Hacks, Climate-Friendly In Copenhagen, Plastic Perspectives, 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:

Hacks is a very funny, smart show on (HBO) Max. I was already a fan, but its recently wrapped third season has given me more reason to love it, as there are a ton of planet-positive nuggets sprinkled throughout. Plotlines like Hannah, the younger comedic writer (age and aging are major themes in the show, tastefully done), working on stories about mass coral bleaching and melting glaciers, passing comments like “where’s my collapsible water bottle?”, and more obvious climate conversations adorn the season. In episode 5, Hannah and Deborah Vance, the veteran mega-comedy-star-slash-mogul, have a significant dialogue about the climate crisis, plastic waste, and consumer excess. Major kudos to the Hacks writing team for their thoughtful inclusion of environmental topics that the entertainment industry can help normalize, in exactly this way.

Getting down to climate business:

🔌 Global electricity demand is expected to double by 2038. Today’s electrical infrastructure, or shall we say yesterday’s infrastructure that we still rely on today, is not equipped to handle the extreme temps, skyrocketing demand, and natural forces in our warming world. Most countries continue to put off the estimated $24T in global investment needed to expand grid infrastructure – a risky gamble as we continue to hear about power grids failing during extreme weather all over the world. Well, except China – they’re investing $800B in their grid over the next 6 years to transition to renewables.

⚡️ Bill Gates’s clean energy organization, Breakthrough Energy, released a proposal this week that would help the Department of Energy fast track greenhouse gas-eliminating innovation from the lab to commercialization. Because climate change has no patience for bureaucracy.

🆒 This interactive map will tell you the outlook for how many summer days in your area will require AC as temperatures rise.

🌵 RIP Key Largo tree cactus. Scientists say it is the first species to become extinct due to sea level rise, as salt intrusion and soil depletion finally won out in the fight for their survival.

🏋️‍♀️ A cohort of vegan bodybuilders and Olympic athletes want to show us that you don’t have to eat meat to be strong.

🥤 A town in California is piloting a 3 month reusable plastic cup program, where all 30 chain restaurants plus local establishments will serve to-go beverages in a uniform purple plastic cup that can be returned at any of the businesses or in receptacles across the town.

🚫 And the government is catching on to the war on plastic. On Friday, the Biden Administration announced a plan to phase out single use plastic, which could be significant, as our federal government is the largest purchaser of consumer goods in the world. Whether this comes to fruition depends on what happens later this year…

😤 Meanwhile, corporations show their true colors. Nestle, Unilever, and Mondelez are just some of the consumer goods companies that have scaled back their goals to reduce the plastic waste they create by the millions of tons per year collectively. They blame infrastructure, lack of regulation (yet they lobby against it), cost, and even consumers. Companies producing food, beverages, beauty products, household products, and much more are mass polluting our land, water, and homes with plastic products. They know it, they have the resources to change it, but they simply don’t. My recommendation is whenever possible, opt for the non-plastic option or try eliminating a product altogether. Beauty products are a good place to start, as most are redundant, unnecessary, and rely on wasteful packaging changes to manipulate buyers into impulse purchases. There is power in the consumer wallet, especially when it stays closed.

On Your Best Climate-Friendly Behavior

Copenhagen is rewarding travelers who partake in climate-friendly behavior while visiting their city. Good deeds like biking, taking public transportation, and joining trash cleanups will be rewarded with things like free admission to museums and free food. “We must turn tourism from being an environmental burden into a force for positive change” said a Copenhagen tourism exec. Amen!