Chloe Kim, Bald Ibis Back From Extinction, Namibia Has The Meats, 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:

🏂 Olympic gold medal snowboarder Chloe Kim has been outspoken about how climate change is threatening the future of her sport. Indeed. Last week she joined forces with Danish shipping company, Maersk, to celebrate the arrival of the first shipping vessel to cross the Pacific on green methanol. Maersk’s CEO is urging the Biden administration to extend sustainable fuel incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act to also apply to maritime fuels. Back to Chloe Kim partnering with a shipping company – hey, it’s the end of summer and Labor Day weekend, but it’s something.

Getting Down To Climate Business:

🦤 Here’s a touching story that has animated film written all over it. The northern bald ibis is a bird species that has been extinct in central Europe for 300 years, aside from some zoo populations. Well, scientists have reintroduced the bird back into the wild, but early attempts were unsuccessful as the birds lacked knowledge of their migratory routes, and flew in perilous directions. Enter a case of positive human intervention: human caretakers of new flocks decided to try leading the birds in flight from a light aircraft, while the birds followed. The humans shouted encouragements to the birds along the way during the two month journey to their safe winter location. And it worked! This method has been ongoing for several years now to train each new generation of the bald ibis. I recommend clicking the link to see photos of this magical adventure.

🙌 A landmark ruling in South Korea sided with climate activists claiming that the government wasn’t doing enough to fight climate change, which is a violation of basic human rights and also fails to protect future generations. South Korea will be forced to make clear emissions reductions plans from 2030 onwards, which were otherwise vague. This is the first ruling of its kind in Asia and a big W for the climate movement at large.

🐄 This week, the USDA updated its product labeling guidelines to include environmental claims made by meat and poultry companies. It’s a light-handed attempt to address the growing trend of greenwashing, as more companies are marketing their meat as “climate-friendly” or some iteration of that. It’s kinda like how Big Oil tries to position gas as “clean energy” compared to coal. Nope, still highly polluting! The Agriculture Department’s new guidelines merely “encourage” companies to provide proof and third-party verification for claims that their products are “climate-smart”, “sustainable” or “regeneratively grown”, for example. But buyer beware – Big Ag is responsible for nearly 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and beef is the worst offender by far. It is simply not possible for beef to be net positive for the environment at its current scale and under current industry practices. So thanks for nothing, USDA. Greenwashers gonna keep greenwashing.

💪 America’s hottest job is…wind turbine service technician! It’s projected to grow 60% through 2033.

🦓 Namibia is dealing with their worst drought in a century, and to address the resulting issue of food insecurity, the government is planning to kill 700 wild animals, including elephants, zebras, and hippos, and distribute the meat to its people. I guess that solves the food and water insecurity issue for the sacrificed wildlife, as well.

Climate Action Quickie

This week I attended a local chapter meeting for the Surfrider Foundation. One big thing they’ve been working on is to help pass New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act. All it needs to become law is for Governor Hochul to sign it, and it’s been sitting on her desk since June, after passing the Senate and NY State Assembly. Since we’ve recently seen erratic behavior from Hochul (*cough* congestion pricing reversal), we need to make it crystal clear that we want polluters to pay for infrastructure updates needed for climate adaptation.

Vermont was the first state to pass a similar law earlier this year, and NY would be the second. The New York law would make historically high polluting oil and gas companies pay $3B annually for 25 years into a fund in order to pay for a share of the damage they are responsible for from decades of spewing planet-warming greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. It’s the least they can do, as the burden to invest in cleanup and adaptation relating to climate change-fueled events like flooding, heat waves, and rising sea levels to name a few, will unfairly fall on tax-payers.

So, if you live in NY and/or want polluters to offset the billions of dollars required to make our systems more climate-friendly, then please take less than a minute to sign this petition urging Gov Hochul to sign the damn bill already.