some good reads, watches and listens for you to get stuck into below.
Articles to read
😀 Washington state county bans new fossil fuel infrastructure. It's a victory for climate legislation as Whatcom county passed a measure banning new infrastructure. Better yet, it also limits existing facilities expansion.
🌊 A 680-tonne tidal turbine starts generating electricity for the UK grid. The world's largest tidal turbine will turn tidal power into green hydrogen to power 2,000 homes. It's hoped that the technology can be scaled up because let's face it, there are more than 2,000 homes we need to power.
⬛ UK energy grid faces energy blackouts. While we need to shift to renewables and fast, shutting down coal and nuclear plants puts the UK at risk of energy blackouts, especially without upgrades to global energy grids.
🌇 Climate change is a killer threat to tourism. Tourism is one of the industry's likely to be hit hardest by climate change - particularly for small, rural towns such as those reliant upon the water levels of Lake Powell, Arizona. As these tourist hotspots are fundamentally changed by increased extreme weather events, rising sea levels or deadly wildfires - they, and the people whose livelihoods depend upon them, cease to exist.
💭 Could this be a good thing for climate action? Put bluntly, tourism makes money. Not only for local and regional economies but for governments and corporations too. Towns, cities and in some cases entire countries rely on the GDP which tourism brings in - if the tourists disappear, so does the economy. If used strategically, framing climate change as a threat to tourism and the travel industry more widely could be hugely effective in engaging people, governments and businesses in the climate crisis.
📈 Fossil fuel economy at the heart of Covid-19 recovery. According to a report by Vivid Economics, only 10% of the $17 trillion spent in government bailouts since the start of the pandemic have been used for green projects. Meanwhile, upwards of $3 trillion has been spent on activities that will increase greenhouse emissions such as bailing out airlines and expanding road infrastructure.
💭 Why does this matter? How we chose to build back from the pandemic will ultimately set the tone for climate action over the course of the next decade.
🌳 Does tree planting really work? You've probably seen it on every e-commerce site now, 'buy a tee, plant a tree’, or at least similar. But the question is, does it really mean anything? The problem is, tree planting is seen as a feel-good cure for global warming and the roll-out of mass tree planting is not easy. Lessons to learn? Diversity is good, protecting old trees is best, and trees are not a cure for all.
🐟 Salmon injured by water temperatures during the US heatwave. During the heatwave which hit much of the Pacific north-west in the USA and Canada, a local conservation group recorded this video of badly injured salmon in the Columbia River, Washington. The salmon broke out in red legions and fungus due to the unusually hot water. The heat also caused them to change course to 'escape a burning building'.
🔥 The heat continues as wildfires hit Turkey. Thousands of tourists have been evacuated from Aegean Sea resorts as Turkey has been fighting more than 50 wildfires. Turkey's temperature records have been broken as temperatures reach 49.1C.
🚲 Pedestrians to get priority. A change to the UK highway code is prioritising pedestrians and cyclists in a new 'road user hierarchy'. These changes come as part of a £338m package to boost cycling and walking across the country. This is good news because it encourages more sustainable travel choices as we build back greener from the pandemic. Ministers have also warned that councils that remove cycle lanes or low-traffic neighbourhoods without evidence could lose funding. Let's hope this incentivises more sustainable travel in UK cities!
Content to check out
🎙️ Podcast - The Drawdown Agenda. If you haven't heard of Project Drawdown before, it's an organisation set up by Paul Hawken and the idea is to create a list of all of the potential solutions to climate change. These range from renewable energy to marine permaculture (growing seaweed) and are all ranked from 1 to 50 by the gigatons of reduced CO2 by 2050, cost and savings. It's a fascinating list and this podcast dives into the top 10 in more detail. If you want to check out the science behind each solution, go to their website for more.
📚 Book - Turning the Tide on Plastic, Lucy Siegle. Lucy Siegle is a journalist, broadcaster and eco expert, who has also written extensively about the fast fashion industry and is involved with Surfers Against Sewage. This book about plastic was a great read, with practical steps readers can take to begin cutting plastic out of their lives. It explains where plastic came from, why it's in everything we use and how to try and avoid it. It also has loads of extra resources at the back and although I know quite a bit about plastic pollution already, I found it really eye-opening.
Campaigns
❌ #STOPCAMBO. Energy company Siccar Point and oil company Shell have plans to open a new oil field in the Cambo Field, west of Shetland, Scotland. As the UK gets ready to host the COP26 climate conference in November this year, this planned development will stop the UK from meeting any of its emission reduction targets from the Paris Agreement. The site could be active until 2050, the UK government's target date for net-zero emissions. To learn more, follow the campaign on social media, and you can sign the open letter asking the government to refuse permission for the site.
George, Ella and Will💚