🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #22
Narratives and the green party, the new IPCC report and eco-friendly gaming.
Happy Monday folks and welcome back 👋
How is everyone? We hope you’re keeping well. Today is a big day for climate science as the IPCC releases their recent report. We’ll wait to see what it says, but I guess we can predict, climate change is getting worse, we need radical action and we need optimism and solutions. We’ll cover the solutions in more detail and we’ll continue to make optimism and solutions a key part of what we talk about.
But for now, let’s get into it.
The Grumpy Optimists 💚
Articles to read
💚 What can we learn from the German Green Party? The German green party is storming in the pools and looks like it may win the German election in 2 months’ time. The secret? Their messaging campaign is positive, optimistic and talks about a better future. Our favourite slogan, 'climate and economy, without the crisis'. It looks like the greens have been reading the Grumpy Optimists.
🌊 Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse. The collapse of the Gulf Stream would be one of the planet's main tipping points. The currents are already at their slowest point in at least 1,600 years, and new analysis shows they may be near shutting down. This could be catastrophic, and further endanger the Antarctic ice sheets. Scientists say this must never be allowed to happen.
💭 Why does this matter? The Gulf Stream is part of the circulation of water in the Atlantic that brings cool water from the Arctic and warm water up from the equator. It regulates the temperature of the world's oceans and the climate we experience globally. If the Gulf Stream shuts down, this could have dire consequences around the world, disrupting weather patterns, causing droughts, increasing storms and lowering temperatures in Europe, and increasing sea levels in eastern North America.
⏳ Time is running out to stop climate change. Alok Sharma, the same MP who recently flew to 30 countries over the last 7-months and is responsible for COP26, has claimed the world is dangerously close to running out of time.
🎮 Will video game Alba be a game-changer for climate change? With over 2.7 billion people playing video games they have a massive influence on culture and perception. Alba: A Wildlife Aventure is a new game from Nintendo is the latest in a series of video games to include environmental storytelling at its core. The purpose of the game is to frame efforts to save while learning about its importance.
💻 Is Facebook spreading false information about climate change? The fossil-fuel industry may have given up denying climate change, but that doesn't mean they won't play ugly over it. This report by Think Tank 'InfluenceMap' reveals that ExxonMobil and other oil and gas giants are using Facebook to spread misleading information on climate change.
💭 Why is this important? Facebook is a major news source for many and its role in allowing big oil to advertise should not be ignored. Allowing posts that argue fossil fuels are necessary for high quality life should not be allowed.
🏅 Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals made from recycled phones. For the first time ever, the 5,000 awarded Olympic medals are made from recycled electronics devices. Over two years, the Tokyo 2020 Medal Project collected 78,985 tons of electronic devices donated by people across Japan and 100% of the metal used for the medals was sourced from recycled electronics. This is also the first time that citizens have been involved in medal production and design.
💭 Why does this matter? This is part of a wider effort to make the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics more sustainable. This includes the beds in the Olympic Village which, this year, are made of recycled cardboard. The Olympics are famously unsustainable, with billions invested in stadiums that, in some cases, are disused or even torn down after the games. Featuring sustainability as a core principle is fantastic to see.
🏭 New carbon capture facility in Scotland. A new carbon removal facility in Scotland will capture up to 1 million tons per year, equivalent to 40 million trees. Think of carbon capture as unplugging the bathtub of emissions, we need to slow the flow of water but we also need to drain the water out of the bath.
🗞️ New IPCC report set to shock the world. The IPCC is set to bring out their latest report today with the results expected (or hoped) to be a wake-up call for action. We'll dig in deeper for you next week.
🇬🇷 Greece is on fire, you should all be (slightly) terrified. It seems as if the whole world is on fire at the moment, Greece is adding to this as 75 wildfires broke out creating harrowing scenes as tourists and locals fled islands on boats.
Content to check out
🌍 Podcast - 39 Ways to Save the Planet. Following on from last week's Drawdown Agenda, this podcast from BBC Radio 4 features 39 short episodes which explore some promising climate change solutions. They dive into some of the Drawdown Project's solutions and also take a look at some innovative new ideas.
📖 Long Read - The lost history of the electric car – and what it tells us about the future of transport. If you're after a slightly longer article, check out this Long Read from The Guardian. Electric cars have held great promise for years, but will they be the future of transport? Click here to find out more.
Enjoy the week folks! Oh and share this post far and wide, we want to keep getting our message out to the world. Oh and if you haven’t subscribed, go on do it now.