🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #173
Renewables overtake coal, the Amazon stops burning as much and the best tree of the year.
Happy Mondayyyyy. 👋
Welcome back to another edition of The Grumpy Optimists and your reminder that there is some good news in the world, even if it does burn.
I will share with you one of my highlights of last week, a glorious evening swim at the West Reservoir in London. That combined with a big day on the bike in nature on Saturday and I am recharged.
Anyway, let’s get in to some good news.
👀 News to make you feel good this week
👗 The EU ban on destroying unsold clothes is now in force. Large fashion companies can no longer incinerate or landfill unsold stock, they have to discount, donate or resell it. Luxury brands are reportedly the most rattled, because quietly destroying stock is how they protect scarcity. I’m all for this. We don’t need more crap plastic clothes and the only way to stop overproduction from the stores is to be penalised for just burning away their problem.
⚡ The IEA says renewables will overtake coal in the global power mix this year. Renewable generation is growing more than 8% this year, solar is adding around 600TWh again, and solar has overtaken wind to become the world’s second biggest renewable source. All while electricity demand accelerates, driven by industry, EVs, air conditioning and data centres.
🛻 China has started building its first zero carbon freight corridor. Solar panels along the Hengqin Expressway will directly power chargers and battery swap stations for electric heavy trucks. There will be a 3 minute battery swap, or 200km of range in 15 minutes.
🔋 A £74 3D-printed battery could speed up the storage revolution. A Queen’s Belfast researcher needed a flow battery for his PhD, found they cost £3,000, and 3D-printed his own for £74. Rather than patent it, he gave the design away free to labs worldwide, Ikea-style instruction manual included. What a man!
🦪 Florida tipped 500,000 tons of oyster shells back into the sea, and the sea said thanks. Shells scraped off restaurant plates were tipped back into the sea between 2007 and 2024, and fish, turtle and dolphin numbers have recovered to levels not seen in 25 years. The reason this works is bacteria quickly covers the shell’s surfaces, forming a thin layer known as a biofilm. Ultimately, we end up with water filtering oysters and a cleaner sea.
🌳 The Amazon just recorded its smallest burned area in 41 years. MapBiomas reports 3.1 million hectares of Brazil’s Amazon burned in 2025, down from a record-breaking 15.8 million the year before, and the smallest area since their records began in 1985. Researchers are careful to credit cooler La Niña conditions alongside prevention efforts, and warn a returning El Niño could reverse things this year.
🌲 The UK’s toughest trees are competing for Tree of the Year. This year’s theme is “against the odds”. My personal favourite is this one in County Down, Northern Ireland that makes sitting on that bench something I want to do.
🎵 This week’s music recommendation is a great remix of Unwritten by Natasha Beddinfield which has powered me through a big weekend of cycling and running. Well, that plus a shed load of carbs, great times and big memories.
George, the Grumpy Optimist 💚