A Positive Climate Book, California’s Leadership, Greenwashers, and More!

Hey climate heroes! Welcome to The Climate Roundup, where we round up the change, er the news about climate and the environment. As part of the Gen E community, we thank you for making climate action part of everyday life. (Reading this newsletter counts!)

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In Pop Culture:

😎 Marine biologist, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a popular voice in the climate movement. I view her as a positive realist. She just published a book called What If We Get It Right?, which paints a picture of what a better future could look like if we employ the climate solutions we have and know are possible. It’s not all fantasy to think about how much happier and healthier a climate-friendly future can be. It’s only fantasy if humanity collectively chooses not to do what needs to be done. So, if you’re looking for a shot of positivity and wonder, join me in checking out her book. Here’s an interview with Ayana to learn more.

In Enviro News:

👩‍⚖️ California is suing ExxonMobil for lying to the public about plastic recycling as a viable solution to the plastic pollution crisis. This is the first time an oil company is being sued for its plastics marketing in the U.S. Exciting stuff.

💪 Also in California, a ground-breaking new bill has been proposed, called the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, which would require ‘producers of apparel, towels, bedding and upholstery to implement and fund a statewide reuse, repair and recycling program for their products.’ If passed, this could be the beginning of the circularity age of fashion that our world desperately needs.

🇨🇴 If you want to see a true leader on climate action, look no further than the country of Colombia. Two years ago, they put an end to new oil and gas exploration, which means they are closing the books on their fossil fuel era despite it representing half of their export revenues. Now, they are asking for help from rich countries and development banks on their $40B investment plan to transform their economy into one built on ‘nature-based climate solutions, clean energy and electrification of transport, as well as projects that improve agricultural practices and protect biodiversity’.

☢️ Microsoft inked a power purchase agreement that will restart operations of a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in PA. Despite the incident in 1979 at the plant, the reactor in question was functioning through 2019. Microsoft and other tech companies are hungry for clean energy sources to feed the artificially-created demand for artificial intelligence. A talking point from this week’s Climate Week in NYC was that AI could bust open the floodgates for investment in clean energy, since tech companies will happily pay a ‘green premium’ to stick to their emission reductions pledges and to avoid losing the global AI race.

😳 Scientists have been studying the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, aka the Doomsday Glacier, for the past six years and their findings are “grim”. It appears that it will continue melting at an accelerated pace, and even if we stop burning fossil fuels now, the warming that is already locked into our atmosphere will likely cause the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet to collapse. This would cause 12 feet of sea level rise in the next 200 years and wipe out many coastal areas and island nations.

🚇 The Barcelona subway system is using regenerative breaking technology to convert the power created from the friction of stopping a train into electricity that powers the stations, above-ground EV chargers, and the trains themselves.

📚 For the educators out there, Yale Climate Connections put together a list of 12 books to help weave climate and environmental education into curriculum.

The Greenwashing Beat

🕵️ Chipotle, Taco Bell, Burger King, Marriott, and Hilton all have public-facing climate pledges to reduce emissions. But behind the scenes, they rely on trade associations to fight local legislation that would force them to actually clean up their businesses. Bloomberg investigates, citing an ongoing case in Colorado.

💄 L’Oreal was a Climate Week sponsor and plastered sustainability ads all over NYC. The ads used beautiful nature imagery and touted their pledges to cut carbon emissions and be more environmentally responsible with their product manufacturing. I hope they deliver, but my main problem is with their enormous contribution to the plastics crisis. They claim that by 2025 all their ‘plastic packaging will be refillable, recyclable, reusable or compostable.’ Refillable is progress (however what about the packaging for the refills?), but all the other words in that phrase allow for low to no accountability in their packaging design. We know that recycling plastic is not a solution because only 5-6% of plastic is actually recycled in the U.S., plus as we saw above, it’s exactly what the oil and gas industry promotes to continue its plastics business. So saying something is recyclable as a sustainability claim is serious greenwashing. Same with saying your product is ‘reusable’. Are consumers really going to reuse every plastic shampoo bottle as a vase or some other silly idea to give it a second life? It’s still additional plastic on our planet, even if you market it as reusable, so that’s not a solution either. And lastly, ‘compostable’ as a claim holds similar issues to recyclability. In many cases an industrial composter is needed to break down packaging, and it’s up to your local waste management operation whether that exists in your area. And just like recycling and reusing, composting puts the burden on the consumer or some other entity to deal with the aftermath of L’Oreal’s decision to continue producing plastic waste. So cut the crap, L’Oreal, you are polluting our planet with billions of pieces of plastic. Stop.