Green Mission News – January 2025
Losing the Birds, Finding the Words: Eve Ensler’s Extraordinary Letter of Apology to Mother Earth (includes 6 minute video)
https://www.themarginalian.org/2019/10/28/eve-ensler-apology-mother-earth/
Seven quiet breakthroughs for climate and nature in 2024 you might have missed
T H E C H E M I C A L F O O T P R I N T P R O J E C T
S E V E N T H C F P R E P O R T
2024 RESULTS
FIVE ESSENTIAL STEPS IN THE CHEMICAL FOOTPRINT APPROACH
https://chemicalfootprint.org/assets/downloads/CPA_ChemicalFootprintProject_7th_Report_2024.pdf
We Are Light-Eaters
The language we share with plants—and all life under the sun.
https://nautil.us/we-are-light-eaters-1170586/
The healing power of nature
The idea that immersing yourself in forests and nature has a healing effect is far more than just folk wisdom
https://aeon.co/essays/why-forests-and-rivers-are-the-most-potent-health-tonic-around
Climate chaos accelerated in 2024 as we hit 1.5°C for the first time.
2024 was another year of record-breaking heat and extreme weather, including devastating floods, storms and wildfires across the globe
Building Climate Resilience Through Technology: An Interview With Gayatri Roshan, Founder Of Dashboard.Earth
The USDA Say It’s Time to Replace Meat With Beans — Here’s Why
They’re fiber-packed and incredibly nutrient-dense, for starters.
10 million trees to be planted in US to replace ones destroyed by hurricanes
Arbor Day Foundation non-profit to plant trees in six of the worst-hit states over the next four years
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/31/arbor-day-foundation-trees-hurricanes
Scientists Built a Proton Battery That Could Dethrone Lithium-Ion
Plus: it doesn’t explode!
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a63152930/proton-batteries/
Scientists achieve breakthrough that could solve major battery issue — here’s why EV companies are taking notice
The American Oil Industry’s Playbook, Illustrated: How Drillers Offload Costly Cleanup Onto the Public
Oil executive Tom Ragsdale walked away from his old wells, making the pollution left behind the state of New Mexico’s problem. His tactics, however, are ubiquitous in the industry.
https://www.propublica.org/article/oil-orphan-wells-cleanup-playbook-siana-tom-ragsdale
(14 min video) The proceeds from the sale of the Alguita are used to fund an endowment for Algalita’s sister organization, Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QdcSm4bA4I&t=5s
A Global Treaty To Regulate Petrochemical Pollution? (45 min video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaSSZ7-tF60
Climate change forged a new reality in 2024: ‘This is life now’
What’s the context?
In 2024, billions of people endured heatwaves, storms and floods; 2025 is set to be worse as man-made climate change wreaks havoc
This Book Is the Cure for Climate Anxiety
I needed a climate pep talk. I got one from Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, author of the hit book, ‘What If We Get It Right?’
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/how-to-get-climate-action-right/
A ‘doom loop’ of climate change and geopolitical instability is beginning
2024 is the hottest year on record, EU scientists say
Reusing plastic water bottles, to-go containers? Scientists say that’s a bad idea.
Many of us reuse single-use plastics like water bottles, takeout containers and plastic bags. But is that safe?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/12/01/single-use-plastics-reuse-risk/
The Policy Shift That Decimated Local Grocery Stores
https://ilsr.org/articles/policy-shift-local-grocery/
The Great Grocery Squeeze
How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/food-deserts-robinson-patman/680765/
How climate risks are driving up insurance premiums around the US – visualized
‘Tight correlation’ between premium rises and counties deemed most at risk from climate crisis, experts say
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/05/climate-crisis-insurance-premiums
ICCR’s Climate Crisis group works to identify climate challenges and opportunities facing the private sector. Investors collaborate to develop strategies to reduce corporate carbon footprints and accelerate an equitable and just transition to a green economy.
https://www.iccr.org/climate-change-environmental-justice/
Pollution Is a Racial Justice Issue. Let’s Fight it that Way.
https://www.wri.org/insights/pollution-racial-justice-issue-lets-fight-it-way
How Planet Earth’s Trees Use Carbon
From the Amazon rainforest to shrubs planted around city streets, trees influence the earth’s temperature.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/11/harvard-trees-carbon-cycle-climate-change
Carbon cycle articles from across Nature Portfolio
The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle focused on carbon and how it is sequestered in and moves between different reservoirs in the Earth system.
