5 GOOD NEWS climate change stories for 2019!

It’s been an eventful year. A somewhat exhausting year – many of us are feeling weary from the constant barrage of negative news and scary reality around the climate crisis. It’s been a year we’ve been forced to think upon our poor decision-making in regards to caring for Planet Earth. So perhaps you, like me, need a bit of a change… something uplifting, to show me there’s good being achieved. That all of my personal efforts and energies put into fighting climate change are worth it because, despite the feeling to the contrary, I’m not in this alone. WE are not in this alone. So I’m going to unpack for you some happy news! Some examples of where humans are having a positive impact on the environment and climate crisis. And I’ve dug deep, so I’m confident you’ll find these genuinely interesting and will bring a more hopeful feeling to your heart! Here’s my Top 5 Good Climate Change News Bits of 2019:

5. Food waste, in my opinion, has to be one of the most frustrating issues right now. The planet produces enough food for everyone. Yet HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of people are starving. And HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of tons of food is just thrown into the trash every year. What?? Here’s our very recent article highlighting scary food waste stats, and how you can help ensure you’re not adding to them. But…we love a good invention here at swrm! And Hazel Technologies, Inc has one for reducing food waste. Much of this waste occurs due to fruits and veg going bad. And often this happens along the supply chain, sometimes even before it hits the store shelf. Fruit releases a hormone molecule, ethylene, which triggers the ageing process. So Hazel Tech have come up with a tiny sachet filled with chemical compounds which absorbs ethylene from the atmosphere around the fruit, thereby not allowing the fruit to react to it! The sachet works in a time release fashion, and can extend the life of some fruits by 3 weeks! One quarter gram of the contents in the sachet can protect 50 pounds of produce. We think it’s genius! And the USDA do too – as they’re now funding the company, who have plans to extend their work to other products like packaged meats. This is great news for the supply chain of produce – but don’t forget that you should still only purchase exactly what you’re going to eat to lessen food waste in your own home.

4. Seaweed Permaculture is happening – for climate, for fish and for human sustenance. Seaweed has long been celebrated as a super food. With an abundance of Omega 3-fatty acids; essential amino acid; antioxidants; iron; Vitamins A, B, C and E; iodine; dietary fiber; protein; polyunsaturated fats AND carbohydrates – it’s no wonder! This stuff is awesome for us humans! And it’s a necessary breeding ground for large variety of ocean fish, who lay their eggs within the safety of the leaves. AND it’s a very very effective carbon sink: research suggests that if 9% of the ocean’s surface was used for seaweed farming, 53 billion tons of carbon would be removed from the atmosphere every year! In the recent film “2040”, Australian filmmaker Damon Gameau explored the possibility of using seaweed for all these purposes – growing tons and tons of it on purpose built platforms, to regenerate the ocean and provide food. The science was so convincing and promises pretty quick wins (some seaweed varieties grows 2 meters/day!), that in a very short period of time, over AU$600,000 was raised, through crowdfunding, the Inteprid Foundation (the charitable wing of Inteprid Travel, and parent company of Adventure.com) and The Climate Foundation to get this project off the ground. So the pilot platform will be built and placed next year in collaboration with the University of Tasmania. Following that extensive testing there will be the inaugural Global Seaweed Symposium happening, to bring together the world’s best seaweed experts, ocean engineers and impact investors. The aim is to lay out plans for scaling the project dramatically over the next 10 years. This is an awesome achievement and promises to be big!

3. Tree planting has been very in vogue in 2019! In Ethiopia 350 million trees were planted in 12 hours, by 23 million people! The African country has seen massive reduction in forested areas – from 30% some 100 years ago to just 4% now. Part of the problem has been unsustainable coffee growth, so don’t forget to look for Rainforest Alliance and Fair Trade stamps on your coffee. And don’t forget Ecosia.org, the search engine which plants trees as you search! For every search you do about 1kg of CO2 is removed from the atmosphere, based on the tree planting they facilitate. Trees are obviously an important source of oxygen, an effective carbon sink, and they help combat land degradation and simultaneously improve soil health – but the wins are even simpler than that in most areas, providing: shelter; wildlife habitat; food; and medicine. So why not add ‘tree planting’, either in person or via donation, to your 2020 to-do list!

2. We all know the damage that the high carbon emissions from flights are causing. And there’s been momentum in the ‘flight free’ movement. But, if we’re honest, there’s been little actual reduction in the number of people using air travel. So it’s therefore beneficial to find ways to minimize our carbon footprint whilst airborne. And Air New Zealand have found a way to help out. They are replacing their on board coffee cups (of which, over 8 million are used per year!) with completely edible versions! New Zealand company ‘twiice’ has developed tasty plant based vanilla flavored cups, and they’ve been met with rave reviews from pilot (ahem, and passenger) testing on some flights already. So this answers a reduction in waste and of course less use of fossil fuels for manufacturing the old style cups. The company is also looking to extend their range to cutlery and crockery, to really tackle single use plastic waste. And this isn’t the first environmentally responsible move from the airline – they’ve already got underway to remove plastic sachets for condiments, instead opting for reusable bowls. Our stance at swrm is that choosing not to fly is obviously the best option, but there are some instances which cannot be avoided, so it’s good to know that the airlines are taking action.

1. Talk is cheap – renewables are cheaper. For the first time, 2019 saw the price of renewables derived electricity reach price parity with – or in some cases, even better than – fossil fuel generated electricity. Across most of the globe. This is huge! It means the financial incentives for burning old dinosaurs is suddenly far less, so the other old dinosaurs pushing dirty power will simply make less money. In India there has been a massive pivot away from the dirtiest fuel, coal. And instead, solar, wind and hydroelectric power have seen excellent growth – while delivering electricity at all time low costs. One solar company in Rajasthan deliver solar electricity to consumers at 3cents/kWh. Compare this to the average US cost of 13cents/kWh, and you’ll be installing solar panels within a week! India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has promised that they will overdeliver on the Paris Agreement, aiming for a fivefold expansion on their renewable energy use by 2030…and consider that they’ve already doubled this in the last 3 years – India is arguably winning the race to decarbonize their economy and flicking the switch on renewables.

So there are definitely good news stories happening. Perhaps not right on your door step, but this climate change crisis is a global one. And of course, I didn’t even go into the fact that on Sept 20 we saw millions of people mobilize to demand climate action in 2500 separate strike events in 150 countries (led and inspired by one 16 y.o. climate hero); Goldman Sachs have said they will not fund oil exploration or drilling in the Arctic; Italian schools will add Climate Change to the mandatory curriculum next year; Britain ran with ZERO coal powered electricity for 17 consecutive days – the longest time since the industrial revolution began; and Scotland generated enough power from wind energy in the first half of 2019 to power the country twice over!

So relax, enjoy the Festive Season and holiday break, knowing that there’s good stuff going on and YOU HAVE made a positive difference. Thank you! And get rejuvenated and refreshed for an even bigger and more important year in 2020!