Sustainability Market Growth, Plastics Report, Animal Protections, & 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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The Nature of Cities:

🌳 It’s said that by 2050, 89% of the US population will live in cities. That makes it all the more important to protect and add to the urban green spaces, which are currently too few and far between. This week on a moonlit tree tour in my Brooklyn neighborhood, I learned that NYC has a goal to increase its tree canopy from 22% to 30% by 2035– apparently an ambitious goal for a big city, and driven by the need to reduce heat stress and mental stress. On that note, Outside Mag highlights 11 US cities redesigning themselves to be more nature-centric as a measure of future climate resilience, and for the health and enjoyment of their citizens. Rock on.

Philanthropy At Work:

🌊 Surfrider Foundation is actively pushing state and federal agencies to halt expanded offshore drilling in the Gulf and along the Pacific Coast, while continuing its year-round water quality testing and coastal protection work through local chapters nationwide.

👨‍🌾 Mad Ag is deep into winter-planning season with partner farmers across the Midwest and West, helping them design next year’s crop rotations, soil health plans, and regenerative grazing systems. It’s work that quietly but powerfully shifts acreage away from chemical-intensive farming and toward resilient, climate-friendly agriculture.

Environmental News:

📈 Bloomberg has a great article looking at the data-driven reality of energy needs, data centers buildouts, and the US priority of winning AI. The fact is that renewables, and in particular solar and battery storage, are the fastest way to increase capacity. So despite Trump’s anti-renewables campaign, if he wants to make good on his AI dreams, there’s no way around renewables leading the way. “Ultimately, the mismatch between the speed at which companies are building data centers and that at which electricity generation is coming online bodes well for renewable energy.“

💸 Another encouraging reality comes from a recent study by Boston Consulting Group, which finds that ‘Sustainability’, or the business of reducing emissions and adapting to climate change, is the second fastest growing sector globally, second only to tech. That’s pretty major and compelling. It should highlight just how dumb it is to not only sit out, but to roadblock the American economy from joining in.

☀️ Can you guess which country uses the most solar power, in terms of their mix of electricity sources? Hungary! Last year, they got 25% of their electricity from solar, up from just 7% five years ago. Another example of how quickly solar can be scaled.

💪 Fired EPA employees are challenging their terminations citing violations of the First Amendment, after being fired for signing a letter of dissent against the current administrator, Lee Zeldin, and his pro-pollution tactics.

⛽️ Federal fuel economy standards require cars to travel a certain number of miles on a tank of gas. Isn’t it logical for consumers to want more efficient vehicles to save them money at the pump? Given that logic, I sure hope there’s citizen pushback from across the country to Trump’s announcement last week that he is aiming to reduce fuel economy requirements down to 34.5 miles per gallon from Biden’s rule of 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031. That sounds like a big ‘F You’ to car owners who will be paying more in both time and money to go the same distance. Transportation is our country’s largest source of emissions, so fuel efficiency is also better for our planet and our lungs.

🔋 One of Biden’s programs to escape the slaughter helmed by the current admin aims to grow our country’s network of EV chargers from a pool of $5B. That money is now unfrozen after Trump’s unsuccessful attempt to kill it, and the wheels are turning again for the initiative, with states submitting proposals and contracts being secured with private companies to build those charging stations. There’s a long road ahead to get to the 500K charging stations originally planned for, but it’s good to know this initiative is alive and well-funded.

🗑️ A major new report dropped last week about the global state of plastic pollution, and it ain’t good. The same forces working to hinder the global transition away from fossil fuels for energy are the same ones doing it for plastic, a product derived from fossil fuels, and an ever-growing segment of Big Oil’s revenue mix. This quote illustrates just how massive plastic’s climate impact is: “Plastic-related greenhouse gas emissions are expected to surge by 58%, to 4.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year — enough that, if plastic production were a country, it would be the current third-largest emitter.” Additionally, we know that plastic pollutes our environment and harms human health, thanks to the 16K chemicals used to make it. And then there are the microplastics infiltrating every crevice on Earth. The report, from Pew and ICF International, warns that if we continue production of plastic at our modern world’s clip, by 2040, global plastic pollution will more than double, and be equivalent to “a dump truck’s worth every second.” At the same time, the report offers an alternate reality by 2040: if we systemically change our approach to consumer goods packaging and consumption to one akin to the olden day “milkman” method of returns and reuse for product packaging, we could almost eliminate all the plastic that enters our environment each year. Once again, we know exactly what to do. Will the human race do it, is the question.

🦈 Good news for some species of sharks and rays near the brink of extinction: they have been granted protections from international commercial trade, and for some species a full on ban, in order to give them a chance to bounce back from depletion. One example species is the deep sea gulper shark, killed for its liver, which is rich in squalane, a highly popular ingredient in cosmetic moisturizer. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is the only organization that polices international wildlife trade, a world existing in the shadows of many consumer products used daily, in addition to a scary black market selling exotic animals and their parts. Speaking of, here’s a Rolling Stone article about the tik-tok-fueled black market for the highly intelligent African grey parrot.

🦊 Lastly, a couple more stories regarding the fates of our animal siblings. New York Fashion Week announced a ban on animal fur shown at runway shows, effective starting in September next year. In Poland, the second largest animal fur factory shut down thanks to years of coordinated efforts from activists, who’ve worked tirelessly to expose the inhumane conditions these animals are born into, not dissimilar to factory farming for food purposes.