Green Mission News – July 2024
Google’s emissions climb nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand
Tech giant’s goal of reducing climate footprint at risk as it grows increasingly reliant on energy-hungry data centres
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/02/google-ai-emissions
Your guide to sunscreens
https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/
The Supreme Court’s Overturning of the Chevron Doctrine Could Impair Environmental and Climate Regulations
https://www.ecowatch.com/supreme-court-chevron-doctrine-environmental-regulations.html
What’s next after Supreme Court curbs regulatory power: More focus on laws’ wording, less on their goals
https://theconversation.com/whats-next-after-supreme-court-curbs-regulatory-power-more-focus-on-laws-wording-less-on-their-goals-232938
Earliest Ever Category-5 Hurricane Beryl Barrels Through Caribbean
https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-beryl-earliest-category-4.html
Hurricane Beryl’s rapid intensification, Category 5 winds so early in a season are alarming: Here’s why more tropical storms are exploding in strength
US cities are advertising themselves as ‘climate havens’. But can they actually protect residents from extreme weather?
Biomimicry in Packaging: 6 Points to Ponder
Dr. Dayna Baumeister: “Maybe a misconception is that you get to keep doing the status quo. If you really want to do innovation, you’ve got to be willing to expand the possibilities of what might come out of it at the end of the day.”
https://www.healthcarepackaging.com/sustainability/sustainability/article/22910342/biomimicry-in-packaging-6-points-to-ponder
Drill, baby, drill … if you haven’t passed out from heatstroke
As the temperatures keep rising, how would the environment be affected by a second term under Biden or Trump? Plus: sharks, primaries and Jesus
Researchers Warn of Imminent ‘Death Spiral’ for Rapidly Melting Alaska Ice Field
The Juneau ice field is melting at a rate of 50,000 gallons per second and is possibly heading “beyond a dynamic tipping point,” a new study says.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/juneau-icefield
EU has “legal duty” to ban PVC, NGOs tell European Commission
https://eeb.org/eu-has-legal-duty-to-ban-pvc-ngos-tell-european-commission/#
LES MATÉRIALISTES: A FILM BRIDGING SCI-FI AND DOCUMENTARY
Combining documentary and science fiction with foresight, co-creation, and animation design, Les Matérialistes transports us to 2050 to explore the future of the circular economy in construction. The short film conjures a practical utopia that is both ambitious and tangible, depicting future professions, the life cycle of materials, upcoming statistics, and actions at all levels.
Mushrooms instead of concrete: innovative biomaterials enable sustainable construction
Packaging paradigm shift
Developers, legislators and consumers alike are creating momentum to use more sustainable packaging as 2024 unfolds.
https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/packaging-paradigm-shift/
Threads of change | Other Ways of Living
(video, 75 seconds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Yxc7nRBqQ
Financing the Transformation: Circular Economy and Food Waste Discussion with Deloitte
(video: 5 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jVs3UEYHSY
Companies can improve transparency on deforestation. Here’s how.
Leah Samberg of the Accountability Framework initiative (AFi) and Tomasz Sawicki of CDP outline six steps companies can take to better understand and disclose their progress towards achieving deforestation- and conversion-free supply chains.
https://www.edie.net/companies-can-improve-transparency-on-deforestation-heres-how/
Why I Was Arrested for Protesting Citigroup’s Funding of Climate Chaos
I am here today to say to Citi that if you won’t listen to the data of scientists, you will need to listen to the bodies of scientists blocking your doors.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/scientist-arrested-protest-citi
A new report looks at major companies’ efforts to address plastic waste — and finds them lacking
Of the 147 companies with a package recyclability goal, only 15 percent were on track to meet it.
https://grist.org/accountability/companies-plastic-packaging-scorecard-report-as-you-sow/
Climate Emergency Causes Extreme Wildfires to Double in Frequency: Study
“Climate change is not something off in the future,” said one scientist. “It’s happening before our very eyes.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/climate-change-wildfires
Far right using climate crisis as bogeyman to frighten voters and build higher walls
It is no coincidence that ever more extreme politics has come at a time of ever more extreme weather
‘It’s the future of sugar’: new technology feeds Vermont maple syrup boom amid climate crisis
The season to tap trees is now earlier and longer, but new processes and generations are helping the industry thrive
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/02/maple-syrup-technology-sugar-climate-crisis
‘Historic’ Category 5 Hurricane Beryl Offers Terrifying View of Future
“Beryl isn’t ‘unbelievable,'” one expert said. “it’s what happens when you heat up the planet with fossil fuel