https://www.nature.com/subjects/carbon-cycle
There’s a Better Way to Mine for Electric Vehicle Batteries
We do not want to trade the harm of emissions from gasoline vehicles for the harm caused by unsustainable mining practices
https://earthworks.org/blog/batteries-and-environmental-justice/
In Argentina, lithium mining leaves a river running dry
Decades of lithium extraction at the Hombre Muerto salt flat have left a mark on the local environment, most notably on the nearby Trapiche Rive
https://dialogue.earth/en/nature/in-argentina-lithium-mining-leaves-a-river-running-dry/
Why Texas could be the next big producer of green hydrogen
Mineral requirements for clean energy transitions
Use Information for Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and
Toxic Chemicals under. TSCA Section 6(h)
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-09/documents/pbt_public_webinar_-_9-5-17.pdf
A Climate Scientist on What Trump’s Victory Means for Global Warming
Republicans might not actually repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s green energy incentives. But Trump can do plenty of damage to international climate progress without that.
https://newrepublic.com/article/188112/climate-scientist-trump-global-warming
‘We need dramatic social and technological changes’: is societal collapse inevitable?
Academic Danilo Brozović says studies of failed civilisations all point in one direction – today’s society needs radical transformation to survive
Green growth or degrowth: what is the right way to tackle climate change?
It’s Time to Replace “Prehistory” With “Deep History”
A team of archaeologists working in Southeast Asia is pushing toward a deeper understanding of history that amplifies Indigenous and local perspectives to challenge traditional archaeological timelines.
https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/prehistory-deep-history-southeast-asia/
Small North Carolina town sues energy ‘Goliath’ in historic climate action
Carrboro officials say Duke Energy broke state laws waging decades-long ‘deception campaign’ about fossil fuels
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/04/carrboro-north-carolina-duke-energy-lawsuit
Global warming and heat extremes to enhance inflationary pressures
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01173-x
Why the UN Treaty on Plastics Can Reduce Early Onset Cancers
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00942
TikTok has a climate change denialism problem, a new report finds
Global Witness’s report, which looks at videos posted during COP29, highlights the social media app’s issue of policing climate misinformation in the comments section.
Why 597 million chickens go missing from America’s food supply each year
Chicken giants are pushing birds to their biological limits. A staggering number die but never make it to consumers’ plates.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/389639/chicken-poultry-industry-mortality-death
Environmental Sensing Is Here, Tracking Everything from Forest Fires to Threatened Species
The internet of things turned every device in your house into a smart something. Now it’s coming for nature—to track forest fires and tree health or to listen out for threatened animals.
First Support for a Physics Theory of Life
Take chemistry, add energy, get life. The first tests of Jeremy England’s provocative origin-of-life hypothesis are in, and they appear to show how order can arise from nothing.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/first-support-for-a-physics-theory-of-life-20170726/
The global threat of drying lands: Regional and global aridity trends and future projections
Arctic tundra now emits planet-warming pollution, federal report finds
Climate Science and Big Oil Need to Go Their Separate Ways | Opinion
Climate takes its toll on the ‘cherry capital of the world’
The erratic weather adding to the troubles of Michigan’s cherry growers is impacting farmers everywhere.
https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/climate-takes-its-toll-on-the-cherry-capital-of-the-world/
Rebuilding Food Security After a Wildfire
https://www.yesmagazine.org/climate/2024/12/18/almeda-fires-food-justice-immigrants
2024 marks the 30th Anniversary of the
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center!
https://oaec.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Timeline-v19-online.pdf
The state of carbon markets in 2024
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-state-of-carbon-markets-in-2024/
Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) expanded rapidly after the Paris Agreement (COP15), and they seemed like a good idea because by setting maximum CO2 emission targets—ultimately aiming for net-zero—they compelled companies to first decarbonize and then offset their remaining emissions. This was where voluntary carbon markets came into play.
https://blog.iese.edu/finance-and-nature/2024/how-to-fix-the-voluntary-carbon-markets/
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers are ubiquitous in modern farming due to their affordability and effectiveness, but those conveniences come at a cost. Manufacturing them often generates huge amounts of harmful emissions such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is particularly problematic, as experts estimate the gas exerts as much as 265-times the effect of CO2 on the environment.
https://www.popsci.com/science/pee-fertilizer/