Green Burials, Waste Not Want Not In Mining, Pro-ESG Action, 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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Stories of Interest:

🪁 Two new parks recently opened in Manhattan, one in Battery Park City and the other along the East River. Both were projects that replaced existing parks with new visions for green spaces that provide coastal resilience to storms. This article by the chief architecture critic at the Times is very well written, exploring the design of the parks, the challenges from residents, and the notion of consensus in regards to its impact on progress (ahem, UN COPs) when an ever-expanding list of parties sit at the table. I’d add that the definition of progress itself should never be assumed.

🍂 Green burials are increasing in popularity. Think of them as the barefoot beach wedding of funerals. Though they currently represent a small share of burials, a recent survey found that 60% of respondents are interested to learn more about this natural alternative. So it’s got an awareness problem, because it’s new. What might help move the needle is to promote that they are the cheapest option, as well. For the most part, a green burial means burying the human body in the soil with only biodegradable accessories in order to have the most minimal impact. The loveliest sounding example of this is the ‘conservation burial ground’. These sites are forests or natural grasslands managed by land trusts, but allow for green burials. So imagine your end of life celebration in the woods, with loved ones wearing hiking boots and toasting you off, your body ultimately becoming one with Mother Earth, all to the soundtrack of bird chirps and rustling leaves. Now that sounds like a happy ending.

🚣 The Atlantic has a story about the Meadowlands of New Jersey, which has quite the history. Anyone who’s taken the train out of NYC into NJ should know that the first leg out of the tunnel is over wetlands, specifically a salt marsh. How special it is to get to see this rare ecosystem right from your seat on the train, and if you’re lucky you might spot an egret or another cool bird! Wetlands are underrated parts of Earth, and in the US, we’ve lost half of them since the late 1700’s. They only represent 6% of land in the lower 48, and sadly, their rate of destruction is speeding up. Yet they are so important for wildlife habitat, flood control, and sequestering carbon, among other things. Until recently, the Meadowlands and other wetlands have benefited from protections in the Clean Water Act, which have required developers (aka their main threat) to conserve or rehabilitate wetlands elsewhere to compensate for the wetlands they destroy and suffocate by filling them up and building on top of them (clearly not a perfect system). But in 2023, the Supreme Court rolled back these protections, called mitigations, and to no surprise, the Trump admin is leaning into this opportunity to kill more wetlands. NRDC estimates an area the size of Nevada is now at risk of development. In any case, the Meadowlands are a fascinating piece of nature and history to learn about.

🏃‍♂️ It’s time to go lease that new EV. Bloomberg says you can find deals as cheap as $100/month, and on average EV leases are cheaper than polluting cars for the first time. Tax credits will expire at the end of September, so if you’ve been on the fence, now’s the time. Like now-now.

Philanthropy At Work:

👩‍💼 NRDC’s legal team is working hard for us on several cases, challenging some of the most dangerous rollbacks of the environmental laws meant to keep us safe. Right now, they’re fighting to shut down outdated “zombie” fossil fuel plants kept alive by unlawful emergency orders. They’re blocking coal plant exemptions from mercury rules that protect children from brain damage. They’re defending fuel economy standards that cut climate pollution and save families money. They’re also demanding federal action to phase out hydrogen fluoride, a refinery chemical so dangerous a single release could devastate nearby communities.

Enviro News You Need To Know:

💨 Trump is pretending wind turbines are a threat to national security, and using it to further obstruct growth and progress in the wind energy market. Last week, he ordered a nearly complete offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island to stop work “to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests in the United States”. The project, called Revolution Wind, is supposed to provide 350K homes in RI and CT with clean electricity next spring. Also last week, Trump kicked off a process to apply tariffs to imported wind turbine components, using a law allowing “tariffs to foreign products if their imports threaten national security”. A clear case of government overreach to try and kill a fossil fuel challenger.

💸 Speaking of Republican hypocrisy toward the so-called ‘free market,’ let’s move from renewable energy to ESG. Three years too late, Democrats are finally coordinating an effort to push back on the anti-ESG campaign Republicans have expertly led. Democratic state officials have banded together and sent letters to investment firms like BlackRock, warning that if they cave to Republican rhetoric, they risk failing their fiduciary duty — the obligation to act in clients’ best interests and maximize risk-adjusted returns — putting American retirement money at risk. This effort is particularly focused on retirement funds. Several Republican-led states have passed laws restricting public pension funds from considering ESG factors, effectively forcing money managers to ignore real financial risks. Isn’t capitalism supposed to be about free markets? The oath all money managers live by is fiduciary duty, which means making decisions based on all material risks and opportunities. Stocks go up, stocks go down. World events happen. Investing is always a gamble, but what sets asset managers apart is their ability to interpret data and anticipate future risks. To tell them they cannot consider climate science, when the data clearly shows extreme weather events impact business activity, is ignorance, plain and simple. And that’s just the “E” of ESG. Anti-ESG laws and the stance itself aren’t pro-market at all, they are anti-capitalist and anti-American. So it’s about damn time Democrats started defending the right to choose how money is invested.

⛏️ There’s enough lithium in the waste from one year’s worth of existing mining operations in the US to power 10 million EVs(!). That’s a huge finding from a recent study in the journal Science, and only one example of the ‘gold mine’ of critical minerals they found in mining waste. It’s insane that nobody thought to investigate what else was in all the other rock that’s dug up from mining. It’s especially head-scratching that the mining companies themselves didn’t think there was additional revenue lurking in all that upheaval. Apparently, the bounty of lithium and manganese within this annual mining waste would eliminate the need to import them.

🇪🇸 Spain’s prime minister understands the threat of climate change, because it’s hitting his country hard with deadly heatwaves and wildfires. He has called for a climate pact across government “that should leave the climate emergency out of political fighting”, so every party can work together to mitigate and adapt to the reality that Spain faces.

🥵 People are more irritable in hot weather. It’s something I’ve long noticed, and part of the reason I’m not the biggest fan of summer in NYC. It’s hot AF, and especially when involving subways, the energy just feels off in a down way. Lo and behold, a study out of MIT found that higher temperatures correlated with lower moods. The researchers studied over a billion social media posts over the course of a year, and correlated the sentiment of the post to the weather at the time. It’s a pretty interesting study, and this MIT summary is very readable. TLDR: extreme heat is both physically and emotionally damaging to humans. It may sound counterintuitive with the old “easy, breezy summer vibes” sentiment, but increasingly in a hotter world, we’re going to have to work extra hard to keep those spirits up in the summer.