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!)
In Pop Culture:
Actor Omar Epps appeared on The Daily Show with Marlon Wayans this week to promote Nubia, the coming-of-age novel he wrote about a group of teens growing up and surviving in 2080 New York City. I’m gonna be honest with you, they barely talk about climate in this interview, but these guys have been friends since high school and spend the whole time reminiscing about growing up, so it’s a really fun watch anyway.
GETTING DOWN TO CLIMATE BUSINESS:
🏛️️️ According to some, the US Chamber of Commerce is standing in the way of meaningful climate policy. Apparently, a new report shows “continued opposition to meaningful legislation and regulation” and a “trend of positive PR from the Chamber to create the impression of reform for climate-conscious investors and corporate members,” but “the Chamber’s positions on climate policies mostly reflect the views of its fossil fuel members.” Tell you what, to save a little time and money on future reports, why don’t we just assume that any organization with fossil fuel members probably isn’t doing great on climate?
🛢️️ If you’ve seen the hashtag #StopWillow trending, it’s because officials in the Biden administration are backing a massive ConocoPhillips oil drilling project in Alaska. The official Presidential stamp of approval is expected to come this week for the National Petroleum Reserve’s Willow site, “unlocking an estimated 600 million barrels of oil as well as some 280 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions tied to burning it.” Even though President Biden signed the biggest climate package in history, he’s also begged oil companies to produce more oil as the war in Ukraine causes energy prices to jump. Hey Joe Biden, if you love sending mixed signals so much, how about just getting on Tinder instead?
🇪🇺️ Meanwhile President Biden also met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to negotiate some trade issues that will affect climate technologies, especially those related to certain critical mineral supply chains. They also talked about allowing EU companies to receive key vehicle tax credits related to US climate law and opened “a dialogue on subsidy transparency.” Per usual, the main goal was figuring out how to ward off China, whose clean energy industry could be poised to overtake both America and Europe. Ooh boy, you know what would really piss off China? If we built a bunch of high speed trains. That would really show them. Are you listening, Joe Biden? Hello?
💻 During a visit to India where he spoke on increasing industrialization in developing countries, Bill Gates said that it’s unrealistic to expect people to change their lifestyles in order to address climate change, specifically in regards to energy demand and eating meat. Now, I’m not going to pretend to be smarter than the guy who founded Microsoft, but it seems to me that a lot of consumer demand for those things is driven by forces outside their control, like massive subsidies that make meat artificially cheap, food deserts that don’t provide good vegetable-based options, houses and apartment buildings that incur massive heating and cooling costs just to be habitable, and a lack of transit options for daily commutes. Maybe instead of trying to make people “give up” something, we could push some of the many available market levers and employ some recent technological improvements to make those choices easier for people. But hey. Maybe I’m just saying that because I’m a Mac user.
🎥 Here’s a nice profile of Anna Jane Joyner of Good Energy, a nonprofit that works with screenwriters to incorporate climate change into their stories. The article also includes some examples of good climate stories to watch. If you’re a writer, consider sprinkling some climate details into your next script! Don’t worry, the threat of climate breakdown isn’t nearly as scary as starting a new project and staring at a blank page.
🗽 New York landlords are struggling to make improvements that meet regulations set out in the city’s ambitious Climate Mobilization Act. The Act’s Local Law 97 concentrates on buildings over 25,000 square feet, which produce about 50% of the city’s emissions from buildings. Almost all the buildings requiring the most updates are residential; office buildings typically use electricity for everything, since they don’t need gas lines for stoves or large water heaters for showers. If these buildings don’t comply, they could face over $60 million in fines. And as a renter in New York City, I definitely see those costs being passed on to me. Is anyone looking to buy a gently-used kidney?
SOME STATS:
4X: THE UK’S MET OFFICE BELIEVES EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS COULD BE THIS MUCH MORE LIKELY BY 2080 (FINANCIAL TIMES)
8.5%: PERCENTAGE OF AMERICAN EMISSIONS PRODUCED BY THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY EACH YEAR (HEALTH AFFAIRS)
Were We Ever So Young?
This week, Forbes released its annual 30 Under 30 list, and several of the nominees are working in the climate space. You can read it here if you want to celebrate their achievements, or, if you’re like most people, bitterly resent the success of others and then post a vague Facebook status about it.
