Snow Otters, US Renewables Gains, Space Junk, and The Truth About Plastic

Welcome to The Climate Roundup newsletter. Your weekly edit of the climate and environmental stories shaping our planet and our culture and how the two are deeply connected. We live in a global ecosystem shaped by human decisions. Let’s make good ones.

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Fun In The Snow

🦦 Did you know that river otters love to play in the snow? They run and slide on their bellies, like kids (and adults) would on a Slip ‘n Slide. Just for fun! Last week some otters were caught on camera sliding around in the fresh snow in Baltimore. They are smart little creatures. Snow is meant to be loved.

Philanthropy At Work:

🗣️ Tell Congress you oppose the gutting of the Endangered Species Act, and do not support the ESA Amendments Act. Comments matter, especially in an election year like this one, where Congress people will be paying closer attention to the voices of their constituents. Let’s make the pro-planet voice heard, repeatedly.

Environmental News:

🚀 Last year, 26% of US electricity was created by renewables, a 10% increase from the year before. And there’s more good news coming. Our own government’s Energy Information Administration reports that this year, 93% of new electric generating capacity will come from solar, wind, and batteries. That’s big, especially despite federal efforts to keep a good thing down. This is because (quoted from this Bloomberg article) “even without subsidies, renewable installations are now cheaper to build than alternatives in most scenarios.” Boom!

🚫 What do The Hague, Stockholm, Florence, and Amsterdam have in common? They’ve all banned advertisements for fossil fuel products in their cities. Why? They say because it’d be hypocritical to be serious about climate action and then allow billboards promoting planet-warming emissions. This BBC article explains in detail how these bans are in play all around the world.

🧐 Maybe asset managers do care about climate change. An initiative called Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) has been resurrected from the dead after ceasing operations last year following in the footsteps of most other financial groups and firms, who abandoned their climate pledges and net zero alliances due to Republican pressures. The fact that NZAM is back in business, so to speak, in this climate is truly a sign of hope. I’m betting the move to publicly reorganize and build a platform for money managers to align investments with the Paris Agreement’s global pledge to avoid climate catastrophe is coming from their clients, the people and institutions who can rise above politics and want to invest their money in climate-friendly opportunities.

🛰️ Elon Musk has asked the federal government for permission to launch 1M satellites into orbit around Earth to be used as solar-powered data centers for A.I. There’s already close to 15K satellites and other objects up there, and scientists say that climate change is altering the upper atmosphere, reducing the amount of clutter that can safely fit. Basically, humans have already managed to create a Great Space Garbage Patch that orbits our own planet, and Elon wants to junk it up even further, not to mention add to the growing concern of nighttime light pollution. Even Open AI CEO, Sam Altman, calls Elon’s plan “ridiculous”. Indeed.

Book Watch

🧴 The author of a new book called “Plastic Inc.” is making the rounds, and it looks to be an important read. Most people don’t make the connection that plastic is a product of the oil and gas industry. The most common plastic, polyethylene, used to make plastic bottles and bags, is made from ethane, which is a byproduct from oil and gas refinement. So as the world moves away from burning fossil fuels for energy, albeit slowly, Big Oil has long been working behind the scenes to make sure their other revenue stream (plastic) continues to grow by lack of regulation and by shifting the blame of plastic pollution onto end consumers, just like they did with carbon emissions. With plastic, it is not just about what to do with it once its single-use life is complete, it’s also about ending the practice of producing it in the first place. “Plastic Inc.” exposes the truth behind the plastic. I’ve added it to my reading list.